I almost forgot what the Spanish flag looked like...

One week away from being halfway done with my semester in Barcelona...what?

This past week I did some very Spanish things (not Catalan, but really Spanish). On Wednesday night I went a flamenco show and dinner. This was really cool because flamenco is a type of dance that you can't really find in America and unlike anything I have seen before (with the exception of the last Flamenco show I went to in Madrid back in 2011). The women are all dressed up in these big fancy colorful dresses with flowers in their hair and they stomp around stage and make it look really good. The men wear relatively normal clothing but I'm pretty sure they soak their hair in water (or they're just sweaty) because when they do their turns and head snaps or whatever the crowd got a shower of the moisture coming from his hair. No worries, I was far enough back to be spared. I definitely want to go to another show and I'm thinking about taking my parents to one when they come to Barcelona (which is in 10 days...can't wait!!).

On Friday, I went with my program to Madrid. This was awesome because for the first time I can say that I have been to a city in Europe more than one time. My program provides trips like these that you can sign up for (not mandatory) and the cost includes transportation, hotels, tours, and all that jazz. This was nice because I like being able to see everything I can and when I'm alone or just with friends we tend to miss a lot. We took a 3 hour long train ride to Madrid which wasn't terrible. When we got there, we immediately began a walking tour. The only think that I didn't like was that I was so exhausted from the train there and waking up super early so I don't think I enjoyed it as much as I could have. We saw some pretty cool things and our guide took us to some places that I had not gone to the first time I went to Madrid. After the walking tour, we went to an art museum. All I will say about the trip to the art museum is that I would rather be out experiencing the city instead of spending 3 hours learning about art that wasn't even completed in Madrid. Our hotel provided dinner that night which was delicious and then we napped and went out. Let's just say I should probably never return to Madrid...I probably wouldn't be welcomed back.

On Saturday, we went to Toledo. Toledo is famous because it is one of (if not the only) place in the world where Christians, Jews, and Muslims all lived together in peace. The old part of the city is beautiful and I could spend all day just looking at this scene:

I went to Toledo the last time I went to Madrid but I still loved every second of being there. We also went to the cathedral while we there. It was insanely beautiful and I could have spent all day in there. 

After Toledo, my friends and I met up with my friend from high school who is studying in Madrid, Sara. She's the one I met up with when she visited Barcelona, if you recall. She took us to a fantastic little shop that's famous for churros and chocolate. I cannot think of a better meal:

Those were all for me. 

On Sunday, we went to another art museum and my opinion from the first one did not change one bit. After the art museum, we went to a beautiful park that reminded me of Central Park in NYC. There were so many people exercising, relaxing, playing with their kids/dogs, selling things, you name it. It was also beautiful outside so I got some great pictures of this park:

Unfortunately, I did not go canoeing in the pond. The wounds are still too fresh from the last time I went canoeing in Europe (right, Ali? Emotionally scarred).

After our tour of the park, we had free time to get lunch. Angie, Bo, and I went to a place for calamari bocadillos (sandwiches) which were delicious, especially for a non seafood lover. On our way to the restaurant I got some pretty great pictures of Madrid:

Look at all of those Spanish flags. You just don't get that in Barcelona. Ever.

After lunch, we went back to Barcelona. I always love going back to this city, no matter how much I liked or disliked the city I was visiting.

Overall, I loved Madrid. I was really happy that I got to visit Madrid again because I was considering studying abroad there but now I know that Barcelona was the right choice. I would definitely still study abroad there because it is a fantastic and beautiful city but I love Barcelona. I might be biased though.

My updated definitive ranking of cities I have been to in Europe:

1. Barcelona

2. Madrid

3. Berlin (picking between Madrid and Berlin was not easy, I love them both so much)

4. Prague

I'm staying in Barcelona this weekend which will be so nice because I will have time to catch up on things and relax before my parents visit. Other than that, that's all I have for you. 

