December 30th, 2010
I arrive in Barcelona a las tres de la tarde with my best friend awaiting me at the airport. The nervousness in my heart has faded away with the sight of her and my excitement to be studying abroad has begun. Before I was able to start really enjoying my home far away from home; I had to rush to go meet my realtor to check out the apartment that I found weeks prior to coming here. Gitzel and I found the ATM inside the airport immediately since I had to withdraw money for the deposit of the apartment just in case the place suited me. Of course I forgot that my bank would set a limit on how much I could take out. The first ordeal of the day. However we were in bright spirits so we decided we will figure out a way as we took the taxi to my future home. My main street seemed to be very lively and have everything I could possibly need for my 4 month stay in Barcelona right at my footsteps. Since we had arrived early to meet the realtor and had time to spare, we both decided we were starving and should get something to eat. Across from my building was a kebab place entitled "doner kebab"; and it seemed like the perfect place to quench our thirst and hunger. The owner happens to be Pakistani. We ordered food and I soon realized that the owner was into my friend Gitzel, but she usually likes to play naive so I went along with this drama that was about to unfold in front of me. After all, I was ready to enjoy myself even if it meant laughing about the happenings of my friend. As we were getting ready to leave, he invited us over for dinner the next evening for the new year's celebrations. Mind you this whole time he was talking to HER, and I was just agreeing to everything being mentioned. She tells him for the both of us that we might be busy since my other friend Kafiyah would be joining us the next day. We left by giving him some hope that we would be back again. We then went to look at the apartment which was just perfect besides the fact that I couldn't get my money out to rent it starting that night. We now had to find a hostel to stay in for the night while I figured out my money situation. Things were turning for the worst:
1. The Spaniards did not know were any of the closest hostels were around my neighborhood;
2. We were walking around with my 6 month stay of luggages;
3. Of course we happened to walk around in circles for practically 2 hours.
4. When we finally found a stay - they were booked for the holidays.
5. We walked out of the booked hostel to the UN-welcoming rain; pouring on us and the luggages while we walked around to find another hostel.
After all this trouble, we finally found a hostel that was more like a hotel. I guess the pain of dragging things in the rain finally paid off. Now to figure out how to get the money for the deposit. We found a locutorio (private phone booths) nearby with a western union inside so I immediately called my mother to tell her of the situation and how I was going to need her and my dad to send me some money since I would not be able to get enough out of my account before the holiday because of my set limit. After a few minutes of discussing the events of the evening with them, the Mission was complete. Mom and Dad sent me the money but it was too late to pick it up that night. However, we then had to take the metro to the other side of town to pick up my friend's luggages. This time I was stress free knowing that tomorrow Inshallah, I will be able to rent the apartment and feel secure in knowing that I have a home. After what seemed like days worth of work compressed into a few short hours, and the heels of our foots being sore, and backs and biceps being worked out we finally crashed for the night.
