So, last time I left off I was off to the beach. The beaches here are beautiful, but different from like Galveston (which anyone from Texas knows the truth about Galveston) and Florida. The sand is more like a combination of dirt and rocks, and it doesn't make you itch like Galveston sand, but that could just be Galveston sand that makes itching happen. We got there and found people from our group who were laying out and joined them. It was a beautiful day, not too hot, a light breeze, and lots of sun. It was so relxing to just lay there and have nothing to do, nothing to think about except how long should I tempt not getting burnt, and get accosted by the sales people on the beach. When you lay on the beach and don't look asleep, these people (Paskistani/Indian men and Chinese women) approach you trying to sell you things. Its very convenient if you want to pay a hugely inflated price for an ice cold, beautiful beer (that's how the men describe the beers...I don't think they actually speak Spanish outside the realm of their profession), or a massage. The men sell goods, the women services. They are ridiculously obnoixious and after 10 minutes of this, I no longer feel the need to politely decline; I'm trying to nap after all. The Chinese women approach you and are like "Masaje? Masaje?". Go away, lady, I don't know where those hands have been. They also seem to come in waves; like for 5 minutes you'll be bombarded and then it will be calm for awhile, like they come in bus fulls and one bus just unloaded. So if you can ignore that, which I have honed my skills at, the beach is wonderful. The water is a little cold (like Antartic or so) so I didn't actually get in, but some people did. And the bottom of the ocean is mostly rocks, so I want to get some shoes to wear in the water to avoid slicing up my feet. There are also a lot of boats out on the water. Mostly blow boats (sail boats to the uniformed), but a beautiful, giant yacht passed and I though of Popop, he would have loved that boat. We left after about 2.5 hours and headed back to my neighborhood and Hot Doks.
After being in Spain for like 2 weeks-ish, people were craving something familiar. Hot Doks is a restaurant across the street from us that serves hot dogs, hamburgers, brats, and these Spanish sandwiches that are like a heart attack topped with a fried egg. We had a Dominican waiter who was flamboyant and fun. I had an hamburguesa completa, patatas fritas, and Fanta Naranja. My hamburger was so good. I'm pretty sure it was ground up pork but the meat was mixed with herbs and had cheese and bacon and lettuce, tomato, mayo, the works. The fries were perfectly American and Fanta Naraja is not orange soda like in the States but rather carbonated Sunny D. It's better than Coke Light in my tastes. After that me, Holly, Analise, and Sylvia laid around my room (its the largest and the best because it has 2 french doors that lead to a balcony) and eventually sauntered over to the towel store for some better beach towels. Holly and I found cute towels that are giant with matching bags that will accomodate more stuff for the beach and a few other things. I finally started buying presents, both for me and others. And we talked to Paulo, the cute guy who works there and is around our age. He told us about some places to go, which I can't remeber. He's into electronic music, so we'll see if we end up at any of his reccomendations. He was nice and really good looking, and not Brazilian, so who knows.
After that we all went our separate ways. Sylvia and I headed home and ate dinner. Lately, Señora has been feeding us like the same stuff everday. I want to try more Spanish food so I hope she shakes it up some soon. That night we had Spaghetti with red sauce, salad, hot dogs, beef (it was just cooked beef fried in oil. Sylvia said it was tough so I didn't try it), and french fries and flan. Señora hasn't been eating with us lately which is sad because we always have lots of fun teaching her words in English. After dinner, I finally finished my book (Dry by Augusten Burroughs. Anyone who has ever been a recovering anything or gone to an AA meeting should read it, it is really good and somewhat funny. Although not as funny as the others by him that I've read, but he never disappoints) and knocked out.
Thursday we had class so we woke up and headed out. In my class we were doing a special activity. When we got there we were handed a questionnaire and told to go ask people on the street the questions. Apparently, Thursday was a special day in the Catalan region. They told us to ask older people because young people wouldn't know. So we approached an older woman who had no clue, and then we went up to this old man and asked him because he looked older than dirt. He didn't know what the special day was but said that to him, everyday was special because he had the birds in his windows and the trees to look at. Nice outlook, but no help. So we headed over to the tobacco shop where I had bought my phone card. The man in there was really nice and had been in the local newspaper, so I thought maybe he'd know. He wasn't there but his wife and the clerk were and they knew! It was Corpus Christi. The celebration of the body of Christ. The women explained what it was and we headed back to class where our TA's explained it even more. Part of the celebration is emptying the contents of an egg and making it dance on the top of a fountain. Naturally, we had to see this so we headed out to a couple different places to see their fountains, which was really cool. We also got to go into city hall and see the civil part of the celebration. I like learning about traditions and things like this, celebrations we would never have in the states.
