A little advertisement...

So I don't know if anyone is interested, but I thought I would share blog addresses of a few of my friends who are or will soon be studying/living/working abroad, in case you want to take a look at some of their experiences as well.

Greg Shelly is going to be in Ecuador for the 2009 spring semester:
http://greginecuador2009.blogspot.com/

Sierra Hostetler will be studying in Mexico for the 2009 spring semester:
http://sierrahostetler.blogspot.com/

Jordan Penner is currently living in Guatemala:
http://jordo24-jordanpennersblog.blogspot.com/

Jon Huber is working with the InterMenno program in Germany and Switzerland during the 2008-09 school year:
http://handsareme.blogspot.com/

All of us bloggers enjoy getting feedback and knowing that people are taking a look at our blogs, and that a few of you may even be living vicariously through us in some sense during our time in foreign countries :)

This may be my last post for a little while, as I don't know if I will have enough time during my trek through Europe to post anything. Mike is arriving on Thursday, and we will be gone from Saturday until January 4th or 5th. I will be checking my email (and of course facebook) as regularly as possible (and by regularly I mean hopefully every two or three days). So, if you don't hear from me until after New Year's, fear not, for I am likely having the time of my life in Belgium/Germany/Czech Republic (or lost and unable to contact home).

If you are reading this, then you are obviously important enough to me to sincerely wish you Happy Holidays in the coming weeks!

Peace,
Jordan

Economics

In case anyone is interested in seeing one of my University professors, this video clip has an interview that Professor Granell did on the local television news channel, TV3. Only catch is, it's in Catalan. Those of you who speak Spanish might be able to understand some of it nonetheless. Professor Granell is one of my teachers for Organization of World Economics.

http://www.tv3.cat/videos/82

Wow.

Wow wow wow wow wow.

I love the Alps. And I have decided that although I love Colorado and the Rocky Mountains, they ain't got nothin' on the Alps. Really.

We loaded up on the buses Friday night for the (long) drive to Les 2 Alpes in France. I started the trip only knowing one other person going, Adam (a fellow BCA student from Ohio), but we made some new friends even before we got on the bus. We got to know a group of eight guys who are all architecture students at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB), and we had 10 hours on the bus to get to know eachother better.

On the bus we watched a movie called Whiteout, which wasn't very good but had a lot of snow in it, so I think it got everyone excited about getting away from coastal Barcelona and up to the snowy Alps of France.

We rolled into Les 2 Alpes at about 10am on Saturday mornning. It was snowing pretty hard already and didn't really let up all day. There was already about a foot of powder when we hit the slopes around noon, and my best guess is that we ended up with 24-26 inches of powder by the end of Saturday. It was a little windy, though, so the whole day we were skiing in near whiteout conditions making it very hard to see where we were going or enjoy whatever views we might have been able to see otherwise.

The mountain had over 6,000 feet of vertical change between the village and the top of the ski area, so there was more than enough real estate to explore.

Saturday night we had pizza and burgers with our new friends at the bar right by our apartment and watched FC Barcelona beat Valencia in an important soccer game, then went ourside to do some sledding right by our building.

Sunday morning we woke up fairly early and were on the slopes at about 10am. I led the group through some amazing powder runs, and we had a complete blast. The conditions were pristine...we were able to cut new tracks through a lot of deep powder and the sun was out and it was absolultely gorgeous. Unfortunately, I had a little mishap on a backcountry run where I was trying to cut through a chute between some rocks, caught my ski and twisted my left knee as I fell. It hurt quite a bit for the rest of the weekend, but I tried my best not to let it get in the way of enjoying my first experience in the Alps.

Sunday night we had dinner in the apartment, did a little more sledding, then tried to get some sleep before the third day of skiing.

Monday we couldn't get in a full day of skiing because we had room inspections then had to load up on the bus by 4pm, but I got in 4 runs in the morning, so it wasn't too bad. Then we loaded up for the long drive home and said goodbye to the Alps. We got back to a cool rain in Barcelona, a long long ways from snow once again.

Here are the pics!

French Alps Dec. 6-8

Family in Town for the Week

Well folks, it's the moment you've all been waiting for--the update about the week Mom, Dad and Leah came to visit Barcelona. Buyer beware though, it's long, and it is accompanied by what is by far the longest digital album I have ever offered for public consumption. Enjoy!

Mom, Dad and Leah got in on Thursday morning, and I already wrote a little in my November 27 post about what we did Thursday so I won't go into a lot of detail again, but basically we walked around some, then they all took naps, then we came over to my host family's house for dinner.

On Friday, we took a day trip to Sitges. This is a small beach town south along the coast from Barcelona. During the summer it offers a lot of swimming and surfing and such, but during this season it is a little more low-key. We walked along the water for the morning, past the beaches and the piers and such, then had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the water. This was Mom, Dad and Leah's first opportunity to try Spanish Paella, which is a dish with rice and lots of seafood and spices. I think they enjoyed it. After lunch we took the train back to Barcelona and spent the evening walking around Las Ramblas, which is a popular walking street in downtown Barcelona. The city had just turned on all of its Christmas lights too, so it was a pretty time to be in that area.

On Saturday morning we went to Montjuic. It was raining most of the day, so we spent a lot of time inside the Museu Nacional de Arte de Catalunya, which has a number of art exhibits from around the region. We also walked by the Olympic Stadium where the 1992 Olympics were held in Barcelona. Then, we came back to my host family's house for another meal. This time we had a lunch with some of of my host-family's extended relatives. I think we were about 12 or so, and it was a great time for my families to get to know eachother, and for Mom, Dad and Leah to get to try their hand at understanding some Catalan. There was a ton of food--the first course included salmon, herring, clams, and a number of other "tapas" then the second course was Fideua, which is a noodle dish (somewhat similar to Paella) but much more typical to this particular region of Spain. Lunch was followed by cake and Spanish turrones (a typical Christmas sweet). In the evening, I stayed back to do some studying and Mom, Dad and Leah went back to Montjuic to see the night-time lighted fountains, and then past the Sagrada Familia to see it at night.

On Sunday we took another day trip, this time to Figueres. The main attraction in Figueres is the Salvador Dali museum. My October 31 post talks a little more about Dali's art and how he is one of the most famous surrealist artists in the world, let alone Spain. We enjoyed the museum, then had dinner in Figueres and then brought the train back to Barcelona.

On Monday I sent Mom, Dad and Leah out on their own in Barcelona so that I could study in the morning a little then take two finals in the afternoon. After my finals, we met downtown and I took them around a bit, showing them two of my University buildings where I have classes and such.

On Tuesday I had a class in the morning, then we met for our so-called "Gaudi Day." We visited three buildings that Antoni Gaudi (the most famous architect from this area) designed. We started at the Sagrada Familia, which is a huge cathedral that is still under construction. It has been under construction for the last 100+ years, and the soonest estimate of when it could be completed is 2020, but it is still a beautiful place to see. Dad, Leah and I took the elevator up into one of the spires and got some great views of Barcelona.

After the Sagrada Familia we took the metro the the Casa Milla, also known as La Pedrera. This is an apartment complex that Gaudi designed. There was an exhibit on the top floor with some of Gaudi's furniture and such, but the real attraction is the roof, which has all types of odd-shaped pillars and spires. It's hard to explain, so you'll have to check out the pictures. After La Pedrera we had lunch at a restaurant close-by, then moved on to our next adventure.

Next, we went to Parc Guell. This is a park built up on a hill overlooking Barcelona, and a lot of it was designed by Gaudi as well. The most notable features are a long park bench that is completely covered in broken tile mosaic, and two buildings that are now gift shops, but I think look like gingerbread houses. Again, the pictures at the end of this post will give you a better idea of what I'm talking about.

On Wednesday I sent the family out again to expore on their own so that I could prepare a Powerpoint presentation for my last Political Psychology class that afternoon. After that, I met them and we walked along the docks some, then went into the Aquarium. I think this was one of Leah's highlights of the trip, as we got to walk through a glass tunnel surrounded by sharks and fish on all sides. After the Aquarium we had a nice dinner at a place close to the water.

On Thursday we took our final day trip to Montserrat. This is the mountain just outside of Barcelona that has some fascinating rock figures, and partway up the mountain there is a monastery that houses the Black Madonna. Two of my BCA friends, Caitlin and Alisha joined us on the trip to Montserrat as well. We went straight to the top of the mountain and walked around for a little while enjoying the view. It was great for me because even though I had been there before the weather was much clearer this time around so I got to see a lot more of the view instead of just clouds. After we walked around on top, we came back down to the monastery and cathedral to see the boys choic sing a few songs, then walked past the Black Madonna. Caitlin and Alisha had to head back to Barcelona for a class, but the rest of us stayed to have lunch at the cafeteria there before heading down.

