Again cough and cold!

This cough and cold will make me die. What the hell! I could not drink any cold drinks or go to any cold place. That day I went to Montserrat and the result: I got cold.

Theses days we are having very good dinners. One day we went to Anil's and Abanish's place to have dinner. We had very delicious dal, chicken and rice. Then yesterday we went to Srini's place and had very good food. He had cooked some Karela, potato, rice and parotha. All were very very delicious as usual. And today we called Anil, Srini, Abbinish and Alok. Pradeep cooked some potato and Kapil cooked Roti, Rice and Dal. We enjoyed a lot.

visit to Montserrat

Yesterday we went to Montserrat, a mountain of rocks. The small train we took up the hill was small and beautiful. There it was freezing cold. But the place Montserrat itself was again another heavenly place. We couldn't stop thinking about mountains of Nepal when we saw Montserrat. Ah...only if Nepal could develop the infrastructure to help tourists access places they have never gone earlier!!

Since we got there around 4 pm and the last train from there to Barcelona was at around 6:06 pm we could not stay there for a long time. But we were happy that we finally saw Montserrat. We had heard a lot of good things about Montserrat and I can proudly say now that I have visited Montserrat.

I have to say we had very very enjoyable time hosting Sandeep dai and Biparna and going with them to visit different places in and out of Barcelona. They returned to UK today. We are missing them today.

Good time in different places!!

We (Pradeep, Sandeep dai, Biparna and I) went to Montjuic on Friday. We took a cable car up the hill from Barceloneta. It was a great place to be, a small mountain with many gardens and beautiful scenery on the way till we reached the top. From top, we could see Barcelona city on one side and the sea on the other side. We were also excited to see the big cruise ships with built-in swimming pool and football ground. As it was already getting dark, Barcelona looked even more lovely because of the night lights from the city.

We bought a round trip ticket for the cable car from Barceloneta to Montjuic. But we later realized that we should have bought only one way ticket as we wanted to go to Placa Espanya from there instead of again returning back the same way to Barceloneta. Pl. Espanya is on the base of Montjuic and it is another good place to visit.
We nevertheless went back to cable car station to "use" our tickets but we found out that the station was already closed at 5:45 pm. It was already 6:30 pm when we reached there. On one hand it was good as we did not need to go to Barceloneta and could go directly to Pl. Espanya taking a bus. On the other side, it was bad for us because we had paid for the both way.

Well! We took a bus and went to Pl. Espanya to see the fountains. I felt like I reached a heavenly place when I saw the water fountains which changed colors with orchestra music. The beautiful scenery of the light rays emitted from the palace and the water fountains dancing on music made everyone very happy. We thanked God that the cable car station was closed because of which we came here earlier.

Barcelona remained sunny all this week. It seems as if weather was happy to see us enjoying our time. Every morning we smiled with the sunshine. This was adding colors to our time in Barcelona.

On Saturday we decided to go to wine country near to Tarragona (a beautiful town out of Barcelona city). We were all excited in the prospect of seeing how wine and cava are made and were also hoping to drink wine in the factory. But bad luck! It was closed because of Christmas eve. We returned back with no wine and no excitement.

From where to start!!!

I am now myself confused as to where to start writing my blog from. It has been long since I have not updated my blog and in this time interval I have done many things. I will try to write them all. Let me start with my last week.

Last Tuesday we had a small get together of Christmas in Sylvia's house. All of us were partners of IESE students. We were very happy that day. Guess what!!! Our husbands/boyfriends would finish their final exams that Wednesday and we would get time to be with them. We were actually jealous with the books they read because they were spending most of their time with the books. Well we were happy because some of us were going back to our home, some visiting other countries and some having good free time.

Some photos from the dinner:




















Delicious Japanese and Spanish food!







The next day, that is on Wednesday, Pradeep's friend and his wife (Sandeep dai and Biparna) came to Barcelona after they visited Paris. We went to pick them up from airport at around 3 pm. Then we came back home and chatted about how our last few months in Barcelona were.

I will continue posting about other days.

Finally got a camera!

Yes, that something in my last blog refers to a "camera". Now finally we got a "camera".

From the day my camera stopped functioning, I was desperately in need of a camera. I was doing the research work about the camera so I could buy the best one. During research work, I went to market many times to see the several models and compare the prices in different shops. After seeing the real camera, I then used to check other features and reviews about the model in internet.

Finally I liked one camera and decided to buy that camera. I went to buy that camera last Saturday. I asked the salesman to show me that specific one and asked some of it features just for formality (as I knew everything about it from my internet research). The salesman brought that camera and with that also brought another camera from another brand and instead started explaining me about why that other camera was the best one in the market. Ummnn..I was pissed off. I said "vale, yo penso y vuelvo despues algun tiempo" (okay, I will think and come back after some time). He seemed to be very happy for at least convincing me to come back :). I am sure he would get a big commission by selling that product to me.

Well! I then went to another shop and without asking any features asked to show that particular camera. As the salesman was showing the accessories and packing them he showed a stand that was needed for this camera to charge the battery and transfer the photos from camera to computer or a printer. I could not directly transfer the photos from camera to the laptop without using the stand. That meant I needed to carry one extra stand with me for transferring photos when I am traveling. I did not like the idea and was surprised that I did not find about this thing during my research. I left the camera and then went back to home empty handed. However at home Pradeep was waiting to see the new camera.

