Sometimes I stumble on free 'The Hives' concerts...after seeing a parade of fire in Barcelona...

I had heard, many times, that La Mercé, the festival that went on this past weekend, was absolutely fantastic. I read in my books that it absorbed the city of Barcelona for 4 days and astounded even the people who had been to the festival all their lives. I really didn't think that all the hype could possibly be true, but again, Barcelona has proven me wrong. La Mercé is probably the coolest festival I have ever seen in my life. It is more then astounding. It is awe-inspiring. There are free concerts in every neighborhood, including big names like The Hives, there are magicians, jugglers, parades of giants and fire, human castles and much more.

You are probably wondering what the hell some of these things are, so I'm gonna hit you with some knowledge about the really cool things. First of all: the Fire Parade. In catalan it's called the Carrefoc, and basically there are hundreds of people that walk down this street with GIANT sparklers, they spray fire all over the street and people run underneath them. So when we got off the metro on the stop for the fire parade we really had no idea what to expect. On the website describing the run, they warn people about the danger of running in the fire and explain that those you attempt to do so should cover their entire bodies. The boys decided that they were definitely entering the run, because obviously what could be better than running in fire? But, instead of looking like they were about to run in fire, somehow they ended up looking like they were going to rob a bank. Pretty similar - I guess.
So like I said, we had no idea what to expect, and as we walk off the metro all we can see are hordes of people and very strange satanic music and definitely gave me the chills. Apparently, the fire run is supposed to symbolize hell, but I am not really sure why. Anyways, we make our way down the street and see people dressed up with scarves around their necks and full sleeve shirts. Finally the sparklers begin and what ensues is probably the coolest thing ever. Dragons breathing sparklers of fire, people dancing underneath the fire, people with sparklers everywhere taking over the street. I don't think words can quite describe the craziness, but you could definitely tell who the foreigners were because we were the ones scared shitless in the corner of the street hoping that we didn't die from the fire.

After the awesome fire parade, my friend and I made our way to one of the concerts held in the city. Our spanish friends had told us where we should go, so we hoped that we could find something sort of good. When we got off the metro this time, we walked into a crowd of 1,000,000 people all standing on the street, drinking, laughing, singing and just having a good time. We decided to make our way to the front of the crowd so that we could see the next performer. Getting to the front, we had honestly no idea what to expect from the performer, considering we thought that they would be spanish. 2 minutes later the banner is dropped and we absolutely couldn't believe our eyes...The Hives. What were the odds that we would know the band playing at this free concert in the center of barcelona? not much, but somehow we continue to get lucky everywhere we go in this city. The concert was, as I am sure you can believe, absolutely incredible. And we left sweaty but fantastically happy at what we had stumbled upon.

The next morning (sunday), we woke up early to make our way to Plaça San Jaume where we heard the Castellers (human castle builders) would be. We camped out for a while, and then they began. I am going to try to explain this as well as I can, but the spectacle just can't be described. Basically, there are groups of about 200 people who use their bodies to create castle type objects. They climb on each other's backs and shoulders demonstrating incredible balance, team work, and strength. What's crazier is that the team consists of men, women and children. The strongest stay on the bottom, the smaller men climb up to create a base, and then the women balance on their shoulders while the kids complete the structure. It's breath-taking.

After watching the competition of 3 casteller groups, there was a closing ceremony for la Mercé. It was held right in the center of the city in Plaça de Espanya. There was thousands of people -- the closing ceremony was by far the best fireworks show I have ever seen in my life. There was music and the fireworks and fountain in the center all went together to create an absolutely beautiful show. I cannot believe that one city could do so much for one festival...but I guess Barcelona doesn't fuck around.

until next time....
xoxo

Park Guell, La Mercé, y Costa Brava...

So here I am again, sitting in front of this computer in a complete loss for words. I thought, previous to this week of course, that Barcelona and its surroundings couldn't possibly get any better. And then, they did. I also continue to forget all the insane things that I want to relay - so hopefully as I type it will slowly start coming back to me. Other than the normal life of going to class (or in my case - not going to class), taking the metro, buying groceries, drinking sangría and eating paella  - this week has been astoundingly more fantastic. This Wednesday began a weekend long celebration in Barcelona called La Mercé. This festival celebrates Barcelona's patron saint, Nostra Senyora de la Mercé (Our lady of Mercy), and ignites the entire city (literally). There are concerts 24/7, excluding siesta time of course, vendors all around, magicians, jugglers, and various other crazy activities. Basically, you can just walk around the city and stumble on something fantastical. There are parades of gegants (giants) and castellers, human castle builders. We haven't quite caught the human castles yet because apparently they get better each day and we're waiting for the finale tomorrow. =] We have found some awesome concerts and weird things like people in giant balls dancing to songs... (there are actually people in those white balls in the picture above... WHAT?!?).