We spent Thursday afternoon packing (I had to get a bag ready to send home with Mom and Dad) and then went out for Chinese food for dinner. Dad had frogs at the restaurant, much to Leah's disapproval, but they were actually really good. After dinner we said goodbye, and Mom, Dad and Leah went back to the hotel to get some sleep before their flight back home on Friday morning. They should be on the plane somewhere between Barcelona and New York as I write this.

After goodbyes, I went to see the European premiere of a skiing movie by Teton Gravity Research. They make films of some of the most incredible skiing I have ever seen, mostly backcountry skiing in some of the biggest and steepest mountains of the world.

And, this evening I am loading up on a bus and heading to the French Alps to try my own hand at skiing some of the biggest mountains in the world.

Hope everyone had a restful Thanksgiving break! Enjoy the pictures of this last week with the family in town!

Mom, Dad and Leah Visit Me in Barcelona

Here's the Deal-e-yo...

Well talking with Mom, Dad and Leah this evening I realized that they don't even really know all of my plans for the rest of the year, so I think it's safe to say that you probably don't either. An update on what I have been doing with the family in town this week is forthcoming, but if you're interested in my plans, here is how the rest of my time in Europe is shaping up:

I have already taken two finals, so those two classes are completely done. Tomorrow I am giving a Powerpoint presentation that will finish up my third class. My last class (the Economics class) will continute meeting until I take the final for that on December 19.

Mom, Dad and Leah are leaving on Friday morning, and that evening I am taking a bus to France for three days of skiing in the French Alps. I will get back from that on December 8 from that.

On December 18 my friend Mike is arriving from Colorado to travel around Europe with me for the hollidays. I will take my final on the 19th, then on December 20 we will fly to Brussels to start our trek.

We will spend a day or two in Brussels, then take the train to Aachen, Germany, where we will stay for a few days (including Christmas) with some of Mike's relatives who live there. Aachen is also home to a world-famous Christmas market leading up to the holliday, so we will no doubt see and experience that.

Sometime between December 26 and 29 we will make our way across Germany to Prague. We aren't sure yet if we will be making the trip direct, or if we will stop somewhere along the way in Germany for a day or two, but we will probably just go with whatever looks like the most fun at the time. The plan, though, is to get to Prague in time to spend New Year's there.

We will likely be in Prague (or in that general area) until January 4, when we will fly back here to Barcelona, and then Mike leaves to go back home on January 6.

Then, I have a few days free in Barcelona from the 4th to the 13th, during which I will either lay low or try to make another ski trip somewhere inside Spain (if my money holds up that long). On the 13th I will meet with the incoming BCA group for next semester (including a friend and fellow Bethel student, Blaire) for dinner, and then on January 14 I will fly to Madrid to spend a couple weeks there with the Bethel Interterm trip there.

We will be in Madrid from January 15 to 27, and then I will fly home, and hopefully be back in Newton sometime on January 28.

So, that's what the future looks like for me. More on how great it has been to have the family here coming later!

Two Families, no Turkey, and a Great Thanksgiving

Well today was a day that I have been looking forward to for a long time--maybe even since before I even arrived in Barcelona. Mom, Dad, and Leah arrived this morning.

I went to the airport at about 9am to pick them up from the flight from New York (make sure to ask them about meeting Rupert at the Hello Deli the day before). We took the train and then the metro back to their hotel and got them all settled in. Even though we were all tired, and napping sounded like the best thing to do, in the interest of recovering from jet lag I got them to walk around with me a bit. We headed down towards the coast, and walked past the port and then had sandwiches for lunch. Then, I headed to class and the other three took naps for most of the afternoon.

This evening we had dinner at my host family's house. It was really a good time. Instead of turkey and stuffing and the works for Thanksgiving dinner, we had pan con tomate (bread with tomato and olive oil), and various different smoked meats and cheese, as well as Spanish tortilla (which is most like a quiche, with potatoes and eggs and veggies). For dessert we had fresh fruit, as well as some traditional Spanish Christmas pastries. It was really a fun time having both my real family and my adopted family around the same table, and I was really impressed with how strong Mom and Dad and Leah's Spanish still is--I only had to translate one or two things the whole night!

When I come back home to the states and people want to hear stories of my adventures in Spain and the other parts of Europe, I'm sure there are a few other stories that will make for better conversation than today, but I really don't remember the last time I went to bed at night feeling this content.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

France and Holland

Well I just got back this afternoon from our whirlwind trip to France and Holland. It was a great experience, full of irregular sleep patterns and tons of walking around beautiful places. I traveled with two other BCA students--Josh (from Mexico/Texas) and Matt (from California). We also met Josh's sister, Ericka, in Paris and stayed at her apartment in Amsterdam when we were there.

On Thursday morning we flew to Paris, where we checked into our hotel. We found a really great deal on a four-star hotel called Cozy's--two King beds, a kitchen, living room, dining room and only three stops on the metro from downtown--for only a few Euros more than we would have paid for a dormitory-style hostal. It really worked out well because we were able to cook for ourselves instead of eating at restaurants, and I think in this case the life of luxury really was cheaper than the cliche college-student hostal. Not a bad deal.

After we checked into the hotel, Josh stayed back to sleep (he was still trying to get over the flu--very bad timing) and Matt and I walked around the neighborhood around our hotel. The whole street was lined with outdoor fruit/veggie stands, flower shops, and art places. We looked around a while, and bought some grocieries for dinner. When we got back, I made pasta with a potato/veggie stir-fry and red pepper chicken for dinner. Ericka and one of her friends joined us for dinner, then we all went downtown to see the Eiffel Tower and such at night. The tower was beautiful (all of Paris was really). We took the elevator to the top of the tower and got an incredible view of Paris from the air. After the tower, we walked through the plaza inside the Louvre (where we even managed to foil an attempt to steal Matt's SLR camera) and then came back to the hotel for the only night of actual sleep we would get on the whole trip.

Friday morning we made omelets and hash browns for breakfast, then Matt and I headed back downtown. Josh was still not up for walking around, so he slept most of the day but was finally feeling good enough to join us later into the afternoon. We started at the Louvre plaza, then walked along the river up to Notre Dam. Notre Dam is a gorgeous cathedral, but I don't think I was able to enjoy it as much as I could have since I am still saturated with all the cathedrals we have been seeing in Spain. They wouldn't let us go up on top unless we sat through an hour-long tour, but we still got to see the inside of the building from the ground level. We walked back down the other side of the river, past a number of beautiful buildings but I can't remember what they all were so I won't even try to repeat them for you. Matt had 6 friends who are all studying in different places in Europe who were also in Paris at the same time, so we met up with them at the Museum Orsay. This obviously isn't as big or as impressive as the Louvre, but it does have quite a large collection of artists such as Van Gough, Rembrandt, and Picasso, so it was great to see. After the Orsay we walked around the neighborhood and found a really good crepe restaurant. After the crepes and hot cider, we walked over to the Louvre. It is free to get in for college students after 6pm on Fridays, so we took advantage of that and walked around for a couple hours. Obviously we saw the Mona Lisa, which is every bit as big of a deal (and unimpressively small) as everyone says it is. After the Louvre, we came back and made pizza which is somewhat tricky when your kitchen doesn't have an oven, but we discovered that if you put two pizzas together and put them on a frying pan it turns out to be a delicious calzone. Score one point for innovation.

Since our train on Satuday morning left at 6am, we decided not to go to bed and just sleep on the train, so we walked around Paris most of the night, but gave up and got about 2 hours of sleep before getting up to go to the train station.

We got into Amsterdam after a 6 hour train ride around noon on Saturday. We were really tired, so we went back and got some sleep at Ericka's apartment, then went out to explore some. The weather was pretty crappy in Amsterdam the whole time--I only remember an hour or two when it wasn't snowing, and it was dreadfully cold the whole time. But, we walked around downtown for a while, then went to Ericka's boyfriend's restaurant and had a really good meal. I had lamb tenderloin with mushroom sauce--quite different than our own cooking we had been doing. After dinner, we went to a bar that had live music (some British indie band) and enjoyed that for a while. Josh and I tried our hands at pool, which paid off becuase we beat the two British guys who had been running the table all night and got plenty of compliments from all the other frustrated players who had been losing to them all night.

