It has been nearly a week since I last wrote on here, but its been a week full of fiestas, 'people towers' as my dad calls them, a goodbye, a hell of a lot of walking, and a bit of university in there as well.The highlight of my week has defiantly been seeing 'los castells' as part of the la fiesta de la Mercé, which was a four day long fiesta, amazing. Me and friends ventured into the centre of Barcelona with a map and a slight idea of where to go. However, the map was not needed as it was a fiesta and in Spain you just follow the millions of people heading in one direction and the rest falls into place. Although, we somehow got caught up in a protest but then not long after we swiftly got to where the castells were happening. We were squashed, pushed, shoved and trampled on, but at least we got great photographs! After this we headed to Monjuic which is situated on the other side of town, pretty much in the mountains. There were some great views from up there to add to my Barcelona view collection. However I can't describe how much I have walked since I've been here, I'm all up for exercise but my feet literally swell at night. There is nothing but hills, stairs and more hills. So, if I don't have calves of steel after this year, I will be disappointed.
This week I also endured my first bit of Barcelona nightlife, which only pretty much starts a 2am and last all night long. Luckily on a Saturday night the metro runs all night, so that deems the cheapest and quickest transport home. There are so many places to choose from, bars, clubs, and salsa, but a lot of places are quite touristy so hopefully as time goes by I will learn the more local bars. Drinks are defiantly more expensive here in bars and clubs, therefore I have opted for a 3 euro carton of sangria and tinto de verano the past few nights! Not only this, but me and my friends experiences a Spanish fiesta. One of our neighbours posted an invitation underneath our door about someone's birthday and we thought, why not, let's go and say hi. So we did, however everyone was just a little older than us, and very very drunk, however we managed to get by with our Castilian but there were a few awkward moments, so not long after we ate some cake and left.
Anyway, The slightly not so fun bit of my week was saying goodbye to my dad, as he has been here for two weeks helping me attempt to become a citizen and so on, with many ups and downs. But I feel like I have accomplished a fair bit in 2 weeks. When I think about it, it is weird how I am living in the place my dad was born and via versa, but I have realised a lot has changed in Barcelona since he lived here, some things are better and some worse. I feel like I have only explored a tenth of this city... it is just so huge.
Also to show I am not just on the beach all day, I have now officially started university, well at 8:30am this morning, in a class of 'The economic history of contemporary Spain'. It was a very interesting subject however it took me an hour to realise I hadn't written anything down because I was too busy concentrating on listening to what the teacher was saying, not too mention the fact he has a slight German/Spanish accent. I doubt I'd even understand this subject in English and here I am studying it in Spanish at the crack of dawn, I hope I can grasp listening intently to Spanish for 2 hours next time. However, I am yet to change my subjects that I want to drop, and choose the ones I want to add, so a week of classes I dislike it is.
I have also realised that attempting to use the printers in a foreign university isn't fun, especially when the instructions are in Catalan. I had just bought printer credits on my 'printer card' when I accidently clicked the photocopy button (it did not say fotocopia on it) and even though there was nothing to photocopy, the machine went ahead and photocopied nothing, 20 times and used all 2 euros of my credits, whilst the person behind me just huffed and puffed because I was taking so long. Next stop: buy a catalan phrase book.
Finally, I may be travelling outside of Barcelona this weekend, so I shall keep this updated. However, I won't be travelling without a tissue, seen as I have the worst cold ever, even though it is 27 degrees here in the day. So for now, a 'colacoa' and a few donuts to make me feel better.
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