Good Craic

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So, as many of you know, I left for Ireland on the 11th of March. Here's a day-ish by day-ish account of my time there:

Day One: I flew in to Dublin Airport and then immediately hopped on a bus to Cork, which is in Southern-ish Ireland. Once in Cork, I met up with a guy named Ruairi (which means red-haired in Irish, I believe), and an American guy named Jay from NY. Why did I meet these two humans in particular, you may ask. The answer? www.couchsurfing.com. If you travel often, check it out! It's good, as long as you're careful about it. Anyway, Ruairi was my host for the night, and Jay was also surfing Ruairi's couch.

It was Ruairi's birthday, so we ended up going dancing and hanging out with a bunch of his friends, one of whom apparently looks like Jeff Goldblum (Dr. Malcolm (sp?) in Jurassic Park), so we all called him Jeff Goldblum the rest of the night. Ruairi told me I looked really similar to Alexis Bledel (sp?) (from Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Sin City, look her up on www.imdb.com), but I dunno. You decide. Anywho, I had great fun hanging out with all of them, and even acquired a couple of pretend gay best friends for the night (I was telling Alan that I loved gay men because they always tell you you're beautiful and fabulous, so he told me he could be my gay best friend for the night, and he told me I'm beautiful and fabulous :)).

Day 2: Had a traditional Irish breakfast with my Irish friends (and the one American friend). It consisted of mushrooms, baked beans, a fried egg, ham, sausage, and toast. It was pretty good, considering I don't particularly care for mushrooms or baked beans. If you ate them with other things they tasted fine.

Anyway, after that we headed over to Blarney Castle, where I kissed the Blarney Stone! Woot woot! It was crazy going through the castle, because it felt like we just kept going up and up and up. And it looked smaller than it actually was. I have to admit though, actually kissing the Blarney Stone was a little anti-climatic. But definitely worth it, and we have a fun time together, as you can see in the pics :)

Near Blarney Castle are the wishing steps. Legend has it that if you walk up and down them closing your eyes without opening them once and while thinking constantly of your wish, the witch trapped nearby has to grant it. So I did. Which is one of the pics that my American friend Jay so obligingly took.

After Blarney Castle, I hopped on a bus to Galway. The next couple of days will be in the posts to follow!

Clubbing

Oh good grief, it's been a long time since I've updated this. Which means a lot of stupid pictures that I'll have to put up. Oh well, my own fault I guess. First thing's first, clubbing.

About, oh... 4 weeks ago, I went out dancing with the twins, Bea, a kid named Pablo, and another friend of theirs we met along the way named Javi. First thing's first, a picture of the Fabulous Four (which is what I've decided I'm going to call Santi, Isma, Bea, and I, because they are the three I always hang out with). Fab 4 for short. Lol.














Dancing with them was a lot of fun, and really different from when you dance in the US. Because in the US, you NEVER see boys dancing together, because everyone in the states is scared that people will mistake them for being homosexual. Yet in Spain, there's no such stigma, so the boys dance together and the girls dance together and no one cares. So it was lots of fun to watch the boys dancing. The only thing is I'm a HORRIBLE dancer, and somehow I ended up with friends who are all really good dancers, so I look like a complete idiot when I'm dancing with them. I also look like an albino whenever I take pictures with them. Lol.

Anyway, their friend Javi apparently told Santi that I am a beautiful person. Which is a nice compliment, but I was hoping it was simply a friendly compliment. No such luck. Let me tell you a little about Javi. He is... the best word to describe him, is nerd. When I met him he was wearing a sweater over a collared shirt. Later, I learned that under his sweater he also wore suspenders. The worst part was that he was wearing MAJOR floods. And he was a horrible conversationalist. Worse than me, which is saying something, because I am, in general, pretty bad. (Ex. At one point he asked me if I had any brothers or sisters, so I told him. His response? "Cool." Nothing else. Lol.)

Anyway, as we were walking back to the cars, Javi said (and I quote), "So... I have a car... if you want I could take you home." Me: "Um... I have to go with Santi and Isma." Translation: "I don't even KNOW you. Why would I go home with you?!" At one point he told me that he wanted me and everyone else to go to a local hangout spot in La Mora during the afternoon, and then afterwards, just me and him, to go "For a long walk on the beach, in the sun." And because he asked in front of everyone, I couldn't just flatly turn him down, so instead I asked "And what happens if there is no sun tomorrow?" (As it rainy, not the apocalypse). Everyone got a good laugh out of that, but I still somehow got wrangled into giving this Javi kid my number and later, my msn. Luckily, he's only texted me once, and only asked me to get on msn once.

Anyway, these are some of the pictures from the next day. We did indeed end up going to La Mora Mar Restaurante, and for a walk, but thankfully I didn't have to go anywhere alone with Javi.

