A Week for "Firsts"

So this week has been a week for firsts for me. What do I mean by that? Well for the first time this week I ate Indian food, visited a chocolate museum, and went out on a Wednesday night.

Indian food: On Tuesday I met up with my Spanish professor Ana from our Spanish intensive course and the rest of our class (or as she likes to refer to us as, "family"). We ate dinner at an Indian restaurant called Rani India in the L'Eixample area. Although I love all kinds of food, I have never actually tried Indian food before. I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed many of the dishes (although I did cheat a bit by eating the "non-spicy" versions of each dish). Some of the ones I liked the most included the lamb and the lentil beans. My favorite part of the meal however was meeting back up with Ana. She was a wonderful teacher and very funny too - one of the funniest class moments had to have been when she started singing Kesha's Tik Tok!

 Ana and Family :)

Chocolate Museum: This week I only had one class (my Invisible Organizations class on Thursday from 9-2) due to ESADE's career fair. To take advantage of the time off, I decided to explore Barcelona a little bit more. A little bit ago I heard that Barcelona had a chocolate museum not too far from where I live. On Wednesday I decided to explore the museum for myself and was again pleasantly surprised! As your entrance ticket, you receive a bar of dark chocolate made right in the museum. The museum is small, but very cute and you even get to see students learning how to temper chocolate and create chocolate art pieces in their chocolate institution.

One of my favorite chocolate masterpieces! The house from Disney's Up

After visiting the museum I spent the rest of the afternoon walking through the area I live, El Born. It is a very cute area that has many little stores and restaurants. I will definitely be visiting some of those soon.

Wednesday night: Well this one doesn't need much explanation, but for the first time ever as a college student I went out on a Wednesday night. We went to one of Barcelona's famous discotecas, Razzmatazz. A very fun time, but maybe not the wisest decision with class at 9am. We did get home early according to Barcelona's standards though.... 4am! Needless to say I needed the night off tonight to recuperate and the boys and I will be watching Eastern Promises before heading to bed. Never heard of it, but hope it's good.

Hasta pronto!

Madrid

Hola :)

I spent the past weekend not in Barcelona, but in Madrid visiting Katie :) After the longest day of class ever on Thursday (if you dont recall, I have class from 9-9) I came home ate, showered, packed and went to bed. Unfortunately with the hour commute from school, I didn't get to bed until 12:30 and had to be up at 3:00 am to catch my bus for my flight out of Girona. Needless to say it was pretty painful waking up that early, but also pretty funny considering the boys weren't back from going out by the time I left!

Early Friday morning I arrived to Madrid and met Katie at the airport. We took the metro back to her apartment and I met all of her wonderful roommates. She lives with 6 other girls from all different backgrounds: Italian, French, Romanian and Chinese. What's great is that their common language is Spanish so they all speak it to each other in the apartment. It was a great way for me to keep practicing my Spanish. After taking a much needed nap while Katie went to class, we decided to walk around the city since it was a beautiful day. I enjoyed walking through Sol the city center and the Retiro park. That night we went to a club called MoonDance and Katie and I had fun dancing the night away!

On Saturday we visited the Royal Palace and the Prado Museum. The Royal Palace was a pleasant surprise for sure. As we walked through each "sala" or room of the palace, the place continued to wow me. Each room was more ornate than the next. I wish I had photos that showed the beauty of the details, but we weren't allowed to take pictures :(  After stopping to get cafe and rest our legs for a little (how Spanish of us!) we journeyed onto the Prado. Going on Saturday from 6-8 is free, but you will never see it all in just two hours! Although I'm not much one for art and being able to critique it properly, I thoroughly still enjoyed the Prado. The best part was recognizing some of the art I studied before in class (mostly Goya's stuff, like 'Saturno') and seeing it in person! One of my favorite pieces was El Bosco's The Garden of Earthly Delights, which depicts the fine line that exists between paradise and Hell. But like I said, I'm no critic, and I mostly just appreciated the grand scale and detail of the paintings. That night we went to a bar called El Champandaz which was a local place near Katie's flat. I loved it! It was full of Spanish people, which actually has been hard to find as an exchange student. The interior resembled that of a cave and when you ordered  drink, it came down from one of the cave isicles hanging from the ceiling. Very cool!

