my weekend with don paco

ok, so the last weekend of orientation they flew us to sevilla. we all got split up between three hotels. after a layover in mallorca, bus ride, and starving for dinner, my group arrives to the beautiful "Hotel Don Paco". All my carbondale loves should appreciate how much this made me crave some late night quesadilla consumption. Unfortunately, the meals were not so exciting as my wishes for don taco, and included some mystery ice cream that reminded me dangerously of fruit cake.
the program goal seemed to be church overload.i mean, can you really tell the difference between these? yeah, neither can i. and the tours were in spanish. good for me, ok, i understand. but, right about now all i know about these churches is that they are pretty. i think one is supposed to have christopher columbus's tomb. thats pretty cool.

otherwise, if i may say so myself, hotel don paco was a pretty good place to be.
things i learned:

1) naranja is the word for a tasty orange. meanwhile, naranjos are evil oranges that look awesome, but taste so sour your stomach might just turn itself inside out. therefore, while walking around a city with beautiful orange trees planted on the streets, if you begin to cultivate a hunger or thirst for which an orange seems to be the perfect cure, and you just want to reach up and pick one of those naranjo's, STOP. do not pick one, remove the peel, and suck the juices out. your mouth will not be happy.


However, they do come in handy when you go to a botanical garden on your free time that ends up to be a garden of dead plants, and crazy museums. (and we wondered why we were the only people there). juggling cures everything, besides, we had to get our moneys worth out of the place. grant, jeanna, and keith are master jugglers

2) some things about playgrounds. nobody doesn't like a playground. especially one right outside of your hotel. and all spanish playgrounds have mystery equipment. such as a jungle gym with something that looks like a slide. however, it is not. when you try to slide down it, it tilts and does crazy things that make you fall off. thankfully, i am much taller than the children expected to be tricked by this mystery slide and survived with no more than a scratch.
3) champagne is not always classy. (but jemma rocks)

4) flamenco rocks.
ok, so in regards to flamenco. we went to this show that was so awesome. but i couldnt use my flash (and even if i could have, i didnt really have enough batteries) so all my pictures look like this. and after an awesome flamenco show like this everyone is a pro flamenco dancer, and dance offs in the street on the way walking to a club are priority. a big group of us went on to a dance club following the flamenco show, and it was amazing. salsa and american rap, quite a combo. tamara was the champion of the night, and definetly won every dance off she was challenged to.
sevilla (and cordoba and cadiz...we visited them for day trips) was pretty fun, but i'm happy to be home in barcelona.

lobsters make me happy, especially ridiculously large ones

ok, so there is this lobster in the neighborhood "barceloneta", and not only did i get a rockin necklace there, but the lobster is ridiculous. and i love it. and we decided that we all needed to be lobsters. and here is the proof that we would make wonderful and happy lobsters.

car accident

i just need to say that i got hit by a car, and that it was so ridiculous. i mean, it was barely moving, but still. this guy was driving in a pedestrian street, and i was with a group of people in the street, and instead of waiting for us to cross the street he decided to budge into me.

also, i gave emma a haircut last night. and i am so good, i should go professional.

marco/oscar

this past weekend emma and i and some friends went to watch the barcelona vs espanya futbol game

so i was walking around the city with some cool people...well, i'll introduce my new friends first.

on the left is kevin (he goes to cornell, haha), and it goes like this: jeanna, josh (an ithaca townie, once again...hahaha), ali, and adrian. that's a picture of us waiting to watch the sunset behind the olympic stadium. they are pretty cool.
ok, so back to the beginning. i was walking around the city with some pretty cool people when my phone starts to ring. i answer, and it is a random man's voice speaking in english with an extremely strong accent. the conversation goes like this:
hello?
is this claire?
umm, yeah. who is this?
i hear you speak very good spanish.
not really, who is this?
i am oscar, juaquina's friend...she tells me you are very pretty. i would like to meet you sometime?
well i guess you'll have to talk to juaquina then...but i can't really hear you. it's pretty loud here (haha, i was in a church!)...wait, what did you say? umm...ok, i'm gonna go now.....

hahaha, whoa.

apparently my host mother is a pretty big partier. the other weekend emma and i went out, nothing too crazy. when we came home at like 1, my senora was just leaving to go out for the night. we find out the next night at dinner (as my senora cringes at all sources of sound and light) that she went to two parties, then to a dance club (discoteca) until 6AM, followed by breakfast, and then home to sleep.

