Inspirations...

{Spotted- first blueberries of the season}

{Purple Poppy}

{the perfect dress for a day on the lake, by Spool NO. 72}

After 3 weeks of flight uncertainty I think that I'll be flying back to the states in 6 days. All of sudden everything seems to have sped up. I have a sudden urgency to do everything I haven't done, see people I haven't seen, and enjoy every last second I have in this city. But truthfully I think what I should do is the exact opposite. Slow down and live the life I have been living for almost a year and appreciate each moment.

Change is a fickle friend. Leaving Barcelona will break my heart, but so will staying. If I stay, I would continue to miss my family and friends dearly, but if I leave I will become just another study abroad student returning back to the states. I don't think any choice is necessarily more correct. The word bittersweet suddenly has  more personal relevance. 

James Beard, is that you?

I think Ana finally did it, she killed me with her cooking.
but in the most unexpected way.
I thought for sure I'd be going to microwave cooking hell.
But here I am in culinary heaven sitting next to Julia Child.
Who knew?

I walked in the door after uni today, exhausted, only to be greeted by the most pleasantness of smells. Are the neighbors cooking again? I thought to myself. But long behold, there in Dave (my toaster oven, because lawd knows our oven has been out of commission for months, maybe even years who can say), sat a beautiful dish of pure deliciousness. Two baby whole red snapper fish sat baking in a bed of potatoes, spanish olive oil (the BEST olive oil in the world, I'm convinced), parsley, a bit of saffron, and caramelized onions.

Three hours later after Ana Sr., Ana Jr. and the niñas returned home from the park, I finally sat down to eat this bit of happiness and,
I died.
I died, I died, I died.
and went to heaven.
YUMMMMMMM.

I will be trying out this dish my self in the weeks coming (complete with photos and instructions for you all) but until then you may find me floating about with Fernand Point, Auguste Escoffier, and other culinary genius' just beyond the pearly gates.

Om nom nom nom

About 20 minutes ago a student came into the library with his backpack, books, etc. Sat down in front of me, and proceeded to do nothing. Unless you consider biting nails a studious activity.

Why would you go to the library with nothing to do?! Is he waiting for someone? Is he nervous about studying? Or do his roommates just not enjoy when he goes to town on his nails in their apartment? These are the questions popping up in my head as I try to write about the reign of Maria Cristina de Nápoles, proof that anything can and will completely derail any thoughts of doing work.

I'll keep you updated, it's just a waiting game now.

cositas de la semana

1. Went to spanish court to testify, incredibly scary experience but my ability to successfully give testimony and be questioned extensively feels like a testament to how much my spanish language skills have developed.  

2. Finally completely figured out how to use the public busses and have become a regular bus taker! 

3. BCA dinner at El Cangrejo Loco Wednesday night - seated practically on the ocean, amazing food and more importantly free flowing red wine.  

4. Successful phone interview with a import/export brokerage firm in Philly, dedos cruzados that I get a second interview!

5. Began the making my own photo paper on which to develop photos for my photography class, and realized how nerve-wracking it is to mix your own chemicals when you have no chemistry experience and are in a darkroom.  

6. Celebrated El Día de San Jordi, spanish valentine's day and day of Catalan independence, with lots of books and roses and happy people.

7. Picnic lunch in Parc Cuidatdella with my favorita amigas, good food, games, and some spanish guitar (kudos to Kara).

8. Had the best BEST churros of my life.

off to move my workspace to the terrace to catch a bit of sun!

sartorialist style

La Rambla, Barcelona

Looking for participants in my 'get a stranger to smile for you' photo assignment, I spotted this guy on La Rambla. His pants are kind of dirty and I think his fly is down, but the skateboard, sweater, and hair are a great combo. And luckily Dani made him laugh as I photographed him, which makes the picture. 

just when you thought life couldn't get any crazier...

....today I received a official summons to testify in court against that guy who mugged me. This should be interesting.

Sorry for the terrible quality of the photo, but sin camera I had to make due with photo booth :)

riding the broke train to spring break

First, I apologize this has been a crazy past couple weeks and I have sorely neglected this lovely little rambling I call a blog.  As I sit drinking café con leche, listening to Madeleine Peyroux [can anyone speak to me like Madeleine, I just don't think so] I am ready to share.

Same streets, same classes, same stresses, two weeks ago I desperately needed a break!  This boredom paralleled nicely with my weeping bank account and so spring break in BCN was born.  Luckily (for me, not them) Dani and Becca were riding the broke train as well, so the three of us decided to stay put in Barna for the holiday and explore.  

