Being a Guiri

A picture of something that really looks like Cranbrook in the Palace Gardens at Mountjuic
A cool picture in the gardens
The famous attena built in the olympic village
Louis and Matt posing at the footsteps of the entrance to the palace. City view behind them
Matt and Louis looking fresh on the ever so helpful outdoor escalators.
Mountjuic (hill of the Jew)... Louis is the guy posing in it
After Calcutada some drinks on the beach... Amanda, Louis, and Matt
Me and my view of Barcelona sky line at the Calcutada lunch.
Me and Doug (from Cornell) attempting an intertwined Porron.
The main entrance to Park Guell
Collums under the big plaza in Park Guell
The huge plaza at Park Guell
The cool playgroundish architecture by Antonio Gaudi
Again some more cool architecture. I specifically like the chairs on the right hand side.

A house where someone would have lived in Park Guell.


This weekend started out with me joining this amazing gym. They have a deal with students from CIEE. Then later on in the day I went to Park Guell. This park is awesome. It was originally constructed for the wealthy but because the financial back fell through the project stopped and was sold to the city. The park was created by Gaudi and clearly evident when you visit. There are nature trails which lead you to great views and a house that once belonged to a wealth person. Then there is a plaza on a huge open area above this really cool open area of columns. On the plaza there is a great view of the city, a restaurant, and a bunch of people. When walking around the park there are also performers singing traditional Spanish music. One of the houses Gaudi lived in is there. The entrance fee was steep for what was inside. Anyway the park was something to check out even though the weather was really cloudy. That night I went out with Laura Riera Santos to club Otto Zutts. It was a lot of fun.

The next day, Saturday, I went hiking with a group up mount Tibidado. Here we entered a small restaurant and had a famous meal call Calcutada. It’s a huge BBQ featuring calcoots (sp?) which are these really long onions that you dip in sauce and eat. The meal include pan de tomate, calcoots, lamb, sausage, ensalada, and un postre. It also included mass amounts of red wine. We would mix the red wine with sparkling water which made it pretty tasty. We also would drink wine out of a Porron which is a vase of wine with a spout that we would hold up and away from our face and have the stream of wine go into our mouth. People used to do this back in the day when not everyone had their own glass. This was fun, but some people got out of hand, and the wine got everywhere. After this we continued the day party at the beach (me, Matt, Louis, and Amanda). It is a beautiful beach. When we finished our beers we went back to drop off our bags at our respective places. When we reached Louis’ place his Senora made us dinner. It was great. The rest of the night was standard. We tried to go to a club but it was too expensive for my tastes then we tried Las Ramblas but that is the shadiest place in the world, so we just went home. On Sunday, I hung out and studied Spanish so I can speak better and I had test on Wednesday. I also watched the playoff football games at an Irish pub with an Asian American behind the bar from Seattle. I was really bummed about the cardinals winning. I don’t think I even want to watch the super bowl.

During the week,

On Monday I just hung out after Spanish class. I took a nice siesta. Paco, came back from his vacation so now my real home-stay senor is running the show. Then at night I went to pregame at Melon which is a residencia about a 30 second walk from my door. After the pregame we went to a place called Anti-Kareokee. It was the craziest and best karaoke I have ever been to. They have a costume table up on stage. So you pick a song and go up on stage and put stuff on, they even have props like face guitars and stuff. This place favors the punk rock songs, which sounds weird, but when in the right mood and seeing all these different people get really into the songs and where mini moshpits break out, you begin to like punk rock. Other genres of music were sung but punk rock was the majority. None of us got called up to sing. I think we have to arrive earlier to get on stage. On the last song, the head of the anti-karaoke, who was this woman dressed in like dominatrix leather, was on this guys shoulders and had pictures of George W. Bush that she passed out. She handed them out and was saying “F*ck Georege Bush” as people were ripping up the pictures and going crazy.

