El Fin del Programa

Tonight is our farewell dinner. I can't believe its over, 28 days have gone by so fast! Then I'll be off to France (Nice and Paris) for a couple days then to Madrid until the 26th. I love Barcelona. I'm glad class is over but I'm not sure I'm ready to leave Barcelona, or the group. Okay that's somewhat of a lie. I can't stand some people in the group (who may or may not be reading this and wondering if I hate them) and can't wait to be done with them. But there are some people who I wish I could spend more time with. But I am so excited for France!

Last time I left off I was leaving to meet up with Holly and Analise for lunch and some shopping. The weather had been somewhat horrible before that and was not looking like it was going to shape up. We met up and headed to find somewhere to eat and ended up at El Roncó. When we walked in, it seemed like a cool place; the food however, left a lot to be desired. First we shared salad, which was actually delicious and perhaps the best part of the meal. It was relatively simple: cured ham, greens, croutons, mandarin oranges, goat cheese, and a simple dressing. Then we got our main courses. Holly had this pocket thing with ham, cheese and mushrooms that was generally bland. Analise had pasta with red caviar and salmon. It was fishy and over salted. Sylvia had spaghetti bolognese which was normal and boring. I had skewers of beef and chicken which were burnt and didn't have much flavor to begin with. The house rose wine was really good, but in general this place was a bust.

After a mostly crappy lunch on an already miserable day, we decided to walk around in the rain. This did not help the lingering grumpiness that was hovering on the surface of my mood. We walked for a bit and ran into a cool American chica who is traveling around Europe for the summer. She goes to Rice (smartie) but seemed really interesting. We got her number and promised to meet up with her later. We kept walking, even though I had crossed the border into grumpyville and tried (unsuccessfully) to find somewhere to get a cafe con leche. We perused a sex shop which specialized in anal plugs (freaky) and eventually got on the bus to go home. I wanted to nap and spend some time to myself, which I accomplished and came out in a much better mood.

Following dinner and a shower, Hollly and Analise came over to drink wine and prepare for going out. We then headed out to Chupitos to warm up some more with their specialty: shots. We sat down next to this group of crazy, loud, fun Mexicans and somehow ended up friends. They were so much fun. They were all studying at a culinary school here (jealous) and spoke English pretty well. They kept singing some song that would demand us to drink, and of course we acquiesced. After feeling a buzz coming on, we wanted to go to an authentic Barcelona discoteca, so we got on the train to RazzMaTazz, which is in an abandoned warehouse somewhere far away from where I live. A ton of people from our group said it was a great time and so we decided to try it.

The train ride from Chupitos to RazzMaTazz was so much fun. The Mexicans we met up with were dancing and singing and acting crazy. Good times.

Once we got there, the line was horrendous, like wrapped around the building. It wasn't open yet (it didn't open until 3A and we got there like 15 minutes before it opened) but it was still long and treacherous. But we did it anyway. We lost the Mexicans because they had to pee and didn't want to stand in line, which we were really sad about seeing as how our morale for the night just went down considerably. We were standing in line in front of these three Spanish guys (one of whom I suspected was a skinhead) who were smoking and drinking beer for awhile. And then, one of them reached into his pants, as in the band of his underwear, and pulled out a tiny blue pouch. He opened it up, and it was undoubtedly cocaine. They all licked their fingers, dipped them in the coke, and rubbed the coke on their gums. Holly, Analise and I were just staring agape. Seriously? Cocaine? And then another guy popped some ecstasy. Sufficiently freaked out (and the club had filled so they weren't letting people in for awhile), we went home.

I had decided long before we even left to go out that Sunday would be a do nothing at all day. And it was. I woke up late, stayed in my pajamas all day, played cards with Sylvia, napped for 3 hours, ate, studied, and went to bed early. While I missed out on a couple sightseeing opportunities, I needed a day of rest.

