Barcelona Adventure

Most of the girls from my program headed to Barcelona over the weekend of the 12-14 (since the Friday was a national holiday). We took an 8 hour train overnight, which, like the bus to Andalusia  worked quite nicely since we didn't have to pay for a hotel. We didn't have the first-class beds, but we did have pretty spacious seats that reclined really far, so it wasn't bad at all (certainly much better than the bus!) We went right to our hostel via the Metro so we could store our bags for the day, and then we split into smaller groups and we wandered downtown. It turns turns out the hostel was close to anything except the Metro stop we had come on, so we had a pretty long walk, but it was interesting to see what the non-urban core of a major Spanish city is like. It rained some, but we all had raincoats and it felt just like home! I obtained a slightly better map than I had from my guidebook which made me much happier. We did a walking tour of part of the historic downtown with a slightly more believable tour guide, which was quite enjoyable. I do feel like walking tours are more focused on historical anecdotes than a cohesive story, but I suppose that's unavoidable if you see some many sites in 2 or 3 hours.

This is the Barcelona cathedral. (The picture is actually from Sunday, but it looks better in the sun than in the rain... We actually had to stop here for a while and wait for the rain to die down because it was pouring!)

The building facade was made by covering the entire front with red paint, then adding a new layer of cream paint, and then scratching away the red parts that you see. I think this building was about 100 years old but has been recently restored.

Paella for dinner! I've discovered over the last couple years that seafood is really good, and Barcelona paella is no exception. Afterwards, we shopped around a bit at a few of the many identical tourist shops, got some pastries for dessert, and headed back to the hostel to go to bed relatively early.

The only landmark that was kind of close to our hotel, as see from my room at night.

The next morning, I got up and headed to the Sagrada Familia, a famous church designed by Gaudi. It's still not finished and won't be for at least 15 years (presumably more, if "Spanish time" is applicable in this case). In a word, it's best described as weird, at least from the outside. From this angle, it looked like a lot of the stone was melting/drooping, and in the front, it was much more angular. There were also large random clusters of what looked like fruit at the top of a few towers. Inside, though, was a different story...

This is the ceiling, which is still weird, but so awe-inspiring. It's a huge church designed to draw your gaze upwards. Well, unless you get distracted by the stained glass, which was just incredible! Pictures, of course, don't do it justice, but every window was uniquie and fascinating. There were different shapes and sets of colors depending on where you were in the church and I spent a long time enjoying them!

I unfortunately didn't get to go up in one of the towers, but it's because I had plans... to go play Frisbee!!! I had emailed a few teams a while before asking if it would be possible to play at any of a couple different tournaments, and fortunately this one worked out perfectly since it was a double scrimmage of regional teams  in Barcelona on the weekend I was there. I took the Metro to J's house to meet with the girls and have lunch (I was quite proud that I was able to find it with just an address, without asking for directions from anyone). She had just moved into a great apartment with a rooftop terrace and a view of all of Barcelona, and I'm quite jealous.

(Alex, forgive me, I'm going to recycle a little bit lot of narrative here... Everyone else, skip ahead a few paragraphs if you don't want to read about Frisbee!)

The team I played with was quite international so we used a lot of English, which was really nice for being able to communicate effectively... They even use English words for "layout d" "break" "stack" etc. Also, I realized that the words I use when talking to someone on the field are so instinctual that I only used English because by the time I thought about what I was saying, the words were already out of my mouth. 

The beach where we played was absolutely gorgeous; just 30 min south of the city and they get to practice once a week there! They even store their discs, cones and the lines for the field in a bar right on the beach. Also, instead of saying force flick or backhand, they say "force mar" or "force banosca" which means force the sea or force (the name of the bar)... like home or away, but cooler :)

The team is still fairly new and growing, but we used vert and ho stacks, had a few named plays, and worked on zone D. (If you have 3 in the cup, you only have two defenders down field!) I handled the whole time because only about half of their roster was there (we had 8, including another girl who has only played with them a bit), and I think only one of those people really identified as a handler normally, but people filled in well. It was windy the whole day, which took a bit of getting used to, but wasn't too much of a problem.

We lost both games, but for me, at least, I don't think winning could have made the day any better; I still had a ton of fun! The girls were so enthusiastic and friendly, made me feel like part of the team, and I got my first layout D!! SO EXCITING!!

Team photo:

The sunset while we enjoyed a beer during the bye... I wish I got to play here weekly!