Sunday Katie and I walked around El Rastro, a huge open air flea market in Madrid that's held on Sundays from 9am-3pm. You can quite possibly buy anything and everything there including books, shoes, leather, scarfs, underwear, antiques, and anything else you can imagine! Katie purchased a large wall rug for her room next year and I happily purchased a small over-the-should leather purse (very common here) and a scarf for only 7 euros. Quite the bargain! Because it was such a beautiful day, later we walked around El Lago (translated, the lake - it's located in a very large park). Afterwards we relaxed back at her apartment since we walked a ton this weekend.

Today I arrived back in Barcelona and it is truly starting to feel like home! I think it was due to the familiar feeling I felt when I stepped off the bus back from the Girona airport. I can't wait to show Katie around the city when she comes in two weeks... and then Chris ... and then Erica! I cannot believe it's already February 21st. How time flies!

Well, until next time...

One month in Spain, Only one week in class

So as I promised, I am going to try and post more! This post I’ll dedicate to my classes (which by the way, it’s only the second week of classes and I’ve been here for a month!) and my weekend back in Barcelona.

My class schedule here is admittedly amazing. I have class only on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and my Tuesday class doesn’t start to the beginning of March. This will give me time to travel on the weekends and do things here in Barcelona! I feel like I still haven’t done more than half of the things to do here in the city and I’m excited to start exploring it more.

Right now on Wednesdays I have Marketing in Spain and Social Marketing. In Marketing in Spain we have to observe the current market for a product group, let’s say frozen food or beer in Spain and introduce a new product. I think the class will be really insightful as to why Spain functions the way it does and why there are some things in America but not here. Social Marketing is in Spanish and I still haven’t figured out exactly what it is yet! It deals with marketing done for NGOs and other things, but I’ll be interested to learn more about the class.

Thursdays is my most difficult day of class. I have class from 9am-9pm. The first class is Invisible Organizations (it deals with organizational culture) and it’s from 9-2. Fortunately they give you half hour coffee breaks here for 3 hour classes, so I’m assuming we’ll at least have that and a bathroom break! At 3 I have Managing Services, which is exactly just that and at 6 I have Brand Management. This is the one I’m most excited for and nervous for! It’s also in Spanish but there are many more actual ESADE students in this class, not just exchange students who know how to speak Spanish. You create a team of 7 to come up with a brand, create a tangible product, and sell it on the streets of Barcelona! You are given 500 euros and are expected to recoup that money by selling your product. It’s such a practical and exciting course, but I have heard it’s hard and get pretty crazy towards the end. Within the first few minutes of class I thought about jumping ship, but I think it will be really good for me not only from the business side of things, but also from the immersion side of things. I am speaking a lot more English here than I expected and if I truly want to better my Spanish and get fluent I have to immerse myself here. Taking this class allows me to meet other Spanish students and to truly practice my Spanish. It may be hard, but I think it will totally be worth it! Talk to me in a month or two and see if I feel the same way though! Lol.

This past weekend was beautiful in Barcelona! My boys (the term I like to use now for the other UNC guys that I live with: Marcus, James, and Tyson) went on the skiing trip to Andorra so I had the place to myself. I hung out a lot with Amy, Prachi, Adar and Gilberto and it was a ton of fun! We explored a new park called Ciutadella and I can’t wait to go back and run there. Which reminds me, on Saturday I ran by the beach which was amazingly beautiful but I am amazingly out of shape! Hopefully I’ll get back to a point where I can run and enjoy the city instead of wincing in pain! Last night a bunch of the girls and I made a Valentine’s Day dinner. It was very delicious and fun and I’m glad I could spend it with them since I couldn’t spend it with Chris (who surprised me by the way by sending me a card that got he on Valentine's Day :] )

Well hopefully these posts will be shorter in the future as I update more frequently… until next time!

Sevilla y Granada!

Hola todos! Sorry it has been so long, but as I mentioned in my last post I spent 6 days in the south of Spain and then the next week I had to get adjusted to real life again because classes started!

