Me llamo "Neck" & "Harlem Jazz Club"

So, I had to do a group project over the weekend.

NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECK

Everyone decided that Starbucks was a good meeting spot (don't know why, the coffee is bad, and the internet is unusable). The only really enjoyable thing that happened was that when I told the "Barista" that my name was "Nick" (because they HAVE to write it on the cup), she wrote "Neck".
Background : With a Spanish accent, my name is not pronounced "Nick", it is pronounced "Neeck". This is because with the Spanish language, an "I" is pronounced as an "E" and the opposite is also true. So, whenever a Spaniard sees my name written, they pronounce is as "Neeck", or "Nee-cohlas".

And I love it more than anything in the world.

I felt bad for this girl on the Saxophone. The reed
broke maybe 30 seconds into the first of two songs
making her performance pretty off.

Also, finally found the Jazz club. And my gosh.
It was so much fun.
Just random people switching in and out with the house band playing the Blues all last night. Some people were amazing, some were okay, but overall it was great. The crowd was so enthusiastic, and everyone was completely into it.
Furthermore, like 5 minutes into the show some random dude sat next to me wearing a shinny (AND I MEAN SHINNY) leather jacket and a fedora. I decided that he had to be playing tonight because you can't just wear a fedora into a jazz club and not play. That's just... wrong. So I spent like 45 minutes trying to decide as to what I thought he was going to play. I ended up split between drummer and pianist because he didn't have an instrument with him. But then I happened to look down and see his WHITE Jazz Oxfords (don't know how I missed them). I knew instantly that no drummer would ever wear those and that he had to be a pianist.

That's him on the piano. Sitting down just wasn't
his thing.

I. Was. Right.
HAHAHA
This dude was a blue's playing machine. He was jumping around (while playing the piano AND singing,) and cuing off for others to solo and everything.


And (this I found hilarious) blues and jazz are only sung in English. I don't know if that's true for everywhere, but in Spain it is. So I absolutely love how they sing, in English, with the most American "blues" accent and then after the song is over they immediately switch back and ramble off in Catalan or Spanish at 2198712893 words-per-second. It was just astonishing how American they sounded when they sang and then when they spoke they completely lost any semblance of Americanism. It was wonderful.

Just a note, in the pictures, there are people sitting. There were maybe 10 people sitting, with the rest standing/clapping/jumping/cheering for the musicians.

My, What Loud Fireworks You Have...

So, San Juan is basically the Fourth of July, but bigger and louder in every way.

I don't know if you can see, but those little bumps are heads.
Just bagillions of them.

The beach was completely packed. Like thousands and thousands down the entire coast, just infinite people. All setting off fireworks (but us, I could not find anywhere to buy fireworks for the life of me).

These were no ordinary fireworks. It sounded like they dropped us in the middle of a warzone while a protest was going on. Every firecracker is like a shotgun next to your ear, it's ridiculous. I don't know how they do it, but those... those are fireworks. Not this sissy american nonsense.
It's not a pop, it's a BANG.

Otherwise, it's basically just 3209483094 people sitting on a beach.

You know, all night.

(FYI, the only people that go into the water at midnight are... well, tourists.)

We left sometime after two. We were all pretty tired, and nothing was really happening. I'm all for just sitting and relaxing, but the food and the drinks were way too expensive to sit there all night (note to self, bring food to the beach).

It was pretty awe inspiring to see that many people in the same place. I can't quite emphasize that all of Barcelona was there. That just blew my mind.

Because you can totally use mortar fireworks
in the middle of the crowd...

Also, don't worry. I won't become a photographer anytime soon. Obviously don't have the skill set.

These Bands...

Before the show...

For the past few days, everywhere I go, I always run into these
street performers.

But these are no ordinary street performers, these guys are grade A acts. The latest group I saw was very lively and still decent musicians. The bassist was jumping around and the guitarist/singer was dancing while playing.

Thoroughly entertaining.

My host mother said that yesterday, or maybe the day before was international music day or something(?)

I'm not sure, but I am enjoying these pop-up bands.

I also got super lost last night, and ended up doing nothing. (Although I did find the coolest of music stores, just so many instruments that I've never even seen. Like they were selling Lutes.)
BUT MARK MY WORDS. TONIGHT WILL NOT BE A BUST.
 

During, these guys had some moves...

Plans Change..

