Monday July 6th: Today was the first of 15 classes in Madrid. We already have homework. We woke up this morning to a car honking. Outside the open window of our apartment. Had a very light breakfast compared to the gigantic meal we had last night and headed off to school with our host mother. She showed us which stops to get on and off at in order to get there on time. We arrived at the school and everyone shuffled into a classroom that was packed with both chairs and eventually people. We had our introductions and orientation and then we took a test. This test was quite hard. The entire thing was in Spanish and I couldn’t finish most of it because I hadn’t learned it yet at Taylor. I guess it was semi-impressive that I knew the imperfect tense so I was placed in a little higher than about half the group. There are three other taylor students in my class along with two people from France, two from England, and one from Germany. Most of them speak both their native language and one other and all of them seem to be picking up on Spanish faster than all of us. Then entire class was conducted in Spanish and we were given a short homework assignment filling in blanks with the three forms of “to be,” hay, ser, and estar. I had a question on one of them and so I asked my host mother who proceeded to correct my homework. After class we took the metro back to our apartment and waited around until 2 when we at lunch (we got out of class at 12:30). I thought dinner last night was a large meal. I was wrong. Lunch today was one of the largest meals I have ever eaten. We started with a pasta dish that was penne with a red sauce that was mostly olive oil and spices with a few tomatoes in it. Then she brought out the sliced tomatoes and hamburger meat. Everything was really good and when I thought I was done she took the dish of pasta and divided it onto our plates giving us just as much as we got the first time. I won’t starve that is for sure. After lunch I couldn’t help but take a nap because of all the food in my stomach. Fortunately for me most things all but shut down in the afternoon. Around 4 or 5 they start back up again and don’t seem to stop until around 10:30. After my nap I finished my homework and walked to Park Retiro hung around there for a while and then walked back. I wrote a few emails and talked to some people online. Nothing of great consequence happened between my walk and dinner. We then ate dinner, which like the night before was a large meal, but it paled in comparison with today’s lunch. After dinner, I essentially went straight to sleep.
sorry for the lack of pictures but I don't carry my camera around with me at school.
enjoy
-Scott
07 July 2009
06 July 2009
Bye Billy
found this recently. Billy Mays the Oxy-Clean guy is dead.
you will have to click on it to view the whole thing since it won't fit.
you will have to click on it to view the whole thing since it won't fit.
Day 7 Sunday July 5th
We spent today on a bus. And by today I mean, We left IBSTE at 10am after breakfast of toast and cereal (normal breakfast), got into Barcelona around 11:00 waited until the bus left at 12 and then we were on a bus until this evening when we arrived in Madrid. When we arrived we met the owner ( think he was the owner) of Estudio Sampere. This is where we are going to be studying for the next three weeks. As soon as we met up with him we hopped on a series of trains and met our host mothers. Almost immediately we were swept away in a flurry of Spanish and headed off to see where we are staying for the next three weeks. My host mother seems to be the owner of an apartment complex of which we are staying in one. We (Paul, Reed, and I) have two bedrooms with another empty one with two beds in it, a living room, kitchen, and bathroom, to ourselves. We think she told us that there would be two more people staying in the other room for 4 days sometime soon. Then we were rushed off to eat dinner at 9:00, which I’ve come to find is normal timing for eating dinner and my stomach has become accustomed to this. Dinner happened so fast I barely knew what hit me. We sat down at the kitchen table and immediately there appeared coke and gazpacho(of which I’m not a huge fan, but I finished anyway). Next, out came the bread, and my host mother whose name is palmida or palmi for short, started cooking eggs and chicken(in separate pans) in olive oil. Less than twenty minutes after we had sat down a full two courses of food had been served. After the chicken and eggs she brought out a salad, and some melon (we aren’t sure what kind). All this time we are struggling to converse in Spanish and succeeding through what seems sheer dumb luck. One of us would be able to hear what was said and between all three of us we would come up with the semi-correct response. Nearing the end of the meal we figured out how to ask for internet and figure out the word for password. Discovering that we had to pay and figuring out how much took us about 30 minutes to sort out. We finally did and I was able to get online and talk to sarah for a few minutes before I got to sleep. For some reason being on a bus all day wears one out. I suppose on top of that constantly trying to figure out what people around you are saying is a struggle. I fell asleep with the light on before the other two guys were even done getting ready.
