Beginnings in Spain

first-time flyer
I was up bright and early on the morning of the 25th for my flight to Barcelona. Special thanks go out the fabulous Mme. Clémence Coleman for driving me to the airport, preparing me for the flight and the process and for helping me check in, I would have been lost without her! Anyway, I didn’t have to pay the excess baggage fees, woohoo! I was a little nervous getting on the flight, but not so much, went and found a seat, and the flight went without a hitch, it all felt perfectly normal to me, except sometimes I got a weird feeling like we were dropping, but other than that, it felt like nothing out of the ordinary, I was completely calm. The views were rather impressive though, I must say. It was just over an hour from Basel to Barcelona, so not long at all.

It was absolutely boiling when we landed. BCN airport seemed huge to me, but I managed to find where our baggage would be coming to okay, and had to wait a while for it, but it was fine. What wasn’t so much fun though, was dragging all my stuff all the way to the train station in the airport, which seemed MILES away, and also, I was wearing three pairs of jeans, a few tee-shirts, a cardy and a hoody. I had to take all the tops off (except one haha) on the way, cos it was far too hot, I thought I was gonna die, but I managed to safely tie them all round my waist.

trains
So, I eventually made it to the train station and got in a queue for buying tickets, when some random girl came up to me and gave me a ticket with three journeys in Barcelona on it, which was awfully convenient. Luckily I had heard somebody talking in England about how the train stations work in Spain so I knew how to get through the barrier to the platform. Had a bit of a wait for the next train, and I was just hoping it would be going to Barcelona Sants. So got on the train, which was so crowded, oh, and loading a 24kg suitcase while carrying a massive coat and a 12kg bag on to a crowded train isn’t much fun.

Anyway, it did go to Sants Station, which was probably the most terrifying place I’ve ever been haha. It’s so huge, and the staff aren’t much fun, and even less fun, is dragging/carrying tons of luggage all the way round it. Also annoying was the fact that I was completely in French mode and kept saying “oui” instead of “sí”, how embarrassing. I waited in a queue at some sort of information stand for a while to ask about the AVE (the high-speed trains in Spain) to Lleida to be told that she only gave information about the cercanías trains… great. I eventually found some sort of information office which gave me some sort of general direction to go to buy a ticket for the AVE. I knew there was one at 12.00 so I had to hurry as the hour was fast approaching and the next one wouldn’t be until 14.00. Luckily the queue wasn’t very long, but for some reason it took forever to pay, she just seemed to be sat there with my card staring at her computer, and the time ticked away. But she eventually gave me a ticket and told me where to go, so I went, had my ticket checked, had my luggage checked and made it onto the train and sat down.

The AVE was sooo comfortable (and ©air conditioned©). A short while after departing I realised looking at my ticket that I was allocated a seat and that I wasn’t sitting in it. Luckily it was just in the next carriage so it was fine, I walked past an old man who sounded exactly like Tim from the CDs we used to learn in Catalan class, and there was a guy sat opposite me that was talking on the phone who also sounded just like him, and incidentally, I have heard a number of people in Lleida who sound just like him…

arrival in Lleida
It only takes an hour to get to Lleida on the AVE from BCN, so it’s nice and quick. Lleida was also burning hot, I walked out the train station and got a taxi to the place I’d be staying, which seemed really cheap, less than 6 Euros. Was so weird being driven through the city, cos it’s so different to England. Everyone here lives in apartments, there’s not many houses at al, the vast majority of the city is big apartment blocks with shops on the bottom floor. Everywhere is shops, so weird. Anyway, I rang the apartment of the family I was staying with, they live on the first floor so I had to drag my luggage up a few flights of stairs, which wasn’t easy, I was so shattered. However, a few days later I was going out to go church with Liliana and Pedro, went out the flat, and saw they were in the lift. I was like “I didn’t know there was a lift!” was funny… and embarrassing, haha. Anyway, it was nice staying with Liliana and Pedro, they are really nice, and they have the cutest little baby, he’s only 3 months old *-*.

First few days were okay, it was so hot though. Went to uni to tell them I was there and the guy who deals with the international students, Joan Carles, is sooo nice and dead chilled, made me feel really calm. There were several days of fruitless flat-searching, but eventually I got put in touch with the land lord of the place I’m staying now, and it’s really amazing. I’m living with three Catalans and a Belgian, so I get to speak Catalan, Spanish and French *-*. The flat is also huge, the dining room is amazing, the first night I moved there we had the neighbours round and had tortilla patatas and pa amb tomàquet (bread and tomato), which is actually amazing, I love the food they make here. But yeah, the dining room, HUGE. The flatmates all seem dead nice as well, and the neighbours, two Chinese girls are so cool too. The only problem is we don’t have Internet at the moment. We have to go out onto the balcony to use it atm, which is not good. Hopefully we shall buy some soon, cos it won’t cost very much between all of us, especially if both flats pay for it.

I was looking for a copisteria the other day to make a photocopy of my passport, but there’s millions so I wasn’t sure which one to go to, when I eventually decided on one the girl who worked there immediately could asked me for English lessons, so I (hopefully) already have work $_$ ! I asked her if it was so obvious that I was English, and she was like “a little, haha.” Anyway, it’s quite difficult with the language barrier, but it’s not too hard, I didn’t spend all this time studying so I could get here and understand and say nothing. Some woman in the supermarket started jabbering at me in Catalan and I was fine, but I’ve met some people that don’t speak either of the languages! I haven’t got a clue how they manage, I couldn’t imagine being here without being able the speak the languages. I do have to say “perdó” constantly when people are talking to me, cos it’s hard to understand, it’s quite annoying, but I hope that in the near future I’ll get better, especially once uni starts, which I’m really looking forward to.

Another thing is people here cannot pronounce my name, so I’ve started introducing myself with the Spanish form of my name “Josué.” I don’t mind so much when people call me “Yosh” but I refuse to be called “George”, which some people derive when I tell them my name, so I’ve decided to just go with my Spanish name.

I obviously am missing England and all my family and friends, so can’t wait until I am busy with uni and stuff. One thing I really miss though is my piano, I’m finding it really difficult not having ready access to a piano, I just want to be able to sit and play, especially when I am feeling sad, but I can’t :/. It’s been ages since I had a chance to have a proper sit-down with a piano. I got to play a hymn in church on Sunday which felt soooooo good, but yeah, it’s difficult living without a piano.

Okay, I think I’ll leave it there for now, I’ve pretty much caught you up on my life. I’ll prob write again soon. Miaow for now. :3