Toledo

Awesome day trip to Toledo today! Headed to Lisbon next.

Hola from Madrid!

The high-speed train was awesome. We got to see some wonderful Spanish landscapes along the way. The train topped out at 300km/hour! So cool! We walked around Madrid a little bit and some of us got dinner at a restaurant in the middle of a big pedestrian walkway in downtown. We saw the palace that the royal family where the royal family used to live, but they don't live there anymore. I'm looking forward to the museums tomorrow. Thanks for all the birthday wishes! And as Amparo put it, getting a 10-day trip through Spain and Portugal is a pretty nice birthday present :)

¡Buen Viaje!

I turned in my last assignment and now it's officially vacation week!

Here's the plan:

Thursday (4/26) - my whole class takes the high-speed train to Madrid, where we'll spend the rest of the day Thursday, and all day Friday going to museums and exploring the city
Saturday (4/28) - my class is going on a day trip to Toledo to see a cathedral and a museum. Saturday night, our class trip ends and we have one week to travel anywhere (the only rule is we have to stay on the Iberian peninsula). I'm going to travel with two of my closest friends on the trip.
Sunday (4/29) - take a bus to Lisbon, Portugal
Wednesday (5/2) - travel from Lisbon to Faro, Portugal, a smaller town on the Southern coast
Thursday (5/3) - take a bus from Faro to Sevilla, Spain in the province of Andalucía
Sunday (5/6) - fly from Sevilla home to Barcelona

If this video doesn't make you want to travel, nothing will.
(Copying this directly from Nancy's blog - hi nancy, ily)

GOAAAAAL!

While I was studying tonight after dinner, I was interrupted twice by cries of "GOAAAAAL" from the street below, the hallway, and the apartment above. People here take their soccer very seriously. It's awesome. Go Barca!

Read about host mom's favorite player: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionel_Messi

And here's a recap of tonight's game: http://www.crunchsports.com/category/Soccer/FC-Barcelona-2-1-Chelsea-FC-Fernando-Torres-helps-ten-man-Chelsea-beat-Barca-201204240033/

Now it's back to work for me. I've got more reading to do for my literature exam tomorrow. Check back tomorrow for my plans for vacation week!

Feliz diada de Sant Jordi!

Today is a special day in Catalunia, it's el día de Sant Jordi!

It's kind of like the Catalunian version of Valentine's day. The idea is that a man gives his girlfriend/wife/sister/mother/etc. a rose, and a woman gives the man a book. On every street corner there were people selling roses and tents full of books. All books are discounted today, and a bunch of us took advantage of the discount to buy the novel for our literature class haha. It's a work holiday for a lot of people, and the University of Barcelona was closed except for our classes. After classes, we went for a walk along Las Ramblas and there were a zillion people wandering the streets, browsing the selection of flowers and books. One of my friends put it best when she said "it's like a city-wide book fair." We also walked around The Generalitat, which I'm pretty sure is the capital building for the province of Catalunia. Sant Jordi is the only day all year that the building is open to the public, so that was kind of cool. We signed our names and a big "Dartmouth 2014" in the guestbook.

Here's a little more information about the holiday and it's history: http://barcelona.de/en/barcelona-sant-jordi.html

On my walk home this afternoon, I bought a rose for my host mom, Amparo. When I got home, I was surprised and happy when she gave me a rose AND a Spanish cookbook!

Just a quick post tonight, because I have a paper due and an exam tomorrow. Here's a collage of some photos I took this afternoon (click the photo to enlarge). The red and yellow stripes mimic those on the Catalunian flag.

It was a spectacular day.

The First Four Weeks

Yesterday marked the end of my fourth week in Barcelona, so I put together a post of my highs and lows, favorites and firsts of my time here so far.

First time...
• living in a city
• traveling by public transportation on my own
• eating paella, "la mona" (chocolate cake for Easter), and crema Catalana (a dessert kind of like vanilla pudding)
• swimming in the Mediterranean
• running an international road race with 60,000 other people

On top of the World (aka Montserrat)

Best View:
• This is definitely a tough one. The view of the entire city with the sea in the distance from Parc Guell was hard to beat.
• The 360˚ view from the top of Montserrat was phenomenal. In one direction, I could see the snow-capped Pyrannes all the way on the French border and in the other direction, I could see the sea. Absolutely amazing.

