This has truly been an epic weekend. Granted, it's only early Sunday so technically it's not over yet but anyways! Friday was a slightly monotonous and long-winded day of classes. Learning pronunciation and how to teach it was interesting but in the afternoon we did fake lesson plans in groups of 4 and none of us could even feign enthusiasm because we were so drained from the intense week. This program is really really awesome in how it does prepare you to be a teacher in only 4 weeks, but every single day is SO PACKED with information, sometimes I just want to go home and sleep for about 16 hours/days.
After class on Friday a bunch of us went to this rather hip lounge-y place in Gracia, this area of the city that I'm kind of interested in possibly living next month. I guess it used to be its own city way back in the day and you can pretty much tell right away when you've entered into the area from the way the streets are very narrow and there are barely any sidewalks. So there's a meet-up for the Barcelona TEFL Teacher Association which is a way for past and present TEFL teachers and program participants to meet up, mingle, share tales of woe and hope about the job market, and drink kind of pricey drinks. There was about 9 of us there from our class of 16, and it was sufficiently awkward so I bailed after like 2 hours. Not a great place to get a job but I was glad I went to check it out- met one English guy who was especially socially awkward, that was pretty great. Then headed to a local neighborhood place to get some tapas and a bottle of wine- for 3 of us, it cost a mere 12 Euros. Unbelievable!
Saturday was a really fricking fabulous day! My friend Stacy found a cava vineyard about 45 mins outside the city so a group of 6 of us met up early Sat morning to take the train out to Sant Sadurni d´Anoia, which is this very Catalan tiny town that has loads of cava stores and this one amazing vineyard, Freixenet ( pronounced Freshenet). The tour was 2 hours in English and was only 6 Euros, such a STEAL, and we spent a lot of time actually wandering in the cellars, hearing about the process in making this sparkling wine. I guess the word "champagne" is trademarked so back in the day when they wanted to start making sparkling wine, they had to rename it and Cava literally translated means "cave".. that's a terrible explanation but anyways, cava is basically just sparkling wine that makes you feel really incredibly happy about your life when you drink it.
The best part was when our guide took us through all this huge, underground cellars that smelled so earthy and clean, and then a tram appeared out of nowhere and our group got on this tiny train which took us through more cellars, and up the hill to the tasting center! This place is #9 in the world in terms of cava and wine production and it was so impressive how they had this plush tasting center where we got to try this Reserva Real one that's pricey and delicious, all while looking out the huge windows over the tiny town. It was barrels of fun, no one wined or anything!
After the tour I bought a mini cava bottle to celebrate, well, anything, and then Stacy, Sari and I ( two girls I especially like here) wandered to La Barceloneta, which is the main beach/boardwalk in Barcelona. We got delicious pizza slices and sat on the beach, where we heard the most English yet so far on this trip, and could pick out Americans from 6 miles away from their North Face jackets( please, go out of business) and being generally loud and annoying! This is a paradox- I'm not an Anti-American by any means but generally I'd like to pretend like I assimilate as much as possible and blend in. Therefore sometimes I feel like I'm being snobby, or whatever. Vicious cycle in my head!
We walked down the boardwalk where SO MANY people were rollerblading, making giant sandcastles, and sitting in the sand- THIS is why I came to Barcelona. So beautiful, so tranquil being near the water, I just loved it. Ciutat Velle is the name of the area near the water and its super duper pricey but I don't think I could handle the huge influx of tourists there that will inevitably happen in like 2 impending months, or something. We got delicious gelato as we wandered near the beach and Shannon was a very happy girl.
I went home and hung out with my roommate Estel who was packing to go to Mexico with her novio ( boyfriend) for a month and we shared some macaroni his mom made, delicious. Then a flurry of phone calls to plan the evening and I ended up going back to the lounge-y place from Friday night as a meeting spot to see a few girls from the program, and we ended up bar hopping to several bars with lovely names like La Bolsa ( The purse), next to a bar called The Legs ( I took a picture) and ended up at this swanky club that would have cost about 15 E to get in but Stacy's roommate is some journalist on TV here and gave us the name of the bouncer, so we got in for FREE! I'm very classy, did you know that? Danced ourselves crazy to USA pop music and had a grand time which ended around 5 AM when I got some chocolate croissants and then headed home.
Yes, there are bakeries open at all hours of the night selling chocolate croissants and other pastries. Amaz.ing.
Now I'm off for some much needed Shannon-time and to perhaps hit up Parc Guell, Gaudi's magical playground that I've been DYING to see for years. SO EXCITED! and then off to the beach to meet up with a friend for wine and wandering. Yay!
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