we do fun things here
By Tamika Whitenack
3 weeks into this Barcelona adventure! This past week definitely felt like I had more of an established routine with school and work, but still doing a fair amount of tourist-type activity...especially this past 3 day weekend!
On Tuesday, I outed myself as a bunny rabbit in disguise when we went for a picnic lunch at Parc de Ciutadella. We stopped by the supermarket to get food, everyone else made ham and cheese sandwiches and I ate....an entire bag of carrots and some hummus. So now my friends now that I am a vegetable fanatic. Hehehe.
Wednesday we went to the magic fountain show at Montjuic. Imagine a giant spectacular amount of water that is the color of pixie stix candy dust and some dramatic music and this is the show. Plus a bunch of tourists. We were very disappointed that a mermaid or other fantastical water creature did not emerge from the fountain but it was still a good show! Lights! Water! Music!
Thursday evening we went to the Picasso museum! It is not actually that big, but it does have a lot of Picasso's work, including a giant collection of his interpretations/works related to Velazquez's Las Meninas. I cannot think of Picasso without thinking of our favorite children's book, when Pigasso met Mootisse. I did not check the gift shop to see if they had this book (but I kind of think no).
My preferred method of getting places is walking, and with our little adventures this week I ended up exploring the Gothic Quarter a bit. It is full of tourists but a really fun area! Small windy streets, and loads of bakeries and little shops.
Friday we had a movie night at one of my friends' houses. It has been so long since I've had a sleepover! But it was a good time, including frozen peas and Ben and Jerry's ice cream (now that I've exposed myself, I have no shame in being that weird kid who eats frozen peas for dessert).
Saturday was adventure day 1! A day trip to nearby Sitges for the beach. Sitges is known for the beach and the gays. We saw both and managed to survive without sunburn, except for our one white friend who came along and truly suffered....in the style of pan con tomate, he went from white to pink. Yikes! After we returned from the beach we went to a plaza in the gothic quarter to watch Castellers, which is a tradition in which people form giant human towers. It's quite a balancing act, very tall (5 + layers of people), and the top is always some tiny adorable kid. It was fun to watch! And sort of suspenseful. Very cute too because the small children are like little monkeys scrambling up all the other people.
Sunday was another day trip, to Montserrat! These mountains are pretty distinctive, formed underwater by sediment and then the water went away! ANd we have fun rocks that look like pillars/teeth/whatever your imagine desires! There is also a monastery with a well-renowned boys choir so we went with the intention of hearing angelic voices sing but alas, were unable to get to their performance...only hiking for us! The hiking of course made me very happy, although the way down included lots and lots and lots and lots of stairs and I kid you not, when we finally reached the bottom and stopped to stand still, my legs were involuntarily trembling because my muscles were like waaaa.
That brings us to today, adventure day 3! Our adventures today were in Barcelona, but we still did plenty of activities. Started off this morning at the cathedral, up on the roof for some fun fun views and pictures! So many churches everywhere but this is the first one that actually made me cover my shoulders. After the cathedral, walked to Montjuic for the botanic gardens (featuring lots of cacti and other fun plants of similar climes to Barcelona...california, chile, australia, south africa...) and over to the giant castle of Barcelona! Seeing the castle and the cathedral today reminded me a bit of our UK trip, and the fact that so much european history seems to revolve around religion and the military and the giant buildings that were made for these reasons. I enjoy seeing these places but also don't know how to feel about the fact that we glorify these aspects as cultural relics for tourism now, when I would venture to say that the prominence of religion, military/war, and power of church or monarchy were some of the driving factors of really problematic happenings ie colonialism. Just something that I am thinking about always...
Ended the day with some ice cream! We were wandering through a neighborhood very not touristy and stopped at a local shop that was packed! But menu only in catalan...I got hazelnut though (i know this word, avellana, porque está en mi caja de granola que tengo para desayuno en mi casa) and was quite satisfied.
Who is this "we" who I keep referring to? Almost always it refers to the 3 other young women of color in this program who are not majoring in business (we are the minority; most of the students are white, frat/sorority, lets become investment banker types). Was definitely not going into this trip thinking much about how the social life would turn out but have been pleasantly surprised to have made some real pals! We bond over our lack of desire to go clubbing every night (another characteristic trait of most other students) and a goofy sense of humor.
Only 4 days left of class! And then a trip to Paris! And then the arrival of my beloved family members! So much is happening and yet it is also just my life. Time for the onslaught of pictures.
3 weeks into this Barcelona adventure! This past week definitely felt like I had more of an established routine with school and work, but still doing a fair amount of tourist-type activity...especially this past 3 day weekend!
On Tuesday, I outed myself as a bunny rabbit in disguise when we went for a picnic lunch at Parc de Ciutadella. We stopped by the supermarket to get food, everyone else made ham and cheese sandwiches and I ate....an entire bag of carrots and some hummus. So now my friends now that I am a vegetable fanatic. Hehehe.
Wednesday we went to the magic fountain show at Montjuic. Imagine a giant spectacular amount of water that is the color of pixie stix candy dust and some dramatic music and this is the show. Plus a bunch of tourists. We were very disappointed that a mermaid or other fantastical water creature did not emerge from the fountain but it was still a good show! Lights! Water! Music!