Best Field Trip:
• Our class trip to Sant Pere de Rodes and the Salvador Dalí museum in Northern Catalunia was fantastic. The views from the monestery were absolutely gorgeous and the art at the Dalí museum blew my mind. I've really enjoyed all of our Friday trips, but this one is my favorite so far.
• My trip to Ibiza during Easter weekend was awesome too. Our hotel had a little porch in the sun overlooking the Mediterranean and it was warm and sunny every day during our stay.

Best Meal:
• The best tasting meal was definitely the paella that Amparo made for lunch today.
• But the most fun meal was definitely the night Amparo, Alicia, and I made pizza from scratch.
• And I have to mention the lunch we had at the Sant Pere monastery on our excursion last week in Northern Catalunia. We had three courses of amazing food, while overlooking breathtaking cliffs that dropped off to the Mediterranean sea.

Best Run:
• Getting lost near the port and then happening upon a view of the entire city from the top of Montjuic.

Most Touristy:
• Taking pictures of ourselves on the lion statues at the end of Las Ramblas.
• Eating at an outdoor restaurant near Plaza Catalunya where the only language was English.

Best Nighttime Adventure:
• Going out on a Thursday night with a group of French students visiting for the week. We met this group of 6 University of Toulouse students on Wednesday afternoon outside UB and arranged to go out with them the following night. My friend Grace and I ended up spending 4 hours roaming the streets, getting some ice cream, exploring the city, laughing, learning a little French, and making other European friends. It was an awesome night and it inspired us to try to make more international friends!

Best Photo:
Definitely the photo of Eve and me in a two-person T-shirt we found in Ibiza haha.

Favorite Class:
• Conversation class. The professor is this quirky, old woman. She has spiked orange hair and wears animal print leggings most days. We talk about all kinds of things that are relavent to our lives in the city and the different customs here. I've never taken a class that has such a direct influence on my quality of life by improving my conversational Spanish skills.
• I never thought I would say this, but grammar class is a close second. The professor has wonderful energy and, like conversation, the material has a direct impact on my day-to-day life.

Most Embarrassing Moments:
• Spending ten minutes trying to unlock the front door of my apartment building on my first day in Barcelona. Turns out, Rocafort 118 and Rocafort 120 have very similar front doors, and my key wasn't working because it wasn't my building!
• Arriving 45 minutes late to a group dinner after riding the metro two stops in the wrong direction with my friend Grace. Oops.

Things I Miss Most About Home:
• Tap water! I never realized how much water I drink until now. Amparo always has a stash of big bottles of water, but I feel weird that I drink so much.
• Big dogs. People here only have small ones, maybe because it's a city.
• Hamburgers on a bun.

Biggest Challenges:
• Cashiers, waiters, people on the street immediately start speaking to me in English, which has been frustrating. I respond in Spanish, they keep speaking in English and we generally continue conversing this way.
• Many signs in store windows and such are in Catalan, which is kind of like a hybrid of Spanish and French, which crazy accents and lots of Xs in the words.

My AWESOME host mom, Amparo, in the kitchen

Biggest Accomplishments:
• Watching (and mostly understanding!) game shows, cooking shows, movies, and the news in Spanish.
• Making our flight on the way to Ibiza, an accomplishment that involved cutting to the front of several lines and running through the airport barefoot.
• Using the subjunctive mood properly in a conversational sentence for the first time last week.
• Planning and executing a weekend trip to Ibiza with four friends.


Goals for the Rest of the Term:
1. Make more Spanish friends! Which depends on....
2. ... have more confidence when speaking Spanish.
3. Go hiking in the mountains outside the city.

