Author Archives: spt5037

Hedgemazes and Sitges Carnival

The first two weeks of March had its ups and downs.

The week was relatively warm, so one day I grabbed a drink similar to a “Yoo-Hoo”, sat on a bench in a park, and read my psychology book for a while in the sun. I think I’ll have to start doing this more often, especially with the way my psychology grade looks right now…

My nights that week were all very exciting. One night, I went with a group of people to an indie rock bar in a neighborhood in Barcelona that is known for its welcoming and original bar scene full of locals. While some people studying here stray away from this area for that exact reason, my friends and I embrace it. Each time we have bar-hopped there, we met interesting people and got great prices on drinks. Anyways, the indie bar was interesting, but the band was really bad. I like indie music, but this band only sang Spanish indie songs that were just awful. They also performed one of the worst covers of The Cure’s “Boys Don’t Cry” that I have ever heard. Another night, we went to another live music club in a different area of the city. This place was a lot more classy and calm. We bought a bottle of wine for the concert and it came in an ice bucket and a waiter to pour it for us. I felt so special. The musician was an Argentine guitarist who was excellent. He played for about 2 full hours and kept us entertained the whole time. One of his songs was exceptional, and I tried to find it on youtube, but my search was fruitless. One of the other nights we went to one of the most fun bars I have ever been to. It is a giant warehouse that is full of tables (Hofbrahaus style), foosball, and pool tables. At this bar you can order “towers” of beer. It is a giant container of beer that comes with its own tap. There are students from all over the world at this bar, and it always makes for a good time.

On Saturday afternoon, my friend Emily and I ventured to a beautiful garden/park on the northern city limits. Parc Laberint is a garden with a confusing hedgemaze, a pond, a waterfall, many statues, and an extensive romantic garden which was extremely peaceful. I couldn’t help but feel I was in the Tri-wizard Tournament from the Harry Potter series. At the entrance to the parc, there was even a giant trophy-like cup that was similar to what I imagined the Tri-Wizard cup to look like. I had a blast walking around the gardens and taking pictures. It was exhausting though, so I took a nap next to a hermit hut that reminded me of the Shire. After the nap, we stopped to get a small bite to eat. Next to the food stand was a playground. Of course I had to go play on it! Spanish playgrounds are so much cooler than American ones! Maybe is the safety rules and restrictions that are set up in the States. As a 21 year old, I had so much fun playing on the playground; I would have been overwhelmed with excitement if I went there as a child. I am definitely going to back to the park to take more pictures because unfortunately I don’t have any to share. But I’m getting ahead of myself…

Sunday I hopped on a train to the city of Sitges, which is a small city about 45 minutes south of Barcelona. Travis, Eric, and I were going to Sitges for our second Carnaval fiesta. I knew it was going to be an interesting night; Carnival and the fact that Sitges is the homosexual capital of Spain is a dangerous combination. I had bought a cheap mask and a glittery hat, but I wasn’t dressing up as anything too fancy. Travis painted his whole face silver and wore a batman mask. It looked awesome. We got there and explored the city a little bit. We walked down to the beach and watched the sunset from the seaside church. It was really beautiful with green palm trees and golden beaches and the blue sea. After dinner we found a place to watch the parade. After witnessing the elaborate floats and costumes of Nice’s Carnival parade, I guess you could say I was a little bit spoiled. The parade was good, but it was not as extravagant or as fun as Nice. There were less clothes on the people in the parade, though. It was still a good time

After the parade, the streets were absolutely crazy. It was like one giant club, people were everywhere and loud music was blaring from every bar. To make a long story short, when we left one of the bars, I know I had my camera on a string around my wrist because I was spinning it. Then, as we meandered through the crowd while we looked for the train station, I went to take a picture of something and noticed my camera was gone. I have no idea how it disappeared, but I assume somebody cut the string without me realizing it. So of course I was pretty distraught. I had taken over 150 pictures throughout the day, some of which were very funny.

Not to mention I would now have to buy a new camera in Europe which mean shelling out more cash than I already was. (Good thing I had a 1,000 dollar bill!) Then we realized we had no idea where the train station was. So I had just lost my camera and now we were lost in a foreign city. At least we weren’t alone. We ran into others who were lost as well. Eventually we could see the train station, but could not get to it because the police had blocked all the roads and bridges leading to the station except for one road. It took us a half hour to get on that road and get in line for the train. This was the 5:30 am train back to Barcelona and hundreds of people packed into the train like sardines after a long night of celebrating Carnival. It was a long, exhausting trip back. I didn’t get back to my homestay until almost 8 am. That afternoon, I dreamed that I still had my camera. It was brutal.

I had two field trips to museums in Barcelona the following week. On Wednesday March 9^th, I went to the “Sun Factory” with my Sustainability class. It is an interesting building near the beach that used to be home to the gas company. Since the gas company moved into a much bigger, better, and more beautiful building, the old building has become a museum dedicated to explaining ways to be more sustainable, and in particular how to fully utilize the sun. It was interesting, but a little bit boring. The following day I went to the Olympic Museum with my Sport and Society class. I really enjoyed this museum. It had thousands of artifacts from the 1992 Olympics that were held in Barcelona. They had memorabilia from sports I had never even heard of before!

The weekend had terrible weather. I think it rained every day. I stayed in Barcelona and relaxed. Eric and I bought an “Articket”. It is an entrance ticket to 7 museums in Barcelona, including “La Pedrera” and the Picasso Museum. It cost 21 euros, which comes out to only 3 euros per museum! We visited MACBA, which is the Museum of Contemporary Art. I’m not a fan of contemporary art, but I keep going to art museums hoping one of them will change my mind. We went on a tour (in English) hoping to understand some of the works of “art” in the museum, but to be honest it just confused me more. I simply don’t see the complexities in some of the mundane and simplistic paintings and sculptures. Some works of art were interesting, but most just made absolutely no sense and seemed to require no artistic skill whatsoever. That night, Penn State basketball played Michigan State in the Big Ten semi-final game. I had met a whole group of MSU students earlier in the week who were in Barcelona for the weekend. They convinced the owner of an English pub to play the game. It was me vs. 21 Michigan State fans. I cheered on our Nittany Lions to a victory! I should congratulate the team for making the NCAA tournament for the first time in a while. Unfortunately, I was not able to see the game vs Temple because it coincided with football (soccer) games, so the football games took precedence in all of the bars. Sunday night we found a small bar to watch the FC Barcelona game in. Watching the games with locals is so intense and their passion is contagious. I can’t wait to go to a Bar�a game on April 10^th! It is going to be unbelievable. First I need to buy a Messi jersey!

So if you were wondering why I don’t have many pictures from the two weeks covered in this entry, it is because somebody else somewhere is looking through the pictures on my camera. I eventually did buy a new camera, which is actually better than the one that was stolen. It cost a lot of money, but I had to buy one to document the craziness that was Las Fallas. I will be posting an entry about Las Fallas and another about my trip to Ireland as soon as I have time.

