The past week

So here's a quick recap of the past week:

Last Thursday, my supervisor, Andrés, and I met with Ferran, the CRAM boss, to show him the new logo designs that I had come up with. Well we found out that Ferran doesn't want to change the logo afterall... so I will just be making minor changes to the existing logo and designing the materials they need around that. Oh well...

On Friday, Cristina and Jacquie's roommate, Tanya, both left to go back to the US. Everybody's leaving me! I also went out to coffee with Luis, and then we went to a jazz concert in the Parque de la Cuidadella (I think that's what it's called).

Saturday, Maria's old boss from Argentina was in town so he came over to visit for a little while. Also, I another new roommate showed up! Her name is Lulie, she's 22, and she's from Texas. Her mom is Mexican and her dad is American, just like Jacquie, so she is bilingual as well. She's really nice and I've been showing her around and filling her in on everything she needs to know about living here. It's amazing how much I've learned so far! She's really grateful to have someone to help her out, just like I was so lucky to have great roommates that helped me out when I first got here. I'm just passing it on! Saturday night, another friend of Maria's came into Barcelona. Her name is Beatrice and she's originally from Argentina as well, but now lives in San Francisco. She will be staying here until Sept. 18, so it's a full house right now!

Everyone has been busy at work lately with the whole dolphin epidemic thing going on... so I'm kind of last priority right now it seems. I've been waiting to meet with Andrés and Ferran again, but things keep coming up and it hasn't happened yet. However, on Tuesday, Andrés told me that there is so much going on right now and there's no way I'll be able to finish everything he wants me to do for them by the end of September (I knew this already). The cool thing is that they're going to be asking for a bunch of money for their foundation, and he's thinking that with that money they will be able to pay me to stay in Barcelona and work for them full-time for an extra month. I would love to stay a little bit longer! But he wants to do it legally (pshh, why??) and that seems a little impossible to try to get a visa of some sort on such short notice... so we'll see what happens. He said he's hoping I will be able to work for them, even if I have to do it from the states. That will be much harder, but I would hate to just take off and never finish what I started for them.

Also, Tuesday night was Jacquie's good-bye dinner...so sad! I'm really going to miss her - she was such a good friend to have here. Now she has to return to reality back home in California and start looking for jobs and all that good stuff again. I am really dreading going back home for that reason. It feels like I'm having a personal crisis right now... I have no idea what to do with my life. It's the whole "going back to reality" thing, like I'm obligated to go back home and look for a job and then start a boring life of work, eating and sleeping. But after coming here I've realized that there are a lot of people that just up and move, looking for an adventure, interesting jobs, or just a better life in other places than their hometown or home country. It's complicated, but I feel like I am choosing to go back to "reality" because that's what I'm supposed to do....Ok now I'm just rambling... Anyways, it's just a difficult time in life when you have to make decisions about your future.

Since we don't have internet at the apartment right now, I went to a nearby library and got a library card so that I can use their wireless network. I was there for awhile today working and emailing, etc. I took Lulie up to Parc Guell this evening, and we're planning to go to La Sagrada Familia tomorrow (I can't believe I haven't gone yet!). Then she'll get her first taste of BCN nightlife tomorrow night when we go out! Hopefully we'll fit in a museum or two and the beach over the weekend too.

New Pics!

Just posted my best pics from Madrid. Enjoy!

Also, there is somewhat of a CRAM crisis right now - there is an alert for a possible epidemic among the striped dolphin...from what I gathered, several dead dolphins with the same sort of disease have been found along the Mediterranean coast in the Valencia area. CRAM is awaiting confirmation of the epidemic and is assembling teams of volunteers to search the coast for other dead dolphins. There was an epidemic back in '91 that took a toll on the striped dolphin population, so they are worried that this might be a similar situation. I'll find out more at work tomorrow.

These two articles (1) (2) are the only info online I have found about it so far.

Madrid

I just returned tonight from my 4-day trip to Madrid! I was really surprised at how beautiful the city was - there was no shortage of enormous, historic buildings covered in intricate decoration.

I flew out Friday evening to meet Jacquie and Tanya. Good thing Jacquie kept in touch with one of the guys we met in Pamplona, because he was nice enough to pick us up from the airport! The guy, Antonio, lives on the outskirts of Madrid. We got a little mini-tour of the city all lit up at night as he drove us to our hostel, which was basically like a hotel, only cheaper. It was in a perfect location too - right by Puerta del Sol, which is in the center of the old part of the city where most of the touristy stuff is.

