freaks n geeks

Ok – so I’m gonna try and do a quick wrap-up of the first few days cos then I can get onto what’s happening now-ish… besides the little Spanish I have is only in present tense J!

SO after movin in I basically wandered aimlessly in the suburb and bought some groceries and ate and came home (yawn) don’t forget I was muy jet-lagged. Sleep was very fractured

SUNDAY MORNING … having arrived in the country on Friday I decided that by Sunday I had to be over the jetlag so, just move-your-ass-time, period. Except then I woke up with my period and felt even shiter. Kill-me-now cramps, bilious and exhausted but hey at least I was all those things in Barcelona, right?

Dragged carcass out of flat… here are my iPhone notes… which I will then explain… if I can work them out myself!

Barcelona 1- ok first adventure with my head vaguely on. After late start (see kill-me-now cramps!) didn't want to do whole big tourist thing til after their siesta . So just went wandering in neighborhood…

Found a great large scale graffiti piece that I think may be a squat/protest … excuse me una momento while I leer (read) what I can… with the help of google translate!

Ok, the obvious banner says “freedom is not free” and the next one seems to continue… “when every basket is…” Damn real estate sign! My feeling was it’s a squat under threat of redevelopment … but I’m not sure why I think that!

Staggered across market full of hard-core geeks and tattoed freaks as well as the occasional poof and dyke - at last… my peeps! It was an utterly magical surprise to walk 2 blocks to me de reche and discover a beautiful old market. The old buildings are close for renovations ( L over their summer) but all the way around (a whole block !!!) were tent/stalls full of BOOKS!... well largely new and second hand, Spanish, Catalan and English… as well as stamps, coins, dvds, posters, gems music… a collectables market (bonus)… I bought 3 kids books and some second-hand postcards (which I intend to plagiarise later) to help me learn Spanish … of course two of the books, it turns out, were in Catalan and I can’t even decode the fucken cards!

SO what do you think this huddle is. I noticed cinco o seis dotted around. At first I though they might be tour groups… but that didn’t fit. All intent and some kinda transaction was taking place… drugs? As If… I went in closer for a bit of a sticky… turns out they were trading these um swap cards (?!?) no really! Some fantasy collectors thingy from what I could see.

Anyways when I did the circuit – feeling more than a little seedy, I decided to sit and get my first lot of tapas… something something musculo (muscles) y something something calamares (calamari). Mmmm mmm. I sat in the sun to wait.

The table next to me were a group of gay guys… talking about the attractions of Barcelona – one was Spanish and 2 were French – “he was a great – big and black” and “It is yust a thame I prefer sex with X so much more than Y” er … either Barcelona is more “liberal” than the rest of the planet OR they assumed no-one around them spoke English, cos let me tell you I AM censoring their conversation!

I was all contemplative and try to think about what was different and (for some reason?) I realized I hadn’t seen any real estate agents in Barcelona at all. A random thought I know but think about the main streets in any suburb in Melbourne and voila – real estate agents!

…

Every other fucker in Barcelona smokes!

…

Oh look some parroty looking birds…

Oh at last, camerero coming to me… uh-oh me platos es muy grande y comer es freido! (I’ve ordered too much and it’s all fried!) I had imagined tomato sauces or…not fried! I was already feeling queasy so after some very awkward negotiation I took most of it home. Fail!
Speaking of fail - this was meant to a quick wrap up - mega fail... more to come

Anyways it 2:15 am here and I have classes soon so

Hasta manana

Mi situacion en Barcelona!

Well oops – I wasn’t planning on quite this much lag! Quite a bit of catching up to do now… but it’ll probs be in instalments – or fragments - because with such a gap much has been deleted from my deplete grey matter.

SO I arrived at my apartment after my night in the hostal – actually even getting the key to the apartment was a bit of a saga. Mi habla Espanol en poco, no, MUY en poco! But added to my lack of language is the basic lack of understanding of “placa” the address I had to pick up the key was 7/5 Placa Urquionina. I translated placa to mean Place – a posh street, right. Nup I stood IN the Placa and didn’t know it! Placa means square or mall… and it is numbered all the way around – ie all four sides. The placa was a 5 minutos walk from the hostal but the expedition took 2 horas! I enjoyed it actually until the last 10 minutes when I briefly panaiced that perhaps I’d paid MUCHOS dollars for a course/apartmento that didn’t exist…. But then I found the door – spoke to a lady who knew no English and eventually got the key from her – MEGA FUCKING PHEW.

It all took much patience to communicate … on the behalf of others, bless them!