Shoutout to mah gurl Angie for her birthday. Happy birthday!!!

Angela

So I Czeched Out Prague...

I think I'm being swallowed alive by midterms and papers. Didn't let that stop me from going to Prague.

Prague is absolutely unlike any city I have ever been to (I'm pretending I have been to many cities). This could be because I have never been to Eastern Europe before so it was a completely new experience.

The trip started off on the right foot when some lady absolutely ate it in the airport. We were on one of those moving walkways and when we got off to wait for our other friends we just heard a huge thunk. Some woman was not paying attention to when the walkway ended and just completely face planted on the airport floor. This is going to be good weekend.

Once we arrived to our hostel, we asked the workers for a good place to eat. Luckily, we were not super close to the main squares in the city so the restaurants were less commercialized (expensive). We went to a small restaurant and we were immediately handed beer when we sat down. Then a man played the accordion the whole time. I ordered some kind of pork roast with dumplings and I was not disappointed.

After lunch we decided to do some sight-seeing on our own, which was a splendid idea because the weather was amazing and all of the pictures turned out great. 

That building in the distance is the cathedral of the castle (we'll get to the castle later). I cut the Charles Bridge out of the picture by accident but this was too good of a picture not to include. Then we went down to an island in the middle of the river where there were a million ducks/geese/swan whatever and pigeons. They made for some great pictures, though!

After the island, we went to a coffee shop to relax for awhile. We made our way over to the Charles Bridge later. The Charles Bridge is really old. That's all I know about it. There were a lot of entertainers, artists, and people selling little trinkets all along the bridge so that was pretty cool. Little did I know I would cross this bridge about a hundred more times that weekend alone.

Then we returned to the hostel for a much needed shower and nap. We found a little bar for dinner and I inhaled a burger and a beer for less than $8 so I can't complain. It was delicious. After dinner and some drinks we went to a club called Lucerna. I'm pretty sure it was the greatest club I have ever been to...it was 80s and 90s music. Also, have you ever watched a couple try to grind to 80s music? It doesn't work and it makes for a great laugh. I was enjoying my night when out of no where I hear some guy yell, "Angela Rodriguez!" and give me a hug. I was so confused. Turns out, a friend from high school who I haven't spoken to since high school is studying abroad in Prague. So weird that things like that can happen all the way over in Eastern Europe. Also, one of the first things he told me when he was me was that he reads my blog every time, so this one's for you, Brian.

The next day, we went on a tour that we scheduled. We went up to the castle first. Let me tell you, it was not a castle. More like a "castle". It was basically an assortment of government buildings that were built in different periods of time so seeing the different architectural styles was definitely cool. Then I got to see the cathedral up close and it was very pretty.

Kinda looks similar to the cathedral in Barcelona, but I guess that's just gothic architecture for ya.

Easily the most important part about my trip to Prague was the potato spiral I ate. I'm not sure how they make it, but it was basically just a giant spiral french fry and I absolutely cannot complain.

Once the tour ended, we went to the John Lennon Wall. I'm not exactly sure why it's called the John Lennon wall or how it got started but it was really cool to see. Basically everyone just graffitis whatever they want on the wall and it stays there until someone else comes and graffitis over it. The colors were so amazing and some of the messages were cool. Such art.

That night we went to the same place we went for dinner Friday night because it was so cheap and so good. We didn't know that the Czech Republic was playing Switzerland in hockey so it was interesting to see how the Czechs watch their hockey. Unfortunately, they lost. I couldn't stop myself from saying quietly, "It really doesn't matter who wins because the USA will just beat them anyway." I'm not good at being a foreigner. 

Then, get this, we bought beer at a mini mart from a Pakistani man with TWO THUMBS. Like there was one thumb stem, and then it branched in to 2 thumb tips. Like he had 11 fingernails. Then he was literally doing magic tricks with my change and confusing the F out of me so I'm now convinced his second thumb contains some kind of sorcery. After drinking our Czech beer and hanging out, we went to a chill martini bar that was super close to our hostel. I had a great time. Then we returned to the mini mart to buy chips. The man with 2 thumbs was still a sorcerer.