Anyway, from left to right: Me, Bea, Javi, Pablo, Isma, Santi
















Also, I learned from Santi that his car had no name (gasp!). So, we named his car Paco :) No worries now! (Except that my little brother has been let loose upon the streets of Moab... =p)

The Weekend

So this weekend was SUPER busy and a lot of fun! Friday night I went out with Santi and Isma and five of their friends. We hung out first at a restaurant in La Mora, then sat around outside (and it was PRETTY cold) until around 3:30 AM. All of their friends understand English really well and a couple of the boys also speak really well. It was a lot of fun getting to know them and I hope that I see them again soon!

Saturday (Happy Valentine's Day everyone!) was the day of the big Carnaval party, which is basically like Mardi Gras except for that we didn't celebrate it on Fat Tuesday. The party was themed Mediterranean culture. I think I'm dressed up like someone from Turkey but I'm not sure... I borrowed my outfit from Anna lol. We had pirates, a Cleopatra, a hippie, a Roman, a greek God, some Mallorquinas (from the Island of Mallorca), farmers from the mountains, gondola men, and a great number of other things. Everyone was so nice and friendly, and I got to practice a lot of Spanish! (Even though most of their friends speak English, they humoured me by letting me speak Spanish and speaking Spanish back). All of Mapi's friends are incredible cooks - we had little sandwiches from Greece, Catalunya, Italy, and I don't remember the last country. The Roman (who is actually from Belize and told me I must always speak English to him because he is an English speaker) brought along some very good hummus (but I think my mom's wins the prize!). People started arriving at six and stayed until midnight. We didn't start eating the actual dinner until maybe 10:00 PM!

On Sunday I went to the twins' sister's house to celebrate her boyfriend's birthday with them. We ate a traditional Catalunian food called calçots. Basically, calçots are really young white onions that are grilled over a wood fire until the outside is black and the inside is really tender. You then pull the tender center out from the blackened outside and discard the outside, dip the inside in a sauce that Rafi (the twin's mom) promised to teach me how to make, and then you eat the bottom as shown in the picture. In the picture, from left to right: Santi, Bea (Isma's girlfriend), Isma, their dad (whose name I don't remember), Jose, me, David (the birthday boy, who turned 27), Rafi. Victoria (I think that's what her name is), is the one taking the picture. Oh, and after eating calçots, your fingers get really black. We had about 200 calçots to split between 9 of us; Victoria was telling me that once her dad and only two other people ate 400 calçots.

After the calçots, we had a HUGE meal, then we started boxing on the wii. I beat my opponent the first time, but the second time he beat me :( I have videos of everyone except Rafi playing (she told me she has a bad back), and it was so much fun to watch. Later, I went with Rafi and Victoria and Victoria's dog Gago on a walk around the village. We got back and played a couple of rounds of cards - they taught me a game called 7 and a half. It's pretty much like blackjack, as far as I can tell, except that you try to get to 7 and a half. I think it would be difficult to play with a regular U.S. deck of cards, because we have too many cards over 7, and somehow they didn't, and they only had numbers up to seven then 10, 11, and 12 which only counted as halves. They were all really impressed with my shuffling skills - I'm beginning to think that no one in Spain knows how to shuffle, or at least not how we shuffle in the US. I told them I shuffle okay because I play a lot of cards with my family, but that I'm really not that good; let's face it, once I get two decks of fifty-two cards in my hands, my shuffling skills go downhill rapidly. I have baby hands! Anyway, I ended up winning (we played with these cool fake coin things that are like poker chips except look much cooler) all of the "money" but I think that was more or less beginner's luck =p

Also, I'm heading over to Ireland for St. Patrick's Day! And then after about a week in Ireland I'm going to hit up the UK for a couple of days and then fly back to Spain. I'm so excited! But it has been a bit stressful for the past couple of days trying to work out where I want to go and where I'm going to stay. I have most of it ready now at least for the Ireland leg of my journey, but I still have to work out some accomodations and also plan the UK leg.

Over and out.

Gaudí!

Some interesting art on the way to Parc Guell.


















A slightly blurry picture of me with a Guell sign in the background.












This is a scale model of the inside of La Sagrada Familia.













Detail of the front facade. This is a part of the Nativity scene, with the star in the middle of the people.


















At the back of the cathedral, which is called the Passion Facade (yeah, I know I need a little accent thing on the c but I am too lazy to get one), the figures and design is much different. The scenes are ones from the last few weeks of Christ's life, and the style was inspired both by Christ's impending death and by Gaudí's own feelings about his terminal illness (I forget what he had). This particular image is of a criptogram, which if you add up all of the numbers in any row in any direction, they will equal 33, the number of years that Christ lived. To the right of the criptogram is Judas kissing Jesus.


