* Sunkissed in Espana *

Hola Amigos,

YES. I know these are like reading novels! But bare with me. And if you only want to read a snippet, I´d skip to the last several paragraphs...

This past week I was in Madrid and Barcelona, and....wait. Did you see that?....Yup, yup that would be Melissa leaving her comfort zone. Long gone are the English-speaking lads of Dublin and London, that is for sure.

Let me just start by saying, I have no clue who convinced me that most people in Madrid speak English, but whoever it was, you were LYING! I didn´t expect people to be passing me and saying "Good day, Madame" while tipping their hat, but boy....during my 3 days in Madrid, I don´t think I met a single local who spoke English. Let´s just say I had to brush up on my 7th grade Espanol skills reeeaaal fast.

When I first arrived in Madrid, I thought I knew where I was going, but got on a few wrong trains. When I asked for directions, the woman at the station said, "Just look up and you´ll see the signs." I was relieved when I made it to my hostel an hour and a half later. Oh, wait...nope...scratch that. I was at the wrong hostel (apparently there are two hostels with the same name in Madrid- smart, right?). So when I asked for directions to the place I was actually staying, guess what the guy said?: "Just look up, you´ll see a sign". What is it with people here and looking up for everything? Why don´t they just put the signs on the ground and make everyone´s life easier?!

When I finally got to my hostel, I was feeling a little exhausted from the flight, so I just dropped my stuff and walked around to find some dinner. After getting lost for the 4th time that day, I finally settled down in a small carneceria where - you guessed it - no one spoke English. I don´t think I detest anything more than completely giving myself away as a foreigner, but as I stumbled over my Spanglish words, I knew I was being punished for not taking foreign language class seriously enough all those years. However, the waiter was patient with me and even though I was making a fool of myself and probably making no sense at all, he offered me cappuccino on the house as I was about to leave. Just goes to show that you are rewarded with kindness when you try to adapt to the culture you are in instead of expecting it to adapt to you (it never does anyway).

Though Madrid hasn´t been my favorite place thus far, I did thoroughly enjoy the sights. If anyone finds their way out to the center of Spain, be sure to check out the Museo del Prado and Palacio Real- a huge building with over 1,000 rooms! There was a garden right next to it, and I sat with a much needed liter of water to watch the sun set over Madrid...breathtaking. I met a girl from Madagascar in my hostel that night, and we decided to go to a few museums the next day. It was a blast, but let´s just say my Madagascee isn´t up to par- nor was her English...so we had a little bit of difficulty. But, she was so nice and it was nice to have company nonetheless.

As I walked around a few other parts of Madrid later that second day, I couldn´t help but think about how alone I felt. It was the first time on the trip that I didn´t know the language, felt largely disconnected from the culture, and didn´t have a good friend around. But I kid you not...just as I thought that, I looked up (shocker) and the wall of the building next to me literally said, "No estas sola." You can´t tell me something like that is a coincidence. Very strange, but warming...I felt uplifted in an instant. I ended the day with the best chocolate con churros I´ve ever had in my life at a chocolateria nearby. (Yes, they literally have chocolaterias!) As I sat on the porch in my room for what must have been an eternity, I thought to myself, "This is so weird. It´ll be the first place I´ve gone where I didn´t go out at night." Of course, just as I said that, my Aussie roommate walked in and practically the first thing out of my mouth was, "Wanna do a bar crawl with me tomorrow?!?" And he´s awesome, so obviously he said yes. hahaha...So much for not going out.

I was feeling a little restless in the bustling city, so during my final day in Madrid, I took a local bus out an hour or so to the hill town of Toledo. Holy smokes. I got there and it was one of the most gorgeous sights I have ever seen in my life. It is exactly how you picture Spain- the sun shining down on your face as you wander aimlessly down alleys that are four feet wide; listening to the natives speak impressively fast in their native tongues; stumbling upon gorgeous churches that are more than 1,000 years old. My day in Toledo was one of the most fabulous days of this trip so far.

