Pretending to be a Big City Girl

It's been fifteen days since my last post. Time. Has. Flown. It took me a while to remember that (oh, right!) I'm not on vacation over here. Not yet anyway. My workweek in Barcelona is surprisingly hectic, even though I don't have a "real" job or take "real" classes.

My only free time is in the mornings--opposite of what I'm used to. I usually spend mornings reading, exploring my neighborhood, or sometimes going to the beach. That's early morning for me, by the way (before 10:00 a.m.).

This is what I see when I come out of my metro stop: Torre Agbar.

At 10:30 on most weekdays, I meet up with Estel, a Catalan woman who wants to brush up on her English before visiting an old friend in Seattle later this summer. We meet close to Las Ramblas (Barcelona's very touristy main drag with lots of restaurants, shops, etc.) and go to a different cafe each time. Estel pays me to just speak with her in English, and she buys my coffee for me too! I've been learning a lot about the Catalan culture, politics, and world view from our conversations.

This is Estel choosing some "peras de San Juan," the typical fruit of the summer solstice festival.

After coffee with Estel, I have just enough time to run home for lunch before my workday starts. Other meals are provided by my host mom, but I have to take care of lunch on my own. I've been making different types of lentil salad with veggies so I can have something healthy and quick.

I have to leave home nearly an hour before my Italian class starts because my commute on the metro (subway) takes so long. Commuting underground is somewhat depressing for me. Sweating in the un-air-conditioned passages, being smashed in the crowds, and not seeing sunlight makes the metro commute pretty uncomfortable for me. Good things: cheap public transport, I don't have to drive, and the actual trains are air-conditioned. I never have to wait long for a train, either. They come every two to three minutes at every station. It's a really efficient and well-run system, but I will be overjoyed when I'm back in Springfield and can ride my bike to school, work, and downtown!

My metro stop, off of the red line. I prefer to travel above ground...

Italian class is fun but challenging. I have class at a small language school with a few other interns from my program who already speak fluent Spanish and a couple of students from Barcelona also. Halfway through the course, we switched instructors from Marianna to Andrea (male name in Italian), who are both from Italy. I can understand about 75% of what the instructor says (no English or Spanish is spoken in class), but actually producing the language is what's most difficult for me. I usually end up beginning in Italian and replacing words I don't know with Spanish words. Though I've just learned the basics, I know I'll be able to use a little bit of Italian when I visit Venice in July. We've learned hotel and food vocabulary, so that's all I need, right? :)

I teach English in a town outside of Barcelona in the evenings. In order to arrive to my class on time, I have to leave Italian about ten minutes early. I take the metro and then a larger regional train that goes out to Terrassa, where I teach. The entire commute (walking+metro+train+more walking) takes me about an hour and fifteen minutes each way. I am LOVING my English class. I teach the very beginning level, and the program I'm working for prefers me to speak only English during class. This is easy when teaching vocabulary or phrases because I can show pictures or use lots of gestures to explain what I'm saying. Grammar is what's difficult to teach without using any Spanish at all. My students and I both got frustrated when we had our first day of a difficult concept in English grammar, but we worked together and figured it all out.

I'm very satisfied with my career choice...this internship is EXACTLY what I want to do with my future: move around the world and teach English.

My students are mostly enthusiastic and very happy to have a free English course. They are all immigrants from South America and the Caribbean. I have a few adolescent boys and then six women ranging in age from 25 to 60. If you've ever taught or spoken to a diverse group of students/listeners, you know what a challenge this is! I have to plan activities and teach in ways that satisfy all my students' needs according to their learning style, previous knowledge of linguistic concepts, and even their general interests. One of the older ladies get frustrated quite frequently, because the rest of the class understands a new concept and is ready to move on before she's even understood what we we did the day before. Having students who learn at different paces is frustrating for me too, but it's helping me learn to balance how much time I spend on instruction and clarification and when I have to just move on to the next topic.

Some of my students: Kevin, Eva, Cecilia, and Oscar.