Here I would like to insert a little anecdote about the bus. On the bus the movie Transformers was playing. I figured I would watch it for a while, and so searched the bus audio channels for English and when it wasn’t found I found it in Spanish thinking I would at least try to keep up. The subtitles helped me immensely. But, I found myself watching and waiting for the time when they were going to start speaking English with familiar voices instead of Spanish with voices that almost match. The only voice that came close was Optimus Prime because they had to edit it and deepen it. It never happened, at least not before I fell asleep for about twenty minutes.
Also, we took our culture quiz, which consisted of 150 questions straight out of Fodor’s guide to Spain, word for word. I had spent some time studying unlike most of the group that didn’t care because Spanish is all that they needed to graduate, and one credit hour isn’t going to lower their GPA, and because I had studied, I finished in less than 5 minutes, and as far as I know only missed one. The only reason I relay this is because I was excited to take the test and actually asked him to take it early (which he wouldn’t let me do), and it felt really good to know that I knew for sure that I have an A for the cultural part, or at least that portion of the culture class.
-Scott
Here I would like to insert a little anecdote about the bus. On the bus the movie Transformers was playing. I figured I would watch it for a while, and so searched the bus audio channels for English and when it wasn’t found I found it in Spanish thinking I would at least try to keep up. The subtitles helped me immensely. But, I found myself watching and waiting for the time when they were going to start speaking English with familiar voices instead of Spanish with voices that almost match. The only voice that came close was Optimus Prime because they had to edit it and deepen it. It never happened, at least not before I fell asleep for about twenty minutes.
Also, we took our culture quiz, which consisted of 150 questions straight out of Fodor’s guide to Spain, word for word. I had spent some time studying unlike most of the group that didn’t care because Spanish is all that they needed to graduate, and one credit hour isn’t going to lower their GPA, and because I had studied, I finished in less than 5 minutes, and as far as I know only missed one. The only reason I relay this is because I was excited to take the test and actually asked him to take it early (which he wouldn’t let me do), and it felt really good to know that I knew for sure that I have an A for the cultural part, or at least that portion of the culture class.
-Scott
04 July 2009
Mes Que Un Club (more than a club)
Day 5
Friday July 3rd: I awoke this morning around 8:00am I’m noticing that as the week goes on fewer and fewer people are coming to breakfast on time, or some not at all. The morning was spent in class from about 9:30 until 1:30. I felt like I was drowning in Spanish. He covered everything from pronunciation to verb conjugation in the present and preterite tenses along with accent marks in words and even a little bit of direct and indirect object pronouns. We then had lunch which consisted of something that isn’t coming to mind right now. I think it might have been another form of Paella that we had earlier. After lunch, Nate, Paul and I headed into Barcelona for the afternoon. Paul found a record shop in the gothic quarter that caught his attention and he wanted to go back, while Nate and I headed toward the Camp Nou, the FC Barcelona stadium. We got off the train at a station called Barcelona Sants(pictured in last post). This is Barcelona’s main train hub for the city. Every train in the city goes through this station. Needless to say it was more than a little crazy. We found our way out and headed in the general direction that we thought the stadium was in. With a little help from our map we found the stadium. It was huge. We made our way inside the complex and got our tickets for the tour.
