Chronicles of An Academic Groupie

2006-04-20T17:00:00.000-04:00

I've changed blog addresses so check out my new blog at http://alanbell.wordpress.com/

Hope to see you all there and don't forget, Please leave comments

Asta Luego

2006-04-18T16:48:00.000-04:00

Wow, the second day we made it to the gym. Today was a swim day and I was pretty apprehensive about it. I haven't really swam in over a year but it turned out ok. I only did 1000 meters but hey, it's a start. Didn't do much after that because we had our Spanish class in the afternoon.
The evening was something else. We went to a little bar down the street , Montferry and the place was packed. The reason, Barcelona was playing Milan in a very important game. It was my first experience in a European bar during a football game (soccer). What energy. We sat with two Barcelona residents, a father and his daughter and we communicated with broken Spanish. That's the way to learn I guess so now I'll spend all my time in bars talking to people. Not really.
All in all it was a great experience and to top it all, Barcelona won.
Time for bed, I need to get up at 6:00 to get to the gym tomorrow
Buenos Noches

2006-04-17T13:08:00.000-04:00

Finally, we woke up this morning and off we went to the gym. At long last we made it. We did spend the rest of the morning at home. Actually, Alex had to finish her dissertation proposal and I had to practice guitar so it was a busy morning. After lunch we headed out towards Sagrada Familia and kept walking to Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau. It consists of 18 pavilions spread over 9 blocks in the north east corner of the Eixample (the area we live in). The walk is along a beautiful tree lined street (if it can be called a street). Below are a few photos which do not do this place justice. Remember, it's a hospital.

2006-04-16T14:19:00.000-04:00

Semana Santa otherwise referred to as Easter Weekend is very big in Barcelona. The holiday starts Friday and ends Tuesday morning. I think that a LOT of tourists hit the city this weekend.

Friday saw us off to the beach because everything was closed. We took the subway down to the Olympic Village (Ciutadella Villa Olimpica) and walked over to the beach. The air was cool but the sun was hot so we took refuge in a tourist trap along the lower boardwalk. Alex mentioned that some of the waitresses were speaking Brazilian Portuguese and it turns out that our waitress was from Belo Horizonte in Minas. Alex tells me that of all Brazilians, Mineiros are the ones who travel the most throughout the world. It's strange, because Minas Gerais is mostly rural with smaller towns.

We walked home along a meandering route and came across the Arc de Triomf, which was at one end of a long placa. The other end of the placa was a massive park (Parc Ciutadella) has museums, ponds and a zoo. We didn't go into the park because we wanted to save it for another time. At night, we went to this little bar down the street and Alex had a beer while I had a Bailey's coffee (carajillo de Bailey's). Tha
t set us back a whopping 3.50 Euros.
On Saturday, we had to do some more shopping. I had to buy a pair of sandals and we needed some beach blankets to lie in the sand. It took us most of the day as we walked over to le Carrefour. It was cloudy and it rained off and on so we spent quite a bit of time there. After dinner we went exploring up in Gracia and found this ice cream place in Placa de la Revolucion and sat there watching the crowds.
Today, I was supposed to go to the gym when I got up. Guess what, I didn't make it. This is really starting to become a problem. I NEED to get to that gym and start the daily habit. I'll spend the rest of the week working on it. After my depressing start to the day we took the 47 bus (almost outside our door) to Placa de Catalunya. La Rambla starts on the other side of the square. We walked the entire length of la Rambla and ended up at the harbor. Once again, we walked along the boardwalk and watched the sunbathers in various states of bathing... It was a gorgeous day. We found another bus that goes from our front door right down to the beach and drives along the boardwalk. That's the one we took home. It was a long day and we're both tired so we'll spend a quiet evening at home, get to bed early and hopefully, hit the gym in the morning. We'll see.

