pig in a blanket.

Time : 10:50pm


Location : my chill space

Weather : finally nice!!



Today had a great start, well, a couple hours in, when I went over to Evelin’s for a brunch. It was so delicious. We had a little tex mex going on and we sat outside in the sun. Eating outside, such a good way to start a Friday especially after a week (or two) of rain and wind.

brunching it outside

Once again we had a really small class, only four of us. But I guess this is just to be expected from now on. I really wish we had a larger class, but what can you do? Besides, I only have three weeks of class left.

On the plus side, I did an incredible job of incorporating our many grammatical and speaking skills into what I was saying during class. Even if what I am saying now I not all that great. Hopefully it makes up for this, as well as for yesterday.

it was delicious

Later in the evening Evelin and I went to institute. The mass amount of traffic on the way made us a wee bit late. The activity after the lesson was quite fun; a cocktail soiree. We got to mix all kinds juices together, and there were fruits and little umbrella like things too, which is fun. ALSO. I had my FIRST pig in a blanket. I never knew what I was missing out on all my life. I wonder if pigs in a blanket would be a friendly item for supper.

Ok, so I am obviously really tired, and this is not working out.

BUT. I have exciting plans for tomorrow, so hopefully that will work out!

11:09 pm

no green beans.

Time : 9:03pm


Location: sitting in my room

Weather : well, it didn’t rain today



I did not process that it was Saint Patrick’s day until I had gotten dressed, fully without any green on, and I did not feel like changing. I also felt like I had no green to wear. If you know me, this is not the case at all seeing as I could be green right down to my socks. Oh well. I’ll just wear some tomorrow.

I took the morning off from the gym. My triceps were screaming at me when I woke up, so I took this as a sign to lay low for the day. Which was kind of a good decision. Not that it was bad, but well, laying low is laying low and always results in me being laundry.

I was really pumped up when I went to class. The sun was shining, the Thursday market, which again took me by surprise, was full of clothes and seeing as I had no cash on hand I browsed freely with Evelin without the awful temptation to buy. Then we strayed into a shop, then another, and another, and I found a shirt that I have to buy. But we were almost late for class so I did not. But I will.

There is something about Class that just makes me tired. This tired comes in many ways, one of them being my French grammar and ability to put together a decent sentence goes out the window. I also can not process listening activities one bit. To add to the off-ness of the afternoon, we were three as a class, plus the teacher. Au-pairs are dedicated students and apart from our travels, we never miss a class.

On the way home, on the ever over flowing bus, my mukluks got noticed and sparked a conversation. Apparently I look Moroccan, but wait, I speak English. I caught a kid looking at me, so I said CANADA very slowly so he (and I) could process it. This then sparked a conversation with a curious young lad with just how cold it is in Canada and how hot it is here. A smart girl noted that since it is so hot here I shouldn’t have to be wearing such warm boots. I was tempted to inform her that she was wearing a parka.

In the Petit Casino (grocery store) I came across something amazing: Canada Dry. Evelin had never tried it, so I was obliged to buy it and make her try it. I am going to say we are still undecided on whether or not it was a hit. Maybe tomorrow at brunch it will be. Fingers are crossed.

The evening was not overly interesting. At all.

I was looking forward to a little St. Patty’s cheer in my day, but well, it didn’t happen. I mean, if I’m not going to change my clothes in the morning just for a day of the year, then how else is it going to happen?

Please note : I have been informed that France does indeed participate in Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations.

That is all.

9:15pm

a different land mass.

Time : 9:53pm


Location : my room

Weather : still rainy.



I was going to make an entry last night, but I was getting majorly fed up with a majorly slow computer. I do not even want to think about why it is running so slowly… So, this is going to be a combo entry, more of a commentary over a journal-entry, which is more or less what this is. I think I like the commentary idea more anyways.

Important things first: OPTIQUICK. I am having a real tough time dealing with all the tough love from this microwave. Yesterday, OPTIQUICK made my hot dog explode. I’m never buying myself a microwave with an OPTIQUICK setting.

