BrownieAss y Barcelona

Montserrat

2007-08-06T05:06:00.000-07:00

I am writing this as a new entry because my time ran out and I had to go pay the stupid locu man again. Oh well! So Granada was last weekend, Saturday we hung out and rested, Sunday we went to the beach and Monday I had work but then we went out for tapas because Monika's friend had just arrived. Tuesday was the goodbye party for Ariane and Benjamin and partly for Barbara because she was going back to Basel for a little while before returning in September. Wednesday I had work of course, I took one of the members of the association to do his weekly chores. Thursday and Friday were regular days and we managed to visit the Pedralbes another house of Gaudi's. It was really gorgeous. Friday we went dancing and it was horrible. This eurotrash techno vibe is not what I'm looking for when I go dancing. The french seem to love it though. Saturday we went to Montserrat, this gorgeous monastary up in the sawtooth peaked mountains located about an hour away from Barcelona. It was beautiful! Not as peaceful as I thought it would be because there was a ton of tourists and a wedding going on but still, I was very awestruck. We hiked all over the place and saw everything. I think that my legs hate me.

Pedrera (Casa Mila), the front doors and the famous roof!

A night out on the town.... my smile hides my disgust with the general club scene...

MONTSERRAT.

Beautiful, just beautiful.

Granada

2007-08-06T03:21:00.000-07:00

According to my calculations it has been forever and a day since I have updated the blogger. I am so sorry. Things have been more then a little crazy with the end of the month, new random roomies and lots of good byes...
About two weeks ago, I visited Granada with my friend Ariane and we had the best time! Although it was incredibly hot (39 degrees celsius) we managed to enjoy ourselves immensely (does that sound a little bit geeky?) We traveled by train wedensday night and arrived on thursday morning. We walked around the city and went to the tourism office while they prepared our rooms. Then we took a quick nap before heading up to the Alhambra. Seriously, one of the most gorgeous things I've ever seen. The sun gives the palaces this brilliance and everything, everything, is decorated, carved, painted; just this labor of love that eventually became the most visited place in Spain. Although it was a crazy walk uphill (what is it with these Spaniards and uphill???) I am so glad that we were able to go. We spent some time in the Generalife gardens and then got kicked out (literally, the guard came by and told us to get out, please, they closed 15 minutes ago) and walked around the city some more. Later thar night we stopped by a tea place where they wrote your name in arabic for free after your dinner or drinks or whatever, so we had a pita and strong tea and watched the restaraunt owner accost nearly eveyone who walked by. It was quite amusing. The next day we woke up early ready to explore the rest of the city but especially the old neighborhood Albaicin. We walked and walked and walked. We found some really nice little streets, and a church that was closed and this gorgeous mirador (lookout point/vista) that had a great view of the Alhambra. We also stumbled (again literally because my shoelace tripped me near the entrance) upon the Casa Museo Max Moreau. It was really interesting and the tiny museum had a good collection of the artists work. Afterwards we did the tourist shopping thing and walked to the city center to check out the church and surrounding buildings. We ended the day with churros y chocolate (since they are more common in the area) and they were delicious!

And now, for the pictures....

On the train ride there.

Albaicin, one of the first places we visited on our walk around the city

ALHAMBRA.

The City of Granada

HOLA!!!!

2007-07-31T07:53:00.000-07:00

Just A Really Quick Note!!!

Yes, I am alive. Yes, I am having too much fun. Yes I will actually write something tomorrow (my first none busy day in TWO WEEKS!!!)

HUGS, anna :)

Girona!

2007-07-23T07:32:00.000-07:00

I really cannot say enough about the history that every corner of this country has! Its incredible.... This past weekend we went to Girona, medieval village about an hour and a half outside of the Barcelona. Central to the city is the Catedral, gorgeous, typically middle ages, and with an incredible collection of art. Girona Cathedral, apparently has the widest Gothic nave in the world and houses the Tapís de la Creació (Tapestry of the Creation), a very rare 11t- century tapestry depicting the creation of the world, the months of the year and Biblical characters. My friend Simone and I had some fun times with the tapestry... Some of the characters are just sooooo funny looking. The Cathdral is really old and it has a little area for about 20 different saints. The outside is beautiful and everything was quite peaceful--- Barbara and I lit a candle so I feel good about that. We left it at the cross with Jesus. That sounds kinda weird. Anyways, the day was nice, we walked around and saw the sights, ate at a really nice touristy cafe and meandered along the riverside. It was pretty gorgeuos but then it started to rain so we decided to catch the train home. Okay. Pictures.

