La Diada and more exploring

Hello! I just got back from walking around and exploring some more so I'm pretty exhausted and I just want to relax for the rest of the night, because tomorrow we have a daytrip to Montserrat. That's one thing I don't think I'll ever get used to about Barcelona (or any other big city); people are out all day AND all night. I can't do both, and even if I only go out at night, I can't stay out all night. I'd much rather stay out all day and then come home and unwind with dinner and alone time. I'm pretty much an old lady. 

Yesterday was La Diada which is the National Day of Catalonia. I already posted a spiel about it on Instagram, but it was seriously amazing to see basically the entire population of Barcelona out on the streets. The 4th of July ain't got nothing on La Diada. Flags were everywhere, huge crowds were chanting, and all the big streets (Avenida Diagonal and Meridiana, etc) were blocked off so people could walk in them. The big thing I noticed was that there was no negative energy anywhere; like, no one was running around being angry and yelling about Spain not letting Catalonia be independent. Okay, I'm sure there were SOMEWHERE, but I didn't see any. The fact that there were Mossos everywhere probably helped that too. The Mossos are the Catalan police. There's the Guardia Urbana, who deal with things like petty theft and traffic violations, and then the Mossos walk around with automatic rifles and deal with more important things. They're basically like SWAT. You aren't supposed to interact with them. I wouldn't want to anyway, because they're super intimidating. 

Photobombed by a random person haha

I don't think these pictures really convey how many people were out in the streets. I think Ryan said the number is somewhere in the millions. 

Giant Catalan flag

At one point, everyone started holding up these pieces of paper and cheering. I think it was for an aerial photo because there were a ton of helicopters. Anyway, I definitely missed the memo and had no idea what was going on. That's a recurring theme when studying abroad, by the way.

I've only lived in Barcelona for two weeks, and this is a very strange image. There's usually cars zooming down the avenida, and to just walk up and down the streets without worrying about getting run over was really weird. That's another thing about Barcelona, the drivers are insane. The motorcyclists are the craziest, but pretty much everyone runs red lights here, so you have to wait a few seconds after the light turns green before you cross, because there's about a 60% chance someone is going to illegally speed through the intersection. Daniel was like, "That's crazy! Everyone drives safe in Amsterdam. Why don't they do anything about that?!?!" That's a good question...

Ahhh, I've been reunited with Calippo Cola ice creams. I ate probably forty of these (exaggerating) when I was in Italy, so it's pretty exciting to have access to these again.

After watching the rally, we stumbled upon a dog park. There's so many more dogs than I anticipated here, and they look much scruffier/dirtier than dogs in the US. Still adorable.

Finally, I got to see Parc de la Ciutadella (citadel park)! It's incredibly beautiful (and romantic... missing Daniel, mental note to bring him here when he visits) and it has the famous Gaudi fountain depicting King Neptune. We took so many pictures there it's not even funny.

Beautiful steps!

At one point I was wondering if they painted the floor of the fountain, because the water looked incredibly blue...

When I get married I want to take my wedding pictures here. This place is amazing!!

A pond where they had white geese and paddleboats.

We left the park after it got dark, and were basically hit in the face with this crowd. Seriously, there were so many people and so much trash, I felt really bad for whoever has to clean all that up. However, I went back to this area the next day (AKA today) and they did a pretty good job.

We watched a concert and then made our way to the side streets to find some food. We had to go into a handful of places because they were all either too crowded or too expensive.

Finally, we ended up at this... bar? Restaurant? It had the vibe of a dirty, late night Spanish diner. It doesn't look that crowded, but it was really busy and it took longer than it should have to get our food. We got patatas bravas, croquetas, and some meatballs. I shall not explain further but they left my digestive system feeling less than superb the rest of the night...... basically I was sipping ginger tea (thanks Lina) and video chatting with Daniel the whole night until I went to sleep. It was a bummer because I was all ready to go to the karaoke bar.

Today, I rolled around in bed for a while until I finally decided to get dressed and go explore again. When you're not feeling too great and also feeling homesick, the best thing to do is just get out of your room and go get some fresh air and take in the sights. I like to do it alone because I'm just that kind of person, and I always feel better when I come home. I walked all the way down to Arc de Triomf because I wanted to go to Parc de la Ciutadella again (they're about a quarter of a mile away from each other).

This dog came out of nowhere and just sat next to me for twenty minutes. I'm not gonna lie, I'm totally a dog person so it was really nice to have a non-human companion for a little bit.

