Sant Joan

This weekend was Sant Joan, or Saint John. Today(Sunday) is the actual day of Sant Joan, but like many holidays here, Catalunyans celebrate it the night before.

Sant Joan is not actually about Saint John, but about the summer solstice. So we are actually celebrating the arrival of summer, but call it Sant Joan. This stems from the part of European history when the Church was beginning to gain power. While they could not completely squish the pagan holidays, they instead put a different emphasis on the day. But it has not been forgotten here!

My family kicked it off with a dinner party on Friday with 2 long time friends. This was complete with a whole flounder as a main course. E was kind to give me a piece of steak instead since I'm not a huge fan of fish, but A gave me some fish to try. I promised my Grandma that I would try new foods, which I've been doing pretty diligently. I didn't like the flounder very much. I was told it had lots of flavor, but I found it had none.

During dinner, we watched a slide show of A and his friend's trip to the US after they graduated college. Both A and his friend graduated in Computer Engineering. E graduated a year later from the same school. They drove from one coast to the other, beginning on the East and heading to the West Coast. We also looked at composites of their graduating class. They look so young! E is as beautiful as she was in her photo, but A was completely different! In A's composite, there is also a dog. They told me to play "where's waldo" except to find the dog. And there it was, with its name underneath it! As it turned out, there was a blind student who had a guide dog. The class felt it was only fair that since the dog had been to every class in the degree program, it should be a part of the class. I thought it was really sweet.

After dinner, we ate coca, a special cake that you only eat at Easter or during Sant Joan. There are two different types, one made with pork fat and the other without. We ate the one without, the one with is more expensive. On top of the cake(which I thought was more like a flatbread) was candied fruit and pine nuts. The fruit that they put onto is melon(with green food coloring), cherries, and oranges. You can actually eat the rind on the orange, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. :) The coca was not as sweet as I thought it was going to be. But I did really like it!

On Saturday I went out with some friends(Yes, I've made friends now!) to the beach in the morning. We opted to go to Diagonal Mar, which is less touristy. It felt great to lay by the sea and gossip with friends, and even better to get in the water! After the beach we went for lunch, and shopping. I found two adorable dresses for 15 Euros! I wore one later in the night.

We went our separate ways to shower and change and then came back together for dinner and partying. We met up with several other people and went to a bar to watch the Spain vs. France football match. It was a great game and good food. I tried sangria for the first time!

After eating we went to the beach to sit and watch fireworks and just celebrate summer! It was a lot of fun and we had a great time. We met up with some British men on holiday for a bachelor party! They were really interesting. It's really wonderful how I've been able to open up socially and interact with people here. Soon midnight became 6 a.m. and we headed to the metro to go home. We did stop for a quick breakfast and I got home around 8 am.

I slept until about 1 pm, and then got up to get ready to a lunch for the family. There I met A's sister and her family for the first time! We also had some very good food, or course. It was at a really nice beachside restaurant in Barceloneta; very close to where I was the night before. A said I could have just stayed at the beach and they could have picked me up!

It was a great(and new), memorable way to welcome summer!

Port Adventura

Yikes. This is more delayed than I meant it to be. Busy, busy last couple of weeks. My friend came from another part of Spain this weekend, so I was very busy.

Port Adventura! I went with my host family and their relatives. It was all of E's siblings; she has a brother and sister. Their spouses came and another American girl came as well. They are all very nice, but not all of them spoke English. This was alright of course, because I was able to really listen to Spanish and this helped me understand it in leaps and bounds. I can now understand about 3/4 of what someone says, as opposed to the 1/4 that I was hearing before. This does NOT apply to Catalan!

Entrance of Port Adventura

Port Adventura is a theme park in Tarragona, which is about a 1.5 hour drive from Barcelona. It is the second biggest theme park in Europe, after Disney Paris(of course!). A told me I would think of it was a peanut compared to the ones in California, but I actually thought it was really nice. Port Adventura is separated into different "lands": Polynesia, China, Far West, Mexico, Mediterranean and Sesame Street.

