We sure saw OLOT.

Friday and this morning I went to a small town in the pyrenees (the mountains) called Olot. Its "famous" for its surrounding volcanoes. I think theres like 7 in the area. They were, of course, all dormant. We got to this town after a two hour bus ride and after checking into our beautiful hostal, started to hike right away. We were trying to get up to this one volcanoe that was supposed to be about 2 hours away ish. The first 40 minutes were through back roads past farm houses and pretty large villa type houses. A few reminded me of Giulias house in Tuscany. We went a little bit past where we were supposed to turn up the moutain, which we discovered by talking to some guy riding by on his bike. We turned around and after I played with a cute little kitty and the boys stole some concord grapes off the vine we started uphill. As we were turning a corner we walked past a farm filled with sheep. And wouldnt you know it, one of them was giving birth! We stumbled upon them as the mom sheep was licking the placenta and goo off of the first one as stood there watching, sort of amazed that we were seeing this. Then, another little sheep just starts coming out. It seemed far less painful than human childbirth looks. the mom sheep just stood there. We finally got up to the national park after walking through some woods and fields and taking a few detours and realized it would be another 3 hour round trip to get up to summit or crater or whatever it is and back to the national park plus another 2 back down to the town. So we didnt go.

On the way back to the town we passed the sheep again, but all the other sheep were out in a feild somewhere being herded by babe or kiki and the only ones there were the mom and her two newborn babies. Both babies were walking around and making the cutest little noises. It was adorable.

Today we went up a slightly smaller peak where we actually saw the crater and it was all filled in by grass and folliage and not bubbling like i had hoped. There was also this church on the top. It was locked though- BUT THAT DIDNT STOP THESE ADVENTUROUS AMERICANS FROM GOING IN. We scaled a 10 foot wall and started to walk around this church. It was all very dangerous and exciting. We were about to stumble into what looked like the secret garden when instead we stumbled upon a naked man in the garden. He was like "Que Pasa" and started to say something else. I guess he threw on pants and started to yell at us to leave. Before I knew it Tim and ARlo had already jumped down over the wall and a scary woman was screamign at us in Catalan and probably saying some very mean things. So i threw my backpack down to them and jumped, also, nearly escaping the wrath of the curch watchers. There was another girl with us, Marina, who got too scared to jump. I guess she climbed off the wall back on to the grounds. we waited about a minute to see if she would come or else we were going to leave her dead, i guess. But they opened the gate for her to run out of and then we just bolted half way down the mountain. We laid pretty low the rest of the afternoon before our bus left, jsut incase there was some sort of warrant out for our arrest.

Tomorrow im going to the human tower competetion, where i guess we get to be part of a team????

Ramon Llull (or "How I'm way too cynical for europe" )

So i realized I havent told anyone much about the WONDERFUL experience im having here in the dorm.

First of all, 90% of the kids here are first years, which means 17 and 18 and have never been away from home. Because of the amount of first years, the slightly older (19yearolds) kids decide its proper to HAZE them. THis includes public humiliation, shaving cream on door handles, running around at 4:45 am and banging on doors, and the latest development, completely trashing peoples rooms. Like turning over and breaking their beds, throwing their clothes around, soap on the floor. We're talking parent trap at summer camp type of stuff here. Luckily, my room did not suffer trashing, but we did have some shaving cream on our door handle. And I do have trouble falling asleep almost every night because the echo in the hallway makes the 17 year old girls gossiping sound like hawks flying by. so much for "quite hours after 11pm," which is what they told us the first few days. I think my RA thinks im a total B**** because he interviewed me last night (along with all the other IES kids in the dorm) to see how we are doing. I was all like "What about quiet hours" and "My spanish teacher is bad" and "Is there anyway to get remote for the sala de tv?" Well not that last one, but whatever.

And then there are the dining hall rules:

You cant get up until your whole table is done eating. (tables fit about 20 people) and if you get up they tap on their glasses to draw attention to you.
You cant talk on your cell phone.
You cant have seconds on anything.
(Up to this point the rules are more or less common courtesy, however...)
If you get yogurt you HAVE to have it face down on your tray until you eat it. If not someone else at your table can stab their knife (possibly with food on it) into your yogurt top.
You cant walk down the middle aisle, ever. Why is it even there, then?