I got dropped off in downtown near a metro station so I could head back and shower, but I decided to explore a little bit as long as I was there (I wanted to see as much as I possibly could since I only had three days!), and I fortunately made it in time to see this beautiful lights show in the Magic Fountain of Montjuic (well, that's the English translation given to me by some tourist website, at least!) The fountain is right in front of the columns in the second picture, and down the hill from the National Palace (now a museum). There were hundreds of tourists around (aka it was very crowded) which made me slightly nervous since Barcelona has a reputation for pick-pocketing, but I kept my backpack in a death grip and had no problems. 

After the lights show ended, I met the rest of my group for dinner at a very pleasant restaurant and took advantage of the opportunity to have more paella. Hopefully I can learn how to make it while I'm here!  I was quite tired and ready for a shower after dinner so I headed back to the hostel and called it a night, even allowing myself the luxury of sleeping (slightly too long.. made checkout but missed breakfast) so that I would be rested enough for a full third day of sightseeing. I started out by going to Parc Guell, another one of Gaudi's sites. It pretty much comes across as a giant park with a number of interesting-looking buildings and park features. It's not that close to downtown so I took the metro to get there, but I had the impression that every single tourist in Barcelona was in the park at the same time as me, so clearly the distance wasn't to much of an obstacle. Some highlights:

Lots of excellent musicians! I walked out of the park with many fewer coins than I had come in with.

The tiled benches, one of the park's two most iconic parts.

Look, I was actually there! Since I spent much of the weekend wandering around by myself, I don't have too many pictures, but here I'm practicing my MySpace photo skills! 

The dragon/salamander, which is the other, even more iconic, park image. It's also the major tourist item, and ever store had little (or not-so-little) ceramic salamanders, along with pretty much every animal. I loved them and would absolutely have brought home one that was a foot long if it weren't for that pesky suitcase issue....

Another pleasant part of the park... Remember that it's Gaudi, so it's kind of weird.

The view from the highest point in the park. (I've since discovered that the automatic white balance settings for the panorama assist mode on my camera were off, so in the future, panoramas will be a bit more colorful.)

Once I left the park, things got much quieter since cities kind of shut down on Sundays here and people seem to stay home (other than the huge number of tourists, who were of course all still at the park). I met up with a couple other girls and we did some souvenir/Christmas shopping (I can tell you from first-hand experience that Barcelona has a lot of ATMs!) and then we spent the afternoon at the waterfront. The weather stayed beautiful right up until we had to go collect our luggage from the hostel, and the city has clearly invested a lot of money to make the area quite pleasant. Still fairly touristy, but not as bad as some parts of the city.

Melissa and I had an excellent last meal of tapas, mussels, and sangria, and I was sad to leave an area with such good seafood! 

Getting to the train station via the metro ended up being a bit more of an adventure than we had anticipated, and let's just say that I'm glad she and I have been running a lot in Leon! Luckily we made it to our Trenhotel and got back to Leon at the pleasant hour of 4:45am... Weekend well spent!

Favorite Day

My two host sisters (ages 11 and 15) play golf for what I think is the Leon youth club/team and periodically have tournaments within a few hours of Leon. Sunday was a tournament in Salamanca, which is conveniently a very famous and beautiful city. We had to leave really early to get there in time, although this ritual felt very familiar because just like in my family, when you say “We’re going to leave at 7:45am, “ it does not actually mean that we’re going to leave at 7:45am. Still, I think we left at 8:05 or so, which isn’t bad at all, although it made Carmen (the 15 year old) nervous because she had the earlier tee time. I am extremely glad that preparing for a Frisbee tournament is much less complicated; there are so many items to remember for a golf tournament, even though bags and clubs were already in the car. Also, I’m bad enough at packing as it is!

We spent an hour and a half or so at the golf course waiting for them to warm up and start. I did a little bit of homework (of course I had a lot on this particular weekend…) but I mostly just observed everything that was happening. All the parents and kids knew each other; I think there were 70 Leon kids and parents, and more from other clubs, so it was quite social. Since we were running a tiny bit late, getting settled was hectic for the girls, but my hparents (that’s not a typo Nick; it’s my new abbreviation for host parents!) were clearly used to this stress and made funny comments to me while helping figure out everything. I was introduced to a few other moms, who said I “pronounced things well.” A lie, but pleasant nonetheless. Like Saturday, I totally lucked out with the weather... It was a perfect fall day, not to warm or cold, and it made me want to play golf so I too could walk around in it for hours!

Esperanza at the first hole. 

