Weekend Trip to Tarragona

Hey everyone!

It has been a super busy week this week! I started classes at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, where I'm taking an art history class and a film class. Both of my professors are young guys who are very interested in their fields--my film professor talked SO much the first class! The classes are going to be very interesting, though. We have a couple of field trips planned to art galleries around Barcelona in my art history class that I'm really excited about so I'm definitely looking forward to this semester!
This past weekend, my entire program went to Tarragona, a city about two hours south of Barcelona, for a weekend "study tour." Tarragona is famous because it was the capital of the Roman empire in Spain (Hisperia Citerior) during the time of the first emperor Augustus. Due to the extensive amount of Roman ruins in and surrounding Tarragona, it's been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, so you can only imagine the amount of history we were about to encounter!
Day One
The first day, my group went to Torres Vineyards, which is about half an hour away from Barcelona. The Torres family is world-renowned throughout the world for their wine, and I'm sure some of you have tasted either their wines or their brandy, which they are also famous for. The tour of the vineyards was basically like Disneyland for adults. We watched an introductory film about the family and their history in the wine business, and then got on a tram and took a tour of the cellars and surrounding countryside. Inside the cellars, they had animated, hologram-esque figures of monks pouring wine, touting their long history of wine-making, etc. It was a little weird, but definitely very interesting. After, we sampled some of their white and red wine...considering it was 10:30 in the morning, I was a little buzzed.
Wine being stored in the underground cellar at Torres
However, that proved to be a good thing when we got to our next destination, Els Munts. Els Munts is a Roman villa outside of Tarragona that was the home of the Roman governor of the province. They were into the whole historical re-creation thing at Els Munts, too, which was fun but a little over the top when the tour guide, who was dressed head to toe in Roman gear and referred to herself as Faustina said we "looked like slaves" and then forced all of us to wear togas. It was a beautiful destination right next to the beach, though, and remarkably well preserved. Ruins of a Roman aqueduct at Els Munts
Our last stop for the day, before reaching Tarragona, was a Roman quarry called El Médol. It was located in kind of a strange place--behind a gas station--but nevertheless was very interesting. The Romans basically created a massive crater in the ground in order to supply their cities in Spain with all the stone that they needed, but then left a huge spire in the ground that was apparently a natural occurrence. It was cool though because it showed how deep the Romans excavated the area, which is pretty deep. We only stayed at El Médol for a little bit, though, because it was freezing and even our tour guides wanted to go home.
Naturally occurring spire at El Médol
Day Two
Our second day was definitely my favorite. We started out the day by going to Montblanc, a medieval walled town close to Tarragona. It was freezing, but we went to two churches in town, the Church of Saint Michael and another cathedral which houses the second oldest organ in all of Europe! We then toured around the city with our guide and went to the Museu Comarcal de la Conca de Barbera, which shows the local crafts of Montblanc, such as making espadrilles and farming, and ended our tour at the top of a small hill overlooking the town, where we all snapped a bunch of pictures, despite the freezing wind.

Cathedral of Montblanc
After Montblanc, we headed to Poblet, a Cistercian monastery founded in 1151 by French monks. It is still a working monastery, and about 32 monks live there currently. Before our tour of the monastery, we went on a short hike in the wilderness surrounding Poblet. It was beautiful, and our tour guide told us all about the national parks in Spain while we were on our hike. After the hike, we went on a guided tour of the monastery and saw the kitchen, reading rooms, library, various chapels, main cathedral, and wine-making room of the monks, some of which are still in use today. The architecture of Poblet was absolutely breathtaking and the main altar was beautiful as well. Many royals of Spain were buried at Poblet, and their tombs had marble effigies of them carved on top, looking extremely peaceful in their eternal slumber. I managed to see one monk while we were at Poblet, but he didn't respond to my friendly "¡Hola!" due to that whole vow of silence thing.

Wine-making room at Poblet
Day Three
On our third day, we stayed in Tarragona and went on an extensive tour of the city. Because it was the capital, it is one of the few Roman cities that had an amphitheater, circus, and theater. The remains of the amphitheater, which I put a photo of at the beginning of the post, are still pretty well-preserved, but the circus and theater are a little less well-preserved. The city is beautiful as it is right on the ocean, and the sun was shining all day for our tour, which was great. We went to several museums to see some Roman artifacts found throughout the city during excavations, but it was really cool just walking down a street and seeing a marble Roman inscription right next to a telephone booth. We had a great day, but I was definitely exhausted on the bus ride back to Barcelona and took a looooong nap! Me on top of the Forum of Tarragona

Next weekend, I'm going to Montserrat and a FC Barcelona game, so I will have lots more to write!

