The beach volleyball stadium with a view of Placa Espanya and the city behind it. The girls playing in this tournament were in incredibly good shape and were beastly at volleyball.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Beach Volleyball in the heart of Barca...
The beach volleyball stadium with a view of Placa Espanya and the city behind it. The girls playing in this tournament were in incredibly good shape and were beastly at volleyball.
Sagrada Familia: More Gaudi!
Pictured above is the Sagrada Familia church designed by none other than Gaudi. I feel bad though because this picture doesn't even capture the magnificence. This is probably the most famous facade of the church (at least so far) and you can see the cranes and scaffolding that are being used to continue construction.
Palau de Musica Catalana
Above is Elissa and myself at the Palau de Musica Catalana. Behind us you can see the amazing design, sculpture and architecture of this magnificent concert hall.
Park Guell: Mes que un park
In the picture above are Gaudi's two ginger bread house type structures with a view of the city behind them. Just two of the many magnificent designs at Park Guell.
cabeza cordero...hmmmm, yummy?
So I should have probably but a "BEWARE OF LOOKING AT THIS RIDICULOUS PICTURE" warning on this post but I figure you should really take a good hard look at these sheep heads. I took this picture at this amazing market that we visited on wednesday (more on this below).On monday, we went to visit Montjuic, a mountain-like region of Barca that contains the former castle of the royalty of Catalonia as well as the olympic stadium and some incredible views of the city. At the base of the mountain is Placa Espanya which houses some of Barcelona's most powerful businesses. Since Barcelona was hosting the women's international volleyball championships, a stadium had been set up right near placa espanya which I went to watch some games at on Friday.
On Wednesday, we visited the Mercat de la Boqueria, an open air food market in the heart of Barcelona just off the major passageway of Las Ramblas. We walked through the different stands asking the owners questions about their products (such as how does one cook a sheep head?) which ranged from the above sheep heads to entire eels to fresh squeezed mango, coconut and kiwi juices and everything in between. Thomas and I wandered throughout the market learning about the types of fruit that are native to the region and how one shopkeeper named Wilson thinks that working in this particular market is a dream come true because he gets to interact and see tons of beautiful women and still get home to see his kids in the afternoons.
I tasted the strawberry/coconut juice, kiwi juice, and mango/coconut juice. All three were absolutely fantastic. I am definitely going to go grocery shopping there very soon as the produce, fish, and meats are some of the freshest that you can find around here.
Elissa also arrived on Wednesday evening and we headed over to the beautiful and Gaudi-designed Palau de Musica Catalana for a fantastic evening of spanish guitar with Xavier Coll. He played four different types of spanish guitar, taking us on a historical journey of classical spanish guitar. We both agreed afterward though that our favorite was the modernista period which is still developing and continuing today. On Thursday morning, we headed over to the Sagrada Familia to revel in its magnificence. We spent a few hours there before I had to leave for class but Elissa stayed on for a long long time, not leaving until around 3pm! (Mind you we had gotten there around 10am). It is definitely a place that you can spend hours on end just looking at the intricate detail. The church is far from finished and is undergoing construction while people look at it. The inside is pretty unfinished in my opinion but is still magnificent. The most incredible part of the church by far though is the outside. With varying facades representing different scenes from the bible or nature, it is impossible to truly take it all in. (pictures to come soon).
After I got out of class, I met Elissa at Gaudi's Park Guell (he has truly blessed Barcelona with some architectural masterpieces). We wandered around and enjoyed the park and watched the sun set over the city before heading back into town for a meal of tapas at Canas y Tapas.
Friday here was Catalonia National Pride Day. Since it is a holiday, we didn't have class which gave me the opportunity to explore the city a little and hit up the beach volleyball championships that Barca was hosting. Ted and I headed over to Placa Espanya around 1pm to check out the games and stayed for a few hours before grabbing some lunch and then returning to see the US team play. In the evening, our spanish friend, Jofre, took us out to tapas and then to the concert festival in honor of Catalonia Day. This concert was an absolutely incredible experience. Set up right next to the Arc de Triomf, the plaza was packed. People were incredible drunk and there were mini-botellons (public drinking parties) all over the area. Being a complete ignoramus about why Catalonia wants its independence from Spain so badly, I asked Jofre to explain it to me. He told me that Catalonia and even more specifically Barcelona pays a huge amount of taxes to the government and gets very little in return. However, as much as people like to talk about independence from Spain, it is unlikely that at least in the coming years anything is going to happen (think civil war). During the concert (which was so much fun and at the end of each song we would join in the chants of VISCA CATALUNIA! meaning long live Catalonia in Catalan, a language which I am still struggling to pick up), people got up on each others shoulders, sometimes four people high! It was a ridiculous sight to see. At one point though, a tower of people held up a Palestinian flag which was pretty surprising to see considering we were at a rally for Catalonia, not Palestine. I asked Jofre about why they had done that and he explained to me that the very leftist radicals believe that Spain is occupying Catalonia and feel solidarity with the Palestinian people living in Israel. I'm still kind of confused about this but found the whole experience incredibly enlightening and interesting. After leaving the concert, we headed back to my residencia and hung out with some spaniards before leaving to go to a local bar called l'ovella negra (the black sheep) and then afterwards getting lost trying to walk to a beach-front club called Opium. All in all after returning around 5:30am it was definitely a fun filled day.