So, as of now, Estrella's parents have decided that she isn't allowed to go out for San Juan, so she's trying to get me to go with her cousin, and her cousins friends... In Gava, I think(?) Not entirely sure if I want to go, but we'll see. I'm just going with the flow right now.
Also, I've decided that I want to go to a Jazz Club tonight. I'm pretty excited for this. My host mother knows one of them fairly well and she thinks that there's a Cuban band playing there tonight. So I'll see if I can find this place. It strikes me as "very local", which means that it's super hard to find.
Another topic, it turns out that during my last weekend here, I'll be in France for at least most of it, if not all, so next weekend is kind of IT. Even if I have a night free on the weekend I go to France, I'm pretty sure that I'll just use it to ponder as to where did my six weeks go...
 But back to next weekend, I think I'm going to take the train to madrid for a day/night/some period of time. I'm going to try to anyway. No promises... I mean it's like a 6-9 hour ride with stops, for the overnight so... I don't know. That's a lot of travel for one day.

Midterm, More Intercambio Than I Can Handle, & San Juan

Sorry for the lack of anything. I had a midterm this morning. It was the first oral midterm that I've ever had and I was fairly nervous because everyone that went before did very poorly. But when it was my classes turn, I sucked it up and went first.
We had to pick a random piece of paper with four questions on it. We could change pieces of paper once, but you never know what you'll get, it could be worse. So when I knew three of the four questions fairly well, I kept mine.
I ended up answering the first three very easily and completely correctly, on the fourth I had to think a little, and when I took my best guess, I ended up getting it correct.
Things here are graded on a 0-10 scale, 10 being a 100 etc.
So, long story short, I'm pretty sure that I'm the only person who got a hundred, so woo.

Also, yesterday I went out and walked around with my Intercambio. It seems that her English has improved immensely (I think that she's just more comfortable around me, so she isn't scared to speak in English.) I feel like she's the least stereotypical Spaniard (that I've met), she doesn't like coffee and she doesn't like Barcelona (and think's that it's boring, not sure as to what she's comparing too, but okay..). Even so, she complains about the weather just like everyone else here, "Oh no, it's only 65 degrees, put on a coat," or "Ahh so hot, it's 75." These people don't know weather. I love em, but they don't know what real weather is.
"Gotcha" still seems to be the leading word in her English vocabulary (much to my amusement), and I helped to reinforce her understand of "Under", "Over", "Above", "In-Between", and "Here". Just an FYI, does anyone know how hard it is to explain any of those terms, without English, just using hand-signals AND without looking like a moron?
I'm sure that I looked especially stupid while explaining In-Between. I ran over to a tree, point at it VERY enthusiastically, ran over to her, pointed very enthusiastically, then ran and stood in the middle of her and the tree while saying In-Between like 3928423 times and jumping up and down. There's no going half-way in my explanation hah. I mean, I'll probably look like an idiot anyway, so she might as well learn something.
Just before she left, she invited me to come out with her and her friends for San Juan, and I'm a little concerned. On a scale of 1-10, these people party like a 30 on the weekdays, and like a 60 on the weekends. San Juan is the biggest party holiday that they have here.
She told me to take a train to Sitges, the beach town I visited earlier, and that I would then have to take a train back to Barcelona on monday, (we have monday off from school for recuperation purposes, if that says anything). Naturally I asked where everyone slept, because you know.... we'll be there for a night. Apparently there is no sleeping on San Juan. None. Nada. Zilch. Cero. Zero. So, we'll see how this goes, as usually, I have no idea as to what I'm getting myself into. Cheers.

Last, but not least (whew, just imagine that I'm saying this entire post without any pauses, it'll be more interesting, I promise), I was tired of being with Americans, I mean I'm in Spain right? So I just went to my favorite little (literally) cafe, the "Petit Pot", and asked the bartender where I could meet some locals and where I could practice Spanish. He told me that I should basically just walk into some bar or cafe, and talk to people, but then he stopped and told me about a bar/cafe that was nearby and that had an Intercambio program. Basically people go there on thursdays, and they practice languages, (I think it's all languages, not just English and Spanish), so a friend and I are going to that tonight because... I mean if I love having one intercambio, then having several will just be the greatest thing ever, right?

