Cultural Project de España

As part of our final grades, we had to choose a part of Spanish culture to research and present. I chose Flamenco. Check it out:

Pretty cool, huh?

Loca, Loca, Loca- Barcelona 2011

As my time in Barcelona is winding down, I find myself looking back on my weeks here and planning for the final one. 

If there could be an anthem to the trip, it would have to be Shakira's "Loca." This trip has been a crazy life-changing experience for me and has made me crazy for the city of Barcelona. 

Coincidentally, the video for "Loca" was shot in Barcelona, and as you watch, you can see many of the places I have come to know so well. 

This is Barcelona: my home for six weeks and one of the most amazing places on earth. Me encanta Barcelona. It has made me loca, loca, loca. 

 

 

Also one great memory of this song and this city: dancing and singing "Loca" with a little Spanish girl when we stopped in a restaurant after coming from the beach. So cute:)

Parc Güell... the face of Barcelona

In 1900, the famous Spanish and Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi was commissioned to design a project on the plot of land that is now Parc Güell. 1922, the Barcelona Municipal Court purchased it and made it into a public park.

If you have seen any movie that has filmed scenes in Barcelona, then I guarantee that you have seen parts of Parc Güell.  A fan of ANTM? Remember Cycle 7 Season Finale runway? That was Parc Güell...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPNwpFhes_g&feature=related

Some movie's that have scenes of filmed in Parc Güell:

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

 Scarlett Johansson and Javier Bardem filmed a scene in front of the dragon statue at the beginning of the park.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona                 barcelonamovie.com

Me by the same dragon statue

Disney Channel's The Cheetah Girls 2

The movie takes place in Barcelona, with certain scenes shot in the park, including the video sequence for a song in the movie. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZpSOSfymV4

L'auberge Espagnole- The Spanish Apartment

This movie mentions and shows views of the park many times throughout the movie, including scenes in which the characters sit on the plaza bench. 

L'auberge Espagnole             http://been-seen.com/archive/3015.jpg

 

Besides being an amazing location for movie scenes, Parc Güell is full of amazing sights, hiking trails, and at the top of the hill, one of the most amazing panoramic views of Barcelona. On the park grounds lies Gaudi's house where he lived with his niece for many years. The house is now a museum, Casa Museo de Gaudi. 

Entrance to the Park

View from the plaza

Casa Museo Gaudi

Costa Brava, Day 3

After a long day and night, I had to get up early in order to join the group and watch the sunrise over the Mediterranean. We met along the walls of a castle by the beach and anxiously awaited the glorious ball of light slowly rising above the mountains. The glow reflected off the water, making the most beautiful pink streak of light. 

 

After witnessing this glorious sight, I went back to bed for a couple hours. Later that morning we checked out of our hotel and had the rest of our days to ourselves. A group and I went to a small beach (that must be relatively unknown to tourist) just below the castle. After a few hours we found a place for lunch, then went back to meet up with he rest of the group to return home to Barcelona. We loaded up the bus and after about a two hour bus ride, we were home--exhausted, but home. 

After our great weekend, reality hit in, and I had to finish up some last minute homework and reading for Monday.

Costa Brava, Day 2

I spent the day on the beach of Tossa de Mar unable to even walk through the bundles of bodies lying on the rocky sand. The beach and the water was so crowded, our group could hardly find a spot to lay our towels out. The course sand was hard to walk on and felt like knives cutting the bottom of my feet. Lying out on my towel, however, was nice, feeling the hot sun. On the beach I was surrounded by people: topless women, men in Speedos, and tons of kids running around, many of the little ones naked. 
After a while, I went into the water, slowly at first, feeling the sting of cold take over my feet with each wave. Then I just let it all go and jumped in, head first. The energy of the waves pushing against my body felt incredible. When I came up, I realized how salty the water was; it had gotten into my mouth, nose, and eyes. While the super salty water made it easy to float, it also made it hard to stay in the water for very long. 
We spent hours on the beach and then went back to our hotel to rest, eat, and plan for the night ahead. Later a small group and I went out to a local bar called Don Juan and had a good time talking and drinking Sangria. Afterward, we went to the beach to lay under the stars.

Dalí, Empúries, y Tossa de Mar

This morning I woke up after a night of studying for a quiz at 9am this morning. After finishing with class, our group loaded up on a bus and headed toward Tossa de Mar. 

After about an hour of driving, we stopped in the hometown of artist Salvador Dalí, Figueres. Dalí built his museum on the ruins of an old theater bombed during the Spanish Civil War. It houses many of his works, including some rather strange pieces of artwork that could only be Dalí. I was in heaven. Walking through the maze like building surrounded by his surrealist art was a dream. Also, I got to see the artist himself, considering his crypt is located within the museum. I loved it:)

After our stop at the museum, we got back on the bus and next stopped at the ancient town of Empúries, founded by the Greeks and later occupied by the Romans. We took a tour through the ruins from a very charming tour guide. I sadly only understood a fraction of what he was saying about the history of the structures because he spoke Spanish, but it was interesting nonetheless. At the city gates, our guide pointed out the figure of a huge pene (I'll let you translate that one on your own) carved into the wall. He said this was used as an intimidation factor to tell enemies that the city was well-endowed and prosperous. 