Los Juegos del Hambre

Things I saw today:

1. I went to see "Los Juegos del Hambre" (The Hunger Games) movie in a theater in the Olympic Village  area of the city with my friend Mary. This was the first time I had been to that area, and it was very cool! The buildings have a very different feel than the rest of the city, and there was lots of open space, running paths, and parks. I plan to explore that area again soon. We chose that theater in particular because it is an "original language" theater, meaning the movie was in English (maybe it's cheating a little bit, but I just wanted to understand!). The movie was awesome and now I can't wait to read the third book! Alicia is going to see the movie with her friends tomorrow afternoon. It's cool that we can talk about the series and it's nice to have a common interest. I'm excited to see what she thinks of the movie.

I've seen this poster on the side of every bus stop in the city for weeks!

2. Later in the afternoon, I went for a run along Ave. Parallel to the port and then to the beach. There were tons of people out walking along the water today, enjoying the perfect 70˚ and sunny weather. In the beach village of Barceloneta, there were several street musicians, lots of ice cream stands, and lots of happy people. Here's a photo of the beautiful old building situated between Las Ramblas to the left and the port to the right.

Also on my run, I passed this enormous modern hotel, which is visible from pretty much everywhere in the city. Our conversation teacher said they let the public go up to the roof and look around, so sometime in the next few weeks, we're going to go!

3. Tonight was the big game between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. While I was running, I saw approximately a zillion people wearing the maroon and blue striped jerseys that Barca is famous for. Then when I got home, Alicia and her dad were watching intently and intermittently yelling at the TV. People here take their soccer (futbol) very seriously. In fact, we had to wait until halftime to have dinner. In the end, Barca lost 2-1, and there were very unhappy fans. 

Side note: I realized that one of my favorite things about Barcelona is that you can see the mountains and the ocean at the same time. Even from the beach, you can see monstrous mountains in the distance over the heart of the city. If you've never been here, you should come. If you've already been here, you should come back. It's a special place. 


In this photo, you can see the mountains in the distance over the water.

Check back tomorrow for a special post recapping my first four weeks in Barcelona!

Montserrat and Cava Tasting

Fridays are field trip days and today's excursion was probably my favorite so far. We took a bus about an hour outside of the city of Barcelona to Montserrat -- which translates to "serrated mountain," and accurately describes the jagged top of this mountain. The views along the highway were amazing, but then when we turned to drive 20km along a winding road up the mountain, it kept getting more and more beautiful. You could see all the way to the snow-capped Pyrenees Mountains. 

Here's the inside of the Santa Maria de Montserrat church (wikipedia). About three minutes after I took this picture, a voice came on over the loudspeaker telling everyone to be quiet because morning mass was beginning.

 This is the view from across the street from the church. There are many dusty hiking trails up the mountain, but the guy in the information booth told us it would take 2 hours to hike to the top and we only had 45 minutes before we had to be back on the bus. So instead, we took the funicular!

This is the view out of the front windshield of the funicular car. It was SO steep. At points it felt like we were in a huge outdoor elevator. Turns out it is the steepest funicular in Spain! You can read about it here: wikipedia. Going down was even scarier!

Here's a photo of the view from the top of the mountain. You could see for miles in every direction. Absolutely amazing.

After a picnic lunch on a outdoor patio at Montserrat, we got back on the bus and drove for about half an hour to this famous sparkling wine factory called Freixenet (wikipedia). Catalunians take their sparkling wine very seriously. Here it's called "cava." From the outside, it looked like a small museum and factory and I figured the tour would be interesting. The building was deceiving and the factory extents for like half a mile underground! According to our tour guide, the factory produces 30 million bottles of cava each year. Underground, we saw walls and walls of bottles from floor to ceiling in special holders. The factory is so large that we were driven around in a little wagon/golf-cart/tourist mobile. It was pretty cool to see all the stages in the process and the amount of care they devote to each bottle of cava.

At the end, we all tasted the sparkling wine and enjoyed the birthday cake that our professor had bought to celebrate the birthdays this past week. So far, four kids on my trip have had birthdays in Spain, and we haven't even been here a month!

A Highlighter Party in Plaza Universitat?!

After lunch today I went back to the University to watch a movie for my literature class on the projector screen in a classroom. We finished the movie around 8:15 PM, and I left with Mary and Sam, my walking buddies, to go home for dinner. Across the street from school, in the Plaza Universitat, we saw a huge crowd of people (probably 1500 people!) dressed in bright colors and we could hear loud American music blasting from speakers. Being the curious students that we are, we had to investigate.

