Freedom on Tuesday

I woke up REALLY late and barely made it to school on time. Oops. Our first lesson was on the passive voice. Then we worked more on phonology. We worked on word combinations—what happens when words are next to eachother. Sometimes the sounds blend or get dropped. Mikaela and I worked together because the way we say things is different from everyone else in the class. We had to write out the Monkey Jumping on the Bed rhyme out in phonemes. It was fun because that rhyme is funny.
Then we went to lunch at the usual place. Mikaela’s boyfriend came and Steph went back to school early. After lunch, I had an email waiting for me from BCN Languages asking if I was an EU passport holder. Apparently they’re looking to hire someone. I started to think about how I really might like to stay here to live. I photocopied a page from the book for tomorrow and left early.
I decided to go to Parc Guell, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I was going to take the subway until I saw I had to transfer twice to get to somewhere reasonably close. No, thanks. I decided to walk and referred to my map occasionally. I also asked someone for directions—turned out I just had to walk to the next block.

Spain’s buildings are really amazing. So many of them have such interesting detail along the walls and around the windows and doors. I could just walk around and look at neighborhoods for days. Maybe I’ll have to look into the walking tours in my guidebook.
There was a STEEP hill and it reminded me of the mountains I’d climbed in Korea. Fortunately about half way up, they had escalators to take you the rest of the way. They never had THAT at any of the mountain temples!
At the top of the escalator, there were stairs. Oooh, that’s more familiar! They went by a bunch of cacti that reminded me of Tucson. People had vandalized the cacti though. There were names and symbols carved into the cacti-leaves? What do you call those things?!


I followed the path through the cacti and super-Mediterranean plants to a clearing where you could see out over the city. It was a nice vantage point because you could see lots of the main sights (Sagrada Familia, the egg in the business district, Montjuc, etc.) and then the sea in the back. Also it was a perfectly sunny, blue-skied day.

Then I saw what the path was leading to—the 3 crosses monument. It’s a little bit like half of a giant beehive plopped onto the top of the hill with 3 big crosses made out of big slabs of stone on top. It does have stairs around the sides and a flat top. It IS meant for humans to climb on, unlike beehives. There are three crosses—a main one in the center and two others on opposite sides. There were lots of people on top of the beehive.



There was a good view from the top of that too, naturally since it was even higher.


From the top, I could see the other main attractions. I mentally marked the path down and then followed it through the woods. It was very clear I was in the Mediterranean as I made my way—the vegetation is so appropriate! Also, I saw a couple of big grey parrots. I’ve been little green ones around before. I have a feeling they’re escaped pets, like the ones in San Francisco. Finally, I came to a clearing/patio. On the far side of it was a windy bench that was covered in colorful ceramic. Beyond that, I could see the tower that is on the TEFL Barcelona website. Ah-HA!


Behind all of that, there’s a cliff of a wall that’s constructed with hunks of stone. The stones are pretty jagged and look like they’re from another time, beyond Gaudi’s. The stones are crafted into sorts of columns that branch outward at the top. I followed the stone wall and saw that in other parts of it, there were pretty purple flowers growing. Also, on top of some of the wall, there were palm trees.

Then I went down onto the patio/terrace. I walked from right to left along the snaking bench. It was really colorful and generally amazing. How neat to make little alcoves of seating! It made it so much more socially appealing. Also, it made a neat aesthetic effect.



Beyond the bench, there were a couple of neat Gaudi buildings in the area below. The one on the right has the tower attached to it. I bet it’s actually a chimney. It has a sort of textured checkery blue and white pattern. On top, it has Gaudi’s famous 4-pronged cross. The building itself has a rounded roof with a cool fixture on top, like a handle for opening a sugar pot. It looks like it should be miniature. The building on the left is a more normal shape, but still looked a lot like a gingerbread house. Its roof was iced in white. It also had a little knob on top.


Then I went across the opening again and followed a path off to the right. I came to Casa-Museu Gaudi, Gaudi’s house from 1906 to 1926. It’s now a museum, but I couldn’t be bothered to go inside. It was peachy pink and had a church tower on top.









TBC...