What a difference a day (week) makes...

After waking up and packing my things, I was more than ready to leave the less than friendly apartment and make my way to the family’s house. I arrived and was introduced to her husband, three boys and Benny the dog (he’s a French bulldog which is basically an oversized pug and he’s absolutely hilarious. He makes so much noise just existing as he can’t breathe properly and so tends to constantly snort. Amazing). They live in a lovely area in Barcelona. It’s about 20 minutes out of the centre, and the streets are all old, with lots of little parks and plazas around. As with most families in Barcelona, they live in a flat rather than a house. It’s really modern and very spacious, so I imagine it’s good for the summer too when things really start to heat up here!

As the boys had exams the following week, they decided to put off skiing until next weekend and to make the most of the sun in Barcelona instead. After all of the introductions, we all went to their school so that the boys could play football. After a grey week, it was finally  t-shirt weather, so I just relaxed with the parents and some of their friends in the sun while we were waiting. We got back and had a long lunch on their terrace at around 3pm (I’m going to have to get used to Spanish time!), before the family had a siesta (!!!!! – It’s not just a myth!) and then the boys went back to work. The dad works from home, and so gets to have a siesta everyday – that’s the life eh? He told me that the best siesta is after a meal and, contrary to popular belief, for optimum results you only need to close your eyes for 10 minutes. It’s meant to be more of a rest than a full-on sleep, so he recommended just dozing off in front of the tele. This is definitely something I will be doing in the very near future.

In the afternoon I went with the parents for a drive up into the hills above Barcelona. We went for a quick walk and had an amazing view over the whole city. We then drove into the heart of the city, and wandered around some of the gothic area. It was a really mild evening, and as I’d been so stressed last week I hadn’t taken the time to go out of my way and be a tourist in Barcelona yet. This was my first introduction to the real city, and it was impressive! We went to a tapas bar that was typical of Northern Spain. All of the tapas have a cocktail stick in, so you take a plate and as many tapas as you like and at the end the waiter counts up the number of cocktail sticks on your plate and charges you accordingly. Apparently the people in Cataluña are notorious for not always footing the bill completely and hiding a few cocktail sticks when they’re finished with their meal, so there aren’t too many of these bars around it the city. The atmosphere in the bar, and the city, on a Saturday evening was amazing, and started to get me really excited to be living here. We went home and had dinner with everyone (at 10pm – Spanish people, you are mad!), then watched a film and went to bed. I had the best night’s sleep of my time in Spain so far. Even though I was still waiting to know where I would be living, I already felt a lot more settled, and it was just so nice to make some connections here, especially with such a nice family.

My first view over the city... and yes, that is the sea.

Bea, my new colleague, and I, enjoying the view.

We had a lazy morning on Sunday, and a late breakfast with lots of Spanish pastries and fresh orange juice. I spend the rest of the morning just chilling, watching some TV, and trying to make head or tail of some of the Spanish magazines lying around. Around 1pm we headed A LA PLAYA! In less than a 20 minute drive we were by the sea. The restaurant we ate at was literally on the beach. There’s a path that goes along the back of the beach, and most restaurants have an inside area on one side of the parade, and an outdoor terrace on the other side, ie. on the beach. We had mussles to start, and then shared 2 huuuge paellas between the family. With this, plus the tapas the day before, I can officially say that Spanish food is incredible!!  We went for a walk along the beach afterwards, and although it was sunny, it was also incredibly windy so I couldn’t continue getting a headstart on my tan like I had the day before. 

When we got back I checked my e-mail and the Plan A flat had e-mailed back saying that they’d love me to move in with them. I was so excited!! As I didn’t want to overstay my welcome with the family I told them that I would move into a hotel until the 15^th, but they were having none of it. They insisted that I stay here with them until the room was available, and it was an offer that was pretty hard to refuse. So I’m now sorted accommodation wise for the rest of my time here, which is a huge relief!

Once back from lunch we did the Sunday rounds to both sets of grandparents. Both only live about 10 minutes away from the family, which is a big difference to my family who are jotted all over the place, and I found it really nice that the kids just went to their grandparents if they finished school early, or just fancied spending the evening there. Neither families spoke great English, so I got to practice some Spanish which was great as well. Both sets of grandparents were really welcoming, and a lot like how I'd expect typical Spanish families to be, with lots of kissing and hugging and talking over each other! After lots of tea and biscuits we headed back. On the way home they pointed out my bus stop to get to and from work, and showed me which stop I'd need to get off at etc. In the evening I started to get a little nervous at the prospect of starting my job the next morning. I asked for advice on what to wear, and if I should use tu (informal) or usted (formal) when greeting people. It seems to be a lot more common to use ‘tu’ here, for example the waiters in the restaurants use tu, whereas in France they would definitely stick to the formal version. We decided it would be best to start off more formal, just to be sure to make the best impression. We had another fairly late tea, and the family were staying up to watch a programme but as I wanted to be fresh for the morning I headed to bed instead of joining them.

As I fell asleep that night I thought back over the week. Last Sunday, as I was struggling to go to sleep in the noisy hostel, I would never have thought that this time in a week I’d have been invited to the home of such a nice family and have found a pretty near perfect flat. It’s funny how things work out hey! J