Lots of love,
Kelsey

Wine Tasting & Miscellaneous

Hey everyone!
Another week has gone by in Barcelona and it has definitely been an interesting one. Last weekend, my roommate Margaux and I went to the Picasso Museum because it was rainy and gross out and there's nothing better than a museum on those kinds of days! They have an exhibit going on right now called Secret Images which is a collection of erotic Japanese prints that Picasso collected, as well as some of his art inspired by these prints. While the subject matter was somewhat graphic/strange, it was actually a very beautiful show that also highlighted the printmaking process in Japan, something I found very interesting. We also went to the rest of the museum and saw a lot of Picasso's work, from his early oil paintings in Malagá to his later works such as Las Meninas. It was a great way to spend a rainy day and I will definitely be returning.
My classes also started this week at IES, the program I'm doing my study abroad through. I am taking "Food as an Expression of Culture" and "The City as a Place to Live: the Barcelona Experience." So far, they have been very interesting...I actually look forward to doing the reading assigned to us every night because it is something that fascinates me. My food class has many exciting aspects, such as an in-class wine tasting (score!), field trips to markets and restaurants around Barcelona, and in-class samplings of local cuisine. Needless to say, this might turn out to be my favorite class of the semester! My city class is very interesting as well. It is basically about city planning and what constitutes a "good" city as opposed to a badly laid out one, as well as the difference between European cities and American cities, with a focus on Barcelona, of course. We have some fun field trips planned in that class to different public spaces within Barcelona. My classes at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, one of the local universities in Barcelona, don't start until Monday, and I'm taking "Contemporary Spanish Art" and "Images of Spain in Film" there.
Also this week, I went to the movies to see The White Ribbon (or in Spanish, La Cinta Blanca) because I have heard a lot of buzz surrounding it and admire the director greatly. However...the movie is in German, with Spanish subtitles. Although my brain was working overtime for two and a half hours translating Spanish into English and absorbing the images of what was occurring, I can confidently say that I understood about 98% of the film! I was pretty proud of myself, not going to lie.
Yesterday, Margaux and I went to a wine tasting that our school set up through a local wine shop near the Picasso Museum in the La Ribera district. There were probably fifteen kids from IES there as well, and our instructor was a young man who knew a LOT about wine! We started out with a cava (champagne) that was absolutely delicious. In Spain, cava is kept in a cave (which is where it gets its name) for nine months, or sometimes longer. This creates a pressure in the bottles that is almost three times that of French and American sparkling wines. Our instructor taught us what to look for in a cava, as well as how to hold the glass so that we didn't warm it with our hands. Next up was a white wine called Muscat which was by far my favorite wine of the night. It had notes of lychee and pear that were amazing. Finally, we finished with two red wines, one from 2004, and a more recent one. I loved the 2004 one, and it was really cool learning to distinguish between an older wine and a newer one, as well as finding out exactly what to look for. However, the best part of the tasting came at the end, when our instructor told us that all of the wine we tasted could be purchased for a mere 4 or 5 euros!!! In Spain, because wine is so local and does not have to be imported, it is extremely cheap while retaining extremely good quality. He told us that the same wine would be around 20 to 25 euros in France, so I am definitely grateful that we have this available to us here.
Nursing my (small) headache from last night's tasting (our instructor didn't want us to waste any wine!!), I have to head to Spanish class now. Next weekend, I'm going to Tarragona with everyone in the IES program for a three-day study tour, so I will try to get some pictures from that up as well as a little bit about how my first week of university classes goes!

Lots of love,
Kelsey

First Week!

I know this post is somewhat delayed, and I apologize for that! It's taken me pretty much until now to adjust to the time difference and not be alternately sleepy and craving Tylenol PM. I've been in Barcelona for almost a week now, and I'm all settled in!