Happy Easter everyone

Week 1 in Barcelona

2006-04-14T03:11:00.000-04:00

All in all it was a great week, that is, if I don't include my intentions of getting to the gym. I don't know why it's so hard to get back into that routine. I know exactly what I want to do there and every night I say to myself that tomorrow morning I'll get to the gym. I've targeted Sunday morning as the start of this difficult daily practice. We'll see.
Spanish lessons went ok. I don't feel any increase in my linguistic skills but maybe I'm being a bit optimistic (dreaming is more like it). I really enjoy the mix of people in the class. They are all living the life they want and I must admit, I'm a bit in awe of their adventuresome spirits. Alex and I have the benefit of a steady income so it's not such a big deal for us to be here.

This weekend is a big weekend here. They call it Semana Santa and the holiday ranges from Thursday (in the rest of Spain) right through to Tuesday. Barcelona shuts down from Friday to Monday. Nothing is open today (Friday) and I'll see about tomorrow. We don't have class until next Tuesday, which is a big break for my little brain.

I finally bought my guitar and have been playing it every day. It was REALLY hard to choose between the two models that I had been considering.

The man at the store said that sound should be my sole criteria and although I was leaning towards one model, I chose the other because the sound was much richer. I had him play and he chose some really beautiful pieces. The richness of the bass and the clarity of the higher pitches was really obvious. To be honest the other model had a beautiful sound too, but it didn't quite have the low-end power that my model had.

Well, today we plan on going to the beach and pretty well being low key. I can feel we're settling into routine and getting comfortable with our new surroundings.

Have a great Easter weekend.

Adaptation Almost ?

2006-04-12T02:40:00.000-04:00

Well, here it is on Wednesday morning and another morning where I failed to get to the gym. I'm all fired up the night before but when 6:30 rolls around, my ambition gets severely curtailed. I'm hoping that if I keep trying I'll eventually make it a habit.

The beginning of the week was also the beginning of Spanish classes. I was a bit apprehensive as I saw some ads for this school after I had signed up. They stated that the average age of each 10 student class was 23 and I was going to be the individual who raised that average to 45, go figure. Anyhow, I need not have worried. I still bring the average up but not so significantly. The group is friendly and varied. Let's see, we have 4 people from England, 1 person from Australia, 1 person from Ireland, 1 person from New York and me. We're not as talkative as I would like because one of the rules is that english (or whatever your mother tongue) is left outside the class. No one is proficient enough in Spanish to hold a conversation so we end up talking in fragments of Spanish like,
Person 1 "house...live", Person 2 "my name is Alan", Person 1 "no, please, where house live", Person 2 "oh, yes city love", Person 1 "thank you"
Actually, it's a lot of fun and the 2 hours goes by very quickly. Since classes are every day, I've been using them as an excuse not to go to the gym. That thinking needs fixing.
After class yesterday we went to Casa Luthier on c/Balmes. The shop is between the school and our apartment so we dropped in on our way home. The atmosphere in the shop was all class; even the guitar stands were elegant. I tried a few guitars in different price ranges but seemed to come back to an Alhambra 1C and a 4P. They had a beautiful sound and the action made playing them so easy. I tried a few in the higher price ranges and a few in lower price ranges. The fellow looking after me was very helpful and there was no pressure from him at all. By the time I left the shop I had narrowed down my choices to 2 guitars, an Alhambra 4P and the 1C. THE 4P is about 100 Euros more expensive and it is a beautiful guitar but the sound was not much better than the 1C. The difference, as I was told, was in the little details, finer finish, better tuners and the woods used in the guitar itself. My practical self leans towards the 1C but my extravagant inner self, wants the 4P. Which one will win ???

Ok, Alex is up, time for breakfast and some errands before we go to school. Looks like we're starting to adapt as citizens pf Barcelona.

Our Weekend as Tourists

2006-04-09T13:52:00.000-04:00

Wow, what a busy weekend. We had to adapt to the Spanish siesta on both Sat and Sun. Saturday found us up bright and early and out the door by 8:30. We walked over to Pa. de Gracia and caught a tour bus (Bus Turistic). We caught the Ruta Azul (Blue Line) bus for the southern route and passed through Poble Espanyol, the Anella Olimpica, Montjuic and many other places. We got off the bus at the Museu d'Historia de Catalunya and walked along the boardwalk.

