Barcelona Day 2

Whew!  Today was an incredibly tiring, long, and beautiful day.  We went to the Picasso Museum

and the Chocolate Museum.

The Picasso Museum was really amazing.  I feel like I need to mention

this:  I am not a big Picasso fan.  I understand more now than I did before after listening to the

professors' interpretations, but I still am not a huge fan.  It's just not appealing to me; I can still

appreciate it and understand it, but that doesn't mean I have to LOVE it.


Today, in our journal for the class, we are supposed to write about perception.  Since this is the case,

I decided to look at art differently than I do normally.  I studied each color Picasso chose, each brush

stroke, and realized how much time and effort he took into making each picture look the way it did.

I wondered if maybe there was a reason he chose a certain color, a mood or emotion he was feeling

at the time.  I also didn't know that the fictional men in every picture were modeled after his father; it

was neat to see how close he was to his father.

In the chocolate museum, it was really cool to see how chocolate was made.  My perception

changed, not in the way you would think though.  It was really cool to see the TARDIS, the dragon,

the Chicken Little statue, all made of chocolate; but what changed my perception was so minor, so

tiny, it made not have occurred to anyone else.  The girl speaking to us was trying her best to speak

English and was struggling a little, and you could tell she was embarrassed.  I wasn't judging her, I

wasn't thinking 'well, why is she struggling so much, she should know more English than that...'

nothing like that was coming to mind, I was just listening.  However, when one of the professor said

"Your English is perfect.  We appreciate you speaking English to us," something hit me hard.  I

realized that even though I'm in a foreign country speaking Spanish, I am expecting everyone to

speak English to me.  I felt a little badly about that but realize now that I can change that attitude.

They don't have to speak English; it's nice when they do, but I'm in THEIR country, and I should

make an attempt on my part to speak Spanish.  I'm sure I can't learn it all in one day, as nice as that

We also ate Indian food...in Spain :D...and it was so delicious.  I want to eat more of it.

After dinner we went to Casa Mila.  It was beautiful.  I honestly didn't know that much about Gaudi

before coming here, but I am overwhelmed by the work he did to make things look like nature.  I

love each little detail, and I understand his importance for nature, because I feel the same way.  It's

neat that he saw things in a different way, and that is something I need to work on.  I am a pretty

literal person, and I'm stuck in a black and white world, but that has slowly been improving.  I am

seeing things differently, and I'm starting to see the grey.  It'll take a long time and it's something I'll

forever be working on, but I feel like I've made progress in that area.


I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings :)