The Rest of Barcelona and the First day of Class

Hi! Sorry it's been a while. I really enjoyed the rest of my vacation with my family, and today we started class.

Sant Joan

Monday was fun. We saw the Picasso museum and went to a Flamenco show and dinner in the evening, with a huge buffet of food from every region of Spain. The show was completely different from what I expected. The dances they did were so impressive and looked super difficult. We sat in the front row, and that made the experience even more interesting because when one girl finally came out with a really long skirt on, me and the lady next to me thought she was going to knock the cups of sangria on the table next to us right off. 

That skirt though

After the show we still had some extra time, so we kind of split up. Kayla and I got some life changing dessert, and then walked around taking pictures. I'll include a few of those below.

On Tuesday everything was closed for the Festival of John the Baptist, which could have been very boring but actually turned out to be very cool. Everything was closed, which is why it had the potential for boringness, but it was also kind of special because we got to see them do this dance that they do on Sundays and feast days, right below our hotel balcony in the square by the chapel. 

It was especially cute because it was groups of old people. Apparently it's traditionally danced around bonfires but they just used piles of clothes. 

We rented bikes and biked down to the water. We went to the little shops, then to a late lunch, then Dad and I went to the beach to check it out. We biked a TON. It was tiring but super fun.

The next day we went to Madrid. In the two days we were there together we went to two museums, the Prado and the Museo Reina Sofia. I'm going back to both with the group, so I will tell you more later. We went to this really good restaurant the second to last night, and I tried iberian pork. It tasted like steak. Apparently it is the best of the best. 

I went to my residence on Saturday and we went to the BEST tapas bar with the most delicious stuffed mushrooms in the world, then later we went out to other bars. Yesterday, Sunday, we went to this fantastic flea market, where I bought a beautiful leather bag and a fan for Kayla. We also went to some other stores because the sales have started in Spain, and my friends needed to buy bathing suits before the weekend. 

Today was the first day of class, and I adore both teachers we have. They are just fantastic. It's going to be a good two weeks. We went on a walking tour that was cut short by the 102 degree weather. Otherwise, we are just hanging out now waiting for dinner time. After experiencing my first few days in Spain, I am very excited for the rest.

First Day in Barcelona

Time Zone Changes are Tiring...

We left for the airport at 2:00 pm on Sunday, and right now it is 8:50 pm on Monday. I am lucky enough that I can sleep like a baby on planes, so I got 6 hours of sleep last night, but Mom and Kayla can't sleep on planes so they have literally not slept in the last day. We arrived in Barcelona and immediately went on a private driving tour that my mom was smart enough to book. Check in at the hotel was not until 2:00, and since we landed at like 8:30 we needed a way to kill a few hours and get transported to the hotel. Our tour guide was a super sweet guy named Jordi, and we got to see Monjuic, some of the stuff they built for the Olympics, Sagrada Familia, Casa Batlo, Parc Guell, and more. We also got a few super pretty views of the city and the beach. My favorite by far was Parc Guell, and there are some places that we might go back to.

A bench around the top of Parc Guell

View from top of Parc Guell

Museo at Monjuic

View of the water

We were all super tired so when we got back to the hotel we just took naps for a while, and then we went to dinner at a cute restaurant, where I got to try my first Spanish ham and sangria, which is way better in Spain. Afterwards we walked around the streets near our hotel, and then we went back. We have a balcony in our hotel room, and the following pictures are all pictures I just took from the balconies. We are right across from the cathedral, and the view is perfect.

Just seeing the first few glimpses of the city already makes me so excited for the next few days here.

Talk to you again tomorrow!

My Week at Home and Happy Father's Day Bob Sales

Hi friends and family! I am sitting here, staring at the huge pile of clothes I have to somehow pack tomorrow, procrastinating on the essay I still haven't done, and reflecting on the past week and how I feel about my trip tomorrow. Here's the thing. I am really excited to go somewhere brand new that I have always wanted to see, but right now I don't feel mentally or physically ready yet. I haven't rested enough, and I'm not packed. I'm not super organized about the next half of the program because I'm still mentally tired from the last one. That being said, I guess I do have another week of break before the program starts, it's just a break in Barcelona and Madrid with my family instead of a break in my house.

I guess I can't complain. It's been a busy and fun week. I spent some fun time with my sister, and I saw Kelly, Maria, Ben, and my grandparents. I wish I could take everybody with me to Spain so that I could keep seeing everybody that I miss while I'm away. I know there are a few people I didn't get to see just because I ran out of time, and that's kind of a bummer.

