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.

A long walk

So I went on a long walk yesterday... I walked all day, until my calves hurt

A tiny latte..

even the sidewalks are beautiful!

This one is just for Robert:

this is my school:

this is right by my house, anyone recognize it?

day one part two

My apartment is nice and funky and my roommate and her boy are really sweet, she made us dinner/lunch and kind of oriented me on the map. After chatting a bit and getting to know each other I went to take a nap and they said they were going to go out to dinner so I stayed in bed, I was about turn the lights out to go to sleep when I decided to try and plug my 5 plug extension cord into the european converter thing so that I could put some christmas lights up, not thinking it was a big deal. Right when I plugged it in, it sparked and the lights in the whole flat went out!

So there I was alone with the lights out, I went to look for the fuse or something to fix it when I noticed that the door was unlocked, which wouldn't be a big deal except that my key doesn't lock the door from the inside, so I locked the door with the little chain thing and hoped that my roommate would get home soon so that I could be awake to let her in. But for now I was alone in the dark with the front door semi locked, and I couldn't go to bed until she got back... I waited and turned my computer on and realized that the internet was out with the power so I rested my eyes for a second and accidently fell asleep.

I don't know how long it had been but I woke up to lights on in the hallway and my roommate saying something about the door and I realized that I had failed my mission to stay awake. I apologized and told her what happened and she laughed and said it was no biggie and that we would fix my key tomorrow. phew...

This morning I woke up to a very dark room, naturally I thought it was probably pretty early but looked the clock and saw that it was 10:30! It was dark in the apartment and outside from the clouds and rain. But I had caught up on my sleep and felt so much better. I decided to walk around a bit maybe find my school even though I don't have to be there until 5. I took the metro and was surprised by how easy it is to understand. I made it to where I thought my school was and saw a building being remodeled... but that was the address they had given me. I had to ask someone and they told me it was just around the corner. Perfect I had found it. I walked around there a bit and realized I was definitely in an ancient city. It was amazing; the tiny streets and the alleys and how everyone was out walking even though it was rainy and cold, and the tiny cars, and the espresso bars everywhere, and how tall and open everything feels, and how everyone speaks Catalan, and how I can't seem to believe that I am actually here still.

day one part one

So that was quite a trip... LAX at 4 am was way more awake than I expected but we were there with enough time to get everything set and even got lucky when I checked my bags because one of them was definitley heavier than 50 lbs but the woman helping us was to busy talking about Spain to notice, haha she even gave my mom a security checkpoint pass so that she could wait with me at the gate!

Finally I get on the plane to Chicago and after a couple hours of napping I woke up and it was almost time to land. I bought a sandwhich at the airport even though I wasn't too hungry thinking the airplane food would probably be terrible and it would be a long flight without any food. I was about to hand my ticket over to board the plane and I hear my name called from the desk so the I go to the desk and the woman takes my ticket and says you are upgraded to business class, happy new year! haha I smiled and head over to the other entrance for first class and business! Wow I still can't believe how awesome flying business is, right as I sat down they handed me a glass of champagne! The seats were huge and super comfy, they even gave us a bag of toiletries, including a toothbrush and toothpaste and even socks and lotion. It was sweeet and to top it all off the food was awesome.

They started out with a smoked salmon salad appetizer and then gave us a choice between ravioli, chicken, and steak, I chose the ravioli, pretty tasty and then to top it all off they gave us tiramisu for dessert! I tired to sleep once they turned the lights down but I kept waking up when they would come around to refill our water glasses haha. To top it all off before landing they served a small breakfast of fruit and a croissant, it was like they had read my mind. Anyway I made it to Frankfurt at 6:30 am their time and I was definitly not in the US anymore, all I heard was people speaking German, French, or Spanish, I was almost to Spain!

The flight from Frankfurt to Barcelona felt the longest, I just wanted to get off an airplane. Finally an hour and 45 minutes later we had landed in Barcelona! It was sunny and chilly but beautiful.

18 hoursss

After a lot of this:

and this:

and this:

I made it to Barcelona!

It was a long trip and I don't know why I'm still awake right now but check it out, this is the actual key to the front door:

and the view from my apartment:

This is the street view if you want to see the actual street its 173 and its the building that says Marina on it in clear letters

fresh carrots!

and a curious kitty!

portland's japanese garden

driving by

a big mountain!

trip to Portlaaand

some knitting on the road... 10 hours of seeing lots of pretty trees wasn't too bad

and look we drove by Ashland!

Once in Portland I got to explore on my own and found some pretty cute places!

The Pearl Bakery had a delicious apple cranberry tart and tasty snickerdoodles, the window had a large stripe through the middle with their slogan written on it, "eat bread"

I love that, and their shirts even had that on the back.