I only have two more days before I leave Barcelona... I really can't believe how fast the time has gone by. I wish that I did a better job blogging about my time here but blogging takes a lot more time than you might think!
Anyway so my mom was originally supposed to come visit the day after my semester ended... We were planning on traveling together, just mother and daughter, for 10 days in Barcelona, Amsterdam and Seville. But she ended up getting a slipped disk in her spine two days before she was supposed to come and so she could not come in the end :( :( :(. It was really disappointing not only because we had been waiting to go on this trip since I began applying to Barcelona, but also because we had already booked all of our flights and hotels. I was also of course upset that this had happened to my mom. Slipped disks are apparently quite common but can take up to 6 months to recover and are very painful :(. It was just really unfortunate and I even considered going home to Beijing for 10 days. The cost was too much though so I had no choice but to deal with all of our already confirmed bookings...
Luckily I was able to cancel the hotels without any problems, but we weren't so lucky with the plane tickets... The airline I booked with didn't allow any cancellations or refunds. Moreover, they charged 35 euros for every single change you made and 50 euro if you wanted to change the name on the ticket. In the end I had to give up the Amsterdam trip and just lose the money :(. But Natasha ended up coming with me to Seville, and so we spent 4 days there this past week. We also managed to fit in a day trip to Cordoba and catch the Bodyworlds exhibit which was showing in Seville (I thought it was quite disturbing).
Seville is in the very South of Spain in the Andalucia region: the "real" Spain. It felt really different compared to Catalonia and we found that Spanish people in general were more friendly than Catalonians :p. More than once, local people would come up to us to offer help after seeing that we were completely lost :p. I had heard so many wonderful things about Seville and how it was the most beautiful city in Spain. It was definitely beautiful but for some reason I still like Barcelona better :). Barcelona is really a special place. I haven't figured out exactly why, but I feel like there isn't one person that has been to Barcelona and not liked it :).
In total I think I took some 600 photos in Seville and Cordoba (Natasha took 1150... she has a nice camera..) so I'm afraid to even begin trying to post them up! But I intend to do it one of these days... I've also been planning (it will happen one day... really!) on writing a post about RISD versus Elisava. It's been really interesting seeing how design school works in a different country and I wanted to share my thoughts about that... Speaking of sharing, I'll be doing a talk at the "what we do" event at RISD on April 11th (11:30am-11:50am at Market Square)! Even though I've been abroad, I've checked up periodically with what's going on at RISD... I discovered whatwedo.risd.edu and I thought it was such a great idea/event. I thought it would be nice to get involved on campus again so I'll be there sharing about my study abroad experience in Barcelona! Come out if you're interested in hearing about studying abroad :).
Before ending I just wanted to share something that I realized tonight while I was eating dinner. I realized that I've started to eat with a knife and fork here. Haha... it sounds funny but in the US I ate most of my meals with just a fork. I only used a knife if I had to cut my food (like with steak for example). But here in Spain, people use a knife and fork at every meal, no matter what they are eating. I noticed that it's used more as a tool for pushing food onto your fork... I really feel like people don't do this so much in the US.. or maybe I just never noticed? This has been my observation anyway... I never really ate rice with the help of a knife until now... I've also gotten used to having wine at every meal here, at least when I eat out. For some reason I just can't imagine doing this back in America :p... Man will I miss sangria!
So it really is a bittersweet feeling knowing that I'm leaving in 2 days. On one hand I'm sad to leave here knowing that I'll have to say goodbye to everyone. I also really feel that 3 months was just too short. I didn't get to do so many things that I wanted to do! It just means that I'll have to come back to Spain someday... On the other hand, I am super excited to go home and see everyone again!
Blogger always posts photos in the wrong order (backwards)... normally I move them around manually but I'm too lazy to do that today :p. So imagine the following photos in the reverse order. Or you could scroll down and work your way back up!
Natasha and I went on a daytrip to Girona and met up with a friend of mine from Elisava, Paula (center). Paula will be an exchange student at RISD next wintersession/spring. She is super talented.. get ready to meet her! :).
Pretty street in Girona that would be "straight" for Megan hehee...
Buildings along the river where the poorer people used to live. Now it's worth a lot of money and only really wealthy people live there. That's what Paula told me anyway...:p
This reminds me of NYC...
Behind the cathedral of Girona
Standing at the base of the cathedral, looking up
Not sure what this was... something about architectural awards.
There are 90 steps exactly (we counted)!
Girona's cathedral is massive. It has the widest gothic nave in the world.
Natasha and I on the roof of the Arab Baths in Girona
The first room you see as you enter the "Arab Baths", the remains of an ancient bath house. This was the "cold room". From here you walk through a series of other rooms: warm, hot, and furnace. HAHA. Can't imagine what happens to people in the furnace room.
Back to Barcelona... Here's Natasha inside her installation!
This was Natasha's final project for AP class (AP = Professional Areas). She is in interior architecture and this is an installation outside of the MACBA, which is the main contemporary art museum here. The class was split into groups and given a body of text and this white sheet material. They were asked to design a space that related to the theme of "collapse", in order to accompany a current exhibition event at the MACBA...
