el 22 de mayo 2010

"Party in the USA" is playing on the bus. Last night... definitely couldn't stay awake any longer. Once we found the restaurant, we sat outside on the patio under the big tent while we waited for everyone else to get there. The restaurant is l'Anap and it was pretty nice. The restaurant itself seemed really small, but they had plenty of seating outside. We had lots of tapas while we were there, and I enjoyed all of them! They were: pan con tomate (bread with tomato), [tortilla española,] patatas bravas con salsa de queso (like tater tots or french fries with cheese sauce), calamar fritas (onion ring-style squid!), and alioli & salsa romesco (oil & garlic sauces). Lunch was fideua (oil, pasta, seafood, peppers) & arroz negro (black rice with seafood, oil, & peppers... all black because of squid ink!). Dessert = tarta/aljadre de mango (mango, powdered sugar, tart) & crema catalana (crema, caramelized sugar, eggs, milk). Not everyone did, but I enjoyed everything, even the fried squid (there was a tentacle one, too... it tasted the same) & the squid-inked rice mixture. We were all full by the time our actual lunch was served, so we didn't eat much of it. However, the dessert was pretty much devoured. Once we finished up at the restaurant, we travelled to another part of the port. We met up with our tour guide and went on a boat! (I was on a boat, Mamma Jamma!) We took a tour through Tarragona's port and saw lots of ships, with coal on the coast & many cargo containers, as well. It reminded me of the boattrip that Mom, Ben, and I took in the Norfolk harbor (last summer?). We all sat on the top deck of the boat, took pictures, and fought the wind (and won). After the boat, we went to the museum and learned a little more about Tarragona's acquatic past. We didn't stay long, but long enough to take a couple of pictures with a big captain's wheel!Everyone went their own ways from there. Some had been planning on going somewhere outside of Tarragana to see how sangria is made & have dinner, but that idea was rejected. So everyone did different things. I went back to the apartment with the other girls here, but stopped along the way at the supermarket to buy corn flakes cereal to munch on. Back at the apartment, I was on the computer talking to people, blogging, & putting pictures on Facebook. We went to dinner at the residence, where I had bread (duh), french fries, salad with balsalmic vinaigrette, and chicken. I took coconut yogurt & a pear home to eat this morning with breakfast. From dinner we went to La Rambla for gelato and/or coffee. Can you guess which one I got? Hello gelato, my love! This time I tried apple pie gelato... it was so good! Add that to my list of favorites. It was really nice sitting outside of the Cappuccino shop, talking and enjoying each other's company. That's my kind of environment... not so much the party scene. (Although, I do love a good dance party!) We left around 10:30pm and walked back to the apartment. Once here, I was on the computer for a while and eventually went to sleep.
I finally awoke / got up this morning at 7:20 and got ready for our day in Barcelona! The hot water here is a guest just passing through, so I have a feeling that showering will become a much shorter adventure. I had a few handfuls of corn flakes and my coconut yogurt for breakfast. Nutritious! :) We all met up downstairs & walked to Portal de Roser, where we met Gerard and our bus. We received bag lunches the residencia prepared for us, and we were surprised to see Belkys & Kevin stay behind when we left. No professors today! I slept for most of the hour-long bus ride, but ate my granola bar I brought & the glazed doughnut from the packed lunch. I figured I'd complete my breakfast some. The first place was the Fútbol Club Barcelona stadium & store. We couldn't go in the stadium, but we roamed the store and took some fun pictures. Some bought things, and I enjoyed the experience! It's really cool how much of a family that team seems to be. "Més que un Club." ["More than a Club."] Then we went close to the top of a mountain [Montjuic], overlooking all the buildings of Barcelona. It was such a cool scene! We could see La Sagrada Familia very easily - it stuck out far from all the others. Also featured at this place was a skyrail kind of thing, where you ride in a car along a line for a certain distance above the town. How cool would that be? There was a pretty waterfall area where more pictures were taken. That is also where my camera scared me! It told me to change the battery pack, meaning that the battery had died. What?! It had JUST had 2 battery bars. I was so bummed out. However... it worked again after taking the battery out & putting it back in. Back to 2 battery bars, but it soon went down tto one... so I was careful the rest of the day. I had been really bummed that I wasn't going to be able to take pictures the rest of the day because after that park we went to La Sagrada Familia! Designed by Gaudí, what a spectacular creation. There is still a lot of construction happening on it, trying to build the last towers. It was started in the 1800s. On the exterior, there is a Gaudí side and a side where a different sculptor created it. They are different styles, but both are beautiful in their own way. The holy family was represented in a nativity scene on the front of the building, and that was probably my favorite part of the whole thing. We saw the outside & also went inside for a little while and experienced the museum part of it. There is one model of how Gaudí designed the building - there are bags of sand hung at different lengths & gathered strategically... all to represent the Sagrada Familia as it would look like upside-down. So creative. After we left there, we went to Parc Güell to eat lunch. I had been munching on my egg sandwich for a while & finished that on the bus, so I ate part of my turkey sandwich & my apple. It was a cool park that contained street musicians, a great view of the city, a restroom built into the stone like a cave, a museum dedicated to Gaudí, and a long, tiled wall & bench to sit and do things like eat lunch... convenient. From there we went to a main part of the city by a different park & parked the bus. We had a walking tour planned, but no one felt like doing it, so we went straight into free time instead. Shopping! Grant, Laura, Jillian, Jordin, & I spent our time walking down La Rambla (Barcelona has one, too!), stopping in souvenir shopts and street vendors along the way. There were many live statues - some creepy, some neat. The place was really crowded, but I guess that's any Saturday in Barcelona. In many stores we went to, the employees would make deals with us for the products we were interested in or seemed to be interested in. It's great getting good deals, but awkward being followed around the small stores sometimes. Also on La Rambla, we stopped by a huge fruit, vegetable, & meat market. It was super crowded so we didn't walk through it, but I got a coconut pineapple smoothie. Yum! We all met back up at the bus with our leader Paco and headed back to Tarragona. I slept for part of the way back... pretty refreshing :) I also finished my turkey sandwich in that time. We were dropped off at the apartments (thank goodness) before they continued to the dorm, and now I'm sitting on our porch, overlooking the sun shining behind some clouds over mountains and part of the city. We're going to leave for dinner & gelato soon. I could get used to this. :)