Anyways mi was still mucho fatigado and had to be out of the hostal by 1pm. One small problem, I called cab and headed to the apartment with all my worldly goods but most of the streets were blocked for a marathon and the traffic was a nightmare. Typico!

Cab drivers mostly seem to be uni students… cute too!

Anyways, I arrived eventually at the apartmento…

DESCRIPTION OF 122 CALLE TAMARIT:

6 people (inc me) lived (currently 5) in an apartment on the 7^th floor in a space the size of not even the front half of my house ie menos the kitchen/bathroom area.

To get up you need to catch a clunkety old 60's lift that is er... rather intimate (and awkwardly slow) when 4 people are in it!

When I arrived there were 2 gals from Holland (Melanie and Naomi – who share a room and together they MAY just add up to be my age… maybe!), 2 gals from Germany (Johanna – still here… sleeps A LOT –22ish) and another one who I can’t remember … she moved out that night and a chick from Iceland (moved out the next day)… 3 days ago Ana (from Germany) also moved in) SO in a blur (only exaggerated by my jet-laggy hallucinatory state) this last week makes my previous living situations seem stable (bwaha ha ha) I now live with Melanie, Naomi, Johanna and Ana – one room/closet is empty.

I’ll come back to said housemates but will start with the edificio first:

I HAVE THE BEST ROOM (fucking phew!) It has light, air and space. Though for the first time in viente seis (26) years I am in a singlebed! WHen I arrived I discovered it had only a bottom sheet and no pillow cases (doh) so I am REALLY glad I picked up a coupla mega-size sarongs in Singapore. My pillowcase is a top that it’s too warm to wear here anyway!

The bedroom furniture looks like someone robbed a 1980-90’s seedy accountants office and stuck it in here - fake pine laminate office furniture! But at least I have shelves AND a desk (either/or in other rooms).

Looking across from my window are the backs of other typico apartmentos but when I look straight down I see the construction site that acts as my gentle (yeah right!) wake up call at around 7am.

The lounge-room is gross – small, tacky, unkempt and dark - but it amuses me that in student households internationally (or so it would seem) the fluorescent lights and lamps have all been draped with cheap scarves!

The kitchen is really a hall with a stove, fridge, cupboard and overflowing rubbish bins - it didn't even have a kettle when I moved in (that soon changed as did the sudden increase in the number of herbal tea varieties!... which I have, of course alphabetised... naaa jokes!) the kitchen leads onto the laundry – a tiny balcony with a wash machine and a clothes hanger that juts out over the balcony into the shared central.

But I really love it …because of the LOCATION.

Across the street there is a small park and sitting area - children splash and play in drinking fountains (remember that?!), old people chat on benches with placid dogs beside them and behind the little park is a paved area with eateries ... I came out the other night and an old dude was playing the piano accordian while a group of laughing children danced swinging in a circle… nyaw!
next to the eateries is my school… next to me is a supermarket, bank… within 3 blocks in EVERY direction are Metro stations (2min in any direction!!!!!))))… there’s an asian grocer within a block and a fresh fruit and veg mercado within 2 blocks…

This is an huevo stall ... look in the back they have ostrich and EMU huevos!!! this the beautiful edificio of the mercado (not my pic! I'll talk about the mercado more in another blog)

Anyways I guess the place is a little seedy but it makes for easy living and a “realness” I like!

ABOUT MY HOUSEMATES FROM…

Well Europe at the mo… they’re all young, they’re mainly here as part of their uni holidays. We’re all at the same language school but not in the same class (I’ll tell you all about school real soon!)– they all speak English fluently. Other than Ana the others will be coming to live in Espana to do an internship as part of their studies. They all "party" but not like we did back in the day! (ie I am yet to see anyone passed out in a pool of....)

MELANIE (social work) – lovely, sweet, sings in a church choir, tends to do more housework than anyone else ( 8] ) is sincerely niiiice (actually the ALL seem to be) – phew again

NAOMI (social work) – Melanie's amiga – sings … really well… tends to sing muy daggy 1960-70s easy listening stuff in English – it’s like listening to Gold FM with a Dutch accent!

JOHANNA (psychology?) – sweet but her hours are muy different to mine - she sleeps a lot in the morning, has classes in arvo/evening and then goes out... has the loveliest smile and seems to be a little more cautious then the others.

ANA (graphic design) – the new arrival - has a mystique – she's quieter but I immediately sensed an interesting darker side… like many of my most interesting amigo/as!

She and I have been out on few outings…which I’ll tell you about REAL SOON!