Hasta luego!

~Sean

Location: Sitges, Spain

My Girona

I apologize for the gap between blog posts. The past few weeks I have been extremely busy with schoolwork and exploring Barcelona.

It was another exciting weekend in Barcelona. The thing I like most about this city is that there are so many different things that you can do here. I haven’t even explored the beach yet now that the weather is getting better. I guess that is my goal in the upcoming weeks. Unfortunately the school work is starting to pile up, and it seems that every day I lose more and more of my free time.

Thursday, February 24, I went to RCD Espanyol’s stadium with my Sport and Society in Spain class. Espanyol is the other, less known soccer team in Barcelona. If you didn’t know, the term “soccer” is never said here in Spain, or even in Europe. Europeans always refer to soccer as football. The stadium was very, very nice, having been constructed in 2009. The tour started off with a 3-D movie about the club’s history. After the movie, we got to see the home team’s locker room, which was very nice and clean. The highlight of the visit was when we were allowed to go on the pitch (the field) and sit on the team’s bench. We weren’t supposed to step on the grass, but some rules were meant to be broken…

Friday the 25th was an interesting day for me. I made a last minute decision to go on a free field trip sponsored by my Sustainability class. The field trip was to Can Masdeu, a former leper hospital that became a squatted settlement and is now home to ecologists and activists who live off of the land. They build things completely from recycled materials. For example, they use a bicycle to run a washing machine instead of using electricity. They built a dry bathroom from used materials that they gathered around the community and in Barcelona. It was a very interesting trip and I learned a lot. The hospital that the 20 members of the settlement live in is very dilapidated, but they make the best of it. I found the whole place to be very cool. It was an old hospital surrounded by gardens, in the middle of a mountain, with a great view of the city of Barcelona. It is truly amazing what people can do with so little materials. Unfortunately, it was a little awkward because I was the only student from the class who showed up, so it was just my professor and me on a 4 hour field trip together. I hope he gives me some extra credit for that!

Saturday, the 26^th of February, was another long day. My friend Molly and I set out in the morning to catch a train to the nearby city of Girona. I had heard it was very easy to purchase a ticket at the train station, but naturally nothing is ever as easy as people say it is. It took so long to figure out how to buy a ticket that we missed our train. Once we finally found an employee who spoke a little bit of English, we discovered that we had an hour to kill until the next train. We explored the area near the train station and found a really cool city park. It was really pretty even though the water was a nauseating color of green. This park even had a giant metal dragon that doubled as a slide. Because I still have the mind of a twelve year old, I was enthralled with this dragon. I couldn’t believe how fast you went down the slides! It was a lot of fun, even though the whole thing smelled like urine and I’m pretty sure homeless people slept in the dragon.

The train ride lasted about an hour and a half, and showed us some of the countryside of Spain. When we got off the bus, we ran into two other kids who are studying with us at IES and the 4 of us joined forces for the adventure. Girona is a very interesting city. It has residential buildings that tower over a canal-like river.

The buildings are very colorful and the river is nearly still, which allows for a unique reflection of the buildings in the river. Throughout the history of the city, it was home to Romans, Moors, and Jews. Influences from each of these inhabitants are present in the city to this day, which makes for interesting multi-cultural sightseeing. There is an Arab bathhouse, which was really just some ruins. Since I like archaeology, I was intrigued by the old architecture of the bathhouse and the artifacts that remained. There was a beautiful iglesia, or church, which had many shrines and a cloister. We also walked through the Jewish Quarter. The streets were so tiny and beautiful with flowers and vines hanging from the balconies above. The streets and walkways seemed to disappear into the buildings as they wound through the city. We then walked to the top of the fort structure that overlooked all of the city. It was so beautiful with the mountains in the background. After that we walked along the “Great Wall of Girona”. It is a fortified wall that surrounds the old city of Girona. I don’t know the real name of the wall, but it reminded me of the great wall of China, only not as great. After walking along the wall, we finally found our way to the Catedral de Girona, which was a truly impressive Cathedral. Unfortunately, I got scolded for taking a picture and disrupting the sanctity of the cathedral. I’m Catholic, so I was offended that I couldn’t take pictures of how ornate everything looked. There were about 25 shrines surrounding the altar. Each shrine either contained a sarcophagus or a gold altar piece from another church. After exploring the cathedral for a little bit, and being denied entrance to the bell tower, we decided to head home. On the way home, we made a pit stop at the Cinema Museum. This museum charted the first hundred years or so of film. It was fascinating to see the way film progressed. Being somewhat of a film and cinema geek, I really enjoyed looking at all of the antique cameras and recorders and video boxes. After spending a long time in the film museum, we hopped on a train back to Barcelona.

On Sunday, I went to my first Spanish movie theater. My “Contemporary Spanish Film” teacher challenged us with viewing a movie in Spanish, in a Spanish cinema, and writing a review about it. I had never watched a foreign movie without subtitles before, so I knew it was going to be an experience. I bought my ticket and the guy at the ticket booth mumbled something in Spanish to me. I just replied “Si,” and headed into the theater. Well, apparently in Spain they give you an assigned seat in the theater. I should have realized this when I saw people getting kicked out of the seats by others. I was sitting in a nearly empty row in the middle of the theater. About two minutes after the movie starts, I see two older ladies walk into my row and I just rolled my eyes. Of course, I was sitting in their seats. They refused to sit anywhere else in a nearly empty theater. They insisted on sitting in the seat I was sitting in. So I had to crawl over people to find a new seat somewhere in the theater that would not be occupied. It was very annoying and the language barrier was frustrating. The movie was Tamien La Lluvia which in English is “Even The Rain.” It was an excellent movie, from what I understood. I enjoyed going to the theater, but I would appreciate subtitles.

This weekend also marked the end of the time of “Rebaixes” or sales period. For two months, nearly every retail store in BCN offered great deals on clothes. So on the last day of the sales, I took advantage of it and made some interesting purchases (including a V-neck). Still not so sure how I feel about that one…

I’m a little bit behind on my blogging, so I am going to write three one-week installments to catch up instead of writing an incredibly long and ponderous post.

Hasta Luego!

~Sean

Location: Girona, Spain

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous: The French Riviera

I spent this past weekend in one of the most beautiful places in the world, Côte d’Azur also known as The French Riviera. It is also one of the richest places in the world. The cars, the hotels, the palaces, the boutiques, and even the restaurants all showed the wealth and glamour of this part of the world. The coastal landscape was absolutely breathtaking and the blue water looked so refreshing. It is too bad that the water was too cold to swim in…

My adventure started on Thursday night when I boarded a mini-bus headed from Barcelona to Nice, France. The trip was through EuroAdventures, a travel company that organizes bus trips for students studying abroad in Europe. We were on a mini tour bus, but it was kind of uncomfortable. Luckily, we had 4 movies to entertain us on the trip up. With the movies, the 9 hour bus ride did not seem that long at all. Interestingly, in Spain there are a lot of rules restricting bus drivers and truck drivers. For every 2 hours on the road, the driver had to stop for a half hour or so. That got a little bit annoying, but at least it gave me a chance to stretch my legs and grab some food. We arrived at our hotel at around 3:30 am.

