La Molina

4:55 is definitely the earliest I've set my alarm since being here in Spain. At 6am  I met my four friends in the centre of the city, ready to get the train up into the pyrenees to go skiing.

After the 2 or 3 hour journey, we had arrived and went to get out skis and boots fitted. It was so relaxing skiing, the snow was amazing and it was really good fun. It was the first time skiing for my friend Evan from Florida, and when we were on the train he mentioned that it was the second time he'd been on a train in his life! (In Florida they don't use trains as much as here). 

We skied the whole day and then got the train back to Barcelona after playing cards and drinking well-deserved hot chocolate in a bar.

Sitges

The weird feeling after exams, the anticlimax as you realise that life without revision isn't all you'd idealised it to be during the endless weeks of revising, pretending to revise or avoiding revision. Having spent the last two weeks looking at flights to go home, (not to escape exams, but to be in the snow), I've now come to my senses and realised that at least for now I'm quite happy in Spain/Catalonia/Barcelona.

David, Loida, Indi, Lidia and Me

As soon as exams were over, I got the train with four friends to Sitges, a beach town 40km south of Barcelona where we'd spontaneously booked an apartment for the night the previous evening. It was so relaxing walking along the almost deserted cobbled streets, with houses instead of tall apartment buildings, palm trees, the sea, the sand and the sea breeze. We found our way to the beach and sat down in a chiringuito (a beach bar.. and apparently this one was the first one in Spain!) on the sea front and relaxed in the sun before walking along the beach to collect the keys. The confused man at reception told us we didn't have a reservation, but a phone call later our reservation had magically appeared on the system and a colleague was driving us to an apartment.

Las chicas

Recently I've been told a few times that I'm quite English. One of the reasons to back up this claim was that my skin was orange, but I think another stereotype that could single me out as English is my concept of warm and cold. In Sitges, I went swimming in the sea in January (in my pyjamas - I forgot my swim stuff) while my friends, one of whom is from Australia and the other three from Spain were sitting on the beach in wrapped up in coats and scarves playing guitars and ukuleles. If swimming in January is fun, I cannot wait for summer!!

Psalm 23

El Señor es mi pastor, nada me falta; 
en verdes pastos me hace descansar. 
   Junto a tranquilas aguas me conduce; 
me infunde nuevas fuerzas. 

The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.

   He makes me lie down in green pastures, 

he leads me beside quiet waters, 

   he refreshes my soul. 

GBU Internacionales 2013 - First meeting!

Sorpreses i Despedides

On Friday, Sílvia and I went to Vic on a surprise visit to see Íngrid before she left to Prague, where she's going on erasmus this semester. I love surprises and I wish we could have caught Íngrid's beautifully confused face as, waiting outside her sister's apartment she turned around and saw us laughing. 

Sun, friends, surprises, Catalan food & English tea made for a lovely break in the middle of exams.

Et trobarem a faltar, Íngrid.. T'hi trobarem molt!! Have an amazing time in Prague!

Reis/Reyes/Kings

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, ‘Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.’ 
Matthew 2: 1-2 

Después de nacer Jesús en Belén de Judea en tiempos del rey Herodes, he aquí llegaron a Jerusalén unos sabios procedentes del Oriente. - ¿Dónde está el que ha nacido rey de los judíos? - preguntaron -. Vimos salir su estrella y hemos venido a adorarlo.
Mateo 2:1-2 

January 5th and 6th are exciting days for Spanish and Catalan children, as here it is not Father Christmas but the Three Kings from the East who bring the children their presents. On the evening of January 5th, towns and villages throughout the country put on their own cavalcada, a parade to welcome in the Kings to which the children all go armed with fanalets (lanterns), and their letters to the kings.

I went to Vic for the weekend to see the cavalgata with my friend Íngrid and her family, and I think I was almost as excited as the children as the procession of three kings and their helpers who collected the letters from the children, of musicians and people throwing thousands of sweets out into the crowds, groups of lantern bearers and floats with massive presents piled up passed by us: it was so much bigger than I'd expected! One section of the parade I didn't quite understand was the group with different coloured ladders. Apparently it was obvious that that was the way the kings got into all the houses, and I was told that was far more credible a story than an old man squeezing down the chimney and back up again.

Having enjoyed front line views and got enough sweets in our pockets, we retreated to Íngrid's granny's balcony, which was in a perfect place to watch the parade from above, and then we went to the plaza major to meet up with the Kings as they finished their route around the town centre and climbed a staircase up the side of the town hall to give a small speech. 

Hello Barcelona.

"We are currently flying from London Gatwick to Moscow".

Not the most reassuring thing to hear during my flight back to Barcelona...