Alright! Well, here are a few photos for you of last Friday when Nima and I took a quick walk down Barceloneta during Sant Joan festival (Festival of Fire) which is equivalent only to the 4th of July festivals that I saw on the beach in Florida one summer. Except its louder because all the small kids play with the really loud "popper" ones which just make the sound without the fire. The beach was completely full of people, people swimming, people having fires, lots of drinking and partying of course but people of all ages.



These photos are from a little road trip adventure that we took outside of Barcelona (about 70km) to the NWish. A friend from class was having an art opening at a gallery here and so a group from the class decided to rent a couple of cars and drive up for the afternoon. Well... the best laid plans..... This trip went a little off track because we first of all got so incredibly lost trying to get out of the city and then by the time we got there it was quite late and then we had a very long, Catalan style dinner and then the drive home... which was also much longer than necessary. But we all know how I drive. I am very talented at saving time on the corners - not everyone has this special skill. Anyhow, in the end now that I have had some time to get over my initial frustration I'm glad we went because we did get to see some great scenery on the way out.





So guys, other than this I have basically been locking myself inside my house day and night to try and meet some of my work and school deadlines. You may or may not care to know that the jerk who I used to sit beside at work was finally canned (halleluja!) but now this means that I also have all his work to do! It's good, I like being busy but I will be happy when next next Friday comes and I will be able to go to the beach for an afternoon.

More to come when I can think straight.

Lots of Love

Sleep?

What is this? Something I won't have for the next week.... so my dear family, friends and anonymous blog readers - I'm sorry but I will not be posting any juicy updates for you until Wednesday once some of my deadlines are out of the way!!! I love you anyway though :)

Happy Birthday Day <3

Happy Fathers Day!!!

I hope all the Dad's are having a great day and that at least one of their kids are going to feed them :)

So! I've had another long weekend this week which has been wonderful! There's a music festival called Sonar happening in the courtyard at the CCCB (my school) so the classes are basically cancelled because you'd never be able to do anything. I can actually hear the bass at my house with the windows closed, so it's loud! Anyhow! It all started Thursday. We had a morning class at another University and when we were finished a few of us headed to the beach for a couple of hours. It was HOT! We couldn't last more than that because we were already becoming lobsters (as you can see in the photo). And then we headed back towards the CCCB and went to Sonar to see one of the bands that I really like. Because we study at the CCCB we get into any of the events held there for free, so it's great!

The next day (friday), I invited the class over to my house for mojitos before going to sonar because the drinks there are very expensive. So we went again and stayed until they kicked everyone out around 10:30. It was a lot of fun, it's nice that it's outside. Yesterday I did nothing really... cleaned the house since 2 of my roomates are away and will actually stay that way for a while! I am becoming more patient with them... really.... but some stuff just drives me nuts.

So! Back to the serious stuff! I had a meeting with my thesis advisor (Rafael) on Friday afternoon to discuss my ideas for my thesis and I think I have a direction! I've decided that to begin with I need to become actively involved in the political/planning processes which happen at the Town of Cochrane and find some way to get the rest of the community to engage and participate in what's happening in their community. People are apathetic and don't realize the consequences, so it's going to be a lot of workshops and things like this. It's a crucial year for the town - almost all the land within the town boundaries is used up which means they are going to want to annex more soon, they are also putting in public transportation and allowing a few other big things to happen - all the while ignoring their commitments which were made in a number of documents from 2006. So, it's not the most glamorous topic, talking about suburbia but it's relevant. I have so much reading to do though! I wish I could just clone myself for a few months hahah!

Alright, this rambling has gone on far far too long! I hope you all had a great weekend, lots of love to everyone <3

Last Friday Night

Very addictive new song by Katy Perry - dear god, the people who engineer these songs really know what they are doing!

Anyhow! This weekend was party free, full of productivity and relaxation. It was a 3 day weekend (thank god) because I really needed a day to just lay/walk down the beach and think about everything. We do so much discussion and touring and talking and learning that by the end of the week my brain is on overload and if I don't just let it soak in once and a while I get a bit crazy! Also the sun finally came out so I had to take advantage of it :)

Here are a few random photos of interesting architecture around the city - most of them are in Poble Nou neighbourhood which is an old industrial area that they are slowly knocking stuff down and building new things. It's the most colourful neighbourhood in the city I think! I'm doing a project in the area so that's why I happen to have so many photos!