What we found in the Plaza could best be described as a Highlighter party consisting entirely of runners (sup heorot hayyy). ROCK ON. Our suspicions of a dance party were confirmed when they played "Shout" and everyone was singing and dancing. 

What could possibly be better than a public highlighter party full of runners?

We had a great time dancing like fools, with people in brightly-colored running clothes who we didn't know, but we still didn't know what this was all about...

Sam and me dancing like fools

... so I used my ever-improving Spanish skills to ask two of the men dancing near us. They responded in English (grrrrr!! + See yesterday's post). Turns out, one of the guys we were talking to works for Nike in Madrid. He explained that this is an event put on by Nike Running to promote the "Lunarun." Apparently, Lunarun is just a fun group run that happens for the next three Thursdays. Mary and I are planning to go the Thursday after next, when we're back from our travel week. There was some type of game (see right), where two people running on treadmills were competing against each other in a race or something on the big TV screen in front of them. Not sure exactly what was going on. 

The man with the microphone on stage (see below) must have been giving directions in Spanish or something, because everyone else seemed to be part of this choreographed dance, and the three of us were consistently one step behind. It was random that we happened to be walking by the Plaza Universitat tonight to see this, but I'm so glad we did!

"Quiero Practicar el Español, Por Favor"

Here's a short video I shot on my run this afternoon of the view from the top of Montjuic. It's pretty shaky, but you can get a sense how high the mountain is.

Also on my run this afternoon, a group of Chinese tourists flagged me down and asked -- in English -- if I knew where the nearest metro stop was. They didn't even try Spanish with me. I must give off some kind of American smell or something, because almost everywhere, especially restaurants, people just start talking to me in English!

We addressed this in my conversation class this morning. The professor said that for the most part, people in Barcelona love to practice their English. She said that we should tell them "quiero practical el español, por favor" (I want to practice Spanish, please) because we're in Spain to learn Spanish, after all. 

Conversation class is definitely my favorite class because A) it's always good to be speaking Spanish, and the more practice the more comfortable I get, and B) the topics we discuss are helpful for understanding Catalunian culture and other practical information. Today we talked about public transportation in Barcelona. For homework tonight, we have to read an article about el Día de Sant Jordi -- a special holiday in Catalunia, similar to Valentine's day, that's coming up on Monday. Tomorrow in conversation class, we will discuss what to expect on Monday and why the holiday is so special to Catalunia.

Bonus! Here are a few things (the list could go on and on) that I like about Barcelona:

1. When my host mom talks to me, she refers to me as "guapa" or beautiful. Everyone enjoys a daily self-esteem boost. The woman who works in the cafeteria at the Universidad calls me guapa as well, and every day she complements my Spanish.

2. All the fresh fruit! After every meal, my host mom cuts up a pear, an apple, strawberries and bananas, an orange, or kiwi for me. And tonight, we had watermelon!

3. Walking everywhere. On nice days, like most are in Barcelona, walking is very refreshing and a great way to see the city. Most of the main attractions are within walking distance of my house. Today, Mary, Sam, and I (affectionately known as "Team Rocafort," which is the street where we all live) walked home along a different street than usually. It's always fun to see some different restaurants and shops. We passed a marvelous old church on our way home. 

¡Un Poquito Más!

High of the day: This afternoon, I went to a spinning class with my friend Grace at the gym near my house. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves in to. To say it was intense is an understatement. There were about 20 people on spinning bikes copying the instructor, who was a super-fit guy wearing a microphone headset and a spandex suit. In Spanish, of course, he told us what to do: how many RPM we should aim for, which gear to use, and whether to stand forward, hunch over, or sit on the seat. It was fun to learn some cycling words in Spanish, but for the most part, I was just copying what other people were doing. The one phrase I definitely understood was ¡un poquito más! = a little bit more! We did a bunch of different sets that matched the music. The class was 45 minutes long, we didn't stop pedaling the entire time, and according to the screen on the bike, I pedaled 22 km (13.6 miles).

