Madrid

** Blake and Benett at Parque Buen Retiro, Amazing!!!


This past weekend I met my good friend from home, Benett, in the capital of Espana, Madrid. This weekend was amazing. Granted the journey getting to and from Madrid were not too fun because of the numerous trains and planes, everything in between the flights was spectacular. We did everything one can do. Toured all the sights, ate great food, explored the fantastic night life, and simply enjoyed exploring a new city. As much as I loved Madrid, I am very happy I live in Barcelona. Barcelona, I think, has more character, culture, and simply a better feel, but Madrid is an amazing place as well. The experience of traveling within Spain is extremely rewarding because noticing the the differrent dialects, accents, and demograhpics is very intriguing. Overall, its hard to put an amazing weekend like Madrid into words, but it was one of the best times I have ever experienced and priceless memories were created this past weekend.


This weekend (Feb 13-15) I am going to Sevilla, Spain with my program, and I am greatly anticipating this as well!!

Its mid February!?

Life has been crazy lately. I cannot beleive how fast everything is already going. As of late, I have been scrambling and simply living life out here in Europe! Classes officially picked up not too long ago. I am in a variety of classes ranging from media and society, to film, all of which are about Spain and tought in Espanol/Castellano. These classes are still at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, meaning I am surrounded by international and Spanish kids constantly!
Furthermore, I have also begun working at my internship! What I am doing for my internship is working on a brand new temporary exhibit opening this month, for The Barcelona City History Museum staged in the breath-taking Gothic Quarter of the city. What I do for the Museum is, like I said, work on this brand new Exhibit opening. The reason they chose me to work is because this exhibit is about "transnationalism" in Barcelona. Basically, Barcelona is changing rapidly with heavy amounts of people coming to live here, that were not born here, like myself. Therefore, I am the person who is charge of English communications jobs, ranging from creating survey's for visitors, to writing a international press release document, to simply being used for English perspective! It has been an amazing opourtunity thus far, and I can't wait for the exhibit to open.
Also, beyond school and working, I have been settling into home-stay life. I am loving living with a host mother and living in a residential neighborhood. Everything with the home is going very smoothly, and I am truly feeling like a citizen these days, not a visitor. Over the past few weeks I have done tons and tons of things from exploring the neighborhood, to finding a place to get my haircut, to simply walking around, and nothing ceases to get old around here! The weather has been decent, but not amazing, but beyond that, life could NOT be better!!
On a final note, I have discovered a local joint for some great food (get excited Caleb). It's small, tucked away, and delicious! You walk in, place your order, and the chef fires up a burning hot, toasted Bocadillo for you, and it is not to be beleived. For those of you coming to visit, get excited, and for those who are simply reading... you may want to head to Kopp's now to clear your thoughts because this place is TOO good! Beyond all of this news, thats all that really comes to mind about my past few weeks, besides my Madrid trip which, will I post a seperate blog for!

Adeau (Catalan for seee yaaa)

Back to Life

So, I am finally back. Let me just say yes, Americans take the Internet for granted, but life without it is rough, but I have survived! But, now that I have consistent internet access at my home I can return to being a blog-o-holic once again. I have done a lot in the time where I was not able to update all of my fellow followers, but the update is on its way. Many good things to come, just want to update everyone that all or most of my links are now functioning (check them out!!!) and that I will be back to blogging regularly very shortly! Talk to you soon.



PS- If this sounds like a child wrote it, I sincerely apologize, but I am writing on 6? hours of sleep after an amazing weekend in Madrid.

Chao.