It took us about half an hour to get to a point where the cityscape changed dramatically. We were surrounded by ultra modern buildings and parks and there was sooooooo much greenery.

We caught another tour bus that took us further down the beach to Parc Diagonal Mar and Forum. The beach continued beyond the point where the bus turned back to complete it's loop. We transferred onto another bus that took us into the Barri Gotic, which is the old city of Barcelona.
It's actually near the old Roman village of Barcino. The streets are narrow and inviting and the sense of antiquity is amazing. Alex found an old synagogue somewhere in the maze of streets and in it was a museum of the history of the Jewish population in Barcelona over the ages. We definitely have to find it again since it is part of her area of studies. We ended up walking back to Placa Catalunya because there was some sort of demonstration going on which prevented the buses from entering that part of the city. We caught another tour bus since they pass right in front of our apartment and headed home for siesta. Boy, did we siesta........ That night we explored some more of our neighborhood and found a nice little tapas bar nearby. I think we'll have to begin acting like residents soon because I don't think we can afford to continue being tourists. Oh well, we'll start next week. We got home around 11:00 and chatted for a bit before heading to bed.

We decided that Sunday would roll on at our pace with nothing scheduled. We headed back to Pa. de Gracia and this time caught the Ruta Roja, which took us up, into the upper levels of the city where the wealthy live. All I can say is Wow; some of those homes are stunning. We got off at the Monestir de Pedralbes.
Another sense of antiquity. Queen Elisenda de Montcada founded the monastery in 1326. One wing of the original monastery is still in use and the rest is a museum with all the artifacts in there original locations.

The central court of the buildings was very peaceful and you can see where the nuns would pray without distractions.

The artifacts included treasures that were used in the church, works of art by Catalan artists, sculptures of wood and stone and the personal effects of some of the nuns that were members of the monastery.
Most of the nuns came from noble families and were highly educated and this is reflected in the books and writings on display. You can see passages that lead deep into the monastery.

It was a great weekend of discovery and it left us with the impression that we might not be able to discover this entire city in a year. We certainly will give it a try though.

Alex has posted more images and they can be seen here

Also check out her blog for a different perspective on our experiences.

Good night

Almost Normal

2006-04-07T14:13:00.000-04:00

This morning we went to the gym for the first time. It's amazing to find such differences between gyms, both in equipment and in gym etiquette. It's a new learning experience and when you don't speak the language, it's difficult to know why someone is screaming at you. Just joking. Actually, it was quite easy to get around and I'll adapt to the difference in equipment. I've already met a few people from the gym. When we got there we noticed these 3 guys who were all over 6 ft 6 in and lifting REALLY heavy weights. Turns out they were Russians living in Barcelona. The biggest guy, Alexi spoke english and it turns out they really pleasant people. They work out every morning at 7:00 so I'll probably see a lot of them.

After that experience Alex and I went to get our free cable phone from Ono and finish up some other shopping we needed to do. The day flew by and before we knew, it was 2:30 and all the stores were shutting down.
We walked around and found the Music Conservatory a few blocks from our apartment. Alex stopped in at a little bakery on our way home.

The rest of the day flew by and it's now evening. We've been away from Toronto for 16 days and it feels like years since we've been there. Even Paris, which was only 4 days ago seems like another time altogether. Spain draws you into their time frame without you even knowing it. Since we've been here we find we've been eating dinner after 8:00 and having lunch at 2:00 in the afternoon. We never get to bed before 1:00 in the morning and always get up around 7:30. Tomorrow, we'll get up early and head down towards the waterfront. Up till now we have only been exploring our neighborhood, What you see here, is a boulevard right around the corner.

That's a centre divide where cyclists ride.
Adios mis amigos, hasta luego

Internet Has Arrived

2006-04-06T16:44:00.000-04:00

Wow, so much has happened since my last entry that I forget what we have done. We didn't have access to Internet and we were on the move so I couldn't update the blog. Our last day in Paris was spent in walking around the Marais and discovering all the alleys and back streets in that district. We watched a group of musicians in Place des Vosges.

