Barcelona!

I finally made my way into Spain! With three friends, I drove to Barcelona for the three-day weekend and we all stayed in a hostel together. The drive was about 6 hours long, and the passage through the Pyrénées was the most beautiful drive I've ever seen; there were hidden castles surrounded by terrifying cliffs as well as tiny mountain villages that make you wonder where they find groceries. Of all the mountains I've see in my life, I prefer the Pyrénées; they are absolutely breath-taking.

When we arrived in Barcelona, it was packed with its night-life, and we had to swerve around gigantic round-a-bouts and crowds of pedestrians whilst trying to find affordable parking; we searched for an hour an a half before finding parking where we could park the car for three days without over-spending. Finally, we found our way to the hostel, which ended up being pretty sketchy. The owner was super friendly, but was also intoxicated for about 90% of our stay. I woke up one morning to go to the bathroom only to be greeted by a cockroach scuttling under the toilet. What's more, the door to our room couldn't close; we had a padlock for the outside of our door for leaving our things for the day, but at night we had to pile our bags in front of the door in order to keep it shut. I'm not sure if you know this about Spain, but no one sleeps. Ever. Our room faced the street, which was smack in the middle of downtown Barcelona, so we listened sleeplessly to the partying until about 6 in the morning each night. Aside from being a bit of a mess, the hostel was tolerable, especially since we were hardly ever there.

The first morning, we headed straight to Starbucks for breakfast; Pau does not have a Starbucks, nor anything kind of coffee shop that resembles a Starbucks, so I was glad to break my 5-month-iced-white-chocolate-mocha fast. My Frenchies enjoyed it too, as they only get coffee like that if they are in Paris. We met up with one of their acquaintances, who is working in Barcelona, and she pointed out the best places to go, and explained the metro and bus system for us. From there, we went to the Sagrada Familia, which is the cathedral and symbol of Barcelona. It was designed by Antoni Gaudi in 1881 and is still in the process of being built; the expected date of finality is 2030.

Sagrada Familia

Still under construction

The oldest part of the cathedral

So many details on that place.

After seeing the cathedral, we made our way to Guell park, which is covered in mosaics. We spent a good three hours exploring every corner of that place:

This bench was enormous, and stunning, but there were so many people that  all I could capture was this little snippet.

After that, we headed to Place de la Seu where we watched the Castellers de Vilafranca perform their human pyramid acts, as well as watched some traditional dances. The human pyramids were terrifying to watch, and the second to last act confirmed that terror when the pyramid broke and they all fell like dolls. No one was badly hurt, but it certainly made everyone stop breathing for a couple of seconds.

Dancing

Lining up for the tower

Up on top

That was all for that day; we ate some tapas for dinner, and headed to bed around midnight (and then lay there and listened to all of the drunk people). The next day, we woke up a bit earlier and (again) headed to Starbucks. From there we wandered around and discovered the town. We walked through the Place Catalunya and from there we wandered into a gorgeous neighborhood which held the Palau de la Musica Catalana as well as the Arc de Triomf of Barcelona.

Place Catalunya

Palau de la Musica Catalana

The entire neighborhood looked like this.

Arc de Triomf (no, I did not spell it wrong)

After our exploration, we made our way to a suggested restaurant for lunch, and we ate delicious tapas. Tapas is a meal made entirely of appetizers. The tradition in Spain is to order a plate of tapas and a drink, eat, then go to the next restaurant to try some different tapas. Most of the restaurants in downtown Barcelona were pretty expensive, so we went to this one which was a bit further off. Each tapas was about 2,50 and we all shared each other's. It was super scrumptious. 

If you're ever in Barcelona...

After lunch we took the metro to the Mediterranean!! It was my first time seeing the sea, and it was quite special for me -- I was practically skipping all the way there. We took the afternoon to sunbath and test the cold, salty water. There was an obnoxious amount of people, and venders circulated through them all offering massages, mojitos, towels, etc. -- not exactly peaceful, but it was beautiful anyway.

Sand creation

Pastey-white me

La Méditerranée!!!!!

Once the beach was half-covered in shadow, we left to go back to the hostel to shower and then head to dinner. We went to the Place Espagna where we watched the fountain music and light show. And thus concluded Sunday. 

Place Espagne

The next morning, after (yes, once again) going to Starbucks, Estelle and I did a bit of light shopping ("light" because everything was closed for Pentecost except the street venders) while the boys wandered around by themselves. We made our way back to the fantastic tapas restaurant for one last taste of authentic Spanish food, and then we departed. It definitely was a vacation that I will remember and cherish for the rest of my life. I feel incredibly blessed to have had the opportunity to see the lively city of Barcelona. 

Le Puy du Fou

This past weekend, I had two days off, and I got to go to Northern France in a town called Les Epesses to visit le Puy du Fou. Le Puy du Fou is an attraction park (not as in roller coasters), which presents ancient time periods with dramas and spectacles. There were 12 spectacles all together, which we saw over the course of two days. Other than the plays, there were two villages built in the style of the 18th century and medieval times, fable gardens (which told French children's stories), fountains, a few concerts and a small zoo with all the show animals.

Joan of Arc's lance

It was a powerful lance. 