i met oscar later that weekend (his name, as it turns out, is actually marco), and he informed us that he wanted to be our host mother's boyfriend. oh boy.

emma's new boyfriend

Wine is cheaper than water, seriously. I can go to a supermarket and buy a bottle of wine for cheaper than a bottle of water. it is ridiculous. and everyone smokes a whole lot. my host mother tried to hide it from us for a few days, but we finally just told her that we knew she smoked. she turned pretty red. haha.

i haven't really gone too crazy so far here. but emma and i have gone and done something most nights.

on of the first nights here emma and i went downstairs to a little bar that we live above for some cava (aka champagne...pay attention, this is some important spanish vocabulary coming your way). and we were sitting at a table in the corner talking, when this guy comes over and asks if we could help him. He is speaking in english, and says that he is writing a song in english and was wondering if we could tell him what we think of the title...ummm, yeah, sure. what is it?...Well, what do you think of when you hear the words "Vampire Love".

oh, i wanted to die. he was being so serious and i thought i was going to burst right in front of him. what kind of a pickup line is that? listen guys, next time you see some hot girls vampire love is the way to go. somehow emma managed to pull something out randomly, being quite serious the entire time, about how some relationships can completely drain you, and then quickly changed the subject before she started laughing.

long story short, we got a number on the second day of being in spain. but emma is hoarding it all for herself because she is in love with him. i guess its ok if she doesn't want to share.

the next night there was an FC Barcelona futbol game, and our senora said that there was a sports bar down the street. Martins. basically the best place ever. we went there, and nobody else was there, so we had the tv to ourselves. the bartender is pretty cool, and told us that we didnt seem like americans (because we weren't loud and drunk, haha). anyway, we asked him a lot of ridiculous questions about the game and he laughed at us a lot. We've been there for every Barcelona game since, and now we are officially regulars. He even gives us free food. it's amazing. and if the game is against anyone worthwhile there are a bunch of old men cursing in spanish or catalan at the television. i have decided to learn some catalan curse words so that i can make friends with the old men. for now i'll just yell in my spanish/english mix with emma. sometimes we bring unos amigos to martin's to watch the game, but we usually get kicked out right after the game. hahaha.

oh, and i love patatas bravas.

another favorite thing. El Gato Negro. it's this chupito bar (vocab lesson: chupito=shot), with the most amazing androgynous bar tender in the world.

but first, i dont remember if i mentioned this already. but, people make out everywhere here. the other day we went out to pizza with my senora and some of her friends, and there was this kids birthday party going on. meanwhile, i witnessed two couples sucking face. as in, 5 minutes straight, no coming up for breath or anything. one couple even involved some climbing over the table action.

ok, anyway, so i'm sure you can imagine what the spaniards at bars are like, and this androg bartender was the worst contender. i think he kissed everyone in the bar except me and the group of people i was with (very dissapointing...emma is trying to claim him as well as amore vampiro man, but i don't know if i can give her both). and i promise i am not becoming an alcoholic, but i just need to tell you about the most amazing shots i've ever witnessed in my life. the first one was called Harry Potter. it was triple sec, on which they placed an orange slice and then sprinkled with sugar and cinammon, lit on fire and sprinkled cinnamon on so that it sparkled. its just like real magic! and then the second one was called a boyscout (or spanish equivalent), and it was another flaming shot on which you roasted mini marshmallows! who thinks this up? i really would like to meet them.
they were playing some old school american rap at el gato negro when we went there, but there was nowhere to dance so we sat instead. that made me extremely sad. i might have to suggest some renovation. ali, jeanna, and emma are pretty cool girls to sit around with and discuss our love for androgynous bartenders though, so i guess it wasn't so bad.

ok, i am going to continue in another post so it looks like i post more than i really do...

sight seeing

ok, so we don't really have much organized activity these first two weeks. orientation is more like and hour a day (if that), and the free time to see the city and goodness like that. so the first day emma and i mostly just walked around the city. i had no idea where we were going. but let me say that even the post office here is pretty. seriously, here's a picture. we also went to lunch with some girls from the program, but they were annoying and not really worth talking about.



and then the next day we went super sight seeing. in the morning we went to parc del laberint. but, of course, we managed to walk in the wrong direction for a good 30 minutes before we noticed and turned around. but its ok because we found this ridiculous rope jungle gym. it was so huge, and wobly cause it was rope, and scary as hell. i can't believe parents would ever let their kids near this thing. it was definelty at least a story tall.

