What's the big deal?

I was just sitting on the bus the other day and I suddenly thought 'why is being here so different?' and it made me think. Really what difference does it make that I am in another country? It shouldn't really should it? I can still pick up the phone and talk to my parents. I can still probably get home within about 5 hours. I can still go to the shop and buy food. I can still pretty much do all the things I did when I was living in Southampton.

There is clearly a difference from living at home with my parents, but why is it different from living at university? Loads of reasons. That's why. And its more than just a new flat.

Sometimes when you are just in your own little world its hard to know why living away from your home country is so much harder then living in a new city within it. You wouldn't have your old friends there, you wouldn't automatically know what bus to take to work, you wouldn't know what time the local shop was open until, you wouldn't be able to remember the names of all your new flatmates friends... the list of similarities goes on.
But the point is in your home country; the place you grew up; the place where you have lived all your life, you know how to find these things out.
You take so much for granted in your own country. You know where you can go for a cheap dinner. What shop on the high street you will be able to by plasters in. You vaguely know what time the bank will shut. You know the the nearest supermarket will be a Tesco/Sainsburys/Asda. You know that you will be able to look up all the train times on national rail. That you just need to search for a post office to send a letter. Little things you don't even know you know.

Obviously I live in a Country with a language barrier. But I don't this would stop all the problems. Yes, its genuinely tiring to keep up whilst listening to a foreign language all the time until you actually switch off completely. You stop even trying to understand what the people around you are talking about let alone what they are saying. But that's not the real issue. The issue is everything is new. Sometimes I wander around a shop looking for something as simple as a notepad before I realise there is no way the local supermarket is going to sell one. They would in the UK. I could go to Tesco express and buy one within 5 minutes of my house.

The cultural differences are always there as well, and I am only just starting to really notice them. People eat at different times, people have a different work life balance, TV shows are on at different times, appropriate clothes are different. For example in the summer here it all revolves around family but once the summer starts to leave it all becomes much more work orientated. Not that that's a bad thing, but its something which is different. And I couldn't go much further without mentioning greetings. I WILL FOREVER BE AWKWARD WITH THE CHEEK KISSING. FULL STOP. This might just be an ingrained part of my personality or it might be that its just so different from the UK I never learnt as a child what you should do. But I have a strange feeling I will have to stop myself trying to kiss everyone when I come back to England; here you kiss the person you have just meet when you are saying bye. But you don't kiss work colleagues in the mornings which I have come to understand you would do in France. Oh and I think the German's go for one kiss, and Romanian people have more of a hug involved. The list goes on. Good job I am used to awkward moments.

So why is it harder. It's harder because you have to think about everything all the time. You wonder if the person next to you on the bus is offended you don't speak the language. Its a constant battle of trying to 'fit in' without making it feel alien. None of these things are an issue in your home country. But it's not bad, it's a challenge. It has also made me realise I am willing to go for a job anywhere in the UK because at least I will be able to have a propa cuppa when I sit down at the end of the day in my strange new scary flat.

Next time I promise I will update you on what I have been doing! But for now here is a nice picture of Catalonia's independence day 'celebrations'

I cannot even begin to explain how crazy this was... I felt like the only person not wearing red or yellow on the streets. (I wasn't, and it would have been even more weird wearing the colours if I am not even sure if I support it or not) Quite a site really. 

Waterfalls, Flamenco and Fun

This week I have had lots of fun even though it was my first proper week back at work for ages! (That was a bit of a killer, its strange how quickly you forget how tiring working in a lab is...) 

Anyway enough about work. This is a post about all the other fun things I have seen and done this week and I am going to try and make it short and sweet seeming as I have actually managed the one post a week thing. 

So on Tuesday I went to a place where all the tapas is 1€. Sounds amazing but I have to admit I won't be running back in a hurry. What it really is is different toppings, some of which were yummy, some not so much, on slices of bread. And then they bring around different hot tapas from time to time. It was fun though and great to meet up with some people on an otherwise quite dull Tuesday evening. But this kind of sums up how I feel about Spanish food at the moment, nothing is really wowing me about it - it seems most of the time to be a bit too carby which is not good for the waste line at all and the cake here is seriously lacking. (plus I still haven't got round to sorting the gym out again.. oppssss) Maybe it is just a case of having to try loads of new restaurants to find the hidden gems! I have also been thinking about what I miss from the UK and  the only food I crave is a proper tea and cake and also HP sauce. Random I know....

This is the totally crazy flamenco lady
 who I was quite convinced was
 going to slap the old guy in
 front of us who kept calling her guapa
and clapping! Something I
 have learnt you do not do in flamenco shows!! 