We were able to walk through all three tiers of the stadium, see the press room, even the small church for the teams before they come onto the field pictured here:
The whole experience was really cool. At the end of the tour there was a museum with old soccer jerseys and biographies of the current players and most of the history of the team. this is an old Jersey:
this is the Current Jersey (apology for them being sideways)
Lionel Messi is only 2 months older than I am and the best player in the world right now. As I walked out into the stadium in the middle tier I looked down and noticed that the floor wasn’t made of concrete anymore. The floor that I was standing on was marble. Also, upon closer inspection of the seats in that section I noticed that the chairs were covered in leather. Futbol is a big deal. The only disappointment on the day was the fact that the field wasn’t there. Instead there was a gigantic stage from the U2 concert yesterday and the day before. I was hoping to be able to see the field but I guess no such luck. Also, as we were walking out of the stadium we passed a section where I suppose that they were collecting the kegs from the night before because there was an organized pile of 3x20 stack of kegs that was taller than me. After the stadium we made our way back to the train station using our map, wits, and eagle scout training (Nate is one as well). We made it safely back to the train station and figured out the chaos including our train coming on a different platform than was scheduled. We made it back to IBSTE just in time for a meal of spinach casserole that seemed more like soup and some kind of white fish. I spent the evening studying and uploading pictures. I ended the night with a headache and an early bedtime.
-Scott
More Pictures
so I'm just going to upload more pictures and hopefully get the labels right. We'll see. If you want to see a bigger version of any picture just click on the picture and it will open in a new tab or window.
this is the Barcelona Sants Train Station
This is a sideways picture of a Gaudi Building right outside the train station at which we normally get off when we go to the city.
this is Back of La Sagrada Familia. My camera died so I this is best I have
this is the front of La Sagrada Familia
This is the front of the top of La Sagrada Familia.
more later.
-Scott
this is the Barcelona Sants Train Station
This is a sideways picture of a Gaudi Building right outside the train station at which we normally get off when we go to the city.
this is Back of La Sagrada Familia. My camera died so I this is best I have
this is the front of La Sagrada Familia
This is the front of the top of La Sagrada Familia.
more later.
-Scott
03 July 2009
first,
yesterday the picture labels are wrong. They should be switched.
next the purpose of this is to give you the pictures from the past few days that I didn't put up yesterday.
Here is the view from my balcony. The Mediterranean is about 10 minutes that way.
This is my professor next to a pan of paella.
This is a random Castle. I'm not entirely sure what it was because I didn't write it down right away. I saw this before being really tired.
This is a tour bus similar to what we were riding in.
That is all for now.
-Scott
yesterday the picture labels are wrong. They should be switched.
next the purpose of this is to give you the pictures from the past few days that I didn't put up yesterday.
Here is the view from my balcony. The Mediterranean is about 10 minutes that way.
This is my professor next to a pan of paella.
This is a random Castle. I'm not entirely sure what it was because I didn't write it down right away. I saw this before being really tired.
This is a tour bus similar to what we were riding in.
That is all for now.
-Scott
02 July 2009
okay here is a long one. I have been keeping up to date on posts despite not having internet so here is what I have been up to the past four days:
Spain Journal
Day 0
Sunday June 28th: I left Indianapolis at Noon on Sunday and took plane to Atlanta. I was expecting some sort of customs transition when I got there because I was flying out of Atlanta straight to Barcelona. I walked right from one gate to the next and grabbed some Arby’s for lunch around 4pm. I then sat in the airport watching the departure time for my plane get pushed back a half hour then an hour and then an hour and a half. I ended leaving Atlanta at 6:45 when originally I was supposed to depart around 5:15. My time in Atlanta was interesting. I also ran into another student from the trip. He and I passed the time as best we could charging our computers. When I finally was able to get on the plane I found myself next to a girl from Taylor headed to Barcelona to study with Dr. Treber as well. The flight was fine. No major turbulence issues to speak of. I found myself unable to sleep for most of the flight though I did manage a couple hours of solid rest. The two meals that were served on the plane were much better than I ever remember airplane food being. The teriyaki chicken and rice for dinner was great, and for being packaged, the brownie was sill somewhat moist and rather tasty. I did forget to take a picture which is unfortunate but it was pretty standard fair at most high schools. Breakfast consisted of an egg sandwich with orange juice.