I feel ya, buddy...

Back to this place again!

After sitting near the fountain for a while, it began to rain so I started to walk out of the park towards La Rambla. I discovered the El Born district (I know El means "the" in Spanish so that's a little redundant) and I fell in love right away. There were so many cool shops and restaurants. I initially kept going into them to hide from the rain, but I ended up finding a lot of cool stuff.

Hmm... okay. No comment.

I kept walking until I ended up right at the Jaume I Metro station, which is the stop you get off at when you want to go to the gothic quarter. I guess this is where El Born becomes El Barri Gotic. 

A really cool candy/chocolate shop I found on Carrer de la Princesa. I also went to La Boqueria because I got hungry, and I got some Iberian ham and some freshly squeezed orange juice. I don't really take pictures when I'm there because the risk of opening my bag and getting my phone/wallet stolen is not worth it.

Tomorrow is my day trip to Montserrat, which is a monastery on a mountain a few miles from Barcelona. I'll take lots of pictures, don't worry ;) But now it's time to relax and browse Reddit and eat some chocolate.

First Week Done!!!

I've only been here hardly a week now, but I've already learned so much stuff about Barcelona's culture, so I wanted to share some of the things I've picked up on so far.

People actually call it Barthelona. The accent makes "c" sound like "th". I thought it was a joke for some reason but they really do pronounce it like that. The Catalan accent is pretty strange. It's also an insult to say that it's basically a mix of French and Spanish. However much you may want to say that (and I agree sometimes when I listen to it), it's pretty insulting because Catalonians are very proud of everything about them; their food, language, traditions, etc. Tomorrow is actually La Diada which is the ULTIMATE Catalan pride festival, so I'm looking forward to the crazy stuff I'll see tomorrow.

I was also worried about how hot and disgustingly humid it was going to be here. So far, this is not true. I've been able to sleep soundly through the night without waking up in a sweat, and it's been a pleasant mid 70s every day. However, the last week of August and the first couple weeks of September are supposed to be cooler than usual because of all the rain that comes through, so I might hold off on that statement. Spaniards are SUPER sensitive to cold temperature, so once it hits the 60s, they start coming out in jeans and jackets, and I'm still just walking around in a t shirt and skirt, and everyone looks at me like I'm crazy.

I've read a lot in articles (I did too much research for my own good) that Spaniards can be racist so I was a little concerned coming here, even though the reported prejudice isn't even against Asians, it's against Arabs and the like. But you know, when you're about to live in a new country, you worry about everything. Or maybe that's just me. However, I haven't experienced any racism or prejudice here, and a vast majority of people just don't care what you are, as long as you're a nice person. I say vast majority because I'm sure there are racists out there and I can't speak for everyone, but I haven't encountered them yet. If I really think about it, it's not an unfriendly vibe that I'm feeling, but I definitely think people are curious. Prolonged, direct eye contact is normal here, so when I walk down the street pretty much 95% of people I pass by are staring at me. Like hello, I'm not the first Asian person you've ever seen in your life...

I'm not nearly as stressed about school here, but maybe I'm speaking too soon. Also, I'm taking a lot of art classes as opposed to the heavy science-based workload I always have back in College Park, so naturally, I don't have as much to do. The semester back at home is usually divided up into midterms, papers, and final exams, along with projects and assignments along the way, but the semester here is more like a few quizzes here and there and then a final project at the end. Pros: you don't have to do as much work. Cons: your final mark depends on only a few things, so you better ace all of them because you don't get nearly as many chances to boost your grade. Another weird and somewhat related thing here is that they don't have notebooks with regular lined paper. I've looked in all the stores around my apartment, and they only sell grid paper! So now I'm taking notes on grid paper...?

I definitely feel homesick at times. I miss my family, my car, my comfortable bed and room, being able to eat Korean food whenever I please (I found a Korean grocery store about 20 minutes from where I live so I stocked up on the necessities), but most of all I just miss the familiarity of College Park and actually knowing how to do mundane, every day things. It's a lot to take in when you have to sit down and figure out how to actually DO literally everything for the day. Like today I had to get to an ATM because I finally ran out of euros, and it was a ridiculous process. I would never have to deal with that at home, you know? It's not something I think about. But here, you have to learn everything all over again.

Anyways, here are some more pictures!

