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I got a letter today and it made me very happy! I came home after going to my cell group (that's what they call small groups/bible studies here... "celulas") and found a letter waiting for me on my desk. Totally made my day :D.
Okay so after googling for quite a while, I FINALLY figured out how to make my images BIGGER!!! Yay! Here is an assignment we had about one.. two? weeks ago in my portfolio class. The assignment was to create an image board of ourselves. We brought them into class for critique and then we had to guess which board belonged to who (whom?). I tried really hard not to make mine too obvious. Since I'm the only Asian person in the class, I knew that if I put anything too Asian on mine, I'd be discovered too quickly. So here's my board. You can look at it and try to decipher it. Then scroll down to see my explanations!
Y ahora, te explico:
The stamps:
Since my family travels a lot, I decided to use stamps as an underlying theme. The stamps shown are all of countries that I have visited. I also thought the stamp-theme was appropriate since I believe in snail-mail and I like this kind of vintage-y feeling :). I was hoping that using the stamps would connote a sense of nostalgia. Kind of like the warm, cozy, atmospheric sensation you might find in a cafe. That's me... I'm a real homebody. And I like the cafe-type atmosphere.
The vinegar bottle:
Chinese black vinegar is one of my favorite condiments. You can seriously eat it with anything! This particular image is of the specific vinegar brand which I like. Haha... Turns out that choosing to put a Chinese vinegar bottle was not so smart because everyone assumed it was soy sauce and immediately knew that it was me. I didn't even think about that. I was more concerned that the Chinese characters would give me away. Hahaha... I don't think anyone here in Spain (or even the US) is familiar with Chinese vinegar.. what a shame.
The ballet shoes:
This is one of my ultimate dreams... to be a professional dancer. Dance is one of my great passions. I love so many different types of dance: ballet, modern, ballroom, latin, hip hop, jazz, tap, liturgical... But I believe that all of these forms of dance have their foundation in ballet, hence... the ballet shoes!
The fruits/vegetables:
I often tell people that I'm a wannabe vegetarian. It's not that I don't like meat - I just like fruits and vegetables more. I looooove fruit! Growing up in an Asian home, we always have a plate of fruit after dinner. I also don't dare to touch raw meat, which means I never cook with meat, which means I'm pretty much a vegetarian here (unless I eat out) since I cook for myself :P. I still like meat... just not when it's bleeding on my plate, like a medium-rare steak. I always get my steak well-done.
The spaghetti bolognese:
My all-time favorite food. I think this might even beat the vinegar. During my critique my classmates commented on why my most of my prominent images were of food. I'm not sure why it ended up that way. I think I just really like to eat. Anyway, so spaghetti is a food that I never get sick of. My family always makes fun of me because we might have traveled all the way to say, Nepal, and we'll go to a restaurant and I'll ask if I can order a spaghetti bolognese :D. I've learned not to do that anymore though because my family always answers no.
And last but definitely not least,
The fish:
This is the Ichthys - a symbol of Christianity used by early Christians who had to meet in secret. Most people in my class didn't know what it meant. One guy commented that maybe I really like fish. But another girl knew right away and she said that it was a symbol of religion. I don't really like the word religion but that's okay.
I was hesitant to put this on at first because it's not everyday that you meet people and proclaim your faith outright, especially when you have just met them. I wish I could be more open about my faith but I don't think I am.
This assignment really challenged me to think about what exactly defines who I am. I attended a Christian conference at Yale last year (or was the year before?) and I remember going to a vocational panel where the speaker said, "Your vocation is not what defines you. God defines you." Very simple, but it's stuck with me ever since. After I thought about that, I realized I couldn't create an image board about myself without including an image about God. I was quite nervous about how the class would respond to it but it turned out to be okay. Since we were in a design school and all, our teacher was commenting about my composition and asked everyone what stood out the most in terms of the composition. Everyone said that it was the fish. I don't know if this was intentional or not, but I'm happy that it stood out :).
While I'm on the topic of vocations, the same speaker from that Christian Conference mentioned this quote:
"Your vocation is where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet."
-- Fredric Buechner
It's interesting because after last Sunday's sermon, the pastor asked us to divide into groups and reflect on the message and how it related to our own lives. I was talking about my uncertainties of the future and trying to understand vocation versus career versus calling. And one girl in my group mentioned Fredric Buechner's quote above.
