One day you wake up,

and you realize that the life you've been dreaming of is the one that you are living and then it dawns on you that your only real problem in life is deciding what to start dreaming of next. I wish everyone could see it like this and forget about the day to day nonsense and just start to enjoy. So my New Years Resolution (one of them) is to not talk about money, not complain about the weather and stop worrying about non-existent issues and instead save the energy for more important things - my thesis for example ;)

I took a little road trip earlier this week up North on the Costa Brava to a small town called Roses which is very close to the French border and people in the town actually speak French as well. It's so beautiful. It's like the perfect mix of geography, climate and culture. Nearby is where the artist Salvador Dali was born (in Figueres) and his Museum is there, which I visited. The mountains seem so close, the water is clear and the beaches are fantastic. There is a gorgeous national park there and a lot of protected wetlands area where no traffic or development is allowed and so the scenic drive along an ancient Roman route is very nice. It's only about 2 hours from the city. Here are some photos of the trip :)

See you all in T-1month <3

Dali Museum in Figueres
Outside of Dali Museum in Figueres, the small gold things are supposed to represent the local bread rolls and the eggs? Well.... I'm not sure.
Roses in the Pyrenees
Beach in Roses

This is a small lookout (or prison) where people were hiding during the Spanish war, because it was so close to France people were hiding in caves to escape persecution and to move into France.
This is part of the Park I was talking about that goes all along the coastline and at some points looks similar to the East Coast of Canada. Really, really gorgeous and so green.

Spanish Christmas

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone had a wonderful day with lots of wonderful food and friends. I sure missed you all but got to talk to some and the rest I will try to get a hold of this week!

Christmas here was very different this year. Christmas eve we had a celebration because this is the day which they really put the importance on in most of South America and Europe. So we had a fondue night (my friend Maricela, Nima and my roomate Nuno) and watched some Christmas movies :) The next morning I got up early, opened a few little things and then cleaned up before heading to the church where Maricela volunteers every day with the nuns to feed the homeless. So for 3 hours or so I helped to serve, clean and hopefully make a few days seem not so bad. It was sad, but I'm sure it's sad any day. And then I came home and started to cook! I convinced Nima to stuff/clean the chickens as I just couldn't do that and then we ate (much much later than I had planned hahah!) and watched some films on the projector at my old house. I'm still full today!!! So anyhow, here are a few pictures of the various events that have been happening. Thanks so much for everyone making yesterday so special even in Spain, you're always thinking of me and I hope you know I'm thinking of you guys as well.

Have fun boxing day shopping for those of you who are brave enough to head to the malls and for everyone else, just relax!

<3

Christmas Eve Fondue!
Mmmmmmm!
Christmas Dinner
Chicken, shwartzies, potatoe salad and green salad

Nima and I putting Hannah and Henrietta into the oven!

This is the Portuguese dinner that I told you about a few weeks ago, thought you may want to see my roomates!
Left is Nuno and second from the Left is Rafael, the other two are friends of Nuno :)

Portuguese Dinner

Well it was a busy weekend, I imagine for everyone, with Christmas being so close now. Here on Friday my roomate Nuno made us a portuguese dinner of Bacalao (cod fish) which is done in 3 ways, 2 of which we tried (one fried, one in the oven). It's prepared with potatoes, eggs and fish and I actually ate a surprising amount considering I normally don't eat fish at all! It was something new and interesting, not my favorite but not bad either :) And thennnn on Saturday night was Ciro's Birthday party which was alright but I came home quite early because I was so tired! Then yesterday night I went to see a new Justin Timberlake movie which I thought was fantastic (not everyone agreed haha) and then a nice Catalan dinner after :) So yes! What an eventful weekend, but it was really nice! Now I am planning Christmas here for my friends and roomates and hoping to have a feast which is at least close to as good as the one we had for Thanksgiving, I'm not sure if I can recreate it myself though! At least we will have cookies... !

Today I have spanish class which I have very successfully procrastinated studying for while cleaning all day and doing other miscellaneous things. I'm in vacation mode, what can I say! And then in January as Nuno says "I'm going to change my life" hahah and start pretending like I have a full time job again - my thesis! The writing begins and in February I hope to gather enough data that I can be ready before classes start again in May. So we'll see if we can uphold this resolution! Waking up early is a key part of this, which I'm okay with, but I think he will have problems!