Other than exploring the city during Mercé, my friends and I finally got to make it up to Park Guell. This park, that was actually designed to be an upperclass neighborhood by famous modernist architect Gaudí, is now a national park with stunning architecture, gem structures, and boasts a beautiful view of Barcelona (check out the view on the left and the cool gem thing to the right). We walked around this park for a good 2 hours just admiring the beauty. It was pretty incredible.

Yesterday, a big group of us grabbed a bus to Tossa de Mar - a lovely little beach city on Costa Brava. There we took a boat with a glass bottom on the Mediterranean sea to see the fish and the bottom of the sea. The water was astoundingly beautiful, and the landscapes were breathtaking. There was also this awesome old fort that we climbed up and saw this view of the town.

Honestly, I don't think that pictures can do any of this any justice. You guys should definitely stalk my pictures on facebook for some more good stuff, but I can definitely say that you can't even begin to imagine the beauty unless you saw it with your eyes. Yes, this is a little plug for Barcelona, and Spain and so you should save your money and travel here. It hasn't stopped amazing me since I arrived here almost a month ago. I can't get over the lifestyle, the tapas, the bars, the views, the people and everything else you can think of.

This place may just be the most perfect place on the planet.

xoxo until next time...

the question is not, 'is it right?' the question is, 'is it wrong?'

So I realize that it has been quite a while since my last entry and my promise to keep blogging every week has already been violated. For all 6 of you that read this blog, I thoroughly apologize. Now that's out of the way, prepare yourself for a long entry.

Now that it has been two weeks of spanish intensive classes, which includes about 6 days of class (not only does it not count and thus I don't go if I don't want to, but we also have fridays off and have already had a holiday), I can definitely say that the spanish is slowly getting better. We still definitely feel like all the spaniards around us attempt to make our lives easy and answer us in english, but we have been attempting to push ourselves outside the comfort zone and speak spanish as much as possible. This mostly happens at bars and clubs since spanish men seem to always want to speak to us in spanish. I like to tell myself, this is the reason I go out so much, but I am beginning to think that I just really enjoy ruining my liver.

Spanish class is monday-thursday from 12:30-3, which actually seems like no time at all. After class, depending on the weather, we go sight-seeing or to the beach. We have hit probably every neighborhood in Barcelona, including the Gothic Quarter (left - La Seu, Barcelona's Cathedral), L'exiample (where I happen to live), Exiample, Gracía (cheap student neighborhood with tapas restaurants and bars), Tibidabo (right - boasts an incredible view of all of barcelona) Barceloneta (where the Marina, clubs etc are located), Cuitadella (where my school is), & many other great places.

After slowly making our way through all the must-sees in every neighborhood, friday rolled around and it was already a holiday. The National Day of Catalunya. Everyone had told us that there would be riots and parades depicting all the nationalism that was contained in Catalunya, however, we didn't really get to see much of it. All we got were a lot of balloons, and people selling Catalunya flags. After walking around a bit, we hit up the beach, again.

The next day, saturday, I went out to Gracía with my roommates and some of their friends (picture to the right) for some tapas and beer - which were incredible, might I add - and we happened to stumble upon this little street fiesta where a small bar gave us free beer and there was a live band. It was probably one of the coolest things I have seen in a while, the decorations consisted of dyed water bottles and christmas lights, que guay (how cool)!!

After exploring the city a bit for the next few days, tuesday finally rolled around and we had an incredible dinner/club night planned for us from the school. It was quite possibly what I would call a 6 course traditional spanish meal at one of the best restaurants in Barcelona, including wine, shots, and drinks. We had gaspacho (cold tomato soup), pan con tomate (tomato bread), calamari, mussels, paella, sugar bread, dessert liquor... it was incredible. You all know me, so you can just imagine the food intake at this dinner, and the fact that it was probably the most incredible moment of my life thus far. I think that says something about my priorities, and my life in general. After dinner, through which we were all on the tipsy side, we went to an awesome club/bar called Shoko for one free drink and free admittance - it was super.

Other than that, a few days later we hit up La Rambla, this pedestrian walkway filled with markets and tourist attractions, in order to get to Cafe l'Opera, one of the most famous cafes in Barcelona. At the cafe, we indulged in some chocolate covered churros and coffee. I don't think I have ever ate so much sugar in my life. Fantastic.

We also got to see some cool giant type structures while walking to the Contemporary Art Museum.

