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Barcelona for One More Day

I can't believe how fast this term, and my Eurotrip, have gone by! At the same time, I can't believe how much I have seen and done since I arrived here 78 days ago, my first time in Europe.  It is cool to have Nancy in Barcelona today, and I've enjoyed being able to be able to show her my life from the past 10 weeks. We walked around this afternoon, just like Amparo took me around the city on my first day here. Wow. Lots of mixed emotions.

Home tomorrow!

I'm going to miss my host mom, Amparo. I cannot thank her enough for making feel at home for the past 10 weeks.

Last day in Rome

Today we saw the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Palatine, and the Pantheon. We took one awesome guided tour, one pretty boring guided tour, learned a lot of Roman history, walked along the river, took a photo with some gladiators, ate Italian pizza and gelato, made some friends from Tennessee, and got directions to the airport for tomorrow morning.

Back to Barcelona in the A.M.!

Packed Day in Rome

Today in Rome we had a very full day. We visited:

1. The Vatican Museum which includes the Sistine Chapel
2. The Vatican
3. Castell de Sant Angelo
4. Piazza del Popolo
5. The Spanish Steps
6. The Trevi Fountain

I'm wiped out. Going to bed now. More touristy things to do tomorrow on the last real day of our Eurotrip!

Rome

Nancy and I made it to Rome this afternoon after a 3-hour train ride through beautiful Italian countryside. After checking in to our hotel, we walked around and came across a massive old church and all the roads around it were blocked off. Turns out there was a procession from the Vatican where the pope had given a special corpus christi day mass to this church we found. We ended up standing there for more than 2 hours, saw a million nuns go by, and then we saw the pope! He gave a blessing in Latin or Italian. Very cool to see!

Florence!

Ciao! We're in Florence, Italy. Yesterday we saw the Duomo, the fake statue of the David, the Ponto Vecchio, the Pitti palace and the Boboli gardens. We ate pizza, pasta, and gelato, we're doing it all! Today we went on a day trip to Pisa with some other American kids we met at our hostel,and we took about a million photos in front of the leaning tower. It's about an hour from Florence on the train. When we got back to Florence, nancy and I hiked 413 steps up to the top of the bell tower next to the Duomo and we could see the entire city and all the way to the mountains in every direction. I'll have lots of photos when I get home. Now off to dinner! Tomorrow afternoon, we're headed to Rome on the train!

Bonjour from Nice!

After meeting Nancy in Lyon, France, on Friday afternoon, we spent the afternoon touring and catching up. Lyon is beautiful and it was fun to hear French. I was surprised that I was able to recall a little bit of French from high school.

 Yesterday, we took a train from Lyon to Nice, France, which is on the coast of the Meditteranean sea. We spent the rest of the day yesterday exploring the city and wandering around. Back at our hostel, we had dinner with some fun people from Scotland who were visiting for a long weekend. This is what I love about hostels, everyone you meet is super friendly and has stories to share. This particular hostel is awesome because there is a huge common room and there are tons of people hanging out at night.

 Today, we walked around Old Nice, which had colorful buildings and narrow streets. We were walking along an outdoor fruit market and realized we could see the beach in the distance. Then we went through an arch between buildings and it opened up to show miles and miles of coastline. Absolutely beautiful.

 In the afternoon, we walked up to a famous viewpoint over the port, then we took a bus to Ville Franche, which is a cute little beach town about 15 minutes outside of Nice. We spend a while soaking up the sun and swimming before walking through a castle overlooking the sea and catching a bus back. Now we're having dinner at the hostel and tomorrow morning we're taking a train to Florence, Italy!

Done with Exams!

What a crazy day! This morning, I woke up early to finish my literature essay. Arrived at school at 8:30 to fill out my program evaluation. Then I had my oral exam for conversation class. Studied for my history final, and then took my history final. At 2:30pm, I was done with my classes for the term. I cannot believe how fast my time here has flown by. I feel like I just moved in to Amparo's apartment, but at the same time, I feel so comfortable here.