Sunday wasn't too eventful and we were so tired from the weekend. I really liked Prague, but I was also super happy to return to Barcelona. It's getting more normal to say, "I can't wait to go home" and be talking about Barcelona and not America. Would ya look at that.

Now, my definitive ranking of cities I have been to in Europe:

1. Barcelona (duh)

2. Berlin

3. Prague

Tonight, Barca played Manchester City for the champions league and Mercedes asked us to watch with her. So we came out of our room and went into the family room for the first time (not including meal times). We bonded and it was a good time. Thankfully, Barca won. Obviously.

Tomorrow I am going to a flamenco show for dinner so that will be exciting! If I don't blog before then, I am going to Madrid this weekend. See ya never.

Angela

Dappling in Catalan Culture

Week 6 in the books. Weird.

Probably the most interesting I have to write about is the Festival of Santa Eulalia that I attended on Sunday.

I'm hoping you have already read my post from Tarragona explaining what castells are and how cool I think they are. Because that's what I got to see in real life. Castells. Refresher: castells are human castles that the Catalan people like to build. It's only a Catalan thing so I guess that makes it pretty special. There are different castell clubs from all around Barcelona so all of these clubs came to the festival to build some human castles. At first, each club built a 1x4, so basically just 4 people standing on each other. With a little kid on top...so crazy. Take a gander:

And then they walked. Across the plaza. That little kid on top is exponentially cooler than I could ever hope to be. 

After each team built their 1x4 and walked to the center of the plaza, castells were going up like crazy. Everywhere I looked there were different formations going up. The only way I can describe this experience was sensory overload. How can I take that many pictures?

Where the heck was I supposed to look?!?! I could honestly spend hours watching these people. It is so amazing how strong and committed you have to be to make castells successful. Yeah, cheerleading is hard but look at those guys that are on the second tier...they are not small. It is so impressive. One more thing that I thought was incredibly impressive, especially as a former athlete, the teamwork between the separate teams. A number of times I would look at the base of castell and see red, blue, green, gray shirts. It didn't matter what team they were on, they were all working together to help this specific castell work. Here is an example:

Here you can see the red team and the purple team helping the teal team. Also, you can see spectators (the spectator in the olive fleece just so happens to be Bo) helping the castell. Everyone helps. Also now would be a good time to mention that they don't even formally compete. It's more or less a showcase of their talents. I would say seeing a castell go up has to be one of the coolest things I will do in Barcelona. You don't get this back in the States, folks. Here is a completed castell...so cool:

Another interesting part of the festival was something called Correfoc. Which I think translates from Catalan to "fire run". This is basically a parade where little kids come out in fire-proof outfits and twirl really giant sparklers. 

Then there was the dragon...

So, there you have it. I'm basically a Catalan. I'm just working on my "In...depe...independencia!" chant. 

Other than, my week was boring and full of school. We are looking into planning a trip to Morocco, so that's fun! Definitely something different. I also really want to ride a camel. This weekend I'm going to Prague with some gal pals and that will be a blast I'm super excited! I've only heard great things about that place!

Quick birthday shoutout to Noreen, literally counting down the days until you come to Barcelona!!

Also here's a Valentine's shoutout to Bobby. Hey.

Angela

Just when I think I have it all together...

First and foremost, my apologies for not blogging as often as I had been earlier in the semester. Honestly, my life has gotten less interesting on a day to day basis so I basically just wait until I have something notable to blog about.

