April 2011
4 posts
Barcelona Haikus (1)
pattyyeah:
Good morning ladies
Cerveza beer coke hasheesh?
I am the boss man
Independent Travel
I just returned from a brief tour of Andalusia! It was amazing. Spain is awesome, and it’s really striking the difference between north and south. I shouldn’t be surprised given my background, but it was definitely refreshing to have a change of pace. In Málaga we spent a lot of time napping on the beach and hanging out with cool people in our hostel. I learned a new paella recipe and...
April 14, 2011
Ran into a noisy protest against the privatization of healthcare today.
Leave early (this) morning for Malága till Sunday, followed by Cordoba and Granada. Returning to Barcelona April 21. Flying out to U.S.A. on the 24th.
Excited for this last round of travels, but can’t wait to be home.
Every night I listen for the sound of crickets chirping across the sea in South Carolina.
Cricket
India wins the ICC World Cup and the Raval neighborhood ERUPTS!
(Not to mention my Facebook newsfeed.)
I should really follow sports. Every time something important happens in the realm of Soccer or Cricket it sounds like the Apocalypse is starting in the streets.
March 2011
8 posts
I am tired of people and I miss trees.
Homesick Round #2. It’s April now which means only about 3 weeks left in Europe. It’s been an amazing experience and my brain is TOTALLY OVERLOADED with new things… in a good way.
But I am very tired of people. In general. And I miss trees and grass and clean air… the poor Spaniards are deprived of nature. Their idea of a park is compacted dirt and scrawny trees choked up...
Berliner Weiss
I found a beer i like, it’s called Berliner Weiss and it was invented by the French because they thought Germany’s beer was Le Gross. It tastes like fruit syrup with a hint of beer. Just my style… Last night Kenner found us on Museum Island and we went to the East Gallery and sat in a restaurant talking all evening.
We got to meet a local artist this morning and she showed off...
"Potsdam it's cold!"
My brain hurts. Germany is really neat and I’m so glad we got to come and I’m having a really good time here… but that good time includes a lot of very rushed meals and early mornings in congruence with Prof. Katrin’s “We don’t have much time, let’s not waste any” mantra. Truth be told most of the time is wasted by the inertia of hauling 21 people...
Absenteeism. Sauerkraut. I'll take spelling bee...
So I am basically way behind on blogging. I have pretty much Sparknoted Paris and I regret very much not having more time to write about Toledo and Madrid (since February). Then Carnival happened and we all went to Sitges (read: enormous party that destroys an entire town once a year) and it was amazing but I haven’t even mentioned it. In my defense I will say that Tumbr has a tendency to...
People I met in Paris
Nathan: Met in line to board my flight to Paris in the Barcelona airport. I asked the couple standing behind us in (broken) Spanish if we were boarding by rows and if I was in the correct group. When he heard me speaking English we started talking about Barcelona and Paris… he’s from Chicago, going to school in Colorado, and studying abroad in Paris, heading back from a week’s...
Brief study of photographic composition →
For one of my classes we had to show some examples of the basic principles of photographic composition.
I’ve been in design school for four years. This stuff is OLD NEWS. Nevertheless, the resulting blog post has some of my best photographs from study abroad so far. Check it out.
February 2011
13 posts
I speak two languages: English, and Foreign
A café in Paris...
Stranger: "Parlez-vous français?"
Me: "No."
Stranger: "Anglais?"
Me: "Sí."
Stranger: "Is the cheese good?"
Museo Prado
I wish I could tell my old Art History professor that I imagined her voice narrating my visit to the Prado Museum in Madrid.
More blogging later.
3 tags
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Tratando de ser integrada!
So I have been working on my integration into my host culture. This week I watched Cómo Entrenar a Tu Dragón with my Spanish friends (Gabriel, Sergi, Ramón) across the hall. It’s exactly like How to Train Your Dragon, except with your comprehension of dialogue scenes relying heavily on expressive animated body language and repeated keywords.
I also somewhat successfully cooked Spanish...
So happy
I stopped to listen to a music group playing in the street on the way home, and an old man grabbed my hand before I could think how to explain I didn’t know how. Next thing I know we were dancing for the tourists. It was close enough to Shag dancing that I didn’t even have to know moves — just follow the lead.
Day. Made.
Barfalona: la verdad honesta
Least Favorite things about Barcelona:
Being confronted by strangers in the street.
La Rambla (crowded street), in general.
Cigarette/marijuana smoke in my face.
Dog poop EVERYWHERE!
Seems dark even when it’s sunny.
Chick Fil A does not exist here.
I was warned about the Chick-fil-A cravings, but I didn’t believe it till yesterday, when the obsession hit. Zaxby’s, too. Gosh, Clemson,...
Sevilla y la Sociología
Humor me, I’m a Sociology minor.
This past weekend I took a trip to Sevilla (Seville to non-Spaniards) for a breath of fresh air. It’s a smaller city, so Ellis, Nathan, Colin, Melissa, Nick and I were able to comfortably explore the whole thing on foot in two days. I loved it. In part due to its size, Sevilla’s streets are wider and cleaner. Everything is very colorful and sunny, with the...