This is at Placa Reial. I love this place! It's right off La Rambla and I like it because it's a lot more peaceful than the craziness that is La Rambla, and plus, it's really beautiful. There's a fountain in the middle that you can sit on and just look around. It wasn't that loud, either. La Rambla is so loud that you can't really hold a conversation without raising your voice significantly.

Arc de Triomf! I came here with a friend from Japan I made in my Spanish class. The last time I was here, it was cold and rainy, so I didn't get to take a lot of nice pictures, so I definitely took advantage this time.

This is from last night, when I was down at Plaça Espanya. This is an arena that was used for bullfighting, but when it became illegal in Barcelona (good riddance) they turned it into a shopping mall. I didn't take pictures inside but it's pretty cool. They let you go up onto the top where there are outdoor restaurants and a nice panoramic view of Barcelona.

It's sooo beautiful! I can't believe it's free to come up here. The big castle looking thing in the background is the Palau Nacional (national palace). It's also the home of the National Art Museum of Catalonia. On weekends, they light it up really pretty. I'll have to go back with my parents when they come visit soon!

My first time drinking soda since I got here. I'm kind of proud of myself, but it's not even like I drink soda often anyway. Vanessa and I had dinner with our program director/mentor Helena. I absolutely love her, she's so fun to talk to and she has this really calming presence, like I feel so safe and comfortable around her. She also reminds me of a Spanish version of my aunt. It was funny because I commented on how hungry I was and she was like, "Well, it's only 7:30, we do not eat until 9:30 or 10, so you will have to wait!" I'm still getting used to that...

TAPAS! Pa amb tomâquet (bread with tomato and olive oil), Iberian ham croquettes, and patatas bravas. Everything is seriously so delicious here. I have yet to have a single bad meal. Melissa, if you're reading this, you better prepare yourself.

Mountain rice with Catalan sausage and mushrooms. Yeah, I know, it doesn't look very appetizing, but it was so good.

Iberian ham, fries, and egg. A super typical Catalan dish. After you eat the fries, you dip your bread in the yolk until the plate is clean. Helena said, "I don't want to see any yellow left on here!"

Dessert... I forget what they were called but basically it's tiramisu on the right and a lava cake on the left. Super decadent and by this point I was ready to just go to sleep right there at the table.

I'm finally done with my first week of classes. It's seriously been the longest week of my life. I know it'll get easier and better from here on, but it's been a roller coaster for sure. I think tonight is a relaxation kind of night.

First Week Reflections

I've officially been in Barcelona for a week. This has been the most confusing, upsetting, exciting week I've had in a long time. I thought I would just sit back before the first day of classes and write a text-only post to talk more about how I'm feeling, rather than just dumping a bunch of pictures. There'll be plenty of more chances for that, trust me.

When I created this blog, I was really excited to share all my pictures and experiences with everyone, or at least, anyone who cared enough to check up on it. But now that I've been here for a little while, I realize that I need to step back sometimes and just live in the moment, instead of worrying if I took good enough pictures for the day, or feeling guilt if I don't update in a while. In the end, it doesn't even matter, and I have to remind myself of that. I only show people what I want them to see. I think everyone understands "the Facebook effect", or the idea that your Facebook profile is more of your highlight reel, and probably 95% of your FB friends don't get to see the behind the scenes. They never see the emotional ups and downs that you might go through (unless you're one of those people who posts about every single thing that happens to you). I've definitely been experiencing a roller coaster of emotions, and as silly as it sounds, I've been feeling an imbalance between how great my life seems through social media and how hard it's actually been. I feel like I have to keep up the image, even though that's not the case at all. When I wake up in the morning, I feel like I have to do something awesome so that I can post about it later, rather than purely for the enjoyment of it. 

The truth is, studying abroad is not 100% amazing all the time. I've only been here 7 days, but I can already attest that it is not always rainbows and butterflies. It's very hard to adjust to living in a new country on your own, thousands of miles away from your family and friends. Or at least, it has been for me. There have been times where I've been very homesick and I just want to be back in my bed at home and eating my mom's cooking. I feel confused and lost when I'm walking around in the city and I don't understand what anyone is saying to me. Almost every food I've had while eating out has been a brand new experience. When I'm surrounded by new people, I tend to become way more shy and introverted, because I want to make a good impression on everyone, so I don't speak my mind as much or joke around like I usually do. And as a result of that, a lot of my feelings just build up inside me until I end up crying on the phone to Daniel or something. This is where I feel more conflicting emotions. I'm incredibly lucky that my parents made this experience possible for me, but when I don't feel 100% awesome and excited, I feel ungrateful, and like all my parents' money is going to waste. Why do I feel this way? I think I'm too hard on myself, and I need to just let myself feel the emotions that I feel. Part of why I have such a hard time is because I feel negative things, and then I beat myself up for feeling that way, like I'm not allowed to or something. But that's not fair to me, because I'm only human. Now I sound like a Kelly Clarkson song or something. 

