Day Twenty-Four (TR)
My checklist for today:
1. Eat churros y chocolate. You might think you know what churros are from your last day at Lagoon, where you paid two dollars for one that had been hanging in its little heat-lamp-illuminated glass box for three weeks, but you are wrong. The ones I eventually found had a similar shape but were only about four inches long, were fresh, and were not coated in granulated sugar. The chocolate (choh-koh-LA-tay) was not much like hot cocoa. It was more like a mug full of chocolate sauce. It was so thick that if you took more than a sip, breathing was difficult afterwards. A+.
2. Get a hold of David. The trouble, you will recall, was my total failure to communicate on the phone in Spanish, even though face to face communication seemed to be no trouble. I had his address as well so I thought maybe I could just show up at his house. Alella, the town or suburb that he lived in, was not on my tourist map of Barcelona and nobody at the train station had any idea where it was, but most of them confirmed to me that it did, in fact exist. I thought maybe the street name and the region had gotten reversed. Instead of Calle Catalunya, Allela, Barcelona, it could be Calle de Alella, Barcelona, Catalunya (Barcelona is the capital of Catalunya). This address did exist, and I went to it, and it wasn't them. Back to the phone. It turned out that the reason David's sister could not understand a word I was saying was not because of my Spanish, but because of my inability to use a public telephone. I guess you have to dial "#" as soon as they pick up to start the meter running. So I did get a hold of him. We agreed to meet at 6:00 at the Masnou train station. Also, he invited me to stay at his house for several nights! Hooray! No more drunks stumbling into my room!
3. Visit Parc d'Guell. After talking with David I returned to the hostel and got my backpacks, then took the subway to Parc d' Guell. This place is ridiculous. This article is good, but of course is nothing like the experience of visisting the park. It looks like a fantasy world. A+
So I meet up with David at 6:00. He takes me to his house and I meet his family, minus his parents who are out of town, plus his Grandma who is staying with them. Daivd has the coolest family. David speaks great English, his sister speaks well too, but his youngest sister and his grandmother speak none. So this is probably where my Spanish grew the most.
Also there was a youth activity that night at David's ward. I went with him and they basically had a short lesson and then talked. Loudly. So loudly that a woman working the geneology library came and shouted at us for about five minutes.
Spain is a cheek-kissing country. Men and women usually kiss each others' cheeks as a greeting and as a farewell. And since David introduced me to everyone, there was a lot of cheek-kissing. Travel certainly broadens the mind.
Poor Sarita. as a result of my visit she is displaced from her bedroom and is given her parents'.
1. Eat churros y chocolate. You might think you know what churros are from your last day at Lagoon, where you paid two dollars for one that had been hanging in its little heat-lamp-illuminated glass box for three weeks, but you are wrong. The ones I eventually found had a similar shape but were only about four inches long, were fresh, and were not coated in granulated sugar. The chocolate (choh-koh-LA-tay) was not much like hot cocoa. It was more like a mug full of chocolate sauce. It was so thick that if you took more than a sip, breathing was difficult afterwards. A+.
2. Get a hold of David. The trouble, you will recall, was my total failure to communicate on the phone in Spanish, even though face to face communication seemed to be no trouble. I had his address as well so I thought maybe I could just show up at his house. Alella, the town or suburb that he lived in, was not on my tourist map of Barcelona and nobody at the train station had any idea where it was, but most of them confirmed to me that it did, in fact exist. I thought maybe the street name and the region had gotten reversed. Instead of Calle Catalunya, Allela, Barcelona, it could be Calle de Alella, Barcelona, Catalunya (Barcelona is the capital of Catalunya). This address did exist, and I went to it, and it wasn't them. Back to the phone. It turned out that the reason David's sister could not understand a word I was saying was not because of my Spanish, but because of my inability to use a public telephone. I guess you have to dial "#" as soon as they pick up to start the meter running. So I did get a hold of him. We agreed to meet at 6:00 at the Masnou train station. Also, he invited me to stay at his house for several nights! Hooray! No more drunks stumbling into my room!
3. Visit Parc d'Guell. After talking with David I returned to the hostel and got my backpacks, then took the subway to Parc d' Guell. This place is ridiculous. This article is good, but of course is nothing like the experience of visisting the park. It looks like a fantasy world. A+
So I meet up with David at 6:00. He takes me to his house and I meet his family, minus his parents who are out of town, plus his Grandma who is staying with them. Daivd has the coolest family. David speaks great English, his sister speaks well too, but his youngest sister and his grandmother speak none. So this is probably where my Spanish grew the most.
Also there was a youth activity that night at David's ward. I went with him and they basically had a short lesson and then talked. Loudly. So loudly that a woman working the geneology library came and shouted at us for about five minutes.
Spain is a cheek-kissing country. Men and women usually kiss each others' cheeks as a greeting and as a farewell. And since David introduced me to everyone, there was a lot of cheek-kissing. Travel certainly broadens the mind.
Poor Sarita. as a result of my visit she is displaced from her bedroom and is given her parents'.
posted by T.R. at 8:48 AM
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