Village St Paul was an amazing stroll. Cobbled alleys and ancient doorways, not the least of which was a remnant of the original wall and turrets from an era when Paris was a fortified city.

We had lunch in a small bistro and sat beside two British women. We struck up a conversation and discovered they were from Newcastle. They raved about the beauty of northern England. Actually, they were on a weekend together as close friends to say goodbye to each other. One of them was moving to Toronto that Thursday. She and her husband and little girl were moving to the Beaches. Such a small world.
We walked around some more and then went back to our hotel to pick up our bags and head off to Gare Austerlitz for our train. Of course we were early as usual so we sat on the trackside and people watched. Lot's of fun.

The trip on the train was fun but we couldn't see anything because we traveled at night. We arrived in Barcelona at 8:30 in the morning and went to pick up our keys.

Alex was a bit worried that the company didn't exist and we would be homeless but her fears were laid to rest when we saw the office. We signed some papers, took the keys and headed off to the apartment. All I can say is Wow; we are so pleased with both the apartment and the area. The last few days were spent getting phones, arranging for Internet, and signing up at a gym and generally getting oriented. This evening we were invited to dinner at a new friend's place. Joy is studying architecture here in Barcelona (her masters) and she has many tales to tell of her travels and experiences in Europe. I look foreword to seeing her and her roommates again.
After dinner, Alex and I had to fix the wireless part of Internet so we could both be connected. It's fixed and here I am. I've probably forgotten a lot of what we did but I'll bring it up when I remember them. Oh, we also signed up for lessons at a language school here in Barcelona, I'm a beginner and Alex made it to advanced. She's going to miss out on all the disruptions I'll cause in class. Just think, jokes for 2 hours a day, 5 days a week, I should be fluent in Spanish by the end of the year.

OK, time for bed. Hope everyone is fine

A Full Day in Paris

2006-04-01T16:48:00.000-05:00

We woke up at 8:30 again but this time I Was still tired, probably because we couldn’t get to sleep until 3:30 in the morning. Even with all the walking we did yesterday, it wasn’t enough to carry us through the night.

We started off the day by taking the metro to check out Gare d’Austerlitz and pick up our tickets for our trip to Barcelona tomorrow night. From there we took number 24 city bus for a ride along the Seine to Gare St Lazarre. We thought we could stay on the bus and travel beside Jardins de Tuileries
but we had to get off at the end of the line. We ended up walking along the river until we found some steps under the road that took us into the garden. We spent the rest of the day walking towards the Louvre and looking for a restaurant the Alex wanted to go to. We never found it and I was starting to act like a two year old (I was hungry and tired) but Alex found another pub near Les Halles (Au Trappiste). We had a great meal and spent a few hours there.
My friend Perry from Toronto would have been happy because wile we were eating, a critical mass group cycled by. I tried to get a picture but only managed to catch the end of the group (not very dramatic).
We walked back to our hotel (at least 1000 kms from where we were) and on the way I rediscovered a luthier’s shop that I had been looking for from over 3 years ago. I really couldn’t remember it’s location but now it’s found. Too bad it was closed because I wanted to get a business card from it. We finally arrived back at the hotel and I had a great nap. Alex caught up on Internet stuff while I caught up on energy.
When I woke up we walked over to Place de Vosges and had a great sit at the Nectarine (we had kirs, a parisian salad, wine and une petite Chocolate ancienne. We sat and watched as the whole square was bathed in the golden hues of sunset. Gorgeous. Time to head out to Trocadero to watch the Eiffel tower sparkle.
It happens every hour on the hour and Alex had been dying to see it. Didn’t do much for me but Alex’s face when it happened made it all worthwhile. Now it’s time for bed and I’m sure that we’ll sleep through the night.
Later