But, despite the tiredness and procrastination going on right now, I have to admit I'm pretty excited to get back to my adventures. I'm super excited to live with Mandy again, since the first part was so very successful.

Father's Day Celebration

Today we had an early Father's Day party with my family and my grandparents. I thought I would share some pictures. I know this blog is all about my adventures in Mexico and Spain, but the fun times I have with my family can be just as exciting sometimes. Happy Father's Day, Dad. I am so excited to get to laugh at...um, I mean, listen to...your Spanish for the next week. I miss your cooking so much when I'm not home, and you're the best dad ever.

I'll talk to y'all again from Spain!

Home!

I'm in Atlanta!

But only for a week. We finally finished up our documentaries and turned them in in class on Friday. I'll share my personal documentary on here even though it's in Spanish, but the group one is 20 minutes long and kind of boring.

Hopefully it will show up the right way when it's uploaded. I've definitely had some video troubles on this blog.

Thursday night was fun. We had no class so that we could finish up our work, and me and Mandy got done pretty early. That meant we could go to a party Thursday night. We considered staying in to do our essays but our host mom encouraged us to go. It was so fun! We were invited through the university we were studying at, and the party was at the W in Mexico for this new hair care line by Lee Stafford. There were free drinks, appetizers, good music, fancy clothes (it was a cocktail attire, we didn't have cocktail attire clothes but we did our best), and fun decorations. We also got free hair product sample bags. It was a nice change from the usual Mexico bar or club.

Yesterday we had a final get together at the house of one of the students. Our TA's birthday is coming up, so we got her a cake (and smushed her face into it as is tradition there). We also got baskets of sweets for Emilie and Jennie, and me and the five other Condesa girls made solo cup awards (like paper plate awards but on cups). We had so much fun reading everybody's superlatives, and just being together for one last night before the group split up to go to different places.

Today I flew home. Right when I got home my sister wanted to go on a bike ride, so it's been a busy but fun first day back. I'm so glad to have a week in between this last trip and Spain! 

I will update my blog again when we land in Barcelona! For now, I'll be enjoying my precious time with my friends and family.

A busy last week (so far)

Baile Folklorico

Saturday Mandy and I just ran around all day recording footage for our documentary. On Sunday we went to a Baile Folklorico, a performance at Bellas Artes. It was fantastic, and it was a lot of fun with just the six Condesa girls there.

Bimbo

On Monday we went to Bimbo, which is a huge food business that owns a lot of brands. I'm pretty sure they own twinkies. It was sorta cool to see the place, and the man telling us about it like drew the history on the board as he talked and was very talented, but I didn't get too much of a thrill from seeing them make processed food to be honest. It was neat, but it was also kind of gross to watch them fry doughnuts in oil then cover them with powdered sugar.

Other than that it's been a lot of videotaping and a lot of work. We filmed most of our personal documentaries today. We are essentially done with the big documentary. We have two essays due a week from when the program ends but I definitely want to try to do them before.

I'm a documentarian and it's taking over my life.

The internet says that's a word.

Documentarian, I mean. So, my life has been super uninteresting lately because literally all I've been doing is working on this gosh darn documentary. So I'm about to give you three days worth of updates mostly through pictures and a short video. 

Thursday I got sick and had to stay back from class. I accidentally ate something which had eggs (I'm slightly allergic and they make me sick), chili, some weird herb, and was fried in grease. You couldn't tell there were eggs in it and I didn't even realize that was the problem until my host mom told me. 

Thursday afternoon, however, I powered through to go interview this cool activist who is an expert on our topic. We got a gold mine of information from her. Remember that our theme is privatization of water.

Yesterday we went to UNAM to look for a professor to interview. We got there after he left but got his contact information, so hopefully that will work out. While we were there we walked 38 minutes to the central library to film some dried up fountains that our professor was really pushing because they would be super poetic apparently. They didn't look a lot like fountains. Apparently it's a "water mirror" that they fill up sometimes so it can reflect the interesting designs on the buildings. Below are some pictures from around campus.

Mural near the metro

Dried fountain 

Another mural

Dried water mirror

Mural on the rectoria

Biblioteca central

Rectoria

So I guess I have to admit that, despite the fact that we didn't get home until 8:00 pm and were thoroughly worn out from all the walking, it was a pretty neat chance to see the biggest campus in Mexico and, I believe, one of the biggest ones in the world. Doctor Rodriguez also had a talk there at 5:00, so we actually took the metro over with him, which was a fun chance to talk to him. He's a pretty cool guy turns out, and he seems to really want us to succeed.