That night we went out with Antonio and Felix, one of his buddies. One of the places they took us to was the basement of this little bar where a couple ladies were taking turns singing in the Flamenco style while a guy strummed on his guitar. It was cool to see the locals hanging out and enjoying their evening like that! After a few beers, Antonio took over the guitar and sang a song of his own - and he was actually really good! Flamenco has such a strange beat. Antonio was trying to teach us how to clap to the main flamenco beat, although I think there are a variety of beats that they use for different songs. Anyways, this was the beat he was teaching us (counting in Spanish, of course). You clap on all the numbers, but clap hard on the emphasized numbers:

uno-DOS uno-dos-TRES cuatro-cinco-SEIS siete-OCHO nueve-DIEZ

It's really hard to clap, let alone try to sing or play the guitar to that kind of a beat... confusing!!

Saturday we spent the day wandering around and taking pictures... a little bit of shopping too.

El Rastro, supposedly Europe's biggest flea market, is held in the streets of Madrid on Sundays. We met up with Antonio again and he took us through the main streets of the flea market - there were SO many people - it was pretty crazy. Of course I had to bring my camera, but I was extra careful with it and I wore my money belt too. El Rastro is pickpocket heaven! After the flea market, we strolled around Madrid's large park, Parque del Buen Retiro. Jacquie ended her trip early and returned to BCN later that night.

Monday, Tanya and I toured the Palacio Real, or Royal Palace, along with the church that faces it. The palace is the largest in Western Europe - pretty fancy! We then took the metro across town to tour the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium where the Real Madrid Club de Fútbol plays. We found out when we got there that it was 15 euros (!!) for the tour, so we decided against it. How ridiculous is that?? We ended up strolling around Retiro Park again that night, which was still bustling with people.

Today (Tuesday) we went to the Museo del Prado. It took us about 3.5 hours to get through it all! It was really amazing. Some of the paintings were just enormous. It was also really cool to see some of the paintings I had learned about in my art history classes up close and personal. The slides just didn't do them justice! The detail and thought that was put into some of them is unbelievable!

So I made it back to Barcelona safe and sound! Also, there were a couple new developments around the apartment while I was gone: First, Satoko's luggage finally arrived today - she was here for a week without it. Second, we got another new roommate which was a total surprise to me! I haven't met her yet, but I guess she's American too. Third, we won't have internet or a house phone from Sept. 4th until Sept. 20th!!! Something about switching phone companies or something...I'm not sure, but that really sucks! Especially if I need to email files or whatever to people at work! It will also take a toll on my blogging...ahhhh!

Tiburón en Tarragona

Over the weekend, there was a shark (tiburón) that was spotted along the coast in Tarragona, which is a city a little south of Barcelona. I guess it's a big deal because sharks usually don't come close to the coast.

It was captured (pretty roughly, apparently) on Monday and taken to the Barcelona aquarium, where it ended up dying. It has been a big deal at CRAM lately and the phones have been ringing off the hook with people calling to get information about the situation. Susana has been on the phone constantly because she is in charge of communications.

Yesterday (Wednesday) I got to go with Susana to the local Premiá de Mar radio station for an interview! I got to sit in the little room with her, wearing headphones, and listening as she discussed what was going on. They were speaking in Catalán so I didn't understand most of it. I was proud of Susana though because she said it was her first interview in all Catalán! She is originally from Andalucia, the region in southern Spain, and has picked up Catalán after marrying her Catalonian husband and living in Barcelona for the past couple years. Anyways, it was cool to go along for the interview, although I was worried that they were going to put me on the spot and ask me some questions about being here in Spain. Luckily they didn't...

I'm leaving for Madrid tomorrow! I'll meet up at the airport with Jacquie and her roommate, Tanya. They're in Seville and Grenada this week. We'll stay in Madrid Friday night thru Monday night, then we'll return to Barcelona on Tuesday. I'm excited!

New Pics!

Oh yeah, I posted a bunch of new pics (Barcelona 2 and Festa Major albums) so follow the link on the right side of this page to view them.

New roommate

I finally have a new roommate! She arrived here Sunday night, while I was out in Grácia with Jacquie and Francesc. I met her on Monday when I got home from work and she was very surprised when I came walking into the apartment - I don't think she knew that there was another girl living here.

Anyways, her name is Satoko (I think that's how you say it!), she's 21, and she's from Tokyo, Japan. She is really nice, and I feel so bad for her because somehow her luggage got lost during her flights. She pretty much has nothing right now. Even her laptop was in her suitcase - how awful! I think she will be here until Sept. 15 so I might even have another roommate after she's gone. I think Maria wants to stick to 2 roommates at a time from now on, even though there is room for 3.

