la sagrada família

la sagrada famíla

the sagrada familia is the most famous thing to see in barcelona. and that's because it is infamous for taking so long in being built. it was started in the 1880s and still is unfinished. there's no telling how much longer this project is gong to take, because it is being paid for by the public, so if there aren't funds, there isn't progress. the part on the right, which is also darker, was designed by antoni gaudí, a native catalan (like mercedes from the count of monte cristo). he left fingerprints all over barcelona. there are many houses, gardens, and random things that he designed. he took most of his inspiration from the natural surroundings.

yes, the water is an ugly green. 

so anyways, after church on sunday the family and i went to see la sagrada família. i didn't know we were going to go, so i didn't have my camera ('weep with those who weep' queue). the family had theirs though, so i have a few pictures to share. i really liked the building. it was so big and different. i was in england last year with my sister and saw some amazing cathedrals and buildings. they were all very proper and i loved them. la sagrada familia is crazy. it has fruit on it, that's painted. it has hunks of rock that seem to just stick out in all directions. it has at least a few distinct architectural designs and influences. it may not be proper, but it is pretty. from the hills on the outskirts of the city, one can see it's steeples jutting up out of the sea of neighborhoods and streets (pictures of that, by the way, are coming soon). i didn't get to go inside of the building, but it's not done yet, so hopefully i'll be back in the future...when it's finally done! i have a feeling that it will be quite a big deal when it's completed, after who knows how many scores of years.  


we walked around most of the sides of the building while we were looking for somewhere to eat. we went down a street and after 10 minutes or so arrived at a...*drumroll*...colombian restaurant. i looked at the menu, and as good as it all looked, i just wanted a cuban sandwich. it was lunchtime and by george, i was gonna eat a sandwich. it was a good choice--one of the best sandwiches i've ever had. the bread was perfect. then there was chicken, cheese, lettuce, tomato, and a garlic sauce. i may try to replicate that once i get home! to drink i had fresh passion fruit juice. the waitress, who was british, could tell from the few words i'd said in spanish that i was american and so she put a couple of ice cubes in my juice (none of the others had ice). i thought that was funny.

after we ate, we walked back to la sagrada and let the boys play in the park for a while. then we "saddled up" and went to the oldest hospital in barcelona. it was closed though, and there was a lot of scaffolding up on the building. so after walking all that way we didn't see much of it. we took a few pictures and headed towards the metro to go home. by this time i guess people's stomachs were growling for the in between meal. so we stopped at a...*drumroll*...colombian cafe for drinks and some bread. i just got a "fanta naranja" (orange fanta) and tried some of the bakery goods. they were fine, but i wasn't near hungry yet (we'd eaten 2 hours earlier) so i had to keep insisting that i just wasn't hungry. that has been a constant undertone here...they say that i hardly eat anything. they may feel that i don't like their cooking. but really, i tell them, it's just that i'm not used to eating 5-6 meals a day. during the school year i usually only eat 2 meals a day. to each stomach it's own.

pablo, me, and daniel outside the hospital.

ximena and i 

after that we went home, ate, got ready for bed. i think i skyped a few friends and family and then i was out.

ikea! squid! blue!

on saturday, i went out "early" and did some shopping in terrassa. i made some great finds, but my favorite find was in this book store, "reading & co.". books are always one of my favorite things, so when i walked in and saw all the spanish books it made me happy. i bought a book for a friend of mine, then i found "alicia en el país de las maravillas" (alice in wonderland) for myself. i wish the store had had the next one, "through the looking glass", because it is a whole lot more fun and there's the adorable knight who can't ride his horse and who does things out of "his own invention". 

oh, i also bought an ice cream treat while i was out. i've been walking by store fronts packed with pictures of ice cream treats all month, so i just had to get one. 

after i got home, we had a yummy lunch (beans/potato mix, rice and avocado), and made for barcelona. while we were walking to an ikea store, we passed a few cool buildings. the big red leaning-tower-of-pisa-esque building is a hotel. a fancy hotel for international conferences. after walking for quite some time, we arrived at ikea. i'd never been to one before...and let me tell you, it was insane. i loved it. stores that sell nice things for homes always fascinate me, but when the items are all laid out and set up by rooms, it makes it infinitely better. i will always remember this one bedding set. it. was. gorgeous. 

