Jaw Damage

My jaw has been throbbing all day.  I must be grinding my teeth all night long for the past couple of days.  Maybe I am actually more nervous about being in a foreign country than I am actually letting on to myself.  Well, this same deal happened during my first week of work this summer, so maybe it’s just how my body copes with change.  Hopefully it goes away sometime soon or my body starts relaxing a little because my teeth are literally throbbing over here.

Well, today was actually a great day!  We’re still in Palafrugell and today we met up with my dance teachers’ best friend from grade school who now lives in Barcelona.  Jean and her family picked us up from the hotel and brought us back to their summer home for a long lunch and evening together.  Their summer home was awesome!  It was a little inland from the coast and built in the 1400s!  Very rustic looking and such neat architecture!  I didn’t get a very good picture of the house, but here’s a quick one I snapped from the front.

It was just great being with a family here, and I got to work a little on my Spanish which was a plus.  Her kids know English, but rarely get to speak it so we spoke English the majority of the time and I loved it cause I have been kind of English deprived this week.  Haha. 

Anyways, it was great spending time with their family and now I know people in Barcelona for later.  They also connected me with their nephews and nieces around my age, so once I’m back in Barca we can get in touch and they can show me around the town…from the local perspective!  

Palafrugell

For the past few days my vocabulary consists of hola, gracias, and si.  I’m not sure how much longer this can last.  Haha.  Well the good news is that if the Spaniards slow down a little and talk to me specifically, I have little trouble understanding what they are saying.  The problem comes when it is my turn to speak back.  I seem to freeze.  I have the ordering food thing down and the greeting people down, but other than that I am at a standstill.  I must know it if I can understand what they are saying, so I’m not too sure what’s wrong.  But it’ll come.  I hope. 

For the most part, I have found that people in Barcelona really aren’t that friendly.  No one smiles when they walk down the streets at all.  And I feel that if I smile they might just look at me funny.  My type of city?  Not so much.  But on the other hand, almost every person we have asked for help with directions or some sort have been really helpful.  (and most actually speak enough English to get by).  So maybe once you engage with them they become friendlier?  I’m not too sure yet.

We stayed the first couple days in Barcelona and this morning my mom and I journeyed up the coast to a small beach town called Palafrugell.  And when I say “journey,”  I mean journey.  We walked a mile to the metro (which is similar to the subway) and figured out how to buy an automated ticket and find our stop.  With the help of this cute Spaniard of course.  Then we walked for a while to find the bus station.  Definitely went the wrong direction and barely caught the 2 hour long bus.  Then took a lunch break and found a taxi to finally take us to our small, little hotel with only 10 rooms.  

Here, in Palafrugell, people are much more laid back than the people in Barcelona.  I almost feel like it’s a smaller version of Redondo Beach.  Every time we go walking around I expect people to start speaking English and then realize everyone’s still speaking Spanish and not gonna lie, I get a little disappointed inside. 

Well, the sun is about to set and mom should be waking up from her nap soon.  Time to hit up the beach nightlife!

El Primer Dia

Los Angeles.  Charlotte.  Frankfurt.  Barcelona.  Finally arrived safely in the town where I’ll call my home for the next 4 months.  That feels so weird to say.  How can I call this place my home when I can’t even understand what most people are saying as I walk down the street?  I sure hope I pick up this language quickly.  Well here are a few highlights from the journey:

-         The rocking chairs in the North Carolina Airport

-         The really nice couple I met on the first flight

-         Lugging two 50 lb suitcases the few blocks from the bus stop to the hotel with little idea of where we were -going

-         Getting approached by many men while trying to find this hotel

-         Mom actually trying to talk with these men and them surrounding us and claiming they were the police

-         Me taking charge of the situation and yelling at them in English until they backed off

-         The biggest highlight: actually finding the hotel and flopping down on the bed

-         Exploring the city around the hotel and finding my actual apartment down the street

-         Getting a sim card for my phone

-         And finally, “eating” a 5 course dinner and now knowing what anything was, but meeting the most kind waitress who helped us out a bit and told us the best places to shop in the morning!

It’s been a long last few days to say the least.  This place is definitely going to take a lot of getting used to.

Successful Packing...hopefully

Work is over.  Packing has begun.  Time is still ticking.  The birds are still chirping.  And I leave the country tomorrow morning.  How to feel?  Anxious?  Nervous?  Excited?  Blessed?  Scared?  I'm not too sure what to think or how to feel, but I'm sure everything will work out because everything happens for a reason right?  God has a plan...hopefully.  

So I just about procrastinated until the very last minute with the packing.  It was a pretty daunting task and I had no idea where to even start.  Here’s what I started with:

And this big empty suitcase:

And after a few days of just starring at all this stuff all over my room, I decided to conquer it with my brother’s company.  I can honestly say that I have no idea what clothes actually ended up in there, but I know there’s a lot in there.  Let’s just cross our fingers that it’s all less than 50lbs. 

One Week and Counting

The time is coming...my mom and I leave for Barcelona one week from tomorrow.  She'll spend a week with me there before my program starts then I'm on my own in Barcelona for the next 4 months.  Well not really on my own because I have some great friends coming along too, but pretty much travellin solo.  I hope that Castillian Spanish comes easily to me.

To be honest, the entire summer blew by without much thinking of Barcelona…until last week when it all hit me.  So many errands to run and information to gather before I leave, and working 9 hours a day doesn’t leave much time to get everything accomplished.  But I’m not too worried about it.  I like to live in the moment and let everything in the future work itself out because it does no good spending time worrying about it.  Well I just hope I can keep this same thought process once I’m thrown into an unfamiliar setting next week!

¡Adios for now!