Wrong. That was basically the most intimidating thing I've ever tried to do. I have enough guts to do a lot of things here, but I cannot walk into a bar that I haven't been to, talk to a bunch of people who at least 10 years older than me, who I don't know, and in a language that I'm not comfortable with. So, I'd love to say how it went, but that's not possible because it didn't happen, for me anyway.
Furthermore, my host mother and I ran into one of her neighbors today, who apparently has a daughter who wants to learn english. So I'm pretty sure that my host mother is going to try and set up a "get together" for us so we can practice our respective languages. That's all. I'm drained and it's not even 9.

It's Not That I Didn't Like The Excursion... I'm Just Glad To Be In Barcelona Again

This picture would make the perfect "Come Visit Spain Commercial"
It was unreal.

So. We went to "Costa Brava", and it's okay.
I mean it's nice.
It's pretty.
There were so many cats. Just oh my gosh.
Lots of little local stores.
But I'm SO glad to be back in Barcelona.

It's just not the same.
I suppose that I didn't come to Spain to see small towns. Maybe that's it.

But anyway, it was still nice to do once. Lots of good scenery (cats) makes for good pictures...

Gato.

Overall, we visited... 3(?) towns, I think. The best part was the boat ride there. Hands down. Sitting on the front of the boat while the waves just slammed us. It was freezing, but so much fun.
For the actual towns, they were basically just small coastal towns, but everything was in Spanish. I didn't/don't find them nearly as interesting as I find Barcelona though.
I think what I found most interesting was the COMPLETE lack of big business anything. Literally not a single non-locally owned, big store; all were mom & pop shops. They didn't even have cash-registers, it was very different. But it was really cool in that respect, I was kind of amazed that such a beautiful place has not been completely overrun by Hiltons and Burger Kings (or whatever you think of when you think "BIG BUSINESS").

Wooooo... Sweet typical tourist photo-op.
(In it's defense, it was very pretty.)

Gato.

Gato. On the prowl. (This one was totally
hunting some poor bird down.)

Gato. (Not my hand, I didn't want to
touch random cats)

The streets were all like this. Cars were almost non-existant here.
(I really like these streets, it was a very interesting way of living, in my opinion.)

Walking On Sunshine? Gotcha.

So, yesterday I finally met up with my intercambio. (And her cousin.)
We basically just walked around, went into some stores, and got a little lost. (It seems that I know the city better than them.)
Anyway, it was really interesting to communicate with someone who doesn't really speak English for a long period of time. And by really interesting, I mean really difficult, but I suppose that's what makes it fun. Every time you communicate what you actually want to say it's like a small victory and all the while we both got to learn some of the other's language.

I'm on the left (duh), Estrella (my intercambio) is in the middle
and her cousin is on the right.

Which brings me to the title... She seems to have latched on to the word/phrase "Gotcha". I only said it once while we were on Skype, and now it's more or less her catchphrase. It's really quite hilarious to hear someone speak in a very heavy accent and then all of a sudden, they stop and say "gotcha" in the most American way possible. (Her pronunciation of Gotcha is stellar, it almost sounds American.) It just seems extremely out of place. She also wants to use Gotcha in place of "Vale", which is odd because they don't actually mean the same thing... But I suppose they are similar. In Spain, everyone says "Vale" whenever they would say "Okay" or "Let's Go" or "I understand" or "That's good". I wouldn't use gotcha for "let's go", but... Eh.
The only word that I learned that was really new to me was "Guay", which is basically cool or super. "Es guay" or "Muy Muy guay!" or even "Que guay". I don't enjoy the word guay half as much as she enjoys gotcha and I doubt that I ever will.

Tell me that this mannequin isn't creepy..

Also, I discovered the most amazing thing. Spaniards  (and other foreigners I would assume), love American music, but when they sing along they don't actually know what they're saying. They just make vague noises that sound somewhat similar to the lyrics of the song. While we were in some super-department store, "Walking on Sunshine" came on, and hearing Estrella attempt to sing what she thought they were saying was so funny. (And actually she was almost right, she just didn't know that the singer was saying "Sunshine", which is pretty crucial in my opinion.)
Overall, it was so much fun. I really enjoyed spending a few hours with a "local" (she isn't exactly a local, but she's from Spain and she goes to the University of Barcelona, so that's close enough for me). I'm pretty sure that we're going to hangout again sometime during next week and on the weekend on the 24 (it's a huge holiday here), probably more, but I don't know as of now.