it made me feel so calm, restful, trusting, honest, comfy, rustic yet clean. what on earth?!? who knew that a few pieces of cloth could have such an effect? well, apparently ikea's cloth does. i'm going to have to get a bed like that someday. 

hotel

after shopping at ikea and a mall, we started the trek home, only to stop before boarding the first bus to get a bite to eat. it must have been around 9:30 when we found a little colombian café. the food was great! ruben had ordered an appetizer, so it arrived, was sprinkled with lime, and people started digging in. i had no idea what it was: they looked kind of like onion rings to me. i bravely stabbed one with my fork and took a bite. it was really good! but i still didn't know what it was. after consuming a couple of them i figured that it had to be squid, or squid's cousin or aunt or brother. i asked what it was and yes, those babes sure were squid. the only two/three times i've had squid have been out of country...do we not eat it in the states, or what? i think we should. 

the main meal was great too. seated outside in the lovely night breeze, we were served things in slight shifts. first, we were brought a dish full of steak, pork sausage and some other meat. then we were brought a dish of patata bravas, a popular potato tapa in spanish bars. the potatoes were in slices and fried, then you usually dip them in a sauce. the sauce we had was some kind of mayonnaise or buttery thing with garlic in it. then, we were served a dish full of grilled chicken (YUM), and then a plate of curried rice. i think that's all. and yeah, it was all really tasty. 

calamares a la romana (not my picture though) 

after eating, we made the longish trip home. it would have been about 15 minutes by car, but we had to take a bus and then a train, so we ended up getting home just before 1 am. it was a lot of fun, but i was ready for some rest. today and sunday were like that too...more posts to come, hopefully rapid-fire style. or not. i may just decide to veg-out with a movie tonight. 

something old and english sounds about right. 

this is big, because i love it. hope you guys do too :)

st. miquel del fai

outside the monastery of st. miquel del fai

the weather has been beautiful the last three days (apart from some cloudy spells). after church on sunday, some 9 of us drove up to lleida to see the nature reserve/park of st. miquel del fai. the weather was especially nice there-partly sunny, a nice breeze, nice temperature. st. miquel's is an awesome place...or shall i say it was churro ("gorgeous")? i'm not so sure about the history of it all, but i think that the monastery that's there dates back to the 9th century a.d.. in the 16th century, it was fixed up with roman and gothic architecture. afterwards, i believe it was occupied by nuns for a few centuries. there is also a house (now a church) where a hermit lady lived; a castle down in the gorge; a distillery (!!); a "lake of the nuns"; and many waterfalls and caves. do forgive my weak history of the place...we sort of just wandered about looking at things and taking pictures (not to mention mr. google is failing me right now and i can't find any history of it online). 

the monastery is in behind the buildings in the center 

taken from just outside the monastery

behind one of the waterfalls!

i didn't take any pictures of the actual monastery, but it is near those buildings in the center of the top picture. if you delve back towards the rocky mountainside, the rock splits open and the monastery is built in the crevice. inside were rows of pews and a few little displays set up near/in the walls. the one i looked at was a stone tablet with a latin (?) inscription. st. miquel's is only open on sundays and holidays (of which spain has many), so i have a feeling that the monastery is still in use. there is also a restaurant there and another big building, where you can have weddings and receptions. by the end of the day, i almost felt like getting married up behind a waterfall, looking out over the mountains.

the castle was way down in the gorge, by the river. it looked like it was just the castle and no walk-in setup, but maybe you could have climbed into it and explored. at any rate, we didn't go down there. all of the caves were closed but one, so we trekked down the mountain side to have a look. it was somewhat small, but it had some really cool formations and pools of water.

the lake of the nuns was pretty funny...it was more like a puddle in the crevice of some rocks. you could crawl in there though, and there were tons of fish! the ones i saw were about 5 inches long. i bet there were bigger, grosser, older fish towards the dark corners of the crevice. can't you just pictures a couple of nuns in there, with a net and bucket, trying to catch some fish? those nuns must have had fun, in yon mountains of lleida, in the fair land of cataluña.