Right now the trees are all dropping these bright orange flowers and if you can catch it before the stupid street sweepers come and take them away it looks like orange snow under all of them. Quite beautiful!

Other than that- well, not a lot! Making plans for travels in July and September - feeling excited! I have one roomate who refuses to clean and I'm considering ways of subtle sabotage as punishment for this.... we shall see. I know, be calm.

That's it for today!

<3

Oh what a week!

Hi All! It's been an interesting week at school and I just want to share one of my little adventures with you! Yesterday for my Public Space workshop we did a tour of the city visiting a bunch of spaces which have been kind of taken over by the public for various uses, like gardens, playgrounds, soccer fields etc etc. The most interesting probably was Can Masdeu... which is in the photos below (minus the bird graffiti- that's in a garden planted on a vacant lot in Raval - the city center). So! The casa...

You get on the train and go to almost the last stop on the line and you get out and start walking... as you're walking you can see from the edge of the road that back in the trees there is a really large building set among the hills and forest. As you get closer (like in the pictures) you begin to see more clearly. The building was some sort of child care facility from the early 20th century which was abandoned after someone died and donated the property to the hospital foundation. The newer looking building behind was built to be a lepracy hospital in the 70's but it never was successful so it has also been left vacant all these years. Well in early 2001 there was a meeting about climate change etc. held at this place and the various architects, urban planners, environmentalists etc decided after the tmeeting that this was a really great place. So they basically just took it over and converted it into a shared living place for 25 people and they started planting crops and gardens, also offering space to the neighbours in the communities around space to plant things if they wanted... now we are 10 years later and they offer public workshops, they live almost entirely off their own food and they basically just ahve this alternative lifestyle. I don't necessarily agree with it - because they are fighting a system but then they have just created a smaller version model of the same thing outthere for themselves which makes no sense to me. It seems like wasted energy that would be much better spent on trying to improve the world rather than just escaping from it. But this is just an opinion. Anyhow! Was a very interesting tour! A little gem in the city that I would have never known about!

More this weekend!

Love!

Ps- It's been raining and kinda crappy here for 2 weeks now.... I'm ready for the sun to come back!!!!

Puenting

Puenting is jumping off a bridge in Spain. How do I know this? My roomate (Nima) decided it would be a good idea to go and try! So Saturday morning we woke up at the crack of dawn practically, got on the Renfre train and headed out to the countryside where you actually pay money to do this! Haha, the scenery was amazing. The bridge is set in a small village which is famous for the Cava vineyards (cava is the sparkling wine). The air was so much more fresh and I realized that it was the first time since I got to Spain in 2 whole months that I really got to see NATURE. IT was amazing. Here are a few photos from the afternoon. The trainride there even was amazing - about 45 minutes but it goes through all this country side where you see true spanish style buildings and villages which was really interesting. I'm going to have to make a point of just getting on the train and going more often. It's only 3E each way - so really, it's crazy not to. Next weekend is a long weekend here so I'm sure I can go on some sort of adventure, hopefully the weather smartens up!





Well the photography workshop with Diego Ferrari finished and now we have a course with Neil Leach - who I think may be equally crazy! Hahah, they are very eccentric, passionate people but sometimes they say these things that are SO controversial and I really wonder how they get away with it! But nonetheless the subject matter is quite interesting and I am really enjoying it. I'm halfway through my scheduled courses and then it's going to be thesis work. I can't believe I've been here this long - time is just going by so fast!

Oh! Also, the hippies/protestors are still camped out in Placa Catalunya but don't worry now they have also built tree forts in all of the trees. Excellent. The police are actually being investigated for the last time they tried to force them out of the square though because of the violence and brutality so I don't think they're going to try again, I think they are hoping they will just leave on their own - there's also a few photos of that.

Alright, more this week!