I guess what I'm trying to say is that when you see a social media post about someone experiencing something awesome and amazing, don't assume that person's life is going completely smoothly, because chances are, it's not. Deep down, I know that I'll get more situated and used to my environment and I'll end up making more friends and enjoying my semester more, but it's getting there that's proving itself to be a little difficult. It's like that quote that I had a poster of in my dorm room my sophomore year: Bloom where you're planted. Okay, that was extremely cheesy, but it's true.

It's 2:25 AM here, and I have my first day of class tomorrow, so I'm off to bed. If you've read down this far, I'm seriously impressed, and I apologize for boring you to death. Also, thanks for reading it, and I hope you got even a little something out of it.

Parc de Collserola Hike

I'm actually going to post about my day before it's too late and I forget all the details, because that's what happened with my last post and I just ended up doing a picture dump on you guys. I realized that I put a lot of these pictures on Facebook so there's no reason for a lot of people to even look at my blog, but now I'm starting to put more of pictures of me and other people on Facebook and putting the rest on here as well as talking about the day and what it was like. A picture is worth a thousand words, but it's worth even more with a story behind it.

So today was our last Maryland-in-Barcelona orientation event, the hike up to Tibidabo through Parc de Collserola. This place is at the peak of the mountains near Barcelona, but it's still accessible by metro. I love the metro! It's so easy to get anywhere and it's cheap, too. One trip to anywhere costs 1 euro, unless you get a T-Jove card which costs 105 euro and gives you an unlimited amount of trips on any public transportation in Barcelona within the span of three months. That's the one I plan on getting, if I ever get off my butt and actually go buy it...

Last night I made my first home cooked meal because eating at restaurants all the time has seriously been adding up and although it's delicious, I can only afford that lifestyle for so long. Luckily, groceries are cheap here. I made fusilli pasta with tomato sauce from scratch, and it was pretty freakin' good. I don't know what I'm going to eat tonight but hopefully it's something with less carbs. I'm starting to really miss Korean food. There's a Korean restaurant down my street (did I already say that?) so I'm definitely going to go there soon. I just wish they had take out... that's another thing that's different, restaurants here don't do take out. You either finish your food or they will throw it away, you don't get to take it home.

This was weird because we got on the metro in a completely metropolitan area (haha) and then we got off and it was silent and kind of peaceful because there were so many trees.

A map of the park was carved into this rock. This is when Ryan talked about how we need to be careful for wild boars running around. Apparently they won't hurt you, but if you're close to a baby boar then you need to get out of there because the mother could come after you and possibly try to kill you. Which would be no fun, unless you're into that kind of thing. Luckily, we didn't see any boars, although I would have liked to see the baby ones because they're supposed to be really cute. He also talked about how the Olympics in 1992 TOTALLY transformed Barcelona and put it on the map as a major tourist destination. Before then, people outside of Europe didn't even know where Barcelona was. He talked about how he chose to start a study abroad program here because he had a feeling it would totally blow up in the next decade, and his friend started one in Madrid and wishes he had chosen Barcelona as well. 

   

The hike was completely uphill, and I was seriously running out of breath multiple times. I'm seriously out of shape... I would get back into running here but I injured my foot over the summer (I wiped out at a trampoline park and bent my left foot with all my weight on it, lame) and today's hike made it flare up again, so I'm currently sitting in bed with a makeshift cold pack on it. I can definitely say it's been a roller coaster of a first week...

The longer I'm here, the more I realize that pretty much everything is in Catalan first, and then maybe Castellano. When you get to more remote areas, you can forget about hoping to see any English words. Everyone I passed by said "Bon Dia" to me (which is "good day" in Catalan), instead of "Buenos días".

We hiked all the way up to that church. This is the point where it started getting a little more challenging. Thank god it wasn't hot out today... I brought no form of sun protection whatsoever, plus, the trees provided plenty of shade.

We made it!! Check out the creepy moon face thing on the left.