Once Esperanza was on her way, my hparents and I headed into town. We parking a garage (which has a car wash inside!) after searching at length for street parking. At a rather high speed in narrow roads, I might add. I hadn't eaten lunch yet and my stomach wasn't too happy about that! I didn't need to think about that for long, though, because I quickly was distracted by how beautiful the city is. Everything is constructed from the same type of stone, so the whole city is the same color, but in a good way. My hdad was enthusiastic about taking pictures with my camera so I would actually be in them for a change.

In the Plaza Mayor (Major Plaza)

Again, with my hmom Gema

The Cathedral, as seen from halfway up... We were able to walk around on walkways that have been added to parts of the roof, affording us...

This view!

The facade of one of the University of Salamanca buildings. It's the third oldest university in Europe (founded in 1134!) 

My hparents are so knowledgeable about Spanish history, architecture and art, so it was like having two personal tour guides, which was fantastic :) We also had a gigantic lunch which consisted almost entirely of authentic regional meats (don't worry; it had potatoes too!) and in the afternoon we visited probably the only museum in the city that was open (it was a Sunday in Spain, after all), the Casa Lis art museum. It's a very extensive, albeit random, private collection, which was beautiful. I haven't been to an art museum in a while and I enjoyed it a lot. Unfortunately you couldn't take pictures inside, but luckily the internet exists! This is a photo of the main room, with what is now my favorite stained glass window I've seen! I was disappointed in the gift shop collection because they didn't have anything which remotely did the ceiling justice (not that a photo does either, although it's the best one I could find), but that was better for my bank account, at least.

At this point, the girls had finished playing so we went back to the golf course and hung out for a couple hours waiting for everyone else to finish and for the awards ceremony to happen. Everything still seemed rather chaotic, but I was able to get some more homework and while the girls were not pleased with how they played, they did both get trophies. I skipped the ceremony to read Pablo Neruda, but I think one of these may have been for getting 3rd place out of three in the whole category... they can just neglect to mention that detail in the future! I didn't get home until about 11pm, but it was such a worthwhile day... I'm hoping to get to do a little more traveling with my hfamily while I'm here; I have a lot of planned program excursions which take up most of my Saturdays, but there are a couple free weekends, so we'll see.

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You may have noticed I've discussed two superlative experiences so far in my blog: the best mango I've ever had, a few weeks ago, and my favorite stained glass window, obviously above. Another to add to the list is the longest run I've done! I was supposed to meet Hailey at 5, but I went to the spot were the run was going to end instead of start, since we like to vary the direction... I figured by the time I made it to where she was (by walking through the city), she would have realized I somehow messed up and would have left, so I started running on the trail, and eventually we met up, so I joined her running back toward my start. It was another phenomenal fall day: not a cloud in the sky, absolutely perfect running temperature, and full of fall colors, so I wasn't ready to stop and go inside. We split off and kept going on a path I've run once before, but this time I went significantly farther, and the only reason I turned around to come back was because I had plans at 7:15 and I needed to shower first! Tomorrow or Thursday  I'll go back and keep going. I ran for 75 minutes at somewhere between a 9 and 10 min mile pace so I never felt physically tired, but that's around 7 or 8 miles, so I'm quite satisfied. I didn't have my iPod either, but I really enjoyed listening to everything around me. Feet hurt after though! My shoes are closer to the end of their life than the start, so I'll toss them when I leave here and gain some suitcase space... I'm sure that every little bit counts.  

Modernist Architecture and Roman Engineering

Even though I technically spent this weekend “in Leon,” I feel like I was busier than when I traveled to Barcelona or Andalucía! Saturday was our first program excursion, along with other students from the Language Center of the university here, so we had a big tourist bus. First we went to the small town of Astorgas, which is a tourist destination primarily because Gaudi only designed three buildings outside of Barcelona, and one of them is here. It’s called the Episcopal Palace (for the bishop to live in, next to the Cathedral). Gaudi and the bishop were childhood friends (I think), so he agreed to be the architect, but the bishop died before the project was completed, so Gaudi left and the work was finished by someone else, so the style changes slightly as you move up the building, but it’s still beautiful. Not quite as impressive as the Sagrada Familia (which I saw and will write about!) but still very enjoyable. We weren't supposed to take photos inside, but here’s what the outside looked like.

