Here in Granada- Jan 28

Okay, sooo.. I’ve really been to lazy the past few days to type/ post but I’m going to try to catch you all up as shortly as possible.


Friday was morning classes followed by lunch in the U of B cafe. Immediately following that, a group of about 10 of us boarded the train with the symbol that looks like hands and headed out of the city to where we were going to hike to Tibidabo.

Tibidabo is a huge church on top of the highest mountain surrounding Bcn, so you can see it from almost anywhere in the city. And from it you can see everything. It truly is incredible. I’ll try and get some pictures up on facebook, and maybe a few here for everyone too see.

Yesterday I didn’t really do anything at all. I got up around 11 as seems to be the Spanish way for los sábados. Then, Molly and I went and found a free internet café, where we tried to figure out some travel plans and I was able to post a few blogs before my battery died. Aside from that, we went to the mall and Corte Ingles to try and get a few things for the trip, plus I want to get a more Euro-trash jacket instead of wearing a rain/ ski jacket around all of the time. Its just easier to try and fit in.

Today was hell. And for this I say:

A huge THANK YOU goes out to all of you who have made the Supreme Sacrifice.

Tedd, Chris and Sarah: the three of you have traveled extended periods of time in buses to come visit Etown, and I really appreciate it today more than ever.

We spent 14 hours on the bus today and it was hell. It was hell and I knew most everyone on the bus, I cant imagine going it alone. Thanks.

We’re here in Granada though, and I am pretty excited though. It’s the Alhambra all day tomorrow.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

OH

I completely forgot. Friday night, Becky Sarah, Molly and I went to the Fuentes Mágicas. Which were incredible. They are definitely something that I will return to see a few times and that you should all see too.

Word of the Day: Aigua- Agua- Water. The fountains were that good (Catalá by the way)

Jan. 25

Just a quick post for tonight.

Instead of writing, I watched an episode of Band of Brothers. Tonight was kind of awesome, although our plans were broken it was the most I’ve felt like we all interacted in the house. Lluis was late to get home, so his mother and I sat and watched Spanish Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Then Jack and I began dinner. When Lluis did show up the three of us managed to hold real conversation, which is rare because none of us is all that talkative. We talked about a few books and their relation to life today, namely 1984 and Brave New World. Brave New World by the way is just called “Mundo Feliz” in Spanish. It was nice though, then the three of us got up, and got jackets to go play some futbolin. We decided that the Fooseball gods are not on our side though since last time we tried to play, they were closed and tonight they had a live band so they turned the lights down way too low to play.

Awesome place though, and it’s a really awesome old fooseball table with metal players painted like FC Barcelona players. (Just for the record, Lluis and I were winning when the lights went down)

Aside from that, today wasn’t all that eventful. The only other thing that I did that is worthy of noting is that I chose a tentative list of classes for once the real semester begins and those will be:
Globalización
Union Europeo II
Morfosintaxis
And Don Quijote

Shouldn’t be all that bad. I’m just hoping that the globalization class might be able to transfer towards my concentration somehow, or if not.. maybe towards a poli sci minor.. that might be cool to have for my Presidential career down the road.

LAST NIGHT.. that’s what I really need to tell you about.

More than half of BCA Barca went out last night to Brazilian Party night at a club called Mojito. Once we all finally met up near the club it was about 11:30 but the club was still dead so they recommended we wait at a bar down the street. A very Asian/ Sketch bar. We all had fun though and a lot of laughs crammed in the tiny bar with one old borracho and about 25 American college kids.

Then we moved on to the club where there was a live band and some dance instruction. It was pretty difficult to get into the dancing at first but once you got up the nerve to just jump in and make yourself look foolish for a few songs, you got the hang of it pretty quick. It was good to finally get a chance to hang out with all of the kids from the group and just have fun and forget about the language thing.

But you know what.. this morning in class we were all so relaxed however tired we were and had fun there too. Getting all of us together to go out is seeming like more and more of a good idea by the minute.