Day 1
Monday June 29th: We arrived in Barcelona and the customs agent was completely lacking interest. They made us fill out a form on the plane and the customs agent didn’t even look at it much less collect it. The three of us then found a taxi and after a minute while the cab driver put in the address into his GPS we were off. The most striking thing that I noticed was the landscape. The beach was right off the freeway and the hills that would be called mountains in Indiana were beautiful. We found were we were staying and paid the taxi. We had just about enough time to put our bags down in our rooms before we were off to the beach with the group trying to find lunch, which at noon in Spain is impossible. Most restaurants don’t serve food until 1 or 2 at least so we ended up finding a small grocery store and buying a loaf of bread and some peanut butter and jelly. About the least adventurous meal I’ve had since I was a kid. We then came back to IBSTE which is a seminary during the year, where we are staying and took a siesta. Everything in the city essentially closes from 3-5 every afternoon. We had a little bit of time before we headed into the city of Barcelona for dinner. We took a train in and found a charming Thai place that provided an absolutely wonderful meal. this was one of the few places open because once again our American stomachs were a couple of hours early. About the time we finished dinner was the time that business was picking up for them. We walked the streets of Barcelona for a while until it was obvious that at 10pm we were too early for the nightlife and too late for the shops to still be open. We found a train that should have brought us back to the station right near where we are staying but we read something wrong and it didn’t stop here and took us another twenty minutes beyond into the next little town. The only problem was we had found the last train out of Barcelona and there weren’t any more running the other direction. So we found a taxi back to the school and went to sleep.
Day 2
Tuesday June 30th: Today started around 6:00 for one, 8:30 for us that are sane and 9:20 (breakfast ends at 9:30) for the rest of the group. After breakfast the morning was spent in the classroom (I’m calling anything before lunch, at 2pm, morning). We filled out a few forms for taylor and took a test to figure out what we know. I know very little I found out. I’m going to have to study a lot if I’m going to do well here. The afternoon we had free. I tried to get my computer working and failed after which I took a siesta. We just hung out here resting and then had dinner where I found out that my professor participated in the running of the bulls twice as a student here. It sounds tempting, but I also know that it is dangerous. I know that most of the group has the intentions of going at least to watch while some want to participate. After dinner we took a short (10minute) walk to the beach where we just walked up and back for about an hour and a half to two hours. Walking along the beach with the waves gently lapping at your feet (or shooting up your leg) slows your down. I found myself several times just standing in the Mediterranean watching the waves come and go as the sun set. When we came back I read for a while and then hung out with people. I also talked to Brent and tried to figure out what is wrong with my internet. He is stumped. Hopefully this gets sorted before I get back to the states. I talked to Sarah on a borrowed computer and then went to bed.
Day 3
Wednesday July 1st: This morning I woke up around 5am. I’m not sure why this happened but I was awake. It is a little difficult to blame it on jetlag because it would have been about 11pm back home. Anyway I thought I would try and get some more sleep until it was 6am and I still was not back to sleep. I decided to get up and take a walk to the beach to see the sunrise. It was absolutely beautiful. I am one of those people who thinks that sunrises are more beautiful than sunsets. There is something a bit more pure about a sunrise. It is fresher and newer and cleaner somehow. However, I don’t get to see them very often because I don’t generally wake up in time to see them. I guess it helps here that there a beach to view them from instead of cornfields. I took nearly 200 pictures this morning trying to capture the beauty of the moment and I’m not sure than any of them did. I’m not sure what it is about early mornings when no one is up and moving yet but I love it.