Today I ran all over Roma and Condesa with Mandy filming scenes of water and interviewing people on the street. I loved it because I love talking to people, but it was pretty tiring. Below is a lovely video, courtesy of google's auto awesome, which shows a lot of the filming I did. 

Enjoy! After we finish this big documentary we will be doing 2 minute personal ones, which I'm actually excited for. I will hopefully be able to post again tomorrow, but I also have an informe and two 4 page ensayos to do, technically any time up till a week after this course, but since that's the one week I have at home before Spain I feel like I need to get them done before I leave Mexico. I promise I'm not ignoring you guys! Trying to make a 20 minute documentary in one week is a struggle.

Puebla

Road Trip!

This past weekend, we went to Puebla! 

If you don't know anything about it, which, I didn't, it is the town where the Mexicans won a battle against the French, for which we now celebrate Cinco de Mayo. Interestingly enough, that isn't a thing here. It's a super Americanized holiday. However, the town is fantastic. The people there are super sweet, the roads are nicely numbered and organized into a grid that even I can understand, and they have a whole street of just candy, a bunch of markets, and a cute church on every single corner.

I was a big fan of the whole candy thing.

Candy display in a shop.

I bought a cute little basket of traditional Mexican candy for my family.

The streets and churches were all so beautiful.

My fav street pic

A little street full of shops

This church was all gold inside!

And the zocalo (town square) was buzzing with activity.

Street performer

There were normal, street markets...

...and there were flea markets/antique markets with a bit more random wares. I wanted to buy Kayla an antique coin at this market since she collects them, and my friend showed me a stand where a vendor was selling necklace charms made of punched out coins. Imagine you took a US quarter and punched out everything but the eagle. They were beautiful, and there were some old Mexican ones. One had maiz, and one had the escudo. I couldn't decide, and I wanted one for myself, so I decided to get both. They were originally priced at 200 pesos apiece, which I thought was reasonable for how pretty they are. I talked the nice vendor down to 320 pesos, just over $21. I paid and left, which meant going out of the market, down the block, and around a corner. Then, I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was the vendor. I had overpaid him by $20 pesos, and he had tracked me down to give me back the extra! Now, I don't know about you, but if I had had my stuff talked down to below my asking price, and my customer had given me $1.33 in US dollars and left, I would NOT have tracked them down to give it back, and I think I'm pretty honest! I took the money because it happened so quickly, but in hindsight I wish I had let him keep it. I love when people are that nice.

There was also an art market, and I bought a small canvas painting with a Maguey.

These artists are painting the model in the middle!

I almost bought one of these sweethearts.

Just kidding Mom and Dad! I won't actually bring an old English sheepdog puppy home from Mexico.

We found some tradicional dancers performing on the way to the art market. We literally just stumbed upon this performance, and it was incredible.

It was an overall fantastic two days of walking around and exploring. Friday night we had a big dinner, and I tried some very odd foods including ant eggs and cooked worms.

Gusanos de Maguey, I ate one...

The worms were meh, but the ant eggs (escamole) were fantastic.

Last night we had our farewell dinner for Doctora Gallaway with all of the families. It was fun because Margarita and her son in law Vicente both came. I finally got to try flan! I also embarrassed myself in front of EVERYBODY. I walked into a stationary taxi. I have a huge scrape on my leg to prove it, and Vicente wouldn't stop laughing at me.

We have Doctor Rodriguez as our new professor. I miss Doctora. Her class simply cannot be beaten, but Doctor seems nice enough. The lectures are incredibly boring, but it is a project based class about documentaries, so we will be crazy busy for the next week and a half running around, filming, interviewing, and researching. Our topic is water privitization. I will share with you the final product, but unless you speak Spanish I'm afraid you'll find it very boring.

Last night was actually the worst. I had so much homework to do, both from Doctora and Doctor Rodriguez. Today was fun. I went on a run with Mandy and watched two documentaries. We also had a professional visit to a social entrepreneurship company. It was actually really cool. 

Get excited for my blog next month, because I'm getting excited for my next trip! We have started planning our weekend trips for during my 5 weeks in Spain, and it looks like I will be going to Barcelona, Madrid, Granada, Lisbon, Pamplona (for running of the bulls), Morocco, and either Sevilla or Paris. I feel so incredibly lucky to have the chance to do all of this, and even luckier that my family is coming with me for the first week and that my boyfriend will potentially be able to visit me with his Delta flights. 

Time to get back to work! I'll talk to you guys again soon.