Montjuïc

*note: Both of the pictures in this post were found on the internet. Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me on Montjuïc.

Montjuïc is a mountain that starts near La Plaça de Espanya that has steep slopes and is home to a castille at the top that served as a sort of fort during the Spanish civil war. At the top you can see all of Barcelona. I located la Plaça de Catalunya with the humungous Hyundai ad and La Sagrada Familia sticks up into the clouds to the right. Tibidabo sits far across,  high atop a mountain of green. On the backside of the castle you can see the water, the industrial port, and rows and rows of shipping containers. Since I was on a hike I have no pictures. But what pleasantly surprised me was the cemetery that we stumbled upon.

I knew there was cemetery on the mountain but I had forgotten about it and wasn't planning on visiting it that day. On our walk my friend noticed a sort of stone city, glistening of glass. We changed course and walked towards it. As soon as I stepped in I realized what we had encountered. It was the Montjuïc cemetery... and it was beautiful. Three of my grandparents are buried there, like most of Barcelona's deceased. It was opened back in the 1880s and now must have over one million burials and cremation ashes.

I thought about my grandparents and for some reason felt better seeing that their bodies were placed in a special part of Barcelona. My grandma told me later that night that all of her relatives are also there. Something about that is reassuring. The cemeteries I have seen in the United States are very different... and for the first time I feel like I can appreciate a cemetery as a beautiful place.

Sitges

Spent part of today in Sitges, a little beach town outside of Barcelona. It makes me love it even more knowing its one of my mom's very favorites.

A day in Barcelona

La Plaça de Catalunya

Las Ramblas

My back-ups if for crazy reason I don't find my destined Spanish soccer player novio

El barrio Gotico

La Ayuntamiento

Mercat de St Josep

La Catedral

La barceloneta

The harbor

La Plaza Reial

La Sagrada Familia

I'm back, Barcelona!

Champagne on the house @ Shoko

My ears are ringing. I'm sitting on my bed on Provencia, downtown Barcelona, and i can't hear anything except static ringing. It's just like last night. Oh, but it's literally 7:42 am. Normal. A night at Razzmatazz con dos chicos de Barcelona that taught me more about Spanish political norms/trends and words/slang than I've ever learned from my family... Maybe the fact that they're my age plays into my interest in learning..... but regardless, it was really great. I've been in barcelona less than 48 hours and it has been absolutely amazing. Naturally.

I spent yesterday with family, and played with two of my cousins. I spent today with family and played with two of my other cousins. I went out both nights, and came back after 4:30am. And I'm thrilled about every moment... Even those moments that I hide my face in the metro because its hysterical watching the Spaniards watch the abroad students--the American abroad students. Yes, I'm technically one of them.. but its my first time ever speaking English to someone that isn't Spanish in Spain... so then again, this is completely new to me and an unknown nightlife scene I have always been unaware of. After about 14 visits to this country I can say I have finally partied here, about time no?

South Lake Tahoe, NV

I just got back from south lake with Betsi and Megan. It was my first time on the south side. We skied at Heavenly and the weather was fantastic. The view from the top of the mountain was probably one of the best views I've seen on a mountain up there as of yet. To see so much of the lake makes it pretty special. We mostly skied on the Nevada side of the mountain and it was a perfect mini-trip as I prepare for my Barcelona departure in a few days! 

An ode to Honduras (Summer 2007)

Journal Entry, August 2007:
Earlier I went up to my favorite view spot. I was alone, absorbing the view-- rolling green hills of crops and trees and every shade of green you could ever imagine. Rudy and his sister had followed me up. He's TINY and he is 13 years old. He said school bored him and that "se sentia mal ver su papa trabajar solito." Rudy says he has no time to play. He works everyday except Sunday. What does he do for fun? Twisted. I haven't seen Rudy before. Poor Guy... today was my last Saturday in Rodeo Campuca.

It is said in Honduras (and as my host father first told me) that when Christopher Columbus explored the eastern part of Honduras during a tropical storm he reached a cape and cried "Gracias a Dios que hemos salido de esta honduras!" [Thank God we survived these treacherous depths!] According to some, that is why the cape is now known as Gracias a Dios and the country as Honduras.

I travelled to Honduras back in summer 2007 with Amigos de las Americas. Amigos is a community development volunteer program I participated in with my best friend Maddy. We trained, fundraised, and prepared together during our junior year of high school. Maddy went to Nicaragua, while I my summer in Honduras. (Maddy went on to be a supervisor for Amigos two summers into college as well! And my sister Tanya is currently preparing for her summer) Anyways, my community was called Rodeo Campuca in the municipality of Lempira, Gracias. We worked with a non-governmental agency called Plan Honduras, which has a presence in many latin american nations. My partner was Katie, she's from Washington and plays guitar. Our town had limited running water and no electricity, paved roads or cars. I absolutely loved my experience in Honduras, and I recall being truly happy and at home in my new environment.

The community was (and undoubtedly still is) completely dependent on coffee and corn crops. There were bananas and other fruits and vegetables that families grew for themselves and to sell within the community but it was the milpa y "cafe" that was their pride and joy. Fields wrapped around hills, rolling and rolling farther than I could ever see. The women made the tortillas, cared for the kids, and grinded the coffee. The men worked in the field, played soccer, and carried around machetes. The kids played, but they worked and held responsibilities unknown to kids their own age north in the United States.
Pablito (7), Carolina (9) Edwin (11) Merlin (17) Medardo (19) Nelson (22) Reina (21) Pablo y "Mama"

Journal Entry (July 14, 2007): July 14, 2007

...We finished the solicitude officially yesterday too. We had to get 20 signatures of community members. It got to be awkward because Wilmar Calderon said "no puedo" and then I realized he couldn't write and that hadn't even crossed my mind. I signed his name for him. Nelson wrote his first name under 'apellido' his middle name under 'nombre' his last name under 'cargo' and his second last name under 'firma'. There were lots of elders and young men that couldn't write. My best bet were the 13 year olds. Women couldn't either, it was a pretty big slap in the face early on. Why would they even need to read and write if "agricultor" was their "cargo" I though. I know now that there are many reasons actually... But I just can't even imagine it, I don't understand it.