this is the sun at 6:00AM
this is the sun at about 7:00AM
After breakfast, we took a trip into the city instead of having class. Dr. Treber arranged for us to have a bus tour (double decker bus with headphone jacks explaining what you are driving past) with this particular one we had the ability to get on and off at will throughout the day (and the next if we wanted). This was a great way to see part of the city as it gave us some flexibility with what we wanted more information on or a closer look. So we took the bus around the city and then found one of two local mercados (or markets) and bought some meat, cheese, bread, and some fruit for lunch. Some found the cheese too dry, but I rather enjoyed the flavor of it. It is monchego cheese from the La Mancha region of spain and is made from sheep’s milk. After lunch sitting on a bench kicking at pigeons to keep them off the food we made our way through what seemed to be narrow alleyways but were in fact the streets of the gothic quarter to the Museo de Picasso. The museum gave an interesting view of Picasso as most of the works were from before he started using cubism. My legs were quite tired so, knowing that I was coming back with my parents I spent 1 of the two hours sitting on a bench resting with some of the other group members, in the room with Picasso’s study of Diego Velasquez’s Las Meninas. After seeing Picasso’s take I’m interested to see the real thing when we travel to Madrid. After the museum we found our way to the Barcelona Cathedral. After resting our feet for a few minutes to take pictures outside the church we made our way inside. As we entered the church there was a boy’s choir from Britain singing and it filled the entire space with the sound of their voices. I had seen pictures of cathedrals before this time, but absolutely nothing compares to walking inside of one yourself. Nothing that I can say will do justice to what I experience as I walked inside. I took a seat and just sat and listened to the music for a while before I even thought about taking pictures. I’ll put some up so you know what it looked like but looking at a picture on a computer screen you don’t feel small. I felt small as I walked into that church. When we got back I had some dinner that consisted of Paella (pi-ay-a). Really the only way to describe it is rice cooked with seafood and vegetables cooked in with saffron. After dinner I took a short swim with Nate Ringenburg and then studied for a test that is coming on Saturday or Sunday(it isn’t that I don’t know, well I don’t, but it is that communication between Dr. Treber and us, the students, is not the best.) I then went to bed early due to my early wake up and three hours of sleep and walking all day long.
Day 4
Thursday July 2nd: Today was spent much the same yesterday was, except that I slept beautifully. I awoke around 8am and grabbed some breakfast. After which, we took a train into the city. Upon arrival we began to walk toward the Plaza de Catalunya (I’m pretty sure this is the Catalonian spelling). We were almost immediately sidetracked by Zara. Zara is essentially Spain’s Macy’s. three of us stood outside and people watched, all the while commenting upon different things we saw while we waited for those in our group without a Y chromosome to finish up. Eventually we gave up and moved on telling them to meet up with us later. Those that didn’t want to shop found our way to the plaza and found the FC Barcelona store. I purchased a scarf while others purchased official jerseys. I considered it and then decided that I would much rather save my almost 90 euros that it would cost me to get a jersey with a name on the back. Now I just have to make sure that it doesn’t fall out of my luggage while in Madrid (Barca‘s rival). By this point the girls had caught up and we headed toward Las Ramblas, which contains La Boqueria, which is the second of the two markets mentioned yesterday. Las Ramblas is a stretch of road that is entirely aimed at tourists and has anything and everything for sale. It reminded me of the county fair (without the animal smell) or riley days. We made our way through Las Ramblas to La Boqueria and found much the same fare as yesterday for lunch. After lunch the group split into two groups with mine heading back out of La Rambla to the bus. However, on the way we saw a couple of the shell game scams. Everyone in our group thought that it seemed really simple. I thought it did as well until I realized that they were being sloppy on purpose at points. They also had a friend with them, “stocking the pond” might be the best way to put it. The mixer would mix and then the friend would guess incorrectly. The mixer mixes again and then people walking by guess at which shell the bead is under. Every guess costs money and if you guess wrong well they keep it. After wondering why people even would guess we got on the bus and headed to the second loop of the bus tour (today was focused on Gaudi architecture. One of the first stops was next to La Sagrada Familia. Gaudi spent 40 years of his life designing the church and it wasn’t finished before he died in 1926. It is still being finished on pace with entrance fees as people come pay to go inside. The church is massive as it