Safely in Barcelona

     Well, I have made it to Barcelona safely. I am here, arrived on Monday, September 1 at approximately 4am US time, 10am here. Flying alone is stressful and awful. Will be making future plans to always travel with another person, that’s for sure! But, I was lucky enough to have the middle seat empty on my seven and a half hour flight, so I opted to lay down and sleep for a few hours despite the screaming child and obnoxious couples sitting next to each other.

     My roommate, Kassie (who is very cool, by the way), was at the airport waiting with other students that had already arrived, so we were able to take a taxi together to the apartment. Our taxi driver was very friendly and talked to us in his thick Spanish accent the entire ride there. When we pulled our luggage up to the front doors of the apartment building, we were unable to figure out how to open the large glass doors, so our homestay father, Carlos, had to come down and open the door for us. We do have keys now and are fully able to open all doors necessary to enter the apartment! The elevator in the apartment building is the oldest working elevator in Barcelona, Carlos informed us. The apartment is very nice, and the shower is huge. Apparently, so I have heard, we are lucky to have such a large shower because most showers in apartments are very small. There is no air conditioning, so I will be losing a significant amount of water weight until it begins to cool down here in late October!

     Carlos speaks very little English, about as well as my Spanish; Josefina speaks no English. I am definitely in trouble, but will be picking up Spanish very quickly! I am not allowed to speak in English while at dinner, and Josefina takes the time to point to various objects around the kitchen and name them for me to say. They have five young grandchildren, all boys with very curly hair, who come every day to stay at the apartment. My bad luck continues as I was in the shower this morning… one of the grandchildren pushed on the door so hard because he really had to go to the bathroom that he unlocked the door and swung it right open!! He turned around and ran out of the bathroom and I had to quickly close the door, so I am hoping that they either start knocking on the door or Carlos installs a new lock on the door, because that one did not work at all! There is construction that begins around 8am every morning right outside of our balcony window, so I am lucky that my classes all begin at 9am anyways so I will definitely be forced to wake up.

     There are peculiar things that I am beginning to discover about Barcelona. For example, the floors always start at 0 and then proceed to floor 1, so I must be careful when entering buildings and trying to find a floor above the first. They don’t use ice, so I will be drinking warm water for three and a half months. You are still supposed to cross the street even when the little walking man on the sign turns red instead of green. I have been told to keep a keen eye aware of my surroundings as pickpocketing is a large issue in Barcelona, and I don’t want to lose any of my stuff. And I will be adding to this list as time goes on and I discover more and more about the city and its people.

     Homesickness has definitely set in already. I avoided thinking too much about it over the summer, but now that I am here, I am all on my own. There are a few people that I am tempted to fly out here to take away this feeling in my heart, but I will figure it out. I did not come with friends, like most of the students here, and I do not have family here, like some of the students here as well. It makes it tough, especially when my connection with my host family is inhibited by a clear language barrier. It also saddens me that the majority of students only desire to go out every single night that they are here, bragging about their ‘connections’ they have already made to obtain VIP passes to the hottest clubs in Barcelona. Fortunately, that is not the experience that I am here for and my goal is to mature through this experience rather than the opposite.

     Tonight, we have dinner at 8pm with other students living in the same area as us. Our RAV (Resident Assistant Volunteer), Unai, is meeting all of us there to introduce us to each other. Saturday is always chorizo for dinner (I love chorizo!) and Sundays are always pizza nights! This Friday and Saturday, we have a mandatory field trip to Tarragona to bond with the other students in our Spanish classes. Orientation starts soon, so I will be updating again soon! Hasta Luego!

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Flying to Toronto.

The lovely construction from our balcony.

The Apartment Building.

Oldest elevator in Barcelona.