When you first get into the park, you get to the Mediterranean, which looks a lot like Italy. There are a number of shops and restaurants in this area, and I only went on one ride that is in this area: Furius Baco or in English, Furious Baccus. The ride is famous because it goes from 0 to 135 kms/h in 3.5 seconds. Myself, A, and JC(Brother in Law of E and A), waited for 45 minutes to get on this ride! It was worth it, and A actually bought the dvd and picture. It's a great picture of the both of us!

We then went to Sesame Street, which is where the others were. They were there with L and M, riding the kids rides. All the rides are really geared for children(minus the height restrictions) but this was...well Sesame Street. The girls were having alot of fun! They don't particularly like roller coasters so this was good for them.

A and JC decided they really wanted to ride Shambhala, which is the newest attraction there. It is currently the tallest roller coaster in Europe. So when they asked me if I wanted to go, how could I say no? We actually waited 1.5 hours for the ride. During this time, a lot of English was spoken! But that's an entry for another day. Let's just say English was spoken and lots of jokes were made. And when we finally got on the ride, it was worth the wait!

We ate lunch in Polynesia and watched the show, which reminded me of a Hawaiian Luau. A got up and danced! It was hilarious. Several of us went on Tutuki Splash afterwards to cool down and then we proceeded to the Far West.

The Far West was basically what Americans would call the Wild West. It was really cute! The girls went on a number of rides, while myself and some of the adults headed off to look at the rest of the Far West and Mexico. I saw a popcorn vendor, and really wanted some. One thing that I've missed quite a bit! JC went with me and actually bought me a HUGE box! I did share with everyone and I thanked him profusely for buying it. It was really nice of him and I didn't expect him to. I went on Stampedia with JC and his wife, and it was fun! It was a ride that you have to pick a color, red or blue, then you ride the ride and see which color wins. There are two coasters, red and blue and they "race". I chose blue but we didn't win. It was more of a wooden coaster, JC told me it was the first one built here.

Far West

Soon after, it was time to leave. I didn't make it to Mexico, but I hope to go back someday! I know it doesn't seem like I went on many rides(ok so I didn't) but I had a wonderful time and it was a great experience.

How to Prepare a Japanese Meal in Barcelona

There is a background to this particular entry. First being, I'm not what many people outside the states consider to be a "normal" American. To be honest, I'm not 100% sure what a real American looks like but many times when I've been on vacation with my family to another country, people are surprised when we tell them we're American. I personally like it :) My personal background, as many of you know, is half Japanese and half Mexican. During my initial interview, A picked up that my last name is distinctly Spanish, and asked about it. This was very interesting to him and E, the girl before me was more what people expect. This also lead to me eventually telling them that one of my parents is Japanese(albeit Japanese American).

I usually don't say "American" with it because it confuses most of the people that I have talked to. The concept of being "______-American" seems to be a difficult one to understand for someone who lives outside the US. I wondered what people called those who moved to Spain and lived here(more permanently than me). This question was answered in my last blog entry, they are simply referred to as "foreigners". The added language barrier also makes it harder to explain, so I hope that I can clear it up a bit soon. I do acknowledge that both my parents and families are very proud to be American, so it is frustrating to be unable to explain this part of my life!

Anyway, somehow this all lead to me cooking an authentic Japanese meal for the family. Which, when living in a country that is very different from the one you grew up in, can be quite the experience! My mom sent me several of our family's favorite recipes, including our special chicken teriyaki. I turned to someone I can only refer to as my "Spanish Guardian Angel"(SGA), and she pointed me in the direction of shops that sell Asian food.

I ended up on c/ de Girona 119, at Tokyo-Ya Barcelona. It was amazing! I later found out that it's the best store to go to in Barcelona for Japanese food. They had mostly things for sushi, but a wide enough selection of other foods that I was able to get everything I need. It took me about 30 minutes to walk there, but it was worth it. I went there three days in a row: First to scope out my ingredients, second to buy them, and third to go back for the things I'd forgotten. They remembered me by the third day!

