Two weeks in one

Where I work... MATER... All four photos are examples of what I do at work.






My tiny elevator
My street
My street name
Second bacony from the top... far right is Paco's room, the balcony to the left is my room!







This was especially cool because after five seconds of ariving the fountain started...Chris Varga, Marina, Max Leinweber, Sophie, and I.
A sweet pic of the Poble Sec (my neighboorhood and metro stop) sign in the metro. Robby, Marina, and I.

This week, I tried to catch up on sleeping. I really did not do much during the week. I will just cover some highlights. I was in my internship one day and she said she was going to be back from lunch in a half an hour. Well she was late and I had to go before she left. So I made a note for her, and was in the middle of putting up a sign that said the place was closed and that someone would return soon. I had to do this because she also put me in charge of the hole place and making sure no one would enter. Anyway, she entered as I was just finishing the sign. She quickly read my note and sign and was very impressed with my Spanish. Right after I went into a camera store and bought a case for my camera. I conversed with the store employee and cashier and they were both impressed that I was from the United States and thought my Spanish was pretty good. I know these are only small instances and easy conversations, but hey better than nothing. I also got a haircut this week. The people did not speak a work of English. They did not even understand “John” I had to say “Juan”. Anyway I tried to explain short but not to short and to thin it out. I think it went very well. On Thursday I went to this concert in Apolo 2 for the MasterSounds who are from England. It was pretty cool. On Friday I played basketball with some friends and some GAs. One of them used to play on the professional team for Switzerland. He was pretty good. Afterwards I went shopping with John Clark who was a punter at Missouri, but quit like me. We spoke Spanish for two hours which was pretty cool. We hit up the rebaixas or rebajas (sales) and got some cool stuff. Afterwards I had a phone interview with Virgance.com. I also think that went pretty well. We talked about my work experience, about Virgance, Inc. and how it is functioning, and we also did some small talk. He said to keep in touch and I should hear back in about 2 weeks. That night I went out to Opium but it was not that much fun. The next day I woke up and met Louis to go to this market. The market sucked but we saw some weird festival with people dressed up as traditional folk, but the costumes were also like Giants. After the market we went to the Cathedral of Barcelona. It was cool inside and we go to see the city from the top of the church. After that we went to the beach to hang out and get some food. Here we met my friend Vincent from ESCI. After lunch we went to the museum of the History of Catalonia. It was okay a typical museum to say the least. I went home and slept till about 11:30 at night had dinner and met Laura, Marta and Victor at a bar near Marta’s place. That was fun. Then we headed to this club/bar made from an old mansion called Elephant. It was a really cool place but there were a bunch of real sloppy Americans, which becomes quite obvious when you do not hang out with Americans much. Laura, Marta, and Victor said it was good because I was becoming more Spanish haha.

On Sunday I woke up and for some reason could not get enough sleep. This has continued into the week and I think I am a little sick. Not sure why but I will relax this week because I have part one of an exam on Friday for Spanish class. On Sunday night, I watched a movie called “Todo de mi Madre” which is directed by Amadovo. Amadovo is a famous Spanish director and since we could not put on the subtitles I did not understand much of the story, I relied on the Amadovo’s skilled directorship to follow the story. This was a tough story to follow anyway for example the main character had child who died at 18 from a transvestite. This same transvestite had a relationship with Penelope Cruz’s character and gave her aids. Also this movie played off many parallels to the movie “All above Eve” which I also have not seen. Anyway needless to say cool movie but could have been better if I could understand more. Oh also, the movie took place in Barcelona which was pretty cool. Good shots of the city.

On Tuesday Paco’s boyfriend came into town. His name is Carlos. He is nice and is in the military. We had a political discussion about America and Spain both in English and Spanish. And Moira sent me a package so we enjoyed some candies from America. On Wednesday night I wanted to go out, but no one really had plans before the Metro closed so I went to the house (by Camp Nou) of my Spanish friend name Vicent we watched a movie and talked in Spanish a lot. It was good practice for my Spanish test that was on Friday. On Thursday, I got lost in the Barrio Gotico (Gothic Neighborhood). It was really cool cause every corner you turned I did not know if I was going down a sketchy alley or stumbling upon a small and quaint plaza. Lately, I have been feeling like I am actually “living in Barcelona” and not just in wonderland. I also feel like my mental map is expanding like when Link in the game Zelda goes into a new area his mental map uncovers that area. Anyway, for those who have played the game you would understand. Friday Morning we had a test in Spanish, I think it went well. I had plans to explore the city with a few friends but then they went to Tarragona and I could not join because I had to be back to go to the Museum of Barcelona at 7:30 at night for class. During the day I traveled to Mountjuic to the National Museum of Catalonian Art (which is in this HUGE Palace) with Robby Gross. The modern art was the best because it included such art from Gaudi, Picasso, Mir and Ramon Casas. Then I went alone to Poble Espanyol because Robby had class. Poble Espanyol is like a mini Spain. All the different types of areas and places in Spain replicated in a small town with shops and restaurants. This was built for the Olympics so people could get a feel for Spain… I can tell you from experience that being at the real places instead of the fake ones is much better. Then I traveled to Caixa Forum which was a museum which had a great exhibition of Joaquim Mir. I really like his work. I told Paco that he was my favorite artist of the day. Turns out Paco’s grandmother worked with Mir and Mir taught his Uncle how to paint too. Pretty cool if you ask me. Then I walked back through the Poble Sec barrio to check out my home place. I found some cool little places, but nothing note worthy. At 7:30 I went to the grand opening of the exhibit about the transnationals (basically people like me and other people who live in Barcelona for an extended period of time but to not become citizens). The info was okay, but the displays were cool. Friday night I went out with Vicent, Nick, and Louis Pierre (from Gtown but is from South Africa just a fun fact) to a club. It was fun and at the end of the night the Americans had to take care of the drunk Spaniard which usually is not the case. We thought that was funny. On Saturday I was supposed to go to Girona and Besalu. Well I had my alarm on vibrate and I always wake up to it. Well when I woke up at around 11:30 I noticed it was on the floor on my jeans. This means it must have been going off for quite sometime that it vibrated off the table on to my jeans. Long story short I missed the bus again, I guess it was not meant to be and judging by the pictures of the places and other kids opinions it didn’t look I was missing much. So I went and explored the city with Louis Aronne, and Steve Hurley. It was okay we found a cool beach. I went home and before going asleep I walked around Raval and found it to be cool. This weekend I really did not feel like taking pictures. So I didn't... maybe its cause I take so many at work. Anyway, that night I wanted to go to Sitges (a beach town near by) for the Carnival festivities. But no one wanted to go and I did not feel like going by myself. So I went to a bar in the Wax Museum off Las Ramblas. This was really cool. Half the bar was like the Wax Museum and half the bar was like a jungle. After that I just wandered the streets with a friend and went home. On Sunday, I went to the Labyrinth which was really cool. Again I explored Poble Sec a little more and then went home to do some homework.