Yesterday, I went to play pickup soccer at the field nearby my residencia. Unfortunately, there really wasn't any pickup soccer going on because the field was in use for the local league. Fortunately though there were a bunch of people (and when I say people, I mean kids between the ages of 12-18) kicking around on the turf behind the main field. After watching the main game for 20-30 minutes I asked if I could join in with them. I met these two kids, Mark and Javier, and we played for the next 2 hours. Mark and Javier were extremely skilled considering they were only about 13 or 14 years old. After I returned to my room and passed out before having dinner around 9pm. After dinner we headed back to Montjuic to see the fountain dancing to music (very similar to the bellagio) and then went to l'ovella negra. Since I hadn't yet been to the club razzmatazz, we decided that we might as well go since we live so close. It was absolutely insane. There were 5 rooms of dancing, 2 of which had live bands playing in them. I didn't get back until roughly 6 or 7am if that is any indication of how ridiculous of a place it is and how much time you can spend there!
Today, Henry and I went down to the beach and tossed a disc and played in the ocean for part of the afternoon. Quite a relaxing day after the busy week that I had! Well, I think that pretty much covers it for now.
Until next time....
Monday, September 7, 2009
Sevilla...
this photo is taken right outside the cathedral in Sevilla. a beautiful sight to see and a beautiful spanish square made for a delightful day. after seeing the cathedral and famous moorish tower, we headed over to alcazar, the palace in sevilla.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
breakfast at riad taghazoute in marrakech
although i haven't yet posted about our trip to morocco, i figured i would first put up a few pictures so you could get a feel for it before i wrote all about it. the picture above is Elissa and myself at our breakfast table at our riad, Riad Taghazoute. This converted home served us a beautiful breakfast each morning in a typical moroccan setting with a beautiful view of the city of marrakech. each morning we drank fresh squeezed orange juice, drank coffee, and had moroccan fried bread with honey, marmalade, and butter. on the last day we even got chocolate croissants. deliciousness!
Barca, Barca, Barcelona! Futbol=Vida!
On my last night in Barca with Elissa before my program started, we decided to attend a FC Barcelona futbol game. We were pretty high up in the stands (as you can see from the above photo) but still had a great time. The atmosphere is incredible and this picture doesn't actually do justice to how well we could see even though Camp Nou is a 98,000 seat stadium! Viva Barca!
Settled in...
well, i have finally settled into my room here in barca (not sure that settled in is the entirely correct phrase for my current situation seeing as there is crap still all over my room but at least my suitcases are empty and underneath my bed). let's see if i can give you an accurate recap of the last week. after having an incredibly tough couple of days leading up to the start of my program (as i detailed somewhat poorly in my last post), i walked 8 or so blocks with my suitcases to the hotel where i was supposed to be picked up to head out of town to sitges for the start of orientation. upon arriving at the hotel, i met erin and sam, a couple who were going to spending the year together here in barcelona. i also met alex and ted, both of whom would also only be here for the semester. after hanging out and chatting for a bit, some of the program staff arrived and we hopped on a giant tourbus (the 5 of us and 2 staff on this huge coach bus) to head out to the small coastal town of sitges. the ride in the bus took just over an hour as the traffic trying to get out of downtown barca was really tough. since we were on such a huge bus, we couldn't go directly to the hotel which was located directly on the waterfront. instead we hopped off, took our luggage out of the hold and proceeded to walk down. the view on the walk down the hill was absolutely incredible with an old church sitting just above a beach and boardwalk scene typical of coastal spain. we checked in and then i hit the beach with sam, swimming around and tossing a disc. later in the afternoon we had our welcome orientation session in the hotel and afterwards i walked into town with my roommate at the hotel, thomas, mitch from fordham, henry from tufts, and ted. we wandered around for a while before plopping down at a restaurant to take a break. that night, the program hosted a huge dinner for us at the restaurant. while i wasn't really up to eating all that much, the food was delicious and there was no shortage of it as well.
in the morning we woke up and found out where we would be living. i was fortunate enough to be placed in the melon district marina residencia. located only 8 blocks from the beach front, 5 or 6 blocks from class, 8 or 9 blocks from the famous gaudi church and really close to a lot of other famous barcelona places, i really lucked out! i have a great room on the third floor of one of the closest towers to the entrance of the complex. i have a full bed and my own bathroom and closet and then share a kitchen with the floor. it has been great so far and though one of the nights i didn't have sheets on my bed, it has been working out. we are also only 2 blocks from the metro so that is very convenient as well. i live next door to mitch, a senior from fordham, so we've been meeting up to go to the various program events.
