Park Güell

A friend from New Trier who's studying abroad in Italy came to visit me this week, so I've been pushed to do more touristy things... this is good!  This morning we woke up early to go to Park Güell, one of Gaudí's famous works in the Grácia neighborhood (above Las Ramblas).  It's prounounced "Guey" not "GueLL".  We left the residence at 9am and took the metro up to the closest stop near the park.  Unfortunately, there wasn't a stop right near the park so we had to do some wandering.  After one wrong turn (which lead me to take the picture of the lilac? jacaranda? tree below... so I don't regret it) we found our way to a street that headed straight up to the top of the park... complete with outside escalators!  Although, there was still a bit of climbing, so the walk wasn't without some exercise.

Empúries and the Dalí Museum in Figueres

Another Saturday day trip with CASB!  To continue with the semester's theme of "The Mediterranean: Bridge or  Border" we first went to the Greek and Roman ruins of Empúries.  We met outside the residence at 9am (reasonable!) and took a 2 hour bus ride to Empúries to get a tour of the ruins by a UPF professor (whose shoes I really liked).

The first section of the ruins was the Ciudad Griega (Greek City).  Honestly, it didn't look like much more than a bunch of piles of stones, but I took pictures anyway.

Las Fallas in Valencia

I signed up last week (and payed 28 euros) to ride the bus with my residence hall to Valencia and back last Saturday.  We left at about 1:15 in the afternoon and rode for about 2 1/2 hours until we ate lunch at a truck stop on the side of the highway.  They provided us with some yummy food-- apple and orange juice, a water bottle, cold pasta with pesto, and focaccia with brie and leeks.  We sat in the grass and I took a couple pictures of some funny-looking bugs.

The Magic Fountain

At the base of Montjuic, a gigantic fountain plays host to a musical/light/water acrobatics show every Friday and Saturday evening every 30 minutes for 2 hours.  Someone told me to go see it, and it was even more spectacular than I imagined!  This tourist attraction is a product of the 1929 Universal Exhibition.

Noche de Tapas

Tonight I went with my program to a tapas bar to have dinner.  The restaurant was called Las Cuatro Encinas (The Four Oaks) and was located right near Plaça Catalunya (the main square on top of Las Ramblas).  None of the food was anything we hadn't seen before, but still it was nice to sit down for an hour and a half (they kicked us out at 10) and nibble at a lot of dishes!


Wine and slices of pork (also some nuts and chips in the background).

Museo del Mamut

Last Sunday I went to the Mammoth Museum with my friends from Cornell who are studying in Barcelona.  That's right... you heard me correctly... the Mammoth Museum!  It's a small place, with maybe 4 or 5 rooms, and it's full of prehistoric bones.  I guess when the scientists are done extracting all the DNA they can from the bones (or whatever they do with them), this is where they send the skeletons!  It's run like a kids' museum, you're allowed to take pictures and touch everything.  Yes-- you can touch real mammoth bones!  It's located a block away from the Picasso Museum and it costs 5 euros to get in with a student ID.  Here are some pictures of mammoths and other prehistoric creatures (sorry they're blurry, I didn't use flash).

Classes

Yes, of course I'm taking classes here!  Although it doesn't quite feel like it because the workload here is nowhere near as stressful or as difficult as Cornell's.  But hey, I'm not complaining!  The first classes I took were part of a pro-seminar that lasted from January 18th to February 8th.  The pro-seminar consists of 4 parts (one of which is still ongoing).  All four parts transfer as a class and I'm hoping for it to count as an elective toward my Spanish major-- I emailed my Spanish advisor and he said it was okay... hopefully the Spanish department will agree!

1) Spanish Language (30%) One in-class essay and one 3 page paper.
2) Catalan Language (30%) One short, easy test.
3) History and Culture of Catalonia (30%) Research project with a 10 minute presentation and 5 page paper.
4) Activities and excursions throughout the semester.  Theme: "The Mediterranean: Bridge or Border". (10%) Graded on attendance!

Calçotada

Calçots are a type of onion that are consumed in Catalonia during the winter time.  Today, we had a group outing to a restaurant for lunch, called Taverna El Glop in the neighborhood Gracia, to take part in the tradition of eating them.  But of course it involved an entire meal (appetizers, 1st plate, 2nd plate, and dessert), bibs and plastic gloves, and it lasted a couple hours.... as per usual.  (Always, too much food!)

Menorca

To be at the airport at 8am last Friday, I had to wake up at 6:30, leave the residence by 7 and take 2 trains and 1 bus.  One of the trains stopped underground for about 10 minutes for an unknown reason, so I was a little late.  But our flight wasn't until 10am, so it didn't matter anyway.  After we got into the terminal, the flight monitors told us our flight was delayed 2 hours.... fabulous.  At least they gave us a meal ticket for a free breakfast! (Croissant and orange juice).  Finally we got on the plane and the pilot told us that the long flight delay was due to a bird who found its way into the cargo hold.  Haha- okay I forgive Spainair because it's one of the funniest reasons I've heard for a flight delay.  In addition to the free breakfast at the airport, I was easily occupied by a Haagen-Dazs store and reading Harry Potter #1 in Spanish.

The flight was only 30 minutes.  I swear I never even heard the stewardess say it was okay to turn on electronic devices... and the drink cart only made it halfway through the rows.  After arriving in Menorca, we took a 45 minute bus ride to the other side of the island to check in at our hotel.