One last selfie with the fan before I left the country!
After saying goodbye to all of you wonderful people in the States via various visits/trips/etc., OMG I'm officially in Spain (!!!!!!!!!), which was quite evident from the title of this blog. I'm sitting at my hostel in Barcelona and I have access to semi-reliable WiFi. I got in yesterday after hours and hours of flying/airport time (some of which was spent at the Moscow airport, which was not recommendable).
I hired a taxi to take me to and from my hostel, which I totally recommend. I'm all for using public transportation and saving money, but I also have come to realize that I need to pick and choose my battles. Having a taxi take me to my destination meant that I didn't have to struggle on the streets or metro of Barcelona both with directions and carrying all of my stuff. I also had the nicest man to talk to on the journey over!
Upon checking in, I went to my room and tried to put my stuff in my locker, but it was quite difficult to do. After a lot of rearranging, and completely unpacking my carryon bag, I was able to bend and squeeze and shove things into place. In retrospect, traveling with ALLLLLL of my stuff sounded like a better idea than it actually was. If I were to have my orientation in a different place than I was teaching, I would instead do this: 1) Book a flight to the destination where I would be teaching (in this instance, my city would be Madrid) a few days (maybe 4ish) before my orientation. 2) Use AirBnb (yet to be fully reviewed by me, but so far, so good!!) to book a place to stay in said city for 2+ weeks. 3) Book a roundtrip flight from City#1 (Madrid) to City#2 where orientation is being held (in this instance, Barcelona). 4) Book hostel for a night or two in City#2 (Barcelona) 5) Fly back to AirBnb rental in City#1 and continue the stay there This would make things infinitely easier for a number of reasons. For one, I wouldn't have to carry around all of my stuff while I traveled to the hostel, which is annoying. For another, I could actually get things done that felt productive. I still need to figure out where I'm going to live/apartment hunt for a place in Madrid. I have a ton of downtime before my orientation, which is awesome because I LOVE LOVE LOVEEEEEEEEE Barcelona (though make no mistake, I root for RM over FCB any day), but if I were in Madrid with this downtime, I could jump the ball on apartment hunting. But ah well, you live and you learn!
Anyways, so after the stuff debacle (re: I probably overpacked, but what's new?), I got my things to go out in the city. First, I had tapas for dinner! Tapas are small plates and the story behind them is pretty cool. Way back when, people would go out for drinks. After sitting outside for hours and hours on end, people would continue to order drinks and flies would occasionally come by. To combat the flies flying into the drinks, people would put a small plate on top of their drinks. They would often times order food to share and use their small plates and their drink covers. And there you have it: tapas, like a top for your drink! Of course they have since evolved, but have quickly become a long lasting tradition in Spain. Anyhow, I had jamón serrano (salted, cured ham) and pan con tomato (toasted bread with crushed tomato and a little drizzle of olive oil and salt.a glass of cava (locally produced sparkling white wine).
Yuuuuuuummmmmmm!!!!!
Next, I ventured to the city center. Festes de la Mercè is happening this month (September), which is Barcelona's festival horning their patron saint (sorry that I didn't find out who that was, but I'm feeling too lazy to Google completely), so there a ton of things going on. I had a quick tapas dinner (see photo and also become my friend on Instagram for more like it) and then went to go check out the carrefoc (fire run). The carefoc was madness! It's this huuuuuuge parade and there are all of these pyrotechnics and fireworks and people dressed like devils and drumming, among other things. I got hopelessly lost trying to find it, but when I eventually did, it was super cool! Because I got there so late I couldn't see a lot (being 5'3.75" doesn't elevate you that much), but I could definitely hear. It was fun experience, but after a little I called it quits and went back to the hostel because I couldn't see much (and that's what YouTube is for thanks to the people up front!) and because I wanted to lie down after attempts at sleeping in cramped seated positions.
So the next day (that day being today) I woke up refreshed for a change! Funny how lying down and being able to stretch out can actually allow you to sleep. For some strange reason, jet lag rarely affects me, so I woke up good to go. I took my time getting ready/physically out of bed because I didn't have too much that I really needed to accomplish. I made a to-do list and accomplished 2 of 3 things.
My To-Do List: 1) Go to Barclays to withdraw money. Accomplished! Most countries are not like the US where you can use your card for most things (true life: I've used my card to purchase things that are under 50cents before). Cash is the preferred option. I bank with Bank of America and Schwab. Schwab is awesome and they don't take out ATM fees, but I'm still waiting on a check to clear so I don't currently have any money to take out. I have money in my BoA account, but if I use any ATM that I see, I may get charged additional fees. When I initially contacted BoA and told them I was going to Spain, they told me that they didn't have any Spanish sister banks. Buuuuuut luckily I also asked them what all of their sister banks around the world are. Turns out, they are aligned with Barclays. Barclays is a British bank, but there are a TON in Spain that I've found, so yay!!! Long story short: I got cash without paying additional bank fees! Also, my advice to you is to ask what all of your bank's sister banks are.
2) Get a SIM card/phone plan. Yep! As I wrote before, I was traveling overseas with an already unlocked smartphone. In this day and age, I don't think I can go back to using a "dumb" phone in such a technologically forward country. The phone was a gift from my dad (thanks, padre!!) and is an iPhone 3GS. It runs on the GSM network, which means that I can put any SIM card in that uses that network and have service. I was initially trying to find a Vodaphone, but didn't end up finding one, which was no big deal. Instead, I went to Orange. I have an official Spanish phone number with a data plan for €8,95/month. I get 1GB of data, which should be more than enough for me. I'm not quite sure what the phone call/text part of the deal was (ask someone more tech savvy how it works), but that's quite alright because I plan to use WhatsApp to "text" for free via data and not a whole lot else on my phone besides maybe Instagram/Snapchat. Also, I plan on taking advantage of WiFi (say it like the Spanish! Say "Wee Fee"!) when I can.
3) Map out directions/route to the university where my orientation will be. Nope, didn't do this. It was raining and I had had enough wandering for the day. Possibly if it wasn't raining/I didn't have all my stuff from my adventures earlier. Probably should do this tomorrow.
Throughout the day I also had lunch (at this make-your-own noodle wok combo place), wandered for a little near Plaça de Sants, and bought some granola bars, wine, and a corkscrew.
All of that and this is the conclusion I've come to: it's really lonely not having friends. I'm sure I will make them eventually, but so far I've just been spending time all by lonesome. Refreshing at times, but also difficult to do forever. The internet also rarely helps because you get online and you look at everyone else having the time of their lives, which is all I currently want to be doing. So with all that, I am signing off to read my book. I may not be making friends just yet (I mean, I've been here for slightly over 24hours...), but it will come. Instead of aimlessly searching and learning about every single thing every single person I've ever met in life is currently doing, I'm disengaging for a little and delving into a good book (full disclosure: the book I'm currently reading is actually not that good and hopefully gets better, but I always make it a point to finish every book I start with the only exception being 50 Shades of Grey because that was actually HORRENDOUS). I'm also having a glass or few of wine because this is wine country and who am I if I don't delve into local culture??
Adios and hasta pasta! TTYL
Oh, and I might update with another post on what/how I packed sometime later!