the next day we went to a hotel in town (the same one where i was picked up on the first day) to take the placement test and receive our academic schedules. i am very pleased with mine though i don't expect it to be all that easy. on friday, in the morning we attended the orientation at the spanish university (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) and then we had our first language intensive class in the afternoon. i really like my teacher, gema, and while 3 hrs is really a lot to do in one sitting (we get one 15 minute break), we are definitely going to need it all to be ready for the classes at the spanish university. in spanish classes, i usually go by the name "jota" since that is the letter "j" in the alphabet and they don't have a j letter in spanish so it is hard for them to pronounce my name. however, my teacher is catalan and so she pronounces jota with the j at the front which i found pretty amusing.
at night, i decided that i was going to do my best to go out. we met our guardian angel (the local students that the program has set up for us as a local mentor/friend to help us get adjusted), jofre, who took us out for some great tapas and sangria before taking us to a cool local bar called black sheep. at black sheep we played some pool and drank clara (a mixture of lemon soda and estrella damm, a local beer). afterwards we headed down to the beach to go to a club called shoko. it was an absolute blast and we ended up staying there and dancing until around 330am before heading back. upon returning i passed out but had to wake up early (around 8) for our day trip excursion to tarragona.
tarragona was a beautiful little coastal town. after driving for about an hour (i passed out on the bus immediately), we took a 3hr tour of the archaeological sites and roman ruins before having a nice lunch near the beach. upon returning to barca, i took another long nap and didn't wake up until nearly 11pm when henry and i had dinner before heading down to las ramblas (one of the most famous streets in barca) and meeting up with my old camp friend, katie. after walking around with katie and her friends for a while, we split up from them and grabbed a mug of clara in placa real (at least i think thats how it is spelled) and watching the people walk around. around 2am the bar closed so we decided to walk down to the waterfront and then back to our residencia. we ended up walking about 3-4 miles and didn't get back until 4 or 430 am but it was a lot of fun and really cool to see the city in the night (tho it definitely was still hopping that late and usually people don't go to bed until 6 or 7am). today i didn't wake up until 3pm and then unpacked for a bit before making some food and taking another nap. well that is all i got for now. more to come on morocco and this summer when i get the chance!
hasta pronto!
in the morning we woke up and found out where we would be living. i was fortunate enough to be placed in the melon district marina residencia. located only 8 blocks from the beach front, 5 or 6 blocks from class, 8 or 9 blocks from the famous gaudi church and really close to a lot of other famous barcelona places, i really lucked out! i have a great room on the third floor of one of the closest towers to the entrance of the complex. i have a full bed and my own bathroom and closet and then share a kitchen with the floor. it has been great so far and though one of the nights i didn't have sheets on my bed, it has been working out. we are also only 2 blocks from the metro so that is very convenient as well. i live next door to mitch, a senior from fordham, so we've been meeting up to go to the various program events.
the next day we went to a hotel in town (the same one where i was picked up on the first day) to take the placement test and receive our academic schedules. i am very pleased with mine though i don't expect it to be all that easy. on friday, in the morning we attended the orientation at the spanish university (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) and then we had our first language intensive class in the afternoon. i really like my teacher, gema, and while 3 hrs is really a lot to do in one sitting (we get one 15 minute break), we are definitely going to need it all to be ready for the classes at the spanish university. in spanish classes, i usually go by the name "jota" since that is the letter "j" in the alphabet and they don't have a j letter in spanish so it is hard for them to pronounce my name. however, my teacher is catalan and so she pronounces jota with the j at the front which i found pretty amusing.
at night, i decided that i was going to do my best to go out. we met our guardian angel (the local students that the program has set up for us as a local mentor/friend to help us get adjusted), jofre, who took us out for some great tapas and sangria before taking us to a cool local bar called black sheep. at black sheep we played some pool and drank clara (a mixture of lemon soda and estrella damm, a local beer). afterwards we headed down to the beach to go to a club called shoko. it was an absolute blast and we ended up staying there and dancing until around 330am before heading back. upon returning i passed out but had to wake up early (around 8) for our day trip excursion to tarragona.
tarragona was a beautiful little coastal town. after driving for about an hour (i passed out on the bus immediately), we took a 3hr tour of the archaeological sites and roman ruins before having a nice lunch near the beach. upon returning to barca, i took another long nap and didn't wake up until nearly 11pm when henry and i had dinner before heading down to las ramblas (one of the most famous streets in barca) and meeting up with my old camp friend, katie. after walking around with katie and her friends for a while, we split up from them and grabbed a mug of clara in placa real (at least i think thats how it is spelled) and watching the people walk around. around 2am the bar closed so we decided to walk down to the waterfront and then back to our residencia. we ended up walking about 3-4 miles and didn't get back until 4 or 430 am but it was a lot of fun and really cool to see the city in the night (tho it definitely was still hopping that late and usually people don't go to bed until 6 or 7am). today i didn't wake up until 3pm and then unpacked for a bit before making some food and taking another nap. well that is all i got for now. more to come on morocco and this summer when i get the chance!
hasta pronto!
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