The bridge and the river all lined by colorful apartments and stores. We walked to the city center and the first thing that Monika did was go into a purse store and by two bags! Its so her!

The second is the back entrance to the cathedral. Its a gorgeous example of medieval building.

This is just some statue dude inside the museo. I thought he looked pretty mellow so I took a "dude" picture with him. Simone was all embarrassed...

The entrance to the cathedral. Its pretty detailed and I was impressed at the way the building has held up so well.

All things Dali and Castellars

2007-07-19T05:36:00.000-07:00

I don't know if this color will show up all that well, but let's try it out shall we? Okay, so finalmente we shall see the weekend Figueres daytrip and the Dali Museum. Yay! So I made the girls wake up and meet around 8 because we were going to try to get to Cadaques, this little fisherman's pueblo about 45 minutes away from Figueres.... Therefore we needed the full day to make time for the trips... well, we ended up not having the correct timetable and we missed the bus. Booooooo..... (Hey Nate, How Disappointing!) So the girls were pissed but really, how could I have known???? Lol :) We still managed to have a good time and explore...

The back entrance was cooler then the front so we. Creepy statues are always the best way to be greeted. We took pictures before the time got to the girls and they got grouchy... tee hee.

The Dali is actually entombed at the museo! Ummmm, okay.......... At first I thought it was a random plaque or adornment or something but then I realized what it actually was and I was intrigued. Do you think that he's laughing at all of the tourists?

The feet are part of the coolist ceiling mural that I have ever seen. My favorite thing about Dali is his ability to use these incredibly vibrant colors and awkward perspectives.

The staircase was nifty.... but I think that the girls were not in the mood for pictures. The heart thing is actually art that Dali made out if jewels. Its gold and rubies and mechanized so the little ruby encrusted heart in the center actually beats. Pretty and strange....

Soooooo, that's the other entrance to the building of the museum. Its got eggs on it. I like eggs. Also, we wandered around the little town following the cool signs that they put up for tourists and we spied one that said Dali's Childhood home and pointed in some direction. We followed it and were struck with hilarity when we came upon a little plaque slapped onto the front of a building that said, "This is where Dali was born." Well, there was other information put you get the gist. We laughed till we cried. It was so funny.

This past weekend was Festa Major and we went to see Castellars, which are human towers. You've seen them fall on Maximum Exposure and other such ridiculous 'Max' shows that the FOX network seems to love so much. I was amazed! And terrified....

Tah - Dah!!!!!

2007-07-18T06:53:00.000-07:00

Okay, okay, so apparently I lied.... No three days in a row for me. Instead its a week later and I still have a ton of stuff to show and tell. Sometimes I just do not know where the time goes... So let's see, ummmm I'll show you my place, co-workers and offices.

Since I only have like a minute left I'll finish up quick. The first picture is of the office that I go to when I am with the social worker and I'm working on the study about the whole organization. I'm actually almost finished!!!! Yay, alot of boring hard work went into what is actually quite a small study! But I'm happy to say that my work will be presented in conjunction with grant proposals to the Generalitat... pretty cool. The second two are the association headquarters. Its bright and cheery and wheelchair accessible. You can see Carme the admin assistant and Maria the boss. Last week the ladies gave me a gift to remember my time in Barcelona! It was a book on Gaudi's influence on the city with lots of pictures. That's everyone there, Carme, Maria, Me, Anna and Eli..... Eli is the journalist who does the bimonthly review mag. They are all super sweet and they don't make fun of my horrible grammer and vocabulary so what more could I have asked for in coworkers? Ciao!

Random Tiempo...

2007-07-11T05:30:00.000-07:00

I have a few minutes so I'll just tell you about the Tuesday that Monica and I decided to explore the area around the Sagrada Familia and nearly walked ourselves to death! She and I decided to do a little sight seeing (for my sake really, but she was happy to do it with someone who would be ridiculous and take the pictures she never did...) So, we go to the Sagrada...its weird. I think that it really isn't that spectacular; really more of a spectacular mess if you ask me. There are some incredibly interesting carvings and statues but I wasn't awed. Whatever, it was nice. Next we walked a little further down and saw that Hospital San Pau. Gorgeous! I can't believe that a building (well many buildings to be exact) that ornate is still a working hospital. All the different parts are interconnected underground. It would be a nice place to work... fer shure (lol). Then, because we are geniuses, we decided to walk to the Parc Guell, the park with all of Gaudi's art and stuff.... It didn't look that far on the map. NOTE TO ALL: Whenever you find yourself saying that it doesn't look too far on the map then really it is. Really, really, really far. We found that out the hard way and walked about an hour (straight uphill the entire time), through some random neighborhood and up an overgrown alleyway path that probably hasn't been used since the early 1800's until we at last stumbled upon the Parc Guell. It was exhausting! But worth it. The park itself is beautiful and the day was a little overcast so I got some really cool pictures. So there is my little story and here are a few pictures, cause hey, that's what I do. :)

La Familia Sagrada....