The next morning we caught a train to the second smallest country in the world, Monaco. It was about a half hour train ride, but the train tracks ran right along the coast so I had spectacular views of the landscape for the whole ride. The first thing we did in Monaco was take a bus to the Prince’s Palace and the Cathedral of Monaco. Unfortunately the Cathedral, which was where Princess Grace Kelly married the former Prince of Monaco, was closed due to construction. Not only did the construction restrict entrance to the Cathedral, but it also was an eyesore to an otherwise elegant building. The Prince’s Palace was also under construction, but the grounds and the building were still very regal. The view of Port of Hercules from the Prince’s Palace was unbelievable: fancy, expensive boats and yachts floating in incredibly blue water surrounded by cliffs and the Mediterranean. From there it was only a short walk to the Exotic Gardens, which were very pretty. The gardens contained statues, flowers, fountains, and birds, and opened up to a great view of the Mediterranean Sea. After the gardens, we walked around Monaco a little bit before heading toward the highlight of the day, playing Roulette at the Monte-Carlo Casino. It was €10 just to enter and they made us bag-check our cameras and phones so we were unable to take pictures of the inside. I wish I could have had my camera; the inside of the casino was extremely elegant with ornate chandeliers, paintings, and gold everywhere. It was so cool being inside such a stylish casino, surrounded by the rich high-rollers. That day was the first time I ever saw a €500 bill. We played a few slots, but once again, I hardly won anything on the slots and I went through €10 very quickly. So after some observation, I headed over to the roulette table with the lowest minimum bet at €5. I wanted to play some blackjack, but the minimum bet was €25 and I am terrible at blackjack. I spent a lot of time at the roulette table, having my ups and downs, but always staying around the break-even point. In the end, after the ball landed on “0” a few times, I found myself down €20. My roommate on the other hand won €175 with his last chip. I walked out of the casino down €40 in total (10 to enter, 10 at the slots, 20 at roulette) which I didn’t think was too bad considering where I was gambling. For example, one guy at our table was betting at least €800 on every spin. Whew! I one of my €5 chips as a souvenir of my gambling experience at the Monte Carlo.

After losing money at the casino I hopped on a train and headed back to Nice to grab some dinner. We were told that Nice had excellent seafood and pizza. Anybody who knows me will surely know what my vote was. We went to a pizza place right near our hotel that had one of the best pizzas I have ever tasted in my life–and I’ve had a lot of pizza in my 21 years. I got a chorizo pizza, which is like the European equivalent of pepperoni, and a glass of wine. I was in heaven. The cheese and the thin crust and the chorizo were perfect. After the pizza, the guys at EuroAdventures offered all of us students free champagne at the hotel before exploring the Nice bar scene for the night. I realized that night that I am spoiled with the originality of the bars in Barcelona. In Nice, the bars had excellent live bands that played popular alternative music from the US and UK, but the drinks were very expensive and the bars themselves were very plain.

On Saturday we took the morning train to Cannes, the site of the famous annual film festival. Once again, the tracks were right on the coast, so the ride was full of stunning views. When we got to Cannes, we headed to the Cannes Palais des Festivals et des Congrès which is a giant convention center/auditorium where the Cannes Film Festival is held. Once again, due to construction, the building was closed. We were not allowed in the back lot because they were setting up for a gaming festival that was happening the following weekend. That was ultimately disappointing. I was looking forward to seeing the building and maybe seeing a famous director or something. I guess it was just wishful thinking. There was a miniature “Walk of Fame” in the area surrounding the Palais with famous movie stars’ and directors’ hand prints in the concrete. After spending some relaxing time enjoying the sun on the beach and on a dock extending out towards the Mediterannean, we looked for a place to eat along the famous Promenade de la Croisette. On the Promenade, we passed many expensive shops, boutiques, and hotels such as Chanel, Gucci, Prada, and about a hundred other fancy looking designer boutiques that I had never heard of because I don’t know the first thing about fashion or trendy clothing. We eventually found another pizza place aptly named “La Pizza”.

I have to say it was the name that most attracted me to the restaurant. In the states, an €18 ($24) pizza would have turned me away in a heartbeat, but I’m only in France once. This pizza, heated in a brick oven, could have even been better than the first one. The chorizo was very spicy, and the cheese was extremely flavorful. It was very filling but very delicious. After eating so much fantastic pizza in France, I hope to make a trip to Italy to try some original Italian pizza!

From the pizza place, we ventured up a hill to an archaeology museum that had an ancient tower with a panoramic view of the city. I think I mentioned this in another blog entry, but I am very interested in archaeology and ancient artifacts so I enjoyed looking through all of the rooms, especially a room filled with Egyptian and Christian sarcophagi.

The view from the top of the tower was stunning. On one side there were snow covered mountains and on the other were golden sandy beaches and bright blue water. It was awesome. I could have spent the whole day up on that tower just taking in the view and appreciating where I was.

After sneaking onto the train back to Nice because I lost my train ticket, we got some inexpensive kebabs for dinner. I couldn’t believe it when I found out they had ranch sauce for the kebab. Of course I got it and it didn’t disappoint. Then we got ready and headed out to the Carnival parade. It is hard to explain how cool the parade was. Of course it was crazy; there was silly string and confetti flying in all directions.

I was covered in both within 5 minutes. There were thousands of people packed into the streets as giant, ornate floats drove through the crowd. I have seen the balloons at The Macy’s Day Parade in New York and I have seen floats in many other parades, but nothing compares to the floats in Carnival. The people are decked out from head to toe in colorful costumes, so much so that they don’t look human at first. The balloons were huge and the floats depicted scenes from French culture and historical figures from Nice. It was a long, fun night that culminated in getting lost in the streets of Nice after the parade ended.

The next morning I met up with Morgan and Renan who I had met the night before. They live in Nice and offered to show me around the city for the day. I had a blast walking with them to the Castel, which offered fantastic views of Nice and the port. From the Castel, I followed them all around the city, taking pictures, and they told me about French culture, French people, and about the way of life in Nice. We got lunch at a bar by the port and I ordered a delicious pasta dish. In the bar on the TV was the music video of Wiz Khalifa’s “Black and Yellow”. It was a little bit surreal seeing my hometown on a TV in a small bar in Nice, France. They were incredibly nice, friendly people and if they read this I hope they know how thankful I was for the experience that day. Morgan even gave me delicious croissants and pain au chocolat for the bus ride home!