"you grab the line, i'll grab the pole! we'll go down to the fish-fish hole, honey, baby, mine!" 

in town

after having our fill of st. miquel, we piled back into cars and went to a town about thirty minutes away. i have no idea what town it was, but it was really gorgeous! we walked through some adorable streets, until we came upon an old roman bathhouse. it was all glassed in so i didn't bother with pictures. the consistent temperature of the hot spring there is 75º C (167º F). as i was already hot, i just took the water's steam for it and forewent the testing. 

then we all sat down at a café and got some drinks. all of the others attend the church in barcelona, except for a visiting mother of one of the girls. we were quite the mix: there were a few people from the dominican republic, one from puerto rico, one from ecuador, one or two from spain, one from france, and one from america. thankfully one of the spanish ones had a castilian accent, so i was able to hear that a bit (my family is from colombia, so they don't have the spanish athento). it was also great to hear the french guy speak spanish with his french accent. when he laughed in french, it reminded me of my brother josh. we have this thing where we laugh in french when we are feeling particularly sophisticated. or goofy. 

afterwards, i got a ride home with a guy who is trying to learn english. he knows the grammar and vocabulary well, but he needs to work on pronunciation. he's hoping to practice up so that next time he can try to speak in english. all this is making me think thrice about my accent. what accent do i have, for the nth time? what is the best american accent to learn? (i said californian, by the way. then i changed it to ohio/indiana/blahland 10 minutes later). am i pronouncing and enunciating my english words well enough for spanish speaking, english yearning people to duplicate? not that it matters...i'm hardly the english teacher. 

(side note: i can't wait to learn french)

sunday in spain

sunday morning at the peña house means getting up and ready, cooking, eating and leaving the house by 9:30am so that we don't miss the bus. if we miss the bus, we miss the train and we arrive at church late. but yesterday, we were fine!

the church is called por gracia (by grace) and is near downtown barcelona. it was wonderful to meet the members and have the Lord's supper with them. the service started around 11:15 and lasted for about an hour and a half. then we talked, had lunch and postres (dessert, pastries). i think they usually have café too, but after postres a friend and i took the metro to la plaza cataluña. She has been living here since january, so she was able to show me around for a few hours. i saw some buildings by gaudí--la casa milá and another whose name i forgot. we also walked around el barro gótico (the gothic neighborhood). it is a really neat section of the city, full of old buildings and cathedrals. then we found a little café and ordered a couple of cups of café con leche, which for any of you coffee nuts is a shot of espresso and steamed milk. it's served in a small cup so that the ratio of coffee and milk is 50/50. for any of you sweet-tooths, we added sugar too. 

(i didn't take my camera sunday. this was taken on the bus from the airport last week)

barcelona is similar to other big cities i've been in. there are the statue people, who get all dressed and painted up, then line the streets as statues. there are the guys who walk around playing annoying "instruments" hoping someone will buy a few. there are also all those people who lay things out to sell in plazas, but have all the goods on a tarp and tied together so that they can run away when the cops show up. 

right now, in la plaza cataluña, there is a protest going on. i think it is against unemployment...or something like that. we saw people in animal cages, with tshirts made to look as if they were torn by whips on the back, a guy in rags pulling nails out of a board, etc. all the statues in the plaza had ropes on them so that they look as if they were oppressed. 

so that was fun. 

on the metro ride home, the track had a section closed for maintenance, so i had to get on a bus for 10 minutes. spain's public transport is so good though. they shuttled all the metro people on buses to the next available station, where we hopped right back on the metro. granted, it took at least 85 minutes to get home, when it usually takes 50 or so. 

(train station. also from last week) 

so that was fun, too. 

what about everything?

¡voy a españa en 11 días!

all i can think is..."what about dealing with loneliness on the flight from montreal to barcelona?", "what about getting to the peñas house", "what about being polite and knowing what to talk to them about as i struggle to remember things like 'my name is hannah. i have three brothers and one sister'", "what about finding enough to do during the day?"

what about...everything?

but, "Jehová es mi pastor; nada me faltará" (psalm 23:1). and sadly, many of my doubts don't fade, but remain tugging at the corners of my mind. 

now, on to the fun part of being en españa! there are a couple of nice looking parks both within a mile or so of where i'll be staying. there is also a cute little café across the street from my apartment. "it"(name forthcoming. seriously, once i get there, you may wish you'd never heard of it before) serves coffee, cookies, tea, sandwiches. at least--i think it does. it was all in catalan and i didn't bother to look any of the words up. 

and the official language of the city i'll be in is...catalan. it's like french and spanish got together to cook some paella and the end product was overdone and tasted like an old peanut butter sandwich with pepper thrown in by some intruding languages. so, if i take to sign language or morse code or even pull a zechariah on you...i'll have good cause. 

very good cause.