The House that Gaudí Built

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So "The House that Gaudí Built" is actually many houses, and churches and parks and things and they are in Barcelona which is where I travelled this weekend, but first I should make note of the strangest midterm I have ever taken.

It took place in my class with all the other Spanish students (Sociology of Business) last Monday. So usually most of the other Spanish kids do not show up for class, but Monday the whole class was full. We actually had problems finding seats, typical. So the exam began and we turned out papers over to start and immediately about 1/5 of the class signed their name on the exam, got up and promptly left. My jaw literally fell to the floor, this exam is something like 20% of our grade. In the next ten minutes (we had over an hour to take the test) probably another 2/5 left. Serioiusly I was bewildered. Then she caught people cheating, like they had way obvious notes under their desks and were just copying them. And then my approximately 28-month pregnant teacher kicked those big boys out of class. I have never been in an exam like that in my life. Seriously I think I spent at least a quarter hour just staring around.

So Barcelona... We left on Friday morning bright and early and took the AVE (the same high-speed train Cameron and I took to Málaga). When we got there we first took a bus ride up through one of the mountains that surrounds Barcelona and saw the sight of the 1992 Olympics held in Barcelona. I must say that the olympic stadium kind of reminded me of Wallace Wade, so I was a little less than impressed, but it was still cool. We continued driving through the mountain and some beautiful botanical gardens before briefly stopping to take some pictures. Then we headed down the mountain and eventually made it to the Park Güell. This park was designed by Gaudí and Miró. It was actually designed as a sort-of utopic community where about 70 plots for houses were and the area was complete with a church, school and market. Gaudí also planted huge Mediterranean gardens. Well they were a little ahead of their time because unfortunately the park was located too far outside the city for those times (approx. 100 years ago and there were no buses or trains, so it would have been a long way). It turned out that they only sold one plot and they never even built a house on it. Gaudí lived in the model home for almost 20 years. The park also holds the world's longest park bench which I guess is cool. The whole park is filled with typical Gaudí architecture, meaning in this weird architecture in the human and plant style with lots of broken glass and ceramic pieces attached. After the park we headed to "La Sagrada Familia" which was Gaudí's life work. It is an epicly huge cathedral that even now after 50 years of his work and 50 years after his death is about 50 years from being done. The interior was basically a construction sight, not so impressive, but when it is finished it will be astounding. Gaudí left 1:10 scale (so HUGE) models of the cathedral in all its detail and it really is worth the 150 years. Gaudí made the cathedral so grand because he felt that one day people would only come to church if the place of worship was so grand that it drew them in. We'll see if he is right when it is done in 50 years. After a brief rest we went to the Picasso Museum (my third so far in Europe) and seeing as how I am not really a Picasso fan, it was not my favorite part of the trip.

Saturday we woke up and headed down to our 4-star-hotel's continental breakfast. It was amazing. And since it was an international hotel, there was even bacon and eggs (a traditional Spanish breakfast is basically toast and coffee). As we do every trip where there is a continental breakfast and being the starving-poor-cheap college students that we are, we decided to steal food from the buffet. I mean it had lunch meat, cheese and bread for crying out loud. They were practically asking us to do it. So my roommate Emily and I did not pick the best strategic table to steal food and the lady at the desk was watching us like a hawk. Probably because we had 4 plates of food each and were obviously not eating the sandwiches. Also they were big sandwiches. One of Emily's had tortilla española in it, which is like the same height as sandwiching a piece of cheesecake. So when she turned her back and we decided to make our move, transferring the sandwiches to napkins in our laps which we were promptly going to put in our purses, she marched right on over and basically yelled at us. SO embarrassing. When she saw our horror-stricken faces she became a little more lenient and said "It's too much, only for today." So when she left I was like, "Wait, so we get to take the food right?" Obviously I have a one track mind. After that beginning to the day we headed to two more of Gaudí's facades, La Casa Batllao y la Perdera. Both were interesting but I think we just stayed there too long and it got boring.

So that was pretty much Barcelona. I caught a train back Saturday afternoon because I still have two midterms this week and ANDREA IS HERE!!!!! I am so excited to see a friend from home! Oh I also found a new addiction in Barcelona: Mojito gelato. It was really good. So next up for me (after finishing these two midterms god willing) is a trip to Florence and Rome with my friend Grant. We are leaving on Thursday afternoon and will spend Thursday and most of Friday in Florence before catching a train Friday night to Rome where we will stay until Monday morning. So obviously I am super excited for Italy (although I don't speak about any Italian, nothing more than pizza and pasta which should last me for a little while haha). So until next time...

love love love,
Meredith

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