Plaza del Sol

Even after living in Barcelona a week, I knew that Gracia was my favourite neighbourhood.  There is an air about Gracia.  It’s the ‘cool’ part of town that houses all of the students. One person once told me it was the Shoreditch of Barcelona, I really dislike that comparison now.

A little bit further out of town, Gracia doesn’t attract too many tourists. Of course there’s nothing wrong with tourists, I make a great one myself, but sometimes it’s nice to walk around without being bombarded with Irish pubs, people taking selfies and cheap fast food.

Gracia has kept it’s cool, and it’s grace. It seems that even on the cloudier days, a little sun can be found in the pockets of this district. Plaza del Sol especially, which literally translates to sun square.

Due to only having a few days left on my own in this beautiful city, last night I decided that I wanted to go to Gracia for dinner, even if I was by myself.  This is something I quite enjoy doing, I can please myself, do what I want and I don’t have to worry about splitting the bill or buying someone a drink!

When I arrived at Plaza del Sol at around 9pm, the whole square accommodated revellers sitting down drinking and eating their takeaways. It felt like a festival, and I could feel it in my soul that summer really was coming.  Even if you only get to visit Barcelona for a week or a long weekend even in the summer, I can’t stress how much you should pay Gracia a visit and find one of these busy little squares to enjoy some on the street drinking with friends.

I went to Mucci’s on the corner of the square for my dinner. I got a slice of caramelised red onion and brie pizza and a goats cheese one, and it came to €3, that’s around £2.25 for two big slices of homemade pizza guys.

What’s really bloody cool and handy about eating and drinking at this square is Bodega del Sol, a beer shop that sells pretty much any kind of beer at supermarket price. I am not good when faced with that much choice however so went for two Estrella’s which cost me another €1.60.

So that’s two beers and two slices of pizza for under €5! Not a bad start to my night was it?

Like I said, the square was heaving with young people, so I made a smart move and thought if I sat down in the middle with my beer and pizza, someone was sure to befriend me. And so they did! Before I’d even finished my second slice, Carlos had waved me over and I was suddenly sharing his and Miguel’s liquor. They were two guys from southern Spain, and so very friendly.

By the end of the night I had made friends with an Argentinian, a Venezuelan, A girl from Turkey and a group of Italians. We all sang along to Bob Marley songs whilst the others played their instruments.  Talking and meeting with different people isn’t always easy, you just have to put yourself out there sometimes and be friendly.

I would say ‘Sods Law’ usually that this happened just as I was leaving. But the reality is that this situation probably only exposed itself to me because I was in a mind frame that I wanted to be exposed to it, and that has come from deciding to leave the city and visit my dad, a decision that has made me very happy.

Bye Bye Barcelona

After living in Barcelona for two months I have discovered two things about myself

1.) I am not a teacher

2.) I will live with my own family and nobody else’s

I’ll explain the second one a bit better.  Basically I have been living with a Host family whilst here. They don’t ask for rent, they provide my food (ish) and they don’t expect me to babysit (much). I am very grateful that these people are so generous and have taken me in without asking for anything in return, besides me speaking english with the family.

Living with a host family is something I don’t think I’ll do again though.  As I type this I can hear the father shouting at the children and his voice is so full of anger and pure temper that it makes my skin crawl.  He is a  very stressful man (a lawyer) and although he hasn’t really intended to, he makes me feel very uncomfortable.

I feel sorry for him, he is very anal. If I’m cooking in the kitchen he almost always comments on how many pans i’m using, although I’ve never once left a mess and always help out with the cleaning.  He once said he’d be livid if he saw a teacher with a tattoo and when his 7 year old daughter said she’d like to play hockey he said hockey ‘was not a girls game.’

This is why I have made the decision to leave Barcelona early. I have enjoyed the past two months, although there have been ups and downs I feel I have actually learnt a lot about what I want and don’t want in life.  I feel ready to move on to something different, which for now is 4 weeks in Tenerife!

Who knows what Tenerife will bring, but I hope that by living in a smaller town, spending time on the beach and maybe surfing, and not having to work at a school, I’ll have a better chance of meeting likeminded people.  My dad has already been living there 6 months and has many friends. To be honest, I think me and my Dad are quite similar, and are at an age and place where maybe we can even have the same friends.  What is age after all?

Tonight I am grateful for opportunities like these. I am grateful that I have such incredible parents who help me financially, and always support my decisions.  I am grateful to the family who have accommodated me for the past two months, although it has not always been enjoyable, it was a kind thing for them to do. On Monday I need to go in to school and tell them I’m leaving on Wednesday, it will be hard letting them down at such short notice, but at the end of the day I know what’s best.

I was thinking of making up excuses or lies, but then I thought, what would happen if I just told the truth? Firstly they will appreciate my honesty even if they are disappointed, and secondly lying and making up excuses will only make me feel like I’m doing something wrong, when in reality this is and should feel like a positive decision!

Have We Forgotten The Art Of Pleasure?

Today I had a long lunch, and instead of following out my usual routine of eating my sandwich on the bench across from school, I decided to do a little exploring.

