gracias :: thanks-g in bcn

thanksgiving 07...

so i spent thanksgiving in barcelona. my bulgarian roommate asked me if it was the holiday where we dress up in costume and eat a lot of candy. after explaining to her the difference between halloween and thanksgiving she was still confused because she said: wasn't colombus spanish? thats true, he was..touche

i didnt realize how special thanksgiving was to me until i spent it in another country away from my family. so a bunch of my american friends and i decided to take the day off school and do our own celebrating. the days festivities began at a futbol field playing a version of kickball called: sloshball. if you dont know what it is, lets just say that drinking in public is not really inforced in europe. anyways, after a few hours of running around we all cleaned ourselves up and went to hotel espana where our program organized a thanksgiving dinner for us. it was a very beautiful dining room and everyone looked really nice...then the director of our program gave a toast about giving gracias for amistad, amor, familia....etc. then he switched to english and the last thing he said was "call your families and tell them you miss them." that would be the moment where i lost it, emotionally. and not to my surprise, i had two missed calls on my cell phone from my family.

there was nowhere else i wanted to be but in grandma bette's lakehouse eating real turkey and real potatoes and macaroni salad, while the guys watched a football game and cameron, caleb, megan and i joked about our crazy family and grandma was preoccupied with the bird and pleasing everyone, and dave of course taking sneak attack creeper fotos of everyone. so, i just wanted to say, i had a few tears for my family and friends and everyone at home who i miss more then you'll ever know. and i wanted to say thanks to everyone who has supported me and my move to spain, financially and morally and grandma too for dealing with the fact that im on the other side of the world, and all the letters and packages and candy and tapatio and american sentiments.

i love you guys. and thanksgiving dinner just wasn't the same. especially because the gravy had no flavor and the apple pie was frozen. but, good news, i will be home for my favorite holiday ever: FOURTH OF JULY!!!!! so we can get super american and have a really great reunion.

rome, italy :: ciao bella

Roma, Italia.

there's really no way i can describe how incredible this city is, nor do fotos come even close to capturing its beauty. before i arrived, my picture of rome was a really old city and the colloseum.

i've seen pictures, and i've been studying roman art, literature and history for as long as i've been able to read, but until you see it first hand, you will never know how powerful the city is.

my flight came in at night and had to walk from the metro to my friend's flat. it was cold, and im not a fan of flying especially when i have to sit next to smelly person and get stared at for an hour straight by loud obnoxious italian soccer fans, so i was just a bit annoyed and antsy to see my amiga. the directions she gave me to get to her place were not good (sorry milene) and for those who know me, my sense of direction is off, and my instincts usually fail me when i need to make a decision... so i walked the wrong way, naturally. at this point i felt like my brother cameron because i was without a cell phone and i did not write my friend's number down before i left. not even a payphone could help me. i wasn't scared yet, just more irritated. so anyways, the reason i decided to go the way i did was because i saw big arches in a wall in the distance. turns out it wasn't such a bad decision on my part because i walked myself 10 min out of the way and ended up in St. Peter's square right out side Vatican City. QUE BUENO! it was so neat. so i asked a police man for directions. i used my spanish. they dont speak spanish in italy. so i just did the point method and i absolutely did not understand his italian. at the end of the night, i finally found her apartment and all was well. that was thursday night.

on friday, my friend had an excursion with her program and she had to go see some churches outside of rome with her class... so with a 2 maps, my camera and rick steve's tour rome book(if you dont know who rick steve's is, he is amazing and you need to watch the travel channel more often) , i set off to see piazza navona, the pantheon, trevi fountain and spanish steps.

piazza (plaza) navona...it was difficult to get to because the workers of public transportion were on strike and the police were blocking off roads left and right but i finally just walked with the parade and they took me straight to the plaza. plaza navona used to host roman "games" but was mainly used as a horse track and theatrical performances. now, it just plaza lined with great restaurants, full of various artists/musicians and a great place for people watching. the protestors were being lead by a big pick up truck blasting bob marley. italians are strange.

