Elissa took this of me when we were in Barcelona before my program started. This is just one small part of the beautiful beach and ocean that line the coast of this amazing city.
Monday, September 21, 2009
la playa y el mar, my saviors...
Elissa took this of me when we were in Barcelona before my program started. This is just one small part of the beautiful beach and ocean that line the coast of this amazing city.
spanish guitar concert and sunday night lights...
The four of us (from left to right: me, Matt, Hank, and Ted) at Sagrada Familia during the Sunday Night Lights walk. The reason that the picture is so blurry according to Hank is because "there is so much detail."
The two guitarists playing beautiful spanish music from all over the country. Definitely something that I want to go see again.
Mar comes through...
Wow. What a week. This city continues to impress me over and over again and I just cannot seem to get enough of it. I figure the best way to do this is to recap each week more or less so here it goes.
Sunday night, Ted, Matt, Henry and myself went for our usual Sunday night lights walk and trekked up to the Sagrada Familia and then wandered around for a bit before heading home. We are going to try to make a tradition to either walk to the Sagrada each Sunday night or wander to somewhere in the city. Monday morning I spent a wee bit amount of time in the morning studying for my midterm exam that I had in my intensive language class in the afternoon. Still exhausted from the weekend's activities, I came back and passed out for a few hours before meeting Ian for dinner in Barceloneta (a barrio down by the water). I ate a delicious meal that started off with scrambled eggs with mushrooms (though this was far from the scrambled eggs that you are imagining right now). The next course consisted of a spanish style sea bass and finally for dessert some lemon sorbet. Ian and I also polished off a bottle of delicious spanish white wine with our meal.
Tuesday turned out to be a great day. In the morning we took an excellent tour of the Barrio Gotico (the gothic quarter) finding about all kinds of cool shops and stores as well as the history behind the architecture of this area of Barca. While on the tour, I picked up a flier for a series of guitar concerts at one of the churches that we had stopped to look at and decided to go back that evening. I returned with Ted later that night and witnessed a spectacular concert of spanish guitar. A man and a woman (who I presumed to be a couple based on their later interactions) played for nearly and hour and a half with no breaks taking us on a journey through the different regions of guitar in spain. They played everything from classical guitar to modern spanish songs and finished with a song where they played with all 4 hands on one guitar (quite a magnificent sight). After, I decided to head home and instead of staying out late, to rather get an early start and explore some more in the gothic quarter.
Wednesday morning I headed out to explore some more with Henry. We wandered the streets, stopping in some stores to check out the pricing on recent FCB jerseys. After becoming frustrated from the bargaining tactics of these shopkeepers we headed back to the Boqueria which it turns out is right by the gothic quarter. I enjoyed some fruit juices before heading to class for the afternoon. After class, Fil, Ian and I decided to go to see this spanish movie that was being advertised and that Ian's Senora had recommended to him. It was called "Gordos" and was hilarious, weird, sad, and enjoyable all at the same time. The plot centered on 5 individuals, 4 "patients" who attended a weekly weight loss/self help/support group and their "doctor" who led the group. It looked at their trials and tribulations during their attempt to lose weight and redirect portions of their lives. It was extremely well written and all in spanish so towards the end of the movie, my brain was starting to get fried. After the movie we all headed our separate ways and I went back downtown to meet up with my old camp friend, Katie. We met at this Barcelona soccer bar that I had to gone to previously with Jofre. We caught up and watched the game which unfortunately Barca tied Inter Milan 0-0 in their first champions league match of the season. The atmosphere there was incredible. Everyone (including myself) was dressed in FCB gear (jerseys, scarfs, shorts, etc) and was cheering and shouting like crazy. We shared some delicious tapas (they make a mean patatas bravas) at a table near the bar. After the game ended, I walked Katie back to her residencia (which it turns out is only a couple of blocks from mine) and met some of her friends. One of her friends plays ultimate and joined a league here that I have now decided to play in as well. It meets on wednesday nights so more on that once I play this week.
