"Vertical Chorizons," or, "Tapas Lightly on the Shoulder": A Play in Three Acts

Wow. Ok. So it's been over a week since my last post. My bad. In my defense, every day has been incredibly busy thus far, my internet went out for a few days, blah blah blah.

Excuses aside, I'll do my best to cover all of the major stuff. Like I said, last Tuesday Joe and I moved in with our host mother, Luisa. I loooooooove Luisa. She is incredibly welcoming (but not above delivering a firm thwack on the head if you leave the light in the bathroom on overnight), well-versed in Castillian and Catalunian culture/politics/history, and a fantastic cook. She also loves Miami Vice, Family Matters, and Spongebob Squarepants (not necessarily in that order). We usually eat dinner around 8 (early for here), and Joe and I will just sit around talking with her for the next hour or two. The post-dinner conversations have been the best practice I've had with Spanish since I've been here, and I'm really, really happy that I decided to do a homestay.

Last Wednesday we toured the Sant Pau campus of the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, where I'll be taking all of my classes this semester. The building is gorgeous: it's the former recovery building for a hospital, and also happens to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Which is why it would have been good idea for me to get pictures. Which I didn't. But I might.

Wednesday night, we went to a tiny local bar to watch the FC Barcelona match against Sevilla. It was really low-key, but there was a really nice atmosphere, and everyone there was sooooo into the team that it ended up being one of the best nights I've had here yet. Also, beer was really cheap.

Thursday we went to the MACBA, the contemporary art museum in Barcelona. The building alone was worth the price of admission, but there were a number of pretty fantastic exhibitions inside, too. Favorite museum thus far. We spent probably two hours in there. After that, we ended up on a 4-plus hour walk around the city, starting in El Raval (the artsy student-heavy neighborhood around the MACBA), winding our way through the Gothic District, and ending up down by the sea. We found a ton of cool little alleys, shops, etc. that you don't really see unless you take the time to get a little lost. Great day.

Friday morning was spent on a bike tour that covered a really sizable chunk of the city and gave me a much better idea of how Barcelona is laid out. The weather was perfect - low 60's and sunny. We made it to the beach, where Barcelona's more hardcore surfers were busy with 10+ foot swells (no casual bathers...I think the water was still pretty damn frigid). We rode past the zoo and to the City Park, where there was a gorgeous, ornate fountain the size of a little league field. Friday afternoon was spent at Parc Guell, Gaudi's unbelievable park sitting atop a mountain and offering a 360 degree view of Barcelona. Every detail in the park is precisely thought-out, but Gaudi's style makes the mix of plant life and whimsical architecture in the park seem wild and even primal.

I continue to be more and more impressed with this city's style, layout, friendliness, and general attitude with each passing day. Friday night we went out to bar, where there was an interesting mix of professional tennis and Lionel Richie music videos on the TV. Awesome.

Saturday was another success. We went over to Montjuic, the mountain that overlooks the city from the southwest. It's a gorgeous area, and the fact that we got lost on our expedition to the Museo Nacional d'Art de Catalunya proved to be lucky when we stumbled into the system of public gardens that sprawl across the east side of the mountain. We eventually made it to the MNAC, where I bought a season pass due to its relative cheapness and the fact that it's essentially impossible to take in the museum in one day. The MNAC has a pretty wonderful art collection, and the building itself is majestic, sitting atop Montjuic directly up from the Placa Espanya. We saw several Salvador Dalis, a whole roomful of Picassos (the only paintings they don't allow to be photographed), and numerous other Catalunyian artists from the 17th century onwards. Great museum.

Saturday night we went to another small local bar to watch FC Barca play Sevilla (again), which resulted in a declarative 4-0 win for Barca. Around 2:00 (a little early by Barcelona standards) we went out to one of the city's famous dance clubs, Elefante. We got in free (as anyone who has known me for more than 5 minutes will realize is a dream come true), danced our respective asses off for roughly 3 hours, and made it home at 6:02 a.m. On the way, I met a lovely (if somewhat incoherent) drunken Irish man named Luke who cracked open a beer on the metro and proceeded to tell me a story involving his Cartier watch being stolen by a number of Nigerian prostitutes. Night One of Barcelona nightlife? Success.

Sunday, fittingly, was a day of rest. I mostly sat around on Facebook and Skype (as I am wont to do), and still completely failed to update this blog. Sorry. Sunday night we went out to a little bar called Vinilo, Spanish for "Vinyl," which proved to be just as indie and hipster (and awesome) as the name would suggest. I have found my trashy, hipster Spanish Home.

Monday was spent trying to return to the MNAC, only to be stopped in our tracks by the crushing reality of the museum being closed on Mondays. Regardless, we returned to the Secret Garden we had found on Friday, befriended a cat we named Pickles, and ate at a deceptively pricey restaurant for lunch. Then we went to La Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's as-yet-unfinished masterpiece. The church is only about a block from my house, but I hadn't paid the admission to go inside yet. While still under heavy construction (for another 15-20 years, actually), the church is absolutely stunning, and the level of attention devoted to the tiniest of details is astounding. It was raining, so we couldn't go up into the spires, but it was pretty remarkable nonetheless.

Yesterday my classes started, and I'm (for a change) incredibly optimistic about how the semester will go. I'm taking Spanish Contemporary Art, taught by a very nice and interesting British sculptor, and found out that we'll be taking trips to some of the better museums and galleries in Barcelona as a class. Excellent. The afternoon was devoted to the first half of my 7 hour-per-week Spanish class. My professor is fantastic, there are only 8 students in the class, and it's the perfect level of difficulty (comparable to a 300-level Spanish class back home...many thanks to my high school Spanish teacher since I haven't studied it in 3 years).

Today I only had one class for an hour and a half: an Urban Approach to Spain and Europe. It seems like an interesting (if somewhat standard) sociology class with another excellent professor. And that's it. I'm taking 12 credit hours, and there are no classes on Fridays. Winnnnnnnnn.

So there yinz go. I'm currently sitting around as my host mom prepares what is sure to be another excellent dinner. I swear that the next post will be sooner (by "I swear" I mean, "probs.")

Don't stop, get it, get it.