Hospital San Pau....

Parc Guell....and me in the caves looking crazy from exhaustion and thirst....

There's a bunch of stuff at the Parc Guell... a mosaic bench that you can see a panoramic view of the city from, which is held up by these really crazy pillars underneath... There are random pieces of art, including the lizard everywhere.... We'll see if I can send the picture in for a Geico ad.... lol... no, really. Not really. Maybe.

So, there it is.... Just a day in the life. I will attempt to go online for the third day in a row (a new record) and tell you all about the Dali museum and Figueres... Maybe even show you all where I work, I know, I've been saying that forever!!!!!

¿Que Tal?

2007-07-09T08:07:00.000-07:00

What is happening and all that jazz with everyone? I know, it was a long week for me and the new one is just beginning! Are you ready for a new entry??? (Loud cheering and general stupid remarks...) I realize that I'm really not that good of a typist after reviewing some of my previous entries so I promise to use the stupid spellcheck if I have some time leftover after posting pics today.... I really think that the pictures help say more for me then just writing about it... Besides, when I see all of youse guys again, its all I'm gonna talk about, so be prepared.

What has happenend??? Well, I think that I can barely remember but I'll try to all the same!

The end of the month came and we had to say goodbye to Nina... She was my outdoorsy roomie and we had some good times trying to find our way into the humongous cemetary near (or in) the park. Though we never made it, the walks and random discoveries were always fun. We had a little dinner and meant to go out dancing or something afterwards but ended up staying in and hanging out (more because other members of the party had partied too hard a few days before and were still feeling the effects... oh, so funny).... That's me being stupid and trying to pull off the Buddy Jesus thing... Frederico recognized it, so it wasn't all bad :)

The day after on Saturday we had to stay in and clean and prepare the rooms for the new people and we said our good-byes to the beautiful Nina. That night we went to Barbara's piso for internet use after a delicious meal at the coolest Japanese restauraunt I have ever been to. The food was soooooo good that I could barely walk afterwards. I never knew that there was so much more to the Japanese cuisine then sushi and sashimi and whatever other raw stuff that's out there! We created MSN accounts for myself and Barbara so we could talk during the down time at our internships; too bad I don't have the internet!

Sunday was a nice slow day... Monica, Barbara y yo visited the Monister Pedralbes in the north part of Barcelona. It was so beautiful and quiet, just the sort of tranquility I needed that morning. The bus ride was pretty long but worth it. Plus, it was the first Sunday of the month, so the entrance was gratis! Can't beat free :) I was being goofy and pretending to pull the bell at the front of the monestary.... The girls took the picture then walked away really quickly!!! Even I have to admit though, I look like a real idiot. Lol.

After a nice long time at the monastary, we hiked through the city (with no shade to be found ANYWHERE!!!!) and found our way over to another park where there is a ceramics and decor museo where the queen once lived. The same queen who commissioned the monastary actually! Ah, those folk who like to buy their way into heaven. :) We passed a park that was like an homage to Gaudi with a really cool dragon/lizard gate at the entrance. I was trying to get high up enough to put my head in the monster's mouth, but shorty that I am couldn't even come close! The park and the building were really gorgeous but as Monika said the ceramics and museum were "Bonito pero aburrido!" We headed back to the center of the city where we checked out the sales and then ended the day with STARBUCKS!!!!! Yay! My first (and probably only) frappucino in Barcelona. Yes I took a picture, it was delicious.

Now I have to find time to put up pictures of my workplace and the weekend in Figueres, the city that lives and breathes all things Dali! I hope that everyone is doing fine and is happy and healthy and I miss you all!!!! BTW, Happy Belated 4th of the July... My american roomie and I shared a watermelon. It seemed pretty celebratory. :)

2007-06-28T05:02:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I think that I've been doing a pretty good job of keeping the blog up to date, especially since all my roomies lost their internet and I have to got to a locutorio all the time! Well, when I have time! Which I didn't have at all this week. This past weekend was the Festival of San Joan and it was a pretty wild time... These people aren't very strict about rules and regulations when it comes to fireworks for festivals! It was insane and there was so much ash and stuff in the air, I almost wasn't able to take a proper picture but my lovely roomies helped out (alot!)