For Saturday night we had tickets for the Awakenings festival. This is a world-known techno concert and lightshow that happens a couple times a year in Amsterdam. This one was held in what I'm pretty sure was an old water-treatment plant, so the dance flood was just a huge round cement building. There are lazers, indoor fireworks, and the music literally doesn't stop from 11pm to 7am. We got there at 2am, and stayed there until almost 7am. It was a great time, and I got exposed to a type of music I hadn't really listened to a lot before but really enjoyed in this setting. Some of the DJ's that played this year were Christian Varela & Pepo, Deetron & Doris Voorn, Elton Dee & Snoo and so on (not that that means anything to most of you).

Since we obviously didnt sleep much Satuday night, we slept most of the day Sunday (made all the more comfortable because the "weather outside was frightful"). We woke up at 4pm and went to a bagel shop and I had a bagel with bacon, nuts, and traditional Dutch gouda cheese and a cappuccino. After dinner (or breakfast, or lunch, or what-have-you) we walked around town more, including through the famous Red Light District, which has to be one of the most bizarre and depressing places I have ever been. On the way home we stopped at a waffle stand and I had a waffle covered in white chocolate and whipped cream, which has to be one of the most delicious things I have ever bought from a street vendor.

On Monday morning we had to get up fairly early for our flight back to Barcelona. Thankfully that (as well as our other flight and train ride) went perfectly smoothly without any problems.


And this is where I get to dispell any potential rumors about traveling to Amsterdam--and you thought I was going to beat around the pot-bush for this whole blog, huh? Well, marijuana isn't my cup of tea, and in all fairness that is not the only reason people visit Amsterdam (although it's definitely the cliche thing to do there). It was fascinating, though, just to be right in the middle of such an open and blatant drug-culture. People are extremely friendly, even to those not participating in the comsumption, and the fact that they speak English and there are so many other tourists around meant that we really didn't stick out like a sore thumb like we do when we travel other places. That being said, I could see myself going back to Paris much sooner than Amsterdam.

And now you can click this link to check out my photos from the trip:

France and Holland Nov. 20-24

Demonstrations at the University

Today I got a message on my phone from the BCA office telling me that there are demonstrations in front of the History Faculty today and that our classes have been moved to a different building. Apparently this is a fairly frequent event, and here is what I know about the situation:

In 1999 all of the leaders of education in Europe got together to talk about the university system, and they decided on a 10-year plan that would basically standardize university education among the European countries. I'm not sure what actual changes this involved, but in essence it means restructuring the schools to be more like North American universities. This change was embraced by students and faculty of the sciences, but not so much by those in the arts.

Over the past 9 years, they made little progress towards their goals for 2009, so in the last year or so the university administration has made some fairly severe and drastic changes, most of which have been contested by a number of students. Actually, recently there has been quite a bit of grafiti and propaganda around the campuses with the phrase "VAGA TOTAL CONTRA LA BOLONYA!" Bolonya is the term for the new structural organization (the place that this agreement was reached) and the propaganda calls for strikes and demonstrations and such.

The demonstration today is likely linked to the university elections that were held last week. The UB elected a new president and a number of other positions, so my best guess is that this is in some what connected to that as well.

I'll try to find a good article online that explains it all better than me and I'll post it here when I do.

Another Barca game

So I just got back from another FC Barcelona soccer game. This time we played lesser-known team, and a couple of the starters sat for Barca, but we got much closer seats this time, so it was fun. I actually got in for free, because my friend Adam's host family has season tickets and he invited me to go with him to the game.

This was a much lower scoring affair. We won 1-0, and barely at that. Messi scored our lone goal in the 41st minute of the second half on a penalty kick after he was taken down on his way to the goal. His initial kick was actually blocked, but he followed up and got the rebound and put it home. Very exciting to watch, even though it shouldn't have been so close against a team like Benidorm.

This album has the pics you already saw of the Nov. 8 game, but I added a few from tonight's game as well:

Barca Games Nov 8 and 12

Barca Game and a trip into the heart of Cataluna

I had a pretty busy weekend. On Saturday I had planned to get a bunch of homework done, but we ended up having guests over at the house and I spent most of the day eating and talking with them.

Saturday night we went to the FC Barcelona soccer game against Valladolid at Camp Nou. We got fairly good tickets, about half way up behind one of the goals. The game was a blow-out, but I think that was a lot more fun to watch than a close low-scoring game. Eto'o, one of the young stars on Barcelona, scored 4 goals in the first half of the game. Then, in the second half, Henry and Gudjohnson each scored to make the final score 6-0 in favor of Barcelona. I'm glad I was able to go, since this was one of the last home games of the season and I won't have other opportunities to do this before I leave Spain.

On Sunday we took a trip to the mountains. My host-sister Ingrid, her cousin Oriol, and my friend Noe all loaded up in the car to go see some of the Catalunian countryside. We had originally talked about going mushroom hunting, but we opted for a whirlwind tour of some of the pueblos and natural sights in the region instead.

First, we drove to Besalu. This is a very old town, much of it from the 11th century. On your way into town you cross a gorgeous bridge called the "Pont Fortificat." Below the bridge there is a very still river, and the surface relected a perfect mirror image of the bridge. It was awesome to see. Inside the town we stopped in some of the bakeries, butcher shops, and stores to stock up on some sandwich meats and cookies and such.

From Besalu we drove to a very peculiar town. The town is built on top of a huge volcanic cliff. The houses were built right up to the edge of the cliff, which has a sheer drop all the way down to where the fields are. This town is called the "Cinglera Basaltica de Castellfollit de la Roca."

From the cliff town we went to the Volcanic National Park. First we left the car at one place and took a hike for about 2 hours through some gorgeous forest. It was the perfect time, as it was sunny, cool, and the leaves were all changing colors. The colors all reminded me of Colorado when the aspen's change colors, but this was different because we didn't see a single pine tree the whole time (and these weren't aspens either). We ate a lunch of sandwiches and oranges and then got back into the car to go to another trail head. There, we went on a little shorter hike that took us to the base of Volca de Santa Margarida. This is a volcanic mountain who's entire side was blown out by a volcanic eruption. You could see all the way to the core of the mountain, and see the strata layers of the terrain. Very beautiful.

From the volcano, we drove into the town of Santa Pau. We walked around the center of town for a little while, taking in the medieval plaza in the center of town, and having coffee at a cafe on the plaza. We also bought some white beans (I don't know what they are called but they are typical of the region). The aren't lima beans or anything like that--they look just like a normal black bean except they are white.

It was getting dark as we left Santa Pau, but we still wanted to make our final stop in Banyoles. This is a town built around a large lake. The thing is, nobody knows how the lake fills with water. There are streams running out of the lake, but none running into it. I suppose it is filled by underground waterways, but the rumor is that at night the mayor hooks up his garden hose to fill it up. We got there after dark, so we couldn't see much except what the moonlight showed, but we didn't see the mayor filling the lake up. We did, however, get stuck in rush hour traffic on the way home, so we didn't make it back until after 9pm.

This trip was great because all of the places we visited are only accessible by car. I would not have been able to take public transportation up there, or get there any other way. I can't even rent a car here until I'm 23. But it was great to see part of Cataluna that I wouldn't have gotten to see otherwise, and to spend some time with part of my host family in the process.

Click here to see my photos of the FC Barca soccer game:

Barca Games Nov 8 and 12

Click here to see my pictures of our day-trip into Cataluna:

Trip to Interior of Cataluna Nov. 9

Elections, new travel plans, etc.

Well last night I made a valiant effort to stay up all night and watch the election results (which came in from midnight to 5am my time) but I it failed when my responsible side took precedence (a rare occurance, I must say) and I decided to get some sleep before my 10am class this morning.

I was, however, very pleased to see this morning that not only did Obama win, but he won big. But you already knew that. After class, I came back to watch both of the speeches online. Bravo! I am interested to see who Obama appoints to his cabinet too.

Here are some of the things I have coming up:

This afternoon I made arrangements to travel to France and the Netherlands with two other students, Josh and Matt. We will fly to Paris on Thursday November 20, take a bullet train to Amsterdam on Saturday, and fly back to Barcelona on Monday November 24. I think it should be a fun time, and a chance to see two new countries I have never been to before!

This afternoon a group of us are going to buy tickets for the FC Barcelona home game on the 8th. I am also looking forward to this.

And finally, my host family is taking me along with them to go up into the mountains on Sunday and hike around and search for wild mushrooms.

Pictures!

And now the moment you have all been waiting for (or not). I have embedded links within most of my blog posts (even the old ones) that should take you to an online album of other pictures from that event.

This is mostly for all of you who are not facebook-affluent. Those of you who do have facebook, these pictures are basically the same as what I have been posting on there. But, for everyone else, now you can see actual pictures of my adventures rather than just the tiny (and un-enlargeable) ones along the side of the blog.