Well I hope everyone is staying warm, getting healthier and glad to see that my family FINALLY put up the Christmas tree ;)

Love to everyone!

PS- I have been receiving mail for a week, thank you so much, I can't tell you how exciting it is! Miss you all a ton!

Christmas Baking

Dear Everyone, I would love to tell you all about what I have been doing but today I was a bit busy as you can see so I am totally exhausted! BUT! My Christmas Baking is almost done and I'm trying really hard not to eat it all myself! I'll write more tomorrow :)

<3

*Snow in Spain *

I saw it! I touched it! I (kinda) liked it! No, actually this past week had 2 national holidays in Spain on Tuesday and Thursday and Nima suggested that 4 of us take a little road trip to a mountain valley called Vall de Nuria. So bright and early we got up, ran into a few little snags in the beginning but by 10 we were on the road! It took about 2 hours to drive there and then you arrive at a really small village called Queralbs and you take a cremallera (train) to the top of the mountain. At the top there is a very small ski hill (which is not really open yet because the snow doesn't really come until January/February) a horse stables, tons of hiking trails and of course a monastery where they found a very old and strange figurine from the 12/13 century and it's their little symbol now. It's quite the spot. We stayed the day, I learned to play parchisi over hot chocolate and lemon cake and then we braved the super cold temperatures (2 degrees) to go walk around outside a bit! I'd like to go back one day when I can actually snowboard, maybe in January. Here are some photos of this trip! And actually if you look on the map we were VERY close to France! I knew that Spain was small - but this really showed me just HOW small it is! I couldn't believe that in that short of time we were almost there! They pack a lot of things in a small space!




Well for today that's it, but I DID hear that someone got a new friend? Someone to scare away unwanted pests? Can't wait to see Gracie!!!

xB

Caganer & Caga Tio

I thought I would take this opportunity to share a few things with everyone about Christmas in Spain. #1 - I'm very sorry to say but I won't be mailing anything home for you all this year, not because I don't love you ;) But in fact because I love you TOO much and the box I prepared was very big and heavy and in the end I decided it could wait an extra month until February! So I'm sorry, please don't take it personally.

#2 - Caganer - There is a strange obsession with poop in their christmas traditions. Here I will take a few things from Wikipedia to help explain this little figure. Traditionally it is a little pilgrim pooping, but of course now you can find everyone, including Obama, Shakira, Footballers, everyone!

"The caganer is a particular and highly popular feature of modern Catalan nativity scenes. It is believed to have entered the nativity scene by the late 17th-early 18th century, during the Baroque period...and some reasons for the figure

• The Caganer, by creating faeces, is fertilizing the Earth. According to the ethnographer, Joan Amades, it was a "customary figure in pessebres [i.e. nativity scenes] in the 19th century, because people believed that this deposit [symbolically] fertilized the ground of the pessebre, which became fertile and ensured the pessebre for the following year, and with it, the health of body and peace of mind required to make the pessebre, with the joy and happiness brought by Christmas near the hearth. Placing this figurine in the pessebre brought good luck and joy and not doing so brought adversity."^[6]
• The Caganer represents the equality of all people: regardless of status, race, or gender, everyone defecates.
• Increased naturalism of an otherwise archetypal (thus idealised) story, so that it is more believable, more real and can be taken more seriously.
• The idea that God will manifest himself when he is ready, without regard for whether we human beings are ready or not.
• The Caganer reinforces the belief that the infant Jesus is God in human form, with all that being human implies."

#3 - Caga Tio - Once again let me have Wikipedia help with this one! I took some very interesting pictures of this event happening at the Christmas Market the other day that I will try to put up tomorrow. Instead of lining up to sit on Santa's lap? They line up to hit a giant log with sticks and afterwards they get a candy! Hahah , so amusing for people who don't know the tradition.

"On Christmas day or, depending on the particular household, on Christmas Eve, one puts the tió partly into the fireplace and orders it to "shit" (the fire part of this tradition is no longer as widespread as it once was, since many modern homes do not have a fireplace). To make him "shit", one beats him with sticks, while singing various songs of Tió de Nadal.

