I arrived in Barcelona just on Monday. So far it is great and everyone on my trip is very nice, there are only 10 of us but we are getting to know each other well. I meet my host mom tomorrow, which I am nervous and excited about. I was still a vegetarian when I filled out my housing form, and trying to explain that I am now vegan is not going to be fun. Hopefully she understands, and doesn't try to sneak cheese in my food like my tricky boyfriend did last week (I made the lentil tacos again, seriously one of my favorite vegan dishes).
Anywho, while my flight was better than I was expecting (I absolutely hate flying and get very nervous) there was no vegan option for food. So I had to eat a cheesy pasta meal. Then when I got to Spain the lunch we were served was ham on bread and cheese on bread. I was starting to worry that being vegan was not going to happen in Spain. For dinner I had a salad and French fries (the meat eaters also got a sausage). We suspect they think this is what Americans eat and that's why we are getting these strange, not at all Spanish, meals. Then breakfast today we had a croissant, a roll, and toast with butter and jam. I skipped the butter but was really hoping for something with less starch. Then lunch was the same thing only with salami this time. I was beginning to panic, had all my work at becoming vegan gone to waste? Not to mention the combination of jet lag and newly added dairy made me feel really out of it and groggy.
But alas! My vegan prayers were answered. At one of the metro stops for the Universitat de Barcelona there is a restaurant proudly displaying a sign "we <3 vegans"! I was ecstatic. On the way home I stopped in and used my broken Spanish to order a vegan "white sausage" bocadillo( sandwich) with avocado on a multigrain small baguette. While waiting on my bocadillo the owner was showing me all the vegan options on the menu and there were so many I couldn't believe my eyes. And it was especially confusing because none of them said if they were vegan or not; so the chorizo was but the brown sausage was not. But who cares because now I know I'm not the only vegan in Barcelona!
I hope it will be easy for my host mom to understand because my Spanish has a log way to go before I'm truly conversational.
I think I can post more regularly now that I am not running around trying to do a million things at once. After DC I was home for a few days, NYC for my visa, Ocean City NJ for a family vacation, Saratoga NY on a different family vacation, Virginia to see my friends and boyfriend, back to NYC for a night on the town for my other friend's birthday, a going away dinner on Saturday, then Long Island to see family before I left for Spain Sunday night. WHEW! It seems crazy even just to type it all.
Anyway here are some things I've seen so far, adios until next time!
The king stays here when he comes to Barcelona.
Me and a dragon gate made by Gaudi!
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