I'll use this post to recap my trip to Sevilla and Granada. To start, Sevilla:

Sevilla is a beautiful, beautiful city! It's smaller than Barcelona but that's what adds to its beauty. Although the streets are much more confusing and difficult to navigate, it feels far less like a city than Barcelona. We arrived in Sevilla on early Wednesday morning and went on a walking tour of the city that our hostel provided. This trip was my first hostel experience and the Oasis in Sevilla was definitely a great first experience! We heard many interesting stories on our tour about the city of Sevilla. Much of it was built to attract tourists for things like the World Fair but there were many interesting stories about the smaller parts of town as well. One of my favorites was the story of a young woman named Susona who lived in the Jewish quarter.

 

Susona was a Jewish girl who was the daughter of one of the rebellion leaders in the Jewish quarters, but ironically she dated a Catholic soldier. When the Catholics reconquered this area, they closed the Jewish quarters and murdered over 4000 Jews living there. The Jewish leaders decided to rebel and attack the Catholic soldiers to retalliate, but Susona told her Catholic soldier boyfriend everything so the Catholics ended up attacking first and killed 1000 more people in the Jewish quarter including her father. Since she had no one left, Susona ran away and joined a convent until she died. However, in her will she said that when she died, she wanted her head cut off and hung in front of her window to remind everyone what happens to a traitor. Per her wishes, her head hung in that spot for over 100 years until it detiorated and some children started playing with it... thus they decided to take it down and put this plaque up in its place instead.

At least that's the story I was told :) interesting huh??

 

Other beautiful sights in Sevilla included the Cathedral, el Alcazar (the royal palaces), and Plaza Espanya (a park designed for the world fair):

 

Cathedral:

View from top of Cathedral:

Fountain in the garden of the Royal Alcazar:

Plaza Espanya:

 

Like I said, Sevilla is a beautiful, beautiful city and I absolutely recommend it to anyone visiting Spain. One of my favorite things we did in Sevilla was go to a tapas restaurant and watch flamenco! We got to the restaurant early (T de Triana) to grab a good seat for the show, so we ordered some drinks to pass the time. We tried "Agua de Sevilla" which tasted like a pineapple smoothie and then of course sipped on some delicious Sangria. I also had some really delicious tapas there that night. Finally it was time for the show to start and I absolutely fell in love! It was just got a guitar player, singer, backup, and then two dancers. The small production was great because we were so close and I could feel the stomping in the floor and see the passion in the dancers' faces. After that I almost decided to drop out of school to move here and become a flamenco dancer!

Now onto Granada. Granada is even smaller than Sevilla, but has some beautiful sights, the foremost being La Alhambra. It's basically a royal fortress that spans the length of a mountain and it was constructed by the Moors. You can without a doubt feel the heavy moorish influence in Granada compared to Sevilla. We spent 3 hours walking through the fortress, but many people spent many more walking through all of the beautiful things to see. Words won't do it much justice, so here are a few pictures!



We went to a very fun bar called 380 Elvira in Granada that was just a local place, but the owner was really nice to the group of 20 or so that we were. In Granada, it's standard to get free tapas with every drink you order! We had so much fun the first night that we went back Sunday night to watch the Superbowl. It was definitely weird watching the Superbowl in another country, but mostly because there were no commercials! That's one of my favorite parts so thanks to Ale, I watched them all through youtube when I got back :)

On our way back from Sevilla, we had our first big travel blunder! Our flight was scheduld for 8:25 am so we got to the airport super early, but unfortunately there was a dense fog all around Sevilla. The flight back to Barcelona was delayed for an hour and then finally canceled. It was definitely a little bit of a scary feeling, but all turned out well. Apparently no flights could land in Sevilla and were redirected to Malaga. So what did they do? Ryanair bused us all to Malaga (a 2 hour bus drive mind you) to catch the plane there. When we finally got there, the plane was scheduled to depart at 1:00, but at 1:03 there was still no plane. We finally boarded at 2 and got back to Barcelona at 5. Although we were supposed to be back in Bcn at 10:30, the little fiasco definitely made Barcelona feel like home :)

Well this post is long enough! I promise to update more often. In the next post I'll tell you about classes and such!  

A few more things...

So of course I forgot a few things since I tried to recap two weeks in one post. 