el 21 de mayo 2010

I just scooped some sand onto my journal & then beach towel. Whoops. So yesterday after arriving to the apartment, we looked around & talked with Belkys, Kevin, & the guy who works at the apartment, Josef, & we learned that we have dishes, a dishwasher, and a clothes washer that doubles as a dryer! Awesome. There is only one bedroom, whereas the other apartments our friends have in the same building have 2 bedrooms. That is fine, though... I sleep on the sofa bed, which is comfortable enough for me! My clothes are packed into the TV cabinet & drawer system... funny, but they are hidden. We have a balcony with a beautiful view of mountains & city lights. There is a table with 4 chairs on the balcony... such a cute place to sit. We unpacked all our stuff, then went shopping with Laura, Ana, Anne, Jillian, & Jordin. We walked up and down La Rambla and down one of the sidestreets. I didn't buy anything, but some bought clothes and jewelry. There is a hat that I may go back for... a hat that actually looks decent on me!? That's right - it exists. La Rambla was busy with people, since siesta was over and school let out around 5. All of the little kids are so cute. They leave classes from 2 to 5 for siesta, and they can either stay at school or go home during that time. Patrick, Belkys & Kevin's son, doesn't stay at school. After shopping we went & had dinner at the residence. I had: bread, coconut yogurt, potato & spinach quiche [tortilla española] (delicious), pasta with ham, blocks of cheese, & pineapple, & something fried (eggplant?). We enjoyed dinner, then went to a fruit & vegetable shop on the way back to the apartment. Katie bought strawberries, an orange, & a couple of apples, I believe. It all looked really good. Once back at the apartment, we got our internet to work. I typed up a blog, uploaded pictures from chapter camp to Facebook, & skyped with Andrew. At some points, Skype video chat worked better than it did in the dorm, but it also froze frequently. The internet sadly, eventually stopped working altogether. It seemed like an apartment-wide thing, since Katie and Jordin's did the same thing. Hopefully that won't be a lasting problem, but we will see! I needed sleep, anyway. This morning I got up & showered, since we're going to a restaurant after the beach. Jillian & Jordin came and picked us up from our apartment 2 floors below theirs, and we went to the residence for breakfast. The walk between the apartments & residence isn't bad, so hopefully I'll learn it soon. I ate a chocolate-filled croissant this morning & drank pineapple juice, but I also made a typical Spanish sandwich with tomato juice in the bread, sliced tomatoes, & ham. I wrapped it up in aluminum foil & brought it to the beach. We caught a bus to get here, and literally had to run for it. Just a little, but I'm sure it was good entertainment. We stood on the bus for about 20 minutes through other stops until it reached Plaija Llarga (playa larga). We figured out what time we need to leave / when to catch the bus, then walked down to this marvelous beach. The other beach (Milagro/Miracle) has been nice, but half the sand was fake from an expansion they did. Here, the sand is so so soft and fine. The beach is wide, and the waves are rolling in at a steady pace. Many people have passed walking and jogging, some with dogs, and we may get in the water at some point. Laura just went in to her stomach and said she feels like she just took an ice bath. The water is still pretty chilly. We'll get in eventually while we are here, but probably not today since we can't really get our hair wet (restaurant later). Time to try to nap! :) Jillian, Ana (who came late), & Laura got back to our area of the beach from a walk just at the perfect time to leave the beach. We caught the bus on the correct side, headed back to Tarragona, & easily got off at La Rambla Nova. Once there, we noticed a bazaar with lots of tables of random things: jewelry, little wooden boxes, antique items, etc. We had extra time, so we shopped around there for a little while before we continued on our journey. We didn't know exactly how to get to the port, but we got close & Ana asked an older man who was really helpful.

