My classes at the language school started last Monday (the 19th) and they’ve been great for the most part. The first day, I had to take a short placement exam where I basically filled in the blanks (grammar) on one side of the paper, and on the other side, I had to write about my home country. Surprisingly I was able to fill out (correctly!) about half of the first page of grammar (thank you Rosetta Stone) but the 3 or 4 sentence paragraph I’d written about the USA was laughable to say the least. Nonetheless, the woman who reviewed my exam told me I could go into level A2 (there are various levels at the school… beginner levels are A1 and A2), but I asked her to put me in the lowest of the low, considering I’d never been in a Spanish class before, and I can move up if I get bored.
On my first day of class, there were only four other students: a girl and a guy from Germany (it was fun to hear German being spoken again, and the guy actually lived and studied in Freiburg), a girl from Korea (very quiet, but so nice), and a guy from Japan (he moved up to the next level the following day though). The teacher on our first day was from El Salvador, so he didn’t speak with the typical Castilian accent that is spoken here (in Spain, the c and the z are pronounced with a “th” sound, for example, gracias is pronounced grathias, and Barcelona, Barthelona, etc.) but he was a really cool teacher, and we covered a lot in the first day. Unfortunately, he was only a sub. And on Tuesday, we had a different sub. And she was horrible. She spoke ssssssssooooooooooo sssssllllllooooowwwwllllyyyyy, maybe thinking we would understand her Spanish better that way... And to make matters worse, she would ask really easy questions, and then applaud obnoxiously and say “Muy Bien! Muy Bien! Muy Bien!” if we answered her correctly (which everyone did… because they were EASY). Luckily, our actual teacher, Raquel, returned on Wednesday, and she’s been great. She’s a little crazy (very loud, expressive, enthusiastic) but in a fun way that helps us learn. Example: rather than translating a word into English, she’ll act it out, no matter how difficult that may be. Here is a picture of our little class:
(from the left: Yunjoo, me, Raquel, Max and Katherina... Katherina has already returned to Germany as of Saturday. And take note, the teacher is shorter than me! I love this country, everyone is so short; I fit right in.)So classes have been good. I look forward to going every day, and it’s nice just to have class again (I love being a student…). And I also enjoy the walks to and from my class. As mentioned before, there is a beautiful city park on the way, and this time I have pictures to prove how lovely it is:
There were a few days where I had to walk around the park, though, because of the weather. It actually rained a great deal last week (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday), and it was a different kind of rain than I’m used to… because in the States (at least in Pennsylvania) when it rains, it tends to drizzle, then pour, then drizzle, then stop, then drizzle, then stop, then pour etc. etc. But in Barcelona, when it rains, it downpours almost all day long, and it doesn’t let up until the sun starts to shine again. In fact, on Thursday, when I went to pick up Simon from school and walk him to his piano lesson a few blocks away, within minutes my feet were drench ed (shoes and socks), and my pants as well, up to my knees. And then I had to wait, with soaked feet, for an hour outside of the school for Lucia to get out of her volleyball practice. Yes, I could of sat in a warm café rather than shiver on the bench outside of the school doors, but I at least had shelter from the rain and a book to read, and I just didn’t feel like venturing back out into the downpour… Rain boots are now on my list of things to buy. On a more positive note: on our way back to the house, the rain finally let up, and a beautiful double rainbow appeared in the sky! It was amazing, and since then, it has been nothing but warm and sunny.
In fact, yeserday, me and two of my classmates (Max and Yunjoo) went to the beach , and it was so warm, there were actually people sunbathing in bathing suits and some even braving the water (which is quite cold this time of year… I got my feet wet, but that’s it). So we sat on the beach for a while, chatted, read a children’s book in Spanish that Max had bought, said “No, gracias” at least 20 times to those who swarm the tourists hoping to sell beer, tattoos, massages, etc. and also witnessed a seagull swoop down to pick up a beheaded pigeon and then drop it within inches of a girl who was sunbathing topless (she then jumped up and screamed at the top of her lungs, whiled all the onlookers laughed).
After a good laugh and a few jumping pictures along the shore, we went searching for a place to eat. We ended up walking about two hours before finding a suitable restaurant (most of the places along the beach were really expensive, so we had to walk farther into the center of the city to find a more reasonably-priced restaurant). We settled for a wonderful little Catalan restaurant in the Gothic part of the city. I had a spinach pie and side salad, which were both amazing (a lot of the traditional Catalan items on the menu I had actually already tried during meals with the family… ), Yunjoo had a beef and potato dish, and Max had bread topped with roasted vegetables and a summer salad.Speaking of food, I’ve been lucky to end up with a family that loves to cook. Every night, Marcos makes something delicious for dinner (I don’t have to worry about cooking for the kids at all… which is awesome, because I’m not that creative in the kitchen). He usually makes some type of carne (chicken or pork or sausage) or huevos (eggs, usually in omelet form) and serves them with arroz (rice) or pan (bread), and also an ensalata (salad) or tomatoes drenched in olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper. And for dessert, we usually have fruta (fruit). And every Saturday, I accompany the family to Marta’s mother’s apartment for a big lunch, which is also always delicious. Yesterday, for example, we had a seafood soup to start (with mussels, shrimp and rice) and a pork in wine sauce with rice for the main dish, AND a yummy pastry with cream filling for dessert. I’m going to gain 20 pounds if I keep eating the way I do here (not to mention, there is no whole wheat bread or whole wheat pasta in this home… just white bread, white rolls, white baguettes… and I can’t get enough!) Then last night, I had Tapas for the first time. I went with my host family to a bar in the city where out landlord (a funny old man) works at ni ght, and I got to try all sorts of wonderful Tapas: pan con tomate (bread with a tomato spread, a staple food in Spain), patatas fritas (basically, French fries, but with an awesome sweet and spicy sauce), salchichas (sausages), a fried chicken and pork thing, a fried potato and pistachio thing, olives, and little cooked green peppers. I also got to try the beer brewed in Barcelona, Estrella Damm… a lager, very smooth, and very good.
In addition to eating wonderfully on Saturday, I also got to accompany the family to the gallery where some of Marcos’ paintings are displayed (in Born, pictured at right, which lies in the gothic part of the city... where I ate lunch yesterday with Yunjoo and Max). He had four paintings in the gallery: two of a barber shop window he saw in upstate New York when they went last year, and two other, more unusual, paintings… one of a fat man’s body with the head of a dog, and the other of a monkey, painting a Renoir (at least I think it was Renoir…). I didn’t get a picture of the paintings in the gallery, but I do have a pictures of two of Marcos’ paintings hanging in the apartment (the paintings with the dog are both by Marcos… used to be the family’s dog):
And here is some of the more unusual art in the apartment (not done by Marcos, but collected by him, I assume):
And my favorite artwork of all: The first picture Simon drew for me. =) It reads "The Allison Dog" (he meant Allison's Dog, of course).
Anyways, on Saturday, after the gallery, we
walked around the Born area, went inside a beautiful old church and also a couple of cool shops (like this chocolate shop! mmmm...), the kids got ice cream, and then we went home. After dropping Marcos and Mateo off, Marta, Lucia, Simon and I got out the bikes and biked along the Diagonal (a big street that runs diagonally through all of Barcelona) until it got dark and we returned home. At 9pm, we went out for Tapas. But I already told that story.¡Adiós!
love the second entry too! fun, and yum!
ReplyDeleteahhhhh simon's drawing of "Allison's dog" is so cute- I think he has his father's artistic abilities, heh?!
Love and miss you! Mom