I haven't completely forgotten about my blog!

Hola a tothom,

First of all, let me apologize for how long I've let this slide - it's kind of turned into a quarterly at this point, which wasn't my intention, but which I was afraid would happen... Anyway, in an effort to catch up somewhat, I will try to give a brief summary of the most important things I've been doing since I last wrote.

December:
Classes finished for vacations and my parents came to visit on the 18th, which also happened to be the day of the anniversary of the Arreplegats, meaning that we hosted a big diada to which all the other university casteller teams were invited (and attended). It was really awesome that my parents got to be there to see it, even though they were really jetlagged and I'm sure it was kind of an overwhelming way to be welcomed to a country. Several people came up to me during or after the actuación and asked me who they were, and when I said they were my parents, several times I got the response, "Oh! They looked like Americans!", which made me laugh... It was a fantastic anniversary - we rocked the actual castells with a 3d7, 4d7 amb agulla (pillar in the middle of the castell), 5d7 and vano de 5, which means 3 simultaneous pillars, one of 5 in the middle flanked by 2 of 4, one on either side! Afterward we had lunch ("lunch" - it was about 5 or 5:30 by the time we ate) with all the collas, then there was dancing to traditional Catalan music and much revelry. They also handed out the PAPAs - Premis Alternatius Pels Arreplegats, or Alternative Prizes for Arreplegats - and I was thrilled to win Novata Més Implicada (Most Involved Newcomer)! I was very proud.

My parents and I left Barcelona on the 22nd, I believe, and headed by train towards Vic, a smallish city to the north. We didn't actually stay in Vic, though, but in a parador outside of it that was an old farmhouse/noble's house. It was absolutely beautiful, both the building and (especially) the location, as it was perched on a mountain/cliff overlooking a big lake that had been made by damming a river and flooding the valley. There used to be a town there, and you could still see the clocktower sticking up above the water! The landscape was so different than around Barcelona - wilder and a bit harsher, but beautiful. We were there through the 26th, and we spent a lot of time walking all around the area, including one day to a ruin of an Iberian settlement outside of a town called Folgueroles (which also happened to be the birthplace of a famous Catalan poet, Jacint Verdaguer) and to a nearby monastery in the rain/sleet/snow - that was an adventure! We had a great time, though. On Christmas Eve I introduced my parents to the Catalan tradition of the Caga Tió, which is basically a log with a face painted on one end and a red Catalan stocking cap (barretina) that brings presents to kids. It's fairly hilarious - the tradition goes that you feed the Tió during the days before Christmas and then cover him up well with a blanket to let him get fat, and then on Christmas Eve the kids sing a song and hit him with a stick to make him poop out presents and treats, which magically appear under the blanket when they lift it up! Oh, Catalans...

After Vic we took the train down to València for a few days. It was a really pretty city, with a very different feel than Barcelona, which kind of surprised me. We walked around a lot there too, even though it rained most of the time, and saw a lot of cool architecture and old towers. I had an ongoing and disheartening quest to find a book by a Valencian author, Ferran Torrent, that I really wanted to read - apparently they don't have Valencian books in Valencian bookstores (go figure). We also ate really well there, including one day when we walked down to the beach (which was quite a hike from our hotel) and had arroz negro, made with squid ink! Possibly my favorite meal, though, was one night when we found this tiny little restaurant by accident that had maybe one other couple eating there. I had no idea what most of the things on the menu were, so I talked to the waiter, who said he could make us basically any kind of paella/rice dish we wanted. We settled on seafood - I wasn't clear on what kind of seafood we would get, but I was sure it would be good - and he went into the kitchen to make it! It was absolutely delicious, and just a really cool experience. We felt almost like we were guests in someone's home.

We came back to BCN on New Year's Eve, which I spent at the TresA, the friends association for the Arreplegats (Associació d'Amics dels Arreplegats = AAA, or tres "A"s, hence the name). It was a lot of fun - we had dinner, then watched the clock strike twelve on TV and ate a grape for every hour struck (another Catalan tradition). Then we toasted to the new year with cava and proceeded to celebrate into the wee hours, being ridiculous as we are known to be, singing lots of Arreplegat songs accompanied by noisemakers, etc. I got home early in the morning, slept for about 4 or 5 hours, then, since the 1st was Thursday - what else? - went to castellers practice at 2:00! There were only about 10 of us that showed up, but we had a great time trying as many different constructions as we could with those of us who were there. I got to learn how to be acotxador and enxaneta (probably the only time I'll ever do it)!! Afterwards, as we miraculously still had energy left, we decided to go up to La Foixarda, on Montjuic, and go rock climbing! There's an old tunnel there that they've closed off and put lights and handholds in that's great for bouldering, and there are a bunch of normal routes on the rocks around it. Several people brought equipment and we all shared harnesses, ropes, etc. It was cool to remember how to do it - I hadn't gone rock climbing since I was about 16, I think - at the same time that I was learning the terms in Catalan. Definitely an awesome way to kick of 2009.

