Learning Spanish

Nowadays I am doing some new interesting and fun things to improve my Spanish. I got to know a girl from internet who was interested for "intercambio" . We decided that we will speak English for 1 hour and Spanish for 1 hour so that she can improve her English and me my Spanish. So we met yesterday at 4:30pm. We sat in a restaurant. It was a new experience for me. We talked about 1 hour in English about her family, her study, her hobbies and general things. Then we spoke in Spanish the same things. Till then it was already 7 pm. Wow...I really enjoyed the session with her. This was definitely a good means of learning a new language. We will meet again next Friday.

At the same time I am sending emails in Spanish to some of my other Spanish friends. This makes me search for words in a dictionary and know its usage. I need to work a lot on it. I was surprised that I have learnt more in a week than in the last one month this way. My friend is so kind and helpful that she sends me an email in both English and Spanish. She also corrects my emails and sends the correction notes back to me.

So I am having a nice time learning Spanish and making new friends.

Lazy me!

I know nowadays I am being lazy to update my blog. That means I am active with other things (:):).

I will begin with writing about my last Saturday. I now have some Spanish friends who are really nice people. I am happy that I met them. Last Saturday they(Elena and Silvia) made a plan to walk around the centre of city. They explained me about the history of the city, the Catalunya region and its relation to Spain. They showed me many historical palaces in Barcelona. It was really nice and fun to be with them. We walked around for almost 3 hours. Before departing, we had coffee and some special spanish pastry.

Then the days were as usual. Last Thursday a Japanese friend of mine called me for lunch in her flat. she had invited some others friends too. We talked about costumes, religions and monarchies of Nepal, Japan and Spain. I knew many new things. Tomoko (Japanese friend) had prepared some Japanese food for us. I for the first time had Sushi. It was a kind of dish which is prepared by wrapping some rice with a thin layer of raw fish. It looked tasty but I didn't really like it. Because I don't like the smell of raw fish. Finally we saw their wedding photographs and left from there as I had to go to my Spanish class at 5:30 pm.

A Great Multicultural Night

Yesterday was a great multicultural night for me.

It was organized by some of the second year IESE's partners and hosted in a partner's house. Everyone was requested to bring her country's special dish. The purpose was to meet each other, taste different dishes and have fun.

I reached there little late than the given time. Some of the partners were there and many were still coming. That was the first time I saw so many partners at one place. That was a perfect environment to know many partners who I didn't know earlier. I enjoyed talking with all of them. All of them were very friendly.

I also got chance to taste various special dishes and wines of different countries. I had taken "Chicken Biryani" with me. I don't remember the name of all dishes I tried. However, I remember I tasted Japanese dish, special Spanish Omelette, Catalan Pizza, Salads, Spanish and Portuguese wine, chocolates and pasta from different countries.

Wow..It was really a multicultural night to meet people from different countries and at the same time taste foods from different countries. It is a memorable night for me.

Finally met Nepalese in Barcelona

And finally I met some Nepalese here in Barcelona. This Sunday we got a call from one Nepalese dai that there was a Nepalese get-together for celebrating Dashain that evening. Though keen in going, my husband couldn't go because of the loads of study he had to do, something normal to an IESE student. I was excited to go as this was the first time I had a chance to meet many Nepalese at one place in Barcelona. The get-together was at one Nepali restaurant in Barcelona. I went there, met about 15 Nepalese, and had some nepalese dishes after a long interval. They introduced me to the group as I was the most recent member. It was interesting to see that most of the Nepalese guys had Spanish spouses. I didn't miss a chance there too and expressed my interest for intercambio with Spanish spouses. I returned after about 2 hours and felt after meeting the people from my own country.

Formal welcome reception in IESE

Finally I felt like I am the partner of an IESE student as there was a special welcome reception for the partners organized by IESE today. Yes I was there on time. One of the professors gave us a speech about our responsibility to our partners when they are studying in IESE. The speech was followed by a lecture by a profesora who was an expert in Entrepreneurship. Lastly we had a lunch session. I met most of the partners. I also met the partners from second year who were always willing to help us. During lunch I got chance to chat with almost everyone who had attended the reception including some professors.

In lunch there were some items which I had never tried. One profesora was explaining about some of dishes in a group. I was about to eat one item and just for curiosity I asked what it consisted of, showing one dish. It was beef. Then I asked for the next and again that was pork. As I don't eat these and I realize that in Barcelona meat is part of almost all the dishes. I didn't ask for other dishes. I just ate the food which I clearly knew that they were either vegetarian or chicken.

My first day of Salsa class

Now I am doing some new things after being here in Barcelona. I joined a 'Salsa" class which is one of the popular dances in Spain. The training is for 10 classes organized every Tuesday.

Today was my first day of dance class. As I am very interested in dance I was curious to know what kind of dance this is. We were about 15 students in the class and most of them were from IESE. Our dance teacher was young and seeing her dancing I wished to dance as she does. She was explaining about the dance in Spanish (native spanish speaker and you can imagine how fast native speaker speaks Spanish). Luckily I found a girl there who speaks both Spanish and English and she was helping me translate her Spanish. I could catch on the dance steps just by observing her steps.

She taught some few steps of Salsa first without music and later with music. I suppose I was learning the steps quickly. Different people were trying to learn on their own way. Some were trying to make their body movement flexible, while some were practicing their leg movements. Seemed like everyone was busy with their own world of dance.