So this past week has consisted of me going to class and hating every second of being in class because there are so many better things to be doing. One cool thing about the classes here are the "study journeys". There are a few for each class and we go to places around Barcelona that are related to the class material. For example, for my Politics in Spain class we took a study journey to one of the preserved bomb shelters that was used during the Spanish Civil War (late 1930s before WWII). We go on these journeys during class time so it is nice to get out of the building and spend some time outside seeing new things. Other than that, Spanish class is my saving grace. There are 11 girls in my class and my teacher Raúl is the funniest little Spaniard there ever was. We literally just hang out and tell stories in Spanish (to get practice speaking) for the first half of the class. There are some (few) positives to the "study" part of study abroad!

Seeing as I have been here for a month, I was under the impression that I had a pretty good grasp on Barcelona and the life here. On Tuesday night I went out with Angie and Bo for our friend Saleh's birthday. It was a good time and around 2:30 or so we decided to head home. Because the metro stops running at 12 on weekdays, we could have taken a cab home or walked. Taking cabs is getting way too expensive so Angie, Bo, and I decided to walk home. Bo and I live close to each other so we parted ways with Angie and then it came time for Bo and I to part ways. Quick side note that Bo is the master of directions so he is very helpful when we are trying to get places. He gave me some direction and I was positive that I could make it home. So here I am, walking home alone around 3 am, definitely going in the right direction (I would just like to take a second to point out that walking alone at night is completely fine here as their main crime is pickpocketing which takes place during the busy hours of the day). I walk for about 20 minutes and then think, "I probably should have seen a familiar street by now..." so now I'm walking in circles looking for a familiar street name and that is just not happening. I definitely had the option of calling Bo and asking him for directions again to get home but I was trying to be an independent girl and getting home all on my own. I am way too proud. I ended up getting scared and getting a taxi. Once I got in the taxi I was able to effectively communicate in Spanish how lost I am and the driver was luckily extremely nice and helpful. I finally get home and the cab fare is 3.60€ including the entrance fee so I was really close to home...oh well. I gave him a 5 and told him to keep it for being such a good help. Lesson learned: I don't know where the f**k I'm going. Ever.

My next blog worthy story took place last night at a very, very local Spanish club. I swear we were the only Americans there. I went to the bathroom (alone-like the independent girl I am) and waited in a line that wasn't really the line because I am so American and dumb. Anyway, I get to the real bathrooms and I go to walk into the stall and close the door (the stalls here are like little booths, the doors are like real doors). When I went to close it I guess this girls hand or foot or something was in the way (I honestly have no idea) and she literally screamed at the top her lungs. So that was dramatic and then she yells, "¡Dios!" ....really? Ok whatever so I go to the bathroom and think nothing of what will happen when I walk out but she was waiting for me and she was ready to give me an earful. She starts screaming at me in Spanish about whatever I did to her and I can honestly say that I understood 0% of what she said (maybe it was Catalan?) but either way, all I said was, "No hablo bastante español lo siento" (I don't speak enough Spanish, sorry) and ran out of there like a bat out of hell. Thank god I just peed or else I probably would have peed my pants out of sheer terror of this Spanish chick. These girls are scary, let me tell you.

I'm gonna brush up on my Spanish fighting words. That will show them next time.

Today I did not leave the house (maybe I was hungover from last night, it's a possibility) but then Mercedes made a judgey comment about me still being home to my roommate so when it was dinner time I put my glasses on and pretended that I studied all day. In reality, I watched Frozen again.

Tomorrow we are going to the festival in honor of Barcelona's patron saint, Sant Eulalia. There's going to be castells (human towers that I have previously blogged about) and a parade and it sounds like it's going to be awesome I'm so excited! Then this weekend we're going to Prague so I'm also really excited for that. All that's standing in my way is two papers that I have to write...woo school.

Angela

Nope, definitely still not a local.

Week 4 in Barcelona is complete. So weird to think I've been here for a month!