Just the tiny cultural differences that make up the experience, I guess.

St Merce Pics

I didnt take THAT many pictures this past weekend, in fear of losing/ruining another camera.

St Merce

This weekend was a huge fiesta here in Barcelona. Probably the largest of the year. It was the celebration of La Merce, who is the patroness of barcelona. There were about a million events all weekend including fireworks everynight, lots and lots of live music, a small carnival and parades. Friday night the festival was opened by the procession of these huge giant puppets. They all walked to one of the placas where they then took turns dancing on the stage. They were very tall, so you could still see their dances to the live orchestra behind them over the millions of people. We ended up trying to walk somewhere but got sucked in by another parade with lots of drum lines and other mythical beats being carried on peoples back. Towards the end of the parade myself as well as ALL OF BARCELONA joined in this parade and danced down the street to the placa where it was surrposed to end up. It was probably took a good 45minutes to walk a few blocks. It was like post 3rd of July fireworks times 4 as far as the size of the crowd, but everyone was happy and dancing and singing and chanting and it was suprising less scary then you would think.

The cherry on top of this whole festival is the FIRE RUN on saturday night. This is a parade with all the same mythical creatures as the earlier parades, except now they're spitting fire and fire crackers into the crowds and audience and making a hell of alot noise and smoke. You cant go to this parade unless every inch of your body is covered. There were little kids with bandanas over their faces and people with crazy layers. The demons would walk by holding these huge staffs with fire crackers/dynamite? attached to the ends and would like them and send sparks everywhere. If youre man enoguh you run into the street and dance under the sparks and risk losing all your hair. The slightly less brave ones stand on the side covering their mouths form the sulfur smoke and risk the occasional crazy demon who will jsut run off the parade route and light their fire crackers off in the middle of the scared women and children. It was absolutly crazy. I had a little skin showing so I didnt feel capable of dancing RIGHT under the fire, but I did get a few sparks on me. I cant get over it, they were just shooting fire into large groups of people. it seems like some sort of liability issue or SOMETHING.

Today is the last day of the festival and its slightly more tame. I think the only thing going on tonight is the largest of the fire works displays. Im a little fired out so i dont know if ill make it, but im sure it will be spectacular.

xocolata*

(*a combined blog entry by Zoe Schwartz and Arlo Furst (my friend))

Don Peringchocolate.

It was a blustery sunday night on the weeked of the festival of St. Merce (more on this later). Two lonely americans were rushed through their dinner by the cold hearted spanish students they shared an abode with. Upon leaving the dining hall, they realized they were STILL HUNGRY. To the community couches they went, debating what the evenings activites should be. Tito turned to Lola and said "Wanna go get hot chocolate?" What Tito did not know was that in ESPANA hot chocolate, or choc-o-latay, is literally JUST CHOCOLATE.

As the two sat down at a quaint neighbor hood cafe, to their surprise, the cups in front of them were filled to the brim with a dark liquid, the kind dreams are made of. Chocolate. Literally, just melted chocolate. Tito dug in. Lola began to, however it was practically unable to be consumed with out using a spoon for assistance. Nourished by soley melted chocolate, they became lathargic and slightly giddy. Que the begining of Tito and Lola's chocolate high. Lola met much defernce in her quest to finish her cup of chocolate, but didnt feel too bad, because it was just chocolate.

Our two brave Americans, always with liberty on their minds, came home to share the news with eager ears back on their home land. They hoped that the chocolate crusade would end with the ball in their court. That is, of course, the chocolate ball.

Later that night Tito woke up in his small narrow bed sweating chocolate. Lola had night terrors she was being consumed by chocolate dragons who also spat fire.

The End

(All names have been changed)

talk about AMERICAN.

i had been eating a little nutella and some crackers in my room a few minutes ago and then i walked to the bathroom and said hi to two girls and then hi to one girl in the bathroom and as i was washing my hands i realized i had chocolate all over the side of my face. im not really sure how it got there. i also had it on my leg.

i walked for four hours earlier

yesterday a little girl came up to me and stole some bread from me. today i made a friend at a clothing store who is from brazil. i also almost got killed by a pigeon and signed up for a salsa class.

