Studio, Test, Haircut, Club

Yesterday we had our second meeting in studio with Juan Carlos. We talked about our project some more and we got into groups in order to research three different areas of Barcelona in more detail. Dave and I planned on being partners for the final project, and we had an interest in the area we’re living in--Gracia. Amon, Lindsay, and Ryan had an interest in Gracia as well, so that’s what our research group is going to be. As far as final project, I think Ryan is going to team up with Dave and me. That’ll be good.

After class, we started to research a little bit. I found a lot of good information online at the Barcelona website. Dave went to the library with Jennifer and found some good stuff as well. I came back to the apartment and made something to eat and took a nap. When I woke up, some of us got together to go meet up with a friend of a friend of Dave’s named Alex. He lives here in Barcelona, but went to grad school at A&M. We met up with him in Plaça Catalunya and walked around. He was going to take us to a bar to sit down and talk. The place he was going to take us at first was the exact same place that Toño had taken us to the day before, so he decided to take us further down to another place. The place was located next to the the church called the Santa Maria del Mar. It was a beautiful old gothic cathedral and while we waited for the bar to open, some of us went inside the cathedral to look around. It was very nice. I am definately going to go back and take some pictures during the daytime. Once the bar opened, we went in and sat down and were able to sit down and talk (which was a lot better than walking and talking). We each got a glass of wine. Aparently it was “good wine” but I really don’t like the taste of alcohol, so after a few sips, I gave mine away. I wish they had sodas at that place.

We had a good time chit chatting and after a while Alex told us he had to get going. He actually lives in a city close by and his train was going to leave at a certain time. But he still walked us to a restaurant that he recommended that we try sometime. It was an Argentinian restaurant and he said that the food was really good.

After that, we said goodbye and made our way back to the apartment to go to sleep.


Today, we had our Spanish test. It wasn’t too bad. There were two parts: written and oral. I don’t really like tests, and the oral part kind of put me on the spot...it was almost like all of Spanish just left me and I fumbled around in my responses. But Toño knows that I’m not like that in class, so it was all good. I think it was mainly the questions he was asking me. Like he asked what I was going to be doing tonight, and to be honest I had no idea. But the phrase “yo no se” left me for some reason. And I couldn’t figure out how to say “whatever we decide to do as a group.” Oh well, I got around it with some other phrases. He asked me what I do in the evenings in Texas, and I was able to tell him that I hang out with my friends and we watch TV or movies and other things. It made me really kind of miss my friends back home...

After class, I came back to the apartment to eat and relax for a while. Then Mike, Dave, and I set out to run some errands. Mike and I needed to get a haircut, so that was the main task at hand. We set out and walked down Escorial to a place that we pass by everyday on the walk home from the Metro. It looked like it was open, but I ran the doorbell and no one came. Dave said that he had seen another place down when we were looking for the market in Gracia the other day. So we set out looking for it. We came across an art supply store that is located not very far from the apartment. I had left my sketchbook at home in San Antonio, so I bought one and a spiral notebook. We asked the clerk if she knew where a barber shop was located and she gave us directions to one a few streets away. We were able to find it and then the fun began.

We walked in and a guy asked me if I needed a haircut and I said yes, and then the fun times of language barrier began. It wasn’t too bad though. I understood what he was saying and asking of me...it was just hard for me to respond back. I asked how much it was going to cost and he said 12 EUR (which was less than where Clay had gotten his hair cut at another place). The guy, named Hector, then took me to a chair and sink and washed my hair. This was the first time someone has washed my hair other than myself in a long time (like, since when my parents bathed me when I was little). It was really nice...even though it was a guy. It was something I was definately not used to in the whole “hair cutting process” back home. He brought me a magazine and asked if I wanted my hair cut like the guy’s in the picture. I said yes, he finished washing my hair, dried it, and then sat me down at another chair and started cutting my hair.

It was very different. Instead of just using a razor and shaving the sides, he used all different kinds of scissors and cut the sides and then the top. He also didn’t just measure my hair out and cut it straight across, but instead measured it out and cut in intervals at like a 45 degree angle. When all was said and done, I had an awesome haircut. He then took me back to the sink and washed my hair again, dried it, and then styled it for me. Mike had the same kind of process done also...and Dave didn’t need a haircut.

We paid and left. I got a business card and it is definately the place I will go to the next time I need a haircut. Hopefully next time I’ll have the same person.

We then went back to the apartment to eat and relax for a little bit. The plan was to go out to a club later. Since the night life in Barcelona starts at like 2am, we had some time to kill. We watched a movie and listened to music. When the time came, we got ready and took a cab to a place called Otto Zuts. We had picked up some free passes at a store, so that was good. We met up with the girls outside, so all of us were together. We went in and there weren’t that many people there yet, but we still had fun dancing. As the night went on, more and more people showed up. It started getting really crowded and smoky. There were three different “clubs” within the club and they all played different kinds of music. One was techno, another was 70s music, and the one downstairs was hip hop. It was all music from America, so that was cool being able to know the songs and stuff. We moved around the place for a while and left after a few hours. We took a cab back to the apartment and went to sleep. It was almost 5am.