stands and I took as many pictures as I possibly could before my camera died (I hadn’t noticed it needing to be charged) So I only got the front and side of the church before it died. But I’ll post pictures of the church that once again made me feel tiny. We got back on the bus and headed to park Guell where the longest park bench in the world is located. The entire park was designed by Gaudi and the architecture that seems out of place in the middle of the city with its wavy lines and curving structures fits right in, in a park setting. I was a little disappointed that a place so obviously designed to be a quiet and peaceful place has turned into a tourist trap with street vendors (who are there illegally) all over the place. It was still cool to see how seamlessly the buildings were integrated into path ways and the plants around. After meeting up the Treber family we got back on the bus and finished the tour. For some reason the route changed and we couldn’t go see the barca soccer stadium which was sad but I might go back later to see it. We finished the tour and headed back to Ibste where we had another Spanish dish of something that I think is called tortilla de potato. Essentially potato and egg casserole. Luckily for me there was ketchup. It was actually pretty good without, but better with. After dinner I talked to the amazing Brent Gerig, without whom I would not be posting this right now. He helped me find my missing network connections and I was able to speak with the wonderful girl back in Kentucky. I’ve pretty much just fiddled online and written this this evening. I get to look forward to an actual day of class tomorrow morning and a free afternoon. I’m not quite sure what to do with it, but I’m sure I’ll figure something out.
I've run out of time and will post the pictures later. Enjoy the sunrise
Spain Journal
Day 0
Sunday June 28th: I left Indianapolis at Noon on Sunday and took plane to Atlanta. I was expecting some sort of customs transition when I got there because I was flying out of Atlanta straight to Barcelona. I walked right from one gate to the next and grabbed some Arby’s for lunch around 4pm. I then sat in the airport watching the departure time for my plane get pushed back a half hour then an hour and then an hour and a half. I ended leaving Atlanta at 6:45 when originally I was supposed to depart around 5:15. My time in Atlanta was interesting. I also ran into another student from the trip. He and I passed the time as best we could charging our computers. When I finally was able to get on the plane I found myself next to a girl from Taylor headed to Barcelona to study with Dr. Treber as well. The flight was fine. No major turbulence issues to speak of. I found myself unable to sleep for most of the flight though I did manage a couple hours of solid rest. The two meals that were served on the plane were much better than I ever remember airplane food being. The teriyaki chicken and rice for dinner was great, and for being packaged, the brownie was sill somewhat moist and rather tasty. I did forget to take a picture which is unfortunate but it was pretty standard fair at most high schools. Breakfast consisted of an egg sandwich with orange juice.
Day 1
Monday June 29th: We arrived in Barcelona and the customs agent was completely lacking interest. They made us fill out a form on the plane and the customs agent didn’t even look at it much less collect it. The three of us then found a taxi and after a minute while the cab driver put in the address into his GPS we were off. The most striking thing that I noticed was the landscape. The beach was right off the freeway and the hills that would be called mountains in Indiana were beautiful. We found were we were staying and paid the taxi. We had just about enough time to put our bags down in our rooms before we were off to the beach with the group trying to find lunch, which at noon in Spain is impossible. Most restaurants don’t serve food until 1 or 2 at least so we ended up finding a small grocery store and buying a loaf of bread and some peanut butter and jelly. About the least adventurous meal I’ve had since I was a kid. We then came back to IBSTE which is a seminary during the year, where we are staying and took a siesta. Everything in the city essentially closes from 3-5 every afternoon. We had a little bit of time before we headed into the city of Barcelona for dinner. We took a train in and found a charming Thai place that provided an absolutely wonderful meal. this was one of the few places open because once again our American stomachs were a couple of hours early. About the time we finished dinner was the time that business was picking up for them. We walked the streets of Barcelona for a while until it was obvious that at 10pm we were too early for the nightlife and too late for the shops to still be open. We found a train that should have brought us back to the station right near where we are staying but we read something wrong and it didn’t stop here and took us another twenty minutes beyond into the next little town. The only problem was we had found the last train out of Barcelona and there weren’t any more running the other direction. So we found a taxi back to the school and went to sleep.