Mother Nature provided us with a week full of beautiful spring days in which to exercise our refreshed curiosity and off we went to re-discover Barcelona. Among others, here are some places that you should check out if you ever find yourself in Barca:

Parc d' Laberinth ...I can not believe in all my months in Barcelona, I had not visited this natural woodland park! Dani and I took the metro up to the top of the city to picnic here and it was simply beautiful. Not only does it allow you to see gorgeous views of the city and the mediterrean, it even has a Harry Potter-esque maze! Added bonus, most visitors of the park are local families and to my knowledge it doesn't have a huge tourist following.

Montjuic ...Although I had taken the cable car to the top of Montjuic before, Jordan and I had  purchased the wrong ticket so we couldn't get off at the top to explore. After making sure we did it right this time, Dani, Becca, and I took the funicular to the top of the mountain and spent the afternoon exploring the fortress, and ate lunch in the moat where grass now grows.  

a view from the top of Montjuic - the port and far to the left the world trade center

Barri Gracia ...Another day the three of us went to explore Dani's neighborhood [where we are possibly thinking of living when we move back to bcn] and had a great afternoon. Gracia is a typical spanish neighborhood full of tiny art galleries, fair trade boutiques, chino stores with everything you could possibly want, picturesque plaças, and even a privately owned Gaudi house.  

Becca and I strolling through el barrio

In other news, I was lucky enough to celebrate my 21st in Barcelona this past weekend :) And to make it even sweeter, Silvia came to visit from France with one of her friends from the States, Kevin. We had an amazing night of tapas, strawberry daiquiris, estrella, chupitos, great friends, ole-ing, and party hats. Dani and Becs also gave me the best present - a small owl figurine which in the Catalan culture gives the receiver good luck, and also a small handmade money pouch made with fabric from Japan that they purchased from a local market. Do I have amazing friends or what? 

I submit that I do.

oh and F.C. Barca beat Real Madrid 2-0 last night. ¡Puta Madrid! ¡Visça Barca!

cositas del día

1. The most adorable baby boy waved at me this morning while crossing the street to the metro.

2. A man dressed (very authentically) as Batman strolled around my train car with his friends and gave me a slip of paper that read the following: Fiestas del años! En fecha 29-mayo-2010 Marco Proli (batman), se va a unir en matrimonio. Las chicas Españolas es capaz de cambiar su mente??? ...and for all you non-spanish speakers...On the 29th of May of 2010 Marco Proli (batman) is getting married! Do spanish girls have the ability to change his mind??

3. I got my history of spain partial exam back and I passed!

4. My group for my Marketing class project emailed me their parts of the project...they plagiarized almost the entire thing from Wikipedia.

5. Went to La Boquería to take photos for my photography class project (see Flickr)...annoyed lots of store owners and was hit on by a man pushing a shopping cart full of meat.

6. Stumbled upon an tiny art gallery.

7. Handsome F.C. Barca fan gave me a pen on the metro. Not sure why.

8. Spent a half hour trying to get into Jordan's apartment building...buzzed about 6 of her neighbors by accident.

9. Stopped by Becca's to drop off her camera and scored a scrumptious delicious chocolate croissant. 

10. Barcelona defeats (obnoxious German) Stutgart 4-0!

Off to finish my financial analysis of U.C. of Bennetton, study for Int'l Econ. then bed (at a decent hour hopefully..)! 

asleep on a sunbeam

I always have the urge to write on this thing at some ungodly hour. When 2 am rolls around, normal people think hey why don't I head to bed? not me, no I think hey why don't I post a blog? Of course staying up writing means I'm not sleeping which ultimately means hitting snooze 6 times and cursing myself the rest of the day. And sometimes it means I even fall asleep in class, which is exactly what happened Friday.

After a long week of classes and photo assignments and marketing projects and more classes, by the time my Friday morning classes rolled around I was beat. Unfortunately there were still four hours of morning lectures between me and the weekend. International Economics went quickly, mostly because I was on Jordan's itouch checking my email almost the entire time, but by the time Foto came around I was just not all there. I flew solo to class (Jordan took the day off to spend time with her friend Denice that was visiting), actually managed to get there on time despite the fact it was raining and I nearly killed myself again when I didn't wait for the crosswalk to flash green before crossing (I mean those trams don't even care that you're late to class). Avoiding a Gaudi-esque death I arrived in Foto only to promptly fall asleep when the prof hit the lights to showcase some of his photos. I have the unfortunate habit of talking in my sleep while I'm dreaming and Friday was no exception.