We can even not imagine how the 1 hour flew. Now I am sure I will be having fun during my future dance classes.

Celebration of Dashain Festival

Being away from Nepal, I am missing the biggest festival"Dashain"of Nepal which falls in October. Since the cultures in Nepal and India are more or less similar and they too celebrate"Dashain" as "Dashara", there was a program called "Dandiya" organized by the Indians in Barcelona. It was a dance program. Pradeep, Kapil(Indian friend) and I from our flat went there. After the puja ceremony the dance program started. It was really a nice program and we all enjoyed it a lot. We were also provided with some snacks and I first time ate some Pakoras, Samosa, Gulabjamon after I came to Barcelona. I was missing all those foods a lot. I enjoyed Gulabjamon very much. We danced dandiya for the first time in life. We returned back around 2:30 am(common in Barcelona). At that time too there was a Fiesta going on in Sarria.
I have to say that people in Barcelona find plenty of time to have fun.

As usual I got up late. We were invited for lunch in one of our friend's flat. He had cooked some south Indian dishes (tamarind rice, dal and crushed potatoes). They were very tasty. The crushed-potatoes item was the best. After returning back to home I didn't go out again. I was thinking of going to a park nearby here but I didn't. Because of the yesterday night late sleep I still have a hang-over.

Feeling Home Sick

Today, I woke up late. I was feeling lonely at the time I got up. I felt lazy too. I just sat thinking nothing for some time. Till then it was already 12am. I then had my breakfast, replied some emails. I was missing something. I called my sister in Nepal. After talking with her I felt somewhat relaxed. I then took a shower, did some spanish homework. And one new thing I did was read a part of a course book of MBA students. Fantastic! my husband is doing MBA at his college and I am doing my MBA at home. It was already 4pm then. I had my lunch and then went to my Spanish class.

As usual the class was interesting. I was most of the time counting the number of students in my class. Today there were 16 students in class. And number of chinese students were 10, pakistani 3, Brazilian 2 and myself 1. I most of the time felt that I am in a chinese class. Our Spanish profesora is interesting. She keeps the class laughing. I am normally the first to finish my classwork. So at the end she asked me to come infront and say about my family. Yes this made me feel that I will speak Spanish very soon.

After returning home I cooked rice and cauliflower. As I had my lunch late I just ate some vegetables and some icecreams. Oh..shit...after having icecream I remembered that I am trying to loss some weight. I will try to remember this next time before having some icecreams.

I will atleast learn some spanish words and sleep today.

My bad day in Barcelona

I was very excited to go to my Spanish class. So instead of being there at 5:30pm I reached at 4:30 pm. Poor me, they didn't even open the door for me. I later realised that it was a government school and by the time I reached there, they were having some other classes. There are 14 people in our class and do you believe out of fourteen, ten are chinese. It seems like it is difficult for them to learn Spanish. They couldn't correctly pronunce many words. I wonder how soon they will learn Spanish.

yesterday I had a bad day. Yesterday I walked a lot to buy some fruits and specially a packet of fruits(common in Barcelona which is a packet of fresh cut fruits) for my husband. Everytime I bring this to him, he becomes very happy(apparent from his face) because he is a fruit lover. He prefers fruit to meat or other heavy foods. I bought some phonecards too. As I already said I walked a lot to get these things. Then to return home I went inside train station. I just missed the train that goes toward my place. After waiting for some minutes I got into another train. It left and from the Sarria station( station that is before my place) it took another route. I first thought that there may have been some problems in between route of Sarria and Reina Elisenda(station where I need to get off)and it is taking some other route. But the train was going on and on, sometimes from a open place,which I had never seen. It didn't stop almost for 12 minutes. I was little worried then. So I asked a man near to me"esta tran es no L6"? He answered"no esta es S55". Oh my god, I took S55 instead of taking L6 train. I then waited for the train to stop so I could get off and return back. But the train was going on and on. The man understood my passion after talking to him and said me"don't worry, in about 2mins it will stop in a station. You can get off there and take another train to Sarria. No trains go to Reina Elisenda from there."Thanks god he spoke English. Then I got off and took next train. In Sarria I again took off as it is a few minutes walk from there to my station. As soon as I got off I realised that I left the fruits packet in the train. ups..I spent a lot of time to buy it and was more excited to give it to my husband. What could I do!!!! I felt too tired to walk to my place also. So I took another train that goes to my place.

Atlast I reached home safely. It was already 9:45pm. When I reached home I was informed that there is nothing to eat because the man who was repairing our gas stove left the work unfinished. So Pradeep and Kapil asked me to come with them to have some food. After having a sandwich Pradeep brought, I went to my sweet bed. Ah..after a hard day I then had some rest.

visit to Lilla

Yes here are 2 photos. One of Pradeep and Kapil and another one from elif's birthday. Now I kept my promise.

I went to Lilla, a huge shopping center, in Barcelona. It was closed because today is Sunday and it is natural in Barcelona to get everything closed on Sundays. Though I knew that it would be closed, I went there because my main purpose was to walk. And I walked a lot. I am doing this because I am feeling that I am getting fatter and fatter and I want to reduce my weight. Please when you see my photo comment me as" you look so slim"....:)

Today I am going to a"Jagaran"program with some Indian friends. It is a program organised by a Indian who is in Barcelona. They wake up whole night and pray Gods. But we will be there for just a half hour. I just want to see how is that program.

We need to leave at 10:30 pm and I think I need to leave this computer now.
Adios