New week, new house!
This past weekend was great as you can see from my pictures on facebook. Even though classes officially started today, I'm still in high spirits and enjoying all Barcelona has to offer.
Today I moved in with a great girl named Meghan! My new house has a doctor as "mi padre" and a sweet older woman named Paloma as "mi madre". She cooks wonderful food, their house is amazingly gorgeous, and wine is poured freely and frequently here. I am so happy and can't wait to have the rest of my time at this place. Tonight she made us paella and delish bread with jamon (ham...which is 10x better here than the US) and tomatoes, and a yummy salad. I had my first mussel and it was amazing....although iv been told the US doesn’t do them as well so my last may also be in Barca. Overall this couple is very sweet and has already told me to tell my family we’ll do dinner here one night when they visit...hear that mom????
Tonight was the big Barcelona vs. Madrid game and literally the whole city shuts down to watch it. Meghan and I (wearing my barca scarf) ventured near our house, only to find everything was closed except small restruants with overly-crowded flat screens. We obviously squished into one and enjoyed the scene. Despite the 80 cent beers called Estrellas, equivalent to Natty, and standing for two hours standing the atmosphere was amazing. After each goal everyone embraces and does the standard Barcelona double cheek kiss...as if the game is a matter of life and death. They scream, they embrace, they cheer, they groan, they live. That is what Spain does; soccer. After watching the game, I am more sure than ever that they do it better than everyone else.
So far I’ve only had my Spanish class but tomorrow I start Cities and Urbanism in the US and Europe. It should be a great class and I hope to learn a lot about the layout of Europe and why it developed this way…did I mention every intersection has a diamond in the middle, random?....My UPF classes begin the 23 and we only have about 10 weeks of those but I am taking one in full Spanish so I think 10 weeks will be more than enough! Haha while I completely speak English with Americans, I’d say half my interactions a day are in Spanish weather at a café, or home, or on the bus…you do actually have to speak Spanish in spain!! And I’m loving every second of that!
All in all its been a crazy week and a half...an incense freak-out, loosing/having a phone stolen, more taxis taking us the wrong way because they assume we're stupid, spending more than I thought (as my host my says Nada es barata...nothing is cheap) here, and moving all of my life in two bags to a new home. But I’ve never been happier. I am learning the street, I know my way around and what general direction to go, I am confident and aware when I walk…I feel like maybe by the end of this all I won’t be an extended tourist but a Barcelonan. I've learned to apprecite the way they kiss when they see each other, and take 30 min to enjoy a tinsy coffee, or how people play songs in the streets and the buzzing of motorbikes keeps the city from becomming silent...it all makes me feel so alive and understand what people mean when they say life slows down here...you cant actaully stop and begin to enjoy all the small things in life.
Viva su vida.
For this week I'd like to say to Barca’s win, and a smooth transition for me!
Besos
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