A statue of Asclepius, the Greek god of healing, found at the ruins

The tour was long and informative, but most of us couldn't absorb the information. Right next to the ruins was the most beautiful beach with powder fine sand and the bluest water. After some time there, we loaded back up onto the bus and headed to our final destination Tossa. Finally reaching our hotel was a welcome relief because even though it was only dinner time, we had had a busy event-packed day. But there was no time to rest. We had a huge dinner at the hotel and then explored our area. The streets here are a tourist paradise filled with shops upon shops of souvenirs and beach apparel. As the sun was setting we headed to the beach and spent the night relaxing under a blanket of stars next to the beautiful Mediterranean with a lighted castle along the shoreline illuminating the dark.

Things I've encountered in Spain...

On the Metro, when the doors close, people will start announcing, "Señors y Señoras..." They go on to explain that they are unemployed and don't want to have to beg on the streets or steal our belongings. They ask instead that we buy their tissues. They then walk through the train car until the next stop. 

 

There are a lot of bikes, and people ride them everywhere. This is a picture of a bike rental dropoff/pickup spot.

A cry for Cataluña independence.

Spain has different languages in different parts of the country representing very diverse groups of people. After the Spanish Civil War, la guerra civil, general Francisco Franco took power. During his 40 year long dictatorship, regional languages, including Catalan, Euskera, and Galician, were outlawed. The only permitted language was Castilian, Castellano (Spanish). 

Because of this even today, Cataluña and Catalan speakers separate themselves from the rest of Spain and Castellano speakers. Some Catalans want complete independence from Spain. They see Spanish as the language of Spain, a country they are not, and do not want to be, a part of. 

While here in Cataluña, I have experienced that some people, traditional Catalan speakers, would rather talk to us in English than in Spanish. One of our GTAs, Elizabeth tried to talk to a taxi driver in Spanish, but he would only talk to her in English. He then asked if she was from Spain. She replied no, that she is from Mexico. The cab driver then would talk to her in Spanish. He had first thought she was from another part of Spain, perhaps Madrid.

Sign translation: "F*** the police"

Translation: "We all have witch's eyes"

First Day of Class in España

I woke up at 8am for class at 9, went and got breakfast, and found my classroom. Our first class was with Raciel, and with him, we talked about Pablo Picasso and more specifically his painting El Guernica. It was fascinating to talk about the art and history of Spain in Spanish. 

We then took a break and reconvened class with Jennifer. She went over the logistics of it all and got us introduced to our first section. I knew this class was going to be a lot of work, but when she mentioned that we were cramming two semesters of Spanish into five weeks, I felt a little overwhelmed. However, I feel that I can take on this class, this language and this city. 

After class, my roommate Emilee and I went to find some lunch. We stumbled upon an upscale mall and inside was a Burger King. Feeling that it was ok to eat American food on the fourth of July, we gave in to our cravings of home. It was fun to order Burger King food in Spanish, and the guy taking our order had an interesting name, Luis Emilio (shout out to mi novio, Emilio:). We ate and then headed back, walking in circles before finally navigating ourselves and arriving home. I then took a look at our homework and took a much needed siesta. Waking up, I felt much better (still somewhat jet lagged) and having issues with my internet, went in search of a solution. I was so proud of myself since I had to use Spanish to talk to the dorm workers in order to solve my problem. 

As it got later, Marit and I went out to eat. We found a sushi place and enjoyed sushi, green tea ice cream, and cappuccino. We leisurely talked and ate slowly, enjoying the slower pace of life in Barcelona. We then walked the lit streets as darkness fell, stopping at a cafe for a CocaCola. We then went back and  finished our homework. I am now looking forward to a good night's rest and an exciting day tomorrow.:)

Caza del Tesoro

On Sunday, we were split into groups to go on a scavenger hunt around the city. They staggered our departure times as to not have us all end up in one big group. Well, my group was supposed to leave at 12:35 and meet in the lobby. At that time, however, no one showed up. So I waited. And I knocked on doors. My group was gone. So I found our instructors and they were like, "Oh, we though everyone had gone. No one's here." But they couldn't just send me out into the city by myself. I was starting to fear that I would be stuck inside the dorm all day. Then they told me that one girl had overslept and could be my partner. So a groggy and embarrassed Libby and I started for the streets of Barcelona. We ran into Catherine and Marit, another group of two, and teamed up. After figuring out the metro system (which Libby kept commenting was so much better than the L in Chicago, where she is from), we rode to different locations around the city. We first emerged into beautiful Placa Catalunya. It was bustling with tourist and filled with beautiful architecture, fountains, and statues. 

We walked around taking in the sites and sounds and people of the city. I am constantly surprised of the diversity of the people living in this city. I am also surprised by how friendly and helpful they are. Whoever you ask for directions on the street will stop and try to help as best they can considering the language barrier. 