January 2011
35 posts
Mucho mejor que ayer!
Drank Sangria
Slept well
Wore more layers
Bought more comfortable shoes
Found chapstick (!)
Ate chicken
Made new friends
Talked to old friends
Used Spanish successfully
Walked around
Parc Ciutadella!
Spent time in the sunshine
Did a sketch
Goofed off on a water tower
Saw a gorgeous church
Hosted a successful potluck
Talked to Spanish friend
Fixed a lot of issues and I feel so...
Tired/cold/hungry/lonely
I want to go home.
Pointers.
IN CLEMSON: My mamma taught me good ol’ American manners of polite eye contact with everyone, including strangers. In Small-Town South, a smile or greeting is also acceptable.
BUT IN BARCELONA: Do not attempt! Making eye contact with a man — even accidentally, even for a fraction of a moment — yields a 120% chance of being addressed in an unappealing manner. (The extra 20% is...
the BAREFOOT BARCA! rwar: maternal instinct... →
ellistaylor:
a phenomenon has been happening to the clemson students here in Barcelona… at the sight of every child, puppy, and kitty we all melt and can’t help oooooh and aaaaaaaahing over the little angels (including the males of the group!). this sudden attraction to everything cute and adorable could be a…
So true! I think nurturing is a natural response to the need to be nurtured....
1 tag
La cena buena
Apartment A112 just pulled off our first successful potluck dinner! We pooled utensils and fashioned a makeshift table out of the door that fell off Ellis’ closet. My peers are great chefs/cheftesses. My green bean contribution was edible, too. There was plenty of food and conversation if not chairs.
This is definitely happening again.
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Social Networking Relationship History →
I made a video for my second CLAM assignment, check it out.
Looks like I may have to set aside my anti- (gerund) about (gerund) policy.
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Notas al azar II
I have always said that I will eat almost anything if it’s covered in chocolate; in support of my statement, I call to the witness stand the squid prepared in a chocolate-based sauce that I ate last night.
HOW TO EAT A CHOCOLATE SQUID: To eat a squid you must not look at it too long. Pop it in your mouth and think about something other than tentacles. It will be chewy and fishy-tasting...
Clamit.
So I am expected to blog about my initiation into CLAM: Cultural Literacy Across Media, because there are simply not enough acronyms in the world to make the University happy. It’s a course in which we maintain a blog for “Cross Cultural Awareness” credit back home in Tigertown. So far everything seems really… ah… obvious. From my perspective, it’s hard not to...
Perritos en el Parc.
Yesterday I went with Betsy, Ellis, and Melissa (BEM) to Parc Guell (Gaudi) and Sagrada Familia (also Gaudí). We started the morning right with coffee and milk at the cafeteria next door, then AMAZING baked goods for super cheap from the bakery we discovered nearby. Parc Guell is at the top of a huge hill/mountain which made it quite the hike. The weather was beautiful and we got some good...
1 tag
Los Primeros.
This week I have done the following things for the first time ever:
Took my first overseas/overnight flight
Saw 2,000-year old architecture in person
Went to IKEA for the first time (yes of course I had to come all the way to Spain for that)
Saw the Mediterranean Sea
Saw a tranny hooker
Ate (overpriced) paella (Spanish rice-based dish)
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Me gusta mucho el mar!
So i decided to open a restaruant in France for americans, called “Baguette and Forget it.” Only Americans would get the joke so it’d be like the cool place to be.
Also I met two cool Spanish guys from across the hall. They were so nice and talked to Ellis and me for a while. Computer engineering and mathematics majors… <3 NERRRRDS!
Then me and Ellis went with Liz...
3 tags
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Katrin y la cocina del Diablo
We had our first meeting today with our Field Studies and Seminar professor, Katrin (probs spelling it wrong). She is pretty much as neat-o as rumored. Mostly, I’m really glad this class will lend some context to the things I’m seeing here in Barcelona, and elsewhere. She asked us to go around the room and share our expectations for our study abroad here, and I realized once again...
Recipe: Ellis' Amazing Lemon Stir-Fry
How to make Ellis’ Amazing Lemon Stir-Fry:
Lena:
Grab your Spanish-English dictionary
Go to the market and buy zucchini, an impulse-buy red bell pepper, onion, and a lemon to season the fish.
Then go to the fish section and get creeped out by all the zombie crustaceans and nearly choke on the aroma of decaying marine animals. Decide to try fish another time.
Once home, begin cooking...
Om nom nom.
Tonight Aaron, Ellis, Nick, and two landscape students, Will and George, went to a steakhouse type restaurant by the beach. I ate chicken. Thank goodness. It’s the first time I’ve not been hungry since I came here… Between tiny convenience stores with questionable inventory, an overwhelming open air market, and lack of a “normal” grocery store, Ellis and I have...
3 tags
Watchellistaylor:
i give full copyrights to lena for this invention
washing dishes + slotted spoon + me = brilliant ideas.