{{ piazza navona }}

next stop for me was the pantheon: a temple dedicated to all the gods. there are more then one pantheons in the world, but the roman pantheon is pretty unique architecturally. from the front you can really only see the columns that support the huge structure, but from the side or if you go in, you can see how cool it is. there is a huge dome on top, which used to be the world's largest concrete dome, now its just the world's largest un-reinforced concrete dome, (haha). a perfect 43.3 meter sphere can fit in the dome, thats really big, and really perfect...so after admiring the greatness of the pantheon, rick steve's told me about a cheap pizza place around the corner, so i went and had a silly lunch with an awkward german lady who ate a lot of pizza. side note: when i was choosing my pizza, i just pointed and the guy automatically asked where i was from. i thought about telling him barcelona, but rarely do that so i said california. (europeans think its funny that we say california instead of america or the united states, it just sounds better and then they think LA instead of george bush or guns)....and he freaked out, and said some words in english but couldnt understand him through his italian accent and i just stood there staring then he went in the back and handed me a bunch of pictures of him in front of the golden gate bridge.. it was cool that he shared them with me but i mean, i wasn't that thrilled..then i thought about it and realized if i was in cali and i met someone from spain/bcn, id probably get way too excited and tell them my life story of me over here... so lunch was good and then i headed off to see the trevi fountain.

{{ the pantheon }}

ok, one of my favorite part of the trips was my next stop: fontana di trevi: TREVI FOUNTAIN. this is one of those things you have to see in person. pictures are pretty, but seeing it is awesome. its more of an experience. maybe its just because i like water so much, but this is the largest fountain in rome, and its looks and sounds so beautiful. its uncomfortably crowded with tourists, beggers and people trying to sell you really annoying toys but you have to spend a little bit of time marveling at its greatness. originally it was built at the end of an aqueduct to supply water to the romans. it is SO COOl! so after making my way through the people i found a seat down on the lower level and became the designated picture taker for couples and groups of people and i did that for a good 45 min just people watching and thinking of what my wish would be...everyone has to toss in a coin.. rick steve's told me that its supposed to ensure you a trip back to rome, but i wanted mine to be special. so while i was contimplating, i got talking to a guy on my right who was traveling around europe by himself for 3 months...so 45 min turned into about 2 hours of speaking spanish with this man from mexico city and i realized the sun was going down so i had to get going to meet my friend. i made my wish (only 1...the next night i dragged my other friend emily back to see the fountain at night, even more incredible, i really just could not get enough of it. side note: a few weeks ago, someone poured red paint into the fountain so now theres police everywhere.

{{ fontana di trevi }}

{{ my friend emily making a wish }}

i didn't make ever make it to the spanish steps... but i think they are just steps. and i live in spain. so...

the next day, one of my best friends, emily (who is studying abroad for the semester in london) met me, and my other friend milene in rome. we saved the big stuff for saturday because we all wanted to be together to see them. so in the morning we headed over to the vatican because we had planned on getting a spot in line early enough so we could climb to the dome of st. peter's and see the amazing view of the city. BUT st. peter's square was so crowded with people we couldn't even find the line. we were trying to figure out what was going on and we looked up at these huge monitors and realized the POPE was driving around in his mobile blessing people and doing what the pope does. so we climbed up on some cement statue and we saw the pope! it was really incredible actually, and im not catholic, but being surrounded by thousands of believers and watching the pope bless people through god (and i was wearing my st. christopher) was a very religously moving moment. i said a prayer and thought of my grandma and i wish that my family could have been there too. it was just extremely powerful. so after the pope left, there was no way we were going to get into the dome so we decided to go to the colloseum and come back to st peter's in the evening.

{{ pope }}

ok. so the colloseum is rad. and a lot of people go to see it but just to take a picture of the outside and say they've been. totally worth the 11 euro to go inside. i mean, really, its corroding away, but you can still see the angle of the grandstand and whats neat is that the ground where the gladiators fought is gone so you can see the chambers that used to be underneath the arena where they kept the on deck gladiators. sometimes, they would let prisoners challenge the gladiators and if the prisoner won they would be released from jail. if not, they died, so that sucks. we got some good pictures and from the colloseum you can see the forum which is where we went next.

