Barcelona study abroad Summer 2011: Day 9/Tapas experience

I don't really know how to start each day's blog (hence the "So..." or "Today was a good day..."! Today's weather was pretty good here. It was hot and humid because of the rain yesterday, but at least it was sunny! Class went by slow today because of the long nights for everybody last night, and I am already getting tired of the daily 2 1/2 hour classes. I have decided that I am going to start waking up earlier and begin experiencing the huge lunch specials that you can find practically anywhere in this city. My roommates said they are down as well, which works out perfectly because 4 out of us 5 have our first class at 12:45. However, eating lunch before 12:30 seems very touristy. Oh well, I'm getting my Spanish food in any way that I can! I had baguettes for lunch today at a cafe near the school. I had to get 2 though because they were so tiny! But, they were cheaper, and a lot smaller than the place across the street. I decided to switch it up today because that place doesn't have a wide selection and I do not want to get burned out on the same place or same meal. Continuing on the topic of Spanish food, today's highlight was that we went to eat tapas for dinner. My roommates and I had some time to kill in between our last class and when we were supposed to meet up with the group, so we decided to get to the rendezvous point a little early and do some exploring. We walked around and went in and out of various local shops and saw some of the older-looking buildings. One of the things that stuck out the most to me was a street vendor selling such a basic type of product, yet looked so cool. He would cut up aluminum cans and make ashtrays out of them and we got to stick around and watch him make a couple during our walk. The concept seemed so simple, but actually looked somewhat difficult. He was selling them for only 1 Euro so I think I might get one if I see him again. My roommate purchased one so I got to see it a little closer and the way it was made is awesome. Luckily for me, we also passed by 2 gelato places AND a bakery on our exploration. My roommates got me hooked on gelato, especially because we have one right outside of our apartment. But the gelato places that we passed today were different, in that they had more flavors and looked even tastier than our regular spot. Plus, they had flavor tags in the shape of each fruit or flavor, so it made finding a flavor even easier. I will definitely be returning to at least one, and possibly both of these shops before I leave, and don't worry, I will take pictures. They even displayed the gelato in a neat way that further radiated its beauty/elegance. But, I was able to curb some of my hunger before eating dinner. We passed a bakery that I couldn't help but window shop in, and then I got a whiff of the inside when a door opened so I ran through and my jaw dropped. They had truffles, muffins, sweets of all kinds, cakes, and more. I saw a fruity bread that was on display from the outside in the window, so I couldn't resist buying it. I had seen this item in multiple bakeries, but this one was special enough for me to buy. And weirdly enough, it was called "Coca" (de San Juan) which means "St. John's sweet cake" and was the same bread that my International Business teacher has been telling us about all week. The people of Catalonia eat this bread on certain holidays, especially The Night of San Juan (June 23-24). It is a sweet, fruity bread and tastes very good. Whenever the professor says "coca", most of my classmates burst out laughing because it sounds like cocaine, and before today I was in the same boat as them because he hasn't explained to us what it is yet! But now I know, and I will eat it again before I leave. We also passed a few very fresh, very intriguing smoothie shops where you can sample flavors and even enjoy sitting in the shop where there are tropical decorations that give it an appealing atmosphere. Back to the tapas experience though. This was probably one of the best excursions offered on the program, which could be seen by the number of people that signed up (almost, if not the entire program). They took us to a local restaurant that I had no idea how they were going to be able to seat all of us (almost 70, I think), but they did. And the food came out fastly and frequently. We had no idea how to go about eating each dish, especially when they brought so many of them in such a short time. But nevertheless, we didn't let any food go to waste (although I think the people at my table were getting impatient when I wouldn't let them touch it until after I took a picture of each plate, haha). None of us thought that they would bring out as much food as they did, so we stuffed our faces at each stage of the meal, only to realize that they weren't done feeding us yet. I wish I could remember the names of all of the different dishes that we tried, but I do not and I am not even going to try and list them on here, so i'll just write down what I remember. At one point, we tried something called "croquettes", which I originally though were hushpuppies! They were very good and had a thick, creamy filling on the inside. Later in the meal, we they brought out green peppers that were covered in salt. I cannot eat spicy food because I have a very low tolerance for it, but I decided to try these anyways. After the first one, I realized that they weren't spicy so I began to eat them without paying attention and sure enough, I bit into a spicy one. Apparently some are spicy and some are not, although they were all the same green pepper. Some were lighter green than others though, and these were the dangerous ones. So, after that I made sure to only eat the dark ones haha! Needless to say, we walked out of there very full and very happy. I only wish that we had this type of dining experience once a week, instead of one time during the whole program. I guess I will just have to round up some of my fellow students and experience it again and again! Well, midterms are coming up on Thursday (that was QUICK) so I need to start studying, even though the professors haven't put hardly any of the slides up yet. But regardless, I won't be able to study much tomorrow because we are going on another field trip tomorrow in my "Sport & Culture" class to the Olympic Stadium (heck yeah!) and we are going on a Catamaran cruise in the evening, and we are going to see DJ Tiesto late-night/early-morning (yes, the night before midterms!). I have no idea who he is, but everyone says that you HAVE to go see him and that his concerts are incredible, so I don't want to miss out on this experience.