2nd day in Barcalona

On Wednesday night I told my señora I would be up at 1030 for desayuno, but didn't wake up until 12:30, which she understood as my body still hasn't adapted to the time difference. Today my roommate Travis arrived with his father around 2 in the afternoon. He is from Texas, understands Spanish which is very convenient. We had a nice visit with Anna and I started to eat some real Catalán home cooking. We had arroz con gambas (rice with shrimp) with an excellent Catalán broth. Much to my surprise, my senora kept returning to the kitchen to bring out more dishes. I tried Xorico picant (Chorizo), and fuet (a type of cured pork sausage) which is a typical Catalan dish.

I also met my RA, Irene (all students living in a home stay are provided with one). She is from Catalonia, but speaks Catalán, Castellano Spanish, English, and French. She previously studied in Boston, and traveled to Los Angeles and New York as well. She has been studying English for about 10 years, and speaks pretty well. Maybe we will become friends and she can help me with my Spanish, or Catalan and I could help her with English? She knows everything about España, and will be a great person to have if I have problems or questions about anything. I also got to listen to my first Catalán conversation between Irene and Anna, which was pretty exciting. Catalán is a very romantic language, somewhat of a combination of Spanish and French, I've been told. We had some caffe, and talked about Spain and the US.

After Irene left our casa, we departed to walk around our barrio, and Ana wanted to show us how to get to the Metro and the university. After a short walk (less than 10 minutes) we arrived at the metro which was much different than I expected. The tunnels were clean; the people weren't that shady and were much nicer than Chicago's subway systems, which I explained to my señora. After the short ride (Less than 15 minutes) we arrived at Urquinaona. We exited to the street and walked across and straight ahead and we were at the IES center. We walked around Plaza Catalunya briefly and then stopped in a local tapas bar, Tapas Gaudi and had a caffe. The tapas bar had duplicated of Gaudi's most famous work covering the walls. Our waiter was pretty rude and Ana explained how the tipping works in Barcelona, which is similar to the United States. Gratuity is rarely included, and if the service is poor then no tip is given. We then left and returned to la casa but Travis and I had a pretty hilarious problem with our door. I will put up pictures eventually but the door in our casa has two parts just like in the US. A dead bold, and then the door handle. But to unlock both parts you must open the deadbolt and handle by turning to the left two times and pushing the door in. We sat there until Ana returned from la tienda and she got a nice laugh out of the incident.

My noche consisted of relaxing, eating la cena, drinking tea, and discussing some things about the Catalan culture and history. For la cena (dinner) we had a salad, bread, fruit, and a delicious soup that was made with potatoes, olive oil, salt, carrots, milk and some other ingredients that made it very thick and delicious. After dinner Travis and I drank some tea and discussed school, our families, our feelings about Spain, and how relieved we are that Ana is so lenient. I brought out one of my Catalan/Barcelona books and studied it for a while with Ana. She asked me what the book said about the Catalan culture and I told her what I had researched. For many years Catalonia was discriminated against in the days of Franco and Catalán was outlawed by him and only Castellano Spanish was allowed to be spoken. Ana told me that her family spoke Catalán at home, but Castellano out in the street. For many years Catalonia has fought for its independence from Spain, but has yet to succeed. Catalonia and Madrid have been rivals and basically disliked each other for many years. The main reason for this has been futbol, according to Ana and I have realized how passionate Barcelona is about their futbol team. That is just some of our conversation, I could continue for hours though.

I have noticed many differences between Barcelona and the US in my two days here. The Spanish love to relax and enjoy their eating, drinking, and conversations. Americans are always in a hurry and quick to move on. I could sit here and drink caffe and talk for hours because it is accepted more. Food is an extremely large part of the Spanish culture and I have been enjoying it as I knew that I would. The Spanish culture is much more relaxing than it is at home which I have started to appreciate already. The Spanish love to listen and talk about sports, politics, family, music or whatever the topic may be. I will definitely need to make some adjustments but nothing that I don't mind to do. The Spanish are very conservative with the electricity and their water. So my bad habit of leaving the lights on will need to be changed and also my long showers that I take twice a day.

Tomorrow the computer technician will be coming to configure the wireless we have in the house (I have been connected to an unsecured network), and I have orientation at IES from 3-6. Travis and Cristina are in the same group which is very convenient. I will be posting pictures soon, I'm having a difficult time posting them on my blog.

Hasta luego.