January:
Let's see - after my parents left on the 6th, I had a couple of chill weeks going to class at the UAB and studying for my history exam, which was on the 20th. The most exciting thing that happened during that period of time was that I went one Saturday with several other Arreplegats to climb a nearby mountain called Matagalls with snowshoes! We had originally planned to go rock climbing again, but on a real mountain near a town called Siurana, but it had been snowing so much (in the mountains, not in Barcelona!) that we couldn't get there easily. We decided to go to Matagalls instead, which is in the Montseny Natural Park, between the cities of Vic and Granollers. We left Barcelona really early Saturday morning in the rain, which didn't bode well, but by the time we got up to the parking lot and trailhead it had turned into beautiful, thick snow! I had rented snowshoes and poles and borrowed various items of waterproof clothing, fortunately. It was a more challenging climb than I expected - some of our group decided to stop halfway and do a shorter, easier route - but I really enjoyed it. Four of us went all the way to the peak - me, Ubi, Vitxi, and Pol - and were treated with an incredible view when the snow stopped and the clouds briefly cleared away. We didn't stay up there long, though, because it was really cold and getting late. Vitxi and I started down with our snowshoes, but Pol and Ubi had brought skis up in order to ski down. We kept expecting them to pass us, but they never did - we hadn't taken into account the fact that Ubi had never skied before! At one point we passed a couple of other skiers we had seen earlier and Vitxi asked them if they had seen our friends. They replied basically, "Oh, those two? They're still way up there!" We weren't too worried, though we had to laugh. When we got to the bottom we found the others who had done the shorter route and were going to wait for Ubi and Pol, but, unfortunately, the mossos d'esquadra (Catalan local police) had come and were threatening to give everyone a ticket if we didn't move our cars, as apparently we were blocking the snow plow. So we quickly packed up and had to circle the mountain for a bit until Pol and Ubi finally got down and we could pick them up. We finished off the night by driving into Granollers to eat fast food for dinner and go bowling, at which I handily won! All in all a very fun excursion.

At the end of January, Becca came to visit from Chicago, which was a lot of fun. We took a very early flight to La Coruña, in Galicia, the day after she arrived, and spent a few days exploring there. They say it always rains in Galicia, but I think we had it worse than normal - it was ridiculously windy, hailed on us various times and rained in really strong bursts that came at fairly regular intervals but never gave us enough time to get anywhere between them. So basically we got used to being soaking wet most of the time... we had fun, though, regardless. I really enjoyed visiting Santiago de Compostela one day, which is the town at the end of the Camino de Santiago, an old pilgrimage route that I would love to hike some day. Becca really wanted to go to the Pilgrimage Museum, but, sadly, it was closed... The weather was much nicer once we got back to Barcelona, and we got to spend a lot of time walking around the city. We also went to Tarragona one day, which I really liked, and saw lots of Roman ruins. I love getting to know different parts of Spain and Catalunya! Possibly my other favorite part of Becca being here was going to watch the Superbowl in a bar called Cheers, which played it on a British TV channel, with 3 Catalan guys (Arreplegats, of course) who knew nothing about American football! Quite an experience - I didn't end up watching the game very closely, though, because I kept getting into involved explanations of how many points a field goal is worth or the difference between a "sack" and a "sock". Oh man... :)

Well, now it's February and things are fairly back to normal. Two out of four of my classes have started, and the other two start on Monday. I'm really excited about one I'm taking called History of the Catalan Language - the professor is really awesome and the subject really interesting. I think we're going to spend some time in local archives analyzing original Catalan texts, which is really cool! My schedule has returned to having three main elements - class, coffee with friends, and castellers practices - and I have to say I like it that way. I've started going to practices with the Castellers del Poble Sec, a small team in my neighborhood. They practice at night on Tuesdays and Fridays, so it doesn't conflict with anything. I really like the chance to get more practice and be involved in different ways - they have a canalla of little kids as well as all ages of adults, so I play a slightly different role than with Arreplegats, when we're all closer to the same size - and the people seem really nice so far. I've only gone to two practices, but I think I'll stick with it. We have an actuación this Sunday for the Festa de Santa Eulàlia, which is really exciting because we'll be in the Plaça de Sant Jaume, in the middle of the city, between the Ajuntament and the Generalitat! I'll definitely put up pictures afterward.

So that's more or less it for now - I'm sure there are things I've forgotten, but at least it's a start, oi? I will try to be more disciplined about writing - hope you all enjoy it!

Salut i castells!
-Sarah