Here are just a few more things I'll recap:

- Nightlife

- Barca soccer game

- Santa Maria del Mar

Nightlife:

As I mentioned in my post before, the nightlife here is truly amazing. Our first night out was for the welcome dinner for exchange students held by the committee for international students. It was amazing! It was at a very cool Asian-themed club right on the beach and there was an open bar of wine, beer, and cava (Barcelona champagne) til midnight. Later, per my Jersey girl style, I got up on a platform and started dancing with all of my friends here

Another night we went to a bar called chupitos (which means shots!) and the entire wall is covered with names of shots. The shots are very cool! They had a Harry Potter one where they light the alcohol on fire and throw cinnamon on it which makes it spark and look like magic. Also there was one called a boy scout in which they again lit the shot on fire and then gave you a marshmallow to roast over the fire – then you dip the marshmallow in the shot, eat it, and down the shot! Very, very cool bar.

We go to many fun places here in Barcelona so I can't write about every single one of them, but I will be sure to let you know about the particularly special or cool ones we go to.

Barca Soccer Game:

Last Wednesday we went to the Barca soccer game. It was a cool experience riding the metro with everyone else in the city to watch the game. The seats were awesome and we won 5-1 against Almeria. Although I have no idea who they are, it was still fun to watch us beat them! Traditionally I'm an American football fan over traditional football, but after the worldcup and seeing Barca play, I'm starting to get into the whole soccer thing.

Here's the stadium doing the wave - I guess the wave translates in any country! :

Santa Maria del Mar:

On Sunday, Amy, Prachi (girls from my program) and I went to church at Santa Maria del Mar which is just a few blocks from my apartment. We met up around 11 (mind you after going to bed at 6am from the night before) and had a very European breakfast at a cafe and then headed to mass. It was amazing to go to church in such a beautiful building! I really should learn my prayers in Spanish though because it's a little hard to keep up without any literature to read from. I'm definitely looking forward to going there and the Cathedral for mass in the future.

Well I must start packing for Sevilla and Granada. It should be interesting trying to fit a week's worth of clothes in a backpack. It also will be interesting wake up at 5am to catch the bus to the aiport :( Again... I guess I can't complain too much ;)

Desde el principio...

Hello everyone :)

Though the decision is a bit delayed, I've decided to start a blog. I realized after sending practically the same message to multiple people, that this would be the best avenue. The title is derived from my impression of the lifestyle here: Paella and Parties, or more general, eating and drinking. Meals are such an event here, especially dinner which isn't until 10 at night. People can stay at a restaurant for hours eating and drinking and enjoying life. The nightlife here also never ends. Most clubs don't close until 6 am and there's always people out... I'm not sure how anyone functions normally because the only problem I currently have with the city is lack of sleep. However compared to the blizzards and exams that everyone else is facing at home, I guess I can't complain ;)
  
Here is a recap of my first couple of weeks in Barcelona:

The first week was definitely a learning experience. Our apartment unfortunately turned out to be in not the best of locations and it didn't have internet, so we had to go on the hunt for a new one. After searching desperately online for hours after our spanish class each day, we finally found one in the Born area and started to enjoy the city instead of rushing around it.

My dad came to visit me last Sunday and it was so nice to see a familiar face. We toured the Cathedral and it was BEAUTIFUL! I can’t wait to go to mass there. The best part is that it’s right across the street from my new apartment.  We also visited Gaudi’s architecture – so beautiful! Here's just some of his beautiful work:

While here, Dad got addicted to "Cafe con leche" which is sweet and delicious coffee! He adapted very well to the lifestyle here, stopping at little cafes everywhere to get some. We also went to some very nice restaurants while he was here. The first was called Taller de Tapas which was a deIicous tapas restaurant. Some of my favorites included the croquetas, grilled calamari, and grilled peppers. Another restaurant we went to was called Salamanca and it was a very traditional Spanish restaurant. Of course we had some cava and had the most delicious sea bass. I was sad to see him go when he left Wednesday morning, but it was great to have him here!

School technically don’t start school until February 7^th, so we'll be leaving tomorrow to visit Sevilla and Granada until next Tuesday :)

Sorry this post was so long! I'll be sure to update more often so you won't have to read so much at once :)