Here’s the weird part.. I got about a third of the way home after dropping Molly off when I got a text from her saying that her keys weren’t working. I walked back and tried for myself but it just wouldn’t work. Our only option was to ring the doorbell and wake up her “mom” at 3 am.. The first words out of her mouth though were, “No te preocupes” or “Don’t worry.” So it wasn’t all that big of a deal. But then I had to walk home at 3 am instead of 2-2:30. I decided going through La Rambla was my best bet since its open and pretty well lit. But it didn’t seem to matter

The text that I sent to Molly as I was walking through went something like this…
“I thought that I was supposed to solicit prostitution, not the other way around.”

It was Weird. Never felt so awkward in all my life. And the whole time, the police just stand around. In America we have this strange perception of prostitutes standing on corners, well here in Barcelona, they walk around, walk right up to you and grab your arm or whatever they have to do… WEIRD…

It made me miss grass just a little bit more hahaha

As for the New Word of the Day, well, its officially the “Word of the Day,” I’m a lot less limited that way.

Word of the Day: llaves- keys (easy enough)

Jan 24

I was walking through the metro today on my way home when all of a sudden; “Bombs Over Baghdad” came on my mp3 player. It was right then that I realized as much as I feel like I’m starting to fit in just a little bit more here, I’m still American as can be.

There I was:
Sneakers
Baseball Hat
Sweatshirt
“Bombs Over Baghdad” in my ears
Smiling

None of which would any real Spaniard wear/ listen to or do on the Metro.

But I’m okay with that.

You know, I love Spanish and Spain. But I’ll smile if I want to.

Why be so depressed all the time, and this goes to everyone not just Spaniards. It only makes other people wish that they weren’t there too. On that note, I convinced Molly that we really need to talk to people other than each other. So we’re going out tonight. It’s Brazilian Party night tonight at a Club called Mojito up on Passeig de Gracia. Way up.

I’ll deal. Practically all the BCA kids are meeting up at the Diagonal Metro stop to head on over, and there’s no cover. So what’s the harm??
(Just an aside word wants “there’s in the line before this to be “there be” and I think that that’s hilarious)

That’s about it, I’ll let you know how it goes tomorrow.

New Word of the Day: Sius-plau- Por Favor- Please

That’s Catalá- Lluis is teaching us a few words here and there, and I just saw a sign in the metro for free classes offered by the Gov. So I’ll be looking into that.

Why not, you know?

Jan 23

Be Prepared! Once again, Ryan missed the point.

I miss grass.

Sorry to all of you who Ryan should really be missing, but instead, you were beat out by something that’s more of a hassle than anything else.

Sure I’ve made some decent money in my life mowing grass, but to have to do so week in and week out should have made it the last thing I would think of on my walk home, but I did.

I miss grass.

It’s the truth. This city is nice and I’m really starting to like being able to walk places and get anything I need easily or whatever. But I just can’t stand concrete anymore. Don’t get me wrong. Of all the concrete in the world some of the nicest is found here, but it’s just not the same. Yeah, there are a lot of parks, but they’re really not the same. They’re places to bring your dog for a walk. They’re isolated, fenced off places in the corners of the city. It would just be nice if there was some natural color in this city.

I miss… grass?

If you’re reading this, and are maybe slightly offended, rest assured I miss you too. But if you were here, I would still miss grass. It’s just hard to live in a city. Yes, that’s exactly what it is. It’s hard. Hard on the feet, hard on the eyes, just hard.

“Concrete has no sympathy.”

New word of the Day: albondigas- meatballs
(Okay, so not really new, just what we had for dinner and a fun word to say)

Jan 22

Hard to imagine that today is really only my, what?, 8th day here.