Thursday made for an interesting continuation to the week. In the morning I attended a seminar on intercultural competence and then as usual had my afternoon intensive language class. In the evening, a group of us went out in search of the bar where Ernest Hemingway supposedly wrote "The Sun Also Rises" and through the pouring rain eventually found it. Unfortunately, it was kind of a disappointment and the bartender was a really big jerk to us so we ended up leaving soon after we arrived. After, Ted, Lindsey and I went to Sutton (a premier Barca night club) and ran into some of Katie's friends there. We danced for a while there but ended up leaving. It was a beautiful club with beautiful people but the dj kept playing the same beats over and over again. We met up with some of the Language and Culture kids (another one of CIEE's programs) but soon there after I became totally exhausted and came back to the residencia. Unfortunately, the metro stops running here at midnight during the week which can often make things difficult.
Friday started off with an enjoyable evening of american activities here at the residencia and then we decided to head out to this concert festival at parc ciutadella (about 5 or 6 blocks from my place and even closer to the uni here). It was incredible! There were tons of people packed into the park and dancing in honor of the end of ramadan. There was a live band ending when we arrived and then a dj came on and mixed moroccan style music with crazy techno beats. We danced and danced and after pure exhaustion we decided to move on. This proved to be more difficult than we expected and we ended up having to climb over the fence of the park (which was surprisingly easy). At this point it was really late so we just ended up coming back to the residencia and hanging out. Well we were in for a real treat as Hank performed a bunch of his original songs for us. It was quite the concert and he probably played and sang for close to 2 hours!
Saturday began the jewish new year so I headed out on the metro to try to find services to go to. I did indeed make it to the destination that I intended and attended services for most of the day with the chabad lubavitch (in catalan it is spelled "jabad") of barcelona. There is a very small jewish population in spain but it was pretty well attended nonetheless. I had a great time from the moment I walked in. I was greeted with the usual "shana tova" and found a place towards the back. The service was conducted entirely in spanish and hebrew and was both very different and very similar to my past experiences at high holiday services. The men and the women were separated and there were many people surrounding the bima and involved in the leading of the service. Children ran in and out of the service and at one point all the kids ran up to the front and sang this song while touching the torah. I'm still not sure exactly what happened but it was incredible even so. At one point during the service, during the silent prayer I had the realization of how amazing it was to be where I was right then. The fact that I could be halfway across the world but still feel at home among these people that I had never even met before nor could speak their language all that well, gave me such comfort. After services ended, I headed back to the residencia, changed and went to the soccer field. I ran into Mark again and we played for a while. Mark is pretty much my new best friend. He is an 11 year old kid from Barcelona who absolutely loves playing soccer and is pretty much content to do only that all the time. He speaks spanish ridiculously fast and told me he thought it was hilarious how much my accent changed between when I speak spanish and english. He speaks only a few words of english so I get to practice a lot of spanish when I go to play. Saturday turned out to be one of my best days here so far. I came back from playing soccer, showered and took a nice long nap. After, Fil came over and after miserably failing at trying to make lamb on the stove, one of the culinary students on my floor helped us to make a delicious meal of lamb and tortilla de patatas (a spanish dish). We met up with some other people but then ducked out to go to this music bar, Mediteraneo, where Fil's host sister works. This place was exactly the type of place I've been looking to find. It is purely locals packed in listening and singing along to local musicians. Fil's host sister, Mar, (hence where the title of this post comes from) took very good care of us and even found us some seats at a table in the center of the place. The way the place is designed is there is a small small stage literally only big enough for one performer surrounded by a bunch of tiny tables that you sit at with other people. The tables are about 2 or 3 feet off of the ground with stools to accompany them. We ended up talking to the guys sharing our table after joking about how Fil and I were devouring the delicious nuts that the other guys kept bringing back to the table. After they mentioned this I went and got the next 3 rounds for us. It turned out that it was one of the guys, Carlos, birthday so we celebrated and talked to them for a long time. We thoroughly enjoyed the music and were disappointed when the lights came on and everyone began to leave. We went to say goodbye to Mar and meet up with some other kids from our program but she told us we should stay and hang out for a bit longer. We ended up staying until 7am just talking and hanging out with Mar, the other bartenders (one of whom it turns out is a spanish prof with CIEE), Carlos and the musicians who had played there that night. It was absolutely incredible and probably the most amount of consecutive time that I've spoke spanish here. We talked soccer, politics, food, and pretty much anything you could thing of. It is definitely a place that I want to revisit many a time more.
