New Challenges

Since this blog post is a bit overdue, I’m going back in time to talk about the week of Feb. 24.

Two weekends ago I was reverted back into the typical Barcelona tourist as this city was invaded by some amazing VIPers. My friends from Wisconsin visiting and giving me a little taste of home came at the perfect time in the semester, right at the mid-way point, and when the weather was perfect. The weekend, though packed full and so much fun, could not have passed without a few minor glitches.

First, my residencia pretty much feels like I’m in a freshman dorm, with a very strict guest policy. To demonstrate, when I tried to sneak my friends in to stay with me on Thursday night I got caught by security and had to go talk to the front desk of the “dorm” to figure things out and receive a painful lecture on how I “could have gotten in trouble”. Again on Friday night, when I tried a different method of sneaking them in, I got caught again, but luckily it was a different security guard and a different man who I talked to at the desk. You could say it’s my fault for breaking the rules, but the rules are stupid in the first place, and I don’t like to comply with stupid rules. So, next time a friend visits, I’ll just try something different.

Second, my wallet got stolen. I was getting off the metro on my way to park guell when we stopped into a restaurant to grab lunch. It wasn’t until I went to pay for lunch where I realized I didn’t have my wallet with me. After multiple times warning my friends to keep a hold of their purses and bags, I, the Barcelona resident, am the one who gets pick pocketed. Luckily I only had 10 euros (about 14 dollars) and there was no activity on my cards before I cancelled them. I’m still mad that they got away with it, and that I’ll have to get new ids when I get home in May. Not to mention buy a new wallet. Whyyy Barcelona???

Moving along, the rest of my weekend was filled with going out until late hours of the night, and waking up bright and early to tour the city with my friends, we saw gaudi houses, sagrada famalia, montjuic, the beach, las ramblas, and much more.

Dipping my feet into the sea, it was freezing!

Some VIP boss ladies out to lunch for some delicious paella

Our paella from lunch

Cara and me in the castle on top of Montjuic. (notice the view of Barcelona in the background)

  

Having my friends from Wisconsin here in Barcelona reminds me of how much I miss my school. My friends, my campus, my job, my sports teams, even the snow! (Just not my classes, classes at home suck). But if nothing else, the people I surround myself with and being able to sit by the lake on a sunny day, are things I could never take for granted. But I’ve got 2 more months in Europe, and I will make sure to take full advantage of all the time I have left here.

The most important thing that I want to say in this post is inspired by a conversation I had with cara this weekend while sitting in the castle on top of montjuic. Ya know, just casually hanging out in a castle. But we were talking about what we think we’re getting out of the study abroad experience, and if this experience is really challenging us how we though it would. And this got me thinking: yeah I came really far away from home, and yeah I didn’t really know anyone here at first. But that’s the stuff I’m used to it. I experienced that when I went away to school in Wisconsin. But here, in order to actually challenge myself, I need to do something more, I need to change my lifestyle and make a better effort to befriend locals.

So, my first step in doing this is signing up for an intercambio through ciee. What this is is a program where I am set up with a local Barcelona resident and meet with them once or twice a week to speak half the time in Spanish, and half the time in English. It is supposed to help us with our Spanish, and them with their English. I have only talked to my person through email, and she is an extremely energetic, excited 19 year old student at the University of Barcelona. We are meeting up for lunch this afternoon and I’m excited to (attempt to) speak to her in (broken) spanish! So even though I’m already half way through my program, hopefully this will get me more integrated into Spanish culture and help me actually learn the language.

This past weekend I was in Brussels, Belgium with 2 friends on my program! I went to see the city and visit my friend Madi from school. After 2 trains, a flight, a shuttle bus, and another train, we finally ended up at madi’s house at about 12:45pm on Friday. As soon as we got there we left to walk around the downtown area of Brussels. The city was adorable! It’s exactly what I would expect from an old, European city. Some things I saw walking around the city:

-all the streets are cobblestone streets

-cafés, chocolate shops, and waffle stands are ALL over the city (and unlike barcelona, where you get coffee in a café, when you go into a café in Brussels, you buy beer)

-tons of doner kababs restaurants?

-mannequin pis – a tiny statue of a little boy peeing into a fountain. (it’s supposed to represent how Belgians have a good sense of humor and are able to make fun of themselves)

-the house where Audrey Hepburn was born (I was not expecting to see this on my trip to Brussels, nor did I have any idea Audrey Hepburn was even born there! We also tried to find the house where Karl Marx lived, but couldn’t actually find it)

-the atomium (huge atom like structure that if you go to the top, you can see great views of the city. It was built for the World’s Fair in Brussels in 1958 and now stands as one of Brussels key landmarks)

-the Magritte Museum (Magritte is a famous Belgian surrealist painter, the museum was cool and holds A LOT of his paintings, but the stuff was a little bizarre for my taste, I guess I’m not a huge surrealism fan)

-did I mention chocolate and waffles? Literally down every street you’ll find at least 2 waffle stands, and at least 6 chocolate shops - especially in chocolate square, where chocolate shops surround the plaza. We even went into some gourmet shops with fancy chocolate and lots of pralines. Yummm.

-the café’s we went into were for the purpose of mid-day beer breaks. The one we went into on Saturday used to be where Magritte and his buddies would hang out and drink. It was a pretty cool place.

Mannequin Pis

The Grand Plaza - this was probably the most beautiful square that I've seen thus far

Wittamer chocolate shop - the preferred brand of the royal family

The first waffle stand we went to - the lady is getting the waffles ready!

Me and my chocolate waffle

Me at Audrey Hepburn's house! The plaque above me is the sign that proves it

You could find any type of beer you would ever want in this store.

Me at the atomium

Rachel, me, Kathryn, and Madi at a cute little cafe

Saturday night in Brussels Madi had people over to her house, for a going away party for one of her roommates. What was great about is was that everyone was from places around Europe – from austria, france, germany, netherlands, and more! Everyone spoke English was it was cool to get away from the American scene and really meet and talk to people for around Europe. Brussels is not nearly as touristy as Barcelona, and the nightlife is more about going out to bars and hanging out with people, which is one thing I loved about it. To say the least, I had an amazing time in Belgium – and beer will never be the same.

Now back in Barcelona, my university class has been cancelled this week for 2 out of the 3 meeting times. It was also cancelled twice last week because my teacher was sick. So basically I never have to go to class. I must say it’s pretty nice, and since this is the one and only class here that I find completely useless, I’m extremely lucky. But now I’m off to start the day, Adios!