After school, I went to the beach at Villa Olimpica with a bunch of friends. It felt great to soak up the sun, swim in the Mediterranean, and not worry about exams!

I got home around 7pm and Amparo and I spent an hour looking at photos of the little town where she grew up in Alicante on "el goo-GLEH" as she pronounces it. I showed her some photos of Moose Mountain and Dartmouth, and showed her where New Hampshire is on the map of the United States. It was fun to see her town and to share photos of mine.

Then I went to Plaza de España, where we had our final program dinner. We ate at the same restaurant that Amparo took me to last night haha. And I had the same waiter haha haha. All 17 students, 2 professors, plus our T.A., ended up sitting, talking, and enjoying one final meal together for more than three hours. Professor Bueno thanked us for being an enthusiastic and cooperative group. He told me he was very glad I came on the trip, which made me feel good.

After dinner, we took photos outside, overlooking Plaza de España and I said goodbye to Elisenda, our fabulous teacher's assistant/excursion planner and Professor Bueno and his wife, Gladys. It was hard to say goodbye to the other Dartmouth kids on my trip because we have literally spent hours together, every day for the past 10 weeks. It's amazing how well the group bonded, because we all come from different social circles at Dartmouth, but here we were drawn together as English-speakers. All but one of us are sophomores, so we will be reunited on campus in the end of June.

Tomorrow I'm headed to Lyon, France, where I will meet my friend Nancy to begin our 10-day European adventure!

Here's the travel plan:
Friday June 1 - fly to Lyon, France, spend the night with Nancy's host family!
Saturday June 2 - train to Nice, France
Sunday June 3 - Nice
Monday June 4 - train to Florence, Italy
Tuesday June 5 - Florence
Wednesday June 6 - Florence
Thursday June 7 - train to Rome, Italy
Friday June 8 - Rome
Saturday June 9 - Rome
Sunday June 10 - fly to Barcelona
Monday June 11 - fly to New York, then drive home to Etna :)

Muchísimas Gracias

Tonight, Amparo took me out to dinner at the restaurant on top of the Arenas de Torros shopping mall at Plaza de España. Amparo's daughters, Amparo Jr. and Rosa, as well as Rosa's husband, Ramón, and their daughter, Carla, met us for dinner as well. It was a little celebration for finishing (well, almost finishing) my classes and a belated birthday celebration too (because I was traveling for my actual birthday).

As a small token of my appreciation, I printed two pages of photos for Amparo, my fabulous host mom. The top one is a photo of me from the top of Tibidabo, and you can see the entire city and the sea in the background. The second is a collage of photos of Amparo's food, me, and Amparo's two granddaughters, Carla in the top left, and Alicia in the center with me.

The message at the bottom translates as "I'm very blessed to have lived with you and gotten to know you. All my thanks for making me feel like I'm at home. I will never forget my Spring in Barcelona. A big hug, Kelly." I gave her the photos at dinner tonight and she really liked them!

This is the view of Plaza de España, with the Palacio Nacional and the famous Magic Fountains of Montjuic in the top left. Barcelona at night is absolutely beautiful.

Cooking Class!

Tonight, I took a break from writing my final papers for a cooking class with four friends. There were 12 people in the class, and the instructor spoke only in Spanish. He was funny and understood that he had to show us exactly what to do. Luckily, one woman in the class had studied abroad in Philadelphia when she was in college, so she helped us with some words we didn't understand. Somehow, we managed to create a pretty rocking dinner with no terminal errors.

We learned how to make 5 different tapas:

Chicken with sautéed mushrooms

Mozarrella and ham sandwiches, with a little powdered sugar on top

A pastry with apples and cinnamon

Some kind of seafood in a blended pea-cream (it tasted better than it looked!)

