Weekend Trip to Girona

Last weekend the roommates invited me to go to a small city north of Barcelona called Girona. We left Saturday early in the morning and I had my first (ever) experience riding a train. All of Spain has the nationalized railway system called RENFE which is an amazingly convenient means of travel. It took us longer than expected to get there, around two and a half hours, becuase we tooke the Cataluna Exprés which stopped at every tiny town along the way. Honestly we were maybe going around 60 km-h; we could actually see the cars passing us on the freeway. On the return trip we made sure to take the Rodalies Regional which went much faster and proabably went in excess of 100 km/h (just an estimate). Once we figured out how to purchase a ticket, only 6 euros each way, it was very easy and convenient.

Upon arrival we meandered out of the train station toward the Placa Catalunya (apparently every town has one). After wandering and snapping pictures for a while we made our way toward the edge of Girona. There we found a huge fortress wall that once surrounded the entire city and currently a large portion of it still stands. We were able to walk along it and through the courtyards.

Atop one of the rotunds at the fortress I felt one of the largest wind gusts of my life. Later we each received a phone call from Dr. Cesar Alegre, the Director of IES Barcelona, who informed us that we needed to stay away from the coastal areas due to the strong winds. The weather wasn't actually that bad...besides the category 2 hurricane winds. Luckily we were not in Barcelona to experience the unpleasant weather. Sunday morning we turned on the tv and what is the first thing we see on CNN+? High winds in Barcelona and 5 deaths even due to a soccer stadium roof collapse as a result of the weather. It wasn't too bad in Girona.

We had lunch at a local cafe ouside in the cobble-stone street. Most delicious pizza and espresso! I learned that if you order a coffee here you get espresso. If you want a regular coffee you have to ask for Café con Leche (with milk). But I'm easy I can handle a shot of espresso. There we met a Scotsman and and an Irishman who live in Girona and they recommended a place for dinner called El Bretton, a crepería (more on that later). We headed to the hotel after that by foot since we thought it was only about 2.5 km away. An hour later we decided it was actually about 4 km of an interesting walk. Most of the larger intersections are roundabouts here and when you get to one the sidewalk disappeared. Not to mention the fact that people drive like maniacs here it was an interesting walk.

Let's just say we took a cab each way after that since there were eight of us to split it with two cabs. So we headed to the Crepe restaurant around 9pm, and they informed us that it would be an hour wait...after seeing the crepes people were eating we decided to wait. So we headed down the street to and Irish pub and watched the first half of the FC Barcelona soccer game. To commemorate being at a pub I had a cider which was kind of like a sweet beer. I'd never heard of anything like it but it was delcious. Back to the crepe restaurant...they offered a wide variety of both sweet and savory crepes. I ordered one with potatoe, cheese, bacon, egg, and creme=amazing and definitely worth the wait!

On Sunday we went back into the city and visited the enormous Catedrál. Per chance it was during mass, but luckily that was in a secluded portion of the church. After that we hit the Café Café at the train station and headed back to Barca.

P.S. It was 68 degrees on Friday.

Mis Clases

Well I have officially completed week one of actual classes here in Barca, and that has kept me pretty busy. I like most of my classes and all but one teacher is from Spain. Monday through Thursday my first class is at 9 am, so that keeps me on a pretty regular schedule. Each day I have a 3 hour and 45 minute break (SIESTA!), so I usually head home on the metro for a few hours. It only takes about 20 minutes to get from our homestay to IES which is extremely nice. Best part of my week is that I only have Spanish class on Friday and it doesn't start until 2:05.

I am taking Media and Politics as well as Advanced Spanish I on Monday and Wednesday (and Spanish on Fridays). Tuesday and Thursday I am in Contemporary History of Spain, History of the Mediterranean in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and Language, Culture, and Communication: The Spanish Perspective.

We have no class next Friday, so on Thursday I am flying to London to meet Melissa, who has been in Salzburg, Austria studying abroad with the University of Portland since September. Also my friend Jackie from WSU is studying abroad in London for the semester. My hostel is actually very close to IES Abroad London as it turns out. I'm flying on the famously cheap RyanAir which is an Irish airline. The price of my ticket was 5 Euro each way including taxes as part of a special, but of course they have some additional fees. Though my total was only 30 Euro round trip ($40 US). The only thing is that they fly out of smaller airports, so I have to transfer from Barca to Girona by bus and from Stansted to London proper. All in all flying is pretty cheap and I'm excited to travel!

Arc de Triomf, Columbus Pix

Second Week

This week we visited the Arc de Triomf (turns out there is one in Barcelona and one in France). It's located at one end of a pedestrian street while at the other end is Parc Citudella.

At the end of Las Ramblas (opposite Plaza Catalunya) there is a statue of Christopher Columbus, seeing as he was funded by the Spanish to "discover" the Americas. The port is very near here and we walked past the marina on the Mediterranean.

Tuesday we went to a place called "Sports Bar" after class to watch Obama's speech, which was pretty awesome by the way. It's kind of an American/British bar that has a bunch of TVs and show NFL and English Premier League Soccer and apparently important political events. I was quite surprised to walk into a fairly full bar that was silently engrossed with Obama's speech...here in Barcelona. Every Spaniard that I have talked to has told me that they really like Obama. Awesome.