One of the things I love most seeing at the gym are people exchanging their bisoux while working out. Ex.: man attempting to bisoux the woman on the elliptical. Ex.2: man on rowing machine trying to receive and reciprocate bisoux from his buddy. Unlike your street shoes, French-ness is not left at the door.

An assignment I had for class was to write an advertisement for my country, or region (depending on the size of your origins) (can someone please comment on that last parenthese-d comment, it does not sound right) using the current lesson learned. Naturally, I did one for Saskatchewan and to aid with my mini-presentation, I brought along my Saskatchewan calendar. I would like all of you Saskatchewanians to know that everyone in my class thinks that SK is beautiful, and apparently looks like Finland in the June photo.

I feel like every time I open the fridge here, I find zucchini. This has resulted in : 1) ‘Zucchini for dinner’ probably being my #1 searched thing on Google; 2) I will never spell Zucchini wrong again. Each time I go with a ‘safe’ recipe, but last night I felt like finally attempting making zucchini sticks. All I will say is there is something horribly wrong with the recipe I used and let the photos speak for themselves. On the plus side, they were possibly one of the tastiest things I have ever made, and am most definitely going to keep trying until I succeed. For now, zucchini sticks, you are an admirable opponent.

I went to the cinema last night as well and saw Les Femmes du 6iem Etage. It was hilarious and lucky me I was sitting beside two women who must have been on a girls night out or something because they had absolutely no problem at all letting their giggles go buckwild. I loved it, and obviously joined in. I think I might buy the DVD and chance ripping it onto my computer…

Between my computer being abnormally slow, and me being abnormally tired for this time of night, I can not think of anything to say of distinction for today. Other than I broke a lot of things.

First, while changing Lou’s sheets, the mattress hit the light lamp the nthe lightbulb fell out and broke over my head and now her room has no light. Then, the coffee pot was really hot and I accidentally poured ice cold water in it resulting in a crack in the bottom of it Thankfully the crack is holding strong though and I am yet to have any problems. Although now I am really scared of being electrocuted when I touch the coffee maker.

This is all I can sum up, or total up seeing as it is everything maximized.

Oh, can I note that it has been raining for 11 days straight now? I moved to Southern France, not London.

10:45pm

also. i promise i have photos. but this slow computer thing just is not working for me. literally.

EVERYBODYEVERYTIME

Time : 9:42pm


Location : my room

Weather : finally decent!!



Although all day the wind blew and blew and blew, and rain still fell from the sky, come the evening, although the clouds still lingered, I have to say the weather improved.

This morning we had major car troubles concerning a locked steering wheel ignition problem. I really have no idea what was going on, but Lou and I had to walk to school. I make it sound like a bad thing, but I really enjoyed it, apart from the fact that she somehow walks twice as fast as me. This gave me a chance to stop by the pharmacy and the bank on the way back.I must have some French strain of a head cold that my Canadian antibiotics just are no match for because after nearly a week of being sick, well, I’m still sick.

just keep reading.

Speaking of French pharmacies, they are SO different from back home. In some ways for the better, like how you HAVE to talk to a pharmacist to get the meds you need. Thus telling them all of your symptoms and getting exactly what you need (and maybe more). However, this also means that to get something simple like Tylenol, you have to wait in line (granted there is one, which is not the best for people with a migraine on the go). Do not plan on walking into a grocery store and finding any of this, only the pharmacies marked by a bright green cross. Since you have direct contact with the pharmacist, now, I don’t know if this was just the one I was talking to or what, but she was going for the ultimate sale, trying to stock me up with all kinds of pills and sprays. All I need is a good decongestant and something for a deep cough. I’m not really into nasal sprays. These are the times when my French may just so happen to ‘not be as good’ as normal…

so delicious.