Alright, it's getting late. I hope that was an enjoyable post for you. It wasn't so much about Barcelona but I thought it would be nice to share. More posts to come! Leave me un commentito (please) so I know who's reading :)!
Ahh I feel like I haven't blogged in soooo long! I've been wanting to write about so many things but I could never find the time, so I started making a list in my notebook of things to blog about. But then the list kept growing and I realized that if I didn't blog soon, I would never find the time. So this blog post is just about me promising that I will be a better blogger in the days to come :P. I'm just going to have to figure out a way to integrate blogging into my homework schedule... yes.. multitasking!
So yeah... the homework load here is quite heavy. I've already pulled two all-nighters this past week. In case you couldn't tell from the title of this post, I've learned many different ways to say "homework" in Spanish and Catalan! I'm not disliking it (the projects are challenging and I like having short term deliverables - it makes me feel like I'm not wasting my time or tuition money jeje) but it sure is taking over my life. I still have so many tourist sites/museums that I want to visit!
On another note, I went to watch Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company perform this weekend for a grand total of 12.50 euros!! They are a very famous comtemporary dance company that I know of from the US so I was so excited to go! And for such a reasonable price too. I went to buy my ticket three hours before the show (like "student rush" tickets in the states) so I got them half-price hehe...
I've been going to El Lokal now and have started going to a small-group, which I hope to keep going to! I also dropped in on an Alpha course session yesterday which was interesting. And it turns out that the University Pompeu Fabra (which my school is a part of) has a group of students that meets for a bible study lunch every week. So I'm about to go to that. Then it's back to WORK. Back at RISD I was always the one telling people you have to make time to have fun and not let your work takeover your life :). Now I'm really struggling with that. Like after church... I wonder if I should go eat with everyone else or should I go home and do my homework? It's tough! I ended up going to eat by the way haha. Rargh I really need to work on getting better work habits. I hope I don't end up pulling another all-nighter tonight... Okay I'm off now but more there will definitely be more blog posts to come!
Can you believe I've been in Barcelona now for half a month?! Actually more than that; it's been 16 days to be exact. My three months here is definitely going to go by really fast.
Lately I've been finding it increasingly difficult to find time to blog. First it was because I was so busy shopping classes. Now that I have my schedule all set, homework is keeping me busy. It's now Saturday night... Let's see if I can manage to describe my whole week in one blog entry :P.
Monday and Tuesday are kind of a blur because they consisted of shopping classes. But on Wednesday, us exchange students finally got to register for courses! During shopping period, I had all these plans of arriving super early on registration day in order to be the first in line, to ensure that I'd get my preferred classes. But when the day actually came, I ended up running late. That was tolerable... until I missed my bus! Here in Spain, you have to stick your arm out to signal the bus, otherwise they assume no one wants to get on and they just zoom on by. So I didn't stick out my arm because I didn't know... and then I had to wait for the next bus.
In the end I got to school at 9:55am, five minutes before registration time. And all of the other exchange students were already there. I was last in line and thought for sure that I wouldn't be able to get my classes... Lucky for me, it turned out that no one else was interested in the classes I wanted! I think it was also because a lot of the exchange students stuck together and registered for the same classes. But I am pretty much the only exchange student in all of my classes. It's kind of daunting but at least I got the ones I wanted! YAY! I'm taking: Portfolio, Typography & Calligraphy, Exhibit Design, and Design Management.
I'm most worried about Design Management because it's more of a theoretical course, rather than practical, like my other classes. But I was interested in it because we get to go visit a lot of local design firms :D. The group is also quite friendly. Some students like to practice their English with me, but I don't want to speak English! So I have this odd deal going on with a few people where they speak English and I speak Spanish or Catalan :P. That way we both get to practice.
Oh yes on Wednesday night I gave a presentation in Catalan for my Exhibit Design class. Hehe... it was only for 4 minutes but I spent at least 3 hours preparing for it. I had to look up almost every word!! I could've done it in Spanish, but I thought I'd give it a shot in Catalan since the course is taught in Catalan and I knew that most students were presenting in Catalan... Speaking of languages, I've been meaning to find myself a Spanish and Catalan class! The government here wants more people to learn Catalan so they offer courses for free. I just need the free time to actually look into these courses rargh!
