First Week in Barcelona and Weekend in Valencia

First Week:

So. I have been in Barcelona for a week, and it's gotten to the point where friends and relatives are demanding that I tell them everything. I set up this blog mostly for myself, just to record the places that I go so I don't forget, so don't be surprised if it's not written like a travel magazine or anything. I just don't want to forget anything, and some of you want to know everything, so here goes. Pictures of this famous "everything" are also available on Flickr, under the username ToriKSpain.

The flight in was uneventful, unless you count my phone deciding to not work once I got out of the country, and my mother subsequently worrying herself almost to death over me. But it was ok, as was navigating the airport, getting a taxi, and making it to my dorm. Right now the dorm is mostly empty, and so my floor has 10 or so Americans with our program (IES), and hardly any Spanish students yet. The students do not start class until around Sept 15-18, and should be moving in after Catalonia's National Holiday, Sept. 11th.

So right now the dorm is kind of quiet and lonely. My room is a nice double, and my roomate, Zoe, is from Maine and goes to Connecticut College. To be honest I was sort of expecting to have a Spanish roomate- I chose the dorms because of this, since I figured being forced to speak Spanish to native spanish speaker 24/7 would improve my fluency very quickly. I might be able to change my housing for next semester, but we'll see if I want to or not at the end of the semester.

It's ok though, since Zoe and really cool, and pretty close to my level in Spanish, so we've decided to start speaking Spanish all the time starting when the Spanish students move in. Hopefull we'll be able to make friends with them. The first few days I just took to settle in and figure out where I was in relation to my classes and the center of the city. We have class at Plaza Catalunya, right in the middle of the city, and a bus stop about 2 blocks takes us there in maybe 20 minutes.

Other IES students stay in dorms, apartments and homestays spread out through the city, so I didn't get to meet them until the third day, when everyone had gotten in and we had sort of a dinner meet and greet thing. The only problem with that was they had some bad techno music blaring the entire time, so conversation was mostly just screaming our names and where we were from at each other. Of course, I forget everyone's names right after I met them.

The same day we had Spanish language classes, where we met our professor and the group of kids who are going to be in the class. The professor, Pep, is the young catalan guy who is hilarious, and really helpful. Every week in class we're going to put together a newspaper, each of us writing an article or two for it. I'm excited for the class, although I was a little intimidated. I tested into the highest level, which just sort of assumes that you are a native spanish speaker, as were the majority of the kids in the class. But even though the professor spoke really fast I understood it all, so it'll be fine.

While the professor was really easy to understand, most people in the city aren't. They use a lot of slang that I haven't learned yet, or vocabulary that I just don't know, but I can usually get enough to understand what they are saying.

Weekend in Peniscola and Valencia:

This last weekend we had an orientation trip to Valencia and Peniscola. They separated us into the different Spanish levels, and had us in different hotels and buses according the proficiency level, which was nice because it meant that I got to meet people who are going to be in my classes. The bus drive down to Peniscola was about 2 hours, and then we had a guided tour around the fortified castle that belonged to some Spanish antipope from the 1300s. It was right on the coast and gorgeous, and there were no foreign tourists around. I guess the majority of their tourism comes from Spaniards who want to hang out at the beach for a few days.

After that we just headed down the coast for another 2 hours to get to Valencia, where we had even more guided tours of the sights before being allowed to relax at the hotel. The tours have all been really tedious and sort of annoying- some of the things that the guide was talking about was kind of interesting, but then there are the bored kids in the back who won't stop talking, so you can't really hear anything (I thought we grew out of the in high school guys). I kind of wish we had more time to look around some of the places that they took us though. Valencia was really nice and I plan on going back for their festival in March. I can't remember the name of the festival, but they have a contest to build the biggest, most elaborate statues and caricatures out of cardboard and papier mache, and after judging, they set everything on fire.

The next day of touring we went around the City of Arts and Sciences, and also the area where the orchestra plays and oceanarium are. That entire area is beautiful: Valencia barely touches the Mediterranean, but was originally built around a river, so the entire area we were at was at the edge of the city, right on the water. The oceanarium was huge- I'm pretty sure it's bigger than the Shedd, because instead of one compact building, it was composed of several large buildings spread out and connected that underground tunnels that went right through the aquariums, so you have fish and sharks swimming above and around you. Outside of each building was also exhibits with birds and sea lions. The aviary for the birds was ridiculous; it looked sort of like a large skeleton of a globe, probably about as tall as the ferris wheel at Navy Pier. The building for the Museum of Arts and Sciences and the Orchestra Hall looked equally ridiculous, as large, half footballs covered in brushed metal that sat on the water, and were hung with plants.

At night we just wandered around the city, eventually ending up at one of the gates of the old wall that used to enclose the city in the 1400s- there are 9 of the gates in the city now, and eahc is maybe 8-9 stories high, and completely made of stone. They still stand, although the city has grown around them, so you can walk through them to different barrios and neighborhoods.


One thing weird about Spain that everyone will tell you is that people are out all the time. It's like no one sleeps. Even on a Monday night, if you go the center of the city, at 3 am there will be an inordinate amount of people wandering around- going in and out of clubs and bars (a lot of which will stay open until 6 am or later, daily). Because of this, the American students I live with feel like they have to go out every night until 4 or 5, which I'm not really up to everyday. I'm hoping this is just a phase and people will get tired of spending 10 euro on a drink, or 20 euro cover charge to get into a club. Or they'll get tried of getting 2 hours of sleep before class, once we start actually having class.

To be honest, not having class is driving me a little crazy. I like having a schedule that I can plan around, because otherwise I'll waste my time sleeping in or going online or doing nothing, instead of making plans to go around the city. I'm also really excited for the types of classes that I am taking: I've got my Spanish 400 Composition Class, a History of the Mediterranean in the Medival Ages and Rennaissance, Catalan 101, Spanish Geography (not excited for that class), and US Political Perspectives of Latin America (or something like that... sounds interesting). Most of my classes will be in Spanish, with the exception of the history and catalan classes.

That's all for now... I'll try to update at least once a week or whenever anything worth sharing happens. (:

PS Sorry about the typos, I'm sure there are a bunch :/