I did a wine tasting about a month ago through IES which was really fun! I learned a lot about wines, and now am able to really see differences in them. We started off with a cava, which is similar to champagne. It's from Spain though and made with different grapes. I learned that a tasting should always go from lightest to heaviest, and sparkling is the lightest. We studied how long it takes for the bubbles to reach the top. Next, we tried a white wine. With this one, we learned how to oscillate, and we also learned about brightness and the proper way to smell the wine. This way, you get the full flavor. This particular wine was made with peaches as well as grapes, and it was very obvious from the scent. Next we had two different red wines an old (5 years)and a young (1 year). It was incredible the difference between the two. The older was so much darker, bolder, and more dense than the other. It was also the clear favorite of the group. I plan on bringing a bottle home with me at the end!
A lot of my IES classes consist of field studies, which are basically like field trips from elementary school...except they usually have some extra work attached to them. With my food class, one of our trips was to a cooking class in the back of the boqueria. This was different than any cooking that I had ever experienced. We had been warned that we would be cooking with sardines...but just not the full extent. Basically, we ended up having to clean the fish...entirely. I don't usually touch any type of raw meat, so I'm actually kind of proud that i completed the task. Basically I had to get all of the scales off of the fish..then comes the scary part. I had to dehead the fish.....by hand. And take all of it's insides out. It was quite the experience. Although I took the longest of anyone...I had a hard time wrapping my mind around tearing somethings head off...I did finish! Afterwards, we all tried the sardines, and they were actually really good.
Another field study..with a little less fish guts..was a trip with my sports class to the RCD Espanyol stadium. This is the second, much less well known team, from Barcelona. The tour was actually very interesting. Although I know nothing about any of the players, it was interesting to see how the stadium is used. Were actually studying this in my class, but these stadiums have to generate a lot of money in order to pay for themselves. This particular stadium had just hosted a huge Black Eyed Peas concert this summer, and everyone there was super excited about that fact. They're also thinking of turning part of it into a hotel?...not too sure about that, but oh well.
I also had to do an independent field study to the FC Barcelona stadium. This one was obviously much larger, and is home to a few more well known players. I didn't know that the FC Barcelona club also has a basketball team. It's the one that Ricky Rubio plays on and they actually just beat the lakers a few weeks ago. Basically I was most excited to get my picture in the stadium here, and I'm looking forward to going to a game. I bought my ticket for the November 10 one and I can't wait!
This past week was midterm week, so the weekend before, as a study break, a group of girls and I went to Sitges, a small beach town about an hour train. Ride away from Barcelona. It's a beautiful town with lots of cute shops and restaurants. We decided to get paella and sangria from a place that my Spanish teacher had recommended called Santa Maria. The way that the restaurant works is that if more than one person orders the same type of paella, then they just increase the size of the dish. So, 4 of us end up ordering the Same type, so basically the dish was about the size of the table. It was a really pretty dish, but we were not able to eat but about half of it. However, it was a great relaxing way to spend the weekend before midterms.
Finally, midterm week was over!..I think I did alright, just ended the week, computer less but hopefully that will be resolved soon. Anyways, on Friday after giving my Spanish presentation, my last assignment of the week, I took a long nap. Daniela and I the. Went to a famous tortilla (or what we would call omlettes) restaurant called Flash Flash. It was a really cute place with every type of omlette that you can imagine. I ended up getting a tortilla espanola with jam on iberico, which is an omlette with potatoes and iberic ham. It was delicious! We then went to check out a park on the other side of town called parc del laberinto. It was a huge park, famous for it's labyrinth made of tall hedges. We failed miserably at trying to reach the center, but we did give it two valiant efforts.
Saturday was a scheduled trip with IES to Montserrat, a mountain town about 45 minutes outside of Barcelona. The mountains there were incredible. They really looked like they were from another planet or something. We ended up taking an "amateur" hike to the top of the mountain. The entire way up consisted of stairs...it was like the stair master times 10...a good workout haha. The top had incredible views where you could see for miles, so that was really nice. After a quick lunch in the cafeteria, we had a tour of the church and famous monastery of Montserrat. The church is famous throughout Spain for it's "Madonna negra" or the black Madonna. Originally, her skin was not black. She was put in a cave to be protected during the wars, and when she was removed, all of her skin had changes color. We were all able to touch her hand and request a prayer from her. It is said that the Barcelona coach came here before their match in Rome for the champions league?..not sure if that's the right tournament, but they ended up winning!
I'm all caught up now! This weekend I'm going to Paris for my 4 day weekend and I can't wait!
I'll hopefully have pictures on here before I leave!
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