My last class at Elisava! Not everyone had arrived yet but we were about to give our final presentations for Exhibit Design. Looks really different compared to RISD eh?
I'm really not so good at keeping up this blog huh...? Here is a big post with some recent photos to make up for it :D.
Some of us got together to paint a mural in the reception area at church this past Saturday. Here's Alexis, the mastermind behind the whole project! It's a Barcelona cityscape with a sunset in the background.
Here's me painting the Torre Agbar. This and the building to the right of it was my only real contribution :p. I came for a few hours and then I rushed off to work since I'm in finals and all... :S.
Here's Alexis painting Tibidabo and Patti trapped underneath!
Hola!
Natasha came to help too! I caught her putting on her jacket here... We were getting ready to leave. After painting, we ate lunch and then got to her house around 4pm.. and then I stayed there working until 3am :S. Then I pulled a full all-nighter the next night. Wheeew! But I'm done with that final now thank goodness :D.
The finished mural. Pretty nice right? I left when Alexis just started painting the background so I didn't see the finished mural until the next day at church. Can you believe they did this all in one day? Desde las 10:30 por la manana hasta las 10:30 por la noche!
This is what it looks like entering the church... It's in a garage so you have to walk down a ramp. It's literally an "underground church". Ha. Ha... :D
Tada!
I still have to go visit Tibidabo, which is the silhouette on the right. It's a mountain close by with a statue as you can see. I went the last time I came but I want to go again...
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After church, I ended up going with Katie and Alexis to the library at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), which is one of the big universities here. I think of it as my Barcelona version of Brown :D. It's funny because it really feels like that! I go to Elisava which is a small design school, in a separate location, but part of UPF. So just like at Brown, I can go to UPF and use the library or join the student groups etc. The only difference is that UPF is actually closer to me, location-wise, than Elisava. I really lucked out with my apartment here. I happen to live within walking distance to both UPF and Elisava and I can walk to a lot of other key locations too!
This is a pretty road I walk down to get to UPF.
The TRAM! If I had to rank public transportation, I would definitely say that the Tram comes in as Numero Uno! And then the bus, and then the metro (I find that I prefer being above ground). Every time I get on the tram (usually on Sundays to go to church) I feel like I'm on a ride, like in Disneyland! except the "ride" is Barcelona. hehee..
I took this photo around the end of my first month here, when I went to UPF to check out the student bible study group. I took the photo to capture what university looks like here compared to the US. I thought it was nothing special and I really never came back to this UPF campus, even though it's only a five minute walk away. Now that I'm leaving, I wish I had spent more time here because little did I know that the seemingly plain building to the right houses an amaaaaazing library. I totally could have gone there to work rather than worked at home.. argh!
There is a new part of the library and then there is an older part, which is where we went to go study/work. Both are really great facilities, and really big! Like if you laid out each floor of the Sci Li as one floor... Okay maybe I'm exaggerating but it felt big.
It's in this huge cavernous medieval-feeling castle! And everyone was working so hard... Really an amazing study environment that I wish I had discovered sooner!
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And here's a photo taken just a few hours ago. It was my last time going to Celula (aka small group/bible study/family group) :(! I will really miss this group. I joined the Celula around when I first got to Barcelona and every Wednesday night we met in Jaako's apartment to fellowship, worship, and talk about God. I can't believe it's already been three months! It really feels like I came to Barcelona, blinked, and now I'm leaving :p. I still remember in the beginning when I was nervous about going to a bible study in Spanish... But it's been really great. I've loved getting to know other Christians here. It's really cool to realize that there are people all over the world that know and love the same God. And that we can all come together from so many different backgrounds and places but have this common ground. Not everyone came today but from left to right (mas o menos) are Camilla from Germany, Katie from Seattle, Janina from Germany, Jaako from Finland, Maria Luisa from Barcelona, me from I really don't know where!, Anne-Jouelle from France/Switzerland, Alexis from Michigan, and Sephora from Peru :). Gracias a todo en este grupo. Os quiero mucho y os echaré de menos!
Today a classmate asked me if she could take my picture because she liked the two birthmarks that I have in between my eyes... Hahaha. It was so random, but I was very flattered. Even though I see my face every morning in the mirror I never really took note of those two birthmarks. I remember when I used to go on elementary school field trips in Beijing, and the local people would stop my Caucasian classmates to take pictures with them, because they had never seen Caucasian people before. So this felt kiiiind of like that. Sort of... not really.. but it made me feel special anyway!
On another note, today I met up with a long-lost friend who I haven't seen pretty much since kindergarten/1st grade, from back in Hong Kong. I never thought that the next place we would meet would be in Barcelona! Turns out our moms (who are long-time close friends) are coming to visit us on the exact same day too. We are thinking of traveling to Morocco together... just the four of us. I am super excited :D.