I got hungry and was tempted to eat at the bustling, touristy center, but I decided against it and continued on for a place more out of the way. Just as I reached the back side of the hill an hour or so later, I was going to turn back when something in me said to go up just one more hill. I did, and it was then that I found a hidden cafe. Perfect! After looking at a menu with pictures of pizza and paella, I closed the menu and - in decent Spanish!- I kindly asked if they had tortilla espanol, which wasn´t on the menu. The waiter looked at me with a slight smile as though he was impressed with me for ordering something off the menu too, and he brought me back the most delicious tortilla espanol I have ever feasted on.....muy delicioso. By the end of my meal, I knew the waiter was the one I was supposed to ask my life advice question to, so I proceeded in my awful Spanish again. He kept pointing to things on the map because I think he assumed I wanted advice on where to go in Toledo. But, I finally said, "No, no! quiero consejo por la vida buena...en general." He pointed to his heart and I knew he understood. He wrote something down quickly in Spanish, and I obviously broke out the pocket dictionary the minute I left the restaurant so I could translate it. He wrote, "Be a good person, and love as much as you can." I was wrong in the last e-mail when I said the advice couldn´t get better. It can.

As I was walking back to catch the bus to Madrid, I stumbled upon a corner with no tourists in sight...and I was presented with the most beautiful view of Toledo that there could possibly be. I sat there for a minute to take it all in, and I felt like, in that moment, the view was all mine. It was astounding, and incredibly moving. But I too had to get moving, and when I returned to Madrid, I lived it up like only the Spanish know how to do! As a friend I met from Madrid says, " Vive la buena vida! Ole!" Unfortunately, I realized that I lived it up a little too much when I woke up at 6:30 am with the worst headache of my life after 1.5 hours of sleep. Luckily, I slept the entire way to Barcelona, and woke up feeling much better.

I fell in love with Dublin for the people. But, I fell in love with Barcelona for the aesthetics and the culture. I don´t exactly know what I was expecting when I got here, but I was pleasantly surprised. For one thing, I didn´t get lost! For another, my hostel is awesome. It´s in an old apartment building run by 20-somethings, and when they feel like going out for the night, they just give everyone their own set of keys so they don´t have to ring people in at 3 am. After a delightfully slow afternoon, I met up with Grant and Max, two buddies from Hamilton. It was so nice to see familiar faces in unfamiliar territory. After going out for tapas, we went to some Irish pub (counterintuitive, I know, but yet another sign that I should move to Dublin!) to watch the semi-final game between Espana y Russia. After Spain won 3-0, the place went absolutely nuts, and I loved it. And I thought the Super Bowl was crazy! I really wish people were that passionate about sports back home. I can´t even imagine what it´ll be like here if they win the finals tomorrow night.

While at the pub, we met two really nice girls from Atlanta, and we all decided to go for a stroll down the beach and get food in La Barceloneta. The best part of the night had to have been when Grant was trying to explain to me as we walked down Las Ramblas (think: Times Square in the early 90s, but longer and less lit up) how crazy that area was: " I swear, people here just hand you everything.....pamphlets, brochures, papers....sex." hahahaha WHAT??? Very funny stuff, and it winded up being a great night, spent with new and old friends alike. It definitely got me out of my little funk from not being able to communicate that well in Madrid. Thanks to Grant especially for falling for my 5 year old jokes. (Why do your hands smell like grapes?) haha.

The next couple of days were spent meandering around Barca, and the highlights were seeing:

1. La Sagrada Familia, and other astounding works by the famous architect Gaudi....not that much catches my eye in terms of art, but I am absolutely in awe of Gaudi´s incredible work. The man was a genius. A very, very deep individual.

2. Hanging out at the beach and the sun actually being strong enough to get me tan in ONE hour!

3. More new friends, more Sangria

4. Cooking probably the first meal that I actually ate and said, " I can´t believe I actually made something that edible" (It was whole wheat pasta with bolognese sauce, melted cheese and sauteed fresh peppers...mmmm)

and 5. The Picasso Museum.

...Now, ok. I have to be honest. I am really not a museum person. Some people can look at a painting for hours and see 20,000 different things in it. I on the other hand look at a painting for an average of 30 seconds and go, "Oooooooo, pretty colors." So fine, in that way I am not the most artistically cultured individual. But, I really, really loved this museum.

First of all, I had no idea Picasso did so many different kinds of artwork- sketches, pottery, sculptures. And even among the paintings, there were the blue and pink periods, cubism, classicism, surrealism. It´s interesting that he was known for a select number of works. Though these are astounding and famous paintings in their own right, after seeing everything else Picasso did, I realized that there was so much more to who he was as an artist- and thus, an individual. It was interesting to see the museum laid out by each year in his life....to see how his style changed, progressed, and was influenced year by year.