I wanted to have a stroll around the Gracia region of Barcelona, after hearing good things about the place, that it attracted a quirky, alternative crowd, so I was expecting it to have an arty, chilled out feel.  I absolutely love to wander around a new place, I love getting lost in the cities streets, stumbling across beautiful buildings and gardens.  I like to look at the shop windows, the people sitting out eating their lunch, listening to the buskers play their tunes. I consider it my meditation, walking aimlessly, not worrying about anything or anyone but me and my two feet.

I thought about how I would never spend my lunch time like this at home. It would almost always be a mad rush of me eating something I really had no hunger for, just something convenient like a carton of soup or baked beans.  Chances are it would be raining so I’d try to spend as little time as possible outside.  Sometimes I wouldn’t see anybody else, maybe only the glimpse of a worn out face, before they darted their eyes to the pavement again, focused on getting back to the office to carry on with the humdrum work.

But here in Barcelona, there’s something different in the air. There’s pleasure in the air.  She’s laughing over a glass of wine, talking with a friend. He’s lazily reading the paper, not worrying about the meeting he has at three. She’s popped in to the market to buy fresh fish, deciding on how she should cook it for her parents tonight.  A mother having a joke with the baker, whilst picking up some pastries for the children after school.

They know the importance of pleasure, and it’s not even the finer things in life. It’s about living simpler, fresher and truer.  The place is radiated by all these people who have not forgotten how it is to be happy.

As I write this, I feel positive. I know the changes I need to make to be happier too. We need to remind ourselves of what brings us pleasure, true pleasure.  Too many of us have been poisoned by Ipads and smart phones, that we rarely think to pick up a book anymore, listen to the radio or buy that CD someone told us we’d enjoy.  We count down the minutes of each day until it’s over, then think our down time is shutting ourselves off in our living rooms, eating quick thoughtless dinners and seeking some sort of satisfaction from a screen.

I know it’s not easy to break the habit, It’s difficult knowing what to do after work when it’s raining outside or if you’re tired. But we are tiring ourselves out even more by not prioritising pure pleasure.  Make a list if you have to, all the things you enjoy doing and don’t do enough of, here’s mine (everyone’s is different of course!)

Things Lowri enjoys and wants to do more

• Read poetry
• Write
• Practice Yoga
• Listen to Six Music
• Go on long walks
• Watch films and give them my full attention (no Ipads/laptops/iphones!)
• Talking/making friends with strangers (to an extent)

Bad habits Lowri wants to break

• Planning ahead, and writing strict rules for myself that I always break
• Mindless eating, eating because of known/low calorie content and not because it’s what I want and will enjoy
• Wasting money on trivial things that bring me no enjoyment
• Scrolling through Instagram excessively
• Living according to time, a man made concept which shouldn’t always structure my day.

I hope that I find the balance between work and pleasure. I really believe that stress is the biggest killer out there, and that making the time to relax is key to a longer happier life.

Living in Barcelona: Week One

Move out of your comfort zone.  You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new. – Brian Tracy

At the beginning of this year, for the first time ever, I had no idea what direction my life was going to go.  Finishing with education is a scary change, the realisation that you no longer have structure, and the pressure to be ‘getting on’ with my life was something I was not prepared for.  My boyfriend was away travelling, I didn’t know what our future was going to be, I had no job and worst of all, I had no idea what I wanted to do. So I saw this advert to be a conversation assistant in Barcelona, and I applied for it. Teaching has never really been attractive to me, but living in Barcelona for four  months? I was excited about the idea of that.

I am a dreamer, a city dawdler. I enjoy drinking coffee and feeling the sun on my face.  I like old buildings and cobbled streets, bakeries and fromageries. I envy anyone who owns a Vespa, I want to spend my Friday nights drinking good wine.  I was made for the Mediterranean.

Travelling has always appealed to me, but flying to the side of the world just seemed silly, when I knew my heart belonged much closer. After spending a lot of time in Italy in the summer, I fell in love with their way of life. They are so unaffected by time and structure, punctuality doesn’t exist, things are done when they are done, and there is no rush.  The sun is in the sky for longer, meaning you can enjoy a glass of wine and some aperitif after work, the streets so much busier in the evenings than in the mornings, oozing with life, the kind of life I wanted.

It’s only been a week since I arrived in Barcelona.  I live in the Sarria region, which is the old part of town, and it’s beautiful.   I live with a Spanish family, who are so welcoming and I am learning a lot from the way they do things, how their eating habits are so different, why they are so much more affectionate, their career goals.  The school I work at is also amazing, it’s such a good school and the children are lovely.  Helping the children who have special needs has been my highlight so far, seeing them become more confident is heart warming, and I can’t wait to see what improvements they will have made by the end of the year.

My life is already so very different to what it was back home, but I am embracing it with an open mind and a warm heart.  I miss my friends and family and boyfriend of course, but they are not far, and with modern day technology, facetime is a blessing.

Today I am going to try and find this big Cathedral everyone’s on about! I’ve heard Gaudi is everywhere here, so I am really looking forward to seeing what Barcelona has to offer culturally.