Time Flies

2006-03-31T15:16:00.000-05:00

Wow, the last time I posted we had three days left before the move and now I find we've spent 7 days in Montreal and 2 days in Paris. Our time in Montreal was great. We stayed with Jenn and enjoyed her more than generous hospitality. She hosted a get together on Saturday night and that produced stomach clenching laughs. Some of us even had to leave the room to recover. On Sunday, we went to visit my brother Michael and his family. His kids are amazing and both he and Sophie (his wife) should be proud of them.
Gord invited us over to his place on Tuesday night for a wonderful meal and farewells and then Wednesday had arrived. We had to return our rented car before 1:00 PM so needless to say we had a long wait at the airport. A really good friend, Andree, tried to surprise us. She was flying to Paris too, on our flight and it was great seeing her. Our flight left on time and we arrived in Paris on Thursday morning. I must say, it was a struggle to get to our hotel with our luggage and by the time we got there, I was sweating like crazy.
A brief shower and Alex had us out on the street before noon. We had to stay up until at least 9:00 that night or we'd have trouble sleeping. I must admit, I found it tough and we still woke up at 1:00 in the morning. We did cover a museum that day. We went to the History of Paris museum in the Marais.

I was starting to get really tired and it seemed that the museum was all stairs. It was really informative though.

We spent today (March 31) out all day. We went from Pere Lachaise cemetery to Palais Royal and covered everything in between. It was great but by evening my legs were getting sore even though we sat for a bit in Palais Royal.

I'm sorry that we haven't taken more photos. I had planned to take photos of every step but to be honest, I've hardly taken any. As for writing, same situation. I'd planned to write something every day so that the thoughts and experiences are fresh. I will have to make more of an effort. There are two days left in Paris and then on to the next step. I'll keep track of tomorrow's experiences as they happen and we'll see how that goes.
Take care until next time

3 Days to Evacuation

2006-03-19T21:27:00.000-05:00

Hello, it's Sunday and there are three days left. I'm getting more excited by the day but I'm also getting more impatient. I find I get irritated easily. I said goodbye to all my Sunday gym buddies this morning and had a pretty intense workout. When I got home Alex told me that Pearl was on her way over to pick up our bikes. She and Al are going to store them for us while we're gone. We gave her a few other boxes to take, chatted for a bit and said our (sniff sniff) goodbyes. We'll be seeing them in May so it's not so bad. We had another day of marathon packing and got a LOT done today. Our bedroom is finished, the hall closet is done and all the food cupboards in the kitchen are finished. We can't seem to get rid of the bar unit. I even tried to give it away but to no avail. I guess I'll look for a spot to dump it. Juan came over to pick up the TV and invited us out for a beer. We decided to accept and off we went to Cafe Volo on Yonge Street. He was with a friend Tomoko, a really pleasant girl from Japan. We had a great time and chatted for almost 3 hours. They are REALLY great people. Tomoko is studying at York University and Juan is doing an internship with the Spanish Consul here in Toronto. We will keep in touch as he returns to Spain in December.
Goodnight

4 Days eeeeeeek

2006-03-18T20:53:00.000-05:00

I woke up this morning and realized that we only had 3 more days to pack. All week long I'd been telling Alex not to worry, we had plenty of time and now I wake up concerned. We went to Fran's for breakfast and then on to Kensington for our weekly coffee at Louis' with friends Heidi and Janine. When we got back we started a packing frenzy (actually, Alex went into a major pack mode) and surprise, we got quite a bit done. We hauled some stuff over to Grad house and stopped at Robarts to empty Alex's carrel. When we got back, we packed some more and then went to Massey College for supper. I'm looking around and we're fine. Dishes are packed; the cabinet is packed so we have pretty well made it. Ok, time to relax while Alex is over at Massey for a final social.
Later

5 Days Left

2006-03-17T16:52:00.000-05:00

We met Dana at Hart House for Friday morning's workout and had breakfast with her in the Arbour Room. Alex and I were going to OHIP after to apply for extended leave from Ontario. We had all our documentation, or so we thought. The letter Alex had from school did not state the period we would be away so now we have to wait until Monday. By the time we got home I had enough time for lunch and then I had to get down to the Oral Dynamics lab of the U of T. I had volunteered to be a lab rat for an experiment they were conducting. That took up most of my afternoon and while I was away Alex was busy packing some more. I guess we'll have to catch up this weekend because the time is getting short. We're both out tonight with friends so not much is getting done.