And a delicious chocolate dessert with rice

 Here's a photo of the Dartmouth contingent with our instructor chef.

And the kitchen after we were all through. No, we didn't have to clean up ;)

Live and Learn

I've gone to the main train station in Barcelona, called Sants Estacio, a number of times. You can take a train to the airport, so I was at the station when I left for Ibiza in April. Going to Sitges, we took a train from the train station. When we took our class trip to Madrid, we met in the train station. Each time, it took me about 25 minutes to get there from my house. The trip involved walking 3 blocks to the nearest metro station, taking the red line for 5 stops, transferring to the blue line, traveling a few stops along the blue line, and then getting out and walking the last 2 blocks. Last week we were meeting at the train station for our excursion to Girona. I met up with my friend Sam, who lives two streets over, to go to the train station. I started walking towards the metro and he said "where are you going?" Turns out, the train station is only about ten minutes away -- by walking!

Final exams start tomorrow.

Birthdays and Beach Runs

This morning I went to church to see what it's like. Spain is a Catholic country, although significantly less so than it once was. Amparo and I talked about how the role of the church is changing. In my conversation class, we have discussed how fewer young people are going to church and what that means for the future of Catholic Spain. Here are a couple articles about the decline of the Catholic church in Spain:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42739-2005Apr10.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/31/neweurope-spain-catholics-church-influence

And here's another article I came across about the Spanish Catholic church trying to recruit priests during the crisis by promoting it as a steady-income, noble career. Very interesting.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9149007/Spains-Catholic-Church-launches-recruitment-drive.html

After church, I read for a while on the terrace because it was beautifully sunny. Then we had chicken and shrimp paella for lunch. Sunday is family day, and today Amparo and I had lunch with Alicia and her mom. After lunch we had a birthday cake to celebrate Alicia's 15th birthday!

In the afternoon, I met up with my friend Eve and we explored some more of Barrio Gotico. Then we went for a nice long run along the beach, from Barceloneta all the way out to Selva del Mar. The beach was super crowded today because of the nice weather, and the fact that tomorrow is a public holiday. It's not Memorial day here, but instead something they call "Second Easter." Unclear.

We finished our run in Villa Olimpica, which is where the athletes lived during the 1992 Olympics! It was cool to walk around a try to imagine what it was like almost exactly 20 years ago when the Olympics were here. Now they have turned the housing into apartments and the city has been built up around it.

After dinner, it was back to work -- studying for exams and writing my final papers. This week is going to be a tough one.

Barrio Gotico

This morning, I went to a little cafe near where I live, and started to study for my upcoming exams. Then I returned home for lunch. Amparo and I ate outside on the terrace because it was warm but not too hot. After lunch, I read more of my book and then decided to go for a walk. I wandered around Barrio Gotico, which is the old part of the city, near Las Ramblas. It's made up of lots of narrow streets with all kinds of shops. I came across a few fun things during my walk. First, I made it to Santa Maria del Mar, which is a famous old cathedral. My conversation teacher told us she thinks it's the most beautiful cathedral in the city, so I'm glad I got a chance to see it.

After that, I found an outdoor market selling different hand-made candies, jellies, jams, and candles.

Next, I found the the Catalunya capital building, which I had visited on Dia de Sant Jordi, but had not seen from the front.

On my way home through the narrow streets on the other side of Las Ramblas, I came across the coolest shop ever. It was kind of like a second-hand clothing store, but they had some new clothes as well. Interestingly, they sold clothes by weight. 13 euros per kilo of clothing. I found some shorts overalls (which I've been searching for for years!) and a great shirt that will be making an appearance at tackies 12x. They added up to a kilo, but I sort of accidentally bartered with the guy (we were speaking Spanish, I'm still not really sure what happened) and ended up getting both things for 10 euros. Good deal!