el 20 de mayo 2010

I just walked to the university by myself (or anywhere by myself) for the first time! I'm pretty directionally challenged, but it's really easy to get here. About 12 minutes from my dorm room to the courtyard of the university, so about 15 minutes once I get to the classroom. I gave myself 30 minutes so I wouldn't be rushed, so it was a nice walk & here I sit waiting for others to get to the classroom. There is currently a different class in there right now. This morning I awoke by my alarm at 7:30 and decided that I would shower after breakfast this time. That way, I got about 45 more minutes of sleep :) I went with Katie & got my typical breakfast: chocolate-filled croissant, bread w/ butter & strawberry jelly, & pineapple juice. I decided I would wait to try the sandwich until I was more awake - maybe tomorrow morning when we go to the beach. After breakfast, I came back, showered, talked to Allison online, and finished getting ready. I also made sure I had time to spend with God. That time to focus on His presence is so important and precious to me.
Beginner's Catalán was really fun! Our professor's name is Monica, & she is muy simpática (very nice). She is an ex-colleague of Kevin's, since he & Belkys used to work at this university. Learning Catalán itself was interesting & enjoyable. It felt the same as when I was learning Italian, since most is similar to Spanish, but not all of it. The Spanish we al know & love is Castellano, but everyone in Tarragona speaks Catalán. It seems like a mixture of Castellano, French, and Italian. Just so you know... Em dic Kelly (My name is Kelly), tinc vint anys (I am 20 years old), & sóc de Estats Units (I am from the United States). I was working with Laura since we sat together - so enjoyable :) I look forward to learning more Catalán as the trip goes on... we'll have class with Monica each Thursday. At the end of the class, Monica gave each of us an English-Catalán dictionary! It has useful words & phrases, & it may be a little irrational how I am so excited about it. We had a short meeting at the end of class about a few topics of conversation for our program, and Belkys came & told me that Katie & I could move from the dorm to an apartment! She had told the whole group a few days ago that there was an open apartment that someone could move into, so Katie & I put our names on a list. We didn't really care either way, but we knew some extra space & nonsmoky hallways would be nice. We were in with another group, & apparently we were the randomly chosen ones! After that meeting, we went to lunch... which contained: spaghetti noodles (-ish?) with mariscos (seafood - shrimp & clams), salad, pasta salad, lentil salad, cole slaw mixture, bread, & cream puffs with chocolate sauce. It was such a yummy lunch. At 1:45, my small translation class met in aula informática 4. We did some more translation activities & talked about why we translate the ways we do, what things to be careful about, etc. There were 5 of us there in the afternoon class, but Amy is about to join the morning class. So, it'll just be Kristen, Alyssa, Meghan, & me! After class let out at 3pm, I went back to the dorm & packed up all of my stuff (except my outlet adapter, I later realized). Belkys and Kevin picked us up with our heavy suitcases at 4pm. They drove us to the apartments, which I hadn't seen before. They are really nice! They're only about 2 years old, so still are modern & in good condition. I'll continue this entry on the beach tomorrow... too exhausted now!