I was dreaming Jordan had actually decided to come to class and was sitting a couple rows from me. In the dead silence of the class I began to exclaim to a girl I did not know, Hey! Jordan! You came? Luckily I woke in the middle of shouting Jordan and managed to camouflage a cough but people did not, not notice meaning, I definitely got some looks. This would have been fine and good except that throughout the rest of the class I continued to nod off (six times to be exact), thinking the professor was talking to me (he clearly was not) and though I keep 'coughing' or 'sneezing', I think people were beginning to get suspicious and needless to say I'm NEVER going back there (well not really, but it felt good to say it!).

The weekend was slightly more exciting, Becs and Daniela came over after my narcoleptic episodes and we had a grand ole time baking cookies, throwing flour, and drinking tea and wine. Saturday we received the bad news the Katana, our friend Barbara's dog, passed away. Katana had been with Barbs all through her childhood and they were extremely close. Of course Daniela was feeling bad for Barbs about the whole thing and so decided to promise Barbs that she would pee on a bush in Katana's honor. So when Saturday night came, after a couple Cañas at Cornelia's, Daniela and I headed down to the park where we found a semi-hidden bush and Daniela proceeded to pop a squat. Next thing you know it's Sunday, our weekly movie day. Usually we choose Disney films so we can sing along obnoxiously and keeping with tradition it was Lion King day.

Before I knew it was back home for dinner, studying time, and then 2 am when I started to write this. I'll leave you with some snow pictures to brighten this dull post and also a music request...if you have not heard Regina Spektor's song Eet., please go listen right now. NOW. It is amazing and it will change your life. No, seriously.





p.s. I'm going to post my Flickr photo stream as soon as I have it up a running properly. Look for it!

Winter finally arrives...in March?

It snowed in Barcelona yesterday. Snowed. And not just flurries, I'm talking about big fat flakes, sticking to the ground, causing fender benders, snowball fights and all that that entails. Pure craziness came to this city seeing as it hasn't really snowed here since 1962. I'm actually pretty excited to say that I survived the Barcelona Blizzard of 2010, with a few bruises that is. 

When I left to meet Daniela for lunch yesterday it had just began to flurry, Ana and I were shocked but I figured it was just a little flurry that would subside in a half hour, I mean it doesn't snow here, it just doesn't.  But weirdly enough it continued throughout the rest of the afternoon and by the time Jordan and I left class there was a good 3 inches on the ground, snow was still coming down heavily, and the city was in chaos! Españolas were taking pictures left and right, the city buses were shut down, stores were closing, and the metro was on it's way to being closed. We could not believe it! As soon as we left La Facultat, of course we immediately started throwing snow (Jordan hit me square in the nose and I managed to get some down her back while Denise decided to stay out of the whole thing) and I took a tumble down the sidewalk sustaining a few bruises. 

The city had no idea how to deal with this, cars were moving at a snails pace because there are no snowplows to clear the roads. Entrances to stores and the sidewalks were a mess without any rock-salt to put down. I saw a waitress sprinkling table salt out of a shaker onto the tile floor at a restaurant in attempt to stop the ice from forming. We finally made it back to our flats soaked through and through. 

(From Left to right: Jordan, Denise, and me) SNOW EVERYWHERE!

Today if seemed like it never happened, it's gorgeous and sunny and not even too cold. I would think I dreamed it all but the purple bruise on my knee suggests otherwise.  Hopefully Mother Nature had her laugh and we can all get on to summertime because palm trees full of snow is not an image I want to get used to seeing. 

And now for something completely different

It is currently 5:00 am CET and sleep is eluding me yet again.  Insomnia! you cry! Too much caffeine!? A siesta got out of control and you're paying for it now!? Quite the contrary, my friend! I was exhausted tonight, having barely slept the night before, and was looking forward to a decent night of rest when the most unexpected enemy bested me (cue Law and Order theme song). 

