Un fin de semana con Gaudí

Barcelona got my hopes up the past couple of days with sunshine and mild temperatures. Yep, once again the city is gray and dreary. I always have to remind myself that while, yes, I am in Spain, a Mediterranean country, it is in fact January here too. At least it's only rain, not snow, so I can't really complain.

This weekend, to me, felt like the first REAL weekend. Until now, all we've done here are tours, orientations, and getting used to our new surroundings. Last week classes started and this weekend was the first weekend of the semester, so to speak. I don't have any classes on fridays and neither does anyone else in the program, so we have 3-day weekends every week. SWEET!

I went to a club this weekend. At first I actually thought it was a strip club, when I first glanced into one of the three rooms and saw practically naked people on a stage. The name of the club was Bikini, and that is all the dancers were wearing. The techno room was full of all kinds of people, young and old (when I say old, I do mean old. Like.. sorry amma og afi, but your age..), glowsticks, bubbles, and the aforementioned half naked dancers. They each took turns getting on stage and dancing(?) to the music which I personally have no clue how to do. It kinda looked like they were half-assing the robot.. odd. One of the guys we were with knew one of the male dancers and introduced us and in true Spanish fashion we did the kiss-kiss thing and I swear I thought two pimples were gonna burst out of my face, he was so oiled up. They provided good entertainment for those of us who didn't really know what to do with our feet/bodies (because we can't do the robot).

The salsa room was SO MUCH MORE FUN!!! One of the guys taught me salsa 101 and I aced it, thanks to my zumba class and knowing basic salsa steps already. He taught me some spins and stuff too, and it was a lot of fun.

My weekend also featured a third type of dance: Samba. Mariana is a Brazilian chick who rents out a room at Margarita's and she took us to this teeny tiny jazz club where a band was playing samba music, and then she broke down the steps. I can now say I can dance the most basic samba. FINALLY!! Watching her though, was amazing. I honestly think Samba is in her blood. It's second nature to her and even when we were just standing there talking, her feet were still moving. She showed us that after getting down the basic steps, you add a little bit of hip, a little bit of shoulder and upper body movement, and while that proved to be a little more difficult for me, she just did it.

Besides dancing, this weekend also featured a lot of Gaudí architecture. We saw La Sagrada Familia, the famous church that was started over 100 years ago and has yet to be finished. There was a small museum next to it, featuring some drawings and things, and it's amazing to see not only how far it's come since it started, but how far it has to go still. It looks gigantic now, but that compared to what it's supposed to end up looking like... just crazy to imagine. We decided that if it's ever finished, and we're still alive, we'll all meet up in Barcelona to check it out again.
We also saw Casa Battlló and Casa Milá (La Pedrera) but we didn't go in because they were pretty expensive to get into. Besides, I've heard the insides are cool, but not THAT cool, so I was fine with just the outside.

Park Güell was amazing, another one of Gaudí's creations. It's incredibly beautiful, and there's lots of mosaic. I love Gaudí mosaic.. it really is cool. (Mamma, that's what you should've done with the backsplash in the kitchen)

Another week of school has started and I'm looking forward to it. Now, just give me some sunshine!!



By the way, if I ever put links at the bottom, they're for photo galleries. I put them all up on facebook too, but just in case SOMEONE (i don't know who...) doesn't have facebook, you can also look at them by checking out the link.

http://gallery.me.com/rakel88#100077