Misterlee a China

WHAT A WEEKEND.

we went on a whirl wind crazt tour of catalunya as an orientation trip.

FRIDAY:

Load on the bus with lots and lots of other people. most of who are idiots. this trip only validated my previous statement about 80% of the IES population being "tools" and by the way xan, they dont they are tools, they probably think that I AM the idiot because im interested in the things we were doing and i dont want to take this experience for granted and do other things beside getting so wasted and then sleeping through the day.

Anyway, first we go to Girona. It is a medieval city with winding streets and a big jewish quarter. hence the nickname JEWrona. There was also a chapel and some arab bath houses.

Then we went to the hotel in an town called Roses. We had some free time there and in the evening watched a ridiculous show at the hotel called Mysteries of China. It involved every cultural stereotype of china including a big dragon, a body contortionist, a guy balancing on a stick, a girl spinning a vase and a table on her feet, swordfighting, gymnatics, and lots and lots of brightly colored spandex and sequin costumes. Katie and Ruth- you would have died.

SATURDAY:

In the morning we went to a town called Besalu. It was another small town with winding roads, but even more medieval and inside a big stone wall over a big bridge, still. The town had some really interesting architecture including some chairs attached to the sides of buildings. The town was still functional which seemed crazy to me. Somehow cars fit on the sttreets and people still managed to live with cobble stone streets.

Then we went to Colliure in the south of france, which is technically still a part of catalunya. Let me tell you, that semester of french didnt do a thing. I couldnt even remember how to say please. We only had 3 hours to wander around the town. It was soooo beautiful. It almost reminded me of a warf or fishermans town, except with rows of bright colored houses with turquoise shutters and drain pipes with little facces on them. It was raining and over cast while we were there, but it seemed almost fitting. I think at one point i described it as the capeside (the town in dawsons creek) of france. I ate cheese for lunch while we were there, it as pretty good.

Ive had a pretty bad cold the last few days, so i didnt really do anything too exciting saturday night except watch xmen in spanish on tv. its funny because it didnt matter. there is basically no dialogue in that movie, but you dont realize it until every 15minutes someone says one line in spanish. But apparently there was a bar in the town we were in called Ganster's Paradise that everyone was going to.

SUNDAY:

We went to some small town with ruins. at this point i was so tired of being with the group and so stuffed up i wasnt really paying attention. and also it was our tour guide's first tour and she was really nervous and barely spoke english. (she was trying to do the tour in english)


Over all it was a good trip and i met some very cool people that i probably would have through just class. It was just awful traveling so much with like 200 people.


I also have roommates now. Judit and Monica. THEY ARE 17 and 18!!!!! THATS SO LITTLE! i think most of the people in the dorm are around that age, which seems like years ago to me. Alot of the kids in the dorm seem kind of immature and loud and slightly abnoxious. Although, maybe im judging too quickly. Hopefully soon ill meet some spanish people closer to my mental age (25?) and become best friends and drive on their motos and go on vacations to exotic places that they'll pay for. very soon.

pictures to follow in upcoming post.

Sitges, etc.

Around Town




You can spot the americans by their pasty legs.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!

getting up there, ay ol broad?

we finally have wireless at our dorm, however it keeps going in and out or working, and everytime i try to upload pictures here or facebook it just stops working, and at that point im too frustrated to even write.

well my first week of classes has gone very well. They all seem interesting, more or less. all of the teachers speak english but its their second language, so there are some gaps in communication. I might try to change one class, but well see. we dont even have books, we have readers which have all of the readings for the semester in them, so for 2 of them it was only 30euro, so its much much much less expensive than books at home.

I guess september is the month of rains. its basically the equivelant to monsoon season in india. its been pouring non stop for the past 3 days. constantly. there are also these huge claps of thunder that echo off the mountains and are a little bit scary.

tomorrow were going on our orientation trip to costa brava and the south of france. It should be fun. Im a little worried about the company though, because ill be with EVERYONE from IES, and alot of these kids are T-O-O-L-S. they dont care about integrating into the culture or eatign the food or branching out or getting out of their comfort zone or traveling. their here only to live like they do at home as much as they can and party as much as possible. not everyone. but alot of people.

we booked our flight to paris. im excited about that! and soon ill see natalie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
and katie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so pictures soon, i promise.