Thursday evening I went along to a free flamenco show in a bar. It was different to say the least, a crowded Spanish bar (obviously very noisy as everywhere in Spain is) being told of by this crazy lady making everyone be quiet for the show with varying levels of success! It was good fun though and I quite enjoyed it. I know its not really a big thing in this part of Spain so I would like to see a traditional show if I am ever in the south of Spain. 

Then yesterday we jumped on the metro with some food we had brought from the market and went to nearly the end of the line, at least further than I have been before and found this amazing park. It was the Parc del Laberint d'Horta and it was so quiet and peaceful, you wouldn't even know that you were still in the city. To set the scene I saw at lease 2 different wedding parties having their photos taken in the park so  I have however been eaten alive by some evil insects but other than that totally worth it! I have also been shown this super cute cafe which has its seats in the window, and this is somewhere I would have to take anyone who comes and visits! Too addicted to coffee.... 

Shot of a waterfall we found in the park. It was so worth the 2€ entry

Girls enjoying some drinks alfresco

Also trying to plan some weekend trips away in the next couple of months so if anyone has any suggestions of cities you have to visit in Spain (or anywhere else in Europe really) let me know! I also so put out the offer again to anyone to come and visit. I am quiet the tour guide now :) 

Finally feeling at home?

I promise myself that I will blog every week - but I don't. Maybe I will have to set aside blog evening once a week to ensure I do. (But don't quote me on this!). Also thank you to everyone for their great responses to my last blog post! It is great to know it is being read (even if its only by a few) so all comments and feedback are welcome.

The week I came back I spent in the lab, and did very little practical work because the lab was still officially shut but I did finally admit defeat and remind myself I have to write a dissertation whilst I am here. Limited work has been achieved but there is a word document none the less. That is an achievement right?

I went on another walking tour last Saturday, and it was slightly different to the others I have been on. It was aimed at a younger audience, backpackers, students ect.. so it was slightly less orientated around history as the previous tours but more information about visiting the city itself but good non the less! (I wish I had done them the other way around but if you are only here for a short time I would highly recommend the runner beans tours most)

From the Parliament square in Barcelona - Not sure why I love this photo but I do! 

Then as the lab was going to be virtually empty for the next week I decided to use the time to do a 'super intensive' Spanish course last week! It was great fun. I would like to spend longer there and improve more (but I am living in Spain so I should be learning all the time yes?) but maybe I will have the chance to do something similar next summer to help me keep up the skill. I also meet some really lovely people, went out for dinner, went to the beach and had great fun all week. I want to keep in touch with some of the people I meet there for sure!


I then yesterday went to the 1st meeting for Erasmus Student on the Beach and meet more lovely people - who I am  actually meeting this afternoon to attend another Erasmus meeting! Finally I feel as though I am meeting so many people, and I have made more contacts in the last week or so than the whole month I was here to begin with. Maybe I have finally turned a corner (or Spain is finally leaving the vacation period!) Both are probably true. It's totally relevant to me here that friends aren't going to find you unless you put yourself out there.





Anyway unfortunately its back to 'normal' next week! Not that any 2 weeks are the same here - and I am determined to keep that up but it does mean I can start gym classes again (YAYYYY I have been seriously missing a stress relieving aerobics session) and can finally go to the bank ect.

So a final word of this post is that I am finally feeling much more at home here. I am finding friends, catching the night bus alone - not dangerous because I have never seen so many people on a bus here is Spain before, scrapbooking my time here, ensuring I watch my favorite TV shows on i-player and getting back to a slight routine. Maybe this summer wasn't quite as I would have planned but the next 3 months are going to be great, I am sure of it!

Also if you can't tell I ate lots of great food this week!

It's been a while

Hola.

I wrote a lovely blog a couple of weeks ago after my birthday - it was based around a cake (typical me!) and maybe one of these days I will post it here. It was a very nice cake and did deserve its own blog post. But then I received some news that kind of changed my summer plans a little, my wonderful Nan passed away the same day I turned 21. I don't want to dwell on that here at all but I just wanted to explain my absence from the blogging thing for the past few weeks - and unless you wanted to hear daily updates of my horrendous rash I received once I got home (apparently I am allergic to my own house) or the fact the allergy tablets were making me muy muy sleepy - I didn't get up to that much of interest the couple of weeks I was home. I haven't forgotten that I did get to see some of my brilliant friends whilst I was home though and this was lovely!!