Monday morning we had class. Since we had no excursion afterwards, we decided that in order to become unrecognizably tan (our goal) we needed some beach time. The weather was perfect for the beach. Sunny, warm, perfect. We stayed for 4.5 hours and I got some serious tan, finally. We all went home to shower and get ready to go out that night. Since it was our last week in BCN, we wanted to finish in style. So we went to Oveja Negra, drank a pitcher of sangria, and went home.

Tuesday of this week is by far one of my favorite of the trip. It was also Zach's birthday (my little brother). I called him in the morning while I was brushing my teeth, but he didn't pick up because it was like 2A US time. After class, we had several hours before our excursion, so we decided to beach it up again. However, we got there, got all set up, ready to get super tan, and a storm started to roll through. So we left and went to eat Hot Doks, which was very satisfying, as usual. Last Wednesday, when we went to Sitges, Jordi and Silvia told us they decided they wanted to take the group of us (me, Sylvia, Analise, Holly, Kate, Michelle, Craig, and Austin) to this cool restaurant/fish market because they thought we would appreciate it the most. So Tuesday we went to the Picasso museum as our excursion. The museum was cool. I didn't know Picasso really started out as more of a classic artist, the crazy paintings that he is so well known for came later on in his life. The museum had a lot of famous stuff and was pretty enjoyable, although the whole time I was distracted by visions of the fish market that we were going to afterwards.

After the museum, we waited around for a bit because the place didn't open until 8P. The group ended up being a lot of fun people: me, Craig, Analise, Holly, Dan, Ryan, Brenden, Claire, Deanna, Joe, Christina, Jordi, Silvia, and (best of all) John C. Wilcox. The way it worked was they had this table filled with different kinds of seafood: fish, clams, oysters, mussels, lobster, etc. You chose what you wanted, how much, and how to cook it. Silvia and Jordi helped us order to ensure that we got a good mix and good stuff. We got a boatload of steamed clams, mussels in red sauce, cold boiled shrimp, shrimp grilled in butter sauce, grilled octopus, grilled epia (similar to calimari), and the tiny fried things with eyes that were phenomenal. All of it was the freshest seafood I have ever had (which says a lot) since most of it was still moving when we picked it out. Since the Mediterranean is so salty, most of it was saltier than I'm used to, but equally delicious. We also had bread and Blanc Pescador which is a bubbly white wine. Between Craig, myself, Analise, and Holly, we put away 3 bottles. Dinner was amazing. Then, Jordi and Silvia decided they liked us enough to take us to get mojitos. We walked (the entire group sporting a solid wine buzz) to the bar. It was a cool place, great atmosphere for sitting and having drinks and talking. Craig and I decided to order different things and share them. I got a cava cocktail and he got a mojito. The cava cocktail was a fruity, girly drink. His mojito was really good. I put away the cava cocktail and went to get something more my taste which is when I remember my love for the vodka gimlet. Which was delicious. We were all sitting in a circle and Craig and I spent most of the night talking politics with JCW. I love politics and I love JCW, so it was pretty ideal. I took a lot of cool pictures, although some people think they're creepy because I really don't like posed pictures. We stayed, talking and drinking, until like 1:30 in the morning when I headed home to pass out, slightly drunk.

The next morning we went to class again as usual. We had an excursion planned for 3:15 so I went home and changed and worked on my project some in between. At 3:15 we met up to head to a bomb shelter built during the Spanish civil war. Our tour wasn't until 5P so we went to the supermercat (supermarket in Catalan) to get snacks and ended up talking to Marianna for like an hour. Marianna is great (she reads this too). She's so much fun. I signed up to take basic Catalan this coming semester and hopefully she'll be my teacher.

The bomb shelter was awesome, but somewhat creepy. War things creep me out. It was pretty big for what it was, and we had to wear hard hats inside because although it is sturdy, it is also pretty old. There wasn't any crazy stuff inside, but it was interesting to see where people went and how they dealt with imminent bombing danger. After the bomb shelter, we headed to a cafe to put together our final project. We got to sit outside and I ordered sangria but didn't like it too much (it was oddly cloudy) but we got it done. I came home early to make our powerpoint and sleep.

