Besalu and Vic, Barcelona Night Life, and Interesting Spanish Cuisine

Alex and I went shopping on Friday after her orientation ended and before mine started. She was looking for a over the shoulder bag that zips (harder for pickpockets) and I was looking for something to wear since I still didn't have my bags (and still don't... ugh!). We both found what we were looking for at a store called Zara and I only spent 20 euros on some pants and a cute top. After that we had lunch at a little sandwich shop where we talked for probably 2 hours or so before I had to go to orientation. Restaurants aren't much different from the US except that it is not customary to tip unless they do outstandingly well (even then you'de only give 5-10%) and when you are ready to go you have to actually ask for the bill rather than them waiting just until you are done eating and rush you out of there.

Orientation was relatively boring... most of the information we already knew because we have brochures with all the same information. I did meet a girl though but since I suck at names I don't remember her's but she's from LA like a lot of other girls in the program. There are also a lot of people here from Chicago, Penn State, and the University of IL. So far most of the people I meet are cool but there's also a lot of spoiled, high maintenance brats... I'll just avoid them :)

After I got home, I took a three hour nap (my siesta) and woke up to dinner. We had a salad with bits of fish with oil and a little salt, pasta with bits of hot dogs, and more fruit. Only the kids, Alex, and I sit down for dinner together. Lola and Carlos (not Pablo.. name confusion) sit down to dinner just the two of them when we are done. That's different than the US and somthing I have to get used to. After dinner, Lucia, Elena, and I talked and I told her about some of the pets I have back at home (how do you describe a ferret?). They have a parakeet, a bunny named Espoti (aka Spotty in English), Turtles, Fish, and Enrique has a pet snake. I couldn't keep Elena's attention for long though since she just started reading Twighlight in Spanish.

My dad called a little before midnight and I basically updated him on missing suitcases and stuff. I was also glad to talk to my mom for awhile after she got home from work. It was nice to hear some familiar voices. They had nothing new to tell me except that they got a clock for the family room with Chicago and Barcelona time so they know when to call me and when not to. After hanging up, I passed out almost as soon as I hit the pillow.

Yesterday, we went on a trip into the mountains to see the towns of Besalú and Vic. We got tours all in Spanish with a thick spanish accent but I think I understood quite a bit of it. I had to wake up at 7 to be at the buses by 8 and was planning on just grabbing something and running out the door, but instead I ran into the kitchen to find Lola making me breakfast. I scarfed everything down and ran out the door thinking for sure that I'd miss the bus but we didn't end up leaving until 8:30 waiting for people who were even later than I was. We drove out of the city and up through the mountains (which remind me of the foot hills outside of Denver) to get to our first stop Besalú. I'm posting pictures since I can't begin to describe to you what I saw. In the pictures you'll see chairs mounted to walls which the people I met on the trip and I thought were hilarious but I'm not sure why they were mounted to the walls. There was also another that was a good 8 feet tall or so.

After that, we headed to Vic which was further out in the mountains. I didn't like it quite as much as Besalú but the cathedral there was beyond incredible. My camera started to die at this point so there's only a few pictures of the inside but it's the only one like it in the world... completely unique. I don't know if the pictures do it justice but at least you'll have an idea. From the outside it looked like nothing so everybody's jaws dropped to the floor when they walked in. We also got the chance to sit down for lunch in Vic (a full 2 and a half hours!). I met up with 3 kids named Nicole, Filipe, and Tony afterwards and we went to this small family owned and operated restaurant. It was a completely random choice but ultimately good deal with 2 courses, dessert, a coffee, juice, and another drink of your choice for 12 euros whether that drink was wine, beer or whatever. Lunch is their biggest meal of the day here so don't be shocked by all the food. I had peach juice, a spinach crepe which was my favorite part unlike anything else I've ever had, a variety of meat with beans for the second plate, some puffy thing with fruit in the middle for dessert, and coffee (made extremely strong... you should have seen the packet of sugar it came with despite that the cup was so small that you could only grip with 2 fingers). After that, we sat and talked for probably 2 hours before heading back to the rest of the group. It is so nice to just sit and relax rather than knowing you only have an hour or so for lunch like in the US.

We got back to Barcelona at about 6:30 but with a GIANT protest going on in the center of town, we had to take the round about way through an outrageous amount of traffic until they finally decided we weren't going to be able to make it into the center of town. If you think you've seen protests in the US, you haven't seen anything like it unless you were part of the civil rights movement. There were thousands of people marching through the center of town with flags and banners and signs, chanting protests against some war, and standing ontop of newspaper stands and stuff. Helicopters were buzzing overhead while police stood by in case things went bad with squad cars and police vans. Anybody who wasn't involved in it was mostly just walking by like it was relatively normal or walking closer (chances are that they were tourists) to snap pictures or join in. The program leaders kept telling us how they were sure it was safe but then continued to warn us that we should not join no matter what. A few of us walked to the center to see if we could pick up our suitcases that had been lost but came back empty handed. The program center wasn't open probably because of the protest.

