Tourist at home?

The clouds, grey skies and drizzle have made a sudden return into my life: It's strange being back in London. 

Boris bikes are definitely uglier than Barcelona's alternative. Red buses, red telephone boxes and red letter boxes stand out more than they used to. Everyone speaks English, no one looks you in the eye, museums are free and so is water.

I feel somewhat like a tourist in my own city.

 

2 days down, 12 to go and, although I'm beginning to feel at home in Catalonia, I'm so happy to be back with my family to celebrate Christmas. How relaxing it is not having to explain that mince pies are in fact a pudding and mincemeat's vegetarian. Here it's normal to set Christmas pudding on fire and no explanations are needed at the mention of a cracker. Then again, I guess crackers and Christmas pudding are a lot easier to comprehend for the foreigner than the Catalan traditions of placing a pooing man (aka: "el caganer") in their nativity scene and teaching their children to feed up a log with a smiley face on it (aka: "el tió") and then sing asking it to poo them presents on Christmas day...

Well, despite all these weird and wonderful traditions, our celebrations are linked together by one mutual thread. We're all celebrating Christmas, and we will all most probably be hearing the Christmas story told over and over again: God becoming man in order to restore our broken relationship with him. Maybe we're numb to it because we hear it every year, but there's something pretty amazing about that story. This year I challenge you to really listen to it and give Jesus a chance. Decide what you think about the little baby whose birth we celebrate every year all over the world, as I believe what you think about this baby has the power to change your life...

This week the whole world's been talking about the one Mayan prophecy about the end of the world, which didn't happen. Yet in the Bible there are over three hundred prophecies about the coming of a saviour which were written hundreds of years before Jesus's birth and that were fulfilled in the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

...Why aren't we talking more about that?

Companys de pis(tanagaa)

Me and my beautiful flatmates!!

One week till home time!

Vic: Mercat Medieval!

The streets were heaving and medieval merchants blurred in and out of the relaxed 21st century visitors, trying to get on with business as normal; this year marked the 32rd edition of Vic's medieval market, an annual event that sees the city invaded by many visitors.

Stalls lined the lanes of the city, and over a bridge there was a place to try out archery. We tried traditional food and watched traditional methods of making things, including massive knitting machines to make hats, and a man carving wood with a crowd gathered around. With the vendors dressed in typical clothing, the you got to see a glimpse into the past, a glimpse of how it might have been several hundreds of years ago.

Íngrid and her cousin Laura who was working at one of the stalls!

The traditional way of making a catalan barretina hat

Archery by the river

Me and a giant tió

Plaça Major, Vic

La Mola & Montcau

"La mola mola, mola molt la mola" - Someone, not me.

What better a reason for a long weekend than the first weekend of December? Ok, so there's probably a better reason for this pont than just the fact we've started a new month, but I am still grateful to Spain for yet again providing us with a weekend longer than the week at uni. Anyway, in order to make the most of the extra day off, some of my friends from GBU (the Spanish version of Christian Union) organised a hike to some mountains near Barcelona: la Mola and Montcau. 

It was a beautiful day: frosty and crisp when we arrived but the sun was out and the air was so lovely and clean and fresh! The town of Terrassa lay just underneath us, Barcelona a bit further away, Montserrat wrapped in fog, mountains and more mountains and then the snow covered Pyrenees in the distance. There were horses and donkeys to visit, caves to venture into with water dripping down from the ceiling; paths with mud, dust, rocky ones and tree covered ones and then parts of the trail that were more like rock climbing and so therefore they had ropes along them for people to hold onto. 

We walked a lot, but had some time to relax at the top, stopping for lunch just outside the monastery at the top of la Mola from which we could see for miles!

"Perquè les coses invisibles d'ell, el seu poder etern i la seva divinitat, es fan clarament visibles desde la creació del món, éssent enteses per mitjà de les coses fetes, de manera que la gent no té excusa" Romans 1:20

"For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse." Romans 1:20

Internacionales!!

This is how God showed his love among us: he sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.  This is love:  not that we loved God,  but that he loved us  and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

- 1 John 4:9-10

Así manifestó Dios su amor entre nosotros: en que envió a su Hijo unigénito al mundo para que vivamos por medio de él. En esto consiste el amor: no en que nosotros hayamos amado a Dios, sino en que él nos amó y envió a su Hijo para que fuera ofrecido como sacrificio por el perdón de nuestros pecados. 

- 1 Juán 4:9-10

Invitation designed by Indi!

Amazinggg last Bible study - over 40 people came!! For the Bible study we went into Indi's flat as it was a bit cold on the terrace, and there were so many of us we didn't fit in her  room so we had to have some groups in the living room and one in the corridor. Before and after the Bible study we had a barbacoa up on Indi's terrace and everyone bought food to share. People brought guitars and it was a lovely time to relax and to start the long weekend. Lots of my friends are going back home and not staying for next semester so it was also a nice chance to hang out before they leave next week.

