Monday – I arrived in Spain via Madrid at about 8 AM. It felt so strange to not leave the airport and do my usual Linea 8 to Linea 10 to Puerta de Toledo Metro ride. If I wasn’t so tired, I probably would’ve thought about this new change in my life and start crying. I, of course, barely slept on the plane partly due to the fact that I kept talking to this Indonesian-Dutch girl that sat next to me. I arrived in Barcelona at about 11 and it took Francisco an hour to find me. I landed in BCN’s new terminal and it is massive. Also probably didn’t help that I was half asleep and couldn’t quite figure out and properly explain to him where I was. Since it was his fiesta (day off), we hung out all day with his two friends from Bilbao, Carlos and Ion, who were visiting. I don’t really remember much of the day. I just felt like a lot of stuff was going. I got introduced to what felt like the entire population of El Prat. Because of his bar, Francisco has gained some popularity and gets stopped by someone constantly. And in Spain, you can’t just walk pass with a quick “hey there, sorry can’t talk right now”. I call him the mayor.
Tuesday – Spent the whole day with Ion (pronounced like John with a Y, not like the scientific word). Francisco had to work as always so he thought the two of us should keep each other company. Lucky for Francisco that Ion has a girlfriend. Like a typical Vasco, he was hot and super, super nice. Damn those Vascos! We walked around BCN and eventually met up with a friend he met while doing study abroad in The Netherlands. And in typical Spanish fashion, we spent hours bar hopping (one for pre-lunch beer, then the next for lunch, then the next for coffee, then the next for more beer). It would’ve been fun if I weren’t so tired and semi-stressed out. I insisted on job hunting immediately and did so before leaving for BCN with Ion. I should’ve listened to the Spaniards because it didn’t go so well and killed my optimism (see next post).
Wednesday – With Ion gone and Francisco working, I needed to find things to do for myself. So after some more job hunting and more stressing, I took the bus to BCN and try to get to know my new city better. I was glad to find a cool neighborhood that I really liked called Eixample. I contacted my friend Michelle, a Californian that also just moved to BCN from Madrid. She happens to just live in Eixample and she invited me over for an early dinner. She lives in this gigantic apartment that is very girly and clean and wonderful. Earlier this summer I contemplated living with Michelle because I knew we would have the same taste in housing. Unfortunately, she is charging 700 euros. Although I would basically have a very huge studio with my own bathroom in a super cool area, I know I would never ever be able to afford it. After dinner, the two of us go to our favorite teteria in BCN and relax with some mint tea. I had a great day with Michelle. I needed to vent about my frustrations with another foreigner. Only she would understand. I came home feeling a lot better.
Thursday – I did more job hunting and then stressed out again…still no answers from schools. Then, it was the day for me to get to know El Prat. Because it’s small, it didn’t really take me very long to walk around. But I was glad to have found a “chinos”. I was able to buy a bunch of hangers for cheap so I could unpack.
Friday – I spent the entire morning in Francisco’s bar. I had nothing to do after the usual job search and didn’t want to be cooped up in the apartment doing nothing but think and stress. By late afternoon, I was finally motivated to go to the city after Francisco assured me that he’ll pick me up; I wasn’t sure about taking the night bus yet. Michelle invited me again and she made me a nice dinner. Thursday to Sunday was a holiday in BCN to celebrate their patron saint, Merce. There were lots going on and lots of concerts. Tess had given me a bunch of contacts here, one of them being a guy named Bill. He invited me to see his band play and so Michelle and I decided to go. As always, Michelle and I ended up enjoying dinner and talking a lot that by the time we got there, the show was over. Francisco, who was able to get out of work early, met us there and the three of us decided to see his friend, Guillem, play in Placa Catalunya. We missed that one too. It was a night of missing concerts but we had a lot of fun.
Saturday – I did absolutely nothing. At night, I went to the bar and watched the futbol matches. It’s going to take some time to get used to hearing people cheer for Barcelona, and not Real Madrid.
Sunday – I woke up super late and spent most of the afternoon walking around. I felt a little more confident and decided it was time for me to get lost around El Prat. It was very nice and I felt like in my negativity the first few days, I had misjudged it. I had dinner again at Michelle’s and we decided to take in some of BCN’s holiday celebrations on its last day. Once again, we missed all of it because we took too long finishing up dinner (probably that damn ice cream we couldn’t put down). Francisco got out of work way early, but I didn’t want to just leave Michelle and go home. So the two of us walked around and at least take in the energy and the atmosphere of Merce ’09. It was pretty great, just lots of people hanging out. By 11:30, we were tired and I took my first night bus. It was so not as scary as I thought it would be that I’m glad I did it. Now I know how to get home from those late night bars without having to depend on Francisco. Once I arrived home, I met up with Francisco and his friends and had a great time partying. Sunday was a very good day to end a stressful and long week of adjustment.
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