I've been thinking about how strange it is that I am already pretty comfortable with myself here. I can pretty well communicate and have even had a few conversations with Spaniards. The last two days I have been asked questions by locals and have been able to answer both of the (by sheer luck, of course). One thing that is difficult is that many, if not most, speak English as it is the main language taught in schools beginning at a young age. So often I will speak to them in Spanish and they reply in English to me, but I just try to keep talking in Spanish because I want to learn it!

Ciao

The View from IES Center 2

FOOD

So we found a grocery store about a block away from our apartment and it is pretty cheap. About every other day I buy a baguette and then get some cheese and meat for lunch. It's a delicious money saver. I feel like I am eating a ton here because breakfast is at 9 am and dinner is at 9 pm which means I almost need 2 meals during the day.

Today before our walking tour of architecture we went to a café next to the IES Center and I ordered Chocolate y Bizcochos, little sugar covered baked treats. It was pretty delicious, but the chocolate is so thick you can barely drink it. The top layer in my cup kept solidifying if I didn´t stir it.

Our typical meals start with a vegetable or noodle soup, then we move on to a meat like chicken or beef. After that we have a salad and then some fruitñ however the portions are generally smaller here. One night our senora made a triple decker sandwich with beef, mayo, vegetables, and a fried egg. It was increible! Other entreés we have eaten include a spaghetti with cheese and herbs and a sausage soup.

19th Century Architecture

Tonight we went on a walking/metro tour of some of the 19th century architecture. We began at La Sagrada Familia which is a church, designed by Antoní Gaudi, that has been under construction for over 200 years. It was started to get dark by the time we got there so some of the pictures aren't the best.

After stopping here for a while we walked up a very beautiful diagonal street until we reached our final stop which is Hospital De La Sant Creu I Sant Pau. This hospital is the second oldest in Europe (only behind one in Paris). The hospital has about 20 seperate buildings that are connected via underground tunnels (used to trasport patients). Being inefficient in modern times a new single-building hospital has been constructed at one end and facilities are slowly being moved there. The original hospital will be closed by next summer.

Daytrip to Vic and Besalú

Last Saturday everyone at IES went on an orientation trip north of Spain to the towns of Vic and Besalú.

We went to Vic first which was actually kind of boring...guided tour for about an hour...cathedral...market...etc. Then we had about 3 hours of free time, so we went to a museum...an episcopal museum. Yeah I've never seen so much religion in my life. So that was kind of boring but then we had lunch at a small pizza and coffee place called Mr. Coffee. The pizza they made was frozen but very good; we had the d'Queso which was loaded with delicious cheeses. After lunch we still had a lotof time so we went to the town casino.There I had a delicious cappucino at the bar. So good.

From there we went back to the buses and drove through the countryside to Besalú which was more interesting...it was kind of like a city all within walls with thousand year old buildings. It included a Jewish Quarter and the Christian Community; they were separate of course. That was more interesting and picture-worthy. Though we didn't stay there very long.

By this time it was approaching dusk and we headed back to Barcelona. When we arrived we were informed that there was a protest in the plaza in support of Gaza. IES advised us that they were going to drop us off at a different location because of this. It wasn't a big threat but enough to take precautions since we are foreigners here. All in all it was a pretty interesting day.

Vic and Besalú Photos

Barcelona Photos

This is the giant cat statue (below) on the lower portion of Las Ramblas. We had to find and identify the artist as part of our "Gymkhana" or scavenger hunt for the IES program. There is another statue in the El Prat-Barcelona Airport by Boltero called the giant horse.

Arrival Update

My travels (surprisingly) went very smoothly! My flights were both on time and the Minneapolis-Amsterdam flight was awesome...but very long. The Amsterdam airport is extremely confusing but luckily I had 3 hours to deal with the 800 gates (prolly not an exaggeration). The arrival/departure board listed walking times to your gate...yup it's that big.

KLM is super and I love the Dutch! Delicious on-board coffee and honestly the plane food wasn't too bad. I sat next to a very nice German who lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba now. He talked a lot but that was ok...I have already talked to foreigners about politics=oops oh well.

I felt fine most of the way except for my back was killing me with about 3 hours left on my long flight. The only scary part of mytrip was finding the IES people in the airport because I was conveniently in the wrong terminal.

Plus my flight was late so I didn't get off of it until after 4:30 and I had to meet IES by 5, so I thought screw my luggage and I found some other people who were also trying to find the Boltero statue, a giant black horse (this was the meeting point for IES students). So together we went to the IES room and then had to go back through security into the terminal to get our luggage afterward.

Then I took a cab and the driver dropped me off a block early and I struggled trying to find this building. I saw 55, 57...62 and I needed 59! But eventually after walking around like an idiot for 10 minutes I found the building. There is a doorman in our building so I made a tad nervous trying to get into the building and use the weird tiny elevator (maximum of 3 people).

I like my senora a lot so far...she made me tea when I got here. I have my own room and this apartment is quite nice. There is a metro across the street and it takes me directly to the IES Center in about 10 minutes which is so good.

Oh and I just found the hugest starbucks with 2 floors and it was as if people were simply sitting and enjoying their coffee (in mugs mostly). I had a mocca blanc of course (I was afraid they might not have those here). It was kind of rich since I didn't feel like trying to ask for it non-fat with no whip.