This was the second show we saw, and it was about Joan of Arc and her bequeathing of the lance to a young girl to protect the castle from the English. First the riders came in and did jousting exercises and riding tricks on their horses. Joan of Arc bequeathed her lance to the young girl, who would be in charge of protecting the castle, and then rode off with her fellow riders. Once she left, the castle was attacked by the English, and the girl had to fight them off with the lance; it was then that the huge wall descended and there was a great battle with fire coming out of buildings, etc. It was quite impressive. We ended up watching this show twice because it was our favorite, and we had a bit of spare time the next day.

Fountain

Falcons! Or some type of bird. I'm really not sure.

The church in the 18th century village.

Medieval village

Magic show

Puppet show!

Concert

Colosseum 

The Roman who stood up to the emporers.

Action shot of the gladiators.

Cutest lion ever. Not the slightest hint of menace.

The gladiator spectacle was superb! There was a chariot race, gladiator fights, lions, a hyena, a leopard, and a new Roman king at the end. One roman stood up for the Christians who had to fight in the Gladiator games because he had fallen in love with a Christian woman; he then had to fight in the games and, naturally, ended up winning, and was then crowned the new king of Rome. 

 

A wedding

A charge of cattle to disrupt the wedding.

This was the Viking show, which was incredibly epic. It began with a wedding, which was then disrupted by the attack of the Vikings; this included a boat that slid onto the set and also once that rose of the water. Basically, all Hell broke loose: they tore down a building, set a house on fire, attacked with all kinds of crazy animals, etc. Finally, the sought after tomb rose out of the lake and a saint came out of it, which terrified the Viking king, who repented and united with the king of the village. Then the saint disappeared and there was much rejoicing...Ok, I completely butchered the telling of that show, but it was quite intricate and awesome, and the video wouldn't upload, so that's the best I can do.

It was a fun weekend, and a long drive back to Pau (we drove all night and didn't get back until 6 in the morning).

Aquarelle no. 7

Voila! It's been a while since I've painted. There's one part I should have fixed, but I won't say which part so that people don't stare at it. My host mom says that I'm improving greatly, and she likes the style that I'm developing. I like painting trees. 

Ciao.

Partie Deux

Well ladies and gentlemen, I am officially on to round two of my stay in France. My classes with USAC are finally completed, and now all I have are my French language courses. I've had one week of these new French courses, and I really enjoy them so far; I have four professors, who all seem more fast-paced and on top of things than my last professors. I am the only native English-speaker in any of my classes, which is pretty cool

. 

Today is the last day in Pau for my Americans, which is an incredibly sad statement. I've built such wonderful relationships with them, and I can't believe that I have to tell them goodbye -- it came far too soon. We're hoping to organize vacations in each region where we live back in the US: San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, and Idaho are the destinations. We hope to be able to see each other each year or every other year...gosh that's depressing compared to the every day that I see them here. 

So it's a mix of exciting and sad; I'm stoked to be taking up my classes again and excited to continue learning, but I'm sorry that I have to say goodbye. C'est la vie. 

 

Résumé

I know that it has been a while since I've updated my blog, and so much has happened that I can't possibly go into as much detail as needed, so I'm going to give a "quick" resume of all the things I've been doing:

A couple of weeks ago, I went to Toulouse and Carcassonne for the weekend with USAC. We took a guided tour, which showed us two main churches: one from Roman times and one gothic-styled. Toulouse was really fun and we had a lot of downtime there as that is where we spent the night -- my friends and I went down to the Garonne River and sunbathed. Toulouse was holding their Carnaval that weekend, so we watched the parade while we ate our dinner out on a terrace.

Roman church

Inside of Gothic church

Ceiling art depicting Toulouse's history

Me and the Garonne

The day after Toulouse, we left early to go to Carcassonne, which is a magnificent, fortified city. We took a tour of the inner castle, and after lunch were left to wander the cobbled streets. We went to the torture museum and to the city's church (so many churches). This place was like a journey through time; it was absolutely wonderful.

Outer walls

Inner courtyard

Me in a wall

More outer walls

Cobbled streets

The week following, I went out dancing and I learned some traditional Béarne dances. They were mostly line-dances, and there were some couples dances thrown in there as well. My host-mom told me that I'm the first student to really get incorporated to the culture of Southwest France; it really has a completely different feel to it than the rest of France, and it's culture is so unlike that of any of the traditions in the US. It's fascinating and exciting to get to be a part of it.

I spent Easter with Estelle's family out in the country. We had magret de canard (a traditional plat of the region) and a ton of other delicious food. I felt as if my stomach was going to grow a second self by the end of the meal. Her family was so kind and I was given a large sac of chocolate to take home. :)

We had no school on Easter-Monday so I went hiking with some friends. One of my friends works at a kids' camp just outside of Lourdes, and he took us on the hiking trail that he takes the kids on. It was a beautiful, cloudless day, and the hike was incredible (although pretty difficult for small children...). Here are pictures:

View from the camp

View near the summit

Summit view

Another angle of the summit view

School-wise, I'm almost on my last week of literature class and my first week of semester two of French courses. I am very impatient to pick-up my language classes again; my French friends can correct me when I speak, but often they can't explain to me the grammar behind it, and then I don't end up retaining anything they tell me, so I'm excited to get back on track with my language courses.

Other than that, I've been seeing friends, going to movies, eating out, and appreciating every moment I have left with my beautiful Americans who are leaving in 10 days. Resume: terminated.