{{ the colloseum }}

so from the colloseum we walked about 400 feet to the forum...which is the original business part of acient rome. there's a lot of ruins (which are just rocks and old cement) nevertheless its pretty weird to walk by the very place caesar was killed. everything was 10x more beautiful too because it was late evening and the leaves on the trees are incredibly colorful.

{ the forum :: where ceasar was killed }}

last stop of the day (actually second to last because we saw trevi fountain again) was back to st. peter's basilica to climb the dome.....we were super excited because my friend milene, who is studying in rome, had not done the climb yet. well we didn't make it in time. but we still went inside and saw st. peter's tomb, a little eery, and a michaelangelo statue and other really amazing artwork/decorations. i tried to go sit in a pew, but the security guard wouldnt let me because he said it was for mass only....i tried to tell him i wanted to go to mass, but he said its in italian why you want to go? so just gave up. side note: theres a sculpture of st. peter (i'll show you ) and it looks like he's giving the peace sign. but i think he always has his fingers up because he holds keys...?? im not sure if thats right, but either way, st. peter is so down.

{{ st. peter's basilica }}

{{ st. peter }}

{{ st. peter's square :: its bigger then you think }}

that pretty much concludes my trip. i had an amazing time.. things i'll miss about rome: pizza and real italian food, the tiber, walking down the street passed the vatican everyday, the bakery thats open 24hrs next to my friends house: 30 cent croissants filled with nutella, AND lastly: gelato: straciatella and chocolate, youre going to die. when my family gets here and we go to florence, im going to make them eat so much gelato because theres nothing like it anywhere at home. my poor mom is sort of lactose too, but its going to happen. things i wont miss: cobblestone roads, my feet are permanently bruised, being blonde hair/blue eyed girl and getting "CIAO BELLA" whispered at you every 5 seconds, and lastly: the police hitting on you too, so creepy.

when i got back to barcelona, and still i just keep telling myself, I WAS IN ROME!!! i cant believe how lucky i am to be able to see all these incredible places. its absolutely unreal. like the john mayer song "3 x 5" , rome is really something you need to see with your own eyes.

welcome to barcelona

ok. so i didn't just arrive in barcelona. i've been here for almost three months now, long enough for me to call it home. it amazed me how quickly i became comfortable in bcn (people can't seem to figure out that bcn=barcelona, NOT BACON), especially because the big city is definitely a totally new environment for me. one of my first trips out of barcelona was to visit mi amiga catherine who is studying abroad in paris, france. paris, by the way, is an amazing city. lucky for me, cat is a history major and i got a fabulous tour, pretty much covered the whole city by foot. paris is a history book. everywhere you look, there is a story, a monument, a museum, artifacts. the parisians are...not my type (i have a good relationship with the spaniards) but either way, they dress in beautiful clothes and peacoats and boots and they have fabulous lives, with their fabulous wardrobes and precious little dogs....(dogs, everywhere). im not stereotyping nor hating on parisians, but...the snooty-ness kind of got to me and by the end of the trip... the combination of the cold, rainy winter weather and WOW paris is expensive, i was pretty eager to return to my home...which is the point of this story in the first place: i love barcelona.

i love barcelona for a lot of reasons....reason #1: the beach. one of the most important attractions that this city has to offer.. being close to a body of water (its not the pacific but the mediterranean satisfies me enough) was extremely important to me because leaving my happy spoiled life in orange county was not easy. i love the pacific..i love newport and corona del mar, down the coast to san diego and up the coast all the way to hella nor cal baby, san fran. so compared to the amazing beaches at home, the mediterranean is treating me good. directly in barcelona, the beach is ehhhhh so-so. sand is more like dirt and for the first two months (aug and sep) it was hard to find a spot to lay my towel. tourists everywhere. i did get the chance to see some other beaches just north and south of bcn. up north a few friends and i camped in a beach town called Tossa de Mar, muy muy bonita with crystal clear water. down the coast we took a day trip to a very small town called Sitges. this town is actually very well known, supposedly the "gayest" city in all of europe...to say the least, the streets were very colorful, as were the people and i do plan to head back down in february when spain celebrates 'festival.' another thing about beaches (not just in spain) and the beach go-ers is that they get naked. ya, it was weird at first. thats because i grew up in america, where we are afraid of nudity. its not uncommon to see a 65 yr old woman with her grandkids playing in the water, saggy breasts and all. gotta love it.