I love Skype, we are old friends, hell I might even say best friends now that I live in a country far far away, but I'm afraid to tell you I was thinking of breaking up with him tonight (yes, I said it).  Let me explain: my fantastic friend Daniela took it upon herself to show me all the wonderfully ridiculous sounds you can set to your Skype ring. Among these was a voice feature that you can make say whatever your wine buzzed mind desires.  Well let's just say it provided quite a bit of entertainment for a night. Now I should also explain that I am not a morning person, and often have difficulty waking up in the morning. To combat this issue, sometimes I have someone call me to make sure I'm up if I have somewhere particularly important to be that day.  Because all of us poor university students never have euros to buy minutes for our mobiles, I thought that tonight, since I have to wake up to take some friends to the airport, instead I would leave my laptop on and logged into Skype so someone can ring in the morning. After getting ready for bed tonight, I set my computer down next to my bed, turned up the volume as high as it would go, hit the light, and settled in for at least a couple hours of zzz's. 

Comfy, warm and nearly asleep when out of the dead silence I hear a disembodied voice announce YOU HAVE AN INCOMING CALL FROM POOP.  In my half-awakedness my head jerked up, slammed into the wooden shelf next to my bed, and my feet start running in place (which I can only guess was their lame attempt to run away...I should have a talk with them about trying something different in the future as it was highly ineffective) by the time I realized it was in fact not POOP calling but my friend Mike, who is currently residing in the U.S. and did not register the time difference.  Although I was effectively disheveled, I took the call because I hadn't talked to Mike in too long a time, and I was already thoroughly awake. 

After a nice long chat with Michael, we said goodbye, I changed my status to 'sleeping' and laid back down for a second attempt.  As my luck would have it, juuuusst after reaching that yummy dreamy happy place BAM! Nilda (as I've named her) strikes again.  Although my head managed to avoid reuniting with my shelf, I went into a bit of a rolling motion (much like you would if you were on fire) and nearly flipped right off my bed.  Luckily I was able to get my body under control before I panini-ed my computer between myself and the floor. This time it was my brother, and I also had not talked to him to forever (and hey, he's family) so I proceeded to chat with him for 40 minutes. 

I considered endeavoring another go but really who knows what kind of self-preservation technique my body will try next ( with it's track record, I'm not so sure I want to stick around to see) and I have to be up in an hour anyway.  

I was going to update you on my weekend in this post, but I'm afraid I have digressed a bit.  In a quick summary: I had some friends from Sevilla visiting this weekend, and despite a few transportation and directional induced hiccups, we had a great time! It's always wonderful to have visitors and this was no exception. Among other things done throughout the weekend, we met up with some of our swedish friends in a little bar called Manchester that just had the most wonderful music and ambiance, and also had a mini 'high tea' in a quaint, ancient and historic tea/pastry shop nestled away in Barri Gotic.  One of the girls, Winny even invited us down to Florida when we return to the states for some of her parents home-cooked authentic asian cuisine.  I nearly died and went to culinary heaven right there in my california roll.  As you can see, the weekend was a success.  

Wendy, Daniela, and I in Plaça Real

Daniela and Winnie on the beach (:

I should probably go take a shower and start getting ready so I'll just leave you with this: Go lock your preferences on Skype and if you find Daniela anywhere near your computer, have a nice long chat with your appendages on appropriate escape plans.  

To Catch a Predator

If you are mugged in Barca,

and don't know what to do,

call upon la policía,

and allow them help you.

Even at one in the morning, they

will jump to assist,

to make the mugger pay,

while you sit there both scared and pissed.

Two weeks later,

out of the blue,

policeman asks "Can you come? ear-

ly morning will do."

At the photo line up,

you immediately see the thief,

behind carrie you duck,

(she came with you to hit on the investigation chief).

The bad man goes to jail!

although, he I could not hit

justice did prevail

enjoy karma, you little shit.

Ana se fue.

Ana is in Rome this week. I don't think you heard me....ANA IS IN ROME, i.e. out of BARCELONA! Do you know what this means????!!!! All you people out there who are certainly not reading this tiny little blog have no idea what this means, BUT you people who do read this blog, and I know there is at least one of you, knows exactly what this means. RAGER!!

Just kidding. But it does mean I can cook, watch TV, eat, drink, and be merry whenever I please for four glorious days while the house mom is in Italia. Seriously, it's making my week.

Since Ana se fue on Monday, Daniela, Becs, and Jordan have been over every night watching movies, the olympics, and cooking amazing dinners. Homemade butter, onion, and tomato sauce with fideos, big yummy salads, lots and lots of bread, and of course the love of my life, red wine! Tonight we ate on my balcony around 10, the sky was a beautiful purple, midnight blue, and the neighborhood was pretty quiet. It's times like these where it feels so surreal that I'm living in Spain, having the time of my life with people I just met five months ago.