Satoko's Spanish is about the same as mine and she speaks some English too so we can communicate pretty well. She says I need to learn at least a few Japanese words before she leaves - sounds good to me!

This is the life

To put it simply, the past week rocked. I met a lot of new people and had a ton of fun.

On Tuesday Dori and her sister, Erin, returned to Barcelona for one night before their flight back to Chicago on Wednesday morning. Jacquie and I met up with them for dinner and they told us about their awesome 2-week trip to Madrid, Paris, Amsterdam, and Italy. It was great to see them one last time before they left, and it definitely makes me want to take a trip like that around Europe sometime in the near future (once I have money again, of course).

Wednesday was a public holiday so I didn't have to go to work. Instead, I went to lunch with Jacquie in the barrio (neighborhood) of Grácia which is very close to where we live. While we were looking for an open restaurant, we noticed a lot of people, some street decorations, and then we caught a little show of people dressed up in devil-type costumes, a dragon, and fireworks. We found out that Grácia had just begun its 10-day festival called Festa Major de Grácia. It's so fun to just stumble across cool stuff like that.

I went to work on Thursday to make up for the holiday. That night I decided to go check out Grácia and watch some live music. It turned out to be awesome! There were tons of people, there was live music in several different plazas and in the middle of the streets. I came across a band in one of the plazas that ended up leading the whole crowd through the streets - just like in Pamplona! These guys were just awesome, I don't know how they could remember all the music they were playing.

On Friday, I met up with Jacquie again for lunch. This time, we went to a different part of Barcelona that I had not been to before because we were also going to meet up with her good friend Luis, who coincidentally works as a graphic designer here in Barcelona. Before going to the restaurant, we took pictures of the large fallic-shaped hotel that is one of Barcelona's trademark buildings, and we also walked around a large mall called Glóries. We had a delicious lunch, called the Menu del Día at a Chinese restaurant. Most of the restaurants here have the Menu del Día, which is a really good deal. For the usual price of one entree, you get to pick like 2-3 different things to eat, plus a beverage and dessert. OH YEAH! After lunch, I got to see Luis' office and then we walked to the beach to take some pictures. We then took the bus across the city over into the barrio of El Raval, which is one of the most multi-culturally dense areas in the world. Luis knows a lot about Barcelona, so Jacquie and I had our very own tour guide!

That night, Jacquie and I went out to a club called Catwalk which is right near the beach. We got picked up by Francesc, who is a really nice Catalonian architect that Jacquie has been dating over here, and then met Luis outside of the club. It was a fun night, but we went home early (around 3 haha) because we were all tired.

Saturday night I went back to Grácia to meet up with this guy named Joey from Miami that I met at the language school. I also got to meet 3 new girls that night that he was there with - they were all really nice. They left a little later to go to a club, but I stayed to meet up with Luis. Luis and I watched some live music, then ended up meeting a cool group of guys from London. We hung out with them til it was time to go home at 6am! The street decorations were amazing and the people were amazing. It was probably around 4 or 5 am when the crowd gathered in a plaza and started making their own music because all the bands were done. People were banging on the big plastic dumpsters and clanging beer bottles to make a constant beat. Everyone was dancing and people took turns dancing on top of the dumpsters - I had to do it too, obviously! I'm not one to turn down a once-in-a-lifetime dumpster dance : )

I returned to Grácia on Sunday by noon in order to watch the Casteller teams, which are the groups of people that compete to build the best towers, or castillos. It was truly amazing to watch. I couldn't believe that the people were able to support each other and hold the formations like they did. The kids that climb all the way to the top are so tiny! Susana, the lady I work with, said that they are as young as 4 years old!! The team gets points for each row and amount of people, but I think that until they complete the tower, they don't get any points. The tower is complete when the last little child reaches the top and raises his/her arm. Then if they all make it down without falling, they get bonus points. It was insane to watch the little ones from the top sliding back down the tower! You have to wonder what goes through the heads of their parents while they're at the top...

Sunday night, I hung out at Jacquie's again and she made us some delicious burritos! I seriously haven't cooked a single thing since I've been here (I've used the microwave a few times, but that's it) so it was nice to have a little home-cookin. Later, we met up with Francesc and went to Grácia yet again for some more craziness. This time, we followed another band through the streets and watched the amazing fireworks and sparklers that were going off all over the place! The people dressed up in those devil-like costumes were setting them off again, over and over. It was so cool, especially because I don't think we could get away with that in the States.


Needless to say I was a little tired for work on Monday. Thank God for café con leche!