Just another week in Barcelona

My mom told me that I need to start proofread my posts but they get so long sometimes so I am sorry if they have been terrible. So I think I will start typing them in a word document to make sure that everything sounds somewhat better.

On Monday I found one of the campuses of the University of Barcelona. There is like 6 of them, they are separated by the subject matter. I needed the school of Bella Artes. I needed it for the library to work on my 12 page paper in Spanish! Crazy…  Well turns out the library is not in the school so I had to ask a lady at the front desk and she spoke to me in Catalan! Well she used hand signals so I got the gist of it and found the library. It was nice to be in a library where people came to study. My project for my art class is going to be good because I found some really good sources.

Tuesday was Valentine’s Day.  It is not really celebrated in Spain; there were a couple of guys who had flowers, and one of the stores was giving out heart shaped balloons but that’s about it. So finally the real reason why I am here has started! 2 months in, me and 2 of the remaining nursing majors were placed into a clinical location. So we had a tour through the clinic site. I am not allowed to say where, I think HIPPA violations but I can describe it! It is kinda like a really big doctor’s office. There is no ICU, or anything of that, all they can do is minor surgery. They had a dentist office which I thought was really weird but children under 12 in Spain/Barcelona get free dental care. So like an idiot I signed up to go to clinical all by myself! I am really nervous of not knowing what they are saying and if I was with someone else we could figure it out but nope I don’t have a compatible schedule with the other girls. But all I am doing is observing, I don’t get to do or touch anything so that’s good. I am nervous but excited to start clinical because it lets me experience different areas in the hospitals to help determine what floor I want to work on when I am older. I think I am interested in Pediatric but who knows I could end up in the ICU. But if I really like this whole working in Spanish I may look into a place that is geared to only Spanish speaking clients. iOh the possibilities! So after all that and school me and my roommate bought Valentine’s Day cupcakes, which were so good. We also bought a cupcake for our doorman because he is so nice and he shows us videos of old Spain. I got a cookies and cream cupcake and it was the best thing I had, I swear because they use real sugar that everything tastes so much better! I also got a cookie which was so good too. If you are in Spain check out Lolitas Bakery it is on Provencia by the Pedrera.

Wednesday night we had another Conocer Barcelona. It was right after the nursing classes so I had all my stuff. I had my laptop, camera, money (only like 20 euros) and they took us to the sketchy part of town, Raval! I had to carry my backpack on my stomach so that I could watch it. I didn’t feel unsafe because there were 3 guys in my group so that was good. But it would have been nicer to do it earlier. After the walk through the Raval we say a flamenco show. It was good, kind of awkward. The people did not interact with the audience, they we there to just do their thing.

Thursday we went back to the clinical site to get an overview of the health care system of Spain. Here is a rough sketch; Spanish people pay a high tax which is then used to pay for health care. They have big hospital, small care clinics like my clinical site, and private hospitals. Well everyone is covered to use the big hospitals, small care clinics and then you can private insurance. Medication is free for elderly.

Friday I went to a church dance. It was totally different from the church dances back in my stake. The music was a lot more fun and they did not play so many slow songs! It also started at 10 at night and finished at 1a.m. which is so totally weird because the church dances usually end at 10. It was a lot of fun though. I got to meet more people and talk more Spanish which is fun. It’s not easy to talk when there is loud music but I managed. A lot of people were surprised to know that I was from the United States because speaking is not really my problem with Spanish it’s the whole comprehending what they are saying that takes more time.

     Saturday I was a busy bee with my homework, I got a lot of things done. Also for one of my nursing classes, my fellow Barcelona nursing students and I have to give a presentation on smoking on Barcelona. We wanted to show just how much Barcelona smokes so we each went out and we videotaped people smoking. It was kinda awkward but I will never see these people again it’s a big city. I feel like they were all hiding from me because usually they are everywhere but I couldn’t find any. There are 5 of us we will pull something together. Me and one of the nursing majors jokes that are lungs are getting so bad but when we go to the states our lungs will get better because we feel that even though our numbers for smoking are higher we don’t see it as much in our everyday lives. On Wednesday we are to give our presentation over polycom and it will be very interesting and we are hoping it will go well. We are pioneering, smoothing out the bumps for other students. I got to talk to my mom, it was nice. We have exchanged some facebook messages but that is about it. Also we fixed her microphone problem so I actually got to see and hear her and have a conversation with her. Instead of her and me typing and looking at each other because that is weird sometimes. Also Saturday night I went and saw a movie with some people from my group. The movie was called Drive with Ryan Gosling. I have a confession, the movie was in English. I know really bad that’s not emerging myself in Spanish but I won’t leave Barcelona until I see a movie in Spanish in a theater. It did have Spanish subtitles not that helped the movie had an awkward silence to it. I was thinking it would be like Fast and the Furious but it wasn’t, it was gorier.

I am almost half way and I am already getting anxious to leave. But there is still so much of Barcelona that I have not seen that I want to. That is why I decided to stay in Barcelona for Spring Break. It is so much cheaper to see Italy, Germany while I am here but I came to see Barcelona and during the week it is hard to see it and the weekend I am playing catch up with my homework so I end up studying all weekend. One day, in the future I will come back and see more of Europe.