As for school, this has been a killer week. My biggest final is due this coming Monday but it needed to get printed by this past Wednesday, which meant that I pulled my first full out all-nighter on Tuesday night. I was staying up until at least 3 or 4 am every night in between... Whew! It was exhausting but satisfying in a way? I'm still far from done with finals, but I think I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Today was our last Exhibit Design class before finals so our teacher invited us to have class in his design studio. It was a really nice way to end the semester. It's really cool being at another design school and experiencing how everything works compared to RISD. In terms of workload, it definitely has the same intensity if not more...
Anyway, time for bed now. Going to paint a mural at church tomorrow :).
Just wanted to share this video that my friend David made while visiting here a few weeks ago. David came from Germany to visit Janina - a friend from church, also from Germany, and also studying abroad here. Our church is sponsoring an arts ministry, called zruH,which is currently holding a video contest on the theme of "Quién es Jesús para mi?", "Who is Jesus to me?"... And this video is David's entry. (If anyone is into film-making, it's not too late! they are accepting entries until April 20th :D).
The church that you see in the video is right next to my school! I've been meaning to go inside to take a looksie but I haven't yet. I will have to go one day soon because my time here is running out :(! The close-ups were shot from the roof of my school. Pretty cool huh? You can have lunch on the rooftop under the sun... with a great view... ahh....:D. Okay, enjoy. Here is David's description:
"During a escape to Barcelona from my University exams, i heard about a short film competition sponsored by a church. And while we were walking through Barcelona we found this perfect spot to show what church should not be like. The second part than gives an idea what it could be like."
...but I'm blogging instead... aiyaaa! It's crunch time... I only have two weeks left before finals are due. Where did February go?? Why is it already March?!?! It feels like I've just been doing homework this past week. Or has it been two weeks? Maybe three? I've lost track... Anyway, after being in college now for 4 years I've learned a lot about myself as a student. One of the main things I've learned is that I'm not very good at handling stress. When I have a lot of work, I get stressed out because I worry about not being able to finish my work. So I spend a lot of time avoiding the work, which then stresses me out even more. I've also found that when I am really stressed, I tend to shut everyone else out and isolate myself with my work. It's not a very healthy way of living and I am constantly struggling with it, especially now in the midst of finals. I'm also back to a point now where my last thoughts before falling asleep are about my work and also my first thoughts after waking up :S.
Another thing I've learned is that a good teacher is sooo important! You can pick the most interesting subject but if the teacher is not good, then the class is usually crappy. I don't know why I'm mentioning this... maybe because that's kind of what my Typography class here is like. But that's a whole other story... :p.
By Friday I felt totally burned out so I decided not to work and to see some other human beings for a change... I ended up hanging out at a friend's place and we went to eat at a restaurant across from her house, which happened to be an American restaurant. It was such a funny feeling - going out to eat "American food". I didn't even stop to think that there might be "American" restaurants here. I mean there are McDonalds and Burger Kings but this was a restaurant called "Hollywood". You know how when you're in the States, you'll be like, "hey let's go out for Chinese food" or, "hey let's get Mexican food.." but if you go to Johnny Rockets you never think, "hey, let's go out for some American food!". And say you do go out for Chinese food - well, it's never really authentic Chinese food. It's more like super Americanized-Western-Chinese food. In the same way, I guess this was Spanishafied American food, if that makes any sense. Like it was American food no doubt, but it just wasn't the same as "real" American food. Anyway, so that was fun.
Other than that, as I mentioned, school is taking over my life. I've learned that it's very difficult to actually study while "studying abroad". That's one of my biggest challenges here. I feel like many study abroad students (this is just a general observation of mine) go abroad with the purpose of partying. I definitely did not come here to party hardy, but I didn't come here just to stay at home and do homework everyday either! There is soooo much to see in the city and it's so difficult to stay inside and work knowing that it's a sunny day and that you're in Barcelona... *sigh.
I am trying to see the light at the end of the tunnel... I keep reminding myself that I just have two more weeks of hard work and then I am freeee. My mother is coming the day after my last final so I'm super excited. It's not that I hate my homework - I'm actually very glad that I have my Portfolio class, because it's something I would have had to do myself anyway. The class is super helpful and I can't wait to see the end result of my final project! It's just getting to that point that is difficult. It's quite silly when I think about it. The main obstacle that keeps me from moving forward in my work is my own fear that I won't be able to finish my work!! Aghhh!
Anyway, I always carry my camera with me so here are some photos that I've taken recently:
I arrived at school one day to find that all of these little traffic poles had been covered with colorful paper. It was so pretty. I think it was for Carnaval.
Went for a walk one day in the gothic quarter...
A really cool gargoyle
Palau de la Generalitat
A pretty elaborate "street artist statue person" on La Rambla
Casa Batllo at night
Beeyootiful
Okay, I'm going to work hardcore now. I also think it's my schedule that makes it difficult to get going with homework. I seem to work better at night but here my free time is always during the day. So.. it's weird. Anyway, hasta luegooo.
I am a student at the Rhode Island School of Design, studying abroad in Barcelona during the last semester of my senior year. This is my Barca blog, aka "el bloggo de Pango". Thanks for visiting!