BUT I did get to spend a lovely week with my mum, dad, little brother and ROSIE in a caravan park in Brittany, France. A great week. I sunbathed, ate lots, spent some quality time with my family, walked the doggy lots, swam in the very cold sea and refused (much to my brothers disappointment) to throw myself backwards down the water slide! If I am totally honest I didn't really want to leave and I did cry a fair amount at the train station. Following this was what felt like the longest journey of my life. But I made it back to my flat in Barca and even managed to drag myself to work today which was nowhere near as bad as I had expected!

This was one of the only photos I took on holiday. Opppsss. (But it was a pretty gardens and a much better sight than my dad at the pool in his speedos - unfortunately they were compulsory)

I am really going to try and make a massive effort to feel more settled for the rest of my time here. This is not forever so ENJOY IT! And it doesn't matter if I want to sit in at the weekend and watch UK TV sometimes. I am working full time which I haven't done for a year or so (also really gutted I'm not being able to take part in the accommodation hotline this year and get my annual dose of chatting/being shouted at by freshers!) and I wouldn't be sightseeing and out and about every weekend if I was still in the soton or on a work placement somewhere else in the UK! Also it's okay to feel homesick sometimes, but I wouldn't really advise a trip home to cure it...

I still haven't really met many (any) people doing the same thing as me, but I am hoping in the influx of new Erasmus and just general students will be coming soon and should give me the chance to be a bit more sociable and give me a better chance of making some more friends!

Note to self: Spain shuts down in August. Full Stop!

For the time being I apologise for this slightly self indulgent rambly post but I want to keep up the blogging so I will try and do something exciting within the next couple of weeks which will be worth your while reading. I don't know what that will be at the moment....

How has it been over a month?!?!

I will never get used to everything being shut on a Sunday - what are you meant to do for one whole day of your precious weekend! Well I guess I will have to use it to finally write another blog post! (I didn't realise how long it had been since the last one)

First a weather update as I can't seem to escape the news of it being a bit of a heatwave in the UK. It is getting very very hot here now, I think I was treated with a mild welcome when I arrived but it's bearable! Things here are made for when it is hot so the lab is air conditioned and my flat has shutters to block the sun out but it's still not easy to escape the heat especially at night. But a cheeky glass of wine before bed generally helps with sleep! 

Last weekend didn't consist of much touristy stuff but I met a few of my housemates friends near the beach, had a drink and was reintroduced to a chicken sandwich. Yes I caved and I do pretty much eat meat when I am offered it here which is quiet often. But I think we all knew (at least I did) that I wouldn't last so long as being a veggie and wannabe foodie in Spain. I can't live of eggs you know!

Yesterday I went for the second walking tour offered by the same company as the last one I went on and it was also very interesting. It was all about Gaudí, who if you don't know is the architect you can't avoid here in Barca, his buildings and designs are all over the city with every other postcard having his works on and a number of museums dedicated to him. I was a bit skeptical because I'm not that big on my art ect but having a knowledgeable person explain it all to you, especially pointing out what you are looking at, is 100x more interesting. I also was able to chat to some people travelling in the area this time, which was nice as the last tour was mainly older couples. 

My favorite Gaudí building I saw on the tour - Casa Batlló

Now referring back to the title of this post I can not believe I have been here over a month now. Crazy. Don't know if this has been the longest or fastest month of my life. It feels like a lifetime ago I got of that plane entering a foreign country where I knew basically nobody with a poor grasp of the native language and a return flight booked for December. That first week was tough. I think I was a little/very naive about quite how challenging this would be. I have to admit now I probably rang home more in my first couple of weeks than a whole year at Uni. But at the same time the weeks are flying by, especially in the world of research a month isn't very long, and my Saturdays are quickly used up with such a cool city on my doorstep to explore. 

6 months still sounds like a daunting amount of time to me - but I am breaking it down in my head into smaller manageable segments. And once summer is over I will have to throw myself head first into working, as both me and my PhD supervisor will leave in December so there will be a lot to get done. 

Quick snap of most of the people in my lab. (Sandals and shorts are fine here but I can't quite bring myself to leave jeans and leggings) 

I am home in a week and half now (still doesn't actually seem like I'll actually be on a flight to the UK anytime soon). I am looking forward to some belated birthday celebrations (hint hint if you thought you could get away with not buying me an extravagant 21st gift) and then a weeks holiday by the beach with my family for lots of food and relaxation. I will try and write another post before then, potentially about the joke of me trying to bake a cake to take to work on Friday. Firstly it's too hot to really put the oven on so hello late night baking and I don't have any scales or correct equipment (apart from a mixing bowl and a whisk) so it's going to contain ALOT of guess work and improvisation! But that's a skill you learn to acquire in a lab with double the amount of students than usual! 

Plus I have also got the bug to do some travelling next summer recently! It would be amazing to visit more of Spain and Europe (I really fancy Italy and central Europe).