Home Wherever I Am: In Barcelona - Day 1 to Day 4

Jan 7th, 2009 - "The Day"
After spending 6 months of preparation, it was finally "the day" - that I would fly to Barcelona. After saying my goodbyes to Jin Sheng, I took the airtrain to Terminal 7 of JFK airport and queued in the extremely long check in line. I waited for almost an hour and I was still waiting in line. My flight was going to leave in an hour's time. I almost panicked as I was ineligible for self-check in and I had to be done with security check an hour before I fly. Then a worker came and ask for people who had 8.05pm flight and I raised my hand. He let me cut the line and check in. Phew! Guess I didn't have to worry at all. My flight was delayed till 8.29pm and the flight to London was not too bad although I puked twice. I shouldn't have eaten the bun on the plane. However, I was lucky to meet a nice American who works as a graphic designer for United Colors of Benetton in Venice. We chat a bit and he shared some of his experience in Europe and told me some nice places to visit. I am also grateful that I was given a seat in the Economy Plus class although I booked my seat for the economy class. The seats were much more spacious.

Jan 8th, 2009 - "Stuck in London"
After 5 hours in a turbulent flight, we arrived safely in London Heathrow airport. In the terminal transfer bus, I overheard 4 American girls talking about going to study in Barcelona and so I asked them if they were in the same program as I was, and they were. So I hung out with them and later some of their friends from their uni a bit while we wait to board. When it was time to go to our departure gate, we met more IES students and I was so happy. It didn't take us long to discover that 3/4 of the people waiting in the departure gate were IES students - young people, American accent....duh! We waited past the boarding time and the receptionist announced that there was a technical problem with the airplane and they do not know when we would be able to fly. So we all sat there waiting. Finally after 3 hours of delay, we were able to board the plane.

IES told us that we had to arrive before 5pm so that the staff there could assist us in the airport otherwise we had to call the emergency number they gave us. We arrived at 6.00pm but luckily they were still there as they received the news that our flight from London was delayed. I felt kind of excited and a little scared at the same time when we arrived because the people there could not speak in English. When I went through the custom check point, the guy at the counter said "hola!" and I was like...oooh...haha...After collecting my luggage I went out to look for the bull statue as instructed by IES and was then led by IES staff to the office on the upper floor of the airport. There, the other students and I were briefed on what to do next. I was also told that my host mother could not speak English. I freaked out a little bit as I could not speak good Spanish. The lady told me not to as the host mother is used to having students with little knowledge of Spanish. I went to the taxi stand and got on the taxi. I had to give the directions in Spanish. It was so nerve-wrecking and exciting at the same time. The taxi driver was nice too. I asked him if he spoke English and he said he could but only very little. I sat erected the whole time in the taxi..enjoying the night view of Barcelona, feeling thankful that I am here. That "Ah.." feeling. I thought maybe I should talk to the driver a bit and practice some Spanish. LOL...so I told him the city is "muy grande". Then he asked me if I was studying there. I did my best explaining it in Spanish. Haha...I wasn't too bad at it.

Soon, we reached my homestay apartment. P° Bonanova, 96, 1°1a. After paying 27 euros, I went into the lobby and I wondered how to get to my unit. With my two huge suitcases, I try to figure out which elevators to take. Then I saw an "A" sign on the left so I thought that must be what the "a" from 1a means. Staircase A. I wasn't sure still because there was no B on the other side. So I took the weird elevator (weird because the door is like a room door which you have to open to get in) to the 1st floor and came out to see number 1 on an apartment door. I pressed the doorbell and my señora came out to greet me. I greeted her and asked if she was my señora in Spanish. She said yes and showed me my room. She also explained to me how to take the metro to get to downtown by myself the next day...in Spanish. I also met my housemate from California at that time. We talked in broken Spanish a little bit. She showed me around the house and asked me some questions. I did my best to answer but it took forever. Nevertheless, she was patient and nice. I looked around the house a bit and saw some family pictures. I assumed she's a widow in her sixties and her children are away. After explaining stuffs to me and letting me off to talk to my housemate a bit, she went off and prepare the dinner. My housemate is very nice. We talked a little and I immediately felt that we would get along fine. We had quiche for dinner at 9pm and it was delicioso. Mmmm...good food. She made a huge pan of quiche just for the two of us. She didn't eat with us. I did not understand why though. I asked her but she only said she didn't eat much. It would be nice if we could all eat together. I couldn't finish my share of the quiche so I asked my señora if I could save it for lunch as lunch will not be provided. She agreed and I was happy - my way of saving money and reducing waste. =)

It was already 11.30pm after I was done with shower and I didn't feel sleepy so I decided to unpack and arrange my stuffs. When I finally went to bed, I couldn't sleep immediately. I tossed and turned but I just couldn't sleep. I went on for an hour and half. It was already 2am so I became worried that I was not going to have enough sleep before the next day as I have to be up by 7.30am and go downtown for my orientation by myself. I felt horrible but I found Jin Sheng and my parents online so I chatted with them and had a video call with Jin Sheng a bit. After half an hour, I tried to sleep again. I slept after a while...luckily.