And for starters...here's an album of a few random pictures from around Barcelona:

Random pictures around Barcelona

Enjoy!

Weekend update

So I don't mean to give everyone reading my blog the idea that I don't ever go to class or do real homework or anything. Frankly, my trips and other adventures just make for more interesting blog posts. But here's an update on the scholarly life in Spain:

This coming week is midterms week. So, I spent most of yesterday evening, and all of today studying for those. I have two midterms on Monday, in European Union and Morfosintaxis (my Spanish grammar class). The European Union class has more stuff to study and remember, but I am optimistic about both tests. Tuesday is my scheduled Political Psychology midterm, but I have opted out of taking the midterm/final in favor of writing a 15-20 page paper. Another student and I are working together to write this paper on Thomas Moore's book Utopia. It should be an interesting topic to write about, as it will allow plenty of opportunities to discuss and compare Europe's semi-socialist economic construction and the US economic system etc. My World Economics class does not have a midterm, which is nice because I have less to study for now, but a little intimidating because I will have little or no feedback on how I am doing in that class until I take the final and it is too late to make adjustments.

And now a number game...

2 - this is the number of months I have now been in Spain

5 - this is the total number of months I will be in Europe before returning on Jan. 27

40 - this is the percentage of my stay in Europe that I have completed so far

3 - this is the number of weeks until Leah and Mom and Dad come to visit

3 - this is also the number of weeks I have left of actual classes (after midterms, before finals)

5 - this is the number of days I have free this coming weekend after midterms are done. any ideas where I should travel with all that time??

Well that's all for now. I'll probably be studying the rest of the evening. Oh, and I will also be monitoring the Broncos game, although I have completely given up hope in Shanahan's ability to assemble anything remotely resembling a defense. Go donkeys!

Figueres and Girona

Today we had our final BCA-organized excursion to the two towns of Figueres and Girona. These are both northwest of Barcelona, sort of in the Costa Brava region but not actually along the coast.

In Figueres the main attraction was the Salvador Dali Museum and Theater. I had been here once before when I came to Spain with my high school Spanish class, and the museum was just as impressive the second time around. He is one of the most famous surrealist artists, and this museum is one that he designed himself from the ground up. There are all sorts of works, from paintings to sculptures to jewlery that were all designed and created by Dali. Many of his works are kindof off-the-wall and crazy. The main idea behind surrealism itself is to take two ordinary (and seemingly unconnected) objects and fuse them together to create a third "reality." This is shown in all of his art, but most prominently in works that, when looked at from two different angles, appear to be two completely differnet objects. One example is his famous painting of a nude woman standing in front of a window--but if you look at it with blurred eyes (or take a picture of it) it becomes the face of Abraham Lincoln. Very fascinating.

After seeing the museum we took the bus to Girona, where we saw the cathedral (yes, another cathedral) and then had time to wander around the town over lunch time. It seemed like a nice quaint town, but we ended up spending most of the time hiding from the rain inside a cafe.

Mom and Dad and Leah, this will definitely be a place (particularly Figueres) that we should try to visit when you are here.

Thats all for now. Happy Halloween everyone!

ETA attack in Pamplona, Spain

I sent this via email to a few of you, but I'll post it here for anyone else who is interested.

You may have seen on the news this morning that a car bomb exploded on a university campus in Pamplona, Spain, injuring 27 people. Here is the link to the CNN article:

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/10/30/spain.bombs.university/index.html

I just wanted to assure everyone that this is nowhere close to where I am, and it was likely the work of ETA terrorist group who is trying to get independence for the Basque region from Spain. This group is not active in or around Barcelona, as they are a separatist group in a different region of Spain. There is no cause for alarm :)

On a happier note, I am looking forward to a BCA-organized trip tomorrow to Figueres and Girona. One of the highlights will no-doubt be seeing the Salvador Dali Museum. Another blog post will surely follow that trip!

A Weekend in Germany

This weekend I finally got a chance to go to Germany. This was my first trip outside of Spain during the semester, and my first time in Germany (unless you count the airport). I went to visit Jon Huber, a fellow Bethel and aviation student who is in Germany for a year with the InterMenno cultural exchange program. His current placement has him working on a vineyard about an hour train-ride from Frankfurt.

I flew into Frankfurt on Thursday afternoon, and Jon met me at the airport. We took the train to his place and his host family had Doner Kebabs ready for dinner (chicken, lettuce, tomato, onion, cucumber and garlic sauce on a pita). After dinner Jon and I sat on the patio for most of the evening catching up on each others' experiences abroad and such.

On Friday morning we took the train to Speyer for the day. First we walked through town past the Kaiserdom (large cathedral in the center of town) on the way to the Speyer Technical Museum. This is a large museum with all sorts of exhibits from old cars to fire engines to space vehicles to trains to (most importantly) airplanes. For two pilots, it was the perfect place to spend a day. The feature was a Boeing 747 that was mounted high above the rest of the planes on stilts, and had stairs that took you up so you could go into the plane and explore, then a giant slide to get back onto the ground. We also enjoyed the space exhibit which featured a Russian space shuttle, and the rest of the airplanes that they had.

For lunch we went to a small pub and I had a traditional German meal of sausage, sauerkraut, and rye bread. Then we wandered around town for the rest of the afternoon before heading back to the vineyard for the night.

On Saturday morning Jon took me on a tour of the wine-making process there at the vineyard, then we went on a drive through the Germany wine country, then Jon and I took the train to Worms. We wandered through an old Jewish cemetery on the way to the downtown area. It was beautiful with all of the very old headstones, most of which were in Hebrew, surrounded by all the changing leaves of fall. Then we went downtown and found the statue of Martin Luther. After this, we went to a mall which was right by the church where they held the Diet of Worms in 1521. The church itself wasnt much to see because it was surrounded by a carnival and food and wine festival. We did some shopping in the mall, then wandered our way back to the train station.

That night Jon and I were invited to participate in the wine and cheese party that the vineyard was hosting. About 35 guests attended the party, and it was a very elegant affair. We sat at a table with two couples--one from Austria and one from Holland. Lukcy for us, they spoke good English and were more than happy to guide us through the ettiquete and intricacies of a wine and cheese tasting. We were served 10 different wines to try (5 white and 5 red) and each set of a red and a white wine was paired with a particular gourmet cheese selected just for those wines. I am not a wine conossieur myself, and most of the cheeses were ones I had never and likely will never have again, but I did enjoy the experience a lot.

Sunday morning, Jon and I got up and headed to the train station after lunch. We meant to arrive in time for a 2pm train, but nobody had told us about the time change that night, so we were an hour early for the train. It worked out fine though, because we had plenty of time in the airport in Frankfurt. We went out to the observation terrace and watched planes take off and land for about two hours then I checked in to fly home to Barcelona.

It was a great trip. Everything we had wanted to do we did, and all the travelling worked seamlessly. Kudos to Jon for making the entire trip work so well.

Click here to see my photos of Germany:

Germany Oct. 23-26

Costa Brava: Blanes y Tossa de Mar

Today I went on a day trip to see some of the Costa Brava. The Costa Brava is the name for the entire coastline along the Mediterranean starting at Barcelona and extending all the way north to the French border. The southern part of this is known for its beaches, while the coastline becomes very abrupt and lined with cliffs as you go further north and closer to the Pyrenese Mountains. In some places (way up north) the mountains literally come right up to the water.

We took the train from Barcelona (about 1 hour) to Blanes. From the train station we walked about a half hour (we found out later we could have taken a bus for .80 cents, oh well) to the coast. This area is fairly touristy, with tons of resorts and hotels for people to enjoy the beautiful beach. All of the coast that we saw was lined with hotels and the waterfront with tons of seafood restaurants and cafes. There were a number of small boats along the shore, and also two big marinas with larger boats.

We didn't spend much time in Blanes because we wanted to see more of the coast, so we took a bus to Loret de Mar. Our goal was to check out Loret and then hop on the bus and continue north along the coast to Tossa de Mar. After the half-hour bus ride to Loret, we got out next to a casino and a bowling alley, and immediately realized that it was way to0 touristy for us, so we immediately hopped on the bus to Tossa de Mar. There, we walked to the coast again. The beach was beautiful, as on both the northern and southern sides of the beach the terrain shifted pretty abruptly into cliffs and rock formations. There was also a part of a fortress origionally built by the Moors standing along the cove, so we climbed that for a view of the sea. On the way back down we grabbed some ice cream and headed back to the bus to start the journey back to Barcelona. In Blanes we decided to take a break and eat seafood pizza (with shrimp, salmon, and clams) before getting back to the train for the ride back home.