We ate a small lunch at a quaint cafe and then walked through a shopping district. We found the marina, filled with boats form all over the world docked in the port. Knowing we were seeing the Mediterranean, we asked directions to the beach. We then spent a few hours sitting on the beach. People constantly bombarded us asking us to buy things, such as sarongs, henna tattoos, massages, and coconut. Marit and Libby went swimming in the water and loved it, while Catherine and I sat in the sand watching people. 

When we left the beach, we took a bus to the nearest underground Metro location and got on the train. Through a lot of riding and getting off and realizing we had no idea where we were, Libby finally got us set straight. We got off at our stop and tried to find our way back to our dorm. We must have been walking in circles, however, and we were constantly asking people directions. Yet nobody knew where we were talking about. So we hailed a cab, knowing we were close but not knowing how to get there (and considering it was 11pm, we just wanted to be home). Our cab driver didn't even know where to take us and had to look on his map for a while before he even knew where to go. We were finally dropped off, and I went back to my room. When I was unpacking my bag, I realized my camera, which I know I had a half hour ago, wasn't in my bag. I started freaking out, thinking of all the pictures I had taken that day and how I would need a camera for the rest of the trip. Also, I was so upset at myself that I had lost such a prized possession. I think now that I either dropped it in the cab, or the more likely case, it was pick pocketed when we were asking directions.

After a much needed talk from my mom, I went to bed, hoping for a better day tomorrow.

Barcelona First Impressions

Our plane landed in Barcelona 9am local time. I had tried to sleep on the plane knowing that I was losing time and had a whole day in Barcelona ahead of me. After collecting our baggage, our group had to locate our rendezvous point; all we knew was to go to terminal 2B and look for the huge statue of a horse. Well, we were in terminal 1 and had to take a shuttle to terminal 2 which was located farther away than I ever imagined. We were on the bus for about 10 maybe 15 minutes and were dropped off at terminal 2B.

We entered the terminal and in search of the estatua del caballo,  we walked what seemed like a mile through a rush of international passengers, each of us lugging one or two huge rolling suitcases plus backpacks behind us. Finally, we spotted the statue. I remember turning to the girl next to me and saying, "I've never been so happy to see a horse in my life."

We spotted our director Isidro and all gathered around him. After checking that everyone was present (with help from our GTAs Elizabeth and Jennifer), we headed to the bus loading docks. Ironically this was located on the other side of the terminal (where we had been dropped off by the shuttle). So we walked back...and we walked...and we walked. Just at the point when I thought my arms would fall off from exhaustion from my heavy suitcases, we stopped in front of the buses. However, our bus wasn't there. So Isidro called our driver, and we waited under palm trees, each of us tired and our luggage sprawled on the sidewalk. Groups of tourists from all over, considering I heard probably five different languages spoken, kept passing us to get on buses. When our bus arrived, we loaded up our luggage and climbed on board, thankful to be heading to our residencia. 

It was approximately a 20min drive from the airport to our residencia. The whole drive I was captivated by the sights of the city. I constantly looked out the window, capturing glimpses of unique shops as the bus navigated easily through the narrow streets. When we arrived at Collegi Sant Jordi, our home for the next six weeks, we unloaded and waited in the lobby as our directors sorted out room keys. After all that, we were sent to our rooms to unpack and relax. At about 1pm Barcelona time, my roommate Emilee and I ventured out to see if we could meet up with others to go find someplace to eat. We joined a group and set out into the streets of Barcelona. We found a row of cafes and quickly sat down as we were all thirsty hungry. After ordering water (thankfully we knew how to say we wanted aqua), we sat under an umbrella covered table enjoying the cool breeze. I people-watched and was fascinated by the diversity of the people in the city. Not only is Barcelona full of different types of people, but it is also home to many different languages. We were told that throughout the city you can here Spanish, English, French, and even German. The local language, Catalan is kind of a mixture of French and Spanish. 

First meal: Cocas con tomate

After getting some food, we headed back to our rooms to get some rest. I was so thankful for the much needed nap. We then had a group meeting to discuss details. 

Tomorrow we are being sent out into the city on a caza del tesoro (scavenger hunt)

Espero...

Waiting. Normally, I would say I'm a pretty patient person. In this case, that isn't true. In less than two weeks I will be boarding a plane (and after a layover in Atl) landing in Barcelona, España. I've had my bags packed for a month...

So I am stuck waiting for my adventure to begin, and considering I've never been out of the country or really ever traveled on my own, it will be both exciting and scary. But as made apparent by my hugely over-packed suitcase, I'm ready!

While in Spain, I will be taking a Spanish language course for credit through KU, while also being thrown in the midst of a city and language I don't know. ¡No hablo español! Ok, I know a little, and by a little I mean three years of high school Spanish and a semester at college. Still I feel completely inadequate with the language. Hopefully that will improve over the six weeks I'm there.

Also, my genealogy and my family name Fuentez (Fuentes) traces back to Spain. Families with this name were established in Catalonia, and at the heart of Catalonia is the capital city of Barcelona. So perhaps I will run into some of mi familia while over there... es posible.

My journey begins July 1 when I leave KCI airport, and (thanks to the time difference) I won't arrive in Barcelona until July 2.

I'll keep ya posted!!