I then took my sweet time around the house, no reason really, well, apart from killer fatigue (I really felt done in by the time I got back to house, yeowza!) and finally made it out the door to go find the gym I planned on looking into. First I got to Aix where I found out it was not the gym but the offices, then I went home to check out where to go next. Oh, by this time I somehow fixed the car. I have no idea how I did it. Then I found out I have to go to Les Milles. Then I got lost in Les Milles (which is a really small town, and I have no idea how I got so lost seeing as now I know it very well) and went home to get more directions. Third time was the charm and I made it. I had a very friendly woman give me a tour and a 33% discount on my membership (awesome! Being non-french may have something to do with this, although she just said it was because I was really nice, also maybe because I was very reluctant).

After school I zipped Lou to theatre class and back home to have some chill time. Not that I really need chill time, but the class has been extended to 1.5 hours, and I find that a long time to chill in the foyer…

Returning home we found Marie-Anne home way early from work, so I took advantage of this to head to the gym for my first session: BODY ATTACK.

This was also my first time doing aerobics, ever. I will not get into details, other than A)There is a reason I played sports as a child and did not take dance, or anything involving keeping a rhythm and moving your feet (and arms!!!) B) I’m glad nobody was there videotaping me.  Oh, but I do have to say that I LOVE it when French people who are just teeming with endorphines start singing in English while working out. I LOVE IT.

Let’s not talk about this more.

I guess that brings me to now.

Ciao

10:01pm

fish from the sea.

Time : 9:49pm


Location : bedroom

Weather : Raining, raining, raining



Hopefully you guys have been reading what little bit of my Spain trip I have blogged so far and hopefully that makes up for the fact that I did absolutely no blogging on my day to day life. A mix of post-trip fatigue moving on to sickness and just a generally uninteresting week I did not feel compelled at all to blog at all. Other than going to class, finding my class even more disintegrated than before my trip, not much new was learned.

However, I did have a fairly interesting weekend.

in Aix

Friday evening Evelin and I went to Institute again. Some of the people actually remembered me even though the last time I went was over two weeks ago. Like I said before, they were really friendly and nice. At the end there were some magic and card tricks that absolutely blew my mind. Evelin said something along the lines of “People only get fooled because they want to be fooled.”. Which I thought was quite true. For some of the tricks if you try really hard you can figure it out, but being fooled is so much fun! Ignorance is bliss!

Saturday we had planned on meeting up with some people in Aix and going around to some places, getting some exploring done. Literal last minute cancellations and really bad weather, like really bad, changed our plans a little bit.

The first place we went to was the Book In Bar. It is an English bookstore and café. It was a good level of busy for a Saturday afternoon and I think I will be returning soon. They did have an excellent selection of books as well as an absolutely delicious looking muffin.

Next stop was the Musée Granet for the Futurealismes exhibition. I had been trying to go to this show for months and was so excited to finally see it. I think I had built it up a bit too much though. It was a collection of futuristic light shows that had some kind deeper meanings to them. Evelin really liked it, I did not. The whole time I felt like I was just looking at a screen or watching someone playing Sims. I did enjoy the part when went into the permanent collection of the museum where we found works by Cezanne, Rembrandt and I even found a Picasso. I would have liked to spend more time, but we had a bus to catch. And catch it we did not. So nearly two hours later we caught the next one.

This morning Evelin and I went to church. I really did like it. I found it enriching and I like learning the lessons and how they can be applied to every day life.

Other than the whole Mediterranean raining down on us over the course of today, nothing interesting happened.

10:11pm

Del Banco - Dias dos

Del banco - Dias dos - Barcelona


Viernes febrero 25th 2011




Our first real day in Barcelona. I thought that breakfast was until 10:30, but when we got down to the kitchen at 10am, it was over.

Placa Reial

Placa Reial



What you see when you walk
down almost any street



Barcelona..

Thankfully we made it in time for the free walking tour of the Old City. It is also known as the Gothic tour because the main neighbourhood we explored was the Barri Gotic. Our friends, Leeah and Erik came too. Apart from them and our tour guide, Tom, we did not really get to know anyone on the tour, nobody was overly chatty.

