I think one of the novelties of being in a foreign country is that I feel twice removed from my Chinese heritage. It is very a surreal and disorienting "out of body" "out of character" "out of comfort" state. It puts into perspective for me what it means to be Chinese. What it means to be the child of immigrant parents. What it means to be the child of Taiwanese-born Chinese parents. What it means to be American-born Chinese. What it means to be an American in a foreign country. A Chinese-American in a foreign country. A tri-lingual Chinese-American in a foreign country. And it makes me wonder how much or how little the people in that place understand this layered identity. How do they process me? All the nuances, the politics, the prejudices, the social constructs, my multi-cultural values, the pieces of my heritage that I choose to wear and the other pieces I've chosen to shed-- They can't they possibly understand any of that, but what do they see instead?

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Siestaaaaa

I was seriously falling asleep when 2:30 rolled around today, so I took a nap! It was amaaazing.

Anyway, here are some pictures from lunch & our walking tour yesterday!

We at at a place called ATN. The food was okay, the fact that we couldn't read the menu made it really interesting...note for the future: coco=coconut, not chocolate


I forgot what these were called but it was a pastry filled with spinach and salmon, sooo delish!


This is Gonzalo our walking tour guide! He's super knowledgeable...and has a fantastic voice. British English with a Spanish accent!


Barcelona's oldest shops are actually tracked and certified! The company has to be in operation for 50+ years under the same name. This chocolate shop has been around since 1840!


A cute little atrium inside a house/palace


The one and only Picasso:


My camera died about here, so I missed out on pictures of 4Cats which was a little cafe where Picasso did some early work creating ads and doing marketing to pay for his house account. The name 4Cats is derived from a Spanish/Italian saying describing parties and gatherings that lack attendance. "How was your party last night?" "Oh it was only me and four cats." I think I remembered it wrong, but it was something like that! haha

I convinced my camera to turn on just long enough to catch this strip of modernist architecture, known collectively as "La Manzana de la Discordia". Gaudí's Casa Batlló is on the far right behind the trees. Far left is Casa Lleó Morera and the zig zag roof is Casa Amatller, whose design is supposed to represent chocolate because Mr. Amatller owned a chocolate factory! (there are chocolate laborers in the moldings inside, too). Love these so much! I'll have to go back to get better photos..


That's all! First day of work tomorrow and I'm way too nervous!

Hugs and cobblestones,
Angela <3
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