Day 2
Tuesday June 30th: Today started around 6:00 for one, 8:30 for us that are sane and 9:20 (breakfast ends at 9:30) for the rest of the group. After breakfast the morning was spent in the classroom (I’m calling anything before lunch, at 2pm, morning). We filled out a few forms for taylor and took a test to figure out what we know. I know very little I found out. I’m going to have to study a lot if I’m going to do well here. The afternoon we had free. I tried to get my computer working and failed after which I took a siesta. We just hung out here resting and then had dinner where I found out that my professor participated in the running of the bulls twice as a student here. It sounds tempting, but I also know that it is dangerous. I know that most of the group has the intentions of going at least to watch while some want to participate. After dinner we took a short (10minute) walk to the beach where we just walked up and back for about an hour and a half to two hours. Walking along the beach with the waves gently lapping at your feet (or shooting up your leg) slows your down. I found myself several times just standing in the Mediterranean watching the waves come and go as the sun set. When we came back I read for a while and then hung out with people. I also talked to Brent and tried to figure out what is wrong with my internet. He is stumped. Hopefully this gets sorted before I get back to the states. I talked to Sarah on a borrowed computer and then went to bed.
Day 3
Wednesday July 1st: This morning I woke up around 5am. I’m not sure why this happened but I was awake. It is a little difficult to blame it on jetlag because it would have been about 11pm back home. Anyway I thought I would try and get some more sleep until it was 6am and I still was not back to sleep. I decided to get up and take a walk to the beach to see the sunrise. It was absolutely beautiful. I am one of those people who thinks that sunrises are more beautiful than sunsets. There is something a bit more pure about a sunrise. It is fresher and newer and cleaner somehow. However, I don’t get to see them very often because I don’t generally wake up in time to see them. I guess it helps here that there a beach to view them from instead of cornfields. I took nearly 200 pictures this morning trying to capture the beauty of the moment and I’m not sure than any of them did. I’m not sure what it is about early mornings when no one is up and moving yet but I love it.
this is the sun at 6:00AM
this is the sun at about 7:00AM
After breakfast, we took a trip into the city instead of having class. Dr. Treber arranged for us to have a bus tour (double decker bus with headphone jacks explaining what you are driving past) with this particular one we had the ability to get on and off at will throughout the day (and the next if we wanted). This was a great way to see part of the city as it gave us some flexibility with what we wanted more information on or a closer look. So we took the bus around the city and then found one of two local mercados (or markets) and bought some meat, cheese, bread, and some fruit for lunch. Some found the cheese too dry, but I rather enjoyed the flavor of it. It is monchego cheese from the La Mancha region of spain and is made from sheep’s milk. After lunch sitting on a bench kicking at pigeons to keep them off the food we made our way through what seemed to be narrow alleyways but were in fact the streets of the gothic quarter to the Museo de Picasso. The museum gave an interesting view of Picasso as most of the works were from before he started using cubism. My legs were quite tired so, knowing that I was coming back with my parents I spent 1 of the two hours sitting on a bench resting with some of the other group members, in the room with Picasso’s study of Diego Velasquez’s Las Meninas. After seeing Picasso’s take I’m interested to see the real thing when we travel to Madrid. After the museum we found our way to the Barcelona Cathedral. After resting our feet for a few minutes to take pictures outside the church we made our way inside. As we entered the church there was a boy’s choir from Britain singing and it filled the entire space with the sound of their voices. I had seen pictures of cathedrals before this time, but absolutely nothing compares to walking inside of one yourself. Nothing that I can say will do justice to what I experience as I walked inside. I took a seat and just sat and listened to the music for a while before I even thought about taking pictures. I’ll put some up so you know what it looked like but looking at a picture on a computer screen you don’t feel small. I felt small as I walked into that church. When we got back I had some dinner that consisted of Paella (pi-ay-a). Really the only way to describe it is rice cooked with seafood and vegetables cooked in with saffron. After dinner I took a short swim with Nate Ringenburg and then studied for a test that is coming on Saturday or Sunday(it isn’t that I don’t know, well I don’t, but it is that communication between Dr. Treber and us, the students, is not the best.) I then went to bed early due to my early wake up and three hours of sleep and walking all day long.
