The Start of Week Three
So my last blog was 3 days ago and since then a lot of exciting things have occured!!!!
First off...im living with famous people. legit. My host father Martin, is the grandson of the Attorney who was best friends and lived in Parque Guell with Guell and Guadi!!! Now his cousins live in a beautiful white house that overlooks the UUBER famous park and the entire city. Ya hes kinda a big deal. THEN we discovered Marin's father had tea with Picasso while they were both living and studying in Paris....ya my host dad is a BFD.
...Speaking of Picasso....we went to his museum here! It was wonderful. Settled in an area called the Gothic Quarter, the building it was in was almost as breath-taking as the pieces. From his time in Spain to his time in Paris, from his Blue phase to the creation of Modernisme...it seemed not all of the hundreds of paintings in there could have been his. My favorite of all was his interpretation of Velasquez's painting Las Meninas where it seemed Picasso developed an obsession with the young girl in the painting...creepy but interesting.
After the museum we ventured down the small and windy streets to find a HUGE cathedral. Come to find, we had stumbled upon the Cathedral de la Seu. Apparently, it was there where Christopher Columbus greeted the King and Queen of Spain to announce of his successful trip to the Americas. Also, Disney Reference, like the gargoyles in the Hunchback there are gargoyles here where boiling oil was poured into as a form of execution…some places even have eerie dark stains :/. After that we went inside a huge area which had candles and small gated rooms with different religious figurines and pictures to giving offerings and light candles to. In the middle were swans and what we called the Fountain of Youth…but it was just a really nice fountain.
After a long first week of class Saturday day my roommate in I spent all day in the house and bed recovering and preparing for Today, which was a big day of touring!!! We woke up early and headed on the Metro to see the Park Guell (ya know where my host dad has family). It was about a 10 min walk uphill from the metro to the entrance but we didn’t mind because it was a gorgeous sunny day! We entered from the font and worked our way up to the large area of mosaic benches which overlook all of Barcelona. Then we hiked up through gardens to get to Martin’s family house!! It was gorgeous with the oranges and pretty flowers against the white stucco house. We then wound our way back down through various bridges, alcoves, houses, gardens, terraces, tunnels, and many other amazingly crafted and designed architectural pieces. We saw Guadi’s house and while in the park were able to take a small trip into his mind it seemed. All the colors, and big pillars, the random nooks and crevices, the rounded and grand edges, the playful and fantastical…it was his world he had created in the middle of this huge city and it was amazing to be a part of it and escape.
If that wasn’t enough we then came back and went to a local pub for the Barcelona game. It was a place underground with old sports memorabilia, photos of Frank Sanatra, and tables made out of kegs. Clearly the best place to see a game. The atmosphere was different than the last, much older crowd who it seemed had been fans all their life. The crazy lady running the bar brought everyone drinks and stopped in between taking orders to shout on her amplifier at the screen. The newest thing we learned was the Messi cheer…which is simply people yelling Messi for about 2 minutes after his first goal. A dog even watched the game with us…showing this love of Barcelona goes way beyond what we consider being a sports fan in the US. Barca won 4-1 not surprisingly, as everyone here says…people don’t ask “did Barcelona win?” they ask “how much did Barcelona win by?”
After all the excitement of the day we were ready for some food and boy did we get some. Pieces of meat that were like groumet beef jerky started us off…then we moved on to the Paella. This Spanish delicacy was just as perfect as I had hope. Its like a Gumbo but better. Rice, shrimp, mussels, peas, onions, garlic, potatoes, green peppers, clams, chicken, and a tad bit of sugar…all mixed with Paloma’s years of experience and practice. Easily the best meal I’ve had here!
Classes at UPF start tomorrow and while I’m extremely nervous for my all Spanish course I think I will be able to manage. If not, well there’s always taking a class in my native language rite? So far the classes are amazing and I can’t wait to immerse myself even further into this city and the customs which is what I think a lot of my classes will do. But I better head to bed, First day of real school tomorrow and I can’t be late!
Until we meet again….
Besos
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