I walk everywhere. I only take the metro when my feet just can’t handle it anymore. Which is usually on my way home from dropping Molly off at home, but that’s just from Universitat-Urquinaona-Barceloneta really just saves me ten minutes and having to walk through the pick-pocket friendly Ramblas at night. Not to say that I don’t enjoy it…

That is the weird thing. I’ve been here slightly more than a week, but I already feel above the common tourist. I guess that it’s the fact that I have an address here. At night I walk down La Rambla just like the rest of them, but I walk with my eyes forward and my mp3 player in my ears. That is the way you know. I know that I still look American, but when I’ve got a destination and a key in my pocket I feel like just a little bit less of an outsider.

At home we speak English.
Here they speak.

It’s strange to think of my language as the foreign one. I’m the one that they look at on the Metro and in the street. And I’m the one singled out.

Molly and I were heading back from Corte Ingles tonight waiting to get the go-ahead to cross Diputació when an American businessman standing behind us started to talk to some people that he was traveling with trying to make plans to meet later on in the night.

He, an American, was just like me; but I refused to accept it. I decided right then and there that if I really am going to stick with this whole International Business thing… that that is not going to be me. I’ll stick out, that’s for sure.

But I refuse to be the one on the corner that makes heads turn,
That’s what Prostitutes are for..

I’m studying. I don’t study. I don’t have a test, a quiz, or even homework.
I’m studying Spanish.
I’m putting forth an extra effort.
If this is what I get out of all this: I’ll stay a year.

I NEED to be better than what I was.
I eek.

I don’t do well in class, I did better this semester, but I had help. It helps when I know others in the class that keep me on my toes. But I’ve got to do my work for me, not with them so they get it done too. If I don’t enjoy doing it on my own now, why in 5, 10 or 15 years??

I like where I am.

I can keep this up. I can be an International Business major. I enjoy it and I will enjoy it if I let myself. I have resigned myself to working my way up.

Let’s start working then.

New Word of the Day: uña encarnada- ingrown nail

Jan. 20

Today was one of the longest days of my life.

I ended up going to bed last night around 10 because I was absolutely exhausted from that long day and all the excitement and walking – little did I know that that was nothing.

Today I got up at 9:30 had breakfast (which here is also bread) and left to go meet Sarah and Molly in Plaça de la Universitat. I gave myself an hour to get there by 11 because I knew that I wouldn’t go the fastest way because as well as I know the city, I just don’t know it that well. I ended up stopping to watch some kids play some organized soccer on a dirt field and then walked up to La Ronda no sé cual. Las rondas are the streets where the old walls to the city were, but today it was a hobby show of sorts. A radio station was there and the street was shut down, all so that a bunch of people could set up tables and trade wine bottle tops. Just the same as people in the US might have baseball card or coin collections saved in pages in binders, these people had bottle tops. It was really weird.

I wound up at the Plaça at 10:35 and sat and watched people walk around for 15 minutes until Sarah got there. We talked awhile about our first nights as we waited for Molly. Molly finally came at about 11:15 which was a little weird because she is never late. When we finally were able to cross the street to get to the Universitat where she was she told us that it wasn’t her fault. Sure Molly…But it really wasn’t her host mother heard where we were headed and sat down with her and had to highlight her map so that we’d be able to find our way all right (Although now that I think about it there was just a circle around Parc Güell). I wasn’t all that impressed by Parc Güell really.. I mean, there were a lot of really nice things and some really cool architecture, but as far as guide books saying that it is one of the most relaxing places on earth, I completely disagree. Have they ever been to Mohonk, have they been to Minnewaska, HOW ABOUT FISH CREEK?? I just don’t think they understand that relaxing in a park is about getting away, sitting down or laying in the grass, maybe paddling a canoe alone or with some friends. When the Parc is one of the main tourist attractions of the city, a stop on all the tour routes and a stop on the metro it is no longer relaxing. And what about all of the dirt where there should be grass?!?! I just don’t get it.

So we kept walking.

We went to La Sagrada Familia which is a church mostly designed by Gaudi the same who designed the park. It was nice, but also expensive. We paid 9 euro ($12) to go in but that also includes entry to the Gaudi museum in Güell sometime in the next month. It was really cool though because Molly was able to interpret a lot of the statues and the stations of the cross which were on the outside. I guess that’s what she gets for so many years of catholic school.

