A quiet but productive weekend in Barcelona

I can´t tell you all how nice it was to just have a weekend in Barcelona. As you´ve seen in the last few posts, I have been traveling non-stop for the past four weekends: oct 21-23 granada, oct 28-30 madrid and Toledo, nov 1-4 england (to see my grandma), and nov 9-11 seville and cordoba. It´s been one crazy but fabulous month. Anyways here´s a summary of my weekend. 

FRIDAY

I slept in and relished every moment today. Normally I would be up at 4 or 4:30 am to catch an early flight but nope not this time! I woke up around 11:30, had some breakfast, and just took my sweet time basically. Bianca and I were going to hang out with Isabel´s granddaughters, Clara and Elena, later that evening and to celebrate thanksgiving, I made a pumpkin pie! I managed to find Libby´s pumpkin puree at a local store called Taste of America and some evaporated milk at the grocery store. Isabel happened to have some fresh cinnamon, nutmeg, eggs, and flour on hand. I had bought a box of brown sugar for my oatmeal. So, check, check, check, and check – I had all the ingredients except for shortening for the pie crust (ready made pie crusts don´t exist here). I asked my econ professor who is Catalan but was born and raised in Mexico what they call ¨manteca¨ (or shortening in Mexico) in Spain. He said theres no vegetable based one but I could ask for pancetta or pork fat! EWW! I am NOT putting pork fat in my pie crust… no way Jose! So, I found a great all butter crust recipe that turned out to be very flaky and delicious. So how´d the pie turn out you may ask? Well, it was gone in 24 hours. And we ate it too quickly to take a picture. And we also shared it with Elena and Clara´s parents and brother and sister. And Isabel. It was the best pumpkin pie I´ve ever had if I must say so myself :D

Here´s the pumpkin pie recipe and all butter perfect pie crust recipe I followed. Note I made some substitutions/changes:

For the pumpkin pie, I had no cloves or ginger but I substituted fresh nutmeg and cinnamon instead. Also, I used brown sugar instead of white sugar. 

For the pie crust recipe, this was excellent but I ended up using 9 or 10 tablespoons of ice water. But add 2 tablespoons at a time though otherwise you risk making it too moist. Also, one the ball of dough was formed, I wrapped it in saran wrap, put it in the fridge for about an hour or so, then rolled it out, put it in the oven for 15 minutes to bake. The pumpkin pie recipe says not to bake it, but I think it turned out better that way. 

I went out for the second time on Friday evening with a group of about 10 IES students. I really wanted to go to the clubs, but they don´t open till midnight, so we went barhopping. One of the bars was cool because they offered complimentary, refillable popcorn bowls for everyone. While everyone else had their shots and drinks, I sipped and munched happily on my sprite and popcorn. I have no problem with drinking, but when people start to pressure  me with ¨come on at least have one drink”, not only do I become more resistant to giving in to peer pressure but it just flat out annoys me. I´m so tempted to respond with ¨come on, be a friend and don´t pressure another friend into doing something they don´t want to.” I understand people just want me to have a good time and all, but I don´t think you have to be drunk, intoxicated, or high to have a good time. That´s just my two cents.

The next bar and last bar I went to was called La Bolsa (or stock market in Spanish). It happened to be on the same street and just a flew places down from AmChamSpain, where I intern. It was nice to be in a familiar area, so if I wouldn´t make the metro (closes at 2 am on Fridays), I could just walk home. Now, this bar was super cool, well to an aspiring economist in my case, because as people bought more and more drinks, the tv screen would show an increase in the price of that drink, than the prices of the other drink that are not as demanded would fall (law of supply and demand, baby! Gotta love it!). I got an awesome business idea where I would open a similar bar back home but simulate the Market Crash of 1929 on Black Friday in October and the prices of all drinks would fall just for that day. Aahh, so cool.

It was 2 am and I was quite fed up at this point because I was tired and bored (everyone was drinking at the bar with their backs turned to me). I figured this was a waste of my time and with such a large group, it was unclear when we would eventually go to the clubs. So, I walked home. During this walk, I thought a lot about how much I´ve matured while abroad. Three months ago I would have never walked home by myself in Barcelona, especially at 2 am on a Friday night. But I have absolutely no fear of that anymore (well it also may be because I know the area, but still!) and it´s nice when you face and conquer an obstacle J

SATURDAY

I woke up at 12:50 pm. I was so tired from all that walking the night before I guess my body needed to recuperate. I had a very late breakfast and lunch, but managed to start and finish a class presentation for Tuesday. I stayed in my jammies pretty much all day but it was nice to be productive indoors while it rained outside.

SUNDAY

I woke up at a much more reasonable time today (10:30 am) and got back on my computer to get working on other projects. My parents are coming next week but I´m meeting them in England this weekend, so I´m trying to get ahead on a lot of my projects and internship applications. I managed to almost finish another class presentation (just need to confirm some things with my professor first), applied for three internships with PNC, and bought my parents and I´s tickets for a Barca game next week. I love it when you´re on a productive high and are just crossing things off your to-do list. It feels so satisfying, doesn´t it?

Well, around 2 pm I started to get a bit restless and Alysse texted me asking if we´d like to get together because she needed to get out of the house as well. I suggested we meet up for lunch at BioCenter, a vegetarian restaurant off Las Ramblas. Man oh man was it delicious! Mind you it was a little bit more pricey than I usually pay for lunch, but it was all organic and vegetarian and we went on a Sunday. Their menu del dia is very reasonable (9 euros from Monday to Friday) but I´d heard very good reviews in one of the NUMEROUS tourist guide books I borrowed from the library before I came. I am SOOO going back,especially with my parents. The service was good, it was a nice and charming ambiance, and the food was OUT OF THIS WORLD. I don’t know if it´s because it´s been three months since i´ve had tofu, but I ordered a fabulous dish of sautéed tofu, ginger, and vegetables with soy sauce. Alysse also ordered an excellent dish of homemade ravioli ( I believe parmesan and some herb) with a homemade sun dried tomato sauce. We were both in heaven. To top it all off, I ordered an Almond Sponge Cake with Raspberry sauce… it was SOO delicious. I can´t wait to go back. I´ve added it to my list of “ What to do on my last day in Barcelona”

I got back around 5:30 pm, did more research, and had a really good dinner prepared by Isabel. She cooked a very moist and tender roasted chicken, lettuce with rice and other vegetables, and of course pan con tomate. In all the time I´ve been here I´ve never had a bad meal. I think when I go back home, not only will I replace my salad dressing with just olive oil and vinegar, but I will never be able to have just bread and butter anymore, it will have to be pan con tomate.