Figueres

On Friday, we went on an optional excursion to Figueres to see some Roman ruins and the Dalí theater/museum he designed in honor of himself. The Roman ruins were pretty boring - you've seen one ruin you've seen them all. Not to metnion they're just rocks stacked on top of each other. So, Joanna and I adopted a new hobby of "squishing" people who are far away:


The Dalí museum was very cool, though.

Oh Mercé Mercé Me

Last weekend were the Mercé festivals in Barcelona. The city puts on a bunch of free stuff for people to go to (such as Correfoc - a fire run) and it coincided with MTV España's Music Week which involves MTV putting on a bunch of free stuff for people go to (such as huge concerts every night at the Forum). Unluckily, I missed a lot of this because I was in Munich at Oktoberfest, but I did manage to get a good couple nights of Mercé in.

I got to see one of the three nights of Forum shows (a few Euro bands that resembled the Beatles but with more members and more instruments) and Pyromusical - fireworks set to music (think Avril Lavigne "Hey, hey, you, you I don't like your girlfriend" to mass amounts of fireworks over a crowd of people gathered in a Plaza).


Montjuic, the building that the fireworks were over


Plaza España


Pyromusical!

During the fireworkks, a voice came on the loud speaker and said something I couldn't understand. Then, all the locals in the crowd pulled out sparklers (to participate, I guess?) and held them up for the rest of the show:

Oktoberfest

I went to Oktoberfest in Munich last weekend. Since I'm sick of explainig it, here are some pictures (courtesy of Julie - who actually brought a camera) that pretty much sum it up:


Germany:sausage::Spain:ham


You go in tents all day (such as this one) and drink


Beer wench


Inside the tent


People I went there with


Germans who taught us drinking songs

Also, I made this my profile picture on Facebook:


Then got a message last night from my mom (yes, my mom has Facebook):

I am sure Oktoberfest was tons of fun, but that picture is not your best....Love, Mom

The Clown

I moved into my apartment a couple days ago, but Rose, the 40 year-old woman I'm living with, was out of town working on her thesis about Leprosy, so she had some of her daughter's friends taking turns staying here and watching over the dogs.

The first day there was a girl named Rosita (which is confusing since my roomie's name is Rose) from La Mancha who is about to leave Spain for a year and travel through Mexico and South America. Yesterday, she randomly disappeared and was replaced by a really hot guy whose name I don't know. I assumed he was Rose's son - she has a couple kids in their 20s.

I came back from dinner last night and was sitting in my room on AIM when he came and knocked on my door to see if I wanted to have a glass of wine with him. I didn't want to be rude, so I went and sat with him for a little while and talked about where he's from (Barcelona) and how he knows Rose (his girlfriend is friends with her daughter). I finished up my glass (after a lot of really awkward pauses where I would just look around the room to see what the dogs were doing) and was about to get up when he quickly poured me another glass. I asked him what he does for a living, and - I shit you not - he's a professional clown.

I understand that it's possible that this kind of thing can get lost in translation, but I had him clarify multiple times and he is definitely a clown. It's even called "clown" in Spanish (and all over the world, according to him). He went to three years of theater school and at the end was finally allowed to take clowning classes. He asked me to come to his street performance on October 20th in Poble Nou. I asked him if there would be other clown-friends assisting his act and he said only one - it's a really tough gig to get, apparently.

I think he misinterpreted my genuine amusement in his clown-ness (I got up to go to the bathroom at one point and came back to him playing circus-esque music on the piano) as interest in him, because he started asking me if I have a boyfriend, and trying to talk me out of my plans ("You don't REALLY want to go to Barceloneta, do you?"). I asked him if he had a girlfriend, even though I knew he already did, to see if he was going to pull some sleazy story-switching. He responded "Yes, but she's living in Holland so it doesn't matter."

Although this is by far the hottest Spaniard I have met so far, there is no way I'm going to toss my morals out the window and do anything with a guy who has a girlfriend. There is also no way I would do anything that could get back to my roomie who I haven't even lived with yet. I also think it's wrong to fool around with clowns. I left and went out to Barceloneta and by this morning he had already been replaced by some new dog-watcher.

Best Music Videos Ever

Since I have finals tomorrow for my Intensive Language Program (real classes start Monday), I've been doing all kinds of procrastinating and came up with a list of the top ten music videos ever. I've spent countless hours in front of YouTube watching videos from my Middle School-hood and deciding which ones are the best.

The Criteria:

- It has to be great because of the video, not the song

- It helps to have a good story/cool visual effects/etc.