On Friday, I went to Montserrat with a group of students in my program. It's this really cool group of mountains that were underwater 50 million years ago or something so they've been shaped by the water and now they look like they were hand-crafted. We got to climb to the very top...!!!!!!!! It was exhausting. Let me tell you, Converse are NOT good shoes for hiking. Really regretting not listening to my mother when she told me to pack my real gym shoes. Regardless of my shoes, we made it to the top. The view was amazing and we had the most beautiful day to hike the mountain. I'll probably hike it again once my parents visit because they're into that garbage.

Yeah, some of the mountain looks like phallic symbols.

That view...

Saturday I went to another FC Barcelona game with Angie, Bo, and Kyra. When I left my homestay to meet up with them, it was raining. I almost turned around and went back to bed because I did not want to deal with that again but I actually paid a pretty substantial amount for the ticket so I went anyway. Once we all met up we were looking for a place to go get lunch. Keep in mind that we are all broke and on strict budgets...we went to McDonalds. They do have Sweet and Sour sauce so that made everything ok. I accidentally ordered Coke thought...that happens a lot in Spain. I get really stressed out when I order to that point where I just keep saying, "Sí" and then just go with it. The rain stopped and I had chicken nuggets so this day was turning up.

Our seats were all separate because when we bought tickets there were no blocks of 4 seats available. I sat down next to an old couple and the woman immediately starts talking to me literally so fast. Imagine the speed my sister Erin talks at and then imagine that IN SPANISH. Literally my jaw dropped and I just said, "Hablo un pocito de español" and she laughed. That was weird. I also know little to nothing about football so I just sat there and enjoyed the atmosphere sitting next to my new friends. Whenever the crowd started cheering, whistling (they do that instead of booing...it sounds like a gato screaming in pain and no not the gato I wish it was), clapping, anything, I joined in. I was just trying to blend in and it was not working. Something happened in the game (literally have no idea) and the woman next to me starts talking to me about what happened and it was so awkward seeing as I didn't understand the language and even it was in English I wouldn't understand what she was talking about anyway. At halftime the 4 of us were all able to sit together because there were open seats. Barca ended up losing to Valencia which was awkward since they're a much better team and they also haven't lost a league game at home since April 2012 so that happened.

Illini take on Camp Nou.

On Sunday I met up with my friend from high school swimming and water polo who is studying abroad in Madrid and was visiting Barcelona for the weekend (S/O to Sara Fasching) so that was great. It's always nice seeing a friendly and familiar face in this new environment and I'm excited to see her again when I visit Madrid in 3 weeks! When I met up with her I was way too tired to shower or put makeup on so I just put a headband in and left. The Spaniards do not condone of that attire, let me tell you. After that, I took a 4 hour nap. During dinner Mercedes asked me if I left the house at all today and I could hear the judgement in her voice. Sunday night was the Super Bowl, and in Barca it started at 12:30 so we went to a bar to watch it.

It was fun to watch the Super Bowl at a bar, but this Barca bar did it all wrong. Mostly because THEY DIDN'T SHOW COMMERCIALS. During commercial breaks there were Spanish commentators (seriously what do they even know about American football...). This was a lot more upsetting than one might think. Once I was able to get over it, we ordered nachos. I use the term "nachos" loosely because when they brought it out, it was a plate of tortilla chips and a bowl of guacamole. So, it was chips and guac...not nachos. What are these people thinking? You can't just lie to me about nachos like that. Like I love chips and guac but when I order nachos I expect nachos. We also ordered patatas bravas (S/O to Emily Behn) which were deliciously fattening. Dipping fried pieces of potato in a ketchup and mayo mixture sounds nasty but it was downright delightful.

Two quick notes having nothing to do with studying abroad:
-Bruno Mars does not hold a candle to Beyonce. Love the RHCP to death but what the f were they doing with Bruno...should have had their own show.
-Harry and Hermione make more sense than Ron and Hermione but really, how could JK shaft Ron AGAIN? It was only fair that he gets Hermione.

Sorry this was a longer post!

Angela