I was surprised at the friendliness of the French during my visit; not only Renan, but also all of the people in the stores and people that I asked for directions. A lot of people talk about the French hating Americans and about the terrible experiences they have, particularly in Paris, with the locals. I had no such experience. I was also shocked at the amount of people who spoke English in the French Riviera. However, that could be due to the tourism aspect of the area…

The bus ride home seemed to drag on longer than the ride there, but that is usually the way these type of things go. Luckily, it was still light out for most of the ride back so I had an opportunity to see some of the landscape of France and Spain that were very different than what I had seen so far. After 9 hours and 4 more movies, we arrived in Barcelona around 1:30 am. Lucky for me I still had a Spanish essay to write, so it was a long night to end a long, exciting, enriching, beautiful, breathtaking weekend. I had a great time in the French Riviera and experiencing Carnival!

Hasta Luego!

Sean

Location: Nice, France

A Little Bit of Catalan Culture

Well I forgot to mention another thing that was included in the Super Bowl deal we got at the bar – food poisoning. Yes, I got food poisoning, my roommate got food poisoning, and rumor has it nearly 30 other students from IES missed class due to food poisoning last Tuesday, all of whom were with me at the bar. I guess “unlimited wings” were just too good to be true. I knew the chicken didn´t look too appetizing, I should have known it was going to make me sick. But the food poisoning struck hard and fast; after only one full day of lying in bed, physically incapable of moving, I was fine the next day. Aside from a bad cough which I have been battling for the past two weeks, everything is A-OK.

On another negative note, the school work here is starting to pick up. I find it very difficult to do work here, simply because I have no motivation. I keep thinking of all of the other interesting things I could be doing instead of sitting in my room doing homework. There are parks, museums, beaches, and bars that I could be exploring instead of reading 50 pages about Freud’s stages of psychosexual development. I had my first midterm already and I have 3 more to come in the next week. I should probably start preparing.

On Friday night, my roommate and I decided to venture into “La Garrafa de los Beatles” which roughly translates to “The Beatles Pub”. I’m not the biggest Beatles fan, but I was excited to see a live band playing Beatles music and see some old memorabilia from the glory days of rock n roll. As soon as we walked into the bar, we knew it was going to be a disappointing experience. A Barcelona Guide Book told us to get to the bar early because it is a small bar and reaches capacity very quickly. We arrived around 10:30 to find the bar nearly empty. There was a live band playing 60’s and 70’s music, but they were not playing Beatles songs and the songs they did play were sung in very bad English. The beers were very expensive, and the whole atmosphere was awkward. After a while, more people showed up and we struck up a conversation with the bartender who told us that the Beatles cover band that the bar is known for would be going on the stage at 1:00 am. I walked around the bar looking at the different memorabilia and I wanted to take pictures, but I felt really uncomfortable doing it, so I kept the pictures to a minimum. We decided not to wait 2 and a half hours to see the performance, but they perform every night so we figured we could go back on another night. When we left the bar, we were the only people under 35 in the whole place.

I made my second trip to Montjuïc on Saturday. It was just as thrilling as the first time, only I did not get to catch the sunset from the castle/fort. I went with a group of friends to the castle, to the Olympic Stadium, to Palau Nacional, and around Plaça Espanya. I saw the same sights I did the first time I visited this beautiful part of Barcelona, but I did more things. For example, I climbed up the Communication Tower in the Olymic Park, which was really cool actually. For lunch in Castell de Montjuïc (Montjuïc Castle), I got one of the worst pizzas and one of the worst glasses of sangria I have ever had. After walking around the Olympic Park for a while, we headed down to Palau Nacional, which is a palace that houses the National Art Museum of Catalonia. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to visit the museum, but the palace and the views are breathtaking. At the base of Palau Nacional, right near the Magic Fountains that run lighted fountain shows every night, there is a world-wide mobile telephone conference. This conference/convention is huge! I would really like to sneak in and see the newest technologies in cell phones, and maybe even get some free stuff while I’m at it.

After a siesta and dinner, I was too exhausted to a nightclub, so I decided to find a cool, local bar. My internet search eventually landed me at a site called worldsbestbars.com. There, travelers talk about their experiences at local bars and which ones they would recommend. The travelers talked of a bar conveniently located right off of Las Ramblas that has the best cocktails in Barcelona. The name of the bar was Boadas Bar, and it is said that it was Hemmingway’s favorite bar to visit while he was in Barcelona. The bar was incredible small, but it was very intimate. Nearly every person in the bar was a local or a traveler (a.k.a there were no American students there, which was a relief) and they were all over 40. The bartenders wore tuxedos and were professional drink makers. The site recommended a mojito, so that’s what I ordered. It was hands-down the best cocktail I have had since turning 21 in July, even if it was a little bit on the expensive side. To me, it is so much more interesting exploring local bars such as The Beatles Pub and Boadas Bar than venturing to a different club every night, which is what a lot of the American students do. The nightlife here is one-of-a-kind, but all of the clubs are more-or-less the same. Each bar here has its own personality, its own atmosphere, and its own collection of original drinks.

Sunday was an extremely cultural day for me. I went to one of the Plazas in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona for the Festival de Santa Eulalia. It is a Catalan holiday for the children of Barcelona showcasing Catalan culture. The plaza was packed with people, mostly locals, and around the outer sides of the plaza stood giant figures called gegants which towered over everyone. Catalan music started playing and the gegants would march through the crowd into the center of the plaza where they shared a surprisingly graceful (considering their size) dance. The dancing giant figures were really well made and very cool. I wanted to operate one and dance around the plaza! After the gegants left the plaza, the castellers entered. I talked about the castellers in one of my earlier posts–they are the teams who build human towers. Each area’s team of castellers entered the plaza with a walking tower of 1 column of 4 people. They call this a “1 de 4”. After all the teams entered, they began building more complex and difficult towers. It was truly amazing to see in person. The strength, concentration, and teamwork of each person in the tower really demonstrate the pride and dedication to one’s culture. The top of each tower is a child, usually around 4 or 5! Don’t worry though, they wear a specially designed helmet to protect them, and the people below them, from falls. It was spectacular watching one team build a tower of 4 columns of people stacked 7 people high, and then build a single column in the middle of those four. It’s a lot harder to explain than it should be, maybe I should just let the pictures do the talking. As you can tell from the pictures, it was a beautiful winter day in Barcelona: 60˚F and sunny.

In my Spanish film class, we started watching some of Pedro Almodóvar’s early films. Without getting into too much detail, I’ll just say that his films are definitely original, shocking, and hysterical. I would compare the content his early work to some of John Waters’ movies. I am much more interested in the class now that we are talking about film history instead of the history surrounding the film. To me, it is much more interesting to compare the movies in Spain in the 80’s to the movies of today than to talk about subtle satirical symbols of the Franco regime in Spanish movies of the 70s.