The tió does not drop larger objects, as those are considered to be brought by the Three Wise Men. It does leave candies, nuts and torrons. Depending on the part of Catalonia, it may also give out dried figs. When nothing is left to "shit", it drops a salt herring, a head of garlic, an onion or "urinates". What comes out of the tió is a communal rather than individual gift, shared by everyone present."

Well, that seems to be it for today! This week has 2 Holidays (Today and Thursday) so most of the city has of course, taken the liberty of taking the ENTIRE week off! I hope to get out and take some photos of the lights around Pl. Catalunya and the temporary skating rink they have set up there! Hope everyone is having a great week! Less than 2 weeks til the big day!

<3

Christmas Decorating!

As soon as I moved in I made a trip for some decorations. Here are a few photos of what I have so far! I also have a gingerbread house I'm waiting to put up and would like to get a few more things :)


PS- This is my new room! Great huh? Super bright, lots of space and fresh air. I love it!
This may be as close to snow as I get this Christmas!

Toooomorrrow!

Is a great day? Want to know why? A number of reasons really. 1. I'm moving to my new house! Want to see? Okay here are some pictures for you! 2. It's December 1st and that means I can start decorating and getting ready for Christmas!!! Exciting! Also exciting? My new room has a balcony onto the street with a big fluffy tree right at my level and so I'm going to use that as my Xmas tree and decorate it with some beautiful decorations that I make/buy from IKEA! What's the new address you ask?

C/ Floridablanca 80, P-2a

Barcelona, Spain, 08015

I'll tell you all about my new roomates tomorrow when I get there. My friend Maricela will help me move (thank god) it's a lot of work for one person back and forth in the cabs etc. And yeah - pretty much this is the most sudden move I've ever done - decided to move on Saturday and Thursday I'm going! Wowee. Things happen so differently here, none of this "planning ahead" business! It's exciting. I'm excited. 3rd time is the charm people!

XOX

PS- The word for kitten is gatita. Yo creo que mi abuelo necesitas una gatita!

The Great Up-Date!

Well this week is off to a way better start, let me just tell you! First of all, I have a new flat to go to. No more searching, the guy really likes me, he speaks fluent english AND spanish (hes from the Dominican). There is also an extra room for rent in the flat so Nima can go if he wants. The flat itself will be the best one I have lived in yet, I will get an exterior room which faces onto a nice sunny/leafy street and it's about a 9 minute walk from school and located at the bottem of my favorite park! I'm going to try and wiggle my way out of this flat by mid december and go there, but I'll let you know. In the mean time ... yes find my address below in the last post!!!!

Love you all, thanks for so much support and encouragement. Really, it makes the bad days seem not so bad and the good days come around much faster.

<3

Monday

Dear Family/Friends. I am moving. Soon. I know I just did, but it's happening again. If you have any mail (Christmas Cards ;)) Please send to my old address where I trust they will give it to me!

C/ Doctor Dou 19, 1-2

Barcelona, Spain, 08001

Lots of love! I'll fill you in after!

Quiz Night at the Irish Bar

So there is this bar... it's an Irish Bar - called Michael Collins I believe and it's a few blocks from my house right in front of Sagrada Familia. Every Tuesday night they have a quiz of 4 rounds, 10 questions done in English and Spanish of various kinds of trivia about all over the world (mostly Europe and S. America) and so I've gone the last 2 weeks in a row now. Last week I did really well! Well.... there was this guy who joined our team and he actually helped a lot hahah but we won a bottle of Cava for being 7th! This week? Not so well. I think the most we scored was 5/10 in one round.... terrible!!!! But it's a fun thing to do and for 2.5E your chances of winning some type of alcohol are actually pretty good. One day I want to eat dinner there, the sandwiches and "chips" look amazing! Also everyone who works there is ACTUALLY Irish, so you get to hear some great accents and really amusing sayings such as "a poke of the yellow" - a pint of beer ahahha!

Today I have my Spanish class. I did some studying of the things we covered last week and I hope that today I won't be the stupid one. I'll try to be more confident. Other than that I was pretty bad and didn't do a lot of studying today but tomorrow will be a much better day!