So far, Barcelona has been absolutely fantastic, we've even made some pretty awesome spanish friends. Just got to maintain the friendship and hang out with them A LOT. I know this was a ridiculous post, and I promise to stay on top of posting because I definitely don't want to have to spend so much time writing another post.

until next time, mis amigos. xoxo

one week down, countless more to go.

I'm currently sitting here on my bed unable to believe more then a week has gone by here in my new home. A lot of things are incredibly different from my life back home, and I am beginning to realize just how adaptable people really are. Honestly, I don't think I have ever walked so much in the 20 years that I have been living, I've definitely never figured out the metro so well, let alone in another language, and I am definitely getting reacquainted with (despite the seductive tease of Argentina) partying until 6 in the morning for far too many nights in a row. I've begun to figure out where I can buy American amenities, like mustard, notebooks with ruled lines and not graph paper, and where I can find every day necessities, fruit, yogurt, meat, bread, cheap wine and beer.

With all of these small things - that seem so easy in the U.S. that we ultimately take for granted - under my belt, I have began to finally attempt to get into the Spanish "moda de la vida" (lifestyle). Everything is much slower here, nobody rushes to get where they are going, everyone is constantly late, and no one pushes or shoves to get ahead. It's been difficult adjusting to the ciesta time, which basically shuts down all of Barcelona between 2pm and 5pm in order for everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, to go home, eat a HUGE lunch, and take a nap. Banks, grocery marts, etc are all closed during this time and so you have to make sure you budget your time accordingly.

Another crazy thing about Spain is the number of vespas/mopeds/motorcycles. Walking down the street you can see a man dressed in a stunning pinstripe suit straddling a moped waiting for the light to turn green, or a young college-aged girl speeding by on her own bike. I can't say that I am not impressed by them all. My new goal is making a spanish friend who has a moped, not only because it would be super incredible to ride on one of those things, but also because I think that would mean that the person is truly a Spaniard.

Other than these observations, the markets here are very different from the grocery stores in the US, everything is organized very differently and there are separate markets for fruit, vegetables, meat, household items, etc. My favorite fruit place is different than my favorite bread place and that's different from my favorite meat place. So it gets to be a lot of walking and a lot of small shopping every few days.

So far, Spain has been an incredible experience, however, since I am still in just spanish immersion classes, I have yet to meet many spaniards (besides going out and being hit on by some - too bad they are not really looking for a good conversation). I can't wait to make some good spanish friends. Speaking of friends, all of you out there who know me are going to be very surprised when I say that ALL of my friends currently are girls. I love them dearly, but not surprisingly, I am feeling some strong withdrawal because of this and am in serious need to find a friend that is a boy. I figure it will all come with time.

until then...  xoxo

um, un teléfono...por favor?

So I realize it has been quite a bit since the last time I posted, mostly because the past few days have been, while not ridiculously busy, a bit overwhelming. I reached Barcelona on the 31st of August, monday, and reached my lovely apartment at around 3 p.m. My building is incredibly beautiful...very old and historic looking...I will eventually get to taking a picture but haven't done so yet. I met my lovely apartment-mates, two Belgiums (Laurant and Flore), who speak incredible english and not so good spanish, and a girl from Holland (Britt). Stay on the look-out for pictures. My room is rather spacious and the apartment is really nice, much nicer than I imagined, although the bathroom is rather small. Kbear if you are reading this, it might be smaller then the shower on the cruise ship =O.

I managed to make it down to the marina yesterday, it's incredibly beautiful. Britt and I decided that we are going to find someone who owns a boat and sail with him. I wonder if it will happen?

So since I have an apartment, I actually have to cook my own meals. So far this has meant eating out, pop-tarts brought from the US, and pasta. I'm hoping to better my cooking skillz, I just have yet to go to grocery shopping. Good news! My apartment is about 3 blocks from one of the nicest shopping areas in Barcelona, equipped with Hermés, Gucci, Prada, Versace, and much more. I'm feeling like I won't be buying too much from those names, but they also have H&M, Zara, Mango, and other cheaper Spanish companies.

Today I finally had a little orientation, and I walked around the city with some girls from my program to attempt to find a phone. Instead of finding phones, we accidently stumbled onto some incredible tourist sites. The cathedral and the arc. Check out the pictures! Hopefully we will be getting phones soon, otherwise it's going to be difficult to find people and what not. I'm praying everything will be okay.

Tomorrow, I have a spanish placement exam, just to make sure that all of the classes I took are within my level. And then, since UPF (my university here) is close to the beach, I'm gonna hit up the Mediterranean Sea.

Until next time,
besos.