Onto Thursday! On Thursday afternoon, some of us exchange students organized what came to be known as "the walk". We had been talking for a week or so about going on a walk together, but never actually got to doing it until Thursday. We started at school and walked along the beach all the way down the Barceloneta. Then we walked back to school and went to a cafe. I think we walked for at least 2 hours!
Here are some pictures from "the walk":
Museu d'Historia de Catalunya
Here's the port again!
I forgot the name of this sail-shaped building but I read about it briefly in my guidebook. It's a fancy new hotel - except it has been criticized somewhat since it looks so similar to the Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai.
A boxy tower that we spotted on the beach. I'm still not quite sure what it is exactly...
The boardwalk and the beach
This is a lifeguard tower. We couldn't figure out how exactly the lifeguard gets off this thing in order to go save people. What do you think? There's no way he could jump off... it's too high. And climbing down the ladder one step at a time would take forever...
Walking!
The Mediterranean
A pineapple-shaped tree :)
This is a fancy hotel. My roommate told me this is where all the movie stars stay when they visit Barcelona. So I'll be going there if anyone famous comes in the next three months ;).
Some neat urban furniture by the beach
View from the back
We decided to head towards this fish sculpture, designed by Frank Gehry I think
Here we are at the fish sculpture! CATWALK is apparently a giant club here. My school booked it out to have a party on Thursday night, but I didn't go :p.
Doesn't it look like it's going to fall?
After the walk/cafe, it was about 5:30pm. I decided to stick around the area because I had a class at 7pm. So me and another girl (Natasha from Israel) decided to walk around some more. We made our way to a district called Raval and walked through the Rambla there. Then we made our way back to La Rambla, from where I walked back to school to go to class. But when I got there, there was a sign on the classroom door saying that class had been canceled! Meaning I could have gone home at 5:30pm... Oh well, at least I got to go home at 7 rather than 10pm.
I spotted an American Apparel here in Barca! The picture is blurry because I took the photo really fast as there was a yelling lady making her way down the alley towards our direction.. and I got scared. The area around my school gets kind of sketchy at night.
La Rambla de Raval
We walked by a gallery with an interesting installation.
Before I knew it, it was Friday! I only have one class on Fridays from 3:30-6:30pm. So I stayed home and did homework from 10am to 3ish. Then I rushed over to school for class... only to find once AGAIN that my class had been canceled. This time, the teacher had told us last class. But I didn't realize it, because he had said it in Catalan and I hadn't understood :P. Haha I can only laugh at myself. Since I had already gotten to school I decided to stick around and ended up exploring the gothic quarter for a bit.
This is the ceiling of the lobby of my school
This leads to the stairwell. You can't really tell, but it's this big vortex-like structure...
More pictures of the pretty lobby:
Carrer Ample
My school is located in a plaza, complete with a pretty fountain on one end...
...and a beautiful church on the other.
Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Elisava is a school within this University.
This is a doorway located in an alleyway that leads to school. The text describes a bit about the beginning and founding of Pompeu Fabra University.
Elisava Escola Superior de Disseny
This is a building in another touristy plaza near my school - Placa Reial
While on "the walk" the day before, I had spotted this candy store. I decided to make my way back there to buy myself some candy :D.
A Chinese dragon at La Rambla
Neat facade
Later that night I went to watch the new Will Smith movie with Kindra and one of Kindra's friends. The movie was called "Seven Pounds" ("Siete Almas", meaning "Seven Souls" in Spanish) and I had no idea what it was going to be about from watching the preview. It turned out to be quite a sad movie. But I like Will Smith so I enjoyed it.
And that brings us to Saturday. I had a very full day today. I met up with a friend from my Catalan class back at Brown. There is lots to say but it's getting late and blogger takes forever to upload photos! So... I think I will save it for my next blog post.
Tomorrow I'm going to go back to El Lokal and see how I like it. This time the sermon will be in Spanish so we'll see how much I can understand... I'm also hoping to take an Alpha course which they are offering starting tomorrow. From what I know, the Alpha course is an introductory course to Christianity open to anyone and everyone. They offer it all over the world and it covers all the basics of Christianity. I think it will be good for me because I feel like I've always sort of learned things as I went, rather than really sat down and learned the basics.
'Tis getting late. Bona Nit a tots!