12/31/2010
Friday morning begins at 10 am with me rushing with excitement to the western union around the corner from the hostel to go pick up my money. I walk in with an amazing "hola" to the receptionist as she was on the phone. She smiled and pointed for me to sit down and wait while she got off the phone. As I am waiting to be serviced, however I notice that she is on a personal call and is having a conversation about the night before; I believe assuming that I couldn't understand anything she was talking about. I'm thinking to myself that the Spaniards must really (not) be this rude- so I exercised my first test of patience. I waited for what was close to 30 minutes before she finally hung up and turned to me. I only knew what time it was exactly because I had an appointment with the realtor to sign the contract and receive my keys at 12pm. She then asks me how much money was sent to me, and I tell her. She then makes a call to what I assumed to be one of the western union reps and she then tries to convey in english that she can't give me the money but I can go to the other location to pick it up. I then ask her what she means in Spanish and with a shock on her face she goes - hables español? I bet she felt embarassed. She then tells me in Spanish that she doesn't have enough money at this location for me; and gives me the address to the closest other western union that would have enough money. I leave upset since she wasted half an hour of my morning when she wasn't even going to give me the money. I then walk to the bank to exchange the cash I came with - of course getting ripped off with the exchange rate. I take my losses and make my way down to the western union on las Ramblas. Las Ramblas being 15 minutes by metro. By the 2nd day of being in Barcelona I had figured out how to get to most locations by metro, surprisingly enough. After a long line and getting ripped off again with the exchange rate, I made my way back to the hostel - by this time it was already 11:45 am and I knew I wasn't going to make it back for my appointment and had my friend call the realtor and move the meeting time to 1pm. Once I was back at the hostel I put together the money and we made our way back to the apartment by foot only to realize that the hostel was around the corner from the apartment and we had walked around for close to 3 hours the night before to wind up next door. The things that happen at night with no sense of direction in a new country not to mention street signs being hidden away on building walls instead of on traffic lights. I was starting to doubt if España was the place for me with all the frustration I had been facing. Close to 24 hours after my arrival I sign my life away once again but this time in Barcelona and receive my keys. The apartment was completely as advertised and both Gitzel and I fell in love with it as soon as we set our eyes on it. There are hints of red and green everywhere. Spices up the place. And I loved it. Well besides my apartment being located on the top most floor and the 6 floors of stairs I would have to endure to get there everytime I left the house and came back. This would definitely be interesting especially since I had a fast forward in my mind of days when I would be too tired to climb up to my apartment and I would decide to crash on the stairs. Heyy I should be optimistic right? At least this gives me a chance to go back home in tip top shape and when eveyone oo's and aa's about how I lost so much weight I could just tell them: "oh you know just walking home." And literally mean it. By the time my thoughts left me of the future, my friend Kafiyah had arrived at the closest station to the apartment and Gitzel and I went to go pick her up. Last year around this time us 3 had planned on vacationing here in Spain in between Gitzel's study abroad in Lille, France and the beginning of my study abroad in Barcelona. I couldn't believe that this was all happening after all this time especially since I hadn't seen Gitzel since July of this year when I went to go take my vacation in Toronto. I was finally at ease and started looking around town while walking around. This place was gonna be where I would be spending months at. Barcelona was starting to look beautiful. Well until we had to carry my luggages, Gitzel's, and Kafiyah's up the 6 floor hike because I refused to let any guys help us for fear that they would know where I live. Lets just say that afterwards, we all needed a deep-tissue massage and a warm bath. At least the warm bath was feasible! We soon realized that today was also New Years Eve so we decided to go have dinner by the beach in the district called Barceloneta, walk around the beach and then go to Las Ramblas to celebrate the New Years figuring that that would be where the Spaniards would celebrate since Las Ramblas is the main street in Barcelona and includes the famous Plaza Catalunya. Although my body was exhausted and I would've rather slept it off, I refused to miss out on the beginning of my adventures and got myself dressed. We ate at "Siempre Viva" a place with many seafood dishes. We soon discovered that everything was fresh and that the patatas bravas (fried potatoes) a selection from the "tapas" section would be our favorite. After dinner we took a walk to the beach and then soon decided it was too cold to be taking a stroll there and decided to walk back to the barceloneta metro station to get to las ramblas only after picking up some gelato. Once we got to las ramblas we saw that everyone was walking towards the Plaza Catalunya and decided to follow suit; we also then soon realized that everyone else was also walking towards the other end of las ramblas; only to further realize that walking around on las ramblas is precisely what they did to celebrate. This is interesting we thought to ourselves but continued nontheless. Until of course I kept complaining about how my feet were killing me and we found a place to sit as I grabbed some "cafe con lete" - - side note: everything here in Barcelona is written in Catalan and not in Spanish (or Castellano as known in Barcelona) - - As the new year of 2011 approached, we walked back to Plaza Catalunya and followed the residents of this city. At one point in time, this drunk guy also tried to kiss Gitzel as she was walking. Me and her also realized very fast that the guys here are more than up front! As we laughed at the awkward scenario that was just witnessed and people around were singing random drunkard songs and fireworks exploded and champagne graced the streets including our clothes and hair; we welcomed the new year together with loads of laughter and a new experience.
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