Christmas treeee!

Yeyyy! It's Christmas soon! We still don't have a tree in the flat, but luckily my friend Indi went to Norway a few weeks ago and managed to find one in a forest to bring back in her suitcase - apparently this is legal/normal in Norway. Here are a few photos of the educational decorations we made for it this weekend: 

Hola Student Card

Two months after applying for it, my student card finally turned up this week. I showed it to my flatmates and mentioned that had I been in Leeds I would have got it the day I asked for it, to which they replied "Well, you are in Spain". They're right, in general things do seem to take longer here... so I guess the fact they spelt my name right and resisted the temptation of turning my middle name into another surname means I shouldn't complain.

Gardens at Uni

While I'm on the topic of Uni, here's a photo of my university diary! Each year there's a competition for the design and the winning design gets printed on the diaries and folders which students are given in September. This year the winning design is of the Barcelona skyline!

Rupit: 25N

Outing with my adopted Catalan family to Rupit - an adorable little town in the North of Catalonia:

Independentist Catalan flags hung proudly throughout the little cobbled narrow streets and in the main square there was a sign by the town hall: today was election day. Next to the church there was man busking with a guitar underneath a house with lopsided balconies and laundry hanging down to dry. Over the river hung a bridge with a sign: "No more than 8 people at one time. No swinging". The bridge felt like something from Pirates of the Caribbean, Peter Pan, or a playground - and with ropes on either side to hold on to was precariously made of planks of wood. 

Íngrid, her parents and I enjoyed had a delicious lunch in a beautiful little square with traditional dishes including pa amb tomaquet, escalivada (oven cooked pepper, onion and aubergine), and bolets (seasonal wild mushrooms), before proceeding on a relaxing walk around the town. The stone houses were all beautifully unique, and the uneven winding streets felt worlds away from the perfectly squared road system in the centre of the Catalan capital.

We peeked into some of the souvenir shops and I am now the proud owner of a Catalan barretina, a traditional catalan red hat. We also stocked up on some traditional food: "pets de monja", little tiny biscuits whose name literally translates as "nun's farts". The lady the tourist shop was pleased to tell us there was an american tourist in the village that day too, and then - finding out I was from London - she insisted on sharing a little story of her 'happy memories' of London, a trip which had supposed to last 3 days, but ended up being 8 due to the Iceland volcano in 2010. 

And finally, a photo of a caganer* display in a shop window

*Caganer: Figurine of a man squatting; a traditional part in the Catalan Christmas nativity scene. 

Choose between traditional version with a traditional barretina (red hat)...

or alternatively versions of famous people.

Breakfast at Bellmunt

The heavens declare the glory of God,

the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

- Psalm 19:1

Los cielos cuentan la gloria de Dios,
el firmamento proclama la obra de sus manos.
- Salmos 19:1

This Sunday started with an early morning hike up a Bellmunt, the mountain near Íngrid's house. We hiked up along the shortcuts, through the trees, along little paths, climbing up rocks, kicking the deliciously crunchy leaves, surrounded by the beautiful autumn colours. 

Having arrived at the top, we could see for miles, with a sea of mist covering the towns. To one side we could see the Plana de Vic and to the other side we could see another plain and the foothills of the Pyrenees. 

Once at the top, we stood for a while enjoying the panoramic views, before joining fellow mountaineers for breakfast in the warm and cosy restaurant perched at the top. The restaurant was packed, so we shared a table with two catalans who had cycled up. The food on offer was the Catalan equivalent of a full english: warm and filling food. 

The guys next to us did it properly and ordered a "porró" of red wine (a porro is basically a glass watering can which you fill with up and then pour the drink directly into your mouth from the spout. For food, one of them had pa amb tomaquet (the traditional Catalan bread with tomato and olive oil) with truita (omelette), and the other, a massive platter of cooked meat. Íngrid and I opted for coffee and toast with jam, which sounds simple compared to the feast our neighbours were devouring, but it was delicious and definitely did the job of filling us up! 

Sketching

A sketch my friend Ingrid did of/for me!

Weekend with Maite!

This weekend I went to Maite's! On the Sunday we were supposed to climb the nearby mountain - Bellmunt. 

We got all prepared and had breakfast early, only to look out the window and find it raining, so we went out for a second breakfast with another friend, Judit!

Coffee and toast with ham!

Attempting phonetical writing

2nd Breakfast!

And on the Saturday we'd gone out for a relaxed supper at the local creperia - a restaurant where basically the whole menu is crepes... Yum!

Dinner at the Creperia in Torelló!