Once again, I love the way Gaudí uses so much natural light in his work, and for some reason I love the way the light looks in these windows.











Gaudí said that he wanted the light in this cathedral to filter down to the people as though through the leaves and branches of trees. The pillars (which are HUGE) are made of different materials depending on how much weight they have to support, which is unusual for a cathedral. Usually the same type of stone is used for the entire cathedral.







Inside La Sagrada Familia. I love stained glass windows when the sun is shining.












Me with my headphones and audioguide map for La Sagrada Familia.












Four of the towers of La Sagrada familia.


















Me in front of La Sagrada Familia. I wish the guy who took the picture had gotten more of the cathedral and less of the ground in front of me, but oh well... He seemed like a bit of an idiot so I guess I'm lucky he could figure out how to take a picture at all.














Almost my first view of La Sagrada Familia. La Sagrada Familia was designed by Antoni Gaudí, and was his exclusive last project before his death. It is a catholic temple dedicated to God and Jesus, and has been under construction since Gaudí's death in 1956. Since then, other architects and artists and sculptors have continued with Gaudí's work, using his original designs when possible and using their own creativity when required.











Those are just a small group of the chimneys on La Casa Battló, and proof that Gaudí was a genius. Instead of having the chimneys spread out and ugly, as was customary at the time, Gaudí grouped them together and made even the chimneys artistic.








A hallway in La Casa Battló. I dunno why I love it, but I think it's a beautiful hallway.

















A light fixture in La Casa Battló. What architect thinks of doing that kind of spiral thing with the roof? Not only a genius, but Gaudí is an artist. And all of the rooms are like that. Each one is completely different, and yet all of them flow together seamlessly. You'd have to see it for yourself to truly understand what I mean.







The last picture from La Casa Battló. This is a fireplace in a room just off the drawing room. Notice the mushroom shape.











La Casa Battló. One of Gaudí's most famous buildings, and quite possibly my favorite work by him (however, I only got to visit a very small part of Parc Guell, so that may change). The inside of the house is just as incredible as the outside. Oh and the roof - that scaly-looking curvy thing - is supposedly supposed to resemble the dragon that what's his Saint slayed.












I built this hut myself. Just kidding. I was actually really freaked out when I went to explore it that whoever had built it would find me and murder me or something. (Yeah, I have a bit of an overactive imagination...)









Some of the graffiti near the bunkers near my house which I mentioned earlier. I really like the way the light and shadows turned out in this picture.
















St. Michael slaying Satan. I like that in this picture, Michael looks almost pitying, almost as though he regrets what he is going to do, but is compelled to do it regardless. That expression changes with the lighting (which I like in this picture) - I have another picture where Michael looks more like he is in pain and is sweating and trying really hard to resist what he is doing. And then I have other pictures where Michael simply looks blank, gone, like he is doing something but doesn't feel any emotion connected with the act. I thought it was interesting how the devil was portrayed as something inhuman - more like a giant worm with horns. I was going to write more on my thoughts on the portrayal of Satan, but I realized that they would be more like an essay than anything else, so I'll spare everyone and not mention them.




A picture of one of the walkways in the cathedral. I always have loved visiting cathedrals, because they are so beautiful and intricate and ornate. This is the cathedral in Tarragona, and is probably one of my favourite places thus far in Tarragona.

Tarragona and Twins!

So, the last couple of days were pretty busy. I went to Tarragona, met twins, and met Jaume (the dad)! Also, as a side note, I evidently suck at pictures on blogger, so I'm just putting them all at the top, because I don't want to re-upload them and I can't move them.

In Tarragona, I saw a lot of things, but still not everything. I first went to the Circ Roma. The Circ Roma was really cool, and was sort of like a walkthrough of some old Roman and Medieval ruins and also a museum. The tower that you see in the picture is medieval, while the other walls are newer. I've included some pictures of the ruins, one of myself inside the medieval tower, and also a picture of someone important's (though I can't remember the name at the moment) sarcophagus that they recovered from the sea. The outside of the sarcophagus shows the legend of Hipolytus (sp?).

Next, I went off to the Roman amphitheatre, where I met a man whose name starts with an A (although I don't remember the rest of it) and his dog, Catarina. She's featured in the picture of me with the amphitheatre in the background. My talk with the man was the first real language exchange I'd had so far, and he was very difficult to understand because he had a thick Catalunian accent.

Oh! I almost forgot. As part of the museum in the Circ Roma, there was this little tower with a spiral staircase that just seemed to go up and up forever, and you never knew when it was going to end, and then finally, you see a bit of daylight, and you step out of the tower and BAM! The first thing you see is this incredible view of the city and it's main cathedral.

