Today was our first day of our classes. We woke up at 8:30 (ugh) and walked over to the Universitat to be there for our first class at 9:30. It’s called “Visions of War in Modern Spanish Culture,” and is taught by Prof. Antonio Monegal from UPF. We talked about war and how we’re going to examine it, essentially. It went pretty quickly and seems interesting. After that we stopped for a quick bite in the cafeteria, which was a mistake, because an hour into the second class my digestion started and I started nodding off. It was less exciting, because we talked about the history of Barcelona’s city planning (snooze) and yeah. I think the rest of the class will be better.
After that we went back to the residencia to rest up a bit before heading out to Corte Ingles to buy some groceries and our books for Monegal’s course. It was a nice walk, albeit hot, and we did get some good food to eat in the residencia when we’re too lazy/cheap to spend 7,5 Euro on a Coke.
We chilled in the residencia a bit before getting started on our huge amount of reading for tomorrow’s class (not many pages in number, at least compared to tutorial, but they’re in Spanish! takes forever). Since the World Cup game between France and Spain happened tonight, we wanted to make sure not to be out when it ended, because it didn’t seem safe either way. So two of us went to the Supermercat to buy some bread and peanut butter to eat sandwiches in the residencia. Walking around at dusk is kind of sketchy around here…
Tomorrow will be a tough day. Lots of class and homework to do. Hopefully the rest of our time here won’t be so heavy on the work.
Thursday three of us are going out with some genuine Spanish college students from UPF for our first Intercambio social event. We’re eating near our residencia and will be meeting some of the student’s friends from the south of Spain, who apparently speak a different way than northerners. They’re going to a club afterwards, but we’re not sure if we want to — sketch factor. Who knows, though!
That’s all for now — tomorrow is a tour of the Barri Gotic, so maybe some pictures will be up tomorrow evening or the following morning, since we have so much work to do. Adios!
Today was our first full day in Barcelona. I awoke this morning at 9am after a great and long sleep with but a hint of grogginess. I walked downstairs to meet the rest of the class and Silvia for breakfast and a tour of the Universitat, and hoped my luggage had arrived, but no luck (the other flight came in at 7.45am, so I hoped they’d be quick and send it right over, but I guess not).
We went to eat breakfast in the Universitat’s cafeteria — it was pretty small compared to what we’re all used to. I had a chocolate croissant and we sat and chatted about the college and how foreign (ha) it was to us. One strange thing about the teenagers (and everyone) in Spain — the mullet and the femmullet seem to be fashionable. We have seen so many strange haircuts in that fashion. Some guys wear their hair long in the back and short up front, bordering on mullet but not long enough, but some go hardcore and grow it very long in back. One guy had dreads in the back for his mullet. We gave him points for originality but none for fashion sense.
Professor Cifuentes met us in the cafeteria after 20 minutes or so. We then got a tour of the Universitat from Antonio Luna, an administrator of some kind (I didn’t catch his title). It was pretty interesting but we definitely garnered a lot of stares. The worst was when he took us through the library where EVERYONE was studying and people would point us out to friends. I definitely felt like a tourist!
After the tour we went back to the residencia quickly (my luggage still wasn’t there) and then we walked to La Ramblas (a big street with lots of street performers and small tents with cheap crap to buy) to walk around and to buy some necessities at the Corte Ingles, a huge department store in the center of the city. I bought some clothes to tie me over, and some other folks got cell phones. They ran out, so I don’t have one yet, but hopefully soon. We were pretty tired from walking in the sun so we stopped to eat at about 3:30pm in La Ramblas. It was SO expensive — my roommate got charged 7,5 E for a Coke light. That’s almost 9 dollars for a glass of Coke. Beer would’ve been cheaper, we’re convinced.
Then we went back to the residencia and relaxed until we were to meet for dinner with the profesores. I got a call five minutes before we were supposed to meet from the front desk — my luggage arrived. I have never been so happy! I changed quickly and off we went to the restaurant.
We had a private room for the 15 of us, and immediately waiters brought out wine, pa amb tomaquet, a traditional Catalan bread rubbed with tomatoes and oil. It was okay — kind of like bruschetta but more subtle, since there wasn’t anything on it per se. They also brought out anchovies, peppers, eggplant + black olive paste, and a thinly sliced meat called lomo del cerdo, which was a sausage that comes from the pig’s back. It was very good. Then they brought out a bunch of fried seafood, none of which I ate because it was both fried and seafood, and then the main dish was paella. It was okay but I was already pretty full. The dessert was light, a square of gelato with dark chocolate sauce on top. It was 11:30 by the time we left — early by Spanish standards.
We went back to the room and studied up for class tomorrow. And, since it’s 2am, I should probably get to bed. We have to wake up at 8:30 for school. Adios!