After my two-hour class, I take the train back to Barcelona. Walk, train, metro, walk some more, and then I'm home by 9:30 p.m. My host mom makes me dinner, which I am very thankful for since I'm so tired by the time I get home. She is the only elderly woman I've ever met that does not know how to cook. Here are some typical meals I've had: rice and meatballs with canned tomato sauce, lentils and peas with tomato sauce, and boiled peas and potatoes with butter. Once a week, she makes a chef salad, so that's the best day of the week for me. She doesn't eat (only has packaged shakes that she mixes with milk), and my housemate usually gets home later than me, so I eat alone. If you know me at all, you know that one of my favorite things is to cook and enjoy food with the people I love. I'm very much looking forward to visiting friends during my travels next month and eating delicious, homemade food together.

Torre Agbar at night

Sometimes I get to talk on Skype to my boyfriend Adam, my parents, or my sister before I go to bed. It's difficult to figure out a time to talk when we're all busy AND I'm seven hours ahead of everyone. I spend time figuring out what I'll be teaching the next day in English class (actually one of the best parts of my day!) and then collapse into my little bed. Then it's up the next day to do it all over again!

I'm now in my last week of my time in Barcelona. It's gone by very fast, but I feel like I've taken advantage of my time here and have had some great experiences in and around the city. Next post: daily adventures in Barcelona! Enough of the boring daily routine already ;)

New Places with Nuevos Amigos

I had a great long weekend (Monday was a bank holiday) in Barcelona with a variety of new friends! Here's an overview of my adventures:

Although my host mom means well, she usually makes me pre-packaged and processed foods. I went to the store to get some fresh fruit and veg I'd been craving instead of wasting away on frozen pizza and meatballs. I made a lentil and sweet potato salad with garlic, thyme and cinnamon. YUM! Apparently my trip to the store was a hint to my host mom, and this weekend she's made me baked fish, zucchini soup, and some delicious salads. :)

On Friday night, I went to a birthday party at my new friend Lona's apartment. Her roommate, Jordi, was celebrating his birthday and had lots of friends over. He provided all the food (tortilla española, Iberian ham, manchego cheese...) and drinks for everyone. Very kind!

After hanging out at the birthday party for a while, I met up with some friends at Opium, a discoteca on the beach. I danced until after 5:00 in the morning! In this photo are Herman, Rowan, Jordan, and TJ.

Saturday morning (after only 3.5 hours of sleep since the discoteca) I met up with some other girls from my program to do a bus tour of Barcelona (Maria is next to me in this one). Our program coordinators gave us all a day pass to Barcelona's "Bus Turistic," which has a few routes throughout the city. With a ticket, you can get on and off the bus as many times as you want throughout the day. We got to see the Barca soccer stadium, the old Olympic stadium from the '92 Olympics, the marina, and so many other parts of the city that I've yet to explore.

Saturday night was more relaxed...Rowan and I went to the Barceloneta beach with a blanket and a bottle of wine. We swapped stories about life in the U.S. and life in the U.K. (she's from Bath). We also went to the beach on Sunday, which I have no pictures of. We went to a public beach that's further away from the tourist areas, so it was really calm and peaceful.

On Monday I went to Montserrat, a town about an hour north of Barcelona, with more girls from my internship program. This is me riding the cable car up to the town of Montserrat from the base of the mountain.

From left is Stephanie, Kristine, Jamie, and me. We made it to the highest point of Montserrat after hiking for about 3 hours on very steep inclines. Though it was a little cold at the top, we had a picnic up there to celebrate our accomplishment of the day!

Sant Jeroni, the highest peak at Montserrat. V for VICTORY!

Some of what we saw at the top.

Doing headstands on the mountaintop!

This is Santa Cova, a small chapel built around a cave that's been a holy site since the time of Christ. Fifty years after Jesus was born, St. Peter put an image of the Virgin Mary (carved by St. Luke) here in this cave. Though the icon was lost during the Moorish invasion in the 700s, it reappeared in 880 when something miraculous happened...

Some shepherd children were playing in the mountains and they spotted "celestial lights" and heard heavenly music coming from a cave up in the mountains. Although their parents were skeptical when the children told them, they went along to see what the kids were talking about. Sure enough, the lights and music were still there and lasted a month. When someone finally found the cave, the image of the Virgin Mary had returned.

Now there is a Benedictine monastery next to the Santa Cova chapel. Though I'm not Catholic, I could feel in my heart how holy and sacred this place is and how much love and devotion are given in that small space. I feel lucky to have been able to visit. Apparently it is the pilgrimage center in Spain second only to Santiago de Compostela, one of the most famous pilgrimages in the world.