But this time I was determined to buy it. So after reaching home I continued my research work and decided to buy another model. Then yesterday I went with Sarita to Pl. Catalunya and without thinking much I bought the camera (of course, without an extra stand).

Now I can say proudly that I am the owner of "Canon ixus 55". Please now do not give me any negative comments about this camera. I will cry if I get any.

I will now finally be posting photos taken by this new camera.

Srijana's day out!!

Yesterday I went to IESE for a cocktail hosted by the Dean. I like the way IESE values partners. It is explicitly mentioned in its handbook that if there is any program organised for the IESE students, it is also meant for their partners. After the cocktail there was a play organized by IESE students. The play was very good. Pradeep explained something about the role of their professors who were mentioned in the play. I laughed a lot and enjoyed it to the fullest.

After that I went to IKEA with my friend Sylvia. I have heard of IKEA a lot, but had never got chance to visit there. Well! Yesterday was my first time in IKEA. A big store with relatively cheap prices!! Sylvia bought a lot of things. It took almost about 4 hours for us to finish our shopping. We could have spent more time there if it was not getting late. We had many bags in our hand when we finally got out of IKEA. It was almost 10 pm when I was back to my house.

Today, I had a good day. In the morning when I went outside to buy some groceries I realized that lots of things were going on outside with music, rally, people, shopping and many more. I regretted myself for staying home for nothing (as my husband has his finals from this coming Monday and he does not have any time for me till Wednesday. I myself also do not want to disturb him by being at home). As soon as I returned home I got ready and went to Plaza Catalunya (centre of Barcelona) and shopped for something (I will tell about this "something" in my future posting). I then called Laia, my intercambio friend, to Pl. catalunya. Then we went to a exhibition where Sylvia had her stall of hand made bags. I helped her for sometime (Sylvia please do not think when and for what I helped you, hehehe!). Then Laia and I went outside from there and enjoyed hot sip of coffee while chatting with each other in Spanish first and later English.

At around 8pm she left and I headed towards an Indian store to buy some dal (lentejas), minced ginger and garlic. It was almost 10 (again) when I reached my home.

cold Barcelona

It is getting cold and cold here. I am fed up with this cold. I am the one who will vote for summer if there is a poll to choose between summer and winter. And to make things worse, our water heating system has become manual from automatic. If I need a hot shower, we need to open the tap right beneath the heater first, run to the bathroom and turn the shower on, and then back to the tap to close it. I can't even by mistake turn the shower off when I am shampooing. Because I need to repeat the same process again. Que pena! We found out today that the landlord is not supposed to fix it. So we are going have to do something about it this weekend.

I was feeling little down yesterday. "Empty mind is the house of ghost" seems to be true. I do not want to think but am thinking much and much. But today, I spent time with my Spanish friends and felt much better.

On a different topic, here is a interesting thing I found about Encarta dictionary. May be some of you have known about this but for some this may be new and interesting.

1. Open MSN Messenger and sign in
2. Add Encarta as a contact: encarta@conversagent.com
3. Double click Encarta from your Contact List
4. Ask a question on chat!
5. Get an instant answer from the Encarta library, as if it were a person

I found this thing from one of the blogger site. You can read more about this on:
http://dineshd.blogspot.com/2005/11/try-this.html

The conversation with the Encarta contact is very interesting.
I have tried it and is really great.

" Christmas Time"

"Tihar" is a festival in Nepal which is celebrated with great joy and happiness. This is basically the festival with light and fireworks. It took place during the month of October.

Now it is time for Christmas here. I am seeing lights everywhere. People seem to be very happy, busy in buying things for their dear ones. This is the first time I am enjoying the happenings of christmas because in Nepal most of us do not celebrate Christmas.

Nowadays I have the best way for passing my leisure time. Normally in the evening I go to the city center to see the lights, decorations and of course, people. I find it very interesting to sit in a place and keep on watching different people. It is fun.

I have one more wish for this Christmas. I really want to know the culture for celebrating Christmas. I am eager to know what people do, how they do and why they do things in the Christmas day. Hey, are any of you there to invite me in your house for the Christmas day???? :)

Spanish Lunch with Sarita

Yesterday, we were invited by Sarita for Spanish lunch in her house at Sant Cugat. This was our first time we were going outside the core city of Barcelona. We were enjoying the beautiful view outside from the train and Pradeep was comparing the view of jungle and hills with that in Nepal. His usual comment was "I wish Nepal had such train systems and nice highways."

Well, we reached at Sarita's place and had Spanish lunch. She had made some typical catalan soup, mushroom and patata tortilla. They were very delicious and the best was the "soup". I will soon learn to make that soup from her. We were impressed that she had already learned Spanish cooking besides Indian cooking in such a short period of time. Her Spanish is fluent tambien.

Pradeep and I had a very nice time there. Thank you Sarita!!!

Srijana, you are GREAT

Oh! do not think I am gone mad. When you will know what I did, you will sure write comments to my blog saying "Srijana, you are Great"(hehe).

Last Friday I was called for a job interview and guess what!!! I had my interview in Spanish, yes all Spanish. I was myself surprised to know this. I do not know if I did well enough to get selected but I am happy for myself. I had already passed my first interview and this second interview was to check my level of Spanish. What happened, God knows! I will know my result in few days and then you will also know.