Well I am basically down to 3 days left here in glorious Espana, I am not sure where the last three weeks flew to since my last email home, but let me recap them. The weekend after spring break and Ireland with my mom, three friends and I headed off to beautiful Barcelona. We had a three day weekend so we excited to explore all of Barcelona. On Friday we bused to Santander, a city with an airport about 2 and a ½ miles away, we had to book the supra bus, a larger fancier bus, so we had huge comfy seats, got free water and nuts, and enjoyed the frog princess in Spanish. We flew out using the ever trustworthy Ryanair and landed in Barcelona around 5 pm. After navigating the subways/train systems there we safely arrived at our hostel, located about a 20 minute walk from the city center. At this point money is scarce for everyone, the exchange rate has helped us all empty our bank accounts faster than we ever imagined. With that being said we were all too poor for restaurants and had fun cooking pizzas and other frozen dinners from the grocery store in the microwave at our hostel. After an obviously appetizing dinner we decided to go for a walk and see Barcelona at night. We wandered past some of Gaudi’s, the famous architect, buildings and found the old cathedral. We wandered down to the harbor and happened across a huge concert with a band called High Every Day, and found people partying on a legitimate pirate ship.
The next day we woke up and headed off to Park Guell a park designed by Gaudi. Originally Gaudi intended it to be a housing complex for the rich population, but along the way it became a park and Gaudi’s home till his death. As mentioned before our poverty level is sky high, so high we choose to walk the hour to the park instead of subway, but walking makes for great sightseeing of the city, conversation, and exercise. The park was beautiful, I was inspired by Gaudi all weekend, because he was able to display God in almost all his works. There were crosses all over the park and amazing cave things and the famous mosaic benches. The park also had great views of the entire city especially Gaudi’s huge church the Sagrada Familia. We walked around the park all morning taking pictures and listening to concerts of street performers. We headed back to our hostel for a quick microwave lunch then were off to our next destination, the much anticipated Sagrada Familia.
The Sagrada Family, or Holy Family Church, by Gaudi is probably the most amazing thing I have seen in Spain. The church is still under construction and not expected to be finished for another 25 years. The completion has taken so long because construction is funded solely on private donation and entrance fees, also a rumor that they hope to open the church on the 100th anniversary of Gaudi’s death in 2026.
Unfortunatly a lot of Gaudi’s designs were lost in a fire during the civil war, so they have been using different artists to design different facades of the cathedral, two faces are done, the nativity façade created by Gaudi and the passion façade created by Josep Maria Subirachs. The passion façade is the side you enter on, and honestly many of the characters depicting tales from the bible resemble star wars. And this is only the side entrance; the Glory Façade is just now beginning construction and will be the huge grand entrance.
We bought our tickets for 12 € and headed inside. The inside literally took my breath away, it was unlike anything I could have ever imaged or dreamed of. The stained glass and color covered lights lit up the church incredibly and the high strange shaped pillars resembled trees so you literally felt like you were in the forest. The ceiling is also littered with lit up images and tree like leaves. My pictures do it no justice but we all honestly stoop with our jaws hanging open the whole time we walked around. Gaudi didn’t believe in straight lines so everything has a spiral or curve. We headed out the other side door to see the Nativity façade created by Gaudi. Gaudi found inspiration in nature and his cake in the rain style of architecture mixes the two incredibly. There was so much detail to see on that side, he had amazing stories from around the time of Jesus’ birth and animals and religious symbols. I was so inspired by Gaudi and there is a move now to make him a saint.
After touring around, we took the elevators to the roof where we could get an up close view of the construction pillars and the facades. It was cool to be that close to all the cranes and see the incredible detail in all the pillars that is impossible to appreciate from the ground. We walked all around the roof climbing down spiral stairs and warding off pigeons. When all is said and done the church will have 18 huge spires, a dozen smaller ones to represent the apostles, four taller towers representing the four evangelicals, and the final two towers in the middle represent a 400 foot tower for Mary and a 550 foot tower for Jesus. This tower representing Jesus will shine like a spiritual lighthouse visible from sea and will be the first thing sailors see arriving in the Barcelona port. I can only image how glorious this church will be complete, and it is in my top 5 reasons for returning to Spain.
After the sagrada familia it was time to finish our Gaudi day by visiting many houses he designed for wealthy families. His houses are very famous and crazy looking; now a majority of them have been turned into museums, government buildings, stores, and hotels, but it is crazy to think that people actually lived in them about a hundred years ago. They are spread all over the city; so once again, we embarked on a long walking adventure to find them all. That night we made another home cooked meal in our home then headed back down town. We found a hookah bar with such powerful tobacco it made me sick to my stomach so the rest of the night I spent in bed hoping I would feel better the next morning.
Luckily the next morning I did and Megan and I headed off for morning mass at the sagrada familia. They actually open the church up to tourists every day of the week trying to make more money so mass was located behind the altar. There weren’t a ton of people there since it was a Spanish mass; people in Barcelona speak Catalan and Spanish. Catalan is very similar to Spanish but not something I can easily understand. After mass we headed back to our hostel to pick up the other two girls then back downtown to enjoy a beach park day.
