Week 2: Trip to Tarragona

Twice a year, the small city of Tarragona, Spain, is overrun by American college students as part of the orientation programming for IES Barcelona. While the trip is advertised as an opportunity to see the Catalan region's Roman history and experience Catalan gastronomía, I find myself back in Barcelona laughing with Tori about how little we "discovered" Tarragona for its history.

It all began on Friday morning with human towers. If you think this sounds bizarre, that's because it is. On our way to Tarragona, we stopped in a small village to learn about castells, or human towers. Castells began in the Catalunya region of Spain as a part of festivals or celebrations and have become so popular and widespread that today they are also created competitively. It is a tradition the Spanish people are so proud of and I can see why. Castells are very complicated and require team work and unity to complete. For a better visual, check them out here.

Ok, yes, it appears I did take something away from this weekend due to my infatuation with castells but after we left this small town to continue onto Tarragona, I assure you the learning halted... but only to make room for bonding. While Tori and I had somewhat dreaded going on this trip, we loved the people we met on our bus and tour group. We banded together through dragged-out tours where nobody understood a word from our Catalan tour guide and a scarring experience with patatas bravas (no longer my favorite). Although our hotel for the night was nothing special, it was very conveniently situated next to an Irish pub that somehow, but still not sure how, became a night club? Safe to say we were relieved to see a hearty breakfast spread the next morning before another day of touring. 

Saturday consisted of a visit to a monastery where, again, I took away very few of the learning objectives because I could not understand our tour guide. Instead, took some great pics! After that, we hopped back onto our buses for a group meal (the experience gastronomía-part of the trip). At a ranch-looking restaurant in the middle of nowhere, Tori and I drank red wine out of a porron and tried Spanish leeks that were charred and presented with a dipping sauce. See pictures below for a good laugh. Yes, bibs were included and, yes of course, we kept them.

After returning to our apartment in Entenca after a short but what felt like long weekend away, I'm starting to really feel like Barcelona is home and it's a great feeling.

Highlights from this week:

-Ruined a pasta sauce with tomato paste

-Recovered the same pasta by winging a red wine sauce

-"Jail broke" Tori's computer for Netflix 

-Located CT people on my program (TCU friends can probably envision my excitement on this one)

-Bought pink ribbon for an upcoming blog feature

-BOOKED INTERLAKEN

Next week on the blog, how I survived the coldest weekend of my life without packing a real winter jacket. Still figuring that one out....

The pasta we saved with a side of vegetables and Netflix.

Sights in Tarragona (Roman amphitheater).

The monastery.

The bib crew.

Yeah Tor!

Yeah Charlotte!