One of his collections is called "Las Meninas". When looking at this particular section of the museum, I was drawn to one particular painting- probably the only black and white one that I had seen that day. I wondered to myself, " What exactly was Picasso thinking when he created this? Was this scene that he drew real, or did he make it up out of thin air? Isn´t it possible that he just drew without any purpose at all, just using whatever colors and shapes struck him that day?" But then, I overheard a guide saying (In English, miraculously), "Picasso looked at a lot of other famous works at the time, especially in Paris and Madrid. One day he thought to himself, ´Wouldn´t it be interesting if I took these famous paintings and moved the people, lighting, and objects around?´And that´s exactly what he did."

Apparently, that black and white painting I had been looking at was a rearranged version of a famous piece done by Velazquez, which I had seen just days earlier at the Museo del Prado in Madrid! Picasso took that painting, and essentially created something completely different and unrecognizable from the original. Amazing.

The Picasso Museum depicted the work and life of one remarkable individual. However, what the museum symbolized for me was life as a whole, as we all come to experience it. Like Picasso, people come to know us for certain key decisions we make in life...where to go to college, when and why to take time off once we get there, how we speak, the jobs we take, the friends we make. But very rarely are we just the people others recognize us as. Other people´s perceptions of who we are...that's only one layer of us. If we take time to understand the other pieces of who people are, only then can we fully appreciate them.

Further, the even harder thing is not letting ourselves be defined by the perspectives of others about who we are. That´s what Picasso did with the Las Meninas series. He drew his own perspective of the greatest works of art from the past three centuries. We, too, can all be looking at the same thing but experiencing it in an entirely different way from the person standing next to us.

Picasso once said, " If you already know exactly what you are going to do, then what´s the point in doing it?" How true that is. The excitement in life- and particularly on this trip so far, for me personally- has come from putting the directions and the maps away, traveling down the roads that are appealing at that particular moment, and stopping every so often to take it all in...wherever you may be standing.

Thinking back, I realize...of course Picasso was painting with a purpose. You don´t become a world famous artist by painting without it. But that is the interesting thing. The challenge is living a purpose-driven life, but being ok with not knowing exactly how to get to where you want to be all the time...

After all, we have to be lost in order to find our way.

...And for the moments when we are genuinely lost? I guess the best thing I´ve learned to do at those points is simply to look up.



Love life!,

Melissa




Observations:

1. They make out a lot in Spain. No joke, it´s borderline disgusting. I was at a park and I swear everyone there was swapping spit except for me.

2. I can get away with being a local here, since I look pseudo- Spanish. But the minute I open my mouth to speak...forget about it.

3. Don´t expect people in Madrid to speak English or understand it. They don´t, at least not in my experience.

4. When in Barcelona, don´t make the mistake of calling them Spanish...they are CATALAN. Oh, and I couldn´t for the life of me understand why no one was getting all the Spanish I worked so hard to learn in Madrid. Ohhhh, riiiiiight. They speak a different language there...that explains things.

5. People told me to be afraid of being in Barcelona alone. Honestly, I felt way safer here than in Madrid. Just goes to show you that you´ve gotta have your wits about you, but still go into new cultures unafraid.

6. Gaudi was the man.

7. Picasso was, too!

8. The women on the beach in Barca often go topless, and it´s totally normal. A little awkward, but it's nice that they are so confident.

9. I think I was Spanish in another life. They take siestas and don´t go out until 2 am! Finally, my slepping habits were considered normal.



Trip Stats:

Days: 12

Roommates: 25

Gelato Cones Consumed (Had to change the PB & J, since apparently they don´t even sell that over here in Europe! ): 4

Local Life Lesson:
"Always try your best" ... Words of wisdom from a Catalan chef that I met in Barcelona

Jukebox: " All my insecurities try to run my destiny, I can make or break it if I choose" - Perfect Girl, Sarah McLachlan

Random Thought: Isn´t it funny that when you are by yourself when you are surrounded by others in a crowded city you feel so alone, but when you are by yourself in an empty town, you feel at peace?

Quotables:

" No entiendo" - The two words I´ve probably uttered the most in the past 5 days.¨

" You know you want to shimmer, you know you want to tingle!" hahahaha.....you know who you are. I´m buying you lipgloss for Christmas.


Overheard:

I´m not even gonna bother sharing a quote I overheard. Let me just tell you about what I oversaw: A 70-year old man with about 57 tattoos walking butt-naked down Las Ramblas, the most crowded, touristy street in Barcelona. There are no words.