Group picutre outside Templo del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús. I'm gonna take an educated guess and say it means the Temple of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Am I right? Do I win anything?

The pictures really don't do the view justice. I'm definitely coming back, since it's super easy to get here (by that I mean the metro ride... the hike up is not so easy). I have a feeling I'm going to be saying "I'm definitely coming back" a lot of times, and I hope I actually follow through haha. I'm definitely going to bring my parents and Daniel here, so I guess I'll be back at least two more times.

They had a tiny little amusement park at the top. This place is called Tibidabo, but I think it's still in the city limits of Barcelona.

Patatas! Apparently Catalonians say "patatas" which is "potatoes" when taking a picture, instead of saying cheese. It doesn't really make sense because when you say "patatas" your mouth is just gaping wide open instead of in a smile...

Gotta get the panorama shot. I think it came out pretty nicely! I'm always terrible at taking these...

It was very quiet in some areas, even though it was crawling with tourists by the time we got up to the top and started walking around a bit. Am I still considered a tourist? I guess not really, because I live here... (for a few months) Speaking of tourists, the pickpocketing situation in Barcelona is really not that bad. I probably jinxed myself, oops. I haven't had anyone even try to steal my things or anything like that, but that's probably because I keep an iron grip on my bag and look straight ahead and walk fast when I'm in the streets so I look like I know what I'm doing. I still don't yet, but it's all about faking it until you make it.

Eventually we started heading back down the mountain to get some lunch and go back home. This is when my foot really started to hurt, because the path wasn't paved at all and was a bunch of bumpy rocks.

A cool piece of graffiti we found on the way. I had to ask an old Catalonian man who had his mountain bike, and he didn't know a word of English. It's okay because I asked him in Spanish. He took like twenty pictures and then asked if I liked them and if I wanted him to retake any. Nice guy!

We saw a bunch of cacti along the road, and these were some cactus leaves (are they leaves?) that fell on the ground. I thought cacti only grew in the Americas.

We stopped for lunch at a pretty touristy restaurant, with an amazing view over Barcelona. I knew it was touristy because A) everyone around us was American b) the bathrooms said "women" and "men". It was weird because 10 of us walked in, and they just told us to sit at our own tables separately. That has never happened to me before. They didn't even offer to shuffle some tables around so we could all sit together, so we had to do it ourselves. It wasn't a big deal, but I just thought it was weird. There's no tipping system in Europe, so sometimes the service is kind of lacking because the servers actually make a decent enough salary to live off of (cough cough America), so they aren't at the mercy of the customers.

I ordered the salmon tartare and patatas bravas. I love patatas bravas! I think they're my favorite tapas food. It's fried potatoes with a tomato sauce (almost like ketchup but a little spicy) and a mayonnaise-like sauce. It's been different at every restaurant I've been to so far. The salmon tartare wasn't really my favorite, because I hate raw onions and it was diced with raw onions and parsley. The actual fish was very good and fresh, though.

Ryan ordered some fried peppers and passed them around. I tried one, it wasn't my favorite, but hey, at least I tried it right? Making progress over here. I'd hate to get home in January and wish I had tried more foods, so I'm just gonna go for it all while I can.

After lunch, we walked further down the mountain until we hit sea level and started walking towards the metro to get back home. I don't know what street we were on, but there were so many beautiful houses that were mostly being used as places of business. There was one building that was newer, and it was literally a grey square with windows. Ryan (did I ever explain who Ryan is? He's our Barcelona resident director. And no, he doesn't live in our building like they do in College Park. He's more like our mentor and program director. He's awesome) expressed his frustration that they had ruined such a beautiful street with such an ugly, uninspired building. I mean, I saw it, I thought it was ridiculous that they planned a thing like that. Like, someone looked at the blueprint for this thing and thought "Yep, this is good. It'll do." I'm sure it was a matter of building costs, but still.

Finally back at the metro! It seems like no matter where you are in Barcelona, you can get home in 20 minutes. So right now, I'm lying in bed with an injured foot and an increasingly sore body. You know that feeling when you had a really physically active day and as it gets later at night you can feel all the soreness building up and you're dreading waking up the next morning paralyzed because of how sore you are... yep. That's me right now. 

Tomorrow is my last free day before school starts, so wish me luck! I have about 24 hours to get my life together, AKA buying school supplies, some more groceries, my T-jove card, and maybe a Spanish phone if I'm feeling really productive.