I went home frustrated about my suitcase and upset when I realized that if IES had closed on Saturday and not gotten my suitcase delivered, that I'd have to wait until Monday. I'm so tired of wearing the same rotation of clothes and not having my webcam, or having my toiletries to clean up with. I feel bad having to borrow everything from my host famliy and roomate. On top of that I had a sore throat (probably because of traveling) and was exhausted from the day. Staying in was really tempting but my roomie and a couple friends dragged me out of the house. I didn't think anything else could get to me so I agreed, got ready, and went out just to realize that my debit card wouldn't work. All I had was 8 euros but I convinced myself that now, nothing else bad really could happen unless I am the unluckiest person in the world.

A group of about 10 of us went to this irish bar (maybe it improve my luck ;)) and I ordered my first legal drink ever, Malibu with pineapple juice. It was delicious! We basically sat back and relaxed for awhile and talked and took in the sights. There was a group of a ton of guys belting out every song that came on (American music like "Uptown Girl" which they played multiple times, "We are the Champions" and stuff like that). Another group was chanting "We are hull" over and over again in the back of the bar but even after asking them what hull is, I still don't know what exactly it means (crazy English dudes!).

Next, we decided to go to a club a few blocks of the way from the bar. We tried to make it there by 2am so we could get in free but ended up being like 5 minutes late. There was no way in hell we were about to pay 15 euros to get into the club so instead, a couple of the girls in the group worked some magic and got all 6 of us (4 girls and 2 guys) who wanted in for free with just a little bit of charming the bouncer. The rest of the line ended up having to pay :) Alex bought me a vodka cranberry and we danced all the way up until 4am. It was all european techno but we really did have a blast and felt good about it having not spent a dime to get in. My only complaint about it was the smoking. It's been a year since all of Chicago and many places in the US went smoke-free so coming home reeking like smoke sucks and I'm not used to that yet. The cooler thing about spanish culture is that when you meet a new person, rather than shaking hands, a kiss on each cheek is your introduction. In my opinion, that's a lot cooler than our hand shake in the US.

Today was the first time that I actually took it easy and slept off the jet lag. Alex and I woke up at 8:30 for breakfast but at about noon, we jumped back into bed and passed out until 4. At that point, I woke up and showered but got out still feeling pretty crappy from the cold I probably caught on the airplane so I went back to sleep. I'm hoping it doesn't last long and that it's just a little bit of a sore throat from the stress and lack of sleep. Besides sleep, I mostly was getting the few things I have settled in and taking it easier before spanish classes start tomorrow. I also went to watch the kids play in the family room for a little bit. They've got a Wii but were playing games I've never seen before. The cutest part was that when one of them was playing and getting close to winning, they all started jumping up and down for her and Carlos and Lola came from the other side of the house to watch too. They are really a cute family.

Dinner was interesting but extremely tough to stomach. When you hear Spanish ham, most of you probably expect something similar to the ham we eat in the US. You have no idea. Lola put out 4 different kinds of meat for us to try but I can't tell you what they all were. The smell was absolutely disgusting... probably worse than anything else I've ever smelled and trying to eat them was torture. I honestly thought I was going to puke all over their table. At one point, Lola came to check in on us to see how we were and felt the need to show us where she got one of the meats from and pull a pig leg out from the opposite side of the kitchen (a gift from her mother and her absolute favorite). You could clearly see where she had scraped pieces from the leg and served up on the plate. I'm really glad she didn't show us where the others came from but we had a full plate and she asked that we try them all and report back which we liked the best so we could have it again. Every single one made us gag so ultimately it was which one we could best cover up by chasing it with bread or water or whatever else was on our plates. I felt bad for not finishing the whole plate but I think leaving leftovers is better than throwing up everything. At least they enjoyed the leftovers. After we assured Lola we were done and pick out the one that was most bearable, she popped a piece of pig leg in her mouth like it was candy saying that it was her absolute favorite. When we offered a piece to Enrique, he did the exact same thing looking all excited and thanking us like we had given him a piece of bubble gum. I can't believe that someone would enjoy eating this kind of stuff. These spaniards must have really screwed up taste buds. Up until now, I've had no problem eating everything on my plate but after tonight, I'm nervous about what she'll bring out tomorrow.