So I'm writing partly to ask a favor, because I'm trying to improve my diet because I notice that I'm not feeling so great lately and I think what I'm eating is a lot of the problem. So once again I am going to stop eating most wheat (not gluten - just wheat), cut my sugar by about 1/2 and pretty much no dairy except for chocolate once a week! It's not too hard, but the only thing is that this country is SO reliant on bread for everything! They are truly a culture of croissants for breakfast and bocadillos (baguette sandwiches) for lunch. So if anyone has some ideas for good easy wheat free lunches/dinners/even breakfasts! Please leave me a comment or send me an email (Aunt L, you will be especially good at this one! Baking recipes are also greatly appreciated, I know you do that too!).

Alright, 2 posts in 2 days, that's it. Don't everyone go crazy with the Black Friday shopping! ESPECIALLY you papa, jeez ;)

<3

Efay Emay Elay

It hasn't been a good week people. Not really at all. I'm not going to spend too much longer dwelling on it because I know a few of you have already received the crying phonecalls, whining skype calls and so on, so forth. So - here it is in summation! My roomate thinks I use excessive utilities because I take 10-15m showers, blowdry for 5 minutes, straigthen for 10 and charge my laptop once a day. Solution? Spend more money and join the gym. I now go to the gym daily (which is actually a very good thing!) and it motivates me to get out of bed because I need to punch in between 7-9am (they do it based on hours here so that you get different prices) and I shower as long as I want until I am clean. Good. Got a ticket on the metro after I actually paid (I know everyone says that - but I ALWAYS pay), but I threw away the 10 pass because it was all used up. Yep. Spanish class - I'm officially the "stupid one" in the class. Can't say I love it but it's motivation to study harder. Grammar is never easy and it's hard not to get discouraged but I'm determined to ace the test next week. It also rains - every day. If you're having a worse week - email me, tell me about it, if I can laugh about your misfortune I'll let you laugh about mine. Enough gloom and doom, it's not really so terrible.

So moving right along! I have been spending a lot of time (in my new found routine) at the Archive and the library near to my house. Biblioteca Sofia Barat is just 3 blocks from my house and it's not too busy - the hours are rediculous, like most public institutions in Spain but they are located in one of the original interior courtyards of the L'Eixample area - have I talked about that? Lets start there. L'Eixample is the large area of the city designed on a perfect grid like a bunch of donuts ( I live here). As the city expanded they started to fill all those courtyards in the middle with more housing to accomodate the population - the city is now in a process of buying back these centers for public use. So yes. This is what my new library looks like.

In addition to the Sofia Barat library I have been coming to my "school" (the CCCB) and working in the archive as well. It's a tiny little space but it's nice, well lit for reading, comfy chairs (something the library isn't great for) and it even has a few books in english which will help with my thesis once I finish the ones I just ordered off of Amazon. I'm becoming much more productive since work is not on my mind all the time and am starting to get really excited about what I'm learning and just hoping that I can do some good work with the people at home in Feb when I return!

Okay, love you all, stay warm!

<3

Clocks Everywhere!

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it or not, but there are about a thousand clocks in this house. There is atleast one in every single room and the rooms that I don't go in - it's okay I can hear them ticking THROUGH the doors hahah! I took a number of photos to make you a lovely montage but then decided that was kind of boring and I would just tell you and instead show you these pictures of what it looks like from my balcony. The only unfortunate part is that we have been getting so much rain lately I haven't really been able to sit out there and enjoy it. Today has started out a bit sunny though so I have high hopes!

Well, a number of new things on the table this week! Last week I submitted resignation at my job so I will only be doing that for another week or so to get things tidied up. Not sure how I feel about it at the moment, but it's going to allow me to focus my energy and stress on my thesis which is really necessary at this point because I realize that it is mid November! (AH!!!) and every week goes by faster than the last. So yes. It's a good thing overall.

