Sorry this wasn’t posted on the actual day, but here’s what
I did on Friday, June 7th in Barcelona!!
We woke up early to go to the Damm Brewery (emphasize the
Damm), the largest brewery in all of Europe.
It smelled disgusting but either it got better, or unfortunately, we all
got used to it. I like to think it got
better. We were given a presentation
about the marketing techniques and all of that good stuff all about the Damm
Brewing Company. They are famous for
Estrella Beer and they own a bunch of different companies that make all types
of beer: beer for celiacs, flavored beer, low calorie beer, everything. They do
so much advertising (unlike Cordoníu) that they told us that their new
commercials are released every summer, and now in the winter too, and people
literally wait for them to come out so they can watch and download the music
used in the commercial. The presenter
showed us the most recent commercial, three days old, that already had like a
million views or something.
Ridiculous. He also showed us a
lot of other commercials from the past few years with famous chefs and cute
little stories. They were all
surprisingly good commercials with all that happiness selling. The ones we watched were all like watching
little RomComs and stuff like that.
Apparently there was one they called the Lesbian Kiss or something
(there was one scene where two girls kissed so I guess that made sense in the 4
minute full commercial) but there was this BIG controversy all throughout Spain
about it. Bet you can’t guess why. You think it was the lesbian kiss don’t you?
Nope. Well? Give up? It was because they made the paella
in the commercial with onions, and there are no onions in paella! How crazy and awesome is that?! Then they took us on a tour of the brewery
where there are hardly any workers but there are these super cool robots that
use chips and GPSs to do all the work.
It’s insane! Then, like the winery,
we had a beer tasting where you could taste any of the beers they had. People went nuts. I tried the Damm Limon. It was really good. Like a weird, I mean interesting,
lemonade. (We can’t say anything is
weird on this trip so even when it is, it is actually just interesting. Weird is no longer in my vocabulary.) Then we took a group picture and went to go
back to the bus. But before we left,
they gave us a nice little present: a free bottle of beer. Not that I enjoyed that type, but hey it was
free?!
Then we went back on the bus to go back to IQS. Since I only have International IQ and
Cultural Intelligence, I had a free block of time. So I squished into a cab with some friends
and went back to the Parc Guell with the other kids that didn’t have class at
that time. We walked all around the park
and looked at and took pictures of all of Guadi’s beautiful work! I had no idea it was such a big park, but it
is seriously huge and amazing and wonderful.
Then we had the most ridiculously expensive lunch (cheese melted on baguette)
and got a few souvenirs. On the way out
a living statue dressed completely in brown stopped my friend saying, “Oh look
at you, you chocolate man!” When asked
if he was supposed to be a chocolate man, he told us no, he was a living
statue, my friend is the chocolate man.
My friend was offended but he just laughed. I truly think the living statue just didn’t
realize how he sounded. Oh well. We won’t see him again. Then we took a cab back to school. The jerky driver tried to make us pay 4 extra
Euros for using the back seat of his cab.
We said no, gave him the money we actually did owe, and got out as
quickly as possible without looking back. (I gave an extra Euro just to be sure
he didn’t drive off with my friend in trying to get out of the backseat.) Taxi driving in Barcelona is supposed to be a
noble and honest profession, but this guy clearly didn’t get the message. You are driving a van! The back seat is supposed to be used!
Then we had International IQ class with the awesome Hugo and
all 47 of us from the trip. Then Cultural
Intelligence with Peter. I seriously
love the classes. They are really great
and the teachers know so much.
Then we took the autobus back to the Hotel Catolonia 505 (room
218) where we met in the lobby to go to dinner with a few other people at a
fish place Peter suggested. We got there
and it didn’t have anything I wanted to eat, so I went next door with half the
group and had the best food I probably had in all of Barcelona. I got this really yummy fish in this red
creamy sauce, and delicious chocolate mousse.
The people who went to Peter’s place hated their food, so that sucked
for them, but at least I was pretty happy.
I know selfish, get over it.
After that we took the metro downtown to go see the Majestic
Fountain. We got out a little early so
we could see some of Guadi’s buildings (Casa Batlló and La Pedrera) and downtown Barcelona. One girl’s girlfriend came and met us. She was a really nice art history major and
she told us all about the different buildings and the area we were in with so
much detail I felt like I was getting a real tour. It was so great and so much fun. Then we got to the Majestic Fountain where we
took tons of pictures and enjoyed the view.
When the fountain was over, we went to a restaurant near the
bull-fighting stadium converted into a mall called Tapas, Tapas. I didn’t get anything but everyone else who
did didn’t seem too happy with his or her decision so it was okay.
After that we headed back to the hotel and took a shower and
went to sleep at around 3am. The night was
amazing and it was so perfect! Plus, it
was Friday so we didn’t have class the next day! Even better!
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