Welcome back to my “Life in Barcelona” series (read about my first week, too!). This wasn’t the best week for me, but I still tried to make the most of it. I started classes at my new school, discovered more restaurants, went to a rooftop bar, and finalized an upcoming trip!
- Monday, September 6th
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Today was my first day of school. I wasn’t in the mindset to go to classes, but I signed up to study abroad, so here we are. My first class was “Spanish Language” at 11 a.m., and there were only about 12 of us there. After that, I had a four-and-a-half-hour break, so I did some remote work for my job at CU, and then my roommate and I walked to a hair salon to buy shampoo and conditioner because I didn’t bring enough from home and they had the brand I typically use. Usually, on Mondays, I have “Mediterranean Politics” class at 3:40 p.m. but my professor was not able to be there, so I did not have to go today. My last class of the day was “International Business” at 5:50 p.m., which seems late, but it’s pretty typical in Spain to have classes until 8 or 9 p.m. The classes here are close to two hours long, and so far it’s fine, but I’m worried about my attention span as the semester goes on. After not having in-person classes for a year and a half, it was great to be back in that environment, even if the classes are small and we have to wear masks. After my business class ended at 7:30 p.m., I went to the grocery store to buy a few vegetables and apples and honey for Rosh Hashana, since I am Jewish. Then, my roommates and I went to dinner at a local restaurant and enjoyed some tapas and paella.
- Tuesday, September 7th
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I had my second day of classes today. My first one was “Inequality, Poverty, and Globalization” at 11 a.m., and my second was “Intercultural Communication”, at 3:40 p.m. Between those two classes, I had a ham and cheese sandwich for lunch, which here they call the “Bikini,” and I did more remote work for CU. I also dropped my Spanish class today and replaced it with a class about Barcelona’s architecture, since Spanish doesn’t count for credit at CU and the architecture class does. Although today was not super eventful, my roommates and I are planning to travel to Milan, Italy next weekend. However, we are super confused about how we will be treated once we arrive (as U.S. citizens or Spanish citizens), so we had to put off booking the trip until we figure it out. Hopefully, we will get that sorted tomorrow.
- Wednesday, September 8th
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What a day. This morning, I had my newly-added architecture class, and it was surprisingly interesting, which I didn’t think it would be. Then, I put in a few more hours for my job at CU and worked on a couple of assignments I had for class. My “Mediterranean Politics” class was online today, so I joined that at 3:40, and I can honestly say that I am looking forward to never having it online again. Last year just took it out of me, and after three days back in person, I’m already used to that instead. I had “International Business” at 5:50, and in the middle of class, I received some less-than-ideal personal news, so it was hard to keep it together for the second half of class. Then, after crying on the phone to my parents, I calmed down and went to get dinner with my roommates. I ate chicken nuggets instead of our what’s-becoming-typical paella, because what better comfort food is there? Even though today was not the best day, we were able to book our Milan trip, and I am very excited about that.
- Thursday, September 9th
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Today was a really lowkey day, and there isn’t much to say about it. I went to the gym in the morning for the first time here, since I was finally able to get a gym membership. It is similar to my gym at home, but it felt really nice to get back into it and release all my pent-up frustration/sadness. Then I went to class and worked, as I have this entire week. In the evening, I went with one of my roommates to get dumplings, and even Asian cuisine here is amazing, like all the other food I’ve tried. It feels weird to be eating dumplings in Spain, but they were just what I needed and wanted. Plus, the place we went to was very highly rated. On our way home, we sprinted down a lot of stairs to catch the metro, so that was a fun addition to the day. That’s all.
- Friday, September 10th
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I don’t have classes on Fridays here, which is so nice, so today was a very chill day. I went to the gym again this morning, and then I treated myself to a croissant and coffee. Afterward, my roommates and I took the metro to Plaça de Catalunya to do some shopping. I bought a really cute jacket and a new top at Zara, and then we went to a department store where I bought a blanket since I’ve been freezing at night. The only thing I was given here that slightly resembles a blanket is closer to a scarf than anything else. Anyway, we were exhausted after shopping, so we came back to our apartment and rested before going to a rooftop bar. There are a lot of rooftop bars in Barcelona, but I’m learning they require reservations well in advance if we want to go a little bit later in the day. The rooftop was really pretty, but a bit on the expensive side, so I’m not sure how often we will go to them. Then, we hung out with some friends for a little bit, and now I’m heading to bed.
- Saturday, September 11th
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Today was the National Day of Cataluña, which meant there were celebrations and festivities, but also protests led by those who want Cataluña to be independent from Spain. So, most of the day we stayed in. I went to buy coffee and breakfast at the cafe across the street, and then one of my roommates and I made more plans for our trip to Milan. Booking a weekend to Italy really takes it out of you, so I napped for two hours and it was fantastic. We had dinner reservations later, so to occupy some time, we watched “The Little Mermaid” since it was the only thing on TV in English, and I was taken back to my childhood. I hadn’t seen that movie in so long. Finally, dinner time rolled around, so we went to eat sushi and it was pretty good! It’s weird eating sushi in Spain, but I have no regrets. After dinner, we walked around in hopes of finding a bar to go to, but all the ones we passed were empty (because of the protests earlier, we think), so we ended up getting ice cream and walking home. We watched Addison Rae’s movie, which was cringey but cute, and now I am going to bed!
- Sunday, September 12th
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I woke up this morning feeling tired, only to check my phone and realize it was 11 a.m., so it was time to get up. I don’t even know where the day went because I did nothing except for laundry and homework. Something in the washing machine dyed a lot of my clothes yellow, which made me really upset, but I guess it’s an excuse to do some more shopping. Now my roommate and I are going to get some pizza, and we might watch another movie before calling it a night.
That’s it for my second week here. I’m very sorry that this was such a low-energy week; it was a tough one for me, but I’m looking forward to the next one, and I am excited for more adventures ahead. Thanks for reading, and come back next week!