Monday was St. Valentine’s Day, or as they call it here Día de los Enamorades. For a city with as much “public displays of affection” as Barcelona, I was a little bit disappointed with the amount of love in the air. One of my teachers told me that people in Barcelona see St. Valentine’s Day as too commercial, which is probably true. In fact, the only stores in Barcelona that were advertising Valentine’s Day were the lingerie stores, which isn’t surprising. I was lucky enough to receive Valentine’s Day cards from my mom and my girlfriend, but it kind of made me miss home. Apparently there is another day to show affection in Barcelona, Día de St. Jordi (St. George’s Day) on April 23^rd. On this day, the women give men a book, and the men give the women a rose: “a rose for a love and a book forever”. Apparently, Barcelona is an exciting place to be on this day and Las Ramblas is full of street performers, “sardana” dancers, and a 24 hour marathon of a public reading of Don Quixote. Unfortunately, this is during my Spring Break, and if I ever get around to planning a trip, I will not be in Barcelona to celebrate St. George’s Day.

Last night, finished the book I had been reading for the last week or so, Stephen King’s The Green Mile. I had seen the movie, but never read the book. I thought the movie was great, but the book was so much better. It was a little bit slow starting off, but by the end I literally couldn’t put it down. I highly recommend it. I wanted to finish it last night so I could start a new novel during my trip to the French Riviera.

My trip to the French Riviera this weekend was almost canceled. I received an e-mail on Monday from the travel company informing me that a group of people bailed on the trip and they did not have enough people to run the trip. I was pretty upset by this news because I had been looking forward to seeing a new part of the world all week. Luckily on Tuesday, the travel company sent another e-mail confirming that the trip was still happening. 8 people must have signed up at the last minute. Muchas gracias to those 8 people. So, in a few short hours, I will be on a bus headed to Nice, France. I can’t wait! Maybe I’ll even hit the jackpot at the Monte Carlo Casino…

Hasta Luego,

Sean

Location: Barcelona, Spain

Montserrat: The Serrated Mountain

I had thought that at some point this semester, I would start to have some free time here in Barcelona, but if this week was anything like the upcoming weeks, I will be constantly exploring, studying, and experiencing new things.

I’ll start with my exciting classes this week. While some classes are extremely boring and nearly impossible to keep my eyes open, others are very interesting and nearly impossible not to pay attention. For example, in my Sport and Society in Spain class, some castellers visited our class. These are the people who build giant human towers in the streets of Spain. They told us about the history of the “sport” and even showed us how to properly build a castell, or tower. After they showed us the correct way to climb a tower, they had us build a tower ourselves. I really learned to appreciate the skill and strength that is required to build one of these. It took our whole class to get one person safely into a second level and I was exhausted after it. The castellers are able to get 10 layers of 3 people into the air. It truly is incredible. See for yourself how intense and dangerous this cultural event is. The person on top of the tower is almost always a child. Those are some brave ni�os!

In my Sustainability class, we went on a field trip to an energy conservation office. Here is home to the first residential solar panel in Spain and a lot of other inventive ways to be more energy efficient such as solar cookers, worm composting boxes, and urban gardens. I thought it was very motivating to see people care so much about the environment and the ways they are trying to help others have the same opinion. They really push the “full circle of life” idea that waste can be made into food. In my opinion, this is a great idea but it takes way too long to come full circle; from vegetable, to food, to compost, to soil for more vegetables and fruits.

In my Spanish film class we watched The Spirit of the Beehive, a 1973 “masterpiece of Spanish cinema” due to its extreme use of symbolism to subtly criticize the Franco regime. Then we talked about the symbolism in the movie for an hour and a half. My teacher was guilty of what I like to call “The Old Man and the Sea Complex”. According to my theory, the symbolism in a piece of art is over-analyzed and broken down piece by piece to find the depth in such a superficial and ordinary plot (i.e. The Old Man and the Sea is simply about a man going fishing). While the film definitely had a lot of symbolism and did a good job of criticizing Spanish life under the Franco dictatorship, not every single scene has a hidden meaning. It was so frustrating to hear the students try to sound deep and observant as they attempted to make every single thing in the movie a symbol for something else. Even though the film can be found on any “Best of World Cinema” list, I was not a fan.

On Saturday, IES sponsored a bus trip to Montserrat (“serrated mountain”) which is a mountain that seems to just shoot out of the Catalonian landscape about an hour outside of Barcelona. Montserrat is home to a Benedictine monastery that is built into the rock and was a place of shelter for hermits and monks for hundreds of years. The road up the mountain was very small and very winding. I felt like I was back in Costa Rica; every time I looked out of the window of the tour bus, it felt like we were going to fall off the edge of a cliff. Looking out at the landscape featuring bald rock faces and lush green ferns, I thought was on the planet Pandora from Avatar. The rock formations are very odd and seem to come from another planet. The peaks rise out of the clouds and offer fantastic views of Catalonia.

At 65 degrees Farenheidt and sunny, we had absolutely beautiful weather. Due to the nearly perfect weather, there was a clear view of the snow capped Pyrenees rising out of the horizon. It was exciting, beautiful, and serene. I couldn’t imagine being able to live on top of the mountain like the hermits did, and being able to see the stunning landscape every morning. The tour group I was with was very slow and kept stopping every 20 minutes or so for no apparent reason, so my roommate, another friend, and I broke off from the group and did some adventuring on our own. We hiked to the peak of one of the rocks and sat there and ate lunch over looking hills, mountains, rivers, and Barcelona in the distance.

There was also a monument that looked like a giant’s staircase that seemed to hang out over the edge of the mountain. After seeing some kids climbing it, I knew I had to give it a try. I got my adrenaline fix that day climbing up the giant’s staircase, sitting on top, and looking down below me. It was scary and awesome at the same time. Plus, it made for some pretty cool pictures.

Then we got a tour of the art museum/archaeological history museum. In my opinion, the art museum was a waste of time. There were a few lesser known works by Picasso, el Greco, Renoir, Dali, and Monet, but other than that all of the artists were Catalonian painters and the paintings were forgettable. I was much more interested in the archaeological exhibit which had a real mummy, a mummified alligator, circumcision instruments, ancient weapons, and other interesting pieces of history. While the group got a painfully in depth guided tour of the paintings, I spent my time learning about the artifacts of the past.

After the museum, we were rushed through the main basilica of the monastery, which is home to La Virgen Negra or “The Black Virgin”. This is a statue that is surrounded by mystery. There is a very big back-story that I will not get into, but it is a statue of Mary holding Jesus in her lap. Originally Mary was painted with white lead paint, but the paint tarnished and gave the statue a black color. So when the statue was restored hundreds of years ago, they painted it black not knowing that it was originally painted white. Anyways, the church is beautiful and has a very creepy crypt inside of it. The shrine of the Black Virgin is amazing. The walls and ceilings are covered in a gold mosaic. People go on pilgrimages from all throughout Spain to see this statue. Unfortunately, the statue is protected by a glass case, but the public is still allowed to touch the ball that the young Jesus is holding in his hand, which is supposed to represent the universe.

