This week, I finished up presentations for school, spent time with friends, and visited my grandparents in Ukraine. Continue reading all about it!
- Monday, November 29th
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After a refreshing sleep last night, I woke up and went to the gym as usual. Of course, I treated myself to a coffee and pastry for breakfast, and I went to my first class of the day. After class, I made myself avocado toast for lunch back at the apartment, and I worked for CU and finished up a presentation that I had in my next class. I gave said presentation in Mediterranean Politics, which I think went pretty well, and I am so happy to have it done because I was stressing quite a bit about it. I had some free time before International Business, so I went to my school library and worked on more assignments, and then I went to class. Afterwards, I finally went grocery shopping for the week, and I bought pre-made fajita ingredients for a few meals, which I made the minute I got home because I was starving. For being frozen, the fajitas were pretty good and they satisfied my craving. I worked on more school assignments before packing my bag for the gym in the morning, and I went to bed.
- Tuesday, November 30th
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Today was a really fun day. I started my morning as I usually do, with the gym, coffee, and class. I came home and worked before grabbing my purse and heading to the metro with my friend because we had a walking tour of one of Barcelona’s neighborhoods, El Raval, for our Intercultural Communication class. This neighborhood is known as the center of prostitution and drug use in Barcelona, but my professor showed us that it is much more than that, and I really enjoyed the walk. Since we were near the main shopping area, I looked for gifts for my grandparents since I am visiting them in Ukraine this week, but I couldn’t find anything that I liked, so I met up with one of my roommates who also happened to be shopping, and we went to the grocery store because we had a dinner planned tonight with our friends. We bought cookies and wine and headed back to our apartment. Our friends who live right above us were hosting the dinner, so it was super easy to get there, and we had a lovely time. We were going to get pizza, but we filled up on a charcuterie board and chips and salsa, so we skipped it. We got back to our apartment around midnight and got ready to sleep.
- Wednesday, December 1st
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I somehow found the energy and willpower to go to the gym this morning, and then I bought coffee and headed to class. After class, I went to El Corte Inglés, which is basically the Spanish mall, to continue my adventure of finding gifts for my grandparents. I ended up buying a wool scarf for my grandpa and hand lotion for my grandma. I went back to my apartment, worked on a few assignments, and headed to my Mediterranean Politics class. We had a guest speaker, so it was an interesting class today, and then I went to the library for a little before going to International Business. After that, I came home, ate dinner, and had a call with my therapist. I packed for Ukraine and went to sleep.
- Thursday, December 2nd
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Today was hectic, to say the least. I had a flight out to Ukraine at 3 p.m., and it takes about half an hour to get to the airport from my apartment. I couldn’t skip my morning class because I had a presentation, and class usually ends at 12:40 p.m., so I thought I’d have time to calmly stop by my apartment and finish packing some last-minute things and get a cab. Well, a kid in my class did an absolutely horrible presentation and was going on and on until 1 p.m., so I straight up left class because I did not have time to wait for his presentation to be over. I ran into my apartment, finished packing in two seconds, and ordered a cab, and I got to the airport around 1:30. However, I didn’t have my boarding pass because I’m not a European Union resident, so I had to stand in the check-in line to print my boarding pass, and then I had to go to another line to get my boarding pass stamped. Then I stood in the security line for 15 minutes and of course, my luggage got pulled to be checked. I wanted to buy Cava for my grandparents, and since you can’t take liquids through security, I had to buy it at the Duty-Free store, and the check-out line took forever because Spaniards are notorious for being slow. I looked at the monitor with the flights and it said that my flight was boarding, so I ran to my gate and of course, I had to go through another passport control. Well, I got to the gate, and the flight wasn’t even boarding. So I was sweaty and stressed for no reason. Luckily, this left me time to buy a sandwich, because I hadn’t eaten anything but a persimmon all day and it was almost 3 o’clock at this point, and I get really hangry when I’m hungry. Anyway, I finally boarded the plane and flew four hours to Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, where my grandparents live. I stood in the passport control line for another half hour before meeting up with my grandma, whom I was very glad to see. We drove from the airport to my grandparents’ house where my grandpa was waiting for us, and then I ate dinner and we chatted. I took a shower, which felt amazing after I’d been sweating so much earlier, and I went to sleep.
- Friday, December 3rd
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I didn’t have the best sleep last night, but I woke up ready to take on the day. My grandma made me oatmeal for breakfast, and let me tell you, it is so nice to have somebody cook for you after months of not having that luxury. My grandma and I headed into the city center around noon because I had a haircut scheduled, and my hair feels so healthy and looks great now. It started snowing pretty heavily while I was in the hair salon, so we ordered a cab to take us to the Georgian restaurant where we had lunch reservations with my grandpa and great-grandpa, who is 90 years old. It was good to see him, and the food was delicious. Georgian food is really popular in Ukraine, and I remember throughout my childhood visits here, we ate it quite often, so I wanted to indulge once again. After we stuffed ourselves full of food, I was somehow coerced into letting my grandpa buy me a warm jacket, which I appreciated, but it caught me off guard. Anyway, we began the hour-long drive home because there was such bad traffic, and on the way there I fell asleep. When we got back, I worked on an assignment and started watching season three of “You,” and then I went to sleep.
- Saturday, December 4th
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I once again did not have the best night of sleep, but it is what it is. I woke up early this morning, before 9 a.m., because I had a pedicure appointment at 10:30 a.m. After my pedicure, we hung out at home for a while before heading to the city center, where my grandma and I went on a cold, long walk around all the main squares and sights to see. We met up with a couple of my grandma’s friends for dinner at an Italian restaurant, and then we all headed to the theater because we had tickets to see the “Nutcracker” ballet. I loved it; ballet always makes me very emotional and watching it will always be my weakness. We drove back home, I talked with my grandparents for a little, and then I got ready for bed, very excited for the night of sleep ahead.
- Sunday, December 5th
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I finally slept in this morning, which felt amazing, and went to the kitchen to wish my grandma a happy birthday straight away. We had a slow start to the day and I spent most of the morning watching season three of “You.” My grandma and I left the house around 2 p.m., at which point we drove to the city center and met up with some distant relatives for coffee and dessert. We had tickets to an orchestra concert for the early evening, so we walked to the venue and listened to the beautiful music for an hour and a half, and then we drove to meet up with my grandpa at the restaurant where we were having my grandma’s birthday dinner. We ate all kinds of salads and meat, and we had a lovely dessert. It was nice to sit with my grandparents for a few hours and enjoy each other’s company. We drove back home, I got ready for bed, and went to sleep.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but week 14 of being abroad is over. Come back next week for my second-to-last “Life in Barcelona” article!