Home Sweeeet Home

So, as I hope you've all noticed, I have not blogged recently. The reason is that on Sunday night (1/25) I moved from my residencia, to a home-stay. For those of you who are interested in how close/far I actually moved, here is a map. Anyways, my home-stay is absolutely great, minus not currently having the Internet. I have been through thick and thin (had a technician come to the house and try to fix the problem for hours then demanding tons of $$ from me... nothing worked, language barrier is tough in real-life dilemmas) trying to get this problem solved, and hopefully it will be shortly.
With that said, here I am, updating you all. I am currently at UPF, where all my classes are now kicking off as of this week. I have to blog from here due to my Internet not working at home. Anyways, now that you are all caught up, the home-stay. My friend Josh and I live with one woman, and her name is Carmen. As soon as I moved in, she showed me around, gave me keys and told me this is my house now- she is amazing. Mid to late 50's, widowed, mother of three, and oh so cool. She has cooked us burgers, homemade Vegetable soup, spaghetti, and chicken, all of which has been delicious-she basically cooks for us b/c these are not authentic dishes nor does she eat late at night. In the mornings she makes us tea, coffee, gives us cereal, muffins, fruit, bread whatever we want. The day I go there, she did my laundry for me, and since there are not dryers here, she hung everything out on the balcony, which is in my room! Hmm what else?? Josh has his own room (which somehow again is huge) and I have my own. Both are great and perfect for us. We are starting to form a nice little family even though these first few days have been hectic with Josh being sick and myself trying to get the Internet going. Overall, every night we have a dinner together, where Josh, Carmen and myself talk, relax, and enlighten one another about our days(all in Spanish obviously). This is where I try to understand what she is telling me, and sometimes I do, while other times I simply do not. The area we live in is also quite nice and extremely CENTRAL within the city of Barcelona. Basically, with the home-stay, I get to see more of the culture: How Carmen runs her life, how energy actually matters because lights are always off, rooms are always cold, water does not stay warm long, and dryers simply dont exist, and I enjoy taking all of this in. Overall, I am very happy about my move. Carmen is a great cook and a very sweet woman, providing quite the grandmother touch I have been looking for! Josh and I are eating it up... ;)

Since I am a little behind and Internetless I do not remember everything that I should blog about, feel free to ask me more about my home-stay. This is a summary of what comes to mind for now, to give you all an idea, but like I said... feel free to ask about more!

**Lastly, I plan to take some pictures of my home and Carmen shortly and
post them on my blog and facebook.

BARCE---BARCE---BARCE!

Last night, a few of us finally made it to a FC Barcelona match, and let me tell you, words cannot describe the experience. First of all, tickets for the cheapest section were all sold out. Somehow, someway, this lady gave us some random free tickets and we got in! Right from that point, I realized this is meant to be! As soon as I entered the stadium, Camp Nou, I wanted to cry. The "pitch" is so immaculate and surreal. 100,000 fans cheering on their pride and glory, and I was in the heart of it, experiencing it all. The amount of pashion alone is unimaginable (and then screaming, blow-horns etc) and make up the total experience for a futbol match.
Afer some scrambling, I made it down to the lower level, grabbed a seat and enjoyed the match. FCB is the best team in La Liga (Spanish Leauge), and they showed it last night. They beat their oponents 4-1, and it was truly amazing. Everything from the living the first GOALLL, to the simply listening to the fans, to scrambling through the stadium was ideal! Like any sporting event, watching it live takes the cake, but with futbol, you have to live it. I look forward to getting to as many matches as possible!

A special journey to class...

So today (like the last 10 days) I woke up with the sun shining through my curtains. I thought to myself, I want to walk the beach on my way to class. I live right off the beach (Barceloneta) so the walk to the boardwalk/ "paseo" is not too far. With that said, I grabbed my Ipod, put on Radiohead, my favorite band, and cruised the sea on my way to class. Between the music and the sights, it was truly one of the most breath-taking moments of my life. Therefore, I had to stop a man and ask him to snap a picture of me. So, hope you enjoy!

Mr. President- Obama-Obama-Obama!

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009. No matter where anyone was, today was one of the most notable in history. Us American's over in Spain were allowed to leave class a bit early to catch the Inauguration coverage of Barack Obama. Therefore, after a long day of class, we all ventured to a Irish Pub nearby for $1 Estrella's, (one of Barcelona's most common beers)and to watch the official Inauguration ceremony. When entering the pub, I noticed a huge crowd of kids. Granted seeing tons of American's in one place is not something to be excited about, today was an exception. Kids from all sorts of programs gathered around, had some beers, and cheered on our new president. It was truly a priceless experience, and granted I was not even in the homeland to experience it, it will never be forgotten.