Summer is coming...!

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The two months, or more like two weeks of winter that Barcelona has seems to be coming to an end! It has been a hectic couple months after arriving back here in the first week of January after being home for Christmas. I moved to a new apartment which is located right behind one of the main shopping streets - Avenue Diagonal, and right next to a lovely authentic part of the city called Gracia. The flat was lovely, and really big! I shared with three other girls - one from Japan, one from Spain and the other from Belgium; so very multi cultural! Also the Belgian girl can speak 6 languages!!!! Amazing! Thankfully one was English as the other two girls couldn't speak much English and my Spanish is a working progress! There was a huge living room with two sofas, balcony at the kitchen and I also had a balcony in my room - not that I was on it munch, bit chilly! It only costs about £300 a month for rent which is unbelievable for location and how nice it is. No wonder people live here and commute to London for work. Much better value. Location has been amazing especially for work as I go to students houses to teach English. I work for a company who send me to classes, which I actually have preferred as I get to see more of the city and it's better doing one to one lessons, especially unsupervised. One of my classes me and a boy sat and played New York monopoly for an hour, or couple classes are just for conversation. Was stressful at first, as I'm so new to teaching and didn't really know where to begin with all the books and planning but into the swing of it now! Accent is proving to be ok so far, apart from a couple of weeks ago I was teaching two girls about festivals. And when I said, 'ok today we are going to talk about festivals,' they thought I said 'vegetables!' Very amusing at the time, Scottish accent problems! Need to control myself from saying 'wee' instead of 'little' aswell!

I work Monday to Friday in the evening which had been good, especially with weather getting better as can beach it during the day then head to work at night! It's a hard life! Also only work about 14 hours at the moment, and almost on as much money as a full time wage back home! But planning and preparing for lessons is quite time consuming so do work more than the scheduled hours. Could ask for more hours but shall see, enjoying the pace at the moment. Loving having a routine aswell and every weekend off! Now understand the meaning of 'getting that Friday feelin !' Been cracking on with the Spanish also, it's a slow progress but I'm getting there! Seems to flow much easier after a few vino tintos.

Had myself a wee visitor aswell in January, my friend Craig who is from Glasgow also and worked with me at BA came out for a weekend. We stayed in a hostel in El Gotic, ended up getting a four bed room to ourselves which was great. We had an absolute hoot! The weather was so good that weekend, about 18degrees! So we hit the beach, had paella, drank the traditional Gin Tonics which are the size of your head, then went on a wild one out and ended up at a club called Under - good techno tunes! Made friends with some French dudes and had an after party with them, watching sunrise on the beach. That day we headed to beach again and hired electric bicycles which was fun. Nice having someone over as can be a tourist myself. Got a few more visitors lines up for the coming months which is good!

Other than that though I have opted for a slighter quieter life - well compared to what I was doing before with all the jet setting! Loving the Mediterranean way of things, just so chilled here. Even if your late, which I constantly am, they couldn't give two hoots. True that the saying, 'Mañana, manana!' ( tomorrow, tomorrow) applies here! Also find myself walking everywhere. Im not one to sit in so usually head out a wander and be gone for hours. Couple weeks ago I walked from mine up to Montruic, a mountain area, and back again! Four and a half hours! Beautiful up there. Also went to the Catedral at El Gotic and you can go upto the terreza which has such great views of the city. Quite happy exploring and wandering around.

There's a few of us still here from the TEFL course that I did which is nice and we've managed a few outtings. Recently we went to El Borne to a bar called Bermuth which was cool, and couple other bars in Gotic - one of them is know as the postit note bar as the walls are full of notes. They do a great cocktail here! Also had a night for drinks in Gracia, which I honestly think is my favourite areas in Barcelona! So residential and authentic, loved living up here will miss it. We went to few bars there then about 3am sitting in one quite happily with our vino and next thing the shutters go down, and the barman and his pals are pumping the tunes and handing us fee shots of an apparent 'traditional' spanish liqueur. Random but good night! This city never fails to surprise me. Everyone is just so friendly and there's always something different going on.

The weekend of the 14th of February is Carnaval here! Makes this time of year more fun, especially if you are single and avoiding anything love heart shaped! I went with the Belgian girl from my apartment and her boyfriend to Sitges which is the main Carnaval party. Sitges is a lovely little beach town about 40minutes on the train from the city and is the gay paradise. Was so amazing! Everyone was dressed up in costumes, the best one we seen was a couple who were grapes with purple balloons taped to them! Such a funny idea. Was so busy and we struggled to find a spot to be able to see the parade. Eventually got a little bit where we could see it! The atmosphere was so brilliant, definitely recommend going there. Would like to go back to Sitges once weather is hotter for a day or weekend as was so lovely!

Also the weather is picking up now with hints of summer appearing. It hasn't been that cold, can still sit outside bars and restaurants but it is just the whole no central heating situation - it's colder indoors than out; and we had two weeks where it dropped to about 6 degrees so was sleeping with duvet, blanket, two jumpers and hot water bottle!! However in couple months we'll all be feeling the opposite cranking up the air con!

I don't have a plan as of yet of what il do once my contract with work finishes in June. Would like to travel to parts of Europe for the summer then may come back in September and continue with my job. Settling here is something that I would maybe consider, and especially if I'm wanting to perfect my Spanish another year or so would definitely be beneficial!

So for now I will continue with what I'm doing. Had to move again which was ashame as it was only a two month contract. However iv got a new place which is about 15 minute walk away, in an area called Example; it's with two dudes, fourth floor apartment with a balcony and views of the city and a rooftop terrace! No bad! Still really central, close to Passeig de Gracia and only 10 minutes on the metro from the beach now!! Suppose moving around allows me to see different parts of the city! Moving was a bloody nightmare though. Myself and the chicas from the apartment went for a last meal together last Friday to a lovely Greek restaurant called Dionisos in Gracia. At one point they turned up the music, two of the workers started dancing and throwing plates on the floor like they traditionally do in Greece and got people up to dance. Was fun. Then we had to be out the apartment by 10am on the Saturday which was ridiculous and I couldn't go to my new place until the Sunday so I went with Noune, the Belgian girl, to her new place. What a palava taking all our stuff and I had to do it again the next day! Her new flat was amazing, it had a swing in the living room - so jealous!! The guys were cool that she has moved in with and so good of them to let me stay. I went out that night to another friends who had a gig going on in her living room which was interesting, nice group of people, I then got back to where I was staying about 3am and they were having a party with loads of people on my bed - the sofa! So was up with them until the early hours. Made moving to my new aparment more even more unbearable but I survived.

So this weekend my friend Jodi is here to visit, which will no doubt be eventful! And the guys brother that I have moved in with is staying here with his girlfriend, he is a music producer, we have decks in the flat and they want to have a little 'gathering' on Sunday with their amigos, my amigos and he'll DJ! So should be interesting one ahead!

Never a dull moment! Roll on summer!

Hasta luego!

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