So my parents were supposed to leave on Wednesday, March 5 at 4 pm Chicago time and arrive to Barcelona on Thursday, March 6 at 12:15 pm Barcelona time. Happily awaiting their arrival, this is the text I receive from my mom around the time of their departure (I was expecting it to be somewhere along the lines of, "Boarding now! Can't wait to see you!" but no):
"Omg, they will not let me out of the country. My passport has to be valid for three months after our return date and mine expires June 2nd. I have to go to the passport office tomorrow to get a new passport, our arrival will be delayed by a day."
BUZZKILL amirite?? So then it was catastrophe with my mom going to the passport office and MAYBE getting her new passport on Thursday but it might have been Friday and it was basically just a mess and I didn't know if/when they were coming and it was awful. But, they're here now so YAY!
I showed off to them how I was able to get us from the main train station to the apartment that they are renting no problem. Didn't even get lost (which is actually really surprising considering my past journeys in Barcelona). So we arrived to the apartment and unpacked and rested for a bit. Then Fernando (my dad, for all of you who don't know. We're on a first-name basis.) wanted some coffee so he was looking for a McDonald's to get some. How American. I said he wasn't allowed to do that here so we took the metro to my homestay and stopped down the block for some coffee and chocolate croissants. After our coffee, I took my parents to meet my host mom. This went well since my dad speaks fluent Spanish and old ladies love him so I hope I gained some brownie points with my host mom. My host mom's daughter was over with her boyfriend and son so there were plenty of Spaniards there. You can tell how flustered Noreen (my real mom) got in a room full of people conversing in Spanish and she has absolutely no idea what's going on. Practice makes perfect, Nor. Afterwards, we went to the grocery store to pick up some things and headed back to the apartment to rest up for a full day of tourism on Saturday.
My parents were jetlagged and I obviously wasn't so they slept about 13 hours on Friday night and I slept like 7 but I didn't want to wake them up so we got kind of a late start. First, I took them to the main plaza of the city and showed them where I've been going to school. Then Fernando decided he needed coffee (literally drinks so much coffee...it's the Spanish blood) so we went to Starbucks. How American. After Starbucks, we went to the Catedral de Barcelona. Fernando was AMAZED to say the absolute least. He just kept saying, "are you kidding me" and "can you believe this" like yes I can believe this it's right here in front of my face and no I am not kidding you this is real. He could not get over the beauty of this cathedral and claims that he still won't go back to Catholicism but he seemed pretty damn convinced by this cathedral. Here's a pic of the 'rents in the cathedral:
More pics to come on Facebook, stay tuned.
After the cathedral, we went to Barceloneta which is basically the boardwalk along the Mediterranean Sea. We people and dog watched for awhile and it was pretty cool. My parents love the dogs here, my mom likes to guess the breed/mix and my dad likes to comment on how cute it is or the sweater it's wearing. Barcelona is a dog lover's paradise (do you hear that, Grandma? I know you're reading!). Here is us on the beach:
Once we finished people and dog watching, we went to the Columbus statue which was very exciting for Fernando. See, in American schools we learn about King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella who reigned over Spain in the 15th century. Little did Fernando know, the king's real name was Fernando. We just learn "King Ferdinand" because it's an Americanized name. So here is my dad pointing to his name on the Columbus statue, happy as can be:
After this, we walked down Las Ramblas (the main touristy street full of shops and markets) for a bit. We also went into La Boqueria, which I will let Noreen tell you about because she was absolutely appalled by it. After Las Ramblas, we concluded our day and went home.
Today, we went to Montserrat. I already went there with my school back in January but I thought my parents would like it so I took them. The hike was a little rough, but thank goodness there were plenty of dogs also hiking with their owners to keep my parents occupied. "Look at that one! Oh he must be so tired look at his little legs!" or, "Wow, is that a Greyhound or a whipper?" for miles. We made it to one of the highest points of the mountain and stopped for lunch and a quick nap. Obviously we took a selfie while we were up there:
All in all, we walked almost 10 miles today (about 3 of those miles were uphill) so we are dead. Well, they're dead. I can do 3 more. Tomorrow, I have to go to class so I will meet my parents after class and we are going to Parc Guell, which is Gaudi's main work of art in the city. If you don't know who Gaudi is, stop being so damn uncultured and look that shet up.
Just a quick announcement: my mom thought that 1) Gaudi and Dali were the same person and 2) that Barcelona was in the south of Spain. I have a lot of work to do.
Angela
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