Low of the day: My professor handed back our first essays in my Spanish culture class this morning, and mine didn't have a grade on it. Instead, there was a note saying that said she couldn't understand what I was trying to say. Bummer. But she offered me a re-write, so I'm going to meet with her on Thursday, and hopefully create something comprehendible. This class has been extremely frustrating because the topics such as medieval religious battles, ancient Christian art, and the arabic influences in Southern Spain would be challenging to understand in English. Since my professor speaks only in Spanish, I understand very little. Everyone I've talked to in my class has felt the same frustration.

High of the day #2 (because you can never end on a low!): Today was my friend Jenni's birthday! To celebrate, we went out to dinner at all-you-can-eat Chinese food place near my house. It was fun for all of us to be together outside of school.

High of the day #3 (just for good measure): Tonight when Alicia got home, we were sitting in the kitchen watching a game show and one of the contestants was from Andalucía, Spain. Alicia and Amparo starting making fun of her accent and explained to me that people from that region of Southern Spain tend to drop the last syllable of some words. It was pretty funny to watch them joke back and forth, pretending to speak in the accent. Then, Alicia started to poke fun at some kids in her English class in high school, who struggle to pronounce words like "minute" or "house." Similarly, some American students in my class have trouble with the silent Hs in Spanish, especially in "hay" and "hombre." It was neat to hear them talk about the Southern Spain accent, similar to how we would talk about a Southern accent in America.

Side note: We've watched this game show during dinner for the past week. We all know that I enjoy game shows and this one is very entertaining. It's called Atrapa los Millones, and Amparo told me that only one person ever has won the million. It's a tricky game. Here's a clip on youtube to give you a sense: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-1ehopXFfc&feature=related

The Aquarium

After 5 hours of class today (all in Spanish!) I had a delicious lunch at home with Amparo. Then I went to the Barcelona Aquarium with several friends. At first, it was annoying to eat dinner so late (usually around 9pm), but I realized that it's really nice to have free time in the afternoons to explore the city and visit different areas and attractions. 

This afternoon, I successfully navigated the metro the Barceloneta stop -- something I never thought I'd be able to do. Amparo's granddaughter, Alicia, was absolutely shocked when I told her that the closest subway system to my house is over 2-hours away by car. Amparo understands because she grew up in a small town in Valencia and only moved to Barcelona when she got married.

The aquarium is near the port in Barceloneta, where they are lots of carnival rides, ice cream stands, and picnic tables. It was pretty quiet today, because it was a Monday afternoon. I look forward to going back sometime on the weekend and exploring more!

The aquarium is the building on the left behind the mary-go-round.

My favorite part of the museum was definitely the shark tank. The best part was there was a moving sidewalk (!!!) that went through a tunnel under the tank. Here's a photo of my friends on the moving sidewalk. 

The water in the tank was above the tunnel, so you could see over head. Here's a photo of a shark swimming straight above us:

I love the fish that are camouflaged to match their surroundings. Can you spot two fish in this photo? (click to enlarge)

These fish are SO cool!

And last but not least, a perennial favorite, the penguins! These little guys were waddling all around, chasing each other, diving under the water, and then popping up somewhere else. They were even more entertaining than the live-feed of the penguins at Sea World (Hiiii Nancy!).

La Cursa El Corte Inglés

I finished my first international road race!

Early this morning, I jogged to Plaza Catalunya, in front of the Corte Ingles department store, where the race started and finished. According to the announcer, there were more than 60,000 runners. As you would imagine, this made it difficult to run fast. First, it took me about 7 minutes to even reach the starting line once the race began. The first kilometer was essentially jogging and walking and trying to get around people. I figured it would get more spread out as the race went on and as I moved past the slow-pokes, but no! I continued to dodge joggers and squeeze between people for the entire distance! I didn't want to run with my camera, so I don't have any photos, but I found this pic from last year's race to give you an idea of the human traffic:

The curse included a lap of the track in the Olympic Stadium, certainly the highlight of the race for me. I felt like a champ as we ran around this iconic stadium from the 1992 Olympics. Here's another pic from the web. This also shows how congested the race was, even after running 6K! So. Many. People.