el 19 de mayo 2010

I am on a gorgeous beach right now! I was just napping, & others still are. I'm here with Jillian, Katie, Jordin, Jessica, & Anne. We are all loving this relaxation after a full day at the university. I went to sleep late last night since I was video chatting with Andrew, so I overslept by an hour today. Pero ¡no pasa nada! I clearly needed the sleep and I was still to the university on time. I had a chocolate-filled croissant for breakfast with orange juice from the dispenser (so it was cold!). I finished getting ready ate an apple on our way to the university. The first thing of the day was a lecture about the Spanish healthcare system with a professor from 9:30-11ish. It would have been really interesting if I could have focused more. At the end of class, Belkys gave Grant a Spain tshirt for his birthday. How sweet! After that, most of us went to our translation class with Kevin. It was in a computer lab (aula informática), and that's where the class will always be, I believe, since we'll do a lot on computers (ordenadores). We talked about what translation really is, & how it is different from interpretation. It seems like an interesting class, & I look forward to improving my translation skills (Spanish -> English). We left from there around 12:55 to go get lunch. Since lunch was just starting, it was fairly empty & we had our pick of the tables (the farthest away from the doors!). Lunch: pasta with red sauce, bread, pineapple, salad (Spinach leaves), potato salad, pasta salad, and a couple of other good "salads" of mixed foods. Everything was really good, especially the pasta. After the quick lunch, we all went to our Practical Spanish class with Sandra. She is really nice & funny! She told us that we would have to pay her 5 euros if she heard us talking in English (I'm not sure she was kidding). She said they don't pay their teachers enough here... so I guess that's a pretty international problema. We went around the room & said our names & what we study, and then we talked about common phrases to use in restaurants. We'll have Functional Spanish with her for [all] 4 weeks (6 hours total).
I am back at the dorm now. After class, the 7 of us changed into our bathing suits at the university and headed to the beach. We made our way back to the wider beach to the left of La Rambla (if you're facing the sea) and really enjoyed the view. The water is so blue, and it contrasts beautifully with the tan architecture. We all napped for a bit, and as I pulled out my journal to start writing, guys came over near us and started doing different flips. They reminded me of the guys from our last beach day, but most of these ones looked high school aged. We were at the beach for about an hour and walked half an hour back to the dorm. It got pretty hot while we were walking, so we were toasty by the time we got back! We changed & met downstairs for our next adventure... "Taller de gastronomía Romana y Cena Romana." Basically, we learned about food that Romans ate (lots of honey and olive oil) and made some of it! I was in one of the 2 dessert groups. We peeled and chopped green apples and pears and put them in a skillet with water, honey, and pepper. In the end they were thoroughly cooked and pretty tasty. The other groups (3) made one of the main courses / first dishes. They had hardboiled eggs, herbs, pepper and salt. They ground ingredients together and put it on the opened egg halves. They also spread a cheese spread onto slices of nut bread. Once we were done cooking everything, we went to the pre-set tables, decorated with typical Roman table objects: fake and real fruits, candles, & our other plates and cups. There was water & warm rose wine to drink, so I opted for the agua. In addition to the food we prepared, we had large lettuce leaves with honey, olive oil, and nuts, a square of flatbread with cooked leeks on top, radishes (which I didn't eat), and 3 edible flower petals. The flower petals didn't really taste like anything. We ate all of those with our hands, and used our "spoon spear" (thanks for coining that phrase Kristen) for the chicken that came afterwards. The chicken also tasted good, but mine had bones throughout it - definitely part of the spine (cervical region, we guessed) and a few ribs, & maybe a couple scapulas. Interesante. We also filled ourselves with: the real fruit display (strawberries) & loaf of more nut bread. We learned a typical toast of Roman dinners... NVNC EST BIBENDVM (ahora es el momento de beber, or now it is the time to drink). We also learned the special purposes of each corner of our napkin: 1) to wipe hands 2) to wipe mouth 3) for vomit, and 4) to fold in to take food home. Questioning #3? Yep. The Romans had small stomachs but large spreads of food, so once they were full, they would go purge out the contents of their stomachs by vomiting, wipe their mouths with corner 3, then go continue eating. Ew. We left the restaurant/teaching place & came back to the dorm. I wasn't hungry, so no residence food for me tonight. However, they redid the dining area tonight with new tables & lights, so I'm excited to see the changes closer tomorrow morning. Tomorrow we have classes, lunch, then a free afternoon! We'll probably go to the beach in that time, & maybe shopping.