Thanksgiving in Barcelona… November 30, 2009

It was hard to spend Thanksgiving away from my family, but I’m definitely thankful for all the new friends I’ve made here. On Thanksgiving day, I was thinking about my family and friends and missing everyone back home. My mouth would salivate every time I thought about all the delicious food I was missing out on. Luckily, My close friends from EADA decided that we had to bring Thanksgiving to Barcelona since they’ve seen it in the movies and wanted to try the all the delicious food.

I sent everyone a list of typical Thanksgiving dishes along with a Web site with recipes and I volunteered to make my favorite dish, stuffing. I was really nervous since I’ve never cooked it before and I was feeling the pressure since I wanted my friends first Thanksgiving to be memorable. The cutest thing is that everyone took their dish really seriously and since pre-made boxed meals don’t exist here, so we all had to make our dish from scratch. After school we went to the grocery stores in search of the ingredients and spent hours making our dishes. We all got together at a friends house with our dishes, set the table and started to chow down. All the food was amazing and everyone was so proud to share their dish since they put so much time and love into the preparation. The stuffing was definitely a hit, the girls were eery to try it at first since it’s something they’ve never tasted before, but they definitely enjoyed it. The only thing that was missing was a turkey (it’s nearly impossible to find one in Spain), but we substituted a chicken which did the trick. We had everything from mashed potatoes to apple pie and ice cream, we for sure had the full Thanksgiving experience.

I had two friends here visiting from home and we all agreed this was one of the most memorable Thanksgivings we’ve ever had. I can’t stop counting my blessings, I’m thankful for my parents who have given me the opportunity to be here, my family and friends who’ve been more than supportive and for all the new friends I’ve made in Barcelona. I am truly blessed.

Thanksgiving dinner before...

...and after, we devoured it all!

Parque Güell

Girls trip to Park Guell

Thanks for making the long trip from CA to visit me Kat and Fran!

Unflattering angle, but cool pic! I love all the Gaudi mosaic ceilings...

Loving the Bicing November 2, 2009

Today I finally got my bicing card, I feel like such a local now. Bicings are red bikes are all over Barcelona and for a 30 euro yearly charge you get a card that allows you to check out a bike for 30 minutes. All you have to do is swipe your card and it unlocks a bike for you to check-out and when you’re done using it you return it to any bicing stand. If you go over 30-minutes, you get charged a few cents for every minute you go over, but you can usually get anywhere in the city in under the alloted time. It’s honestly genius and the best way to get around the city quickly since there are bike paths everywhere. I took my first stroll on my bicing today and I really liked it, I got to see a lot more of the BCN that I usually miss when I’m on the metro. In order to get a bicing you need a NIE and a local bank account (I went with La Caixa), I’m still waiting to get my NIE card, but as long as you have the number you can do it all online and they mail you your bicing card.

On November 20, I pick-up my NIE (Número de Identificación de Extranjeros), once I get that, I’ll officially be a legal Spain resident – can’t wait :).

Here's a picture of one of the hundreds of Bicing stand all around Barcelona.

Halloween in Barcelona! November 1, 2009

Halloween is celebrated in Spain/Europe, but the difference is that people go for the scary/bloody look and it’s more of an adult holiday, no trick-or-treaters :(. Well, my classmates and I found a Halloween party at hotel Casa Fuster and we all decided to dress up. This year I really wanted to be Minnie Mouse because; 1. I’m obsessed with Disney, 2. I have black tights and yellow shoes and 3. I thought finding Minnie ears, white gloves and a red/white pokadot shirt would be easy – well I was wrong. I found the ears in grey  so I bought a permanent black marker and colored in the ears and luckily I found the white gloves. As for the shirt and bow, I bought the material at a local fabric store along with some safety pins and put my crafty skills to use. Here’s how it turned out:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was a lot of my classmates first time celebrating Halloween – they loved dressing up!