- It can't be "Thriller," "Smells Like Teen Spirit," "The Wall" or any of those other videos that always fall first on VH1 countdowns

Here's what I ended up with:

1. "Weapon Of Choice" - Fatboy Slim (http://youtube.com/watch?v=0WW8flwpH-Q)

Features Christopher Walken dancing around a hotel with some extremely cool effects (he FLIES). This got number one mostly based on the fact that I would never listen to this song on it's own (especially not in its entirety) but gladly watched this video twice in a row.

2. "Hey Ya" - Outkast (http://youtube.com/watch?v=XvIw5ZqC1ms)

This is a fairly simple video but there's still enough going on to keep it entertaining. The opening scene where the manager is talking to them gives it a slight plot and the video feels very classic. I especially like videos where there are only a couple people playing multiple characters. The kids dancing in their living room is really great, too.

3. "By The Way" - Red Hot Chili Peppers (http://youtube.com/watch?v=TdagH15ZEwQ)

Entertaining.

4. "Vogue" - Madonna (http://youtube.com/watch?v=xRIYvfhXrdA)

She's really cool in this, and I like when they're dancing and they all swing their arms behind their heads at the same time - the dancing in general is really cool. Madonna looks really glamorous but not to the point where it's obnoxious.

5. "The Whole World" - Outkast (http://youtube.com/watch?v=p5UJjQt3bkM)

Even though this video is kind of scary, I really like the circus theme and how un-afraid Outkast is of looking totally gay by wearing blonde wigs.

6. "Baby One More Time" - Britney Spears (http://youtube.com/watch?v=_BclTRsTBZM)

There are some really stupid points to this video, but when it actually came out it was incredible how much air time it go on MTV. Also, I went to her concert back in the day and there were SO many girls dressed up as Catholic school girls - the fact that she can influence so many people by a couple minutes of music video is incredible.

7. "Doo Wop (That Thing)" - Lauryn Hill (http://youtube.com/watch?v=bGBKCff9o2k)

I really like the split screen between the '60s and present day New York City block parties. It kind of bothers me that present-day-Lauryn looks smaller for part of it, but it's still a really good video.

8. "The Bad Touch" - Bloodhound Gang (http://youtube.com/watch?v=iTW8oUV8Aq0)

THEY'RE DRESSED IN MONKEY SUITS FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. And they managed to get famous off a song about "you and me baby ain't nothing but mammals so let's do it like they do on the discovery channel."

9. "Las De La Intuicion" - Shakira (http://youtube.com/watch?v=NqkkAvRJ28M)

She's wearing a purple mod wig and she dances with saran wrap and manages to not look stupid at all.

10. "Together Again" - Janet Jackson (http://youtube.com/watch?v=5PwpZVlOumc)

I'm pretty sure she actually went to Africa to film this, and it looks really awesome. Her hair is slightly less awesome, but the elephants make up for it.

Rebels

Over the course of the long weekend, three of my friends have been kicked out of bars/clubs - one each night we went out. It would be great to have some really cool stories about doing something so awesome they had to ask us to leave, but mostly these are all just pretty sad and embarrassing.

David - We went to a club called Catwalk in Barceloneta with disco on the ground floor and rap upstairs. The drinks were really overpriced and the guys on the rap floor were extremely creepy, but it was still pretty fun. Later in the night, it got really crowded and Karli and David went to the bar to take shots. They bartender poured their shots and then walked away. Karli turned to David and told him that they should take the shots and just run. Karli managed to pull this off flawlessly, while David - one of the only people over 6 feet tall in the country - was grabbed by the female bartender, then hustled out of the club by a bouncer. We found him outside, covered in ketchup eating a hot dog.

Guillermo - We went to a bar called L'Ovella Negra off Las Ramblas for this guy Gabe's birthday. The bar is kind of an underground tavern with a lot of tables and people from all over the world. We befriended a couple British guys, one of our friends beat them at a chugging contest, and we were having a pretty good time. We tried to sing Happy Birthday to Gabe but the bouncers got annoyed and made us be quiet. Guillermo gave Gabe a bottle of Absynthe for his birthday and apparently it was being passed around under the table. As it got back to Guillermo, the bouncer saw it, and asked him to leave. Later that night, Guillermo threw up on the side of Corte Ingles (the Spanish version of a Macy's/Safeway/Pricey Target in one).

Joanna - We went to a bar/club called Lila last night that was packed with foreign students. It was pretty awful, and we had been promised free Champagne which we never received so we weren't super happy. When we first got there, I had to go to the bathroom and there was a huge line in the girls' room so I just went in the (then empty) guys' restroom. Later that night, Joanna decided to do the same. She waited her turn in the packed bathroom line by the urinal, and was almost to the front of the line when a guy told her she needs to leave and go in the girls' room. She argued with him for a little while, then pretended to leave so he would leave her alone - but immediately went back in. The guy ended up telling the bouncer and having her kicked out. I managed to find the guy and convince him to go tell the bouncer to let her back in, but at that point the bouncer was fed up with Joanna trying to argue her way back in and refused to let her in. I stayed inside for a little while longer, but after hearing that they were calling the police, Joanna and I went home.

Tossa de Mar

Since we have a four-day weekend in honor of Cataluña, Joanna and Alex and I decided to hop on a bus and go to Tossa de Mar in Costa Brava for the day. It was really pretty, and nice to go to a beach that existed pre-1992 (the beaches in Barcelona were man-made for the Olympics).

Since there's so much to do in Tossa de Mar, our activities included: reading, drinking lots of beer, and passing out on the beach. It was pretty uneventful.

Emily

Emily's finally here! It's really weird to see people from home here in general, it really freaks me out. But I'm still really excited.

Last night we went to this really cool bar called L'Ovella Negra (the black sheep in Catalan) that was kind of an underground-tavern. The guy in front of me in the picture is my new British friend, Toby, who told me I can stay with him if I ever come to Britain even though he doesn't live especially close to anything.

I bought my tickets to go to Amsterdam in November today. I'm really sick of everyone making plans that fall through, so Joanna and I booked a flight and a hostel and we're definitely going!

This entry is kind of all over the place, but I also lost my Spanish bet. I was talking to Jim (the guy I have the bet with) about flights to Amsterdam and was having the entire conversation in English without even thinking about it. Halfway through, I realized I wasn't speaking Spanish and decided to just play it off because he obviously didn't notice. As I was hanging up the phone, Jim said "Oh Hillary, one last thing... I just heard a lot of English come out of your mouth." Apparently I'll be buying him some drinks in Amsterdam. Oh, well. At least I can finally speak English now. After wanting to say things and having to keep them to myself I realize that must be how shy people feel all the time.

Yael

On one of the first days of culture class in Cádiz, this girl with water splashed all over her face came up to me singing "Kiss" by Prince as she got closer. Since I've historically never been a huge fan of people invading my personal space bubble, this small, wet, Prince-emitting girl immediately became someone on my shit list. But, after spending the last couple months together, she's really grown on me. Things that I initially interpreted as slightly creepy I now find charming and hilarious; whenever I go to the bathroom in the class we have together, I come back to find something I own vandalized (my name tag now reads "Hillary '08").

A couple weeks ago, we went on a class field trip to Pedrables, one of the buildings Gaudí designed, with huge statues on the roof. We were standing on the roof enjoying the view of the city when a man came up to us and asked if we thought "she" was okay as he pointed to someone rubbing their body up and down one of the tile shapes. As we got closer we realized that it was Yael, eyes closed, really getting to know the statue:


When we left Cádiz, most of Yael's friends ended up going to Granada or Madrid, so she wasn't too stoked on Barcelona. Once she figured out there was an alternative school in the mountains she had not signed up for, she was even less stoked.

Last night, I was in someone's room in the Residencia and a guy from our program came in, gloating about an apartment he had found. Turns out, he had gone with Yael to look at a place (after she has made multiple charts, spent days looking for places, and convinced our Catalán teacher that she would be a great roomie if she really can't find anything by our kick-out-of-the-residencia date) and decided that he wanted it for herself and essentially stole it from her.

The worst part of this was everyone defending him in discussions about this (based on the fact that Yael gets sick when she drinks so she doesn't drink often, so she wouldn't fit in with the "cool" roommates that come with the apartment). What kind of sick person can be mean to someone who loves everything (including statues)?

Sushi

Tonight I went out for sushi with Joanna to Barri Gotic. A couple days ago I read a letter to the editor about how bad the neighborhood is - drug addicts lying in all the gutters, drunks vomiting, etc, so I felt really safe walking around with Joanna in the middle of the night overhearing conversations about which of someone's friends has money.

We got to the sushi restaurant and it was totally full, reservation only. It's tiny and one of the only sushi restaurants in the city. We managed to get a barstool and they let me stand while Joanna sat. After a little while, the couple sitting next to us asked the waitress for the check (in English). She didn't understand them and asked me to translate. I like to think of this as step one of her warming up to us (up until then she had seemed very unpleased with our standing/sitting formation).

She then proceeded to take forever to get our order in, after we stole a stool from the couple. (Note: when she took our order, she just handed me a piece of paper and had me write down what I wanted since she didn't have time for us. She didn't make anyone else in the bar do this. This was pre-translating help time.)

We spent an hour or so waiting for sushi, a food that is usually immediately available, which is especially great because Joanna stayed home sick today and all she had eaten was a croissant. When they did bring food out, they would only bring out things that I had ordered, which Joanna didn't want to eat since she didn't want to risk getting sicker by eating fish (she stuck to veggie/soup based dishes).