Here are a few things I found amusing today:

1. They didn't provide safety pins with the numbers, which we got ahead of time. So people did some funny things to attach their number to their shirt. I saw people with tape, people with one huge safety pin in their bib, people who used plastic button pins, and some people just tucking the numbers into their pants. It was awesome to see such a range of people -- young and old, athletic and non-athletic, small and large. Amparo told me that people come from all over Catalunya to run in this race. And the best part, it's free, no registration fee!

2. Before the start, we were all standing behind the line and waiting for almost 15 minutes. I asked the man next to me what time it the race started, in Spanish. When he gave me a confused look, I assumed I was saying something incorrectly, but then he started speaking English. Turns out, he's from Chicago and studying abroad as part of a Masters program through Purdue. He's training for the Chicago Marathon next Fall. We chatted for a bit, and then the race started and I figured I'd never see him again. But then, I passed him going up a hill after the Olympic Stadium and then he passed me on the next downhill. Twice more I passed him, thought I had him beat, only for him to catch up a kilometer later. In case you were wondering, I won -- I passed him 25m before the finish line. It felt good to get to be competitive even in a race that was so lax.

3. During the first few kilometers, I passed three enormous (12ft tall!) animal floats each being pulled by four runners in the race. One was a dinosaur, a second was a dragon, and I didn't get a good look at the third. Hilarious.

After the race, I came home and took a nap, had lunch with Amparo, watched a Spanish gameshow on TV, and then I went to a little cafe (with amazing chocolate croissants!) on La Gran Via to do a little bit of reading for my classes tomorrow. Tonight, I have to watch a Spanish movie and write a short story for my literature class. All of a sudden, I seem to have a lot of schoolwork to do. And in order to have any idea what's going on in class, it's imperative to prepare the night before. 

Somehow I got into an intense discussion of Spanish art with Alicia's dad at dinner tonight. We were talking about Dalí, because I visited the Dalí museum on a field trip last Friday. Then he was talking to me about some Picasso art on display in Madrid, but I didn't understand him. I think his name is Ernie, but, again, I'm not sure. The problem is he has a mustache so you can't really see his mouth move, he has an extremely low voice, and he speaks quickly and with a heavy accent. The result: I can't understand much of what he says. It made me realize I'm lucky that Amparo speaks so clearly and slowly. 

Ohhhh, Now I Understand!

Just a quick entry tonight, because I'm getting up early tomorrow to run in an road race!

On my first day in Barcelona, my host mom made me sign up for something at a little booth on the side of a busy pedestrian plaza. Keep in mind that this was my very first day -- I couldn't understand anything in Spanish. I had no idea what was going on or what I was signing up for, and it was frightening. Upon completing the registration from the man behind the counter gave me a packet of papers with a bib number inside. Ok, I get it, it's a race!

Since then, I've determined that it's a road race starting and finishing at the Plaza de Catalunya. The 10.776K course goes along the streets near the University and then up in the mountains of Montjuïc. It's the most popular road race in Spain, and there are 54,000 people registered already! A bunch of the Dartmouth kids on my program have signed up to run as well. I'm looking forward to it! You can find some more information by clicking around this website: http://www.cursaelcorteingles.cat/

Today was very relaxing. I woke up late and had breakfast with Amparo then relaxed and finished my book, Catching Fire, the 2nd book in the Hunger Games series. The Hunger Games movie comes out in Spain this week, and I'm planning to go see it! I'm excited to see how much I'll understand in Spanish.

Then we had lunch, today it was hamburgers on a plate. I've talked to other Dartmouth kids about this, and they've had hamburgers on a plate too. I guess that's how it is in Spain. After that, I walked around a bit, exploring Plaza de Espana and the surrounding streets. I met up with some friends and we walked around the enormous mall. You can take the escalators up to the top floor where there's an observation deck that goes all the way around the circular mall. Very cool.

