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Published: January 17th 2011
Barcelona has been my new home for... 11 days already? The last 11 days feel like they should have been stretched out into two months. So many new people, languages, mannerisms, classes, food, weather, the list goes on... It's impossible to know what to begin describing.
I'll start with my apartment. I have a great apartment in the Eixample district of Barcelona. It's surrounded by tapas bars and cafes on every corner. Some of the best food I've had so far is in the Bar Paris on the street level of our apartment building; my favorite item on the menu is the Bikini con Huevos - it consists of thinly sliced ham, fresh bread, olive oil, cheese, and an egg. It's simple and fresh and delicious. That and a cafe con leche are heavenly. But the apartment is nice; wood floors, a balcony that looks over the bustling street below, another balcony in the back where we hang out clothes to dry, Ikea-type furniture, and I have a single room. The only things we are 'missing' are an oven and a dishwasher. We seem to make do with a stove-top and dish soap so far. Our apartment is also on the fourth floor, but it's actually seven flights of stairs up because the 'ground' floor is even up a few flights of stairs. My roommates are great - four other girls. One is from Seattle and the other three are from Massachusetts. We're all pretty different but we get along very well. Most of the other U.S. students studying abroad here are from the East Coast, so anyone who asks is pretty surprised that I live in Alaska.
My spanish is pretty limited and the widely used Catalan doesn't help very much. Despite this, I feel like my spanish has improved rapidly in the few days I've been here. It has surprised me how well I can communicate with people even with a large language barrier. There's a tiny little cafe up in the Gracia neighborhood near where Connor lives that a French man owns. He speaks only Catalan and French and makes the most savory tapas, cafe, and jamon y queso. Connor and I have gone there a few times now, when I've been up in his neighborhood. The second time we visited the cafe the man began asking us where we were from. We were hardly able to understand each other, but when he realized we were from Alaska his face just lit up and he started gesturing wildly like he was reeling in a fish. "Pescador para salmon en el rio!!!!" And then he says "Grizzly!?!" In a funny way this made me realize how similar people are, how you can always find something in common, even with someone from the other side of the world.
I have three classes here. The Case of Catalonia: Culture Without State, An Urban Approach to Spain and Europe, and Spanish. I have the first two classes on Mondays and Wednesdays, and Spanish on Tuesdays and Thursdays for 4 hours each day. The campus I go to is a tiny building in the middle of the city, about a half hour walk from my apartment. Taking the metro is a tad faster, but the walk is nice - there's plenty of people and things to see. The metro here is incredibly easy to use and clean, though. It's even easy for me, who has been on a metro only once before in my life and can't understand much of the language.
As for sights I have seen I feel like I don't even know where to begin. The Sagrada Familia is breathtaking and absolutely jaw-dropping. I truly can hardly imagine what it will look like when it's finished. The beach here is beautiful and peaceful; there are lots of harbors down by the waterfront - filled with boats that are a little different than the ones at home, though, mostly sailboats and yachts. I've been on top of the Montjuic "mountain" which allows for a gorgeous panorama view of Barcelona and the surrounding area. Parque Guell is filled with mosaic architecture from Antoni Gaudi. Last night I went to an FC Barcelona futbol game at Camp Nou - the biggest stadium in Europe. It was incredible, I could hardly believe what I was seeing. The fans were crazy and the players were so good. These things can hardly be described with words, so I'll post some pictures to help this post out once I figure out how.
Maybe updates from now on will be a bit more eloquent and a little less rambling - it's hard to gather my thoughts on everything new in the last few weeks. I hope all is well and not too chilly in Alaska, or wherever you may be. I miss everyone from home.
Holly
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Elaine A Burgess
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Great to see you have enough time to write this blog. It's wonderful to hear your experience so far has been so exciting. I'm so happy for you. Wow! What you describe so far makes me want to jump on a plane and come visit. But I won't and can't!!! Love, Elaine