View from the plane of the sunrise over Portugal

I'm not gonna lie, the plane journey was brutal. Taking a plane from LA to New Jersey, having a layover, and then flying to Barcelona amounted to roughly 28 hours of no sleep and a lot of back pain. However, when I got to Spain, all my ornery feelings ceased when I looked out my window and saw the city of Barcelona slowly unfolding before the Mediterranean Ocean. Yes, we flew in on a foggy, freezing day, but it was beautiful! After arriving, we had to do a bunch of bullshit with my program at the airport...check in and the like. Cursing the weight of my luggage, I somehow managed to shove all of it into a tiny European taxi and make my way to my homestay.
The street that I live on is extremely close to everything in Barcelona. For those of you familiar with the city, Las Ramblas is one of the most well-known tourist areas of Barcelona...it's basically like the Third Street Promenade on steroids with a heavy smattering of pickpocketers, and it's about 10 minutes away from where I live! Lucky me! I live in a wealthier neighborhood of Barcelona known as L'Eixample, and there are a lot of cute (albeit expensive) restaurants scattered amongst imposing apartment buildings and luxury stores.
My host mom is an older psychologist who lives alone and has taken me and two other girls from my program, Margaux and Sarah, in for the semester. She does not speak a word of English, but is fluent in Catalan and Spanish, as well as some French. Margaux does not speak Spanish, but is fluent in French, and Sarah is learning Spanish, so I serve as the translator between our host mom and them quite often! As you can imagine, we have quite the multi-lingual household. Our host mom mainly keeps to herself, which is something I was not expecting, and lets us come and go as we please for the most part. Apparently, she has had many exchange students stay with her in the past, so she is somewhat familiar with the whole process. Margaux and I's room

















My bed! And desk!

On the first day here, I was so jetlagged that I slept most of the day and sadly, did not go out to experience Barcelona's famous nightlife. The next day, I explored a little bit with my roommate Sarah, and we went to Parc Guell, which was absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera so I didn't take any photos, but I will the next time I go there. It was designed by Gaudí, who is basically Barcelona's most-loved citizen as he has designed many of the buildings here and all of them are absolutely beautiful. Here is Casa Botlló, which is down the street from where I live:















This first week has been a whirlwind of activity what with getting everything together for school and sightseeing. I've been to La Boquería, the famous market of Barcelona, the Picasso Museum, walked down Las Ramblas countless times, and explored the campus of my new school, Universitat Pompeu Fabra. I'm just going to post this now and shorten my posts for the future, because this has been way long! And I feel like I'm rambling. Which I know I am. Sooooo, expect a post next week about my first week of classes!
Lots of love,
Kelsey

Last Night in LA!

Hello all!

It's my first blog post and it's in the midst of a LOT of chaos! Packing is certainly not my forte, and packing for a five month excursion across the pond has been very difficult for me! However, I'm attempting to plow through it so that I have a little time to enjoy my last night with my mama and in Pacific Palisades.
Ever since I decided to go abroad, I've had mixed feelings about it. At George Washington, it's a kind of rite of passage as a junior to go abroad for a part of, if not all of, your third year. Going abroad always seemed like a definite choice for me, but I wasn't sure where I would go or what I would study.
Eventually, I decided on Spain, so that I could practice the Spanish I'm "fluent" in on a regular basis. I could not decide, for the life of me, where to go in Spain, though. Madrid or Barcelona. Barcelona or Madrid. I talked to a million different people about their experiences abroad, and it seemed as though Barcelona won out every time. The climate, the culture, the lifestyle, and the people were all extolled by the people I spoke to as being some of the best that they had experienced.
I excitedly submitted my application for Barcelona and in a few weeks, I was in. The program that I'm doing is called IES Abroad, a Chicago-based study abroad company that sends students everywhere from Western Europe to sub-Saharan Africa.
At first, it all seemed so distant and unrealistic. Yes, I was aware that in January I would be packing up and moving to Spain, but I couldn't really focus on that what with my incredibly busy life at school and everything else going on. The months continued in a whirlwind until--holy cow--it was time to leave school and go home for winter break. It seems lately that days go by extremely quickly, almost at light-speed, and before I knew it, today rolled around.
Saying goodbye to Steffen was one of the hardest things I've had to do in a while. Knowing that I won't see him for five months, I won't get to hold his hand or kiss him good morning, or even hear his voice on a regular basis, is really difficult. I know that I will miss my mama and home just as much, but I feel as though I owe it to myself to make this journey. I think I owe it to my future, fifty-year-old self, who will look back on her life and want to kick herself if she didn't go on this trip. Yes, I am scared, nervous, anxious, and completely unaware of what to expect, but I am also incredibly excited and happy to see what will come of this. If, in the end, it's something I regret, at least I gave it an honest try. However, I highly doubt this will be the case :)
On that saccharine note, I am off to weigh my suitcase one last time (it's baaaarely under the 50 pound limit...oops!) and get to bed. I have roughly 24 hours of travel time tomorrow! As soon as I get situated, there will be another post...with pictures! Until then...

Lots of love,

Kelsey