Two weeks down, two more to go. I’ve been having a great time exploring Barcelona, but truth be told I’m starting to get a little homesick. I miss English-language TV and my coffee maker and peanut butter – seriously, there’s tons of jam at the supermarket but I haven’t seen a single jar of peanut butter anywhere. What do people even do with jam besides make PB&J?
Don’t get me wrong, I like Barcelona and I can’t believe I’m going to miss it. Since my last post, I’ve been to Plaza Espanya, the National Art Museum of Catalonia, Parc de la Ciutadella, Parc Joan Mirom, several of the old palaces, and the zoo.
This week was the last week for two of my roommates, Emily and Erica. My other roommate, Erin (my name doesn’t fit in with the others), is leaving this week, so I’ll be on my own the last week. It’ll be a bit lonely.
Plaza Espanya
A Palau, or palace
Parc de la Ciutadella
The zoo was my favorite part of the week. I love zoos – I think I took more pictures at the zoo than I have of everything else in Barcelona combined. It was a really nice, visitor-friendly zoo with tons of animals. The Zoo de Barcelona became famous for having the only albino gorilla ever, as far as anyone knows. Unfortunately, he died in 2003.
But there are still plenty of other awesome primates!
When I’m not exploring, I’m at my internship – you know, the whole point of this program. I work at the Well Woman Clinic, which focuses mainly on pregnant women and new parents. My boss and the other people who work here are friendly, welcoming, and (I suspect) relieved that they have some unpaid labor for everything they wanted to do but never got around to doing.
My job duties include opening the door, greeting clients, making posters, translating the website into English (this is a big project that’s taken most of this past week), updating the Facebook page and website, watering the plants, and whatever else people tell me to do. It’s tolerable. And it’ll help me get into nursing school.
So all in all, Barcelona continues to be lots of fun! Next week I’m going on a tour of the soccer (er…football) stadium with some of the other interns. It should be fun.
Adios for now,
Cicely
I know what you mean about peanut butter. It’s sometimes difficult to find outside of the U.S. And I can understand about the homesickness and craving English language TV. That often happens about this point in a student’s program, and when the program is short, the excitement about being there, then the homesickness (and craving for peanut butter and English language TV!), and the looking forward to going home but knowing that you’ll miss where you’ve been happen rapidly and feel a bit like a roller coaster. Michele
I feel your pain! I just had a long discussion over dinner with another student about Austrian Peanut Butter and how it’s just not Skippy…
Also I’m jealous that you got to go to the zoo! I too love animals and take too many pictures at zoos! Plus I love the fun fact about the gorilla!
Your note about your internship piqued my interest because my mom works with pregnant women. I’m sorry that your duties are just tolerable and not more exciting. Like you said though, it can feel good to know you are helping them get things done and I’m sure the plants appreciate you too! 🙂
I hope you don’t get too lonely when your roommates leave and that the homesickness passes soon!
Emily
🙁 sad about the gorrilla….
In England their peanut butter is kinda greasy. I mean yes I know that all peanut butter is made with oil and all but this stuff is kinda weird. Though mostly I have found they use Nuttella with EVERYTHING. Do you guys have Nuttella there? They use it instead of chocolate, which is aweful in my opinion, and peanut butter 😛
Yeah, Nutella is really popular here too. It’ll have to do until I get home and can have a nice peanut butter sandwich.
I completely understand! I too have just finished my second week abroad with only two left, I have been thinking about returning home and trying to decide how to feel when that time comes. I think I will definitely miss pieces of being here, but it will be somewhat of a relief to be home and have those comforts. I was at a grocery store here and Nutella is very popular in France, but that is the closest thing to peanut butter. I have been told it is very difficult to find over here in a regular grocery store 🙁
You must have a high proficiency to be translating while you’re there, but how different is the Spanish compared to the more popular Central and Southern American Spanish in the states?
Have you traveled anywhere outside of Barcelona yet? I have heard wonderful things about Spain and Barcelona in specific.
Enjoy the last few weeks of your program!
Maggie
Spanish here is really different! The pronunciation is a little different (for example, c and z are pronounced like th) and there’s a pronoun that’s not used in other dialects. It’s different from what I studied in school, but I’m getting used to it.
I haven’t traveled outside Barcelona. I thought about going to London this weekend but decided against it – it’s too chaotic there right now with the Olympics. I probably won’t travel anywhere else, there’s too much to do in Barcelona!