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Category Archives: Spain

Back in Barna

1 Comment Posted by on 22 May 2011

Time flies when you’re having fun… I’ve settled back into Barcelona, and have completed 3 weeks of Spanish school and am making irregular progress. It seems the more grammar I learn, the harder I find it to actually speak cos I don’t like to get it wrong. In the long run, such reluctance may prove fatal to my ambitions of bilingual bliss.

I have classes from 14:30 – 18:30 Monday to Friday. At first I had such lofty goals as going to the gym of a morning, a quick lay in the sun at the beach, a bit of study, etc… before heading off to school do some serious learning. Unfortunately, Spanish time doesn’t function this way, and when you’re having dinner at 10:00pm, bedtime is pushed back, and so is everything else. It’s not uncommon to be asked “what are you doing this afternoon?” at 9pm. What? It’s well and truly night! So I’m often waking up between 10am and midday. I’ve asked to change my classes to the morning to better use my day. The response was negative, but came with a smile: “sorry there’s no room in the morning class, it’s very difficult this week.” “Ok, how about next week?” smile and nod “no.” I got the impression that my teacher thought the matter finalised. Wrong. I’ll be asking daily until I can change… Squeaky wheel.

In class

Semi related photo of me in class... Looking somewhat cheesy.

I’ve been augmenting my Spanish classes by meeting friends via the Conversation Exchange website. I’ve met some amazing people through this site, and also had some interesting experience. On one meeting, a fairly legitimate student of English/teacher of Spanish met me in the centre of town “do you want me to show you the beach?” “Sure, why not!?” We get there and he says to me “clothing is optional here.” I look at him. “You can get naked if you want.” I thought we were here to share our respective languages, not to risk uncomfortably located cancer… (I didn’t have sunscreen). “Everyone is the same down under.” Not the point! He didn’t understand the Australian reference, either. Others, have been equally as uncomfortable, but in a more usual way. Tip to anyone reading this who might soon find themselves sitting face to face with a fellow conversation exchanger: have some chewing gum with you, or avoid garlic the night before… Or get your halitosis treated.

It’s 6:00pm and I think it’s beach time… Ahhh Spain! More to come, more frequently.
Adios!

Spain , , ,

Acclimatising

Leave a comment Posted by on 12 April 2011

Life in Spain is moving along in Spanish time. I’ve paid my first rent, so now I really live here… The main difficulty has been getting my iPhone to work here. It seems that in Spain, you really need to be Spanish to do… almost anything. I was haemorrhaging money using pre-paid internet so enquired about a contract0. Need an NIE (Número de Identidad de Extranjero). I don’t think I qualify for one of these yet. And a bank account. For which you need an NIE. So I essentially have a useless iPhone in Spain. It makes calls, but being a telephone is the iPhone’s worst feature.

Bicing is a great way to get around the relatively flat Barcelona. One pays €24 for yearly access to conveniently located racks of bikes around town. To gain access to this service, you require an NIE. Same with a monthly ticket for public transport. And gym membership, though you can get around this by paying everything up front. I’ve only been passively investigating, though. And things may become easier with a bit more Spanish at my disposal.

I definitely feel at home in my new apartment, some cool things from which are pictured below. It’s in a fairly old building and has it’s quirks. It has high ceilings and can be quite cold – this will hopefully become more of a positive as the days get hotter here…

Granted, this post is a bit mundane. But I have had some interesting meetings… And the Metro seems to host some interesting characters for future posts. Strap yourselves in!!

 

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Instalado

2 Comments Posted by on 9 April 2011

I’m just about settled in: I have my room in a cool apartment in the middle of the city. I’ve been in Barcelona just over a week, but have been ‘alive’ for only a couple of days… Speaking Spanish is a daily challenge, and I have middling days, and really bad days! Yesterday I managed a sentence or two… I think I will do some study today. I have the radio on in the background (but it could be in Catalan? I’m not really listening. Current track is English).

Things I’ve come to accept today: fresh milk (with an expiry date close to now, my current carton expires in July) is fairly scarce, at least in the myriad supermercados I have been to. This translates into an interesting tasting flat white. But the food is phenomenal! I’m loving the replacement of butter with rubbed-on tomato and (sometimes) olive oil. This wonderful (Catalan) change makes the ham and cheese sandwich a thing to look forward too. I’m not being fair. The ham and cheese is out of this world too. Even the supermarket stuff. I filled a whole Country Road canvas tote with groceries for only €16. Despite not knowing what to choose, I managed to have an awesome breaky! Mmmmm.

Mi casa for the time being is located in the middle of  the Eixample (extension), which is in the middle of everything…

Spain , ,

Arrival

2 Comments Posted by on 4 April 2011

I can’t say I’ve actually arrived yet… bags were late – a day, and my forex hasn’t yet been authorised by the bank. It seems that they are happy to sit on my money for a while. I won’t name it just jet, but it’s a bank with a TLA.

So the flight was nothing special, although notably, the drinks are bigger on a BA flight, ask for a wine, you get two wines; ask for a beer, two beers. This is to stay in line with the oversized drink portions served in the UK in general. Or it’s just lazy air hosting. We did arrive 1.5 hours late into Heathrow, and I did think to myself ‘I hope they manage to get my bags onto the connecting flight to Barcelona’. Ok not those exact words, it was more a feeling. Without words…

Fears were realised as I slowly became the last one standing at the conveyor belt.

I’ve also been struggling a lot with jetlag. Today I walked for about 7 hours before realising I was so beyond tired that I finally went home to have a nap. Couldn’t sleep so decided to explore again. I’m absolutely positively here for the spanish cultural experience, but in my depleted jetlag state these two small reminders of home were comforting:

 

Spain

Catalan Adventure

2 Comments Posted by on 31 March 2011

It has been almost a year since I arrived home in Australia, well 9 months… And I write this as I make final preparations to board my flight to Barcelona for  another adventure (in truth, I’m still in bed, lethargic after a bad night’s sleep). Not sure what I’m doing, really… I don’t have many concrete plans for April, but from May I am enrolled in an instensivo Spanish course for 3 months.

It’ s not totally confirmed, but I think I have an room in the centre of town, as a base for my Catalan-tinged Spanish adventure.

Bon Voyage

Packed.

I think this will be more interesting when I have something to report!

See you on the other side!

Spain

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