I wish I could put into words the feelings of elation and awe that I experienced at the top of Montserrat. It was absolutely breathtaking and I wish we had more time on the mountain so I could have hiked a lot more. Hopefully you will understand my feelings from the pictures. You can view the whole album here: Montserrat Photo Album

Sunday night I had the fortunate opportunity to watch the Super Bowl in a foreign city. We found the best deal in town for the game at a bar where they locked us in the bar for the night and gave us great drink specials and cheap food. Unfortunately, my hometown Pittsburgh Steelers lost, but I had a great time making friends with kids from all over the United States who joined together to root not exactly for the Green Bay Packers, but against the Steelers. After the game, I went to congratulate the Packers fans and one of the fans, a 250 pound football player from Dartmouth was so happy he was crying his eyes out. I got a good laugh at the sight of a true, diehard football fan. The game did not end until 4:30 a.m, but the metro didn’t open until 5 a.m, so we went and got some empanadas (a delicious meat and cheese calzone-like thing). I didn’t get back to my homestay until 6 a.m. It was a long, ultimately disappointing night, but I still had a blast.

Last night, I booked a bus trip to the French Riviera from February 17-20. It is the first weekend of Carnival and we will be staying in the heart of the Riviera in Nice, France. I can’t wait! This will be my first travel outside of Barcelona that is not sponsored by IES and I was a little bit hesitant to confirm the payment, but now that I have actually confirmed my reservation, it feels really good.

Hasta luego,

~Sean

Location: Montserrat, Spain

Life Without Ranch and Dr. Pepper

I hate to admit it, but the last week or so I was very touristy. As much as I enjoy taking pictures of everything, I hate being looked at as a tourist since I am actually living in the city. But when IES (the study abroad company I am studying with) offered a two day bus tour of the city for €20, I couldn’t pass it up. So for Saturday and Sunday of last week I spent the days riding around town in a double-decker tourist bus. There were three different bus routes which went to different parts of the city, and every major monument, house, or museum had a bus stop right in front of it. So I was free to get off of the bus and walk around.

THE TOURIST BUS

On Saturday (January 22) I decided to take the bus to Montjuic, the mountain to the west of Barcelona. This mountain offered fantastic panorama views of the whole city of Barcelona and the port. It was a fantastic day of sightseeing. The only problem was that it was a little bit cold, and sitting on the exposed upper deck of the bus I encountered a lot of wind. Montjuic is also home to the Olympic Stadium that housed the opening and closing ceremonies in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. This Olympic Park was absolutely breathtaking. It was so massive, so open, and so majestic. It was truly something special.

After spending a lot of time walking around the Olympic Park, I took the bus to the gondola that would take me up to Montjuic Castle. Just when I thought the mountain couldn’t get any more beautiful, there is a castle at the top! The views from the gondola were spectacular. And the castle was very cool. To be fair, I would say it was more of a fort than a castle. It overlooked the Mediterranean on one side and the city on the other. From this spot, I saw one of the most amazing sunsets in my life.

On Sunday I took the bus tour to the northern part of the city which was a little bit less exciting, but still impressive. I didn’t take nearly as many pictures because most of the stops on this route were museums. I found a lot of places I will like to go to later in the semester, but they are very close to metro stations so I didn’t want to waste my last day of unlimited bus tourism.

So I set off to find the third bus route which would take me along the beaches. I get to the place where the bus stop is supposed to be, but I can’t find it anywhere. So I decided to walk along the bus route because the bus would have to pass me at some point, or I would find another one of the bus stops. After about an hour of walking I looked at the map again only to realize that the beach route is only open in the summer months. I just laughed and kept walking. I figured I had already walked for over an hour, so I might as well just keep walking. Armed with my camera and an eye for the extraordinary, I made my way through the neighborhoods and along the beaches taking picture after picture of anything that looked interesting. It was dark by the time I made my way to Port Forum, which is a giant open area that opens up to the Mediterranean Sea and provides interesting landscape architecture for the local skateboarders. I spent some good time watching the skateboarders and enjoying the view of the sea before I headed home on the metro. It was almost a 45 minute ride back. That was when I realized just how far I had walked. It was actually a lot of fun spending time with myself, sightseeing and adventuring on my own.

Monday and Tuesday I had classes. The classes that I am taking are: Intermediate Spanish 2, Sustainability in the Spanish Context, Contemporary Spanish Film, Human Development in Spain, and Sport and Society in Spain. Classes here are surprisingly difficult. The courseload isn’t too much different than what I get at Penn State, in fact maybe it is a little bit less. The problem is that some of the teachers are not 100% fluent in English so it is hard to understand what they are trying to say and to have the teachers understand you. Also two of the classes have teachers that think it is a good idea for the students to teach the class. I think this is a very difficult way for the students to learn the correct material. Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to make due.

VALENCIA, TORTOSA, AND TORRES WINERY

Early on Wednesday morning, I boarded a bus to go to Valencia for 2 nights and 3 days on the IES orientation field trip. Our first destination was the river town of Tortosa. It is located on the Ebre River and was home to Roman, Muslim, and Jewish peoples throughout its history. There is a large castle at the top, but once again, it is more like a fort than a castle. From the top of the castle is a fantastic view of the river, the city, and the mountains in the background. Also from the top of the castle you can see a view of the Cathedral, which is a large building but was never finished. A lot of people on the trip were complaining about the walk to the top and the cold, rainy weather, but in my opinion the view of the mountains and the architecture of the Cathedral were worth every minute. I wish tourists were allowed to go into the cathedral though.

After that we made our way to Valencia. The city of Valencia was very interesting. The architecture was different than Barcelona and there were so many parks. There used to be a river than ran through Valencia, but after a few major floods, they re-routed the river and turned the whole old riverbed into a very long park. It was really something to see. With all the bridges, I felt like I was back home in Pittsburgh, only instead of crossing over rivers, I was crossing over soccer (football) fields, baseball fields, flowery gardens, and beautiful park areas.

That night, the hotel gave us a buffet dinner with many types of food including paella, a Valencia staple. I’m not a fan of seafood, which is usually the main part of paella, so I was excited to see that the paella at this buffet consisted of chicken. After the buffet dinner, we explored Valencia’s nightlife and even got to try “Agua de Valencia” which is a cocktail consisting of vodka, gin, cava (champagne) and orange juice. It was really good but the bad weather scared the locals from venturing out at night so the nightlife was not as “hoppin'” as all the guidebooks say it is.

The next morning we got on a bus and toured the city by bus for about an hour, which I was thankful for because it was raining. After the bus tour, we did a walking tour of the city in the rain. It was miserable, but I didn’t care that much because I was anxious to see one of the most mysterious artifacts in all of history (or at least to Indiana Jones). The Cathedral of Valencia is home to the supposed Holy Grail. Of course, nobody is sure what cup was actually used at the Last Supper, but I would like to believe this is the chalice. It makes my adventure story better. Although unlike the final trap in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the chalice is actually adorned in gold and jewels.