That's me and Barbara before things got really crazy... we had just arrived at the beach and started watching the fireworks. This was before she scared off the stupid group of hooligans next to us who were lighting about 20 firecrackers off at once in the middle of our beach area. She's awesome. Well.... my tiempo is running out so I will put more up tomorrow, Ciao!

More Pictures and Stuff...

2007-06-21T06:23:00.000-07:00

Las Ramblas is just the place to start when you want to go somewhere! We were being touristy on this trip because Nina's friend Carmen was visiting that weekend from Germany. The first is this gorgeous mosaic façade of a cafe and the second is the Boqueria (MarketPlace).

Who would I be without some ridiculous pictures of me making a fool of myself? I was eating a lemon after bocadillos (it reminded me of you, Paul!) and Carmen caught me mid-mouthful!

These are pictures of the Plaça Espanya, three blocks from our apartment building. The netro and about a hundred buses stop here! They host a bunch of different fairs here. This past few weeks has been the Car Fair... and since loads of people get around on motorbikes, they go to the fair (or the museum behind it) and they park right out front in the plaza. Its a sea of bikes!

So this is me in front od the big, half naked, half gone, broken winged bronxe at the Caixa. Last Saturday we took a tour of the Museums around Montjuic and this is the Entrance to the Caixa Forum.

The next three are pictures from and around the Joan Miró Foundation Museum. Its also a teaching school (uhhh, I dunno what other kind of school there is?) First picture: some funny little E.T. looking statue in front of the building. I wish they made keychains out of him... And yes, its a "he", look closely at the picture! The middle is a walk way around the back of the museum... its actually part of the Montjuic park.

And finally, the most random picture of the week! We were walking home and found an entire set of china (tea cups and plates) just in a box in the middle of the road... sooooo, since we're volunteers and not earning money, any dishes that are free are good dishes! This is me pretending to be that creepy person selling stuff from the back of an unmarked white van, LOL!

Now how's that for weird? Talk to you all later!!!!!

Just Pictures...

2007-06-18T13:01:00.000-07:00

And maybe a description or two...

First outing with the roomies at Hook, this hilarious bar/cafe with a Pirate motif. The second pic is when we went for tapas in Barcenoleta near the beach. There were like nine of us and we nearly took over the front room!!

I took these pictures when we went museum hopping around Montjuic this past Saturday... Talk about gorgeous! It was perfect weather and you could see green everywhere, then, this pop of color where the purple flowers are... The building is a museum (National Art of Catalunya I think, they call it the MNAC here).

On Sunday we took a stroll around Ciutadella, this huge park where the Congressional building can be found. There was a nice lake and this random Mammoth. I like it! We had a picnic and lolled about for a couple of hours... It was good.

This is the huge foutain in the park. No one ever wants to take pictures but I made them do it!

Soooooo, basically everything is going great and we´re trying to plan on seeing at least a hundred more sights of Barcelona before we all have to leave! `The List´ is HUGE! I´m glad that I can at least share a little bit of everything with all of you...Night!

Making time for everything is impossible!

2007-06-16T03:20:00.001-07:00

But, its not like I´m complaining or anything like that. Yesterday the reunion went really great and I got off of work at around 8 pm. The time here is really different not only because of the traditional siesta but also because of the way the sun sets here. These folk stay up till like one or two in the morning everyday! And weekends? Well, friday and saturday night are meant for staying out till four or six in the morning... Party animals. Nothing actually starts till ten... We went to Gracia last night (sorry no pictures, my camera battery was charging) and had late night snacks at some random palestinian restaurant/bar (and the slashie award goes to....... Fabio, lol, I miss having a dvd player) where we got these gorgeous platters of hummus with spiced meat and cucmber dip... how do you call it?? Tzlatziki? You hungry? Okay, I make you something. It was aromatic and delicious and the mood was really kick back.

I really cannot believe that I´ve already been here two weeks and that I´ve only been here two weeks. Somethings are becoming second nature; like now I can ride the metro without gripping the handrails for dear life and somethings are still a little strange; like always missing the time that the stupid grocery store is open! What supermarket closes for siesta? Like, then, don´t call yourself a supermarket! Okay, Picture time!!

My Send Off Party... They look so happy to see me go.