I smell. And my butt is dirty. But I like it here and I'm happy. Any longer than 6 weeks and it could get boring... Yet they do it everyday, forever. Vilma (katie's host mother) moved in with Edgardo's family at 13 and had Doris at 16. Intense, no? Vilma and Edgardo are like 20/21 or 21/22. They look a lot older...Life.


July 17, 2007
The men smell terribly. Especially right after they come home from working all day. I get this overwhelmingly strong and disgusting whiff of... well of SMELL. Not too pleasant. I fight every urge not to cringe.
We spent all morning making friendship bracelets. The kids start off by saying "no puedo, no puedo" and once they get excited about choosing colors for their bracelet, they learn really quickly. I like how 13 year old boys want to join in too. And even better is that Elder, Jairo and Nelbin all chose pink (Rosado!) as one of their colors. And they are determined to make their bracelets turn out well too. Not in the states...

One Night in Beijing

I actually spent three nights in Beijing, but One Night in Beijing is the name of the song by Chinese superstar J Chou, a KTV favorite. KTV is karaoke in China, and it's an extremely popular form of entertainment for people of all ages. In Shenzhen and Beijing there were KTV bars/places on every single block. Personally, I had had enough of it after the first time. Check out J Chou: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-E-qmtDPKk.

I ended up singing the One Night in Beijing chorus in English throughout the entire summer, altering it to whatever adventure I was currently on.. "One Night in Yongshou" to "One Night in Shanghai" and "One Night in Sheko."

Monument to the People's Heros at Tiananmen Square

Forbidden City

Tiananmen Gate to the Forbidden City

Great Hall of the People, the line wrapped
 all the way around the entire square

Beijing was incredible. Overwhelming really, with the gigantic crowds and ridiculously long history...  Three days did not do this historic capital justice. I recall students on the trip stressing how Shanghai was so much cooler than Beijing-- maybe the nightlife sure (I didn't go out in Shanghai), but Beijing had so much more to see and I felt that I had so much to learn in this great city as well.

On the bus ride from the airport to our hostel I remember driving on streets lined with the red chinese lanterns and lots of table outside the restaurants that probably served peking duck. It was midnight and the tables were filled. The glow of the lanterns lit up the streets and it all felt slightly surreal-- it was beautiful.

The first day we went to Tiananmen Square (we couldn't go to Mao's memorial museum building because we were wearing flip-flops), a few important gardens and gates, and the Forbidden City.

Everything has obviously been repainted and reinforced many times, but the colors really amazing. Red, green, blue paints decorated the gates and overhands with gold detailing and writing. I do find Mao's portrait a bit creepy. He is up there, overseeing Tiananmen Square, his eyes a gate into the Forbidden City. (well really a gate into the bigger plaza you must walk through before you even get to the entrance of the Forbidden City--again, enormous spaces everywhere.)

The Forbidden City is HUGE. I want to say its the size of Moraga (haha). There is no way someone could walk through every single part of the city--and there is just so many open spaces. Val, Vera, Chloe and I would try to imagine soldiers, troops, close officials, filling the open spaced in their perfected rows.    There was just so much freaking history too. I get overwhelmed thinking about it, and how much I don't even understand or know. The Dynasties are an absolutely fascinating time period in history and I realized how my world history courses were cheating China by only having 2-3 chapters on those time periods.

So I'm embarrassed to publicly admit that I participated in this "dress up like a Chinese emperor" tourist ordeal, but I got suckered into it and I told myself that they had these sorts of 'take pictures in costume' set-ups all over China so I needed to do it once for the sake of being in China and experiencing everything possible. (Okay, totally lame excuse I just don't really know how to justify this one) I can say, however, that the Chinese visitors really enjoyed seeing me dressed up and took more pictures of me than of themselves in the outfits. (Or asked us to be in the pictures with them.. Did I mention this happened every day, multiple times a day, to the point where I couldn't even smile anymore?) These pictures above were up at the very top of a tower that oversees the entire Forbidden City.

We went out one night to the bars and clubs that wrap around this big lake and after walking around a couple times finally ended up at this tiny place that had marijuana leaves and jamaican flags all over it. I call that marketing... to the foreigner that has been deprived of marijuana due to the overly strict policy towards drugs in China. (Although apparently the expats in Sheko find ways around Chinese officials) But the reason we decided to stay at this place in particular was because there was live music and  it was spanish classics! The live music was great spanish dancing music, and although there was no dance floor or anyone dancing, we both knew it would get us warmed up. Vera is a professional salsa dancer, so she breathes dance and will do anything to have the opportunity to show off her moves to no one in particular. We bought ourselves some drinks and a couple hours later we were the life of the place.. dancing in the cramped aisle way and really just truly enjoying ourselves. I thought the band was  from Colombia or some South American country, but they were chinese! I didn't believe them for awhile until finally one explained that there were a tiny ethnic minority and I remembered hearing about a bunch of minority populations throughout Beijing. It really did throw me off because none of them really looked Chinese at all-- more Latin American if anything.

I think this Mao-rendition of Warhol is great.

we danced all night long