Can you see the colors?

Urban Vegetation

just another road

SPACE INVADER

gorgeous

We started in Plaça Reial. It is one of the oldest squares in Barcelona. It was the first square to have electric lamp posts. We walked all around the Barri Gotic, checking out cathedrals, streets and hidden places of interest. All of which contribute to the rich history of Barcelona. Tom did an awesome job of filling us with this history. Some things of interest, mainly to me:

Basilica Santa Maria de la Mar

The Porters

The Interior

- The history of the flag of Catalunya. Wilfred the Hairy, a great warrior was given a golden shield by the king when he was sent to slay the dragon (this dragon come up time and time again in the legends/history). The shield did not have a crest on it, so Wilfred the Hairy (he was so hairy that he even had hair on the bottom of his feet) stuck his hand in an open wound on his side and drew four red stripes of blood across the shield. And thus, the flag of Catalunya is golden/yellow with four red horizontal stripes.

Palais de la Generalitat
bottom left you can see my fave protestor.

fighting for the cause .

- Space Invaders. Some guy from Paris makes little mosaics of Space Invaders and puts them up all over major cities in the world, ‘Invading’. Of the 17 in Barcelona, we saw two. Also, nobody knows who this guy is. Mysterious.


For Santa Eulalia


- - They do celebrate Valentine’s Day, but there is another holiday of the like in April. Sant Jordi is on April 23rd. Men walk around with a rose and women with a book, and when they find their ‘Love’, they exchange gifts. Romantic, eh? The day is the death day of William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes, which explains the book connection. Unsurprisingly, about 75% of Barcelona’s book sales occur at this time when the streets become overflowing with book and flower stands.

an explanation.

Sara & I across the pond
from the Sagrada Familia

-

Sagrada Familia
bad sun position
and obviously still under
contruction

the inside. :O

Basilica de Santa Maria de la Mar. Just another church. Ha, ok, so it is really old, from the 1300s. The porters that helped with the construction are depicted on the front doors. The church has endured numerous fires over the centuries as well as an earthquake in the 1400s. The earthquake caused the rose window to fall right out, causing a number of casualties. The present window now depicts flames (instead of a flower) to pay tribute to the fires that occurred in the first hundred years or so of its history.

can you feel the forest?
(its the roof!)

gorgeous!!

see the sun

how can you not love this?

- We visited the Old Jewish Quarter where all the Jews rounded up and all put in one area to live in ridiculously cramped quarters. The streets were so narrow there was barely any space between the buildings which were obviously a lot taller. We saw the oldest synagogue in Barcelona, which was in a basement and did not make for a very good photo, but still was fairly cool. You can go on guided visits at the small price of a donation, and the money is put towards the restoration of the building.

love tourist fams

love this roof

sunlight.

sweet stairs

- Plaça de Sant Jaume. Here we find the Casa de la Ciudad (Town Hall) and the Palais de la Generalitat. We also found a man picketing very passionately about how the city needs to rid itself of crime, as well as a man who was very well set up, as if he come every single day (which Tom informed us, he does).

check the light flow

through the stained glass.

so fortunate.

pipes

- Santa Eulalia. No, this is not a Spanish Santa Clause, quite different. Long, long ago, during one of the many times that the Spanish were prosecuting nearly anyone for anything, there was a thirteen year old girl names Eulalia. When she heard of people having to renounce their faith, she immediately went to the King and ordered him to stop. Obviously this did not go over well with the King, so he gave her thirteen chances to renounce her own faith. Each time when she went to the king and denied, she was tortured in gruesome ways, each time she survived. The thirteenth time, when she was put in a wooden barrel full of silver knives and rolled down a street. She died and a dove rose from her body. She became a very ‘popular’ saint and many streets, cathedrals, you name it, are named after her. Of which, the very street that she was rolled down, which we got to see.

light on glass.