I have three wonderful roomamtes; Nina (middle) and Monika (right), both from Germany and Daniele (not pictured tee hee), from Italy, Sardenia to be exact, I think. We live about three minutes walk away from the biggest park in the city Montjuic and there is a fountain show every weekend. We sit up on top of this huge hill where a museum is and we watch the show.

I know that I owe everyone way more pictures but I need to stop by the grocery store (before it closes!) and I am also running out of tiempo on this computadora. I miss everyone and I hope that you all are doing well and having a good summer. :) Hey Pankaj, thank you so much for the camera.... I wish you were here!

It´s been awhile.

2007-06-15T07:04:00.000-07:00

I thought orange would be a good color because I´m feeling pretty orange right now :) things are going great and I really couldn´t have asked for nicer roomies or better bosses here in the Catalunya. I think that the only thing I´m going to have a hard time with here is the fact that these people speak castellano and catalan... Its kind of confusing sometimes especially at work but that is a-okay because like I said before everything is pretty fantabulous :) I know that I promised some photos soon but the battery is down and I don´t have it with me right now but this weekend I will definitely make the time to put some pics up. I´ve been to Las Ramblas, Plaça Catalunya, the Barri Gotic (Gothic Quarter), and two different beaches. We also went to a few tapas bars and an incredible bocadillos place somewhere near or around Plaça Catalunya. We went exploring the Parc Montjuïc which is about 2 minutes behind our apartment building for hours yesterday... I´ve never seen so many different parks all together. They even had a free climbing tunnel, so I tried a few routes, and nearly tore my arms out of their sockets but I had a great time! Okay, tomorrow I will put up pics of all things Anna and Barcelona!!!

I Made It Alive!!!!!

2007-06-02T10:55:00.000-07:00

Although there were more then enough problems throughout the trip! When I first said goodbye to the familia at the airport, I felt like the trip was gonna go real smooth, but then the security guard made me take of all my bracelets and the thing still kept going off, so while they were ushering me (the obvious TWA) to the special area to get patted down, they didn´t run my box of stuff then claimed that I had lost them. I hate LAX security, like, really, really hate them. Dad woulda been a little annoyed that I lost the bracelet that he gave me and I hadn´t even made it across the security check yet!!! LOL!!! But everything was good. I sat next to a really funny guy on the way to London and then a really snobby woman on the flight to barcelona :) The food was aight and the timing was great. I think that I´m not really gonna have jet lag so that´s a good thing. Anyways... Ummmmmm so I took the airporter bus (aerobus) into town and dragged my massive luggage to my apartment where I met one of my roommates at the door outside. She let me in and we had good greet and meet times. She´s from Germany but will be leaving next week. There are two other roomies, a guy and another girl... it was about an hour ago that I met them so don´t ask me names!!!! Sorry :) We all have our own rooms, mine has a tiny balcony overlooking the main street. Its perfect... welllll... very tiny and kind ghetto but we can all remember the F Street apartment and ghetto is just fine with me! Okay, one of the roomies is supposed to take me grocery shopping or tell me where things are or something so ADIOS!!!!!!
Hi Mom!!! Hi Dad!! How are you doing??? Sonya, Smita, Gabe I miss you!!!!

Leaving!!!

2007-05-29T20:29:00.000-07:00

Hola Amigos!!! I am really gonna have to get used to using the spanish for the next few months... Yay! My trip to Barcelona begins and I am totally excited! I'll be working at a hospital with patients who have cancer and muscular dystrophy; I guess I'm gonna be doing a little of everything so I can't wait to go and start this new adventure. The bags are almost packed (although not completely so my Mom is definitely freaking out since my flight is in like a day) and everything in place. I'm going to attempt to explore as much of Barcelona and Spain as possible and then have a few excursions to other countries throughout my stay. I'm hoping to see my familia from England and maybe even see a few friends along the way :)

This is a map of of Barcelona (duh) and I am staying in the neighborhood of Montjuic near the Placa de Espanya... On the map its right above the huge green area on the left. My building is on the main avenue of Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes so now you should all have an idea of where I'll be sleepin' at night! The building is a typical apartment building but with the old Spanish flair to the outside architecture, I think I'm on the third floor, but you'll all be seeing pictures of that when I get there :)

Well, I think that I've got everything in order.... Mi dinero, mi casa, mi trabajo; now its just a matter of actually going there and taking advantage of everyday! Thanks to everyone who really helped me out with everything!!! Mom, Sonya, Smita and Dad, I'll miss you!