Barcelona Update I

Nearly six weeks spent in Barcelona later and I’ve finally made the time to write an update.

In all honesty, I planned to post this over two weeks ago. It was originally titled “Three week update".” And then it was titled “One month in Spain.” And now, here we are. I told myself I wasn’t allowed to get it to six weeks (let’s just pretend I’m not one day away from officially hitting that deadline). I have a fairly lengthy update, anyway; I don’t think I could’ve packed another week of embarrassing myself everytime I attempt to practice Spanish in a public establishment into a single post.

This first post is going to be a hodge podge - a little bit of cooking, a little bit on restaurants, and a shamefully miniscule update on learning Spanish.

First, let’s talk culture-schock.

I was immediately taken aback by the Barcelona scenery. I fall more and more in love with it each day, but I definitely did not picutre a metropolitan city decorated with grafitti and crowded streets right next to a beach and palm tree-lined boardwalks when I fanticized about it every day for the six months leading up to now.

This past month and one week have been all about trial and error - more than I thought it would. For example, it took my roommates and I an absurd amount of time to figure out the standard restaurant ettiquite, specifically on how to order. Our first attempt at going out to dinner ended in us only drinking a pitcher of sangria (*cue judgement for sangria in the winter*) and waiting on the waiter to come take our food order for 45 minutes just to be told the kitchen had closed. It wasn’t the restaurant’s fault. It was ours, and this is where we learned our first tip on Spanish/European restaurant ettiquite:

1. Motion (kindly) to the waiter/waitress if you need something, don’t wait for them to come to you.

This doesn’t apply to all restaurants — every waiter and waitress is different — but its fairly custom to have to get a server’s attention every time you want something.

I finally figured out the whole restaurant-ordering thing after a couple of weeks, but not without a few more fails. The culture shock besides that has only been exhilerating and humilifying in the best way possible. The street signs look different and are in different places, the crosswalk to go straight requires a left or right turn first, I pass people drinking red wine at 10 AM on my way to class, and recycling is not only compulsory but also color-coordinated in most businesses. My first time grocery shopping, I didn’t bring my own bag and had to buy a reusable one there. I then proceeded to not bag my own items and realized I was supposed to once the cashier was already checking out the person behind me, so I found myself frantically shoving 20ish items into my purse. Every once in a while I will accidentally start talking in English to someone I’ve just met, and it won’t be long until I am given a much needed reminder that I am no longer speaking in the majority language in my home country and that I am in fact a guest in a primarily Spanish-speaking country. I undoubtedly have more obstacles to overcome and cultural differences to experience, and I hope to welcome them with open arms and a curious mind.

Some pictures from Barcelona:

Day trip to Girona (where season 6 of Game of Thrones was filmed) and Besalu, Spain:

Now into the “studying” part of my studying abroad experience. I mentioned it in my last post, but I’m stuyding gastronomy, or culinary studies, while I’m here. I’m eating up (literally) every second of it. While I was aware I would have to buy a knife set and probably wear an apron or something of the sorts during class, I was not aware I would be decked out in a full uniform — I’m talking hat, coat, pants, clogs, apron, and matching hand towels — hair pulled back and clean from all makeup, piercings, and nail polish twice a week. I have a picture but I’ll spare you the awkward laugh. All jokes aside, I really do love it. Uniform and all.

My first class was actually quite humbling.

Have you ever seen the movie Julie and Julia? You know that scene where Paul walks in on Julia in tears and chopping so many onions because she felt like a failure her first day of culinary school in a class with all men? I felt like I was living out that scene frame for frame.

My version went like this: I was a few minutes late (naturally) and walked into the kitchen to find I was the only study abroad student in that particular class. The rest were 2nd year local students, meaning they had already been through a year and a half of the program I was jumping in on for one semester. After a quick introduction, everyone started cooking. I was told to make tiramisu. I had no idea where anything was, how anything works, or where to begin (I’m also not a big baker so this was in the top 10 of my worst nightmares for sure). After pacing around aimlessly for roughly 10 minutes, I finally embarked on my tiramisu endeavors with another classmate who showed me the ropes. The following classes have been getting progressively better, and I’ve been becoming more confident, as well as learning some pretty cool techniques and recipes. I love it so far, and I can’t imagine going back to my typical college lecture style classes after 16 weeks of this.

Below are a few pictures from the classes I’ve had so far.

Cuisines from left to right: Maghreb, Middle Eastern, Moroccan, French, Seafood Technique, and Indian

Not pictured: Italian, Legumes + Vegetables, and Fried Foods (forgot to take pictures!)

While we’re on the topic of food… here are a few pictures of some worthy restaurants I’ve been to so far…

Dinner at Maro Azul: Salsa Trio, De Atún y De Pulpo Tostadas (Tuna and Octopus Tostadas), and Tacos de Camarón (Shrimp Tacos) - The tuna tostada is insane.

Tapas platter in Girona, Spain

Tapas at La Bendita: Catalan Tomato bread with Anchovies, Crispy Pickled Hake, and a 1/2 eaten Croquetas de Pollo (Chicken Croquette)

Beachside lunch at Xiringuito Escriba: Salted Fish and Patatas Bravas

Pica, Pica at Pirineu en la Boca

I couldn’t debut my first post and not include a couple of restaurants, but be on the lookout for a few more in depth restaurant reviews and travel posts in the coming weeks!

Obligatory Spanish Update: After about 2 weeks of wishful thinking that I would magically become fluent, I started spending at least 20 minutes a day learning. Although I arrived knowing a few phrases, I’ve been really scared to practice in public. BUT, I finally decided to order my coffee completely in Spanish one day, and it actually went well! Small victories! Since then, I have been trying to order, checkout, and speak short phrases in Spanish when I can.

Also, I was recently told by a bartender that — and I quote — “my Spanish is really good.” He was definitely lying, and if he wasn’t, it might have been because I only said about three very short sentences in total to him (mostly consisting of asking where the bathroom was).

Hopefully there are many more progress updates to come.

Hasta luego!