By the end of the meal, we weren't too full, and we had been in the restaurant for what felt like years. We were about to leave, when the waitress told us the two guys sitting at the table closest to us had sent over some sake. Turns out it was the guy that Joanna had kept staring at because she was fascinated by how gay he was and I kept accidentally staring at when looking longingly toward where the food comes from. He was a little too old for us, but wasn't bad looking. His friend, on the other hand, was not looking too good. I'm pretty sure he was shorter than me, and his hair was going pretty fast.

They tried to convince us to come out to a bar with them (the bar was supposedly "chulo," but when older people drop words that mean cool it freaks me out a little). We ended up leaving and not going to the bar. For the record, this is the first time in Barcelona anyone has bought us drinks AND asked us out.

Also, I took a picture of a guy playing violin in the metro on the way back!

Crabs

Today in class, one of the California girls in our program turned to one of the girls from Illinois (we don't really get along with the kids from Illinois for some reason, probably has to do with the fact that everyone from Illinois seems to be a moron) and mouthed "I have cramps." This was totally out of the blue, since they aren't really friends and it was during the middle of a presentation. I saw this and was sure she said "I have crabs."

Speaking of Other Blogs...

Some other blogs I am secretly in love with - mostly people I know...

hillaryswoolley.blogspot.com - Zoe's blog invented in my honor. She's way funnier than me.


j0clay.blogspot.com aka Joanna España - Joanna's take on everything we do, pretty much the same stories from a different and more descriptive perspective.


rosserichards.blogspot.com (see below) - Ross' Spain blog with some Vonnegut-y observations. Me gusta.


palomasenlaplaza.blogspot.com - Matt's Granada blog. Some weird shit happens here (think getting locked into an office when trying to get a laundry card, weird interactions in the streets with locals, etc.).

Ross

Since I haven't been carrying my camera with me anywhere - probably a combination of laziness and my roommate's paranoia rubbing off on me - I've been stealing mass amounts of photos from Facebook. Mostly from Ross (rosserichards.blogspot.com):

Gracias, Ross.

Decaf Coffee

This morning I woke up at 8 (clearly a miracle of nature) even though I didn't fall asleep until past 3am since my body has convinced itself that bedtime isn't until 6am (probably a side-effect of going out five nights in a row).

I made my way downstairs, then through the really awful breakfast line - where all the give you is a burnt, greasy croissant and an empty coffee cup - and went over to the coffee machine. I pushed the red coffee button and nothing happened. I then pushed every other red button on the machine and started freaking out. I found Ursula, our awkward student program director, and explained that the coffee machine "no funciona." She pushed the blue buttons (which I've always stayed the hell away from since the person who taught me how to use the machine told me to go for the red) and coffee came out!

She asked me what I had been pushing and I pointed to the red buttons (stupid vow of Spanish). Turns out, I've managed to "kick Ursula's biggest habit!!!" (I hate Ursula) by drinking decaf every day. She stood there talking about coffee forever, and all I could do was smile in nod since my obscure, European coffee machine vocab isn't up to par.

No wonder I can barely stay awake in class regardless of how much coffee I drink in the morning. I just assumed it was really cheap because the rest of the food is so bad.

I miss good food. And Zoe. See below:

Month of Spanish

I decided to only speak Spanish for the entire month of September, since I can talk for hours on end about women's rights or drug legalization in Spanish but don't know how to talk about what I did yesterday. It started out as fun, harmless activity to improve my Spanish but now I have a couple bets going, such as I have to buy all of my friend's drinks one night if I speak English once, but he has to buy all my drinks if I make it.

Supposedly I already messed up because the first night I was arguing with somone and yelled at them in English. I don't remember this at all, but my bet opponent does.

Razzmatazz

Last night I went to see Ratatat at Razzmatazz, a huge club in Vila Olimpica that has 5 separate bar/clubs in it that all play different kinds of music and have different themes. It was really fun but really easy to lose people, and I'm pretty sure Ratatat ended up playing for less than an hour.

We left after 5am so the metro was open again. The group I left with was only 4 people, one of which I'm not that close to because I wasn't in Cádiz and is kind of an asshole to me. He always looks like he's not having fun when we go out (if he even makes it out), so I was trying to dance with him and hang out with him so he would feel more part of the group. On the metro he refused to sit with us, but eventually gave in, then wouldn't talk to us. Another guy from our group asked him what was wrong, and he just pointed at me and said "I can't listen to this. Her awful Spanish is really brutal."

First of all, I'm pretty sure his Spanish is horrible. Second, people shouldn't be consistently rude and mean after I try to actually make them feel like they fit in and go out of my way to be nice, which is really difficult for me.