Branches like trees.

rose window

nativity facade. oldest part built
under gaudis direction

- Plaça Nova. Here there is the very ugly and plain building housing the school of architecture as well as Cathedral, which was being restored. In December, people gather and create human castles. They usually get to be ten tiers high and top it off with a very small child. Incredible.

front.

details details details

nativity facade

- There are two Catalan Christmas traditions that involve poop. Lovely, I know. The first: Children place a log in the living room, and each night leading up to Christmas they leave milk and cookies out to feed it. On Christmas Eve, once it has become very well fed, they do not leave out any snacks, it has to digest you know, and when they return in the morning, the log is sitting on a large pile of presents, which it has pooped out. I personally, prefer Santa Clause. The second: Nativity scenes are just as popular with the Catalan as they are with the French. Only, the Catalan have an extra special character that they add in to the scene: someone hunkered over, pants at their ankles, having a poop. These figures are so popular, that you can even get them in the form of celebrities such as Obama, Madonna and of course, football stars.

its still amazing

tops of the main facade

oh look its me

we made it!

!!!

After the tour, Sara, Erik, Leeah and I carried onto the Tapas tour. It was not much of a tour because we just went to one restaurant, but it was very delicious. Once we were fed, Sara and I went to the Sagrada Familia. It was absolutely amazing. I was in awe. For one, it is gigantic. I had no idea how big it was. We went across the street to a small park where we were able to take in the whole thing. Lots of people do not like the Temple of the Sagrada Familia, which is understandable. I can see how it could appear ugly: a large hunk of concrete that looks like melting wax. At least from the outside, from far away. You get closer and you can see all of the incredible sculptures and detail that make up the creation. Birds flying right out of the cement, tortoises making up the feet of columns. There is an amazing amount of work and creativity to be seen. Although from the outside there is not a lot of color, being made mainly of grey cement weathered to a brown in some older areas and the odd burst of colour from mosaics, the inside is wonderful. Not being as old (in some places) as the outside, the interior is full of towering columns that branch up to the roof (which has very recently been installed) like trees. To keep in the forest theme, when the sun shines through the stained glass windows, the light plays in the same way as the light shines down through the tree leaves. The original architect, who came up with this work of madness, was Gaudi. He really had quite the mind. He decided that all the funding for the project would come solely from donations, which is why, 119 years later, it is still unfinished, and also why the admission to the interior are nearly 15 euro.

it was windy...

some color.

After the Sagrada Familia we headed out to do some wandering and shopping on the eastern side of La Rambla. Still in the area of Plaça Reial, we walked up and down Carrer Ferran and the streets off between it and Carrer de la Boqueria all the way to Plaça de Sant Jaume where we had been earlier on the tour. Getting late, we circled back to the hostel.

carrer ferran

Back at the hostel, we recruited a girl named Erin from Australia to join us on the Tapas and Flamenco tour. We three walked down La Rambla towards the beach to the meeting point: the Columbus Monument. Sure it was big and well light, but there really was not much to photograph. Erik and Leeah showed up too, which was awesome as we completed a solid posse.

flamenco band

flamenco.

First we went to get tapas. The place was pretty nice, but did not have enough for our fairly large group, so we waited for the second round of tapas to be brought out so we even got some super fresh. Here are some examples of the tapas they had available: Serrano and cheese on bread, chorizo and cheese on bread, tortilla (which is like omelettes) on bread, croquettas (cylinders of mashed potatoes and minced meat, varying between chicken, turkey, beef and fish, that are breaded then fried and vary from being fast food to a delicacy) also on bread. These were pretty good, but the ones we had at lunch were better.

wicked fast.

and super intense.

 

Next we went to the flamenco show. I had no idea what to expect. Flamenco is one of the only dances where the musicians follow the dancer. Which I found really interesting. The dance was very passionate from the passionate from the facial expressions to the clapping, stomping and snapping, to how insanely fast she moved. It was amazing, I could not even get a clear photo.