Dani and Becs hung out all afternoon baking cookies. Which, in Ana's kitchen, is no small task. Not only does she not own a single measuring device, but the only working apparatus in which to bake is a 12" x 6" toaster oven. Luckily I am a Top Chef devotee and I am accustomed to working with such challenges (well watching other people working with them anyway).

The baked good of tonight was homemade chocolate chunk cookies. With not a recipe in sight, Daniela and I got to it, eying up all measurements, adding an egg when we added to much flour, singing so loudly and obnoxiously to Cake, I'm surprised none of my neighbors called to complain. Much to our delight, the cookies came out beautifully! Since we over did it with the flour, and didn't add enough sugar to compensate, they were a bit like a breakfast cookie, but with those big gooey dark chocolate chunks they were still delicious - especially with a cup of tea.

Tomorrow is my last day of complete freedom, Ana returns sometime Thursday, but we're going to do it up big with a good old fashioned kickback (even though we're kind of having a mini one tonight since Dani missed the last metro train by accident) and lots and lots of wine...and probably cheese because Becs is addicted.

I have fallen back in love with Bloc Party - Check out "This Modern Love" from their very first album.

The british are coming, the british are coming!

So kids really do get up early?

No, I do not have kids but my neighbors children really enjoy giving me a preview of what it will be like when I do - i.e. getting up at ungodly hours and screaming (that's the children not me, though I've felt like screaming bit myself since they woke me). Since I'm up, I thought I'd update you all on the goings on in blahdy barceloner, as Sofie likes to call it.

Yes that's right, Ginny and Sofie, the lovely people who's christmas I crashed are in town for a couple days. Unfortunately poor Sofie had been dragged around all day with the 'grownups' to see every tourist attraction in Barcelona and so I met up with the girls to give her a little taste of one of the greatest parts of Barcelona, the nightlife! We first headed over to Shamrock, the little irish pub we hate to love, to have a few pints. Daniela and Anaise, her friend visiting from France came over to say hello, almost at the same time we ran into one of our spanish friends, Fabiano and his friend (who I've been introduced to more than twice and still can't remember his name). All in all we had a great time, speaking a little french, a lot of english, and a peppering of Sof's horrific spanish.

We lost a couple of good men at this point (La Yenni, Fabs and his friend were 'tired' - pansies.) but we trekked on to try Grouchos (a quite dirty little place, but great chupitos) that had a line halfway down the street, Oddlander (by far one of my favorite little spanish bars), and Betty Ford only to end up at Mojito Rock when everything else we tried was full. Another round of Estrella Damm for everyone and we were having a great time. All having things to do in the morning, we ended early around 2 and schlepped (or Anaise's case, half skipped, half danced, half sung) our way to the metro where we headed home.

Hearing Sofie doing an american accent, hanging out with the girls, and actually just going out (i've been holed up the economics building for about three weeks) made it a great night. I even got to see Angry Scottish Man, one of the bartenders at Shamrock who pretends to hate us.

The kids have quieted down now, but lucky for me my upstairs neighbor Trani McTranTran decided this morning would be a fantastic time to move furniture. I think I might give up trying to go back to sleep, it's time for some café con leche.

P.S. I wish I had a legitimate picture to post but alas another camera has been stolen, so here is one from London.



Us outside of what happened to be Robert Pattinson's local pub (no we didn't mean to go there, honest, we just stumbled across it...) Not the greatest photo but it'll do the trick - (From left to right) La Yenni, yours truly, Sofie, and Angela-er.

La Primera

Hello all! I actually created this blog quite some time ago, however, not surprisingly, never got around to posting anything. Although I'm not sure who will actually read this, I've decided to maybe start posting semi-regularly so that when I return home to the U.S. after this crazy year in Spain, I have some reminders of my time here.  

The lovely british family that Angela, La Yenni, and I stayed with while in London for the holidays are here visiting Barcelona and I can't wait to see them! Unfortunately Barrio Sants is in the middle of a thunderboomer and trekking downtown tonight seems unlikely. So jump for joy, Jordan and I are going to stay in and try to tackle translating our university syllabi from Catalan to Castellano instead. That is if she feels adventurous enough to venture over to my apartment. And, ojála, she does because though sitting with Ana, trying to hear the TV above the sound of the trani stomp around her heels in the apartment above us all night sounds enjoyable, it would be nice to have some company. AHH THE LIGHTS JUST WENT OFF! CIAO!