Six Days to Departure

2006-03-16T15:10:00.000-05:00

Counting

9 Days Out
Well, not much was happening on day 2. We woke up late and then we went up to the bank to pick up our travelers checks. We’re using those for our bank account in Barcelona. We're not in panic mode yet because there is still plenty of time to pack. We’re spending a lot of time with friends and Saturday night we went out with guitar buddies and had a great time. Pearl and Al are coming out in May so we have to scout the city a bit before they come. We’re still going to the gym in the morning and I wonder what will happen when we start up again after leaving Toronto. Alex has found a gym just down the street in Barcelona. She also has me registered in Spanish classes for 2 hours a day, 5 days a week, starting the week after we get there. I’d better be fluent in Spanish by the time we leave.

8 Days to D-Day
OK, we have most of the living room packed; all the bookshelves and books are done. I finished off the computer room and dismantled all the desks. The filing cabinet is empty and all the documents we want to keep are in boxes. Alex started our bedroom this morning since her desk is gone and there’s so much more room to move around in. We sold a futon, small table, Alex’s desk, our television and our stereo to Juan, a fellow who just moved here from Seville, Spain. A really nice person. We exchanged email addresses and he said if we need anything in Spain to send him an email. I reciprocated for Toronto.

7 Days Left
I’m sitting here in a Second Cup on Yonge, near College, trying to write for my blog but I find it really difficult when so much is going on around me. It's really windy and I love watching people walk by the shop. You know, I should make it a point of making entries just before going to bed. It’s hard to recapture the mood of a few days ago. Right now, I feel I’m just waiting for time to pass so we can start on the first phase of our voyage. I’m occupying my time by packing a few things here and there. Hmmm, just remembered I have to go and empty our locker downstairs. I’ll do that tomorrow or maybe, if I feel really ambitious, I’ll do that this afternoon when Alex is at school (naaaaaa, time for a nap)

6 days to go
Woke up at 6:00 and headed off to the gym. I've been having these really strange dreams lately, and I mean strange. Alex says it's probably anxiety about all the changes about to happen. I don't feel anxious but maybe it's not palpable. I do feel excited though. Sometimes I feel like I did when I was 5 and it was Christmas Eve. I get these sudden rushes of excitement and all the energy that goes with it. Oh, on a sad note...... Perry picked up my guitar yesterday. I feel like I've abandoned a child, you know, like that Ikea commercial featuring a desk lamp sitting out in the rain and then this voice booms "Stupid, the lamp is not alive it's an inanimate object without feeling" so I say "Stupid, the guitar is not alive it's an inanimate object without feeling" but it doesn't help. Alex and I are off to the pub tonight so we can say goodbye to her friends from school. Some of them she won't see again since they will have graduated and gone off to be professors somewhere. I'm sure they will pop into our lives at various points in the time line. Boy, is it ever easy to ramble on about nothing.

Later

13 Days and Counting

2006-03-12T12:31:00.000-05:00

It's the first entry of my blog. We're on the verge of an amazing voyage. Our apartment is in ruins with boxes everywhere and loose objects all over the place. The reason ? Well, we are 10 days from the end of our lease and putting most of our worldly belongings into storage. The movers are coming on March 22 and taking it all away.
Actually, this adventure began almost 3 years ago when Alex and I moved from Montreal to Toronto. Alex had been accepted into the doctoral program at the U of T in the Department of History. She has completed all the requirements except her dissertation and that is the reason for this latest move. She is off to Spain fpr approximately 1 year of research and I am off to Spain for approximatel 1 year of exploration.
We begin our voyage by driving to Montreal on March 22 and staying with our great friend Jenn. We'll visit with all our other Montreal friends and I hope to get down and see my brother Michael who lives in Ormstown, Quebec. From Montreal, we fly to Paris on March 29 and will spend 4 days just wandering around this great city. We will take the train from Paris to Barcelona on April 2 and pick up the keys to our apartment.
I'll keep you posted on progress from now until March 21. Right now I have to try and make this place presentable for friends who are coming over for dinner tonight.
A la prochaine or Hasta Luego (I REALLY need to learn Spanish)