Afterwards, Holly, Analis, and I headed out to the harbor area to find some paella. Sylvia and Marianna (two of the TAs) have been telling us that Thursdays are the day where paella is on the menu del día. We found a cute place that looked out over the harbor. Popop would have loved the harbor. Our meal consisted of a first course of gespacho (which is amazing and fresh), salad with tuna, and raviolis with cream sauce. The second course was of course, paella. Paella is a rice dish that typically has seafood or chicken but it can have all kinds of good stuff in it. It has a tomato and fish broth base and is eaten family style. They brought us a giant pan with mussels, shrimp, and scallops and we went to town. The paella was amazing; similar to my mom's, but different. We had ice cream with a liqeur sauce for dessert and walked around a bit. We were all tired and planning to go out so we headed home.
Sylvia had gone off to a park and wasn't back yet, so I walked around the neighborhood for like an hour while she made her way back. She got lost because she is terrible at directions (hahaha...she always jokes about not being able to make it without me directing her, which is true) but once we were home I slept for 2 hours. After a dinner of strange potato salad with peas, carrots, green beans, and tuna (I really did not like this. I make an effort to try everything but this was just not good), salad, noodles, patatas bravas, and bread, we made plans to go out. ç
We decided to try a new place, finally, and got on the bus to Chupitos (which means shots in Spanish) sans Sylvia since she headed to London yesterday and wanted to get some sleep. We met up with Craig and some others from our group. The place was tiny, crammed, and hot. As we walked by the bar, there were flaming shots being prepared, that was pretty cool. We met up with Craig, who hadn't had that much to drink, recommended Animal Balls, so we got a liter. I watched her pour it and it was mostly hard liquor with a splash of pineapple juice. Awesome. Holly, Analise, and I shared it (Craig stole a couple sips but the 3 of us really knocked it out) and were quickly on the train to wastedville. I stopped after Animal Balls. We hung out at Chupitos for awhile but eventually I left for Live Barcelona with Craig, Austin, Amanda, Alex, Jake, Suzi, and Adam and Analise and Holly stayed behind to talk to some Spaniard guys they had befriended. Live Barcelona was a bust, big time. No one was there and no one was dancing. The cocktails were expensive and it was like 3A. I was ready to call it a night but when we walked outside, we discovered Austin was worshipping the trash can and Jake, his room mate, had already left. So Craig, Mike (Craig's room mate) and I spent the next hour getting him home safely. Austin was a mess all day Friday.
After making sure Austin made it, I headed for my bed and landed on my pillow at 4A (at least it wasn't 5A this time, I've seen the wrong side of 5A too many times while I've been here) and slept until 7A. I'm getting really good at living on 3 hours of sleep, which is probably why I'm a bit sick.
We made it to the school in time for our excursion and slept on the bus on the way to the Dalí museum which is in Figueres. I would have come to Barcelona if the only activity we did was go to the Dalí museum, it was indescribable. Dalí designed it himself in the 1970's and has mostly his works and things he likes. Everything in there has been meticulously planned. From the way the domed roof reflects off the window to represent the eyes of a fly to the distance from each painting, everything has been placed just so that Dalí's fans could consume his art. It was incredible. I could have spent a week in there. Unfortunately, we only spent an hour and a half, but it was one of my favorites so far. After the Dalí museum we headed to lunch which was at this tiny restaurant in the middle of no where nestled in a mountain. It was delicious. We has salad, noodles with groups beef, roasted vegetables (red pepper, potato, egg plant, and onion), and bread for the first course. The second course was braised beef, chicken, beef ribs, and sausage. The meat was to die for; it was incredibly tender and seasoned differently than I've ever had. For dessert I had crema catalunya, which was essentially Creme Bruleé. Craig had home made flan (when we have it for dessert it comes from a pudding cup), which I decided I do not really enjoy, and some people had ice cream that was sweetened with honey and had almonds. That was wonderful, too.
After lunch, we headed back down the mountain to Besalú, this tiny historic town. I mean tiny. And we were the only tourists there, which was nice. It seems every where we go is ravaged with tourists. We toured the town and saw the churches, which were stunning. They showed how romantic and gothic architecture have been intertwined over the centuries. After touring the town, we headed back to Barcelona. Since my throat was sore (a warning of this morning's discovery) and I was really tired and kind of grumpy, I stayed in. Sylvia went to London from Besalú so I ate dinner alone (sad). I had more noodles with red sauce, fried beef, tortilla española, and bread. I read for awhile and finally Mommy called! I haven't really talked to her that much since I got here, so that was really nice. After talking to Mommy for awhile, I went to sleep.
Today, we're going to a fútbol game (soccer). Argentina (one of the best teams in the world right now) is playing a friendly match against Catalunya. There are some politics regarding Catalunya but I'll explain those later because I've been here forever and I still have a couple errands to run. Hopefully I'll have internet this evening, we're supposed to set it up this afternoon before I leave for the game. There's a festival before the game, so I'm mentally preparing for traditional Argentinian and Catalan food, which I can't wait for!
¡Ciao!