Also, the weather was just phenomenal, which definitely didn't hurt the excursion at all. In the town, we also saw the Main Plaza and a small chocolate museum. By small, I mean it was difficult for the ~40 of us to fit in museum. I’m not really sure why we went there, but many people made edible purchases in the gift shop, so I’m sure the museum didn't mind.

We drove a little ways away to a tiny town near Las Médulas (explanation to come) for lunch next. My host mom packed me two sandwiches which were the size of Subway footlongs, and I had some fruit... Did not eat everything! We had nearly two hours allotted for lunch and since I do not eat quite that slowly, I had ample time to wander around and look at this lake.

Las Médulas (a UNESCO World Heritage site) are what remains of a huge Roman gold mining operation in the first and second century. The Romans found out that there was gold under the mountains in this particular spot, so they excavated tunnels under the mountains (above the level of the gold, more or less). Meanwhile, they built underground canals to transport water from mountains up to 100 km away, stored the water in reservoirs, and then released it,  filling the caves with water, which had nowhere to go, and the mountains exploded. Obviously the dirt and rocks went somewhere, totally altering the downstream landscape, and creating some new water features in the process, like the one above! The Romans did this for 300 years, and today, we see this!

We got to go in one tunnel/cave, and had to wear hardhats. We realized that it wasn't to protect us from falling rocks; it was to protect us from bumping our heads on the low ceilings! I'm glad I was not a Roman miner...

Real hard hats in the US conform to ASTM standards but these ones were made in Spain so I don't know if they/to what standards they conform. Didn't seem like a question that the cave ticket-sellers would know the answer to though! I am also dying to know more about the hydraulic design of the canals... They must have had a decent elevation drop to be able to transport that much water so far (without physical pipes, according to my professor, so I'm sure the loss from "leakage" was significant...but how much?). Did they think about those things? How did they know--was the whole project just an experiment which went well? Pressure probably would have built up, but pressure reducing valves hardly existed back then...How did they collect the water at the top of the system? What volumes of water are we talking about? Diameters of canals and tunnels?? What were the downstream effects? Did this alter the watershed(s)? Kill a bunch of animals? People?

Anyway. We had taken a bus up to the viewpoint, but we walked back down to a different small town below, which was so pleasant. Since we didn't actually have to do any work, it didn't feel like a hike, per se, but I was so glad to be out in the woods surrounded by fall colors. Once we got down to the level of Las Médulas, the light had turned that fantastic autumn gold color, which made the remaining rock formations look that much more impressive!

Will write about Sunday's adventure tomorrow (hopefully...)!

Mucha Catedral!

Today was a very pleasant day, largely because it was Friday and I had time to do lots of things which didn't include homework.

Lunch could best be described as large, consisting of lots of pureed tomato soup, a bowl of mashed potatos/cubed ham/an over-easy egg/cheese, and a mango. After, I felt more or less like I never needed to eat again! Delicious though, of course! That might be part of the problem!

I visited the Leon Cathedral this afternoon to take the audio-guided tour, which was enjoyable. It was built in the mid 13th century when Leon only had 5000 people, and yet it was a particularly unusual cathedral because it used a newer style of architecture allowing much more wall space to be used for stained glass rather than thick stone walls. Very beautiful.

Olivia and I went on a run which is probably my favorite route, largely because it is quite defined and entirely flat. Also, the weather completely cleared up (good thing I wore rainboots and took an umbrella to school...) so the sky was blue and the leaves are starting to change colors! We also joined a gym this week (my first non-school gym membership!) and I'm excited to have that as a workout option, especially as it gets colder!

After, I hurried home and went to an organ concert with my host parents, back at the Cathedral! I do prefer orchestra music to organ music, but I'm glad I went; it's of course an impressive space to have a concert, even if my host parents were not too impressed with the sound of the organ there... To their delight, though,  it's going to be renovated soon. We had a glass of wine and a tapa at a bar they like (very crowded, so other people clearly like it too!), which I enjoyed a lot; they're smart and funny and tolerant of my difficulties with communication! I have been able to make a few jokes this week though, which is satisfying :)

News on the Home Front

Word of the day: el crepúsculo, which means twilight. Before I had even started to learn Spanish, Carrie taught me the most basic words and phrases, and for a long time, my favorite word was igualmente, which means likewise in English. Unfortunately  no one seems to actually use it in the context that we learned it in the US, which was "Hi! Nice to meet you!" "Likewise!" Here in Spain, they almost exclusively say encantada, which means delighted. Now, I think crepúsculo might be my new favorite.