Northern Catalunya and My Pal, Sal

Today we went on a field trip to Northern Spain. The 17 Dartmouth students on my program, plus our faculty director and his wife, and our University of Barcelona program coordinator, Elisenda, got on a bus at 9AM. We drove for two hours through the flat countryside to this dramatic stone monastery on a mountain overlooking the Mediterranean in Girona, Catalunya, called Sant Pere de Rodes. 

We had lunch in the visitor's center restaurant and the food was amazing, lasagna and then chicken with roasted vegetables. Delicious. But the real highlight was that the restaurant casually had an absolutely stunning view of the cliffs dropping off into the sea. Check it out!

After lunch, we got back on the bus and went back down the mountain to the little town. It was about 10 minutes of winding down very steep, narrow roads that had hairpin turns between the switchbacks. All I can say is that I'm glad I wasn't driving!

From there, we drove about 30 minutes inland to a city called Figueres, where we visited the Salvador Dalí museum. This is a photo of the exterior of the museum building. I thought this looked pretty ridiculous, especially the giant eggs on the roof. But inside the building, the art was even more absurd. Absurd in the best sense of the word. This was my favorite museum we've visited by far. I don't know anything about art and often it all looks the same to me, but this was all extremely interesting. Many pieces were more complex than they appeared at first glance, and some were optical illusions. In all seriousness, Dalí is officially my new favorite artist. I took photos of a few pieces that I found particularly cool. 

The main room was created from a former theater, and patrons observe Dalí's art from what used to be the stage. The whole room is full of light from the glass dome, (see above photo). The tour guide told us that Salvador Dalí, or "Sal" as I'll call him from now on, is buried under the center of this main room. 

From the main room, you could look up and see this enormous painting on the balcony. It's about 12x8 feet. It looks like a woman watching a sunset at first glance...

... but then you look through a camera lens or one of the scopes in the museum and you can see Lincoln's face! I have no idea how Sal did it, but I thought it was pretty cool.

Before the museum, I new Sal as a painter who painted the famous distorted clocks. Today, I saw that he was not limited to painting. The museum had a courtyard which was filled with other forms of art. There was a full size car that was decorated with statues and fake plants that was part of a larger fountain. The walls on all sides went up three stories and were covered with ivy. Each window contained one of these gold-colored human statues in different positions. One side of the courtyard was a glass window into the main room of the museum and when you looked through the reflection created the illusion of a massive monster on one of the paintings inside. Again, I have no idea how Sal did it, but it was SO cool!

This last one was particularly wild. The lips are the size of a living room sofa. The nose is a fireplace. Up close the paintings are city-scapes of Paris, but from a distance they form eyes. If I had taken this photo from farther back, you would be able to see there was a huge arc of blond hair. In the same room, there was a bathtub and a nightstand upside down on the ceiling. Absurd, in the best sense of the word.

English Practice

After dinner tonight, Alicia (my host mother's 14-year old granddaughter) was working on homework for her English class. There were a few words she didn't know, so she asked me for help. I got really excited when she asked me what "study abroad" meant, and then, of course, I had to explain my reaction. She's very bright so she understood. She's excited to travel to England on a school trip to practice English this summer. She offered to help me if I ever need help with Spanish grammar. 

Sometimes at night, I can hear Alicia's dad or Amparo drilling her on English conjugations or vocabulary words in the other room. It's very interesting for me to hear, because I've practiced many of the same words in Spanish. 

The highlight of my day, was stumbling upon the Arc de Triomf on my run this afternoon. I had no idea where I was running and I'm still not exactly sure how I got there. When I got back to my room, I investigated the area on Google Maps and found this photo on Wikipedia. Pretty cool!

I ran through the Arc and on the other side there was a big park with lots of trails, several fountains, some strange statues, and a very intriguing palace. I also researched this when I got home, check it out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parc_de_la_Ciutadella

The program coordinator from the University of Barcelona put together a language exchange for us with students at UB studying English. The idea is that once a week, we'll all meet together in a local restaurant or bar and spend half the time speaking in Spanish and half in English. I missed the first get-together because of my trip to Ibiza, but I'm looking forward to going in the future!