On Tuesday the Americans gathered at the same Irish Pub that plays American football to watch the Obama Inauguration with one Euro beers. Honestly, watching that made me feel so proud to be an American, something I have really never felt before to that extent. I am so happy to now see his face as our president then the idiot before him, even though Obama did mess up the oath haha (I forgive him). The Spanish were not as into the speech as us, but every news paper and morning talk show covered it as their top story. On Wednesday and Thursday I had my first Spanish test since High school. I think I did pretty well. We will see on Monday. On Wednesday night I watched the game between FC Barcelona vs Espanyol which is like watching the Jets vs. Giants, the Mets vs. Yankess, or the White Sox vs. Cubs but of Barcelona. The game was actually boring. FC Barcelona didn’t really play their good players that much and Espanyol sucks. The score was 0-0. Thursday night was our school (ESCI) first party. Parties in Spain are not house parties or anything of that sort like in America. The students talk to a club and rent it out and only people of that school and friends can come. It was fun but I forgot to set my alarm and missed my first Spanish class. Oh well, I get to miss four. On Friday, I went to Mountjuic (the hill of the Jew… no I am not talking like Borat this is the literal translation). This is an awesome mountain. It contains a huge Palace which is now a modern art museum, gardens of the palace (which reminded me of Cranbrook), botanical gardens, the Olympic Stadiums/village which is where the futbol team Espanyol plays, a castle on the top of the mountain, and other cool things. It was fun but it made me tired. At night I went to the bar Paco owns called El Dorado.  Juanjo and him were working the bar. I brought pretty much all my friends both Spanish and American. We had a really good time. After that closed at 3 a.m. we went to some discoteca that had mimes outside hired to keep us quite because it was in a residential district. Anyway at around 5:15 when the metro was reopened I headed back home.

On Saturday, I tried to go to two small medieval towns outside of Barcelona called Girona and Besalu. But like my recent events I have been experiencing the difference between the Spanish and the Americans punctuality and service. Our entire group was given ambiguous and misleading directions. I went to three separate places (on time keep in mind) with the same name to where we were supposed to meet. We finally got in touch with the excursion phone number. She said she would wait for us at the fourth place I would be going to. We were sprinting across the city to get to the bus in time (keep in mind sprinting in hurricane like winds). She did not wait for us. 16 out of the 40 people signed up went on the trip and ten of us were running to a bus that was supposedly waiting for us. Needless to say I am angry. However, because of the crazy winds, I heard the trip was a let down and not that much fun. I also heard the bus was rocking back and forth due to the wind. Three children were killed in a collapsed building outside Barcelona due to the wind. Its kind of ridiculous weather and even blew off the roof of the Calcutada restaurant. At night I went to Razzmatazz a famous techno club. It was wild needless to say.

On a Barcelona High

The church quad




View on Montserrat
The guys on the hike


Tony the funniest tour guide ever

We started classes on the 7th. I have Spanish everyday at 9:30 am. My Senor is named Cesar. He is a great guy and helps us a lot. There is not much to say about class except it is really difficult to think in Spanish with very little sleep. Many people miss class even though we are only allowed to miss four. Soon they will either learn not to party as much or power through the fatigue and make it to class. Also my ESCI classes started which are business classes from the local University. ESCI http://www.esci.es/
is apart of the large school UPF http://www.upf.edu/ . Currently I am in Human Resources Management (a joke but horrible teacher… I am actually writing this in class right now) and Strategic & Operational Marketing (Really cool teacher and a joke too because I already did the big project two semesters ago). After Spanish class I usually grab lunch with friends ranging from 5 Euros to 10 Euros depending on my hunger level. Plus most places here don’t take credit card. They seem to not embrace the plastic as much as we have in the states. My ESCI classes are all after the country wide SIESTA (which is soooooo cool by the way). My CIEE classes besides Spanish start on January 26. http://www.ciee.org/participant.aspx

The clubs are crazy. There are so many club promoters around the city and on facebook. Free entry is key since, if not, it is around 20 Euros for Americans. The Spanish always try to take advantage of us so we need to watch out. When I go out I stay up till 6,7,8 even later in the morning. It is not uncommon to end your night eating breakfast next to someone who is going to work. Oh I have also grown found of the best drink in the world…. Café con leche. This coffee is like candy. I am surprised Starbucks has not tried to replicate this (or if so I have no idea about it). The club scene though is getting old quick; it is better when I got out with the Spaniards.

I finally have met a local. Her name is Laura and went out with my friend Jake Huston from Georgetown last semester. She also goes to ESCI. She is a lot of fun and took me and some friends to where the Americans don’t go. It was great…. Sooo much fun! I am sure Laura and I will be going out a lot. She also likes hearing me speak Spanish so I practice a lot with her. She is also very smart and fluent in English. She even has studied the two cultures. She says there are a lot of stereotypes such as American men are all Homer Simpson. Clearly, this is a horrible stereotype.