Click here to see my photos of Costa Brava:

Costa Brava Oct. 19 and Nov. 1

This week I am going to get started on some of my papers I have to write for my classes (including one on the idea of "utopia" for my Political Psychology class). I will try to get ahead with homework and such because I will be in Germany to visit Jon Huber from Thursday through Sunday.

Birthday party

Today we hosted a birthday party at the apartment here to celebrate two birthdays: Ingrid turned 36 and Pep (my host-mom's brother-in-law) turned 56. There were 25 people invited, and although we are in a fairly good-sized place this group really stressed the capacity. However, it was a very good time.

The first course involved a number of "tapas" like stuffed mushrooms, spinach quiche, salmon with strawberries on crackers, various sausages and cheeses, and "croquetas" (which I guess are just like little chicken dumplings). The second course involved three dishes: one of meatballs, one of sausage and shrimp and tofu, and the other with pig stomach and intestines and brain. After this we had birthday cake.

Everything was very delicious, and as is custom everyone stayed and talked around the table for over 5 hours (from 3 to past 8pm). I also sat with the guys as we watched Rafael Nadal lose in a tennis tournament in Madrid.

Walking tour of Barcelona

Today we had a BCA-organized walking tour through downtown Barcelona. It was pretty interesting, but a lot of the buildings we walked by were ones I have already seen during my own exploration. We did however see a cafe called "Cuatro Gats" or Four Cats which is where a number of prominent figures spent a lot of time back in the day. Picasso gave the very first art exhibition of his career in what is now the main dining room of the cafe.

We saw a few interesting places, like a school where 40 school children were killed during the Guerra Civil (Civil War) when a bomb was dropped on a church as Sunday school was letting out. We also saw the headquarters of the socialist party, the front of a secret society building that houses the largest private book collection in all of Spain, and a palace decorrated and by the same decorrator that did a lot of work on the Rockefeller Center in New York. We finnished off the morning by eating sandwiches in Plaza Cataluna.

Vilafranca del Penedes

Today I woke up late and decided to go exploring on my own. I took a train (about an hour) to a town called Vilafranca del Penedes--Penedes is Spanish for the Pyrenees mountain. I didn't make any plans, and didn't know what to expect. I figured I would just get there and start asking people what I should see etc. I picked this town because it is the considered the center of the wine production of Cataluna, and also is very close to the center of Cava production (Spain's version of champagne) and I had heard it was a pretty town. I did find some interesting things, including an old church and I stepped into some of the wine retail shops, but altogether the city wasn't overly impressive. I brought the train back just in time to follow the Broncos game on my computer as they lost to the Jaguars. Oh well.

A day in Sitges

Last night we went to see a movie called Vicky Cristina Barcelona. It is directed by Woody Allen and stars Scarlet Johanson and Penelope Cruz. It was a fairly good movie, but deffinitely a bit different (per the status quo for Woody Allen's films). It was a lot of fun to watch as well because most of it is filmed right here in Barcelona in places that I have visited, like Parc Gruel and Montjuic and such. I would recommend seeing it if you get a chance.

Today we took a day trip to a town called Sitges (pronounced SEE-ches), just a half hour train ride south of Barcelona. This is a small beach town with a lot of fascinating old buildings and small streets. There are a lot of museums and art galleries in town, but for the most part we just opted to bum around the beach all day. We played cards and read and listened to iPods, and it was just a good relaxing day.

Click here to see my photos of Sitges:

Citges Oct. 11

"A discourse on neo-socialism" or "A blue-print to economic reform"

This afternoon I listened to a very interesting lecture in my European Union class, and it sparked some ideas in my head. They are jumbled and I haven't had a lot of time to digest them myself, but let's see how coherently I can get them down on (digital) paper. For those of you just looking for updates on my adventures in Spain, you may want to skip ahead to the next post.



This all started from a lecture intended to show the differences between the economic structures of Europe and the United States. One thing my professor pointed out, and I think is good to note here, is the difference between a few terms. In order to be a member of the European Union, you must be an Estado de Bienestar. This most literally translates to English as a "welfare state." However, Spain and other countries here are far from what we would consider a welfare state--and what we call “welfare” most literally translates back into Spanish as subsidios, which in turn translates literally back into English as “subsidies.” Oh the subtleties of language!

The best way to explain the difference is with the medical care system--the welfare system in the US is designed to help poorer people get basic medical care they couldn't otherwise afford. This leads to the reality that in the US the best medical facilities are private (and consequently expensive, thus unavailable to the lower class). In most of Europe, the estado de bienestar insures a more equal treatment to all citizens, rich and poor alike. For example, a homeless person could walk into any medical facility in the country and receive the same medical care (paid for by the state) as a middle- or upper-class person could. Consequently, the best medical care and most advanced medical research in Europe is done in public facilities. This system is expensive, but effective.

Now for the fun stuff.

My professor offered a description of how Switzerland implemented this estado de bienestar (since I don't know of an accurate translation for this term, I will refer to it in Spanish) after their elections of 1945. Based on that, I scribbled some general notes on how I think a country like the US could implement a similar system. Keep in mind I have only been "developing" this for about...three hours now, so I don't claim it to be anything more than a rough sketch.

STEP 1
We would need to implement a slightly revised tax system. The main changes would be made to the taxation of businesses--I propose a flat tax on all revenue. For the sake of argument, let's just say this rate is 15%.

STEP 2
Begin a government-enforced wage-floor. Basically, this would be a complex version of minimum wage. Let's pretend that we could achieve a system where for 10 years, the wages paid for every job would remain at a constant level.

STEP 3
This is where the government really steps in. Each year, the government adds a new program. Let's say in year 1, the government begins universal health-care (not the type of government-funded healthcare we have now). I'm talking a legitimate healthcare system that would require complete de-privatization of all healthcare entities (from pharmaceutical companies to hospitals) and all healthcare would be made equally available to any American citizen, regardless of social or economic status.

Let's pretend that Family A makes $100 a month. Out of that money, they usually spend $30 on healthcare, $20 on transportation, and $20 on education-related expenses. At this point, their buying power is $30. But, after year 1, they no longer have to spend money out-of-pocket for healthcare, so their buying power has just increased from $30 to $60. What do they do with this money? They spend it--and remember the flat-tax on revenue I proposed? Yep, that means the government is going to see an increase in tax revenue in year 2.

So, in year 2 the government adds another social program--this time they add cheap public transportation. After year 2, public transportation is more widely available, so Family A's transportation-related spending decreases from $20 to $5, thus their buying power increases from $60 to $75.

Now, the government is making more money so they can de-privatize and universalize education et cetera and et cetera. You can see where I'm going with all of this, I think.

BUT WHERE DOES THE MONEY COME FROM?
As I roughly illustrated, the system could potentially be fairly self-sustainable. And, if done correctly would greatly stimulate the economy as well. But, when it comes down to it, Americans would have to get used to the idea of having significantly higher taxes that what we have now. The typical European is taxed roughly 1/3 of their income (very rough estimate, but accurate). However, look at what they get back--extremely efficient public transportation, free (good) healthcare, free education, and a number of other benefits. You get what you pay for.

I would also like to point out that all of the countries in the European Union--27 of them--combined spend less than half of what the US spends on military-related endeavors. Perhaps sometime I'll write a discourse on the disgusting abuse of tax-payer money to promote an agenda of fear, terror and failed attempts to force democracy (a paradox, I know) on the third world. But I think most people reading this already know how I feel about that, so I'll stay away from it right now. But what I'm basically saying is that we stand to gain so much if even a portion of that money could be utilized at home to promote a system like what I am talking about here.

Another point: I think any country that has the ability to, in the matter of one week, make $700,000,000,000--yes, that's billions with a "B"--appear as if out of nowhere (and by nowhere I actually mean our grand-children’s pockets) to stop an imminent collapse of our own pseudo-free-market economy, then I think we could probably scratch up some funds to begin a proactive economic reform rather than a reactive bail-out of white-collar industries.

*sigh* Go get a glass of water or something. We are almost there.

THIS COULDN'T ACTUALLY WORK, RIGHT?
Who knows if it actually could work? No...no...wait...I think...yeah that's right! There are actually 27 countries already operating on this system, or something very similar. I'm not saying anything new here, I'm just going one step further than my high school world geography book that called the European Union "a collection of welfare states" and France "an economy based on the principles of Marxism and socialism" and stopped there.

And, speaking of those 27 countries, the biggest economic crisis they are going through right now is merely international fallout from the US's sub-prime follies. Bravo, corporate America!