After the walking tour, we had a few hours to explore Valencia on our own. I made my way to the local market, which is HUGE. Valencia is known for its oranges, so I figured I had to try a fresh Valencia orange. I paid €0.25 for a gigantic orange which might have been the juiciest orange I have ever had, and subsequently the best orange I have ever had. I was feeling adventurous so I tried a local treat called “horchata de chufa”. It is a milk-like drink made of crushed tigernuts, water, and sugar. It was a little bit thicker and much sweeter than normal milk, but it was still very refreshing. Then a group of friends and I sat down in a chocolate shop and ordered “churros con chocolate”. Wow. Talk about a delicious treat. It is basically a bowl of melted chocolate and plate of churros to dip into the chocolate. And the hot chocolate here is very different from the hot chocolate in the states. Here, they melt chocolate, add a little bit of milk, and mix. Trust me, it is so much better than the watered down garbage they sell back home. I don’t know if I can go back to the old ways…

Then we headed to La Ciudad de Artes y Ciencias or “The City of Arts and Sciences” which is an entertainment complex in Valencia that includes an opera house, an IMAX theater, a science museum, and an outdoor art gallery. The architecture here is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. It almost looks like it came from another planet. It was beautiful, weird, and cool. One of the buildings in the complex is called “L’Oceonografic” which is the largest aquarium in Europe. We were lucky enough to visit the aquarium and even see a dolphin show. My favorite part of the aquarium was a tunnel that was underneath a shark tank. The sharks were so close to me that I could make out every feature of their magnificently graceful bodies.

The next morning the group (there were 6 full buses of students) made our way to the Torres Winery where we were only allowed to sample one wine. I know I’m not speaking only for myself when I say that pretty much everybody felt ripped off. Then they took us on a tram and gave us a multi-media tour of the grounds where we learned how wine was made, barreled, and aged.

From the winery we stopped at a restaurant on the way back to Barcelona to enjoy a feast. I got to partake in a special activity done in Spain that involves eating a unique onion that has been cooked and charred in a fire pit. After peeling off the outer charred layers of the onion (remember from Shrek that onions have layers) the remaining inside layers of the onion is unscathed and is then smothered in a sauce and lowered into the mouth. The onion is almost stick-like, it’s not like a conventional orb shaped onion. Along with the onion ritual, we were able to drink wine out of a burrón, an interesting glass vessel. It is almost like a tea pot. You hold the burrón in the air and pull it away from your face, making a stream of wine from the spout of the burrón into your mouth. As if that wasn’t enough, the waiters brought us huge plates of meats and vegetables, and then glasses of champagnes. We ate like kings, but the meal was incredible sloppy. I know that whole meal must be hard to picture, so I’ll let Anthony Bourdain from the Travel Channel explain it a little better in this video (the meal starts at around the 3 minute mark):

BACK IN BARCELONA

After an exhausting but fun 3 days traveling around Spain, I decided to take the day and spend it exploring the city with friends. We decided to go to the Chocolate Museum. Yes, there is a museum solely dedicated to chocolate. When we purchased entrance tickets, we were thrilled to find out that the ticket is actually a bar of chocolate. So while learning about the history of chocolate and seeing some truly incredible chocolate sculptures, we could enjoy the savory 73% cocoa treat.

After the museum we ventured through the side streets of the city, visited small shops such as a venetian mask store, and even haggled with the foreigners who run the souvenir stores. It was a fun day topped off by a visit to a candy store. MMMM!

That night we went to a discotheque in Barcelona called Catwalk. We didn’t get into the club until 2:30 so I knew it was going to be a late night before I even got inside. It was very crowded inside, with a lot of flashing lights, fog, bubbles, and loud music. Luckily the metro runs all night on Saturdays so it was able to take me back to my homestay when I finally left the club at 5:30. I wanted to leave much earlier, but I didn’t want to head home alone, so I thought it would be best to just suck it up and dance to the techno/R&B mashup that the DJ was spinning.

THE FOOD

I was very nervous about the food situation before I landed in Barcelona, but in all honesty everything so far has been just fine. I’ve been exploring new foods, most of which are decent. I ran into a problem tonight when my house mother brought out a seafood paella for dinner, complete with shrimp, mussels, and clams. I managed to get down the shrimp and hide the shellfish, but it was a close call. The meat here is excellent and so is the bread. Nearly every day for lunch I buy a “bocadillo”, or sandwich, from a local restaurant. I do run into some problems when ordering food at restaurants and some things get lost in translation, but for the most part all the food has been really good.

THE LANGUAGE

As I said before, I knew a little bit of Spanish before coming here which has really been helpful. I find myself progressing slowly but surely in my grammar and vocabulary but still have some trouble orally forming sentences. I can understand the language fairly well in conversation, but in Barcelona there is the troublesome Catalan language that often gets in the way. There are actually four official languages in Spain, but Catalan and Castilian (Castilian is the type Spanish we learn in schools in the US)are the dominant two. Catalan is more closely related to the French language than it is to the Spanish language, so if locals speak to me in Catalan, I just look back at them dumbfounded. The locals are very proud of their Catalan and there is a push in local government to increase the use of Catalan in stores and throughout the city. Most of the children in Barcelona are actually taught in schools in the Catalan language. I find it to be a major distraction when trying to learn Castilian Spanish. While the language is a nuisance, the Catalan history is fascinating and I will be posting more about the history of Barcelona and the surrounding area in future posts as I find out more about it for myself.

Maybe in the long run things aren’t so bad without all the comforts and routines of the life I was accustomed to back in the States. Ranch and Dr. Pepper, two of my dietary staples, have seamlessly taken a backseat to vinaigrette and water. I have traded Chicken fingers and French fries for paella and bruschetta. I am experiencing something new every day and enjoying every second of my time in Europe.

But at the same time, some things are just too good to live without…

Hasta Luego,

~Sean

Location: Valencia, Spain / Tortosa, Spain / Barcelona, Spain

The Beginning of a New Adventure

So it has been a week since I arrived in Barcelona, Spain and I am just getting a chance to write. I apologize for the delay in an entry, but literally all of my free time has been consumed by an exploration of the beautiful city. In this past week, I think have walked (and ran) more than I have in my entire life. What a great way to get exercise! Instead of staring at a plain white wall and running in place on a treadmill, I get to run along a beach on the Mediterranean under a full moon and through the streets of the marvelous Gothic Quarter of Barcelona. But before I get ahead of myself, let me back up and explain my pre-departure anxiety and my first impressions of Barcelona.

Pre-Departure Problems

I had scheduled my flight months in advance of my arrival date. I was to fly from Pittsburgh, Pa to Atlanta, GA to Barcelona, Span. I chose to fly through Atlanta because I thought the weather in mid-January would be much more desirable for flying in Atlanta than in Pittsburgh. Unfortunately Atlanta was scheduled to encounter a large snowstorm on the date of my departure (Jan 10^th) so they cancelled my flight. I did not find this out until 8 o clock the night before I was supposed to leave. The night continued to be a rollercoaster of emotion. After having my flight cancelled, I was able to get a seat on a flight through Newark to Barcelona leaving on the 11^th, a day later than I was supposed to depart. Just as I had mentally processed the fact that I was going to have another day of anxiety, walking around the house with my stomach in knots hoping I didn’t forget to pack anything, my dad was able to get me a last minute seat on a flight on the 10^th, the day I was originally supposed to leave. At that point it hit me that in 12 short hours I would be on another continent, miles and miles away from everyone I know and love and light years away from my comfort zone.

