Catalonia Lovin'

Warning: Longest post known to man kind!

So the big day finally came! Off to Spain I went and the first few days have seemed to just fly by. I’ve been meaning to post but due to a) being too tired to write and b) being too lazy to upload pictures to my laptop, I have been delaying the posting process until now.

To start of, I just want to say I love this country it is absolutely beautiful. When I step out on the balcony there is a stunning view of mountains in the distance. The food here is OMG good. I’m something of a picky eater but have actually been trying a lot of things that I wouldn’t normally try. The vegetables here are soooooooooo good. They have so much flavor that the vegetables in NY clearly lack. My favorite so far are the tomatoes (although that’s technically fruit, egh I consider them vegetables). I don’t know how I will go back to eating flavorless tomatoes when I go home :/. There’s so much flavor to the food here without having to do much to it.

I’m staying with family friends in a village just outside of the city Vendrell (which is about an hour away from Barcelona by train). The streets of Vendrell are filled with some of the most beautiful architecture. Everything here feels like it has a history behind it, and that’s mostly because it does. It feels good to experience the life of another culture other than my own. The lifestyle here is just so much more laid back compared to the fast paced life in the city.

Over the past few days I have explored Vendrell a little, have been to the beach three times, went to a lounge, a birthday party, and ate a lotttttttt of food : )

On the list of new food/drinks I am trying, so far I have:

-fish (that was caught at the beach infront of me)

-tuna

-viel

-clara (a typical afternoon drink to cool down that consists of beer and lemon soda)

- gazpacho

-red vodka

Yes these things might not sound too daring but like I said I’m a picky eater and feel proud of myself for trying fish (which I actually even enjoyed!).

The catalonian youth is quite different from what I’m used to back home. In my opinion we dress more fashionably but that is probably because we have different ideas of what is fashionable. Something that I love about Spain is that people drink throughout the day and I can smoke practically anywhere (I think I might be taking advantage of this a little bit). Part of regrets not investing more time into learning Spanish before I came here but I’m starting to realize that might not have even helped since people speak in catalan and a mix of catalan and Spanish at the same time. – I’m learning….at a veryyy slowww pace lol.