On our way I found a sacred heart school with the same sacred heart symbol. We had hoped to hit up some museums, art, geology, zoology, but apparently May 1st is a big day for buildings closing, and it was Mothers day in Spain. We settled for wandering around Parc de la Ciutadella where we found beautiful statues, fountains, and a small rowboat lake. We decided row boating was a must and had fun paddling around for a half hour trying not to hit ducks and the small islands. This was also the sight of the world fair. We headed to the beach next and took naps in the sand, ate donar kebaps, and buried Corinne in the sand. We walked around city center some more then headed back for dinner and an early evening rest. That night we splurged and used the metro across town to witness the magic fountain show. The magic fountain is a huge fountain with colored lights that moves with different musical playlists every half hour. The area was packed and it was really cool to see. We stayed for two shows; one was eighties inspired and the next more modern music. We headed to bed pretty early that night, tired from all our walking, and in preparation for our last day in Barcelona.
On Monday our plane left around 2 so we woke up early and walked back down town to tour the inside of the cathedral, slightly unimpressive after the sagrada familia. The cathedral had a lot of really interesting history though about Christopher Columbus and being the first place to baptize Native Americans who were brought back to Spain. We took the long metro ride back to the airport then flew into Santander where we were stuck at a café drawing powerpuff girls for two hours until we could finally board our bus back home. All in all Barcelona may have been my favorite city I have ever visited and is definitely my number one recommendation.
The following week was normal, classes and cafes. On Friday our coordinator Paula took Hanna and I around smaller cities in the area and to some beaches. We spent the afternoon napping on different beaches and attempting to teach Paula English. That night we talked my conversation partner Javier into coming out with us and it was one of our most epic nights in Spain. He brought friends who could only speak Spanish and Javier himself managed to drink enough to forget all English. I had a lot of fun speaking Spanish and we turned a lot of English games into Spanish drinking games which ended up being a lot more difficult. That Saturday morning Nate and Hanna and I took a bus to the nearby mountains and rented bikes for the senda del oso bike tour. The story is that on this trail you find a huge bear exhibit with three bears that were rescued or they are trying to get to mate or something. I had so much fun that day though biking through the mountains and we ate lunch by a gorgeous lake. On the way back there was a slight downhill so we went as far as we could without pedaling. It was an absolutely gorgeous day and it kept sprinkling rain in the sunshine.
The following weekend, this past weekend started out with a group scavenger hunt on Thursday night. Luna and Paula organized us into teams and we were sent running all around the city. They cruelly made us return between each clue so we were absolutely exhausted from running. We had to answer a questionnaire with the help of Spaniards, find statues, find images, and get as many Spaniards as we could to sing the Asturias song. Obviously my group was victorious and we were rewarded with a HUGE bag of candy which we all shared and eternal glory. We went canoeing all day on Saturday. My friend Tyler and I shared a canoe and he insisted on doing the steering. Needless to say we hit rocks and trees a lot. It was a lot of fun though we all had wet suits on and it rained all day so we had no problem jumping in the ice cold water for a swim or trying to tip over each other’s canoes.
Also that weekend Amparo’s host student from last year, a recent UNI graduate was in town for a visit so I spent a lot of time with them and joined them for a dinner at luna’s house that Monday night.
Side note – these last few weeks have been election preparation in Spain, Elections were yesterday. Overnight posters and propaganda was found everywhere in the city. They also have cars and buses with their Politian painted on the side that drive around town playing music and the agenda of the politicians. I asked my madre about the cars and she assumed they were everywhere in the world, they are so annoying, we can hear them in our classrooms and at dinner time.
I should say at this point we are in the middle of finals week, I managed to study for probably a grand total of 2 hours and I am leaving Spain with four A +’s and a B, the B is in translation, which is hard. Tuesday night to celebrate our completion of Finals we headed to a bar called rocket to play beer pong with some Spaniards. Wednesday was our last dinner with Javier, my conversation partner. He took us to get traditional Spanish food; beef with jam with cheese all fried together and French fries. He was the first of a long week of good-byes. Thursday night we had our final dinner as a group. Hanna and I worked hard creating awards for our most likely to results. We stood up at dinner and treated it like the Oscars presenting awards and demanding speeches from all. Afterwards we made luna and paula matching t-shirts that said Medias Narajanas (soul mates) and we hit up the dance scene. I headed home the next morning around 8 a.m. after completing our fiesta all night challenge. Saying good-bye everyone was crying and blubbering, we have become such a close group here it is sad to see it all end.
My next few days will be filled with packing, hiking, and beaching. Just trying to fit everything in one last time and also enjoy these last few days with my madre. Spain has been so much fun and I feel like I have grown and matured a lot here. I am ready though to return to the U.S. and see my family and friends and get back to geology. So I will leave you now with the top ten life lessons I learned in Spain.
1. Spanish cannot be learned in a classroom, it must be practice over meals with a native.
2. Sleeping doesn’t have to occur at night or at all, power siestas are all a person needs to keep on keeping on.
3. Any and all activities can be done in the rain, also always carry an umbrella.
4. You can have more than one family.
5. Religion isn’t just found in a church.
6. There is a difference between being fluent and bilingual; we lose our ability to be fluent in another language at a very young age.
7. Being abroad means embracing all foods put in front of you and giving them a fair chance.
8. Some beautiful Spanish expressions are impossible to put into words in English.
9. Passion is a lifestyle found in the old and the young.
10. Technology and skype are amazing blessings in this world.