Needless to say, Sunday was a rough day for me. Hank and I walked to the beach in the afternoon and swam (which helped me tremendously) and then walked back to the residencia through the pouring rain. I could barely even eat dinner still exhausted from the previous day's activities. Well I think that pretty much covers it.
And that's the way the cookie crumbles...
Sunday night, Ted, Matt, Henry and myself went for our usual Sunday night lights walk and trekked up to the Sagrada Familia and then wandered around for a bit before heading home. We are going to try to make a tradition to either walk to the Sagrada each Sunday night or wander to somewhere in the city. Monday morning I spent a wee bit amount of time in the morning studying for my midterm exam that I had in my intensive language class in the afternoon. Still exhausted from the weekend's activities, I came back and passed out for a few hours before meeting Ian for dinner in Barceloneta (a barrio down by the water). I ate a delicious meal that started off with scrambled eggs with mushrooms (though this was far from the scrambled eggs that you are imagining right now). The next course consisted of a spanish style sea bass and finally for dessert some lemon sorbet. Ian and I also polished off a bottle of delicious spanish white wine with our meal.
Tuesday turned out to be a great day. In the morning we took an excellent tour of the Barrio Gotico (the gothic quarter) finding about all kinds of cool shops and stores as well as the history behind the architecture of this area of Barca. While on the tour, I picked up a flier for a series of guitar concerts at one of the churches that we had stopped to look at and decided to go back that evening. I returned with Ted later that night and witnessed a spectacular concert of spanish guitar. A man and a woman (who I presumed to be a couple based on their later interactions) played for nearly and hour and a half with no breaks taking us on a journey through the different regions of guitar in spain. They played everything from classical guitar to modern spanish songs and finished with a song where they played with all 4 hands on one guitar (quite a magnificent sight). After, I decided to head home and instead of staying out late, to rather get an early start and explore some more in the gothic quarter.
Wednesday morning I headed out to explore some more with Henry. We wandered the streets, stopping in some stores to check out the pricing on recent FCB jerseys. After becoming frustrated from the bargaining tactics of these shopkeepers we headed back to the Boqueria which it turns out is right by the gothic quarter. I enjoyed some fruit juices before heading to class for the afternoon. After class, Fil, Ian and I decided to go to see this spanish movie that was being advertised and that Ian's Senora had recommended to him. It was called "Gordos" and was hilarious, weird, sad, and enjoyable all at the same time. The plot centered on 5 individuals, 4 "patients" who attended a weekly weight loss/self help/support group and their "doctor" who led the group. It looked at their trials and tribulations during their attempt to lose weight and redirect portions of their lives. It was extremely well written and all in spanish so towards the end of the movie, my brain was starting to get fried. After the movie we all headed our separate ways and I went back downtown to meet up with my old camp friend, Katie. We met at this Barcelona soccer bar that I had to gone to previously with Jofre. We caught up and watched the game which unfortunately Barca tied Inter Milan 0-0 in their first champions league match of the season. The atmosphere there was incredible. Everyone (including myself) was dressed in FCB gear (jerseys, scarfs, shorts, etc) and was cheering and shouting like crazy. We shared some delicious tapas (they make a mean patatas bravas) at a table near the bar. After the game ended, I walked Katie back to her residencia (which it turns out is only a couple of blocks from mine) and met some of her friends. One of her friends plays ultimate and joined a league here that I have now decided to play in as well. It meets on wednesday nights so more on that once I play this week.
Thursday made for an interesting continuation to the week. In the morning I attended a seminar on intercultural competence and then as usual had my afternoon intensive language class. In the evening, a group of us went out in search of the bar where Ernest Hemingway supposedly wrote "The Sun Also Rises" and through the pouring rain eventually found it. Unfortunately, it was kind of a disappointment and the bartender was a really big jerk to us so we ended up leaving soon after we arrived. After, Ted, Lindsey and I went to Sutton (a premier Barca night club) and ran into some of Katie's friends there. We danced for a while there but ended up leaving. It was a beautiful club with beautiful people but the dj kept playing the same beats over and over again. We met up with some of the Language and Culture kids (another one of CIEE's programs) but soon there after I became totally exhausted and came back to the residencia. Unfortunately, the metro stops running here at midnight during the week which can often make things difficult.
