best of bcn post

some of my favorite favorite places to go (read: eat) in barcelona.

1. la boqueria. fresh fruit, fresh fruit juice, fresh everything, delicious.

2. demasié cafe. best xocolata i´ve had in spain, by far. also, adorable and also delicious. (photos via http://www.demasie.es/)

3. bar lobo. this super chic bar has the most amazing salads, whole wheat honey walnut bread, home-made pizzas and home-made coffee ice cream. loved.

there is the kind of distance that breathes and there is the kind of distance that suffocates. most of the time i am constantly vibrating between the two; halfcaught halfbreathed breathing out and in. this week of sunshine on our skin and flamenco guitar in our ears i think i will be breathing breathing.

barça barça baaaaarça

tomorrow semana santa starts and my family comes. i am so looking forward to warmer andalucian sunshine, flamenco, bull fighting, l'alhambra, moroccan shops, beach lounging. love and besos.

the first day of spring

from "stuff white people like: #72"

"By attending school in another country, white people are technically living in another country. This is important as it gives them the opportunity to insert that fact into any sentence they please.“When I used to live in [insert country], I would always ride the train to school. The people I’d see were inspiring.”

If you need to make up your own study abroad experience, they all pretty much work the same way. You arrived in Australia not knowing anybody, you went out to the bar the first night and made a lot of friends, you had a short relationship with someone from a foreign country, you didn’t learn anything, and you acquired a taste for something (local food, beer, fruit). This latter point is important because you will need to be able to tell everyone how it is unavailable in your current country.

It is also important that you understand the study abroad ranking system. Europe/Australia form the base level, then Asia, then South America, and finally the trump card of studying abroad in Tibet. Then there is the conversation killer of studying abroad in Africa. If you studied in Africa, it is usually a good idea to keep it quiet, it will remind white people that they were too scared to go and they will feel bad. Use this only in emergencies."

las fallas

i left my memory card at home last weekend, so these are some pictures i took on lovely justine's camera. valencia during the fallas fiestas equalled basically paella, folk dancing, churros, horchata, fireworks so close the ground shook, aquariums and dolphin shows.

nieve etc...

today it is snowing in barcelona (for the first time in 10 years, i heard). big wet sloppy snowflakes in my hair and in my cafe con leche and on the ground and in my shoes. i am such a california baby, but i just want it to be warm and sunny and mediterranean. wahh

rivulets

my hip flexors are sore, my abs are weak, but i am so grateful to finally have a class to go to every day for the next two months!! hello again, body (hello again, downward dog); it feels nice to start coming out of hibernation.

pilates: w th f s

finally finally!

so i am having this rebellion against words, against too many words, against empty words and that kind of enthusiasm for unreal things that because i have been too prone to makes me feel kind of sick to my stomach now. i am distrusting all words except a few ("claro," "news," "maravillosa," "true"), wanting to refuse their ineffectuality, their pomp, their fluff. i don´t know how i am going to write my honors literature thesis if i am still having this problem, but i think i better figure it out before april. oh also, i only have six weeks left in barcelona. ooph.