Barcelona gems...

Well, after two days of being the sickest I think I have been in years with the flu, I feel like a million dollars today and am happy to be alive again! This means my sister and I are taking on Barcelona today, me with a renewed energy.

We´re staying in Barcelona until about the 17th and then heading down to my favorite city, Granada, for some Christmas celebrations with family. My sister´s friend is flying into Barcelona on the 11th and then my friend will be here on the 14th...Alex just left and it will be non-stop from here! When I was in Orgiva, we had put out an email to friends saying that, wow, you should come to Spain and see all this, and amazingly we had 4 friends take it up! So it will be hectic but it´s always fun to see things through fresh eyes...also, I have to admit, that while Alex knows more Spanish than either of us, I am looking forward to testing my use of the language as a "translator" with our friends coming that don´t speak it all...kind of like where we were 2 months ago!

Nick, Alex´s cousin has been great...he has let us stay at his apartment longer than planned and this has taken mucho stress off my shoulders as far as $$ is concerned! He has introduced us to some great people and we´ve been invited to a party at a co-op artists gallery on the 16th...I guess anyone who has travelled knows that these sorts of invites are gems as it allows you to hang out with people in their regular environments giving you a much stronger flavor of a culture and people than just the (still amazing) tourist stops...we have had a lot of opportunities like this on our trip and I feel extremely lucky for it!

Today, I think we´re going to try to find some more Gaudi and gawk at it from the street...how amazing it is to be able to touch something that was created by someone like him...this is how I felt at the Picasso museum too...I have taken a number of art history courses, but didn´t realize how much more impacting it is to see the works up close...it´s like live music versus recorded...it´s alive when you´re right there! Also, as we haven´t quite made it to the water yet, I think it might be a nice day to head down to the beach for a juice (no wine...still a bit fragile!)...also a good day to check out the very enticing markets downtown...uh oh....

I am at the point in my travels where I am torn about what my future plans are...I know it´s worked out the best so far to take things as they come, but right now, it´s not as simple as that because of finances...I either make an honest go of it here so that I can stay longer, or I go home and work...but I had a dream that I left and had returned home and I think I must have had my face in my pillow because it felf so suffocating...I take it, that as much as I miss home, I´m not quite ready to return yet...

I finally got batteries for my digital recorder, which i haven´t used for about 3 weeks or so...I put them in and pressed play yesterday and am so happy that I was using it so much at the beginning of my trip...talk about baby steps! We were recording our sister Pam saying "hasta luego" so that we could say it the way Andalucians do!! I also captured my friend Ali, from Granada, talking about some of his work with the International Red Cross at 3 in the morning, which I am so glad for, because that entire night stands out to me as one of those "gems" we´ve had here. Also recorded was some amazing flamenco I captured in an alleyway by an old man and a younger man playing together, some crazy bird singing in a Plaza and about 18 other files I have yet to listen to...might make a good soundtrack to slides at home!

Today, just for fun, I am going to look for work as an English teacher (surprise!) but also the possibility of working with artists´ as a model which I have done a lot of at home...it´s a well-known fact that finding work in Spain is not easy for a foreigner but it´s no excuse for not trying I guess...

So this is enough rambling for today...at this point, I feel like, if anyone is reading and had questions about travelling in Spain, or some of the places we have been to, that I could answer some related questions...so feel free to ask!

Hasta luego,
Savannah