NOW, TO WRAP THINGS UP…
I wrote a paper for English class in high school right before I graduated (the biggest paper I had written at that point) about Communism. Very broad topic for a paper, I know. But, I constantly caught myself saying “heck, this could actually work” especially when I was researching the economic intentions of a communist-style government. Now, to call myself a communist would be a complete lie, as I think having a free-market element to the economy is not just a good thing, but entirely necessary. But what about socialism? In a nutshell, it’s just a diluted version of communism. Even pure socialism virtually eliminates the concept of a free market, but what about something in the middle? Europe has already made it work. They have a very free market supplemented by government-controlled basic entities that ensure at least the basic needs of every citizen will be adequately provided.

I’ve seen the government, particularly mine, do some pretty disagreeable things. Actually, most of what they have done has been disagreeable. So, it’s not like I’m suggesting we just hand the reigns of a number of our largest private industries over to city hall, but it’s not like the private sector is doing a whole lot better with these reigns. Health care is not universal or adequate (especially at the lower income levels), low-priced public transportation is all but non-existent in most parts of the US, and education costs an arm and a leg (just take a look at my bill from Bethel). Something has to change, and life seems pretty peachy over here in Europe, so I say we take a few pages out of their book.

For the lack of anything other term, I will coin one here: neo-socialism. I am sure someone else already coined it, and I am also sure when I google it later tonight I will learn what it actually means in the mainstream, but for now that’s what I’m going to call this idea.

I plan to post this on my blog, on Facebook, and I may email it to some people separately. I welcome (and request) any comments you have about it on any of those media.

Tibidabo

On Saturday I took a day trip with one other student, Noe, to a part of Barcelona called Tibidabo. Tibidabo is a hill that forms the western border of the city, and is also where you can find some of the richest houses and estates. On top of the hill, there is a church and an amusement park, and of course a great view of the city to the east and of the interior of the country to the west.

Getting to Tibidabo was a similar journey as the trip to Montserrat, only much shorter. We took a train from close to the University up to the base of the hill, then walked to the "funnicular" (mountain train) station where we got a ride to the top.

The church is actually two churches, one built right on top of the other. As far as I understand, the first one was partially destroyed during the anarchist riots during the Spainish Civil War, and the church was restored, then another one built on top of it.

The amusement park--a pretty small one--had a lot of rides geared towards younger kids, but also had a ferris wheel that I'm sure would have had even better views of the city.

The name Tibidabo is probably my favorite part about the place. It comes from a Biblical passage, during the third temptation of Christ: Haec omnia tibi dabo si cadens adoraberis me (Latin). Or, "all of this I will give you if you bow down and worship me." So Tibidabo most literally means "what I offer to you" and seems to be Barcelona's snub way of saying "maybe Jerusalem was not enough to tempt you, but how about our beautiful city."

After spending most of the morning on Tibidabo, we came back down into town and walked around Las Ramblas some, doing a little shopping and exploring.

In the evening, FC Barcelona played against Atletico Madrid, so we went to a sports bar to watch that. AT Madrid is nowhere near the rivalry that Real Madrid would have been, but it was still an intense game, even if it wasn't close--Barca score two goals in the first 10 minutes of the game, and ended up winning 6-1.

Tonight (Sunday) at 10pm the Broncos game will actually be televised down here--one of only two Broncos games all season that I will be able to watch. The Cowboys game will be on at the same time, and there are a couple Cowboys fans on the trip, so I'm sure a group of us will get together again at the sports bar to watch those games and pretend we are back in America for a few hours.

Just a side note--sitting at this sports bar can be a little of an out-of-body experience, as it can be very easy to forget we aren't just sitting back at B-Dub's or somewhere like that in Denver. Last week when we were watching football, we were sitting at a table with all Americans, surrounded by other American tourists and businessmen, watching American football. The menus were in English, the waiters spoke fluent English, and the food even tasted American (and the music was all 90's classics). This is hardly the immersion experience I came to Barcelona for, and not something I plan to do often, but it's a good cure for by Broncos-withdrawal.

Click here to see my photos of Tibidabo:

Tibidabo Oct. 4

Quick Update

I don't have a whole lot to report this week, but I havent posted anything for a few days, so I thought I'd give a quick update.

I've had a head-cold yesterday and today and have been resting a lot to try and get through it before the weekend. If I am feeling up to it, I will probably go to Parc Gruel (a park designed by Gaudi) on Saturday.

Yesterday I booked a flight to Germany to go visit Jon Huber towards the end of October. Jon (fellow Bethel student and in the aviation program with me) is participating in Inter-Menno this year in a small town near Mannheim. I will fly into Frankfurt on Thursday (October 23), and either take the train to Mannheim or Jon will pick me up in a car from there and take me to the vineyard where he is working. Then I will fly back to Barcelona on Sunday (October 26).

A concert, a soccer game, and an airshow

On Friday night we went to an MTV concert near the Olympic stadium. Five bands played, and two of them were ones I am familiar with--Daniel Powter and Katie Perry. Neither of them headlined, so the other band (Pig Noise) must be fairly big in Europe, but I hadn't heard of them before. The concert was broadcast live on MTV throughout southern Europe (Spain, Portugal, Italy, France) so all of the announcements/introductions were made in English, ironically, and then I suppose they were subtitled in various languages for each country.

On Saturday I visited the official FC Barcelona team store, and was going to buy a soccer jersey, but couldnt decide which player I wanted to get, so I didnt get it yet. I guess I need to watch a few more games and learn more about the team.

Saturday night FC Barcelona (typically called Barca--pronounced "barsa") played against the other team from Barcelona called Espanyol (Catalan spelling). Barca is a much better team than Espanyol, but this is still a heated rivalry and usually ends up being a much closer game than it should be. It was a violent game too, as a couple red cards were handed out in the first half. Espanyol had the lead for most of the game, and towards the middle of the second half they had to stop the game to let the police quiet down a riot in the stands and put out a couple of fires. Immediately after that, Barca scored two quick goals and ended up winning the game 2-1. Go Barca!

Today (Sunday) I went to a big airshow down by the beach at a place called El Forum. There were a number of stands set up with posters, pictures, etc about different flying clubs around here. I met a Spanish Air Force pilot, and told him that I'm a pilot and we talked about airplanes for a little while. There were a number of different planes flying overhead, some military, some acrobatic, and some helicopters too. The coolest thing was a jet that did a few maneuvers and then came back around for a low pass, hitting just below the speed of sound right above us (he didn't break the sound barier quite, or else it would have deafened everyone watching) but he got close enough that you could see the condensation ring around the plane form, which happens right before you break the sound barrier. I didnt get a good picture, or else it would make more sense.

As for the rest of the afternoon, I don't have a lot going on. I might go to the Hard Rock Cafe downtown and find out if they show football games there, particularly the Broncos game. I doubt I will be able to find anywhere to show it, but it's worth a try.

Click here to see my photos of the concert and airshow:

Concert and Airshow Sept 26, 28

Finnishing up the week of festivals

This week has been full of more festivities from the La Merce festival here in town. On Tuesday night I went to a couple concerts--one salsa/merenge band, and a British pop/rock band. Neither were groups I had ever heard of before, but both seem to be pretty big names out here and were fun concerts.

Wednesday was the final day of the festival. The final event is a huge "Piromusical" close to Montjuic. This involves a huge fireworks show, timed with live music and with the huge fountain at the end of the plaza in front of the palace. It was an amazing fireworks show, by far the most impressive one I have ever seen. We managed to get good spots not far from the fountain, but the entire plaza and surrounding area was packed to the brim--I think all of Barcelona was there. After the fireworks, there was no hope of getting on the Metro, so I walked one and a half hours to get home.

Today I had one class in the afternoon, then I went to see a new movie called "Che, el Argentino" about Che Guevarra. Although this is in no way connected with "The Motorcycle Diaries" it seems to pick up right where that one left off. It starts with Che being introduced to Fidel Castro when both were virtually unknown, and chronicles their experience as they assembled a guerilla army and successfully led the revolution in Cuba. Benicio del Torro plays Che, and most of the movie is in Spanish, but I am sure it would be available in the US in English. I would recommend seeing it to anyone who gets a chance.

Tomorrow we are planning to go to a concert that is only a few blocks from my apartment: among those playing are Daniel Powter and Katy Perry.

On Saturday is the big rivaly game between the two local soccer clubs: FC Barcelona and FC Espanyol. That will be a pretty big deal, and I am sure I will end up watching it somewhere, either at home or at a restaurant.