That was mostly it for the day, we walked back down to the city park which goes down to the water, sat for a bit and figured out tomorrow’s plans. Then dropped Sarah off at the Metro and continued on to Molly’s apartment. Dropped her off and took the Metro back home. By the time I got to the Metro, I had been walking for 9 hours with just a few short breaks in between in the parks and Sagrada Familia. Then worst of all, I got back to my street and could not for the life of me find my apartment, I walked from one end to the other back and forth from Restaurante de 7 Puertas, an apparently famous restaurant to Kevin Spacey’s 6 story face on a sign on the end of my building a bunch of times until I ran into Lluis my host father outside. Apparently, the entrance to my apartment is also the entrance to a small store by day, I kept looking at the stairs inside but knew they couldn’t be right..

I guess I was Wrong, it was very funny though when I told Lluis what happened.

New Word of the Day: Ampulla- blister

Jan, 19 2007

WOW

I’m here.

That’s really all that I can say. It’s about 10 o’clock at night and we just finished dinner. I have all of my things set up how I think I want them and I am here. My “Padre” is very very nice. He lives here with his mother who cooked us chicken noodle soup, salad, chicken, patatas fritas (French fries) and for dessert fruit o flan. I chose the fruit.

The coolest thing is happening right now as I write this. I normally write my blog in English but I am sitting here and it is really just flowing in my head in Spanish. It really is taking a lot of effort to write in English, but I know that I promised a lot of you that you would be able to read it.

One more really important, but very unexpected thing.
I have an “hermano” also. His name is Jack and he’s also from the United States. On the drive here though, Lluis (seriously, it’s all just Spanish in my head!!) told me that he only wants us to speak Spanish in the house. I think that it is going to be very difficult and Jack has already spoken to me a few times, but it will be good to have someone who has been here a few weeks to show me around. He said that he’s normally out until about 7 am though. Sounds just like me huh?

Molly, Sarah and I spent the day “rambleando” through the streets of Barcelona. It was incredible, we got to see so much of the city. On a map it seems soo big bit in just under 5 hours we were really able to cover probably 10% of it. Haha

I’m going to include a to a map of Barca so that you can all have an idea of where I am, and where I’ve been.

I’m really just too overwhelmed right now and can’t think of all that much more to say but I expect to have much more from now on.

Unfortunately I don’t have any wireless networks accessible from the apartment so I’m going to have to just write daily and post when I can. I’ll be sure to try and include dates and pictures of the days events as best I can.

As you can probably tell by the length of this post, I’m just really happy/ excited for the next four months. Lluis already told me that he thought that my castellano was really good. He’s had to repeat things a few times, but he has already been really helpful.

New Word of the Day: despertador- alarm clock

Looooong Day

Molly y yo hemos decidido que cuando vamos por la calle o el metro solo debemos hablar en español y nada más.

(Molly and I decided that when we are walking in the street or on the metro we should only talk in Spanish.)

The big event of the day was that we actually had some spare time to get out and explore a little bit of the city. And when I say a little bit, I mean a very little bit of it. We got to go see the Plaza de Catalunya and the Cathedral of Barcelona today, but didnt really have all that much time..

Other than that we're were pretty busy with classes today. We had our first art history class today and it was seriously one of the worst classes of my life.. The profe speaks in a very monotone voice very slow and spanish. All of our other professors slip between spanish and english relatively often just to make sure that we're getting it but he just kept on going and going. Not only that, but he dumbed the material way down. There is still just a lot of vocab about greek architecture and art that we dont know though...

In other news, I found my favorite spot to stand on the metro. Right against the door in the corner track-side. You can't go anywhere no matter how hard the conductor stops at the estacion.