Thursday was our last day of class, sadly. The two Spanish 208 classes got together to watch each other's presentations. Ours was on hairstyles, which are pretty different compared to the US. Throughout our class, there's been a joke going about a Spanish singer, Chikilicuatre, and his awful song that was part of the Eurovision competition this year. Jordi hates it. So I tried to put it at the end of my powerpoint as a joke for Jordi, but the internet wasn't working and ruined my surprise. If you want to see what I'm talking about, follow the link at the bottom.

Once our last class we finished, Craig, Sylvia and I met up and headed to Las Ramblas to try and do some shopping. We stopped for some churros con chocolate and accidentally got 3 orders of churros when we only meant to get one. We still inhaled it all. Craig took care of most of my chocolate because I didn't want dairy coma. Sylvia got tired so she went home and Craig and I walked around until it started pouring. Then we met up with Holly and Analise to try and find some paella (Craig hadn't had it yet, what a loss). We wanted to get out of the rain as quickly as possible, so we ducked into a tapas place that JCW had recommended. I ordered Johnnie Walker Black (which cured some home sickness I'd been harboring) and kicked back with my friend Johnnie and let Craig order for the two of us. We shared several delicious tapas: fried blood sausages, fried cuttlefish, meatballs cooked in squid, and bruscetta with melted cheese, onion, and more sausage. All of it was wonderful. And I got to legally drink Johnnie Walker at 3P. Analise and Holly ordered dessert which Craig and I liked better than they did; it was some sort of cake with liquer. Delicious. After sitting for 2 hours, we went to the train station to get our Eurorail tickets for Saturday and then went home for naps, showers, and dinner.

My last dinner from my senora was the potato-meatball-pea in yellow sauce dish that is really good, and tortilla espanola. Sylvia took one for the team and ate a lot because I was still full from comida and couldn't eat that much. After we were dressed and ready, we headed (for the last time) to Oveja Negra. Where I drank more scotch, talked to a couple foreigners, and got soaked in the rain. It was pouring when we were walking there, which was miserable. And we weren't having a great time there, which was worse. So Analise, Holly, and Sylvia dragged me to one more bar, which was so much fun. Jamboree was relatively close and was more club than bar. They played American music, some of it older, but it was fun to dance and drink (scotch and vodka gimlets) with some people from the group that we don't normally hang out with (excluding Craig. He stayed in because rain makes him melt apparently). After stumbling home (more drunk than I've ever been in BCN), I made it back and got a phone call from Holly.

Poor Holly. She had fallen asleep on the bus and missed her stop and somehow ended up in the mountains and couldn't figure out how to get back. She was so upset, I felt so bad for her. I googled where she was but didn't really knowhow to help her except to stay on the phone until she found a cab, which she eventually did and made it back around 5A. Ah, yes. 5 in the morning. I'm glad we met again. My second to last night out in Barcelona and I know I did it up right since I didn't go to sleep until 5.

No excursions today until later, so I woke up at noon (on my own which is weird. I thought I would sleep longer) and went to meet up with Craig. We walked around, shopping and talking, for awhile, stopping to eat patatas bravas and blood sausage on bread, got lost in the city, walked around the giant market again, and took pictures of the university. It was nice to be able to experience some leisure in Barcelona instead of constantly going. Now, I'm laying in my bed (which I will not miss when I leave this place), watching the flies buzz around my room. I must shower, though, and be off to our farewell dinner where I am guranteed filet mignon (we ordered yesterday) and other delicious Spanish cuisine. Afterwards, we're going out with Jordi, Silvia, Marianne, hopefully JCW for drinks and who knows. And at some point I must pack (which I hate) before tomorrow at 7:30A when I leave for the train to France. I'm mixed between sadness that the program is over and excitement for my next Euro adventures, but mostly excitement. Next time I write, I'll be in France!