And, Sunday there is a big airshow here. I am going with a few other students, and will no doubt spend the day inparting my aviation knowledge upon them. And, maybe I'll make some aviation connections here in Spain.

Click here to see my photos of the Piromusical:

Piromusical Sept. 24

That's all for tonight.

Festival La Merce and a trip to Montserrat

Well the end of the week and this weekend have been busy for me so far...but in a good way.

Thursday I had another day of class--my first time in my advanced grammar class called Morfosintaxis. I really like the teacher (I have had other grammar classes from him already during orientation) and like all the other classes, I am looking forward to this one.

On Friday we had to take our first test over the history class we took during our trip to Leon and Burgos. I think it went pretty well, as it was just mainly an essay explaining the various Gothic architectural elements we saw in the places we visited.


Montserrat:

For Saturday, I made plans to go up to a mountain close to Barcelona called Montserrat. I let a few people know about it, and left an open invitation to anyone who wanted to join me on the day trip. As it turned out, we had a group of 9 students go, and I ended up playing tour guide because I was the only one who had done all the research on getting there and what was actually up there, but that was OK and fun for the most part.

There was a lot involved in getting up there: first I took the metro to the station where the Montserrat train left from, then we took a train that went to the base of the mountain (about 50km outside of Barcelona), where we got on a mountain tram that took us half way up the mountain to the basilica and monastery of Montserrat. Montserrat is actually the oldest music school in Europe, and has a world-famed boys choir that puts on a free concert daily at 1pm, but sadly we couldn't see them because there was a wedding going on in the church instead. We did get to see the inside of the church, and waited in line for 40 minutes to see the black Madonna--I will explain this in the next paragraph--and went into the art museum. The museum was a lot of fun, as it had paintings by Picasso, Monet, Dali and quite a few others.

The black Madonna is a statue of the patron saint of Cataluna, and is particularly interesting because she is black-skinned. The story goes that she was not origionally made black, that she became black from the smoke from all of the prayer candles that were burned under her, but now she is just assumed to be a black saint and is a source of pride in the region. I'm not actually positive, but depending on who you ask she might be the only black saint ordained by the Catholic church.

Anyways, after visiting the church and the museum, we took another mountain tram up to the top of the mountain. The whole think was socked in for the most part by clouds. Although this took away from the view, it added a mystical or eerie air to the place. We hiked around for a while, going to a few of the small peaks and enjoying the cool air.

Click this link to see my photos of Montserrat:

Montserrat Sept. 20

Festival La Merce:

After we got back from Montserrat, we each went back to hour host families for dinner, then I met up with three others to take in some of the festivities of La Merce. This is a city-wide festival that goes on from Friday through Wednesday--every major plaza or attraction hosts free concerts and events all week. It is really something to see. For the second night in a row, we went down to the beach to watch fireworks. After we saw the fireworks Saturday night, we found a little cafe that specializes in chocolate. They offer 23 different types of chocolate, which comes in a cup, but you eat it with a spoon--the consistency is something between pudding and hot cocoa.

Tomorrow I plan to take in a few more of the free concerts or events, and see what else the day throws my way.

First day of classes at the UB

Today I started my actual classes at the Universidad de Barcelona.

My first class was at 10am at the Facultad de Economicas, called Organizacion de Economicas Internacionales (or Organization of International Economics). The Economics campus is a 30 minute ride away on the metro. I got there a little early, and it took me a little while to figure out exactly where I was going, but I made it to class on time and all was well. I sat next to a girl who said she is taking the class for the second time (she didn't pass the first time) and she also said that typically only about half of the class passes this class. So, I am a little intimidated by that but I think for now I'll stick it out and see if I can't be part of the half that passes it.

It does, however, sound like a really interesting class. Today's professor (there are three different ones that rotate throughout the semester) was very easy for me to understand and had a good sense of humor and made it sound like we will be talking about a lot of current issues that could be very interesting. Out of the 50 or so in the class, there were about 8 or 10 or so that raised their hands when he asked how many exchange students were in the class.

After that class, I went home for lunch and my host mom cooked me an alfredo pasta and baked fish...yumm. Then it was time to head to the Facultad de Historia--which is only a 15 minute ride away on the metro--for Union Europea and Psicologia Politica (European Union and Political Psychology).

European Union sounds like it will be a very good class as well. The professor talks very fast and with a very thick accent, so of the American students in the class I was one of the few who actually can understand him. But this class also sounds like it will touch on a lot of current issues and good topics.

Political Psychology was a class I was intending to audit rather than take for credit. The professor talks slowly (which almost put me to sleep) but he is easy to understand and again the curriculum sounds very interesting. I am not sure if I will audit this class, or take it for credit instead of taking the beginner Catalan class. This one would fit better into my schedule, and Catalan will be relatively useless to me once I leave Barcelona, so this might be a better class for me to be taking for credit. We will see.

This afternoon I am just taking it easy, catching up on blog and photos and email and such. I might try to find something fun to do this evening since my only class tomorrow is at 2pm, and then I dont have class on Fridays (3-day weekends all semester!!).

That's all for now. Peace.

Leon y Burgos (y un rato en Zaragoza tambien)

I just got back to Barcelona from our 5-day trip to Leon and Burgos--two very old and culturally-rich cities in the northern interior of Spain. We spent the first two nights (Friday and Saturday nights) in Leon, then the next two (Sunday and Monday nights) in Burgos.

We left early Monday morning for a long bus ride to Leon. We were told that the trip would take 12 hours, but I think it only involved about 6 or 7 hours of actual driving and the rest was due to the stops we made. We had a 2 hour lunch break in the outskirts of Zaragoza, where I went by myself through some winding streets to find a cafe where there would be locals instead of hanging out in the touristy places. This was a lot of fun, and I ended up drinking coffee with two older gentlemen from the area, one of whom was glad to tell me all about the various tapas that they had there.

We arrived in Leon at 7, and checked into our hotel about 3 blocks from the main cathedral and central plaza. Then we went out to explore. I dont remember how much I have talked already about "tapas," but they are a tradition in Spain, particularly in the interior of the country. The concept comes from way back when bars would serve drinks, but would carry them to the table with a piece of bread or toast on top of them so that bugs or dust wouldn't get in the drinks. Hence the name "tapa" which means "lid" in Spanish. Now, tapas are often much more extravagent than a simple piece of bread. They can be anything from a few olives, to a skewer of shrimp to "tortilla de patatas," and everything inbetween. It is customary to spend an evening on the town hopping from one tapa bar to the next, ordering one small glass of wine or beer and sampling the specialty tapas before moving on to the next one. In some places, it is even considered rude to order more than one drink or tapa at one place. In most places in Spain, you have to pay for all of your tapas individually, but Leon maintains the tradition of offering free tapas when you buy a drink. So, you can order a small glass of wine, beer, soda, water or juice for about $1.50 Euro and sample the tapas for free. And this is exactly how we passed the first evening in Leon--I started out with a large group of people, but we quickly realized that that was not the way to go, so Adam and I went on our own to explore. We had a really great time, as most of the bartenders were more than willing to explain their specialties, and even advise us on where would be a good place to make our next stop. The neighborhood where we spent most of the evening is called Barrio Humedo (which means humid neighborhood) but not because of the weather, rather because it is just packed with bars everywhere you look.

Saturday morning we had breakfast at the hotel then went for a walking tour around Leon. I should mention that our tour guide for the trip was Gustavo Vega, a senior art professor at the University of Barcelona, well-known artists throughout the region who's art is displayed publicly in a number of places, and a native of Leon. We went into three places before lunch: San Isidoro de Leon, el hostal de San Marcos, and el Palacio de los Guzmanes. (I will add more details about these later)

We got food at a supermarket for lunch and made sandwiches in the plaza. After lunch, we visited the Catedral de Leon. This is the main one on the central plaza, and it is enormous. Most of it is currently under restoration, so the entire right side is covered with green mesh, but the parts that we could see were magnificent. The inside had huge vaulted ceilings, lavish tributes to various saints, and tons of huge stained-glass windows that made for a very colorful look. We got to climb the stairs up to the back balcony for a view from above, where a guide explained all of the stories that were told with the stained-glass murals around the church.

After visiting the cathedral, we were free for the rest of the evening. We spent this time going shopping (I have yet to buy any clothes--I'm trying to hold off as long as possible) and had a few tapas before returning to the hotel to go to bed.