I'm very thankful that I got to spend today immersed in the mountains and the trees. Like I've said before, being constantly surrounded by concrete has been breaking me down a bit. The hike up to the highest peak and then the hike to the Santa Cova all ended up being almost 6.5 miles. It felt so great to get sweaty and grapple with the earth!

Thank you for taking the time to read about my adventures...next post will be about my everyday life here in Barcelona. Peace and Love to you all!

I need Earth

I've identified one of the reasons I've felt a little down today (aside from lots of rain and a bout of homesickness and big-city culture shock): I NEED EARTH. I grew up in the Ozark Mountains, always within seconds of a giant oak tree, a natural water source, and soft, green grass to dig my toes into. Barcelona is all concrete and stone. The only trees are those that have a 4 square foot area carved out of the concrete for them to grow in. I'm really looking forward to finding a way back to nature while I'm here.

Out at Little Sac last December, definitely more my element.

Switching Gears (or better, switching metro lines)

It's only been four days since my last post, but my time's been so full of escapades that it seems like weeks have gone by. I'll pick up from Saturday evening at Yellow Nest Hostel. Though I'd planned on going out with my city-exploring amigos, we disbanded and lost communication. I decided to go on the hostel's pub crawl instead, which was a visit to two posh and over-priced clubs on the beach.

It was very entertaining, of course. For just 10 euro, we had mojitos at the hostel and entrance to both of the clubs. All ~20 of us headed out together on the metro at about 12:30 a.m. This was one of those times when I got to use one of my favorite expressions: this is like herding cats. Confused first-time travelers and semi-inebriated foreigners=a big clustercuss when trying to enter the metro (aka underground rail system).

The clubs, Catwalk and Shôko, were really crowded and very expensive. It took paying 10 euros for a pineapple and vodka and getting squished on the dance floor for me to realize that the open beach was a much better place for me. I lounged in the sand with friends from the hostel (Rowen, Kieran, and Julia) and bought 1 euro cans of beer from the stealthy beach vendors. We took the metro back at 5:00 a.m. (it runs 24 hrs on Saturdays) and I caught up on rest at the hostel the next day.

crowded Shoko (I didn't take this photo!)

On Sunday afternoon, my new Brit friend Rowen and I went to see Barcelona's Gothic cathedral. It's near Las Ramblas, the most tourist-infested area of the city. Just outside the cathedral was a really neat flea market (read: overpriced tourist trap), so we explored that for a bit and Rowen got a good deal on a vintage leather watch.

One of the beautiful yet costly treasures at the cathedral market. This figure was priced at 125 euros!

We wandered to las Ramblas, the wide and tree-lined avenue that hosts many of the street performers, vendors, and shops that visitors like to see in Barcelona. Since it was so crowded, Rowen and I quickly found our way onto side-streets and searched for a cafe that she and Kieran had visited earlier in the week. After visiting a couple cute shops along our fruitless search for the cafe, we settled on a different one and stopped for cafe con leche.

I'm SO GRATEFUL that I ran into this place...fresh-made juice and smoothies right next to the cathedral.

That night at the hostel, Rowen and I watched a movie in Yellow Nest's little theater down by the common room. There's a hard disk with hundreds of movies in several languages, bean bags, and a big screen. We watched "Vicki Christina Barcelona." It was a PERFECT choice. Chick-flick about two best friends who stay in Barcelona for the summer and the messes they get into. We were sitting there saying, "We were there today!" "Oh, I haven't been there yet!" and "OH MY GOSH I CAN'T BELIEVE WE'RE IN BARCELONA!"

I also spent some time Sunday evening on the hostel's rooftop. Rowen did some journaling while I did yoga.

I checked out of the hostel the next morning and made my way to my host mom's apartment. It took me longer than I had expected by metro, and once I got to the neighborhood it was a very confusing hour-long walk. Let's just say that I really need to get some supportive hiking shoes while toting my giant backpack instead of wearing Birkenstocks.

Trying to imagine I'm in the forest as I navigate through this maze of skyscapers.

My host mom, Enriqueta, is a widow in her sixties and lives alone in a 3 bedroom apartment (aka "piso") in a very nice neighborhood. The building is right next to a giant open-air shopping mall with great stores that I'm looking forward to exploring. Enriqueta is so warm, friendly, and motherly! She has been washing my laundry every day, has tried to buy healthy foods like fruit and yogurt at the grocery store for me, and always calls me "guapa" or "guapísima" when I see her. She's not in very good health, unfortunately. She used to be a nurse, but about a year ago she had a bad fall and has been getting more and more sick. I'm trying to be as good a guest as possible and keep her home peaceful for her. I brought her a bar of Askinosie chocolate (made in Springfield) and a magnet from the airport that's a map of Missouri. She told me today that she ate the whole bar at once!

