comida

Many people have been asking me about the food here... what its like, how delicious it is, how expensive it is etc. Okay the food is AMAZING!! So tasty!! And at the supermarkets food is relatively inexpensive, especially fruits and vegetables as compared to the United States. It is also much easier to buy fresh food because of the quantity of small, independently owned fruit and vegetable stands around the city. In addition, most neighborhoods have indoor markets where vendors sell everything from Octopus to Kiwis.

The only problems I have had with the food are a) being a vegetarian can be a struggle sometimes, this is absolutely a meat eating country, and b) eating out is absolutely delicious but it gets expensive very quickly!!

That being said, I try to go out to eat as much as I can! Here are some pictures from two restaurant experiences:

~*~

 CAFE DELFIN (in Born District)

 Mussel Tapas

 Patatas Bravas: french fries covered in spicy tomato sauce and garlic aioli sauce

 Fried Hot Peppers... salty and delicious!

 Tortilla Española, with added vegetables

~*~

 VEGETALIA (vegetarian restaurant in Ciutat Vella... amazing find for the vegetarians of the group!!)

Celia, Vicky, and Evie

We were too busy eating our food to photograph it until the very last second! This was grilled vegetables with a Chimichurri sauce

 Brown rice with a salty nut topping... SO PERFECT

the remains of Celia's seitan and cheese veggie burger

Blog nemesis Vicky eating the last bite of her veggie burger, I believe it was soy and red pepper?

independencia i socialisme

While you all in the United States were remembering the lives lost in the September 11th attack eight years ago, the citizens of Cataluña had their own September 11th event to commemorate.

Arc de Triompf with Cataluñian independence flag

Diada Nacional de Catalunya (National Day of Cataluña) is celebrated every year on September 11 in part to commemorate the Siege of Barcelona defeat that took place on this day in 1714 during the War of the Spanish Succession. The fight resulted from a dispute about who should take the Spanish throne when the King failed to produce a male offspring. The leadership of Madrid backed one royal and the people of Cataluña preferred another.

So as far as I can tell, Diada is in part a commemoration of this defeat. Yet more importantly, it represents the solidarity of the Catalonian people in their fight to maintain an identity separate from the rest of Spain.

Its a fairly new holiday; Parliament declared it as such in 1980. It has become a day for expression of the desire for Cataluña independence by certain groups who think that the autonomous principality should be completely independent of Spain.

I didn't know any of this before coming to Barcelona. In fact, I had no idea that the independence movement was so strong, especially among the youth here.

Here are some pictures I took of the celebration of Diada Nacional de Catalunya that took place by the Arc de Triompf.

Youths wearing the Catalunya independence movement's flag as a cape

The sign reads "Festival for Liberty. We all speak Valenciana, we all speak Catalan"


















Young boys partake in the celebrations


















There was live music that night. Most songs were about Catalan pride


















Banner calling for independence and socialism

día increíble!

Ahhhh I had a wonderful day today!!

It started off with Spanish class, which was awesome because I didn't fall asleep and I answered some questions correctly. Then I went to Corte Ingles with Vicky and we found the magical meat-substitute section!! So now I have seitan and tofu!!! Then we tried to find the bicing headquarters because we had some questions about the application but we got horrifically lost... for the better!! We found the center of the Born district, which is an old and stylish district somewhat nearby to the Residencia. It is so cool and is now tied with Gracia in the running to be my future home in Barcelona. We also ran into Santa Maria del Mar, which is famous for its beauty and grandeur. THEN we visited a suuuper tiny record store that Vicky had found with Celia the night before. The owner is in his fifties and told us that he used to work for the clash and is super into underground hip hop. Vicky is doing a research project on underground electronica in Barcelona, he is going to be an incredible resource for her. And for the first time, I feel like I might be able to talk to locals here :) Then we cooked our tofu with broccoli, garlic, onion, mushroom, ginger, and soy sauce, and ate it over rice, and it was incredible. Ahh I am so happy right now!

And oh yeah, the best news of all... DAN IS COMING TO VISIT ME!!!!!! AHHHH I CAN'T WAIT!!

:)

biblioteca

So guess what?? I got a library card!

Cool right? Haha I'm a nerd. The Barcelona library system is great though, it has branches all over the city so pretty much anywhere you live there is a library nearby, and if you have a library card you have access to any branch. I think I'll head back over tonight and check out something in Spanish so that I can actually learn Spanish.

Hah, my library card excursion gave me a really good example of how I cannot speak Spanish anymore. I was trying to ask if it was possible to renew materials online but I forgot the word for renew ("renovar") even though the lady had used it about 20 seconds earlier. So I decided to just add "re" to the beginning of the word for borrow even though I didn't think it was an actual word; I assumed she would be able to figure out what I was talking about. Turns out the word I thought meant borrow, "ahogar," actually means "to drown." No wonder her reaction was "uhhhhh.... qué??"

I do try though.

I love you all!! I will hopefully be updating at least every two or three days, so keep reading!

haz click aquí

Just a quick note about the photos, if you click on them you can see them in a much higher resolution!

la primera semana

Okay, so I haven't felt like I've had anything interesting to say yet about Spain, at least not for the first several days. You would think it would be tremendous; my first few days living in a foreign country should have been epic right? Well, kind of. Overwhelming is probably more like it. I mean, I hardly slept on the plane, then I had to spend my first two nights in two different hotels, and meet everyone in my program (46 of us altogether) in the span of two hours. Then we immediately went out to the clubs, and had to spend the next day moving into our new home, la Residencia Onix. Then there was unpacking and buying food and adjusting to a 9 hour time difference and being away from all my family and friends and having to start all over in a new place. I'm not complaining, this semester is going to be epic and I know it, but it was definitely hard. And harder still because I wanted to be able to tell everyone all about what a great time I was having.

But I've been here for about a week and a half now, and now that I am adjusted to the time difference and have made a few friends I have a much more optimistic outlook on the semester :)  This is going to be an incredible learning experience for me, I can already tell that I will grow so much both academically and personally.

One thing that still bothers me though is the language. Honestly, since I've gotten here I feel like my ability to speak both Spanish and English is slowly deteriorating. What doesn't help are the Catalan classes that we are required to take with our program. In the state of Cataluña (Barcelona = the capital), Catalan is the most widely spoken language, though most catalunians are also fluent in Spanish and often English and French or German as well. Most street signs, building signs etc. are in Catalan, so it is useful and exciting to be learning this new language. Its confusing me though, and I'm beginning to wonder if the language space in my brain in severely limited. I keep forgetting words for things like "apple" or "swim" and its making me nervous...

Sóc l'Elena! Tinc una germana! Sóc de California!

That's what I've learned in Catalan. I am Elena. I have one sister. I am from California.

So I am absorbing a little.

I still need to post pictures from Park Güell, and write more about what I'm looking forward to this semester, but I will say right now that it will be a dynamic and exciting four months! Stay tuned for updates!

la sagrada familia

I think I waited too long to post these photos because I forget what I wanted to say about them specifically, but I will say that it is an AMAZING building!! It has been under construction for over 100 years, and they are probably about 100 years away from finishing it. A big part of its current appearance is all the scaffolding and cranes around it, so I tried to capture that in the pictures I took. Hopefully I will go on a tour later this month, pay my 7 euro or whatever toward finishing this building in my lifetime...