Anyways so I’ve set up the situacion and now that I’ve bored you (well I’ve bored myself at least) all my next posts will be more about stuff I see and do and the musings that go with them

Until then

Adios amigas/os

Flights, sights and other elements of the journey

Pic at some airport - which? - I can't remember!

Ok I have actually lost track of time and largely like that… but for now let me go back in time and recount the bits of my journey I remember - unfortunately in the sleep deprived haze that was flying for me, I didn’t keep iPhone notes for this phase.

Any hoo – caught train to Changi then headed for the underground basement to catch bus to “budget airport” – second class citizens but still efficient and a BIG thumbs up to have a massage stall right near the transit gates – best way to spend the last of my Singapore dollars.

Flight to Bangkok was packed. Sigh. And I got the seat next to a young couple who played games on their iPhone all the way – with volume up (I am an easily irritated/anxious flyer)… She was irritating as she squealed girlishly every time she shot something (ie constantly) She did however have the most amazing manicure finger nails. Unlike the run-of-the-mill painted flowers hers were 3D – like the icing flowers of a wedding cake had been glued to her nails. Bizzarre.

I Bangkok came to regret wearing closed shoes as feet had swollen and blisters were forming as I schlepped from on end of the airport to the other with luggage. At last dumped my stuff headed and had a meal (budget airlines do not provide such luxury) filled my water bottle and waited til 11pm for flight to Zurich to board.

Another packed to the rafters flight. Got to seat to find man (from now on to be referred to as Pig-of-a-Man ) playing his phone – volume on – and his stuff sprawled on my seat. He moved stuff (phew) turned off phone (phew) and promptly fell asleep well before flight took off. I’d say phew but he fucken snored like a band-saw felling a fucken forest! And continued that way most of the flight – he also sat spread leg (invading my zone) and randomly rocked (?) his legs (did I mention I am an irritable traveller?). SO I got earplugs (at one point I forgot I had them in and then panicked cos I thought I was going deaf!) but still barely slept – probs a total of two of the ensuing 11hours!

Arrived a little shattered and disorientated in Zurich. When I got hand luggage down discovered my water had leaked – yeecks. Had to catch a train for connecting flight – all very efficient. But weird. On the train – unless I was hallucinating – they started playing some dirge-kinda funereal music that would stop after a moment with the sound of a cow mooing. Seriously. At first I thought it was someone’s mobile. But it kept happening and several of us on the train looked at each other in disbelief. Maybe the Swiss just have an unexpected sense of humour.

Anyway caught a nice half-empty flight to Barcelona. Arrived at 9am.

Whole trip really smooth. Called the Hostal I had booked – caught a taxi there and then dumped my bags for 2 hours til my room was ready. A really cute place and people were nice too.

But sleep deprived and jetlagged my first stagger around Barcelona was odd. I ended up buying a bottle of water and Morcilla (blood sausage) roll and staggered into a Chinese/Spanish internet café. No-one spoke a work of English… the place was real divey and they were smoking. The computers were set to Chinese so I had little hope of pressing the right things when asked and on top of that Spanish keyboards have different placement of punctuation so the Facebook posts I put up were effected by these unexpected things.. The smoke got to me quite quickly – was glad I’d picked up a ventolin in Singapore (not that I’ve used it yet but…) – so I headed back out.

Wandered around and decided I’d like Barcelona cos the first person I ran into had this awesome gentle giant dog (these are the clues to a good place) and we (the man and I) made a very stilted attempts at communicating. Frankly I am still a little surprised – but happy I think! - by the lack of English spoken here (cab driver, shop assist, computer peops) people had told me otherwise before I left.

As I continued I found a supermerkado and head in deciding to refresh my VERY sketchy Spanish by finding stuff for dinner. I bought Anchovy stuffed olives, a tomato, endive, a lemon, smoked fish, almond milk, herbal teabags and chickpeas. Weird huh? Remember sleep deprived.

Anyway staggered back to hostal where I passed out in airconditioned comfort.

This is a view from my internal bedroom window and a pic of the hall area.
It had an amazing old-fashioned wrought-iron lift - I reckon lifts are gonna be a feature here as escalators were in SIngapore - to get upstairs and really quaint decor in hall area - room basic but had own bathroom and that was what I paid for.

Woke up and watched some SPanish spelling game show - yes really!. Made salad (everything but almond milk) by cutting up bits with pocket knife- handy already Lani and Jaz - pouring ingredients into a zip-lock bag shaking and eating with a spoon knicked from the plane. Ingenious! No kettle though so no tea... just drank almond milk from carton. hehehe

The day to day existence since then will be in next blog… if you can stand the wait – I’ve decided my blogs can lag too!