{{ barceloneta beach }}



i love barcelona, reason #2: nightlife. this probably should have been reason #1, so for the record, reason #2 is equally important (if not more) as reason #1. i'm of age here. i'd like to think i don't abuse that, but the past two and half months have pretty much been a loooong celebration of my 21st birthday...which isn't actually until may. i think i planned my study abroad experience in the most crucial year of an adolescents life. that year between 20 and 21 yrs old is like....well, i assume its pretty painful, just waiting for that first legal alcoholic drink. i'll have to ask my friends at home...so, the nightlife is...amazing. i did the whole disco-tech club scene for the first 2 months. but my body can no longer take the dancing until 6 in the morning routine. it really wears on you. although, every once in a while it is fun to go out and listen to bad techno music and if it's any night but saturday, its usually more worth it to stick it out until the sun comes up because then the metro re-opens and you don't have to take a cab (or stumble your way) back home. so if youre not into the disco scene, take your pick from a bazillion bars with different themes, atmospheres, music, drink selection, locations... pretty much anything you can think of, you can find. for example, near my house there is a bar called dow jones: inside the bar there are flat monitors above the bar with lists of all the drinks as if they were stocks on wallstreet... they are divided up into beers, wines, and different types of liquors. everytime you hear the 'ding' of the stock market, the prices on the drinks change, so the price you pay for a beer the first time can be more expensive or less the next time. another cool thing about barcelona is plaza catalunya. the big plaza at the top of well known street: la rambla. here, there are ALWAYS people out and about socializing, playing futbol, or just chillin... one of my favorite things to do is just walk down la rambla at night (with a friend of course) and just soak up the energy of the city. if you walk through the gothic area there are little plazas to the right and left and everywhere and you can always stumble upon a new bar or street performers or something to entertain you for the evening. cool thing about las ramblas: always pakistani's selling beer by the can for 1 euro, so if it's past 11 and you need something to drink, go to rambla...also, burger king sells beer (in two sizes!) and its cheaper then the food. que extrano.

{{ some friends and i from the dorms and some naked guys we found on the street }}


i love barcelona, reason #3: the fashion. i don't consider myself fashion savvy, i mean, i can dress myself in a matching outfit (or not cuz thats hip?) and i can definitely acknowledge what's cute and what's not, but here, there are such unique styles for girls and guys. let's start with the mullets. this is actually more entertaining than 'fashionable' to me. they are everywhere. i mean, i guess there are some cute ones, buuut i dont think i'll ever be completely down for the mullet. a few of my american friends have gotten their hair cuts here, and even after being totally clear about just getting an inch cut from the bottom only, they still end up with short short layers on the top of their head. whats up with that!! europeans cannot fathom a haircut with mullet-esque layers. que chistoso! the fashion in general is great here. i mean, i love the euro trash look but i can also appreciate the look of a beautiful leather jacket and boots to match. i like barcelona fashion because it is very diverse, and it is definitely more casual than other european cities... people dress in their own styles and don't get stared at for it either. a common look i've noticed is the uni-color outift. if you put orange pants on in the mornig, dont forget to wear your orange shirt, purse and shoes (different shades and all) too! i never knew they made so many orange colored things. dios mio!