On the morning of the 10^th, I couldn’t even concentrate on the way to the airport. So many things were running through my head, and looking back on it, I guess I was more nervous than I should have been. I didn’t know exactly what I was nervous about, it was more the unknown that troubled me. When I got to the ticket office at the airport, the lady at the desk told me I had no flights booked. I looked at her like she was crazy as I held the ticket confirmation in my hand. After some time and confusion on the part of the inept airline employee (at one point she had me flying into some city I had never heard of before), I walked away holding the tickets that I had booked the night before. Holding those tickets was both a huge sigh of relief and a shocking reality that departure time was near.

My dad, my mom, and my girlfriend Megan stayed with me as far as they could which was to the security checkpoint. My younger brother decided skiing was more important than going to the airport with us. It was tough saying goodbye. I waved goodbye for a final time and stepped onto a tram. It was the bittersweet beginning of a new adventure.

Flights

The flight to Newark was very relaxing. I really like flying. The take-off and landing are my favorite parts, even though I get nervous each time. On the flight I had a window seat in an aisle all to myself, so I could stretch my legs out. The flight to Barcelona was a completely different story. I was lucky enough to get a window seat, but unfortunately it was in an emergency exit aisle, so by airline regulation, my seat was restricted from reclining at all. To make matters worse, the overhead compartments were full, so people were forced to stuff carry-on luggage under other peoples’ seats. So I had no room to move my legs and no room to recline. It was the most uncomfortable ride of my life, but it was not as bad as I thought it would be because the flight had over 50 On Demand movies to choose from on a touch screen on the back of every seat.

Barcelona!

After the 7 hour flight, I got my bags, made my first steps on European ground, and took in my first breath of the Mediterranean air. I caught a taxi to my homestay and was greeted at the door by Bernardo, el papa. I decided to live in a homestay with a local Spanish family for many reasons. I wanted to experience the culture first hand and actually live like a normal Spanish person would. I have no idea how to cook in general, so cooking genuine Spanish food was completely out of the question. I also wanted to learn the language, and I thought that living with a family was the best way to do that. I was hoping to ease into the language and that the family I was living with could be good teachers. However, neither of the parents knows any English, and Travis and I hardly know any Spanish, so conversation is a bit of a struggle and often consists of many hand gestures and “Spanglish”. However, they have a 27 year old daughter, Ana, who has the lucky job of translating both sides of the conversation. Their 30 year old son does not live with them, but when he visits, he speaks English with my roommate and me.

My roommate Travis arrived a few hours later and Adela, la mama, took us on the metro down to the city. My first impression of the city was how big it is. The streets near the metro station were so wide and the buildings were huge. The buildings weren’t as tall as the buildings in NYC or even Pittsburgh, but there were so wide and looked gargantuan! I also realized that there weren’t many cars on the streets, but there were a TON of taxis and motor scooters. We walked down the famous pedestrian street called Las Ramblas, which has tons of shops, or “tiendas” on each side of the road. It was so cool to walk down this street and see all the different types of people walking around me. There were even street performers!

Then came time for the part of the Barcelona experience that I was most nervous about, the food. For those of you don’t know me, I am a terribly picky eater. However, I told myself I was going to try any new food that is placed in front of me. Adela made a delicious soup and bikinis (the Barcelona term for a ham and cheese on toasted bread). I find it easier to eat the foods if I don’t know what I’m eating. The thing that surprised me the most about the food is that although we have bread as an appetizer for every meal, we never use butter on the bread. Adela always rubs tomato over the bread to make a type of bruschetta, which I am going to have to get used to.

After my first day, things started to become easier. I picked up the language pretty quickly. I had taken up to Spanish 3 at Penn State, but I had taken that class first semester of freshman year. Needless to say, I was a little rusty. My favorite part about the first week was being in an area that was completely unfamiliar to me and venturing around the city. The city is marvelous! Every street has something new and interesting on it, and the Barri Gotic (the Gothic Quarter) has fascinating architecture and extremely narrow streets with buildings that loom high above. Its eerie even in the daytime.

Many of you have probably heard about the lively nightlife scene in Barcelona, and let me tell you everything you have heard is probably true. Barcelona has literally hundreds of bars, each offering something unique and interesting. The nightclubs are top-notch, to say the least. It is quite an experience with the flashing lights, techno music so loud it could explode the ear-drums, and thousands, yes thousands of people dancing and having a good time. Its like the clubs in the United States only bigger, better, classier, and more exclusive. Another interesting thing about the nightlife at Barcelona is that it literally lasts until dawn. I don’t think the city ever sleeps. However, most people don’t leave to a bar until around midnight because the clubs do not start to get crowded until around 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning.

My favorite place to visit so far is Parc Guell, Atoni Gaudi’s beautiful and trippy garden landscape that was originally designed to be a garden town. The designs are so interesting, it is like something completely original. I had seen pictures of it before, but it is completely different to actually sit on the snake-like bench and feel the cold, colorful tiles and my hands as I look out to the Mediterranean. Luckily, Parc Guell is only a 15 minute walk from the apartment where I am living so I will definitely be making return visits to take pictures or people watch.

I will be more prompt with my blog posts in the future. Now that classes have started, I don’t have nearly as much free time to spend experience everything the city has to offer.

Hasta luego!

~Sean

Location: Barcelona, Spain

An Introduction

Hola! My name is Sean Tubridy. I am a Junior here at Penn State majoring in Advertising with minors in Psychology, Sociology, Business, and International Studies. I just learned how to use the Penn State Geoblog tool and I am excited to share my adventures abroad with you.

I am from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which means I love all Pittsburgh sports teams (yes, even the Pirates). I would consider myself a movie buff. I enjoy watching all types of movies. I also like listening to music. One of my favorite things to do is ride rollercoasters. I love the thrill and f the feeling of flying through the air. Thats just a little bit about me and my hobbies, but hopefully you can find out more about who I am by reading my posts throughout the Spring semester.

I have only been to a foreign country once. I went to Costa Rica for a week with my high school Spanish Club. The experience I had over there was phenomenal and is a big reason why I decided to study abroad in college.

I will be spending four months in Barcelona, Spain. I have decided to do a homestay, which means that I will be living with a host family. I chose this because I thought it would be the best way to learn the language and culture. I am very excited to see Barcelona and to travel all throughout Europe. I hope you enjoy reading about my experiences and looking at my pictures. Please comment and tell me what you think!

~Sean

Location: State College, PA

Education Abroad GeoBlog

Penn State bloggers from around the world

Author Archives: spt5037

Hedgemazes and Sitges Carnival

My Girona

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous: The French Riviera

A Little Bit of Catalan Culture

Montserrat: The Serrated Mountain

Life Without Ranch and Dr. Pepper

The Beginning of a New Adventure

An Introduction