Thursday evening we went to the Picasso museum! It is not actually that big, but it does have a lot of Picasso's work, including a giant collection of his interpretations/works related to Velazquez's Las Meninas. I cannot think of Picasso without thinking of our favorite children's book, when Pigasso met Mootisse. I did not check the gift shop to see if they had this book (but I kind of think no).
My preferred method of getting places is walking, and with our little adventures this week I ended up exploring the Gothic Quarter a bit. It is full of tourists but a really fun area! Small windy streets, and loads of bakeries and little shops.
Friday we had a movie night at one of my friends' houses. It has been so long since I've had a sleepover! But it was a good time, including frozen peas and Ben and Jerry's ice cream (now that I've exposed myself, I have no shame in being that weird kid who eats frozen peas for dessert).
Saturday was adventure day 1! A day trip to nearby Sitges for the beach. Sitges is known for the beach and the gays. We saw both and managed to survive without sunburn, except for our one white friend who came along and truly suffered....in the style of pan con tomate, he went from white to pink. Yikes! After we returned from the beach we went to a plaza in the gothic quarter to watch Castellers, which is a tradition in which people form giant human towers. It's quite a balancing act, very tall (5 + layers of people), and the top is always some tiny adorable kid. It was fun to watch! And sort of suspenseful. Very cute too because the small children are like little monkeys scrambling up all the other people.
Sunday was another day trip, to Montserrat! These mountains are pretty distinctive, formed underwater by sediment and then the water went away! ANd we have fun rocks that look like pillars/teeth/whatever your imagine desires! There is also a monastery with a well-renowned boys choir so we went with the intention of hearing angelic voices sing but alas, were unable to get to their performance...only hiking for us! The hiking of course made me very happy, although the way down included lots and lots and lots and lots of stairs and I kid you not, when we finally reached the bottom and stopped to stand still, my legs were involuntarily trembling because my muscles were like waaaa.
That brings us to today, adventure day 3! Our adventures today were in Barcelona, but we still did plenty of activities. Started off this morning at the cathedral, up on the roof for some fun fun views and pictures! So many churches everywhere but this is the first one that actually made me cover my shoulders. After the cathedral, walked to Montjuic for the botanic gardens (featuring lots of cacti and other fun plants of similar climes to Barcelona...california, chile, australia, south africa...) and over to the giant castle of Barcelona! Seeing the castle and the cathedral today reminded me a bit of our UK trip, and the fact that so much european history seems to revolve around religion and the military and the giant buildings that were made for these reasons. I enjoy seeing these places but also don't know how to feel about the fact that we glorify these aspects as cultural relics for tourism now, when I would venture to say that the prominence of religion, military/war, and power of church or monarchy were some of the driving factors of really problematic happenings ie colonialism. Just something that I am thinking about always...
Ended the day with some ice cream! We were wandering through a neighborhood very not touristy and stopped at a local shop that was packed! But menu only in catalan...I got hazelnut though (i know this word, avellana, porque está en mi caja de granola que tengo para desayuno en mi casa) and was quite satisfied.
Who is this "we" who I keep referring to? Almost always it refers to the 3 other young women of color in this program who are not majoring in business (we are the minority; most of the students are white, frat/sorority, lets become investment banker types). Was definitely not going into this trip thinking much about how the social life would turn out but have been pleasantly surprised to have made some real pals! We bond over our lack of desire to go clubbing every night (another characteristic trait of most other students) and a goofy sense of humor.
Only 4 days left of class! And then a trip to Paris! And then the arrival of my beloved family members! So much is happening and yet it is also just my life. Time for the onslaught of pictures.
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| sometimes u want a fig |
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| from txapela |
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| un pinxto |
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| another one! |
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| we love silly selfies! |
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| especially if they only feature half our faces :| |
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| kale salad lol |
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| a whole wheat croissant!! |
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| from the blue period |
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| my host mom said heres this bowl of cherries if you want, you should eat more bc you run a lot. lol |
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| cuando ceno solo |
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| siempre hay fruta |
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| i forgot to take a picture of my ben and jerrys |
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| giant gummy bears! |
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| avocado and tomato and mozzarella |
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| sitges wanderings |
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| continued |
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| are we diversity brochure worthy yet? |
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| montserrat! |
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| we hiked to the highest point |
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| and then took way too many pics |
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| dramatic? |
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| happy! |
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| botanic gardens |
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| flowers of the sun :) |
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| <3 this color |
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| castletop |
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| selfies again |
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| more castle time |
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| not a selfie? |
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| this picture is so funny to us |
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| time for our mini photoshoot |
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| tehehe |
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| my hair has become long enough that mar is going to hate it |
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| ive become that annoying salad girl. yikes |
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| avellana post initial licking |
ah i love this. Can't relate to the frozen peas, but catch me eating an entire bag of carrots in a day like once a week. Also your host mom sounds like my mom.
ReplyDeletehonored to be mentioned even when i'm nowhere near! hahaha the triumph of a big sister who has made a deep impression on the psyche of her younger sib. also, becoming??? you have long been the annoying salad girl, don't lie
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