Fun-etics in Barcelona

Sitting here in limbo...

2009-03-24T14:20:00.011+01:00

Lots of stuff going on lately, too much to tell actually. So I will just highlight my current limbo with a trip I took to a Via Ferrata outside of Barcelona, which is probably a good metaphor for how I have felt lately: hanging from a cliff, haha, no I kid i kid(....mostly). Annnyway, a Via Ferrata is Italian for "Iron rod" I learned and its basically kind of like rock climbing but there is a

Spanish Spinning

2009-03-04T14:26:00.004+01:00

(<---- my new gym!)Hi everyone :-)So, last night I went to my first Spanish spinning class at my new gym. The gym is huge and the class has enough bikes for like 30-40 people. But as it is in all cultures, and I suppose it is human nature, most of the people that showed up clustered as far in the back corner away from the intstructor as possible. I love that some things don't change between

Everyone has their own "smell"...

2009-02-17T19:03:00.014+01:00

(<--duck in Madrid...cute!)Ok, so you know when you go over to a friend's house and the whole house and that friend have a certain smell? They don't smell in a bad way of course. It is just their own particular combination of detergent, soap, commonly eaten foods and perhaps a mix of some of the elements of the actual house and where they live. Little contributions from many different things

Back Again...

2009-02-08T13:29:00.002+01:00

Hi everyone!I'm back in Barcelona....doing more phonetics, phonology, intonation, and acquisition research, so I'm also back at the blog again too. I have been here almost 2 weeks now and I've already had a whirlwind adjustment period. The first day I was back I was ushered right back into the world of linguistics at school with meetings and seminars and then left 3 days later for a week long

Life Transitions

2008-06-26T11:17:00.003+02:00

Everyday I receive the "Daily OM" in my inbox. It was originally a suggestion of my sister and now has become a great way to reflect a bit each day. Recently I received the following one and it seemed quite applicable to my current situation...so I´m sharing it all with you :-)Life TransitionsThe Death And Rebirth Of Self Sometimes a part of us must die before another part can come to life.

Jill, where have you been?

2008-05-09T12:09:00.019+02:00

Ok, so I just realized my last blog entry was February 16th.....and it's now May 24th.....yah....I guess I have been a little busy :-) Now the question is, what have I been doing? Last I left you, I had taken a couple trips outside of the Catalunya territory. Since then I have been basically loaded with lots of work and many, many visitors :-)The month of March started off like any other,

Is there life outside of Catalunya?

2008-02-16T09:43:00.026+01:00

Hey hey heyyy. I have had quite the past month organizing up my research so that I actually finish on time in June (estimated departure date for USA of June 30th, which means I'll be home for the most American holiday of them all, the 4th of July!). I have ALSO been doin a bit of traveling. Last semester I didn't get a chance to get outside of Catalunya much, so I wanted to make it a point to

A Barcelonian Birthday

2008-01-20T12:19:00.000+01:00

For the actual day of my birth I was flying into Barcelona on a red-eye from the US....not really the ideal way to celebrate. Then toss in a bit of jet-lag, lack of sleep and post-holiday depression and you get a not-so-happy Jill. Luckily I did celebrate the big 2-5 with family, best friends and my boyfriend before I left the US, so I couldn't complain too much :-) I had an amazing dinner with

Top 9 Reasons to Love Barcelona in December

2007-12-18T21:05:00.000+01:00

9. It's warm enough still for outdoor seating at restaurants and cafes8. It was 70 degrees on December 7th!!!7. Even though it is that warm, when it drops down to the freezing cold temperature of 60, the sweaters for both humans and dogs-alike come out6. Making sugar cookies in my room with a water bottle as a rolling pin and a cup as a cookie cutter....well, until I realized my clinique

To the land of mountains, chocolate and cheese!!

2007-11-24T12:05:00.000+01:00

A couple weeks ago I made my first trip outside of Catalunya since arriving here in Spain. I had been looking forward to it for weeks and it was fun to see a new country in Europe. Zurich, Switzerland, was everything I had expected it to be, and a lot more German! My Spanish and Catalan skills were of no use, but I did manage to get myself around ok the first night.I flew there alone from

Sorry, I have a nut allergy

2007-11-15T23:03:00.000+01:00

It's time again, mostly by the encouragement of my sister, but with a little of my own, I am back at the blog with a new update. I have been trottin around quite a bit since my last entry, in fact, it was weeks ago! bad jill, I know. Since then I haveeee experienced Halloween, or rather All Saints Day, been hiking and running on a sweet trail that wraps around the mountains that surround

Foreigners invade Girona...