On Sunday I went to Montserrat. A church and montestary on top of a HUGE and steep mountain outside Barcelona. I went there with some friends from my group. Additionally, I did not sleep form the night before. We went up this ridiculously shady looking gondola to the town. Then we went on a trail to the top of the mountain which is snow capped. As you can see we were above the cloud level and could see Barcelona in one direction and the Pyrenees Mountain Range on the other. Oh, and the Mediterranean Sea. In total the hike took around 4-5 hrs. The view was spectacular. The church was too! This place is said to be the most sacred place in Spain. They also have an unusual large amount of stray domestic looking cats in the town. After this I went home and slept for the rest of the day until the next morning for school. http://www.barcelona-tourist-guide.com/en/tour/montserrat-spain.html

Last night was a weird night. It started out with my Guardian Angle group going to Flamenco. It was cool but short and had a male dancer (which isn’t bad but we all wanted to see the typical female dancer in the red dress). Then we went to a bar and played drinking games. Our GA invited some of his Spanish friends too, which always makes any event better when the Spanish are there. Then we went to this famous or well-known club called Apollo. It is specifically popular with ESCI kids. I was having a blast and as we all know I get really hot. I started sweating and went outside to cool off. I told the bouncer and he agreed to let me back in. 5-10 mins later, I try and get back in and there was a different bouncer. Long story short this bouncer would not let me in without paying again. I thought this was ridiculous especially since I had a coat check ticket. He went and got my coat and then told me to pay to get back in. Again the Spanish at clubs always take advantage of the Americans whenever possible. I said screw this and since I lived 4-5 blocks from the place I thought I could make it home safe. (note: there are a bunch of Pakistan immigrants who sell cheap bear and drugs to people around the clubs. They sell aggressively from time to time but are not known for anything much shadier than that (oh I also met some Britain’s and they say dodgy for shady and it sounds really funny)) I was approached by a Pakistani on my way home and he was saying words in Spanish that I did not know. I figured he was trying to sell drugs so I said “No Drugas, No Drugas.” He came closer as they all do to aggressively sell their products (plus in Spain and Europe in general the personal space is much smaller than in America). Anyway instead of leaving you alone like most of the time, this guy grabbed me and showed me a needle with what looked like blood in it. At this point I was surprised and scared and told the guy he could take whatever (oh and of course as soon as he pulled out the syringe he started speaking fluent English). He only wanted 10-20 Euros but I had no money. I told him and showed him that I was the wrong guy to rob since my wallet was out of money. He would not take my credit cards, but wanted my phone so I gave it to him and that was the end of that. I was a little shaken up but I am all good now. I have learned from the experience to just run and make a scene before they get too close. Anyway new phone and the next day it was the story of the day for sure.

With CIEE I have also gone on a tour of the Gothic district that is cool and I had a hilarious tour guide named Tony. On the tour, some friends of I met these 11 year old Spanish girls. They were really excited to see and speak to Americans. It was cool and they are easy to understand and talk to because they have a smaller vocabulary and tend to talk slower. Here I learned about Caixas (in short regional banks that work as non-profits more or less and give their profits to improve schools, hospitals, and other public services http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Caixa) Something I think should be adopted in the States. The Caixa came about from the workers movement in the lower class. I also went on a tour of the Palau de la Musica… An amazing theater with incredible architecture. The intention was to see a concert in a garden, but it is indoors. Hard to explain but amazing http://www.palaumusica.org/ . It was made by the second most famous architect of his era whose name is dwarfed by the Modernist Juggernaut Gaudi.

Currently, Paco is on vacation because he planned this vacation before even knowing I was coming to stay with him, which was last Friday, and I came in Saturday. His life long best friend Juanjo is taking care of me and cooks AMAZING Food. He is also from a part of Spain that speaks in perfect dialect and says every word correctly. This makes it easier to understand and he is a great guy to correct my Spanish. Yesterday his nephew was in town and we all ate Paella together. His nephew played on the Olympic Beach Volleyball team in the Atlanta games and now is the coach of the Spanish National Beach Volleyball team. His lives on some island where they can play all year round. Not a bad job huh? Anyway Life is cool!

Especially… Because I went to my first European Soccer Game watching arguably the best club in the World in the biggest stadium in Europe Camp Nou http://www.barcelona.com/barcelona_tickets/fc_barcelona_football_tickets/the_camp_nou_stadium ! This was amazing! We sat at the very top but at half walked down to the second level. It is not as busy or hyped up as a football event in America and the Spanish do not drink before or during the game. They only sell non-alcoholic beer. They also had the opponent fans in a cage/net like area. I thought that was funny. Anyway, after the game we went to some club where I met some people I know from Michigan and GW. I am glad I said hi so now I don’t have to feel the pressure to meet up with them for at least a while.