There's another student from my program living here at the piso also. His name is Jordan and he's a sophomore at a university out in California. We've gotten along really great so far and have decided that we're "hermanos" while we're here (brother and sister).

I bought a one-month unlimited pass for the metro. It also works on all buses and trams in the city.

Just a while after I finally found the piso, Jordan and I made our way to the orientation for our program, which is called Barcelona SAE (Study Abroad Experience). We met the other interns (about 25 Americans all doing different internships) and the program coordinators. Rich is the director of the program--a Chicago native who's lived in Barcelona for about 10 years. After going through the internship guidelines and getting to know each other a bit, we all went to the roof for refreshments. After a while they took us on a walking tour of the city and showed us places to buy phones, necessities, etc. By the time we finished the tour, I bought my cell phone, and I got home, it was already after 10:00 p.m. Enriqueta had made us meatballs and rice for dinner :) A new combination for me, but it was good (maybe because I was ravenous from a long day).

Now, to Tuesday! The first day of my internship. In the morning I met with Elena, one of the SAE coordinators, and the other few girls with my organization outside the Plaza de Sants metro stop. We walked together to the office where EduRed has its headquarters. EduRed is a small organization that aims to provide free education to people who don't normally have access to it. Since this is a non-profit organization, their office is held in the director's sculpture studio. Surrounded by sculpting tools and art supplies, we had a meeting about how the program works.

A new friend, Jamie, at our program's welcome lunch on Tuesday after the morning meeting. Jamie and I shared a goat cheese salad and a cucumber and apple gazpacho.

While some of the other girls will have different assignments, I'll be working with one other girl as an English teacher in a suburb of Barcelona called Terrassa. The girl I'm working with is Chelsea, a lacrosse player from Vanderbilt who's a few years younger than me. She's very sweet and also speaks Spanish! EduRed has teamed up with Programas de Apoyo al Peru-PAYPE (Programs of Support for Peru) to create a short course in English for Latin Americans that live in Terrassa. The course only exists because Chelsea and I are here, and they're hoping that SAE will provide them with more interns in the fall so they can continue providing English classes.

Danielle, Chelsea, and Irma at the EduRed office/sculptor's studio getting materials ready for class later that afternoon.

We'll be teaching Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday afternoons and evenings and meeting up on Thursdays to talk about the next week's lessons. Irma is a linguist that works with EduRed, and she writes all our lesson plans for us. It's so nice to have that! I can add whatever I want to them and modify them as I see fit. For the first day of classes, we gave a test to determine the students' proficiency level and they learned basic introductions. I'll write more about my students and teaching experiences later on since this post is already very long!

This is where I'll be teaching all month. Here is Eduardo (son of the PAYPE director), a woman from EduRed, Chelsea, and me.

When I got home last night (around 9:00 p.m., which is a normal end to the work day here in Spain), I had a delicious salad made by Enriqueta and then got ready to meet up with some new friends. Elena, the coordinator that helped me with my internship earlier in the day, invited me to meet her and some of her friends for drinks. It was great! I got to meet several Spaniards and practice my "castellano" (Castillian Spanish) all evening.

When Elena left, I ended up finding some of the American girls from my program. We went to another place with one of Elena's friends, Ruben, and had a few drinks. Since the metro closes at 12:00 a.m. during the week and I didn’t want to pay for a taxi, I had to go search for the night bus that takes me home. I found the bus with Danielle, another one of the interns, after almost an hour of searching and finally made it home so I could collapse into my little bed.

I’ve been very busy, but this is the way I love it! I’m off to teach day two of classes. Peace and wellness to you all!

Oh my Guadí!

Today was my first full day in my favorite foreign country, mi querida España. I got to sleep in until almost 11:00, which I haven't done since last summer! I went exploring and sight-seeing with Eric and Cathy (a couple from New York) and Alex (aka Alexander Supertramp from Canada). The majority of our visits ended up being to Antoni Gaudí's architecture around the city. Here are some photos of our journey:

My lemon tattoo is a homage to Spain. I'm so happy to be back!