SO today september 11th is a nationalistic holiday here. There have been alot of demonstrations and stuff going on on the street and a million Catalan flags flying proudly.

I went to a beautiful beach town on saturday called sitges. It was the epitomy of mediteranean. The sand felt like silk and the water was warm and clear. We just hung out on the beach and then walked around a bit through the winding roads.

Later that night I went to a Jazz Club with two other Americans to see this little brazillian band. they were really good. They played for awhile and everyone was dancing and getting sweaty. It was also so smokey in there that we all left feeling like our eyes were goingto explode because they stung so much. just one more thing to get used to.

The other afternoon we thought we found a poster for a show of this lebanese hip hop artisit M.I.A. who is really really good, but there was very little information on it, except the date. so long sotry short, we ended up at the venue we were pretty sure it was not knowing what time it was or how much it cost, and it ended up being some random DJ named Mia. Not MIA. so there that is.

tonight im going to a show at the opera house which should be really exciting. i ahve alot of pictures, so expect those soon. classes start tomorrow so it will be nice to get on some sort of schedule. hopefully theyll be interesting. we´ll see!

italiano?

People keep thinking im italian!!!

This italian family on the metro on my way here asked me if i was and then these two younger girls who knew a little little bit of english were talking to me for a few minutes, and for some reason asked my mothers name....then as i left the metro there was a younger guy playing can you feel the love tonight from the lion king.

classes start tuesday. im dying for some schedule in my life. i was going to say "i need to use my brain" but then realized thats all ive been doing since ive gotten here. Not that many people speak catalan that ive encountered, and if they do, they also speak castillian. Its difficult to understand either language when they talk so damn fast... most ofthe kids in my dorm arent actually from barcelona, their from other parts of spain, so they dont even speak a little catalan. no roomates yet. maybe today, maybe tomorrow...but soon i bet.

im onmy laptop right now at the IES computer lab and my ichat isnt working...i dont know if it will work at the dorm or not!!!! AHHHH!!!

i went out last night for thefrist time. we didnt really have a "barcelona" night yet (staying out to 6 or 7) but we did drink very delicious sangria and eat tapas at a very cool bar off of las ramblas called L'ovella negra. (the black sheep)

There was a raffle at ies for 4 tickets to the Liceu Opera house to see this dance and music show on monday night and i won one!!! the only raffle ive ever won!!! The funny thing is so did Tim Granholm (the guy from OPRF) and this other girl we were talking to at the time they were pickign the numbers. it was very strange.

ok here are some pictures.


Parc Guell

muchos palomas

So I dont want to brag, but my spanish is pretty great. Its alot easier than I thought it would be. im also speaking it 80% of the time so that helps a bit. my spanish roommates have not moved in yet. But when they do....yikes!

Yo tengo una pregunta, does anyone read this besides my mom and extended family?

I went to Parc Guell yesterday. It was pretty crazy. CRAZY. Ill post some pictures as soon as i can. Its like being in a tim burton movie or that version of rodger and hammersteins cinderella with brandy where they modeled the town after gaudi´s architecture. I definitly want to go back, maybe with some touristy friends, ie katie mcnish or natalie smith.

oh snap, this girl across the computer lab from me is crying and talking to someone about how much she hates everythign here. at least that aint me. Im loving it. now that im pretty much un jet lagged everything is feeling much more real, less hazy. Ive been a little hectic though because i feel like i always need to be doing something exciting or touristy or cutlural and not jsut hanging out or relaxing. im sure once classes start ill get into somesort of schedule or pattern or groove or whatever.

i think that this saturday im going to take a day trip to some surronding city in catalunya. and then we have our orientation trip the next weekend. and then the next weekend is a big festival here with fire spitting dragons and catelleras(human towers), etc. and then the next sunday im going to a castelleras COMPETITION where there are lots of people building human towers, seeing who can get the tallest or stay up the longest. then the next weekend i think i might go to paris with a few of my superficial dorm friends...unless for some reason natalie wants to go....and then the next weekend is fall break and ill be in london and prague. that as far as ive gotten so far.

adios.

