My first visitor in Barcelona - Hannah's here!

I had a small panic on Monday morning as I woke up to a text from Raul saying that my metro line wasn't working. Luckily Burcu, another flatmate, works in the building next to mine so we were able to share a taxi there. That was, I'm afraid, the only drama of Monday so I will move swiftly onto Tuesday. My breakfast group complimented me on my Spanish in the morning, saying that I was improving everyday. I know that I've still got a loooong way to go, but I was chuffed with the comment. The whole office had a conference call in the morning as well for a debriefing and official closing of the Customer Week. After lunch we had more speeches as they were announcing the results from the trimester. Underwriting also made a quick speech after telling the office about the new process they'd developed and what it was exactly that I was doing. Right on cue, everyone turned to look at me, and I went as red as a tomato. One day I will stop blushing like this...

We had a nice midweek break as Wednesday 1st May, or Labour Day, was a bank holiday. Lots of people at work said that they were going to protests during the day to campaign for various workers rights, how Spanish of them! I stayed in to tie up all of the loose ends of my German Year Abroad Written Task. It was lovely weather outside so it felt a shame to be cooped up, but I know I had to persevere so that I could finally get it sent off and be done with it!

As the day went on I started to get more and more excited, as my friend Hannah from Durham was coming to visit! I hadn't realised quite how dependent I'd become on Skype over the Year Abroad, and so being without a laptop and the constant communication with England that I'm used to for the last week or so had been a shock to the system and triggered a little bit of homesickness. One of the really nice girls from work had actually lent me her netbook for this week, which was an absolute saving grace, especially with having to finish my essay and had helped with not feeling as homesick this week. Nevertheless, seeing a familiar face from uni was more than welcome and I was very excited for our weekend together!! She actually didn't arrive until about 11pm. I went to pick her up from the station and we stayed up chatting until about 1am when I had to go to sleep if I wanted to be able to function at work the next day, but I was already looking forward to more catch ups over the next few days.

I had an early alarm the next day as I was going across the city to the other office to help out with an event again. This time it was about how the economic crisis has impacted the increase of claims in D&O. I will admit, I didn't understand as much as usual as it was a must more technical and insurance specific talk, but I tried my best to follow! Hannah went to dinner with one of her Spanish friends that night and I had planned to meet up with my 'Thursday' tandem, who actually couldn't make it in the end so I had another evening working on my Mozart essay, which by now I was well and truly ready to be rid of! Hannah came back a little tipsy having ridden around the street of Barca on the back of her friend's moped and it sounded like she'd had a great evening.

Hannah and I met after work on Friday and went to the Parc de la Ciutadella for a picnic. We ended up spending all afternoon there having a good old chin wag and only headed back when the sun disappeared behind the clouds and it got a bit chilly. 

Picnic in the park

We made fajitas for tea, followed by chocolate covered strawberries (such a great shout from Hannah), before going out to meet some guys from Durham that are also here in Barcelona for some drinks. I knew the guys here, but not well enough to meet up with them myself, so it was cool that Hannah was here to bridge the gap as it were, and properly introduce me to the other Durhamites here. They didn't stay that long as they were going to PortAventura the next day, so Hannah and I stayed on for another drink after they left and then called it a night.

We had an amazing lie in on Saturday, and headed out for lunch with Raul, Ernesto and another of their friends. We went to the port and shared some tapas to start, then a huuuuge paella, and just about squeezed in pudding as well. 

Chupitos!

In typical Spanish style (ie. late), we only finished eating around 5pm. Hannah and I then headed to the Museo de Chocolate (chocolate museum, this translation is probably pretty self explanatory!), which was both top of our list of tourist attractions! As lunch had been washed down by plenty of sangria, and our table was also invited to free shots by the waiter so we actually were pretty tipsy by the time we got there. We got given our ticket (a bar of chocolate - amazing), and wandered round marvelling in the chocolate creations, but in a sangria-induced haze that meant we were't really taking any of the accompanying information in, which in itself I find quite hilarious.

House from UP... in CHOCOLATE!

Chocolate Phoenix (Grey college needs to get in on this)

Back at home we napped, finished off the fajitas from the night before and then us and Raul headed over to Ed's, one of the guys from Durham, houses for some pre-drinks. It was really fun to go for some proper English pre-drinks, as here we usually just go straight to the bars. You really can't beat the British sense of humour and quick wit, and that definitely comes out when you whip out a few drinking games! We then went to Razzmatazz, a huuuuuge club quite near the beach, where Bloc Party were playing. The ticket was €17, which included a drink, so really quite reasonable for such a big name! Although I didn't know tooo many of their songs they played a great set, and the Durham guys were proper going for it, shirts off and everything! Hannah and I were up on the podium at one point and when we came down I lost my shoe. I bent down to find it and it had literally disappeared. I hopped along like a modern day Cinderella (I like to think...) but it was genuinely nowhere to be seen. Raul saved the day as he went to the edge of the room and sure enough my shoe was there at the end of the stairs. It had just been swept away immediately until it could go no further. I was very glad as I had visions of walking round with a plastic bag on my foot for the rest of the night! It was really good music so we stayed as long as we could, about 4:30am until we had to go home as Hannah was literally picking up her suitcase and heading straight to the airport to catch her early flight. Mad woman.

Bloc Party

In the crowd

I had the standard pyjama day on Sunday, and absolutely loved having it as a day of rest. This does, however, mean that I have nothing else to report from this week and so will end the post here. Thank you, Hannah, for visiting - I had such an amazing weekend with you and am now so excited for 4th year times on our corridor!