Exploring

It has been a busy week I don't even know what happened to the time. Good thing I took pictures!

I met up with Caitlin, a friend from San Diego, for tea, she showed the cutest and probably the coziest spot to drink tea in the city. The menu of teas was unbelievable, it was hard picking one but I finally picked a good old chai tea and enjoyed spending some quality time talking and learning more about Barcelona!

Later in the week Dayna another friend from high school came to visit!

There was a lot going on but here's a brief overview:

stumbled upon a vintage antique market

ate delicious doner durums, kind of like a burrito but way different

went to a magic shop

Found the Barcelona Cathedral which happened to have birds living in a courtyard?

The next day we got up early and met up with Caitlin to go to the big market, La Boqueria and get some fresh food to make lunch!

After filling our bellies with a delicious lentil soup and green beans we headed to La Sagrada Familia

We asked someone to take our picture and right after she took it her friend said she could take a better one! haha

It was a good day and there's more of the weekend to be continued...

Street views

un bocadillo!

Randomly happened upon a parade! Still don't know what it was for

a trip to la boqueria

We went to a famous farmer's market today, it was so big they even gave us a map!

All I can say is wow you can get anything from apricots to fresh squid to passion fruit to chocolates to fresh bread. It was amazing and I managed to buy everything I wanted to less than 7 euros!

The entrance:

old

I still can't get over how crazy it feels to be walking around this ancient city

The map photos are from a local art museum that had a random section of ancient maps. I love looking at old maps it feels as though they were more meticulous in detailing the look of the city rather than documenting the actual street directions and sizes, just look at those ships on the water!

pan y tarea

My first assignment while here in Spain! This is for the malleable materials class and we had to make positive/negative shapes with paper. It was funny though because after I spoke to my teacher about how I don't speak Catalan she reassured me in Castellano that I would be fine and handed me the syllabus and asked me if I could understand it. I looked at it and it was definitely in Catalan... when I told her that I couldn't read it she laughed because she hadn't noticed the difference! She had actually thought it was in Castellano! haa so silly

I'm really excited about this malleable materials class, we are working with wax and making molds and for the final we are designing a soap brand, packaging and all!

This was all created with the help of these deliciously fluffy little breads from the bakery across the way:

Cute things

How cute are these little flowers from emersonmade!

ya adorable

Life without a dryer

Normally clothes would be hung outside but since it's so cold out and could rain we have a make shift drying rack inside next to the heater haha. It's funny because a dryer is something I've always taken for granted when it is a luxury to many people.

Thursday

School has been interesting, at first the teachers would all start speaking Catalan until one of the international students asked for it to be taught in Castellano... At least they all agreed to teach in Castellano or else I wouldn't be able to keep up haha. It is already hard listening to a 3 hour lecture in Castellano for some reason I think it takes more out of me to think in Spanish but I'm getting better.

My teachers all seem very adept and know how to teach a class, it was nice. I'm excited to see what the malleable materials class is like! I heard that they design a soap brand at the end and actually make the soaps!

Today (Thursday) I don't have any class so I walked around and had 2 objectives. One was to find a bakery that sold warm fresh bread and another was to semi decorate my room, which included finding another US to Euro power adapter to connect the christmas lights I brought with me haha.

On my way to the electronic shop I saw a line of people waiting outside a tiny shop and sure enough it was a tiny bakery! Fresh bread checked off the list.

Next the power adapter, again I found the ferreteria around the corner and checked that one off the list too.

I walked around for a bit after successfully completing my tasks while munching on my warm baguette:

It's still cloudy... but a bit warmer! almost 60!

And another photo, this is from yesterday, we walked to the beach and found a really cute cafe with cheap good food, the best "cafe con leche" I've had! I've been getting cappuccinos lately because they don't put any any foam on the lattes here. Another interesting thing I've noticed is that since the coffees are all basically tiny espresso shots, you don't see anyone walking around with a coffee cup! They take a break from whatever they are doing and actually stop to drink coffee! What an idea! haha

walk around

I love these colors

baking

It was my roommates birthday a couple of days ago so I decided to bake some good old american chocolate chip cookies, my first step was to buy the ingredients of course so I headed over to the grocery store. I must have looked so lost in there haha I honestly went around the whole store about 10 times before sort of finding what I was looking for... Almost everything is in Catalan! How strange is that? I understood most of it but there were some things like brown sugar and chocolate chips that I couldn't seem to find. Eventually I got a hold of similar products that I figured would work.

The chocolate chips were funny little sprinkles

and then when I opened the brown sugar it looked like raw cane sugar, but I decided to continue with the recipe because the box had said brown sugar. The dough looked fine and they baked well but then on first taste they ended up being very sweet and super crunchy!

Everyone still ate them haha but they weren't what I had expected...

I'll get the hang of it eventually...

cold cold day

at the beach!

It is so cold here... 45 degree highs are no fun, its snowing in Madrid! But it was the first day it was sunny so I headed over to the beach! haha And since it was Sunday and most stores don't open, there were a lot of people with the same idea. After that we headed to the Picasso museum and after some delicious tapas! It was so good, some patatas bravas and some others involving fish and salami and bread and olives? I have now tasted an olive that I enjoyed, theres a first time for everything! It was a lovely day.

So on another note I think Barcelona might have more dogs than San Francisco, its really funny seeing all the tiny pups with sweaters strutting along the city streets. I suppose it might be like seeing dogs being walked in New York City. I really want to start riding a bike here, and they have a cool rental system that I might have to try out.