Barcelona is HOT!!! I think I saw a sign today that said it was 32°C outside… and it is also HUMID, with NO breezes at all. I’m a bit shiny.. but otherwise okay. My hair looks gorgeous; nice and curly and bouncy. I woke up this morning without even the feeling of it on my shoulders. That’s one plus, I guess. :)
(myself, in Placa Riel.. note the palm trees!!)
Our street is more like an alley in width. Our entire neighbourhood is pedestrian-only for a long while, and when there are cars allowed, it’s only one way with very little room. I heard it described as a rabbit warren before, and it is quite easy to get lost in.
Our apartment is truly awesome. It is on the ’second floor’ but is actually on the fourth floor if you’re counting one as street level (this caused some confusion when we arrived). It is quite large, with some rooms that seem to have no purpose at all… My room (at the moment) is the size of a large walk-in closet, and I feel like a nun in there… all it needs is a crucifix on the wall and a bible. We have dubbed it the nunnery. The ceilings are very tall, and the apartment has access to three courtyards for the purposes of sunlight, fresh air, and plumbing. Each courtyard is about 4X4m and seems to have no access other than from the windows looking on to it that go about 5 storeys (remember, tall ceilings). I had wondered how they could design a building that had only tiny access to a street, but there ya go.. as if someone actually sat down and designed this… they don’t call it the ‘gothic quarter’ for nothin’. The walls are sometimes white, or sometimes orange/pink/yellow, depending on the wall. It’s cool. You can tell that this place used to be lighted with gas fixtures.. there are still pipes in the ceilings.
(our building and street.. at the end on the left)
Some downfalls of the place are that there is no hot water (the water heater is broken, we have been promised that someone will fix it), we only have one working door key (but 4 working building keys), it has no internet, and there is a broken window for one of the doors inside the tiny courtyard (this is also to be fixed), and the floor is continually dirty, no matter how often we clean it.
I’m starting to pick up some Spanish.. but I wish I knew it already. I don’t mind looking like a tourist, but I hate having to inconvenience someone with hand signals, and “si, la” or “habla inglese?”all the time. I will get better. So far my largest collections of phrases involve expressions of regret, or to indicate that I do not speak Spanish. Hmm.
We had our first classes yesterday.. 10-2 was called urban systems and it is starting out as an overview of planning in Barcelona. After a long lunch and siesta, we participated in BEACH 509. This class holds sessions often, and attendance is mandatory. There are some pictures below of some of our first classes.
We went to a bar called Dow Jones last night.. we left our house at midnight.. and the bar closed at 3am.. just when the clubs start up here! It was a nifty place where the beers are listed on screens and the prices go up and down depending on how many people order it! Occasionally, there’d be a stock market crash, where the prices go back down again and everybody rushes the bar. It was quite entertaining. The only scary part about last night was when we were coming home (all four of us) we were followed up the street by a scary man who was trying to talk to us.. we walked fast and then ran to our door. I think in the future it would be best to have some guys walk us home.. granted, it was 4am at that point.
We can buy decent bottles of wine from the shop around the corner for €4!! I think we shall be hosting more inside parties in our large apartment in the future.
Off to another session of BEACH 509!!!!
(myself, in Placa Riel.. note the palm trees!!)
Our street is more like an alley in width. Our entire neighbourhood is pedestrian-only for a long while, and when there are cars allowed, it’s only one way with very little room. I heard it described as a rabbit warren before, and it is quite easy to get lost in.
Our apartment is truly awesome. It is on the ’second floor’ but is actually on the fourth floor if you’re counting one as street level (this caused some confusion when we arrived). It is quite large, with some rooms that seem to have no purpose at all… My room (at the moment) is the size of a large walk-in closet, and I feel like a nun in there… all it needs is a crucifix on the wall and a bible. We have dubbed it the nunnery. The ceilings are very tall, and the apartment has access to three courtyards for the purposes of sunlight, fresh air, and plumbing. Each courtyard is about 4X4m and seems to have no access other than from the windows looking on to it that go about 5 storeys (remember, tall ceilings). I had wondered how they could design a building that had only tiny access to a street, but there ya go.. as if someone actually sat down and designed this… they don’t call it the ‘gothic quarter’ for nothin’. The walls are sometimes white, or sometimes orange/pink/yellow, depending on the wall. It’s cool. You can tell that this place used to be lighted with gas fixtures.. there are still pipes in the ceilings.
(our building and street.. at the end on the left)
Some downfalls of the place are that there is no hot water (the water heater is broken, we have been promised that someone will fix it), we only have one working door key (but 4 working building keys), it has no internet, and there is a broken window for one of the doors inside the tiny courtyard (this is also to be fixed), and the floor is continually dirty, no matter how often we clean it.
I’m starting to pick up some Spanish.. but I wish I knew it already. I don’t mind looking like a tourist, but I hate having to inconvenience someone with hand signals, and “si, la” or “habla inglese?”all the time. I will get better. So far my largest collections of phrases involve expressions of regret, or to indicate that I do not speak Spanish. Hmm.
We had our first classes yesterday.. 10-2 was called urban systems and it is starting out as an overview of planning in Barcelona. After a long lunch and siesta, we participated in BEACH 509. This class holds sessions often, and attendance is mandatory. There are some pictures below of some of our first classes.
We went to a bar called Dow Jones last night.. we left our house at midnight.. and the bar closed at 3am.. just when the clubs start up here! It was a nifty place where the beers are listed on screens and the prices go up and down depending on how many people order it! Occasionally, there’d be a stock market crash, where the prices go back down again and everybody rushes the bar. It was quite entertaining. The only scary part about last night was when we were coming home (all four of us) we were followed up the street by a scary man who was trying to talk to us.. we walked fast and then ran to our door. I think in the future it would be best to have some guys walk us home.. granted, it was 4am at that point.
We can buy decent bottles of wine from the shop around the corner for €4!! I think we shall be hosting more inside parties in our large apartment in the future.
Off to another session of BEACH 509!!!!
posted by Francesca @ 8:30 AM
1 Comments:
At 9:11 PM,
bento said…
That sounds awesome! In a fabulous twist of fate, it seems as if I have more room in my apartment in Japan than you do. Also, your hair looks really good.
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