It's Always Sunny in Barcelona

So I've been in Barcelona for 15 days and have gone to class for 3. What else have I been doing? Stayin' breezy. The weather here is AMAZING. It literally is always sunny. The temperature has cooled down significantly since I've gotten here. There is always a nice breeze too. It's like the perfect mixture of cool, sunny, and breezy. And I've been enjoying this weather just walking around wandering the city.

One of my first stops was Parc Guell. Gaudi's massive mosaic filled park. It's so meticulous and gorgeous. There are two little houses at the front of it with stairs and fountains that lead up to tons of pillars and then to an enormous curvy bench that is completely covered in mosaics. There is an amazing view of pretty much all of Barcelona from here, but the park goes higher up. And so did I. If you keep climbing these stairs and paths up higher you get to pretty much the very top. There you see every thing in Barcelona in the direction of the Mediterranean Sea and in the direction of some mountains or hills? I'm not entirely sure, but it was gorgeous. From that height I could see a huge cathedral on one of the hills and a ferris wheel right next to it. I'm pretty sure that is where the amusement park I want to go to is. Unless that is a cathedral for carnies. Not sure. Also I gave the lamest description of Parc Guell but there will be pictures so you can see the beauty of it.

Another little excursion of mine was watching the parade for a Catalonia National Holiday which was on September 11. It's a holiday celebrating Catalonia independence. On September 11, 1714, Catalonia, the region in Spain where Barcelona is, had to surrender to the Spanish army and lost all of their Catalonia identity. This was when the dictator Francisco Franco began his rule in Spain and wanted a unified country without multiple dialects or separation from the whole country. Catalonia and Catalans suffered a lot from this. The language almost died and fear of losing Catalan traditions and culture rose. Once Franco died, Catalan was being written again and the country was able to continue their traditions and cultures. So on September 11, here, I walked around and watched their parade. Some things were intense but overall informative. There were flyers everywhere talking about how Catalonia should be its own state and part of the European Union and other governmental organizations. There was lots of screaming liberty, middle fingers to Spain, memorials, and some cool music. Nothing like any other parade I've seen before.

Also, I've been eating. kind of. The best food I've had so far has been a sandwich that I had right before climbing all of Parc Guell. It had a piece of steak, garlic aioli, mushrooms, and cheese on this huge crispy bun. It was quite possibly the best thing I've eaten in my entire life. It just tasted like garlic and mushrooms. So good. I've also had my first tapas in Barcelona. My friend and I were wandering looking for a place that would be nice but cheap. So we were stopping and looking at menus and the waiter comes out of one restaurant and shows us the menu. We look at it and we're like, sorry this is too expensive. He's response was no it's not, we'll give you a two for one deal. So we decided to go there. We ended up getting 7 tapas; spicy potatoes, ham croquettes, mushrooms, asparagus, 2 different types of calamari and a salad plus a dessert for 18 euro. It was all really tasty too.  Being the broke student that I am going out to eat doesn't happen too often. Instead I shop for myself and cook. I've basically been living off of sandwiches because they are tasty, easy and cheap. BUT there was a revelation Monday when I went grocery shopping :) I found the Spanish verison of ramen. Yes and it is curry flavored. It's a bit more expensive compared to its American equivalent, 75 cents instead of 25. It must be the fancy curry flavoring. Either way finding that made me very happy.

Now I have no idea how to work blogs. Supposedly I can make it so I can have a slide show of all of my pictures, but I don't know how to make that work. So instead here is a link to where I will be uploading all of my pictures so that everyone can see them. I hope it works...

http://picasaweb.google.com/117888092170327481457/HolyFuckItSBarcelona?authkey=Gv1sRgCK_tjO_vvNi6nAE#

Classes? School?

So I've been in Barcelona for 15 days so far now and I've gone to classes for a week and a half. With my schedule that means I've been to class 3 days but for 36 hours total. In case you forgot, I'm taking two Spanish Art History classes, Catalan Language and Culture class, and a Barcelona History of the city class. I have three Spanish professors, specifically Catalan, and then one British professor. My Spanish professors expect the students to go above and beyond everything more so than any other teacher I've had at home. They also expect the students to be very well educated and on top of their game always.

I'll start with Catalan. I think this is my favorite class. The professor is very energetic and excited which makes any class that much better. It's a beginner level class which means no one in the class has any previous Catalan experience yet my teacher only speaks Catalan to us. But if we all look really confused, he'll start speaking English. He lets us speak a little English at the beginning but by the end of next week that class will all be in Catalan. Intimidating but sometimes the intimidating classes can be very fun. Like yesterday, we played Battleship to work on learning the numbers.