Actually preparing everything took some time, I started at around 2 pm and then realized I forgot the mos timportant part of the meal: The chicken! So I first made the Sunomono, or Cucumber Salad, and then trotted off to the store again. An important note about chicken here: The way they cut legs, you can see where the feet start AND there were still some feathers. Plucking a chicken: not a fun experience. Needless to say I won't be doing my eyebrows anytime soon.

I ended up being able to serve the whole meal at about 9:30, which wasn't bad. I did check in with my mom and grandma quite a bit. Our initial guests, a brother and sister, arrived just before 9:00. It was a little awkward meeting them...the kitchen was incredibly hot because I had been cooking in it and had both the oven and stove on. So, I was wearing a pair of my short pajamas, which are leopard print and VERY short. A thought it was hilarious when I asked to be excused to put on pants.

We ended up having 2 extra guests, the parents of our original ones. The father's car had broken down and so he came over. Then they invited the mother, since she was home alone. I had enough food, but I was worried for a moment!

The meal

So the menu ended up being: Edamame, Sunomono, Rice, Spinach Salad, Pickled Radish, and Chicken Teriyaki. Plus the sake that was leftover from cooking.

The meal was a success! Everyone like it and there weren't any leftovers.

S'Agaró and A Spanish Barbeque

I thought I had written this down, but obviously not. Sorry!

S'Agaró is beautiful. It's located on Costa Brava, so it's near France and has a distinct Mediterranean flavor. The house is not on the water, but on a hill. Of course, I managed to sleep the whole drive up, it's about an hour and 15 minutes from Barcelona. Oops. :) The family likes to tease me for my intensive sleeping habits over the last week...I'm blame it on jet lag and all the walking I've been doing. And saying "I'm perfecting the art of the nap". Or siesta as they call it.

 Anyway, the house is on a hill, so you have to open a gate to get up it. The outside has the family's last name, which seems to be pretty common in this area. The house itself is very large, there were four bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, a large living room, dining room, and a large kitchen. The house has a plaque above a door that says 1981, because that is when they finished building the house. The girls have a little house of their own, and a swing set that A built them, marked 2011. There is also an area for barbeque, which is marked 2006. A garage with pool table and ping pong table was at the base of the hill.

A's father came and stayed for a couple of days, and I got to go to the beach for the first time! The water was a bit cold for me, but I went in. I have a nice tan going! I was worried that I would be uncomfortable with topless beaches but the only people who were topless were the kids! So, it wasn't a big deal for me. We also went for a nice walk from S'Agaró to D'Aro, a more upscale village. A compared it to Beverly Hills when we were walking by. It does actually look like a Mediterranean version of Beverly Hills.

Barbecue

 The barbeque was on Sunday and, as I'm told, was in the typical Spanish fashion. I described an American barbeque menu to A and E, they found it...odd. 3 of E's high school friends came over with their husbands(3) and children(6). Here was were I learned that having one or two children was typical of a Spanish house. Most of the children were around the same age as the girls or younger, only two were significantly younger. They had a lot of fun running around the property.  From their circle of friends, I learned that most Spanish couples get married later, and usually will have a maximum of 2 children. One of the men pointed out that it is usually foreigners have more children, which has raised the birth rate.

Anyway, most of the time everyone spoke in Catalan, which again, made it very difficult for me to understand. Ok, I didn't understand anything, though sometimes I was able to get the gist of what was being said. Some of them knew how to speak English, so occasionally I was able to have a conversation. I wasn't upset by the language barrier, but it was difficult not being able to participate in the conversation or understand what was being talked about. I don't like being so silent! But I did try and take advantage of being immersed in a new language, but ended up with a headache. :(

The food was amazing though! A and another husband did the barbequing. We started out with a salad, followed by an assortment of sausage, steak(from Argentina and Girona), lamb chops, and pork skewers. This was accompanied by bread and grilled peppers and artichokes and washed down with white and red wine. For dessert, we ate fruit, ice cream(I did not eat this), and had champagne.

We drove back to Barcelona very late that night after cleaning up the house. I ended up being a big pillow to two very sleepy girls. Not a bad way to end the weekend. :)