so we finally make it to the laberynth. and it was amazing! seriously, i think every town should have a labrynth. it would definetly make life happier.



and then we went back to placa catalunya, which is kind of like the downtown area here, for churros y chocolate. and hung out on "las ramblas" (super touristy), where and i drank from la fuentes de canateles. supposedly drinking from those fountains means you "will surely return to barcelona". and we went for some cafe at els quatre gats, this little coffee/restaurant where picasso used to chill back in the day. its pretty expensive now, but it was still pretty cute and had really good coffee.

umm, also...realizing that my body hates caffeine right before going to barcelona for an extended amount of time was horrible timing. it is impossible to avoid coffee here. impossible. they drink it at all times of the day.

anyway, thursday emma and i went to port olimpic, aka the ocean! and, i mean, there isn't much to say. its the ocean, it's awesome, i am in love. there was some pretty cool artwork around too. oh, and palm trees! there are palm trees all over the place here and it makes me so happy. i think i am meant to live somewhere with palm trees. none of this winter stuff for me. my senora is always saying how its so cold, and asking if i have a warmer coat. i just laugh at her now.


on friday the program gave us the option to take a day trip to montserrat, which is this monastary on top of a mountain just a bit outside of the city. the bus ride there was possible the scariest thing i have ever experienced in my life. the roads were like insane narrow, winding streets with a huge drop straight down on one side. there were guard rails as if anyone believes those tiny things will keep you from falling to your doom in case of emergency. and the bus driver was a maniac. i really thought my life was over a couple of times. and it just kept going. when we finally got there we were literally above the clouds. it was beautiful. and the basilica was beautiful. and the mountain was beautiful. everything was beautiful.
we saw the boys choir perform a couple of songs. they were maybe 9 years old, and live in the monastery, and are going to be munks. seriously! i didnt think that happened anymore. what are you going to be when you grow up? oh, well my parents gave me to the church, so i'm a munk. say what?

yesterday emma and i met up with a group of people at montjuic, and walked around the park and saw the castle. and saw this fountain, light, music, show thing. there is no way to explain it. it was like a dance performance, except with water that was lit up to be different colors. i dont even know. it was this event that shouldn't even be possible. apparently it is.

ok, so thats the sight seeing so far. i'll save people night life for after dinner. cause i'm starving and people don't eat here until so unhappily late.

i'm here!!

Once upon a time there was a girl named claire who traveled to a far away land called Barcelona...umm, so yeah. i'm here!!! let's start from the beginning.

1) the plane ride/s were ok. on the plane to london i sat next to this crazy woman with bright green furry clips in her hair, even though she was probably 50, and really like to talk. a lot. she was hilarious. otherwise, thats about the highlight of my plane time. the plane from london to barcelona was basically all students from my program, so when we got to the airport we moved as a group and made the by from harvard ask for directions.

2) my host mother (or our senora as we like to call her)...ok, i live in an apartment in the l'exaimple district, which i've been told is the gay district. it is just me, my senora juaquina, another american emma, and the dog nook. it's a pretty nice apartment . emma and i have our own rooms and the two of us share a bathroom. our senora has her own bathroom. i'm really no good at using european showers though, and flooded the bathroom so badly the first time i showered. haha, it was like i was two or something. juaqina is probably in her 50's, and has a grown son that still lives somewhere in the city. she's really nice, and has had students living with her before so she knows whats up. she is super trendy for a mom. last night she went out with her friends and came back later than us. she always has cleavage, even in her pajamas. but she's really nice, and a pretty good cook and not overly protective, so i approve.

3)what i do not approve of...our smelly kitchen. seriously, it smells like rot. especially in the mornings. and sometimes my senora will put leftovers in the fridge without covering it and just stacks plates of food on top of eachother. good thing she hasn't tried to feed us leftovers yet. i also do not approve of the orange juice, it tastes like tang, or the overwhelming amount of mullets and rat tails that exist here. apparently they are in fashion. no me gusta. oh, and all the eggs are undercooked, unless its a tortilla. and also, i got a salad with salmon on it the other day and the salmon was completely raw. i ate it anyway. ham everywhere!



4) what i do approve of...cowboy boots are super in style. they are all over the place. of course, i didn't bring mine. but thats ok. dos besos. umm, who doesn't want two kisses every single time you see someone you know? and my roommate emma!! she's pretty great, and has a much better sense of direction than me and can alway remember names, unlike me. pretty great. (p.s.-that picture is her)

ok, so i'll be back later and talk about all the stuff i've done so far...