Check out my pictures!

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Wknd to Sort, Barcelona, and Just Everything: UPDATE!

So, I'm sorry that it has been so long since I have posted something on here! This is a post to let you all know I'm alive and well!

So, a few weeks ago I went up close to the Pyrenees mountains for a trip with the program, and it was AMAZING!! We went hiking, white water rafting, and a few of us did some rock slides. It was a lot of fun, and I learned some history of the mountains during the Civil War in Spain.

This last weekend we went to Cadaqués and Figueres to see the Dalí Museum and his house with my Modern Art History class. It was a blast, and I got to learn a lot more about Dalí by seeing everything. Quite an interesting man, that is for sure.

Barcelona as a whole, has been really great so far. A few bumps here and there, but I can't ask for a better experience than this. I have been taking four classes this term: Don Quijote, Contemporary Novel, Modern Art History and Grammar. I've definitely learned a lot this term and only have two weeks left to crank down on learning a lot of Spanish. I hope all is well in the US, and that everyone is keeping warm this winter. Miss you all and will post again soon!

Sept. 15th

From my orientation classes I found out a lot about Spain, the rules they abide by, cultural things, and a little bit about what they think about us, in ‘merica. 

The first interesting thing is that there is a Columbus Monument on the street, Las Ramblas, and he points towards the Sea, which so happens to be towards Italy. Well, he is supposed to be pointing towards ‘merica, but people did not understand why he was pointing towards the mountains, instead of the water...I thought that was a little silly. In my picture you could only see that he was facing the sea, but not him pointing. (Just hope ya believe me!)

Secondly, Cataluña wants to separate from Spain, because of their independence, but also because Catalan is really suppressed. If you are Catalan you cannot just go into a shop and expect the person to talk to you in Catalan, really because there is only about 18% that are still pure Catalan, and that stick to their traditions, along with their religion, and laws, which they had long before they joined Spain. There are a lot more details behind it of course, which we didn’t find out in two hours, but the teacher had an interesting story. She was born and went to school during the reign of Franco, and she was 17 years old when he died. When she was in Elementary school everything was controlled by Franco, so that nothing but Castellano was spoken. Although, her cooking class was used to teach the kids Catalan, to keep the culture and the Catalan people from dying out. They were told to keep it a secret from everyone that they were learning Catalan. That was a really sad, but interesting story. 

Thirdly, is what they think about us....all of what she said was about our Health System. Here, the more urgent your condition, the faster you get help. They have public hospitals and they also have clinics. Hospitals are for patients that need urgent care, or are getting treated for cancer, and it is free. Clinics you will also be seen according to urgency. If you broke your wrist or something like that you can go to your clinic because you have your personal doctor and it’s more comfortable for most people. It just made me think about the people that lose all their money to trying to cure cancer, when they have a pretty good healthcare system here. I know that not everything is perfect in any country, but it seems like an alright deal, because all doctors are qualified. The test they have to take, around 20,000 people take it (all ppl who are interested in medicine in Spain), and about 1,000 people get a slot for a job. So, it’s pretty competitive, and that is for all jobs, because they are also having an unemployment problem too, so the competition is going out the roof. 

Just thought those were some interesting things that I’ve learned so far...so much more to learn, I have to be like a sponge.  =) 

Sept. 10th

Today is the day that I moved in with my family: La señora, Amelia Sassot; el señor, Manuel; they take care of Dino, their sons Newfy during the day while he is at the hospital (he is an Internal Doctor/Internal Medicine), his name is also Manuel. That was a bit confusing, but figured it out, because it has happened before.

Sept. 8th

Today was filled with all GAUDI! Quite amazing. First we saw the Dragon House, really is the story of a knight/Saint who slayed a dragon to save the people, and he wore a white cross on his armor. After he slayed the dragon, the dragon’s blood turned into roses. The house reminded me of Disneyland or Candyland, it had so much detail. Really neat architecture. The other place had statues on the roof and the other was Hansel and Gretel’s house and the witches house. It's pretty much the way I pictured them.

Sept. 7th

Today we stopped by La Boquería before we went to look at the Universidad of Barcelona. La Boquería is  the biggest market in Barcelona. It was AMAZING!! There was so many different colors, and different types of foods. You could really build a relationship with the people that were there if you lived here. I also found out the day that you wouldn't want to visit would be Monday, because Sunday is the day off for the fishermen, so you would not get to experience the entire Boquería affect!

When we got to the Universidad it had a historical part and a more modern part. The historical part was more lecture halls and the more modern was more like Knox with the round tables where it was more discussion based. The Universidad has 92,000 students that go there, so I finally get to see what it’s like to go to a University. It’s pretty intimidating, but there seems to be a lot of interesting people. 

We also went to visit Sagrada Familia, which was even more amazing than I had seen on a postcard. At night we separated into 2 groups and went for dinner/tapas. It was really good, and my group with Ragan went all the way to Born St in the Born Barrio. It was a pretty hidden place with a great atmosphere.

Sept. 6th

After I got out of the car, I felt like I was in Medieval times. Everything is so close together that it doesn't seem like the streets can hold everyone plus the cars. The buildings of the plaza near the hotel were made in year 0. The “barrio” or neighborhood that this is in, is the Gothic Quarter. This is the only part of the city where none of the streets are in perfect blocks/manzanas, they kinda veer off in all sorts of directions, which is really fun to get lost in, because there are so many "hole-in-the-wall" type places. I just had to remember what direction the street Las Ramblas was in or where the plaza was near the hotel. Las Ramblas was a cool street, but a bit too crowded especially with tourists, so you know that everything is pretty expensive. I mostly wandered around with Evan and Zoe until dinnertime. There is a group of seven of us: Mandy, Natalia, Evan, Charli (a girl), Zoe,  Danielle, and me. Robin Ragan is the director and Stephanie Roger is her assistant. We went out for dinner where I had a salt cod, and it had it’s tail and head...very different from how we eat fish in the U.S. and there were a ton of bones! 

My room, it is really nice and cozy =)

Dino, the Española Newfy

The most important thing: Food

The people in Barcelona are on a seafood diet, which is probably the healthiest diet you can have. The kinds of things I have tried here are:

1. Calamari
2. Pulpo=Octopus
3. Prawns
4. Shrimp w/ heads
5. Meat Empanadas 
6. Fish
7. I also have had some sort of "pastel de atun," which I guess translates over to Tuna pie/cake. It was quite good.

I will keep adding to the list and make it a bit more specific...

Pictures!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2057755&id=1282200209&l=3ee7a385d3

Ready...Steady...¡Olé!

So, I am about two weeks away from leaving for Barcelona, and I feel a bit overwhelmed. Packing for four different seasons sounds easy, right? I don't think so. Once I'm over there, this whole thing will be so much easier and a little less stressful.