Alexander Supertramp and Eric guided us through the concrete jungle.

Churros being made in the street. There was a big exposition for Modernism architecture that covered about three blocks. There were booths showing off the architecture from cities surrounding Barcelona, but my favorite part was all the food vendors! We got to have lots of free samples (such a blessing) and also bought some chocolate-covered churros.

How much more perfect could this day be? I walked around a market in Barcelona eating free food and drinking a glass of Rioja that only cost me 1 Euro.

Thumbs up for the fact that we could see the Sagrada Familia from the cafe where we ate lunch.

This was my third visit to Gaudi's Sagrada Familia. I went in 2007, 2009, and now in 2011. It's really interesting to see the progress each time.


In front of one of Gaudi's buildings with my café con leche. Have you noticed that food/beverages are my favorite ways to experience a place...?

Cacti covered the mountainside on our walk up to Park Guell. Unfortunately, lots of people think it's a good idea to carve their names into them.

Me, Eric, and Cathy enjoying the view of the city and the sea from Park Guell, another creation of Antoni Gaudi.

Now I'm back chillin' in the common room at the hostel. I'm going out to experience the Barcelona nightlife tonight with my crew from today and another girl, Julia, who just arrived to Yellow Nest today. Peace!

---->Start Here<-----

For those of you who don't know about my travels this summer, here's a little prologue:

I'm living in Barcelona for the month of June to do an internship and get the rest of my Spanish credits for MSU before I graduate in December. I'll be teaching English, computer, and "personal image" classes to women who've recently immigrated to Barcelona from South America. After I finish up at the end of June, I'll be using my Eurail pass to travel by train around Europe and visit friends that I've met in my other travels and in Springfield. So far, my destinations include Pamplona, Paris, Amsterdam, Munich, Budapest, Zurich, and Venice. I'm sure it will change by the time I make concrete plans, though!

I named my blog after this quote, which really captures the way I feel about travel and exploring our Lovely Mother Earth:

“Adventure is a path. Real adventure – self-determined, self-motivated, often risky – forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind – and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white.”

That said, here we go!
_
_
_
After 26 hours of driving, flying, waiting around, sleeping (poorly) in an awkward corkscrew position, and then battling the Barcelona metro system while towing three backpacks, I finally arrived at my hostel around 2:00 p.m. today. Big THANK YOUs to my dad for driving me to St. Louis for my flight. He's the best dad I've ever had! :)

As soon as I could get my stuff locked up in my room, I got online to let Adam and the fam know that I arrived okay. The hostel is great--Yellow Nest. I knew I wanted to stay here because two years ago I stayed at its partner hostel in Valencia, Purple Nest, with my dear friends Virginia and Sofia. The atmosphere here is just as great with bright and colorful people and decor.

Yellow Nest Hostel's common room

I ventured out just far enough to find some lunch at the grocery store then crashed for a while. I'm staying in an all-female dorm with 5 bunk beds. It's really clean and each bed has its own locker. After my nap, I met a few girls in the room who are from Massachusetts that just graduated college. I went along with them to the "Font Magica de Montjuic"--the magic fountain. Hundreds of people were gathered around a giant fountain that's situated down the hill from a marble palace-looking building. The "magic" part must have been the show when it got dark: lights made the water look colored and different water formations went along with music that boomed from around the fountain.

There's me in front of the Magic Fountain, Fanta Naranja in hand.

Since I had slept through dinner, I went to one of the street vendors and got a "bocadillo de lomo y queso" (grilled lamb and cheese sandwich) and an orange Fanta. Such a typical quick meal in Spain! After the watching the fountain for a while, the Massachusetts girls and I wandered to a nearby cafe and sat outside for a couple of pitchers of sangria. I got to tell them all about the menu and the different tapas--I really hope they try some new foods while they're here!

The Massachusetts girls: Rose, Aubrey, and Nikki.

I've loved being able to take the Metro today. No driving for two whole months! yippee! I've got to buy an unlimited month pass for the Metro so I don't go broke.

Once back at the hostel, the other girls went to bed and I went downstairs to the common room and hung out with some of the other night-owls. I ended up staying awake until 4:00 a.m. just chatting, playing pool, listening to the many guitar players show off, and drinking some beer from the vending machine.

Though very exhausting, today has been a perfect first day of my adventure!