Now that classes have started up again I'm feeling better because I'm learning stuff again! For a while I think I was just losing brain cells! Also I was eating out a lot because of having company and such and now it's back to normal eating as well. Annnnnd what else have I started? Well, my friend Maricela and I go once a week for chocolate con churros which is like the thickest hot chocolate in the world that you dip churros into! And we call this a thesis meeting ;) Also, since I have moved out of the other house it's a lot more fun to hang out with my old roomate Nima because we don't see eachother all the time so I've been keeping up with him as well. Yesterday we found a new burger place where you can have a burger, fries and a drink for 6E! (Which is actually like 9$, but it's still cheap) and it's actually really really good! WAY better than McDonalds (which I haven't eaten since I came) and less money as well.

Sooooooo anyhow, that's about all for today. I'll try to have a somewhat more exciting life for you by the next time I write!

<3 B

L'Eixample

Well, after some time to become a bit more accustomed to my new neighbourhood I'm really starting to love it. I'm finding my bakeries I love, the shops open on Sundays, the cheap grocery stores and new restaurants that I want to try! While it's still a huge difference from where I was before it's not so wierd to me now. I did go downtown a few times this week though and they are starting to set up all the Christmas lights on the streets! It's going to be fantastic! I really can't wait for them to turn them on. I've started thinking a bit about what I'll do here for Christmas. I'll spend most the Day on Skype I'm sure and then maybe before everyone in Canada wakes up I will do some things with my friends who will not be going home as well, I think Nima and for sure Maricela. My roomates will be here as well. It's going to be different, that's for sure, but February is going to come really fast. However I would NOT object to getting a lot of Christmas Cards in the mail :D Just cards people - mailing stuff is really expensive so don't be doing that!

This week I started classes again - it's been super hard. I'm trying to get caught up and I'm about 2 units behind the rest so it's a lot of self learning and I'm just hoping that by next week I'll have done enough work that I won't be the "stupid one" in the class. We'll see what happens, maybe I will need to change classes if I can't keep up.

Well..... other than this I'm sorry but I don't really have a whole lot of exciting news. The weather here this week has been beautiful and I have wasted most of it unfortunately by staying inside. I'm not sure what to do with myself at the moment when I'm not studying/grocery shopping/cleaning or working. I need to get back into bike riding or find a park nearby I think :) It's just so tempting to shop all the time when you go out, the whole city is like a giant shopping mall and especially this close to Christmas, that's what I have on the brain! That and Chocolate con churros ..... mmmMmmm!

Okay, enough rambling, just wanted to let you know I was alive and thinking of you guys.

<3 From Spain!

Tenais Frio?

Are you cold? Sure sounds cold over there! Here I feel cold as well, but apparently it is still above 10degrees. It's dark, rainy and humid though so it sure feels colder. Also, one of the great advantages of snow is that you can just brush it off! Rain doesn't work the same...

Well, there have been requests for photos of my roomates. I'm not ready to ask for photos just yet but I managed to steal this one off of FB for you. The other one is older, bit taller, annnnd I'm not sure what else. In time! And now I have to upload this before he sees his photo here - this is seriously creeping.

PS- I only have internet in one specific spot in my living room at the moment so I'm sorry not I'm not very skypeable!!! During the week is best!!!

New House & Squash!

Well! Moving Day happened! Here are a few photos. So far I haven't spent a lot of time here, it only took 2 cab rides to get most of it here (still have to go get my mattress) but because it was Halloween I was busy carving squash - yes squash! With my friend from class, Maricela. Then I went out, found a costume, went out for dinner/drinks and so today is my first real day here, getting used to the new neighbourhood. It's a holiday today and also it's a totally different neighbourhood so it feels quite strange right now. Really really quiet. It's such a change from Las Ramblas but I think in the end this will be much more conducive to working! Annnnnd I have 2 new roomates (Jose & Sulma) they are brothers from Venezuela. They have a third brother living near the city and a sister in Venezuela still. So far so good! Super nice, but it's a lot of spanish and luckily they are patient with me :) So here's a few photos of everything, house, halloween and Cameron's visit.
This is the view from the olympic diving boards, people watch them jump off the boards and straight into the city skyline! Great design!
Did I mention I got to go to my first soccer game!? Barca vs. Mallorca - we won 5-0 with the last goal scored in the last minute! It was great! 100,000 people cheering the city on!
Not sure what it's for, but someone likes Canada!
Cameron, all the photos I have are of him taking photos. Nothing new.
View of the industrial part of the ports one evening after a little hike across Montjuic (all the way to the top!)