Day 4
Thursday July 2nd: Today was spent much the same yesterday was, except that I slept beautifully. I awoke around 8am and grabbed some breakfast. After which, we took a train into the city. Upon arrival we began to walk toward the Plaza de Catalunya (I’m pretty sure this is the Catalonian spelling). We were almost immediately sidetracked by Zara. Zara is essentially Spain’s Macy’s. three of us stood outside and people watched, all the while commenting upon different things we saw while we waited for those in our group without a Y chromosome to finish up. Eventually we gave up and moved on telling them to meet up with us later. Those that didn’t want to shop found our way to the plaza and found the FC Barcelona store. I purchased a scarf while others purchased official jerseys. I considered it and then decided that I would much rather save my almost 90 euros that it would cost me to get a jersey with a name on the back. Now I just have to make sure that it doesn’t fall out of my luggage while in Madrid (Barca‘s rival). By this point the girls had caught up and we headed toward Las Ramblas, which contains La Boqueria, which is the second of the two markets mentioned yesterday. Las Ramblas is a stretch of road that is entirely aimed at tourists and has anything and everything for sale. It reminded me of the county fair (without the animal smell) or riley days. We made our way through Las Ramblas to La Boqueria and found much the same fare as yesterday for lunch. After lunch the group split into two groups with mine heading back out of La Rambla to the bus. However, on the way we saw a couple of the shell game scams. Everyone in our group thought that it seemed really simple. I thought it did as well until I realized that they were being sloppy on purpose at points. They also had a friend with them, “stocking the pond” might be the best way to put it. The mixer would mix and then the friend would guess incorrectly. The mixer mixes again and then people walking by guess at which shell the bead is under. Every guess costs money and if you guess wrong well they keep it. After wondering why people even would guess we got on the bus and headed to the second loop of the bus tour (today was focused on Gaudi architecture. One of the first stops was next to La Sagrada Familia. Gaudi spent 40 years of his life designing the church and it wasn’t finished before he died in 1926. It is still being finished on pace with entrance fees as people come pay to go inside. The church is massive as it stands and I took as many pictures as I possibly could before my camera died (I hadn’t noticed it needing to be charged) So I only got the front and side of the church before it died. But I’ll post pictures of the church that once again made me feel tiny. We got back on the bus and headed to park Guell where the longest park bench in the world is located. The entire park was designed by Gaudi and the architecture that seems out of place in the middle of the city with its wavy lines and curving structures fits right in, in a park setting. I was a little disappointed that a place so obviously designed to be a quiet and peaceful place has turned into a tourist trap with street vendors (who are there illegally) all over the place. It was still cool to see how seamlessly the buildings were integrated into path ways and the plants around. After meeting up the Treber family we got back on the bus and finished the tour. For some reason the route changed and we couldn’t go see the barca soccer stadium which was sad but I might go back later to see it. We finished the tour and headed back to Ibste where we had another Spanish dish of something that I think is called tortilla de potato. Essentially potato and egg casserole. Luckily for me there was ketchup. It was actually pretty good without, but better with. After dinner I talked to the amazing Brent Gerig, without whom I would not be posting this right now. He helped me find my missing network connections and I was able to speak with the wonderful girl back in Kentucky. I’ve pretty much just fiddled online and written this this evening. I get to look forward to an actual day of class tomorrow morning and a free afternoon. I’m not quite sure what to do with it, but I’m sure I’ll figure something out.
I've run out of time and will post the pictures later. Enjoy the sunrise
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