Yesterday, I was meeting a bunch of other Dartmouth students outside the University building after lunch to to exploring the city. When we were deciding where to go, we started talking to a group of students who turned out to be from Southern France. They explained that they're on vacation from University and are traveling around Europe for 10 days. They spoke English pretty well, so we got talking about things to see in Barcelona. They also gave us advice of things to see, places to see, food to try in France, when we visit in June. We ended up talking to them for over an hour!

From this experience I learned:
1. It takes a little bit of courage to start talking (especially in Spanish!), but making international friends is awesome. Going for it and putting aside a fear of embarrassment tends to pay off.
2. Europeans are all much more worldly than Americans. These kids were my age, and they all spoke English much more fluently than any of us speak Spanish. Not only that, many of them were familiar with other languages as well.
3. It was very cool give advice about things to do and places to go in Barcelona. It was like we were the experts!

La Comida

So far, the food in Barcelona has been fabulous. I've tried some new things and I've had some interesting combinations of foods that I already liked. For example, one day for lunch, Amparo made me a fried egg with tomato sauce on top of white rice. Sounds pretty weird, but trust me, it was delicious.

Today for lunch, Amparo made a huge pan of paella. It was so good! Everything scrumptious you can imagine (chicken, potatoes, vegetables), all mixed together in a warm pile of rice. Perfection.

We have "pan con tomate" at every lunch and dinner. The type of bread varies from day-to-day. When Amparo packs me sandwiches for lunch, the bread is usually smeared with tomato like this too. 

Amparo explained to me that fruit is really inexpensive in Barcelona for reasons that I didn't understand in Spanish. But I like it. There are colorful fruit market stands on almost every block. I have some type of fruit after every meal. I especially like the pears. Today we had fresh strawberries!

A few more notes about Spanish food and related topics:
• People here refer to milk chocolate as "chocolate moreno" (brown chocolate) and dark chocolate as "chocolate negro" (black chocolate). Interesting.
• For some reason, nobody drinks the tap water in Barcelona, so Amparo and everyone else buys bottled water in huge quantities. It seems pretty wasteful to me, but what do I know.
• The grocery stores have normal grocery carts, but they also have the plastic baskets, similar to those in the US, except they have wheels! Here's a photo of my friend Rob pulling our basket of groceries last weekend in Ibiza:

Homework?!

Even though I spend a lot of time exploring the city, eating long meals, and spending sunny afternoons on the beach, I am taking classes. And the classes have homework.

Tonight I'm working on analyzing a short story for a presentation in my literature class tomorrow afternoon. Earlier this afternoon, I visited the Universidad de Barcelona library. It was eerily quiet in there, so quiet that I felt guilty unzipping my backpack.

Happy Easter!

Today was Dilluns de Pasqua -- the Monday after Easter, which is an official holiday in the state of Catalunia meaning no school today! The whole family went out to lunch at a restaurant on top of the shopping mall near Plaza de Espana. Here’s a photo of me overlooking the Plaza. In the background toward the left is Montjuïc, where I like to run (click the photo to enlarge).

Easter in Spain is clearly a big deal because everyone is Catholic. Amparo told me that there are big celebrations on both Sunday and Monday. On the Monday after Easter, Godparents traditionally give the little kids a humongous and intricate chocolate creation, called "la mona." Here are some examples that I saw in a bakery in Ibiza. They're almost too good to eat!

After lunch, Amparo, Alicia, Carla and her parents, Rosa and Ramon, and I walked home through the Park Miro. At home, Amparo presented Carla (the 2-year-old granddaughter) with her very own “mona” for Easter. Here’s a photo of Carla getting ready to eat the big chocolate eggs on top of the chocolate cake. My host mother, Amparo is on the right, and Rosa, is on the left. Carla loves Mickey Mouse, and if you look closely you can see the small plastic Mickey between the chocolate eggs on the cake. 

Lastly, Alicia and I have both been coughing for the past couple days and Amparo's motherly instincts have become very clear. She made us soup at dinner, told us to take naps during the day, and tonight she made us breathe steam with our heads under a towel (yeah I'm serious. She explained what this does, but I couldn't understand, as usual). Nonetheless, it's comforting to see how much she cares about me. 

Time to do some homework, because tomorrow I'm back in school!