Then I have my two Art History classes. Now the first two days of these classes were an overview of all of art history in a quick minute plus the proper way to analyze a piece of art work. This was a little tiring but I lived through it, thankfully. My first one is a class about all of Spanish art from Paleolithic art to now. We've started Spanish Paleolithic art yesterday which is all of the cave paintings and nomadic sculptures. I've never learned about specifically Spanish Paleolithic art but my professor gave us a preview of it and it looks a lot more interesting than what I was expecting. That class is a little big and general but I think it'll be alright. My second class is specifically about Antoni Gaudi, Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, and Joan Miro. My professor for this class is very intense and very serious. On the first day of class he reminded us all that this was a 400 level class and that that is how he is treating it. Hearing that made me happy. It also made the class much smaller. My professor is clearly incredibly intelligent. When he's discussing everything, I can tell he knows all of this material like the back of his hand. Both of my Art History professors are very passionate about art and about Spain and Catalonia. I'm excited that I get to learn about Spanish art this way because I know for a fact that I would never learn any of this Art History anywhere else but here.

Now that leaves Barcelona: Past and Present. So this is a history class (past) and kind of current events (present) which leads me to probably the best thing a professor has ever said to me. "I can tell you are new to news" I feel like I need to tell my professor this? Sadly I know nothing that is going on in current events. I don't read nor watch the news. I also have no idea what has happened in my country since I've been born let alone the entire world. BUT I did take European History so I can work the history part and just pretend for the present? Regardless of my little news issue, this class is going to be beneficial. It helps me understand better the city I'm living in for the next 4 months. I'm going to be able to leave Barcelona knowing the history, knowing the culture and understanding why its the way it is/was instead of leaving and not knowing anything.

Another advantage to all four of these classes is that I get to go on like a million field trips. Most are to the same places twice but I think I can manage that. Some of my field trips include the Picasso Museum, Museum of the History of the City of Barcelona, Fundicao Miro, Sagrada Familia, Casa Mila, various neighborhoods and various cathedrals with different architectural designs. Of the places listed I go to majority of them twice.

I think I just wrote the most I could ever write about any classes I am or have taken. Pretty much the only thing I left are the due dates for all of my assignments. Yes I have homework here as well. It's silly but I guess it is school.

My Apartment

I've been in Barcelona for about 5 days now and my classes still haven't start yet. I've been spending my time settling into my apartment and my neighborhood. My apartment is gorgeous and fairly large for a Spanish apartment (at least in comparison to other people in my programs apartments). It is also very centrally located which means I have the opportunity to walk to class. I can also walk to almost anything close to the center of the city. I love everything about my apartment. There are two little balconies that face out the front of the building onto the main street and another balcony at the back of the apartment facing a courtyard type area. This is where the drying lines and clothes pins are...aka our dryer. I guess I can look past the lack of a dryer for the beautiful features of the apartment. There are four bedrooms; two doubles and two singles. There are two bathrooms and an adorable kitchen, small but cute and there are beautiful hard wood floors.  There is no air conditioning but the weather is so pleasant here it's not needed. There are windows everywhere that bring in a nice breeze but also cause some doors to slam. That might take some getting used too. Oh and probably the worst thing about the apartment that I always forget about is the roughly six flights of stairs to get to the third apartment. I think it's safe to say that I can manage to live here for the next fifteen weeks.

Hola Barcelona!

Hello all! This is my blog about my semester in Barcelona as well as my travels around Europe hopefully. I'll start with the boring/ introductory stuff. I'm going to Barcelona for Art History. Barcelona is a beautiful city filled with art, history, and culture. (I suggest watching Anthony Bourdain's: No Reservations Spain). I'm registered for four classes; Barcelona: Past and Present, Catalan: Language and Culture, Spanish Art, and Architecture and Painting in Barcelona. Catalonia, the region of Spain where Barcelona is located, has its own language, Catalan. It's a dialect of Spanish with some French. I'd like to think Catalan will be easy, but a new language will be a challenge. My other three classes all relate to my Art History major. I specifically chose Barcelona because of Antoni Gaudi, Salvador Dali, and Joan Miro, three Spanish artists who were at the forefront of the modern art world. I was lucky enough to get an amazing schedule; all four of my classes right in a row only on Tuesdays and Thursdays, noon to six in the evening. Because I have such an open schedule, I plan to do some travelling. I haven't exactly planned all of my travelling yet but hopefully it all happens. Through my program, I will be staying in an apartment with five other roommates. We'll see how this all turns out!