I will be thinking about my schedule. Bad weekends to come are February 6-8, 27-March 1, March 20-22, April 3-13 (my spring break). When looking at the schedule my time here looks short. Oh well I will try and make the most of it and get some traveling in to. If you plan on visiting shoot me an email when you want to come ASAP, so I can plan some trips. If not I may end up scheduling a trip on a weekend you want to come and that will just be really poor planning on both our parts. Anyway I love all you who are in the states and abroad. Look for updates on the blog about once a week; it’s the best way to get the best gist of my time here. I miss you all even though I am having a blast here.

Some observations:
Spaniards do not drink a lot of water; it seems to be only Wine (vino) and fanta (totally a generalization, but its just what I have seen)
Spaniards do not double step steps no matter how much in a rush they are in
Que Guay means that is cool in Spanish.
They say Vale (ok) for everything and at anytime in a sentence.
Barna is short for Barcelona
Barca is short for the Futbol Club (also it’s the only team that is sponsored by a Non-profit unicef… which is awesome because the club gives soo much back instead of just to corporations)

First TIme Around the Town

This is "la sagrada familia" a rediculously detailed church... the photos are taken from a bus.
back side of la sagrada familia


Louis Arrone (from Gtown) and I

Louis on the turret
Chris and Kelsey from LeHigh
A storm in the distance about to hit Barcelona.


Me on top of a mountain above Barna where the 1992 Olypics were held. I am touching the top of Mount Tibidabo.

Dias 1-4

I arrived on Saturday night.  Tired and excited.  The hotel was amazing.  I slept most of the night until the next morning until people arrived.  In Europe they are much more concious about saving energy and water.  I even had to have my hotel key in a slot to have any electronic appliance work in the room.  Once everyone showed up we went right into orientation learning about the culture of the city, the rules of the program, academic information, activities, etc...  Most of the people are from the Midwest.  I have a "Guardian Angel" (which is like an orientation leader) named Luis Juste Valero.  We are already friends on facebook.  This is the first time I am being led by someone who is younger than me.  We all have to give him our trust even though most of us cannot understand him when he speaks Spanish.  However, his english is amazing.  He is very nice and is patient with us since my group of about 12 students asks many questions including how to say pretty much every word in spanish.  I can immediately see the laid back attitude of the spanish.  It is great.  They really seem to have a knack for enjoying life and not letting work take over their lives.

I am in my Home stay with Senor Paco (short in Catalonia for Francisco or Franchesco.... I forget) Resina.  We live in a nice apartment similar to ours in Chicago.  I live right near the metro en Poble Sec.  Paco owns his own resturant/bar called El Dorado.  He is very nice and relaxed.  He speaks a little english and I speak a little spanish.  We both work on improving our language skills.  Sometimes it is very difficult and we have to get a dictionary out, other times we can communicate and even tell jokes.  If I am tired I have a really hard time speaking in spanish especially with sentence structure and correct conjugations.  There are so many new words I am hearing, and sometimes people will speak in Catalan which is extremely hard to understand.

I start my spanish class tomorrow; I am in Intermediate A.  We shall see how that goes.  I need to change my other classes since I didn't get any I wanted/I need in order to get credit and graduate.  I have to figure that out soon.

Oh!  Today, January 6th, is the holiday "Los Reyes Magos" (the magical kings)... It has to do with the three kings and basically its like an even bigger christmas with family and presents.  They also have a similar tradition of a King Cake with a King inside (which if you find is good luck for a year (I found it in our cake)) and a bean (which means you pay for the cake or at bars do something stupid/silly/fun).  Los Reyes Magos Eve is a big night to go out.  I went to meet up with our guardian angles at about 1:30 am (standard time to go out here) with a friend but since no one has phones (because they were all sold out due to the shopping habits for Los Reyes Magos) we did not go to the right spot and ended up salsa dancing in Mojito club.  The mixed drinks here are VERY STIFF.  In the spanish culture it is not uncommon to have the same drink for more than 2 hours.  That is how stiff they are.  The drinking culture here is much more safe even though they party much later.  It is viewed upon negatively if you get drunk like people my age do in the United States.  

My first meal in my home stay was not typical.  Paco did not want to cook so we ordered Chinese.  It was great.  I thought it was funny the next day because everyone else had a traditional meal cooked.  My next few meals have been home cooked spanish style food and tasted very good.

I am truly having a great time and learning every day.  Here are some pictures I took today on a guided bus tour.

This is the house of Gaudi on paseo de gracias (the 5th avenue of Barcelona.... its weird how well it fits in which was a surprise to me)