Final Friday Excursion

Here's a photo of my friends walking along the beach sidewalk to the W Hotel where we went up to the top for drinks and an amazing view of the entire city and the sea. We decided that years down the road, when we've all made enough money, this hotel is where we'll stay for our LSA reunions ;)

Today was our last Friday excursion. First, we went to the castle on top of Montjuic. The castle has a huge terrace where they show outdoor movies in the summer, apparently. Sounds pretty cool! The castle was impressive and I found it especially interesting because I'm reading Shadow of the Wind (link), which takes place in Barcelona and mentions the Montjuic castle.

This is another view of the castle, with the designs in the gardens, and you can see the Meditteranean Sea off in the distance behind the tree.

The castle also provides a wonderful view of the city. It was awesome to see Tibidabo, which I visited yesterday, across the way on top of the mountain, in the center of this photo (click it to enlarge).

The second part of today's excursion was a guided visit to the Fundación Miró, which is a museum filled with Miró's art. To put this nicely, I don't think I've come to fully appreciate Miró's work yet. The brightly colored statues were my favorite part.

After the excursion, I went home for lunch. I took a nap on the terrace and then met my friend Eve for a late-afternoon run through Montjuic. Montjuic is the best place to run near where I live for 3 reasons:

1. there aren't a million cross streets like regular city blocks so you don't have to stop every 30 seconds

2. there are hills, which makes it a little more interesting, and gives you cool viewpoints over the city

3. there is a lot to see, from the olympic stadiums to gardens and the castle, every time I run in Montjuic I find something new. Today, Eve and I ran past the olympic swimming facility, which overlooks the entire city. Check it out!

I had dinner at home and did a little homework (on a Friday?! yeah!). Then I met up with a friend from my program, Eve, another American girl who's living with Eve's host mom, and a girl who goes to Smith College and is studying on Eve's program. We all met up in the neighborhood called Gracia, which is known to be a very vibrant, young community. It was a lot of fun to see a new part of the city. The way people were gathered in the streets felt very similar to Barrio Alto that we visited in Lisbon. Here's a photo of people sitting in circles on the ground in Plaza del Sol from earlier tonight.

Tibidabo

After classes today, I went to Mt. Tibidabo with my friend Eve. We took an underground train about 10 minutes to the outskirts of the city, then a bus most of the way up the mountain, and finally a funicular which took us the rest it up to the top! At the top of the funicular there is a big cathedral with a terrace where you can see the whole city, the mountains on the sides, and the Meditteranean sea stretching on forever. We were lucky to have warm weather and clear blue skies this afternoon. The mountain is the highest point near Barcelona, meaning the views from the top are incredible. 

You can read more about Tibidabo here: http://gospain.about.com/od/thingstodoinbarcelona/ss/Mount-Tibidabo-Barcelona.htm 

And the wikipedia page has a spectacular panoramic photo of the view from the top: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibidabo

Here are some photos from our adventure!

After Tibidabo, I went to Eve's apartment building where we swam in her pool and laid on the grass soaking up the sun. This is the life. We talked for a while about how hard it's going to be to leave this place. Barcelona is amazing, and while the classes are good and we've certainly learned a lot, the experience has been so much more than that. We agreed that having the freedom to go on excursions and adventures and visit different parts of the city -- like today's trip to Tibidabo -- is the best part.

When I got home, Amparo had a bowl of pasta and a hamburger all ready for me to eat (in Spain, hamburgers are served on a plate and eaten with fork and knife). She is the best! Amparo and I were glued to the TV during dinner as a young couple lost 25,000 euros on the last question of Atrapo Un Millón tonight. I noticed that I've been getting more comfortable speaking Spanish recently, so we've been chatting more and more each day. It's fun to hear her stories about growing up in a small town in Valencia and I learn a lot when she expresses her (often very strong) opinions about the Spanish government, the monarchy, and the financial crisis.