{{ euro-mullet }}



i love barcelona, reason #4: festivals and puentes. puente: (1)bridge (2)to take a long weekend. definition number two...since i've been here we've had 3 and 4 days weekends too often i think, i really can't keep track. on top of bank holidays and festivals and saints days and all the other reasons barcelona tells us to not go to school or work, i already have a 3 day weekend every week. no school on friday. and its not that these holidays are just a day off. there's usually some kind of event or group of people or the whole city celebrating the holiday, so we're never lacking something to do. my favorite festival of all time: la merce. lasted 5 days i think (i can't remember exactly, it was a long weekend) and the ENTIRE city was involved in the festivities. live music everywhere. EVERYWHERE. stages and street corners and performers everywhere! one night, my group of american friends and i were wandering the lively streets of bcn on merce weekend and we overheard some spaniards saying they were going to the forum. so we followed. we didn't need to stalk these people for long before we realized that the line for the metro was so long and the metro was SO packed that we knew we were going in the right direction. people were screaming and singing in the packed metro cars and we just followed the crowd to this HUGE outdoor ampitheatre on the outskirts is of the main city. im going to say 100,000 people easily fit at the main stage of this place. we made our way to front row/standing area and rocked out to some pretty popular spanish bands everything from indie to hip-hop and other techno-ish stuff. that was just one of the events celebrating la merce weekend. there were also lots of parades throughout the weekend. one with giants. another with fire, where these dragon like figures walk down the street shooting fireworks and firesparklers at the crowd. also during the day, they have human tower competitions, and i learned that groups of people compete other groups from different neighborhoods (barrios). at the top of the tower or whatever configuration, a small child just climbs its way up. its crazy, and a big part of catalan culture. everything is so colorful and so alive, it's totally surreal that such a huge population can all come together for 5 straight days of celebration together. the best part about that weekend: it was all free. the shows, the music, the parades. the weekend ended on sunday night with the most amazing firework show i've ever seen. easily 45 min. long of straight explosions, with a musical soundtrack playing in the background. que buenisimo, indeed.

{{ corre-foc: in catalan means fire run. these are the dragons that shoot fire out at the crowd }}

{{ human towers }}




{{ a group of my amigos rockin' out at one of the concerts }}

{{ fireworks on the last night of the festival }}



i love barcelona, reason #5: travel. not so much barcelona specific, but because i am on the north mediterranean coast, i am so close to...everything! i hate to sound so spoiled, but really, i can just hop on a jet with a backpack and go anywhere in europe. travel is very convenient for two main reasons: europe is compact. there are so many diverse countries in such a small continent. also, travel within europe is fairly inexpensive. although, i'm still trying to adjust to the euro vs. the dollar, roundtrip plane tickets are comparable to a flight from northern to southern california...but even better i can go from barcelona to germany, or britain, or greece. cool life right? right now i have 4 friends studying abroad so i'm trying to get around this semester to paris, london, amsterdam and rome while i have a free place to stay. hostels are always fun too, and totally convenient for traveling students like myself. i've only been out of spain once, like i mentioned earlier, i visited my friend cat in paris, france. a couple weekends ago, two friends and i took a night bus to madrid (the capital of spain) and had a really lovely time there. we did the touristy things and we also just enjoyed the beautiful weather. the last day in madrid, we saw a bull fight at the plaza de toros. bull fights are very hard to watch at first...i did get desensitized as i watched one bull after another get stabbed about 20 times each. i don't think i'll ever go to see another fight, but i am glad i was able to take part in a very traditional part of spanish culture and history. my favorite part of visiting other cities is walking around all day and really taking in the people and places. its amazing that just 7 hours inland from barcelona, madrid is such a different kind of city with a totally different atmosphere. i enjoyed it thoroughly, as i did paris, but like i said from the beginning, its always refreshing and relieving to come home to barcelona.

{{ yes, i had to. my friend cat and i at eiffel tower }}

{{ le sacre-coeur : sacred heart :: paris, france }}

{{ notre dame :: paris, france }}


{{ tradicional bull-fight :: madrid, spain }}

i love barcelona. there are many more reasons. but since i got started on this blog so late into my trip, i don't think i can write anymore at the moment. i will keep an update on all my adventures in spain and around europe. until then... just know that barcelona is so guai.