Anyway, after I sat in the amphitheatre for a little while, I headed off to do the tour of the castle walls, where I found some cannons! I also included a picture of the cathedral, which I unfortunately couldn't go into because it was after two, and during the winter it closes at two.

I ran into this guy named Lamin who refused to speak Spanish to me, which was super annoying. He wanted me to go to his house which I refused, of course, and so he gave me his number and told me to call him. Which I would think about doing if I could get a bunch of friends to come with me, but I am not going by myself.

Then I had lunch at an Italian restaurant, and when I walked in, I completely forgot all of the Spanish I knew, and so I was like "Necesito comer?" (That's "I need to eat?") lol. And then of course, as I was sitting at my table, I was like "Oh yeah, I SHOULD have said "una mesa, por favor?" (a table, please). Good times.

I also went to the Casa de la Fiesta (House of the Party), which is where they have all of the characters that march in the Santa Tecla Parade. They are called Cabezudos, because their heads are REALLY big in porportion to their bodies. I was told I should go there by the man who took my photo earlier, and it was a good experience, overall.

And that concluded my day in Tarragona.

SO! Next on the agenda is the twins. Mapi ran into one of her friends by chance while we were waiting to get Anna from French in Altafulla, and her friend (Rafi) was telling her all about how she had two boys who just really didn't want to study English, and their accents were horrible, and on and on. So, as it turns out, her boys are twins and are the same age as me. So Mapi was like "Jessica could help them with English and they could help her with Spanish!" It starts...

The twins are named Santi (short for Santiago) and Isma (short for Ismael), and they both look a lot older and taller than me, lol.

When I met them they took me to these old bunkers about five or ten minutes walking from my house, where they used to play when they were younger. Up near the bunkers there is a bunch of graffiti, of which I included one of the pictures that I took. The square building thing is a picture of sort of a defensive post that was used in the time of Francisco Franco, the Spanish dictator, which was a pretty cool bit of history, if you ask me.

They also introduced me to patatas bravas, which is a typical Tapa (snack or appetizer) in Spain. They are basically diced potatoes that have been deep-fried with mayonnaise and tobasco sauce on top. They are pretty good, but I wish they didn't have mayonnaise or tobasco sauce.

Yesterday I went to play ping pong with them and made quite the fool of myself, which you will be able to see for yourself in the lovely video Santi took. The twin in the green that I am playing in the video is Isma, and the one in the red in the picture is Santi. Quite apart from being good ping pong players, they also sing Flamenco well and play the drums.

I also met the rest of their family yesterday (besides their mom, whom I'd already met), and we all had lunch together. The twins have an older brother named José who is 22 and an older sister whose name I can´t remember but who is married to David, whom I also met. I don´t think anyone ever told me the name of their dad. Before lunch, their mom took me on a tour of the house, and told me she hoped that I would make myself at home there.

But anyway, lunch was a lot of fun with everyone talking in Spanish at once, and whenever anyone talked to me in Spanish, they´d slow down a lot. The dad and José were having this argument about ham and jam. The dad kept saying that jam was jamón (which of course is actually ham). But I set the record straight, so that was fun. And they had this conversation about white hairs (because all of the guys get premature white hairs), and Isma was like "No, if you have white hairs, it means you're wise in China," which of course made me laugh, and everyone was so excited that I was understanding. Buuuuuuuuut, I think they think I understand more than I do. Or maybe I do understand a lot. I dunno, lol. The twins gave me a little cell phone holder saying "España" which is really cool, and then they took me back to my house.

The kids' grandparents are staying with us this weekend because Mapi and Jaume are in London. But anyway, the grandparents taught me a card game last night called something that starts with a D, which I will call Despedida for convenience. Anyway, its pretty fun, but they don't have Kings in their card decks and instead of dealing and playing to the left, they deal and play to the right, which was so weird.

Anyway, it was cool to get to play with them and get to know them a little better. And now, I'm off to learn how to make a paella!

<3<3<3

The First Pictures!

Anna and I. We were playing this ridiculous game where you have to throw this soft ball at the other person's head and make it stick on their hat. Hence the silly hats.


The castle with a funny face.


Me and part of the castle.


The whole castle.

This was taken in this little old stone building I found, which I have no idea what the building was originally.


The aforementioned little stone structure.


Sunset from the my terrace.


My bathroom.


Living room, complete with futon, deskish thing, and elliptical.


This is the dungeon where we keep the children locked up when they don't behave =p.


Treehouse and swingset.


Swimming pool!


The view from my patio.


My bedroom.

I'll post more pictures and videos later. I'm sick of waiting for Blogger!