When I got back from Barcelona (stories and photos to come soon!), we had three small goldfish instead of two slightly larger ones... Apparently, my host mom was changing their water and accidentally had the faucet (el grifo... luckily, I had just looked up this word a few days ago) on hot, and suddenly she had two dead fish! Oops!

I've discovered that my motivation to study is a bit less here than it's been for the last two years... I miss my study group! Fortunately, I don't have nearly as much homework; an hour a night is average or perhaps a bit higher. I don't have a problem with this at all since so much of my day is time I'm spending learning. Today, for example, I had a long conversation with my host dad about guns here versus in the US. The main points I took away were that 1) being able to have a gun isn't a "right" in Spain; 2) concealed permit weapons don't exist here; and 3) (my host dad is of the opinion that) if the laws were changed and suddenly it were as easy to get a gun in Spain as it is in the US, the country would be a disaster. Yay human nature. 

I've taken some pictures of my house (which I should really call a flat, I think) so you can see where I live:

A sunset out the kitchen window over the neighborhood

Kitchen table (can be pulled out from the wall) and the laundry room 

Kitchen (with old goldfish)

Bathroom that I share with my sisters

Sisters' room (this is "messy" since there are a few clothing items on the beds...)

Extra bedroom/study

Living/family room, with dining room table in the background

Entry way, with my back to my room, hall to parents' room to the right, and family room to the left

My room. I currently sleep in the bed on the right, although now that the heat has been turned on in the building (!!!!!), I might switch at some point to not be quite so close to the radiator.

The other half of my room....The closet which is open is mine... The golf trophies, figurines from traveling, and books in Spanish are not!

Of course I look forward to going to my real home at the end of the program, but it's been easy to get used to living here... I have my own space which is very comfortable, and I'm welcome to be anywhere in the house and participate in whatever is going on. Not too shabby.

Southern Adventure Continued

Apologies for the lack of blogging... I'll try to catch up quickly since there is a lot to tell!

I left off at the 3 hour bus ride to Granada. I enjoyed this one more because I got to nap some and also see some southern countryside, including a high speed train that's under construction. Spain has a few of these lines currently and has plans to expand the system further, which will significantly reduce travel time to Barcelona and Madrid from all over the country. Civil engineering FTW!

We made it to our Granada hostel without incident, which was a marked improvement over Seville. There was a very pleasant outdoor courtyard, coffee/tea available, and clean, spacious rooms, so we spent a little while relaxing to prepare for more touristy sightseeing. After a delicious dinner of salad (we chose that restaurant specifically so we could get vegetables!) where the waiter asked if I was from Spain since I apparently pronounced my order well (!), we walked up a large hill to Spain's number one tourist destination,  the Alhambra, a gorgeous Moorish palace and fortress built in the 10th century. Because it's such a popular destination, the number of visitors is controlled, so we bought a ticket package in advance which allowed us to tour part of the palace at night, and come back the next day to see the rest of the grounds.

As a general rule, lighting in the palace was pretty dim, making for a great atmosphere but poor photos. With a little imagination, though, you can see how incredibly detailed everything was. Walls and ceilings were all intricately covered in tiles, carvings, or a combination of the two.

A typical wall pattern... no big deal...

Typical walkway and intricate ceiling decorations:

Me blending in to the tiled pattern!

 

After, we wandered around our neighborhood for a bit and found some kind of benefit concert in a plaza, filled with a crowd of all ages dancing, and many more people just enjoying the environment... I don't think this would happen in Leon, but it's a bit warmer in Granada!

The city overall seemed a bit more modern than Seville, and it was pleasant to just walk around and get a taste of the style of architecture and life there.

The next morning, we went back to the Alhambra to see the Nasrid Palaces and the Generalife Gardens. We didn't have a tour or a guide so I can't tell you much beyond what I learned from my guidebook and Wikipedia, but because it is late here, I'll let you do as much or little research as you please and instead show some pictures, which say much more :)

At this point, my camera battery was running pretty low so I stopped taking a picture every 30 seconds, but I spent a little more time exploring the hill below the Alhambra with two other girls. We went up a ways to the tan building in the photo below, which turned out to just be a hotel, but we stopped there and pretended we were rich and had a glass of wine in the cafe.

And thus came to an end our short three-day weekend! We headed back to the hostel, collected our bags, and took a long bus ride to Madrid and another pretty long bus to Leon... The free wifi is not quite incentive enough to choose the bus over the train and I think I'll choose more wisely in the future! I got home at about  3 am and was extremely pleased to have my own bed!