In Spanish news, I learned something that I think everyone from the US has said wrong while learning Spanish:

When describing what you did last night, you might say in English,
"I didn't do anything"- direct translation= "No hice mucho"
But REALLY- we should be saying,
"No hice nada en especial"

That's about it. Molly and I are going to go write a quick emilio then head to bed.

GOODNIGHT

Phew..

Today was a lot better than yesterday. I got to sleep, I got all three meals.. I got to go through the whole day in one timezone.. What more could I really ask for??

I'm thinking that the class that I was falling asleep in yesterday is not only going to be really helpful, but also really awesome. The professor is really easy to understand and is really helpful and it is generally just a good class. The class is called "The Spanish Language", and it is supposed to teach us the finer points of the language. Not necessarily the really difficult things to say, but just focus on the things that we already know and clean them up a bit. Today we looked at the different verb tenses and analyzed what makes them the way they are. For the most part it was really obvious but the difference between the (hold on, this part is really only going to be interesting to spanish speakers.. sorry) the preterite and the perfect is really very subtle. She made us see that it is really all about perspective and that we need to be looking at that more carefully when we talk and write.

Another thing that I thought was cool was that when you dont know or dont care to tell someone who a person is that you're talking about, you just the third person plural.. I guess just sort of how we sometimes say, "whoever it was, they just left" or something like that... Sorry I have no ability to think of examples...

Anyway.. I've been working on this blog off and on for the past 5 hours or so since before dinner.. which was terrible once again.. the pork was all right but I almost threw up whatever those cold cooked vegetables were that I ate..

Goodnight

Estamos!!

Molly and I arrived in Barcelona today with very little trouble. The biggest problem that we faced was that they switched my seat on the flight without telling us. It turned out to not be such a big problem because the girl sitting next to me was nice enough to switch seats. I let Molly sleep the whole time since she's recovering 11 hours of sleep after coming from Hawaii.

What we did find out is that Barajas Aeropuerto is HUGE and confusing.
We had a 5 hour layover there and ended up using an hour and a half of it to get through passport checks and security. So it probably was a good thing that Iberia changed our flight because we never would have made the original one on time.

When we did get our bags and our taxi in Barca and get to the hotel we dropped our bags and headed to the Universitat for our first two classes. The first one was pretty good with an insane profesora but the second one was too late, and I ended up dozing in and out of consciousness.

I'll be sure to check back soon especially since we have this wireless.

Dejame un mensaje o un email si tiene bastante tiempo.

Talk to Me.

Thanks to Tedd, I was reminded today of Skype. I signed up for and bought a headset for it so now I can talk to any of you free over the internet or for 2 cents a minute from skype to your phone. If you want more details go to www.skype.com If you're looking for me my Skype name is ryan.wikane which should be easy enough to remember.

So add me to your contacts now!

Oh no...

I just realized that I have to go to school in Barcelona...

So Soon.

So it seems like I got really lucky...

Last night I went to CVS so that Kait could get some chocolate after seeing the Good Shepherd and it turned out that they had Phone Cards for sale buy one get one free. I was going to buy them before Christmas as presents to my parents but didn't end up doing so. Basically, by being a really bad son, I saved $20. I'm going back tomorrow to buy more for Molly.

In bigger news, Iberia Airlines sucks. They decided to bump Molly and I from our 8:30 flight from Madrid to Barcelona and push us back 4 hours. We originally tried to change plans but with Molly being in Hawaii for the week, it was just easier to deal with it. We were told that we really won't be missing all that much, especially since we were told that the orientation ends around noon on the first day and we wouldnt be able to be there until around that time even if we did leave with the earlier flight.

But that really is all that I have for now. So far as I can see my next post probably won't be until the night before I leave or maybe during my 4.5 hour layover in Barajas Aeropuerto if I can manage to find wireless.

First of Many

This is what should be the first of many posts for this blog. It will serve as both an anecdotal review of the events of my time spent in spain and as a didactic tool for Señor's classes. Hopefully I will remember to take the time to post with at least some frequency. Until then I'll try and keep you updated pretty often.