Sunday morning we checked out of the hotel in Leon and took the bus to Astorga for the morning. Here we visited a building that was designed by Gaudi called el Palacio Episcopal de Astorga. When the church wanted to build a residence for the bishops of the region, they called upon a well-known Catalan architect--Gaudi--to design it. Gaudi, however, was not from the region and didn't know how cold it was in the region during the winter, so he didn't take into account heating when he designed it. The building is gorgeous, but nobody ever lived in it because it was too cold. Oops. Also, Astorga is only 50 km away from a couple ski resorts in the Pyrenees mountains, so I will have to keep that in mind once ski season begins here.

After the tour of the Palacio Episcopal we went next door to the Catedral de Astorga. This also is a very important catherdral to the early catholic church, and was lavishly decorated inside. We took the bus back to Leon to have lunch, then got back on the bus for a 3-hour bus ride to Burgos. Burgos is one of the oldest cities in Spain, and had all kinds of fascinating architecture as well.

When we got to Burgos we had the afternoon free to explore the downtown area. Like Leon, tapas bars were a dime a dozen. But here it is no longer tradition to offer many free tapas, so it was a little more expensive to fill up on them for dinner. When I got back to the hotel, I watched The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (with Sean Connery) in Spanish.

Monday morning we visited the Cartuja de Miraflores. A cartuja is a monastery. In this particular monastery, all of the monks take a vow of silence. The only time that they are allowed to speak is during the Sunday church services when they read scripture and sing in the choir. Just to get a taste of what that is like, a couple of my classmates and I took our own vows of silence during the 3-hour tour. That was hard enough to do--I can't imagine spending the rest of my life without ever talking.

After lunch we did our last group tour of a cathedral in the Catedral de Burgos in the center of town. This one was even more impressive than the others that we had seen, as it was painted with vibrant colors and murals all over the ceilings and walls. There was also a very interesting art museum attached to the cathedral that we spent a lot of time in. After our group tour of the cathedral, a few of us hiked up a hill to where there was supposed to be a castle overlooking the city. When we got there, the castle didn't look interesting enough to justify the $3.50 Euro to go in, so we just enjoyed the view of the city and the valley before going back into town. We ate dinner at a Greek restaurant and then stopped for a tapa on the way back to the hotel for dessert.

Tuesday morning we packed up and got on the bus for the long trip back to Barcelona. For lunch we stopped in Zaragoza, a town about three hours outside of Barcelona. It is built around the Hebrero River, and has another very interesting cathedral along the river. I decided to go inside the cathedral during our lunch stop, and with a few classmates we used our recently acquired knowledge of the time periods of architecture to analyze the structure and art. We ultimately decided that it must be a Neoclassical church, built a little after the Baroque era. We never got that ultimately confirmed from anyone who would actually know, but I feel pretty confident in our analysis.

And now, I have just finished dinner back with my host family. They are watching a "telenovela" or TV drama in Catalan and I am working on blogging and getting my pictures onto my computer. Classes at the University start tomorrow, so I will definitely have stories to tell about that. Tomorrow I have Economics at 10am, then European Union at 2pm, and I am planning to audit the political psychology class at 4pm, so I should have a busy day.


Something I wanted to add about our trip to Leon and Burgos:
The Camino de Santiago is a very popular Catholic pilgrimage, and it passes right through the region we were in. In fact, I could see people with backpacks hiking the trail from the highway during most of the drive. Santiago de Compostella is one of the three Holy Places of the Catholic faith--the other two being Rome and Jerusalem. Those of you who have read the Da Vinci Code or any similar literature, remember the Knights Templars who were charged with protecting the pilgrims along this very road that goes from Rome through Spain to Santiago. Now, the trail is used by persons making the trek for both religious and adventurous motives. The part of the road that goes through Spain takes approximately 20-30 days to walk in its entirety, and some pilgrims who begin up in Germany take 45 to 60 days to complete the one-way journey.

That being said, I would like to extend an invitation to anyone to join me to hike part of the Camino de Santiago, possibly in January. I have had some interest in doing this trek ever since I read a book by Paulo Coelho called The Pilgrimage (I would recommend reading it if you get a chance). This interest only became stronger as I saw and experienced the road and some of the sights that it passes along. I don't think that I would want to undertake the entire trek--maybe a week or so of walking would be more sensible--and I would rather do it with someone else, so let me know if you have any interest in getting to know Spain and experiencing part of the Camino de Santiago.

Click this link to see my photos of the trip:

Leon, Burgos, Astoria and Zaragoza (Orientation and Art History trip)

Well, that's all for now. I will have more after I start classes, either tomorrow or Thursday.

Peace.

Finnishing up Week 2

Yesterday we had our last day of language/grammar classes at the UB. Tomorrow we are leaving (early) for Leon in the region of Castilla--this is in the northwestern corner of the country. The weather is supposed to be much cooler and maybe rainy there, so that could be a nice change of pace from the constant hot and humid that we've had in Barca so far.

Last night a group of us went to a nightclub called Bikini. It is the second biggest club in Barcelona, next to the Razzmatazz (which is only three blocks from my apartment). The Bikini, however, is where more Spaniards and fewer "extranjeros" go. Most of the group went at 10:30, but following the advice of my host family I didn't head out till around midnight. This was fine, since it was still fairly empty at that time, as most Spaniards start heading to clubs around 1 or 2 am. There were three big dance rooms, each with its own DJ--one for techno, one for American and Brit hip-hop, and the other for Spanish House music. We spent most of our time in the hip-hop room. I had a lot of fun, and surprisingly met a lot of people there too. The club was open until 5am, but I took off around 4am. I had a lot of fun, but I dont think I'll be able to go back there very often at all, since the cover alone costs 18 Euro (about $28 USD).

Luckily, today is a holliday, as I mentioned in an earlier post (a holliday celebrating when Cataluna was defeated by the Spanish). This means that everything is closed, and there is no class, but fortunately also all the museums in the city are free. I went with Lexi to Montjuic (the Jewish Mountain) where there are three or four different museums. Since they all closed at 2:30, we only visited one, but it was fascinating. It is called the MNAC, or Museu Nacional D'Art de Cataluna. It has various exhibits, including Romanesque art, Gothic art, Renaissance/Baroque art, and Modern art. There are also two seasonal exhibits, but we didn't have time to see those. It was fascinating to see, especially the Romanesque and Gothic exhibits, becasuse we saw pieces that we had just talked about in our Art History class, and pieces from some of the Cathedrals and buildings that we are going to see on our upcoming trip to Leon. I will definitely be going back up to Montjuic when I get a chance, to take another look at this museum as well as to see the other museums that are close by like the Joan Miro museum (he was a surrealist artist similar to the likes of Salvador Dali).

So I just finnished lunch, and am planning a relaxing afternoon of either reading here or at the beach. We have to meet the bus tomorrow at 7:30am for the 12 hour drive to Leon. I will have another update when I get back from that trip in 5 days.

Peace.

First Post (add-on)

Just a few things I wanted to add to the first post.

I mentioned I am taking a Beginner Catalan course. Catalan is a language that most people from Barcelona speak rather than Spanish. Everyone knows Spanish because it is the language of commerce, but Catalan is the native language that most kids grow up speaking, and is a major source of pride for people from Cataluna. It is a beautiful language that sounds a lot like French or Italian, but has its own grammatical structure independent of other European languages. This is also a major reason that the region of Cataluna has been and still is fighting to become independent of Spain and become a sovereign state. I just want to learn some basic Catalan to be able to better understand it while I am here. For example, when I went to the mall to buy my phone, the saleswoman spoke both Catalan and Spanish, but all of the brochures and descriptions of the calling plans were in Catalan, and no Spanish copies were available (hence the fact that I am not 100% sure exactly what I am paying for each call, although I have a pretty good idea).

Also, Mom pointed out in a comment that my full phone number if you are calling from the States is: 011-34-69-019-2811.

Today I had more language classes in the morning, then the afternoon free, and an Art History class in the evening. This art history class is primarily to prepare us for our trip to the region of Castilla this coming weekend. We will be visiting a number of cathedrals, mosques, synagogues, etc. to examine the architecture and art associated with each one. Some of the places I visited two years ago, others will be new for me.

Tomorrow will be the same as today, then we have Thursday off for a national holiday. It is the day when Catalunans celebrate (ironically) their defeat by the Spanish military when they were trying to gain independence a number of years ago. Interestingly as well, this holiday falls on September 11th.

On Friday we leave for 5 days in Castilla. I am not planning to take my computer with me, and I dont know if I will take time to get online and update this blog, so I might not have another post until next week sometime, at which point I will definitely tell about the trip.

Anyways, more later.
Ciao

P.S.
I will post only a handful of pictures on my blog. The rest will be available on facebook (for those who have it), and I will try to find a way to get pictures out to everyone else who doesn't have facebook some other way.