Amparo and I are very similar in a lot of ways. The other day, she taught me how to make Spanish-style hot chocolate and the two of us sat at the kitchen table eating hot chocolate (because here, it's not a drink, it's closer to warm pudding, and you eat it with a spoon) with whipped cream and dunking magdelenas (kind of like pound cake, but in the form of muffins). We both enjoy game shows. We both doze off on in the living room or on the terrace after lunch. I'm lucky to have such a fabulous host mom (and family!).

So Much Schoolwork!

Just like the last two weeks of any term at Dartmouth, I'm feeling the stress of the final push. This morning, I had my group presentation for my conversation class. My friend Mary and I presented on the similarities and differences between family dinners in the U.S. and family dinners in Spain. It went well, and I think people especially enjoyed the croissants we brought for everyone.

Next week, I have to write a paper about the novel that we just finished reading for my literature class. For my culture class, I have to write a short essay about one of Gaudi's creations and what it meant for art in Spain in the early 1900s. On top of that, I have a final exam in my grammar class on Tuesday and an in-class essay for culture on Thursday.

We have a final program dinner next Thursday night, and the following day I'm flying to Lyon, France where I will meet my friend Nancy and begin our 9-day European adventure! I cannot believe how fast my time here has gone by. In addition to the schoolwork I have to finish, I'm going to make the most of my last week here and try to check off the last few things on my ever-evolving Barcelona to-do list.

Yesterday, Carla (Amparo's 3-year-old granddaughter) spent the night with us. She is full of energy! I read some picture books to her and we colored in her coloring book. She speaks more Catalan than Castillian (AKA "normal" Spanish), but we're able to communicate pretty well. I'm starting to understand a fair bit of Catalan, which shares a lot of words with French. After dinner, Carla and I watched a Bob Esponja (SpongeBob) and an episode of Scooby Doo in Spanish. It was cool to watch cartoons that I'm familiar with, and I was surprised that I could understand a lot of the dialog.

Today was absolutely beautiful. After having lunch with Amparo, we both fell asleep on the terrace in the sun. When I woke up, I went for a run through Montjuic and then along the beach, which was absolutely packed with people. Today was a very relaxing day.

Huelga General en la Educación

We were sent home early from school today because of the education protests. Today is a general strike against education cuts across all of Spain, and the center of the manifestation in Barcelona was right outside the University. Regular Spanish students at the University of Barcelona did not have classes today (because all the professors were on strike), but we had class anyway because we missed some classes earlier in the term for holidays and our professors seemed indifferent about the strike.

The professors, students, parents, everyone (elementary school through university) is protesting some massive cuts to Spain's education budget. One girl explained that tuition to UB is going to rise by 55%. While that IS a lot, education is WAY less expensive here than in the US. It costs about 2000 euros per year ($2500-2800) to go to the University of Barcelona. If they only knew how much it costs to go to Dartmouth...

This morning, some very aggressive students tried to keep us from entering the building for class and others attempted to  prevent us from having class by blasting radio static outside the classroom. Apparently us being inside the University weakened the strike for them. Our professor stayed strong and we made it through conversation class this morning. But my second class of the day, grammar, was interrupted by the sound of gun shots or fireworks or something, so our professor told us all to go home and stay away from the center of the city. It was never really scary, in fact I thought it was kind of cool to witness such intense social activism.

According so some online articles, more than 7 million students are participating in the strike!

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/spanish-teachers-strike-education-levels-16401623#.T7t0LHktgmg

http://seriouslyspain.com/spanish-teachers-going-on-strike-may-22nd-over-rajoys-education-cuts

http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2012/05/22/barcelona/1337666014.html

http://www.nuevatribuna.es/articulo/sociedad/2012-05-22/hoy-historica-huelga-general-en-la-ensenanza/2012052208305100395.html

More Photos from Altafulla and Tarragona

Now back to reading this novel for my literature class...

It's All Part of the Adventure - Altafulla and Tarragona

Today I went on a day trip with two friends on the program. We took an early train from Barcelona that went about an hour south to Altafulla, Catalunia, where the adventures began, and let me tell you, we had quite an adventure-filled day.