Friday started off with an enjoyable evening of american activities here at the residencia and then we decided to head out to this concert festival at parc ciutadella (about 5 or 6 blocks from my place and even closer to the uni here). It was incredible! There were tons of people packed into the park and dancing in honor of the end of ramadan. There was a live band ending when we arrived and then a dj came on and mixed moroccan style music with crazy techno beats. We danced and danced and after pure exhaustion we decided to move on. This proved to be more difficult than we expected and we ended up having to climb over the fence of the park (which was surprisingly easy). At this point it was really late so we just ended up coming back to the residencia and hanging out. Well we were in for a real treat as Hank performed a bunch of his original songs for us. It was quite the concert and he probably played and sang for close to 2 hours!
Saturday began the jewish new year so I headed out on the metro to try to find services to go to. I did indeed make it to the destination that I intended and attended services for most of the day with the chabad lubavitch (in catalan it is spelled "jabad") of barcelona. There is a very small jewish population in spain but it was pretty well attended nonetheless. I had a great time from the moment I walked in. I was greeted with the usual "shana tova" and found a place towards the back. The service was conducted entirely in spanish and hebrew and was both very different and very similar to my past experiences at high holiday services. The men and the women were separated and there were many people surrounding the bima and involved in the leading of the service. Children ran in and out of the service and at one point all the kids ran up to the front and sang this song while touching the torah. I'm still not sure exactly what happened but it was incredible even so. At one point during the service, during the silent prayer I had the realization of how amazing it was to be where I was right then. The fact that I could be halfway across the world but still feel at home among these people that I had never even met before nor could speak their language all that well, gave me such comfort. After services ended, I headed back to the residencia, changed and went to the soccer field. I ran into Mark again and we played for a while. Mark is pretty much my new best friend. He is an 11 year old kid from Barcelona who absolutely loves playing soccer and is pretty much content to do only that all the time. He speaks spanish ridiculously fast and told me he thought it was hilarious how much my accent changed between when I speak spanish and english. He speaks only a few words of english so I get to practice a lot of spanish when I go to play. Saturday turned out to be one of my best days here so far. I came back from playing soccer, showered and took a nice long nap. After, Fil came over and after miserably failing at trying to make lamb on the stove, one of the culinary students on my floor helped us to make a delicious meal of lamb and tortilla de patatas (a spanish dish). We met up with some other people but then ducked out to go to this music bar, Mediteraneo, where Fil's host sister works. This place was exactly the type of place I've been looking to find. It is purely locals packed in listening and singing along to local musicians. Fil's host sister, Mar, (hence where the title of this post comes from) took very good care of us and even found us some seats at a table in the center of the place. The way the place is designed is there is a small small stage literally only big enough for one performer surrounded by a bunch of tiny tables that you sit at with other people. The tables are about 2 or 3 feet off of the ground with stools to accompany them. We ended up talking to the guys sharing our table after joking about how Fil and I were devouring the delicious nuts that the other guys kept bringing back to the table. After they mentioned this I went and got the next 3 rounds for us. It turned out that it was one of the guys, Carlos, birthday so we celebrated and talked to them for a long time. We thoroughly enjoyed the music and were disappointed when the lights came on and everyone began to leave. We went to say goodbye to Mar and meet up with some other kids from our program but she told us we should stay and hang out for a bit longer. We ended up staying until 7am just talking and hanging out with Mar, the other bartenders (one of whom it turns out is a spanish prof with CIEE), Carlos and the musicians who had played there that night. It was absolutely incredible and probably the most amount of consecutive time that I've spoke spanish here. We talked soccer, politics, food, and pretty much anything you could thing of. It is definitely a place that I want to revisit many a time more.
Needless to say, Sunday was a rough day for me. Hank and I walked to the beach in the afternoon and swam (which helped me tremendously) and then walked back to the residencia through the pouring rain. I could barely even eat dinner still exhausted from the previous day's activities. Well I think that pretty much covers it.
And that's the way the cookie crumbles...
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