Lordy lordy i love gaudi

a little wall decoration in the hallway of my gothic dorm

La Sagrada Fmailia

my feet walking down the LOCO spiral staircase at La Sagrada Familia. Its not as many steps as the Duomo was, but its swirly all the way down. id like to thank lisa dixon for the tip of looking at the palm of you hand when you get dizzy.

a bad ass shadow of the entire place on the park directly in front of it

my friends arlo (in the hat) and tim (the other one) who ive been dragging touristy places with me.

a tree with a cross and doves right next tothe bridge 60km in the air you walk across to get to the stairs.

yeah, hes pretty great.

thanks for all the comments, y'all.

yesterday I bought some hangers, and a lamp and a CAMERAAAA!!! so here are some pictures.

the view from the water

so yes stuff is getting much better, as we all knew it would.

the city is BEAUTIFUL. I went to the picasso museum yesterday and it was so so interesting. i loved seeing his work progrss from when he was like 9 or 10 to the more ¨contemporary¨stuff. actually the paintings from when he was much much younger remind me alot of laura collins´stuff. really small and precise with lots of attention to detail and cute little birds and stuff. sorry im not being more eloquent or spelling things correctly but im in the IES center and there are about a million people waiting for computers.

i also had my first beach experience yesterday which was lovely. the water is amazing. it LITERALLY sparkles and when you come out you are sparkly. and the view from the water is absolutly indescribable. you can see the whole city and the miles and miles of beaches that were completely covered by people. its great. i just found out tofay about all these extracurricular activites i can do, like slasa lessons and a cooking or wine tasting session, and goingto see castellers, the people who build towers in a competition not too far from here. i cant wait to start traveling.

i would prefer the cat poster mom. definitly. i always had a problem with the dogs playing poker because thye have NO THUMBS!!!!

at the beach yesterday my friend kirsten and 3 of her friends all from u of i brought along 4 italian guys they met at the disco the night before. their names were fabrizio, gabrielle, giovanni, and giovanni. they were cheesy beyond all belief. staring at these girls, buying them flowers, etc etc. but very funny.

well i think im going to give up my computer to the public, but hopefully soon ill have more frequent internet access.

ahhh

ay yi yi yi

so here i am in barcelona!

im not totally on my feet yet. its a big bad world out there full of sleepless nights and panic attacks when you cant speak the language and you dont know anyone orwhere anything is. we went on a bus tour today which was a nice summary of the city. and i would have taken some pictures to post except my digital camera was STOLEN from my checked luggage!!!!! CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT! i jsut bought it also. now i have to buy another one, because i have to be able to take lots of pictures of me and natalie in front of funny things or playing with small animals((FRED!!! SEND TINYCAT PLEASE I NEED HIM!!!!!) when were traveling...
im hoping ill get some sleep tonight and go to some of the touristy places tomorrow, or maybe a museum, although im not sure whats going to be open.

right now im in an internet cafe surrounded by 12 year old boys playing some shooting video game and all tlaking on headsets, perhaps to eachother? its also so hot in here im scared their talking is taking up all the air. its also really hot everywhere. im cant wait to go to the beach (with my friends?) and get in that supposedly warm but refershing mediteranean water.

as soon as i get a bit more comfortable with the language and start going more places im sure ill feel a little better. i found a good lunch place today where i had this really good sandwich with avocado brie chicken and some tomatoy sauce thing. i had lunch with this boy arlow. he goes to colorado college and knows alex! he seems nice? but anyone remember dorm friends? the ones you make for the first few weeks before you make real friends? i do. thats why 90% of allen hall isnt reading this...

we dont get wireless in the dorm until ¨maybe monday, and if not then mid september, and if not then by october¨the RA oscar said nonchalantly. I sort of got a little panic attack when i thought aabout not being able to talk on AIM until october. WHO AM I!? so ill write more maybe monday, maybe mid september, or maybe october. who knows?

love you all!