First, we walked up the hill to see this castle and the church next to it.

Then we walked down to the beach, where we enjoyed the sun, watched some surfers, and saw two hang-gliders fly overhead. Then we walked down the beach to this castle, which also had a church attached. I guess that was the cool thing to do in the 11th century.

Here's another view of the castle overlooking the Meditteranean from the little rocky island where we ate our picnic lunches. We were lucky to have a perfect blue-sky day, at least for the morning.

Then the real adventures began. We walked through a campground and a very rural area before finding the bus stop where we could catch a bus to Tarragona. We saw a bus leave just as the bus stop came into view, but we missed it. Unfortunately in the suburbs of Tarragona on a Sunday, the buses only run every hour and a half. Shoot!

So rather than sit and wait for the next bus, we decided to walk in the direction of Tarragona, which the supermarket clerk said was about 9 kilometers away. Check out this view of Altafulla and the beach from our walk (more like a hike) towards Tarragona.

After getting a little bit lost and very tired, we decided to try to get a ride. This was the first time any of us had attempted to hitchhike, and we didn't have any success for a very long time.

But then, this friendly guy pulled over! We asked him directions to the center of Tarragona and then he offered us a ride! So Lucille and I sat three-across in the front seat with this guy, his name is Lorenzo and he's lived his whole life in Tarragona so far. And my friend Eric, the champion trip-planner, direction-asker, and map-reader, sat on a lunchbox in the back of this van with Lorenzo's little fluffy dog.

Lorenzo undeniably saved the day. Not only did he drive right to the Roman ruins that we wanted to see in Tarragona, he told us stories about the history of the city, saved us from a flash rain storm, and gave us walking directions to other sites in Tarragona. You can read about the history of Tarragona and see where it is on the map here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarragona

Here's a photo of the remains of a Roman amphitheater right near the beach in Tarragona. This thing is enormous and made me think about what this area was like in the 11th century. It's absolutely wild to think about! You can also see the impending storm clouds. Yikes. Luckily we only had two short spurts of intense rain, the rest of the afternoon was remarkably clear and pleasant.

This is the main pedestrian street, La Rambla, in Tarragona. It was pretty empty today, we figured it was a result of the intermittent nasty weather.

This is me with my fabulous travel partners, Eric and Lucille, in front of a massive statue of a Catalunian Human Castle. These towers of people are native to Tarragona. Here's an explanation I found online: http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_14725.shtml

This is a photo the thick and tall stone wall that surrounds the old part of the city.

This is the famous cathedral in Tarragona.

I thought this painted building was especially cool.

This is a photo of the second flash rain storm we experienced today. This statue is at the end of La Rambla and beyond it is a breathtaking view over the Meditteranean sea.

Just when we thought we'd seen it all, it started to HAIL while we waited for the train back to Barcelona. I tried to capture the hail in a photo, you might be able to see it if you click on the photo and make it bigger. Today was a great adventure for sure.

Our motto for the day (and arguably for my entire stay in Barcelona) - "it's all part of the adventure." I'm so lucky to have such flexible and fun-loving friends on my trips to experience these adventures.

Saturday in Photos

I went out to dinner at a traditional Catalan restaurant tonight with a group of friends. I went out on a limb and ordered the "market special" and received this plate with a variety of different things. It was a great surprise.

 Then I met my friend Eve at the fountains near the base of Montjuic in front of the Palace that houses the Museo Nacional de Arte de Catalunia. The "magic" fountains are illuminated with fun colors and are choreographed to match the music. People watch from the steps of the palace and all sides of the fountains. It felt a little similar to the way people gather to watch the bonfire at Dartmouth night during homecoming weekend each fall.

You can see people lined up to watch the fountains along the pedestrian bridge. 

 Time for sleep for me, because I'm going on another excursion tomorrow!