Hola from Barcelona!

Tuesday, March 5

5:30PM

La Rambla, Barcelona

So a lot has happened since the last time I posted!  As most of you probably already know (I can't seem to stop talking about it), through a storke of amazing luck, I found an apartment in the center of Paris where I'll be living for the rest of my time here.  I happened to see a post in the TAPIF facebook group about an open room in an apartment in the 6th arrondissement on rue de l'Odeon (which happens to be a 3 minute walk from The Moose).  It also happened to be a great deal and so long story short, I now share a great little apartment on the 6th floor of a beautiful old building in the heart of Paris, smack in between Luxembourg Garden and bd. Saint-Germain.  My roommate is another girl in the teaching program, Jovanni, who happens to be from Bakersfield, CA!  I love living with another chill Californian.  I have my own private, fully-furnished loft bedroom with a (relatively) huge double bed and skylight window, accessible by an (only slightly sketchy) wooden ladder/staircase that I hope to God I never fall down.  Jovanni sleeps on the pull-out couch in the living room.  The apartment is small by American standards, but by Parisian standards it's quite nice, especially for the price and the location.

Yesterday was the first real warm (almost 60 degrees), sunny day of Spring and it made me ridiculously happy.  I woke up late, took a leisurely stroll to Luxembourg Garden where I sat in the sun and read for a while, then walked a few blocks to the Frank Provost on bd. Saint-Michel where I got my hair trimmed (thank god, I'd been cutting it myself for the past 6 months and I was all sorts of uneven).  I'd like to grow my hair out again, so I kept the length but got a bit more shape, since my haircut had been looking like a mix between an afro and a bowl cut recently (ugh).  I'm very happy with the result (and the price tag, only 32 euro!)  Apparently my barber is going to come visit me at The Moose sometime, too.  Hmm...

After my haircut I decided I needed some more time in the precious sun, so I walked down to bd. Saint-Germain and found a cafe with an open table facing the sun where I had a delicious cafe gourmand (espresso, apricot tart, and chocolate mousse), read, and people-watched.  I stayed until the sun disappeared behind the Parisian skyline, then ran a few errands and relaxed at my apartment for a while before heading back out to Luxembourg garden to meet up with Jill and her friend Daniel, who is visiting from New York.  We took a walk through the garden and up to the Pantheon in the setting sun, and stopped by Hemingway's old hang-out, The Polidor.  Then we headed back to my apartment to share a bottle of Cotes du Rhone and chat for a while.

This morning I woke up at 7am, showered, and threw some things into a suitcase before walking to Luxembourg to hop on the RER B to the airport for my flight to Barcelona!  Got to the airport with plenty of time to spare, and somehow got hooked up with a "Speedy Boarding" pass from a friendly EasyJet ticket agent (which didn't end up counting for much as it just ensured that I'd be in the front of the line waiting in the causeway to get on the plane.  Side note:  This is something else I don't understand about France, they make everyone wait in the cold walkway to board the plane instead of just waiting until the plane's actually ready before starting the boarding process.  Makes no sense, especially because everyone knows the way to really enrage a Parisian is to make them wait in a line!)

We landed in Barcelona around 1pm, where we were greeted by clouds and a balmy breeze.  It's still warmer then it's been in Paris since the fall, though, and the humidity is a welcome respite from the hand-chafing dry Parisian air.  It looks like we'll have tropical rain for the next couple days in Barcelona, but this weekend looks partly sunny and it's supposed to get up to almost 70 degrees!  Heaven!  (I will be breaking out my shorts and I've already decided that one of my purchases here will be some bright Havanas flip-flops!  And no, March is not too soon.)

I've been hanging out in Starbucks on la Rambla all day, waiting to go meet Chris at his apartment after he gets back from class.  I used the time to do some research on things I want to see in Barcelona this time, including lots of cool Gaudi architecture (the Sagrada Familia for one), some good cheap eats, museums, gardens, and a couple cool vintage stores and markets.  I'm also planning to spend some time on the beach and lots of time just wandering around, which is my personal favorite way to discover a city.  I'm not one for over-scheduling my days with sight-seeing, as I have a pretty limited tolerance for being bumped into by tourists and looking at churches.

I got a timely reminder about pick-pockets in Barcelona when the Japanese couple across from me had a bag stolen off a chair about an hour ago.  I didn't see it happen, even though I was sitting a few feet away, but apparently a guy came in, asked them for the time, and swiped the woman's bag off the chair without anyone noticing.  Thankfully, she realized it was gone about 2 minutes later, and the police came and took a report, but I couldn't help but think it was probably pretty hopeless when they were giving the thief's description.  Medium height and build, brown hair, wearing jeans and a dark jacket, that looks like every other guy walking around out on La Rambla right now, and I'm sure the guy got out of the area pretty fast after he'd done the deed.  I'm watching my suitcase and bag like a hawk now!  Better to look paranoid then to lose your stuff...

Anyway, it's almost time to go meet Chris, and it just started raining (lovely!)  I'm really hoping the weather does get better later this week, because we're supposed to go on a climbing trip this weekend.  I'll try to update again soon!

xoxo Kelly