2007-11-01T13:01:00.000+01:00

The regional government in Barcelona did a very nice thing and organized a week of activities for the new foreign students in the city. There were lots of tours and trips and all were basically free! So, naturally I jumped on the bandwagon and got in a free trip to the nearby town (like 1.5 hrs in train) of Girona :-) (note pic to left...)We met at 10am in the train station and a giant group

Catalan and Occitan Folk Festival!!

2007-11-01T12:44:00.000+01:00

Per usual, I feel like I have a lot of catching up to do in the blog department, which people like to remind me about when I talk to them, so here is a new one on a festival I went to a couple weeks ago in the nearby city of Sabadell. I went with all the people from my research group at school. They are the best group of people and after talking with other foreigners I realize how lucky I am to

From Sick to Sitges

2007-10-20T16:03:00.001+02:00

Well, I have done quite a bit in the last two weeks...First, I had a presentation in front of the Linguistics department at school. I had to basically summarize my master's thesis and discuss another paper I had written on Tonal Preplanning....yay! haha, It actually went really well, and being on a Friday, I had the whole weekend to look forward to afterward. So, I went out dancing with my

The parentals come to town...except they are not mine :-)

2007-10-01T21:58:00.000+02:00

I got some more photos for ya'll! They are a bit of a mix, but mostly include a trip down to the port area (where the cruise ships dock) with my friend Rachel's parents! They are amazing, and I think of them as an extension of my own family. It was great to see Chris and Chris so far away from home :-) and they even treated me to a great lunch in exchange for my tour guide and language skills

Merce 2007

2007-09-29T13:04:00.000+02:00

Hi again! It's been another whirlwind week for me here. I have been working on not only schoolwork but also settling-in type errands (aka my residence card = QUITE the process) but I do think now it's getting better. I am slowly checking things off my to-do list. I have now joined the gym on campus, which is awesome and offers tons of classes like spinning, yoga and dance :-)Well, Last

The Autonoma

2007-09-20T10:18:00.000+02:00

This week I began school at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona. For I believe, my 19th year in a row. Ok, ok, it's not quite the same, but it's still the same environment and as I am seeing now, maybe even more work :-) On Monday I met with my adviser here and she had tons of great ideas for how to get started on my projects. I will be doing a little of a lot, and then a lot of one

Backstory...

2007-09-17T11:28:00.000+02:00

In my excitement of meeting the ambassador, I sort of skipped over some adventures I had in Barcelona before I left for Madrid. First, Sasha and I had QUITE the adventurous day of getting lost several times and hitching a ride with her hostel owner in his beat up VW bus that was falling apart and blaring reggae. This was all because poor Sasha's hostel was infested with bedbugs and she had to

Hello Ambassador :-)

2007-09-15T13:35:00.000+02:00

So, to my left here is moi with the US Ambassador to Spain! SICK! I was so excited that he came to the Fulbright reception the last night as soon as he finished speaking I struck up a conversation with him. Super nice guy from Texas and gave me some tips on a possible future in government jobs. I mean, that is some serious networking!You can definitely tell from his smile that he is good at

FOOD! :-)

2007-09-15T13:17:00.000+02:00

So there is a lot of different and fun types of food here in España. LOTS of Jamon of all types (ham ham and more ham), although i did find chorizo (sausage) made of turkey instead, veryyyy good :-) Here are some fun pics i took of some of the stuff i have had so far:Some classic sangria that Sasha and I enjoyed at lunch :-)A collection of fun things bought by Sasha and I for our day of

Puppers do not know about "Spain time"...

2007-09-08T11:17:00.000+02:00

Hola todos! So things have been goin pretty well here for the first week. My last post was during my stay in the Born area and after several days of intense walking :-) Well, much has happened since then.Most importantly I met Pilar, the professor I will be working with this year. We met up in the Ciutadella Park in between her house and my hotel. It is a beautiful park, so I arrived early to

It's Go Time

2007-09-04T14:39:00.000+02:00

<-- Pic from the plane ride in, Hola Barcelona!! Well, as I boarded the plane from Philadelphia to Barcelona, and having just hung up my cell phone knowing it was the last time I would talk on it till Christmas, I had the phrase "It's go time, Jill" running through my head over and over again. If I wanted to get to my hotel, eat, shop, meet people and get an apartment I was going to have to