Everyone was just waiting...better late than never though

Jan 9th, 2008 - "More Grateful than Ever"
Somehow while on the bed, I felt like I overslept and I looked at my phone and it was 9.16am. My orientation was 9am. Argh.... Luckily, there is another session at 3pm. I figured I could just go for that one instead. Phew. I went online a bit and ate breakfast. I thought I should probably leave early to figure out my way around and meet the IES staff and let them know I missed the orientation. When I reached Plaςa Catalunya, I could not find the road signs and I didn't know where to go even with my map. I walked around with hope that I could find my way. I asked directions from people and everyone just kept giving me different directions. Finally, I met somebody who could speak English and explained to me the road systems and where the signs were. Thank goodness! After 40 minutes of getting lost, I finally found the place. I was so near to the station. But it was not too bad. There's always a silver lining in every cloud. The getting lost made me more familiar with the place. ;)

After talking to the staff, I had some free time before the orientation so I walked around the plaza and took some pictures. It was great. I felt great...at times, I would reflect on how much I have grown since college. When I first got to the states, I was shaken everytime something different happened e.g. when everyone talked like popcorn while I was always quiet and waiting for the opportunity to talk. Here, when I witness something different, I just appreciate the differences as shaped by cultural differences. Even when I was getting lost, I still felt calm inside and even when I had difficulty asking stuffs in Spanish, I did not feel like crying. I didn't feel sad when it felt kind of difficult to approach the other Americans and trying to make friends with them. It felt okay that I was doing stuffs alone and not together with other people (as expected in my culture). I felt aware that I did not judge myself as much as I did before. I felt quite liberated. Things were as they were. That was just how it was. =).

Plaςa Catalunya - A rainy day

After orientation, I went to Barceloneta by the metro to meet with Toni, a Barcelonan friend of mine who works in Minnesota but was back in Barcelona for the holidays. I was lucky. He came with his girlfriend. I greeted him and hugged and he explained that in Spain, girls greet each other and with guys by airkissing twice on each side of the cheek. So I did that with both of them. It was fun. He told me as I do that more often, I would learn to relax my neck. LOL. When his other friends arrived, we walked around and he showed me the cathedral in Born neighborhood and also the gothic quarter. I saw the Sagrada Familia for the first time from far too. After walking for about 1.5 hour, we went to his favorite kebab restaurant and I ordered "Super Durum" and "clara", a lemonade beer - something like shandy but a little more bitter. I was so shocked by the small portion of the meal just to realize that I was so used to the American meal portion. It was a great meal. We chatted and ate in a small cozy restaurant. Toni explained to me how the people in Spain drink to socialize, not to get drunk - common among Americans. The legal drinking age is 16 but people don't really care if you do not cause any trouble. I thought that was good. I asked him what about those who do not like drinking. He said it did not matter. You can drink whatever. Nobody would mind. That made me felt relieved. I am not a drinker but I like wine. I would like to taste and learn the differences. After dinner, we walked somemore and went to a bar. We went to one but it was so smoky. so we went to another less smoky one. He said it is normal that bars are smoky and I would get used to it. It wasn't my cup of tea but I guess it was okay. The bars there felt like mamak store to me. People hang out and chat. I ordered un copa de cava (a glass of champagne) for 1.50 euros. Cava is a champagne made in Catalonia. It was okay for its price - like I can tell what's good, but it didn't taste bad. Before we knew it, it was 1.30am. After sending Zoey and Mike off at the bus stop, we hopped on the metro to Toni's neighborhood, he got his car and drove me home. It was a good night. I had a great time out, with Toni as a demographer and geographer giving me some information about the city and the others sharing their stories about themselves and their experiences. It was great.

Chiling out in the kebab restaurant

Jan 10th, 2009 - "To the Medieval Cities of Besalu and Vic"
The trip was a mandatory trip by IES. We took the bus and went first to Besalu. While waiting for the bus, I met with a girl from my orientation and we sat together on the bus and engaged in a conversation. It was a good one. When we got off, I met Tina from orientation and we hung out throughout the trip. I was lucky to have made friends with good people. Before we left, we agreed to hang out the next day with our housemates and and our other friends as well. I told my housemate about it and she agreed to it too. I looked forward to stomp the city the next day.

Besalu

Tour guide giving a talk about Cathedral Sant Pere (St Peter)

Christian Quarter

Miqve, jewish purification bath in the Jewish Quarter

Lunch in Vic - Fondue de Pizza

Main square in Vic

Cathedral of Sant Pere in Vic


Greek temple converted to roman fortress in Vic

Jan 11th, 2009 - "Discovering Barcelona and Making New Friends"
I woke up at 12pm today. I pretty much made up for the lack of sleep that I was suffering from since I left New York. While I was talking to my parents on skype, Stephanie, my housemate knocked on my door and told me that she met Tina in one of the bars and she happened to be Stephanie's friend-from-home's housemate and they all made plans to hang out together. What a coincidence! or isit? So we left to meet her other friends in Plaςa Catalunya and we chilled in Farggi restaurant. I ordered "chocolate caliente" and it's so different from American hot chocolate. It's literally hot chocolate - it looks like melted chocolate bar, so thick and chocolaty. After that, we walked along la rambla (a pedestrian mall with sellers and posers who try to make money), Port Vell and the beach. After a while, we finally met up with Tina and her housemates, Cassandra and Xin Yi from China. We went to a tapas bar and I ordered "croqueta de jamon" (ham croquettes). I also tried some of the snacks the others order and they were delicious eg. "patatas bravas", and some cod balls. After dinner, we walked along the street back to the station. While walking, I could not believe my eyes when I saw a shop called "Kualalumpur". I got so excited as I thought it was a M'sian store so I asked the others to stop by at the store. I didn't find any M'sians. It's a Spanish store, the sales assistants were Spaniards and the clothes were made in Spain. Nevertheless, there was a sale and I ended up buying a jacket for 10 euros. We continued walking and stopping by at some shops once in a while. It was fun. I also got to know Xin Yi more and we clicked quite well. It was nice. The day was nice. Something funny happened too. Tina, Xin Yi and I went to the Cultural Institute to go to the restroom. When we came out, we could not find the others so we waited for them. Suddenly, Barclay ran towards Tina and grabbed her handbag. He was just pulling her legs it shocked her so much that it was funny. I enjoyed the day a lot and I just spent 2 hours or more blogging. =)