Pretrip:¶
I managed to sit down a couple of times in the week or so before Dawn and I left for the trip and sort through my thoughts.
10 Days out: 6/3/2022¶
Trying to get used to European style dates – small thing but just practice. I’m finding a lot of tension between trying to wrap up teaching for winter term, get a variety of critical personal tasks complete, and prepare for Barcelona at the same time. Some days I feel like I’ll be able to find a way to make it work and some moments are not so optimistic. Largely the discussion I’m having with myself is about how much I need to prepare to be in Barcelona for 10 weeks and how much I can allow to wait until we’re there. It’s clear that it can/will be a great experience even if we never go far from home base. Even knowing that I don’t want to be running all over the place trying to see everything I still feel some pressure to see parts of Spain that I might never get back to for many years. On the flip side we won’t meet local folks if we’re always heading out of town. It’s conundrum. As I write this I realize that this is the conundrum I want to solve about travel to other cultures. To learn to not force things and at the same time learn ways to open doors and meet people with similar interests.
I think this is why opportunities like the makerspaces and drawing classes in Barcelona feel like such an important strategy compared to going to see the castellers or a football game. I remember how good it felt to sit in the American Embassy in Moscow (at the time not such a loaded location) helping a Russian volunteer work with a Russian family learn about wiring Arduino’s to do a particular task. It felt like a relatively real experience and connection. Visiting the other makerspace that supported the skateboard builder was fun and fascinating but didn’t leave me with a sense of connection because I didn’t do anything. Pulling some weeds in someone’s garden and seeing what they choose to plant feels like it would be lovely. Hmmmm….. got to keep thinking about this.
4 Days out: 13/3/2022¶
As a teacher or a student it would be much easier to be getting ready for study abroad for Fall term. Having to keep focus on finishing up classes (creating and grading finals for me and studying and taking finals for participants) while trying to pack and keep track of lots of last minute task is daunting. I’m frustrated not to know where we’re staying in Barcelona just to be able to mentally consider the neighborhood and where the metro station is and that sort of thing. As many folks have said learning to go with the flow is an important tool in having a successful trip. I don’t think I’m there yet but its always a good reminder. Friends are being very helpful and encouraging. One friend brought over a food care package for the airlines given the uncertainty of food service on flights. Very much appreciated. I’m still trying to sort out a few last clothing choices like a hat for daily use that isn’t my large brimmed Tilley hat which is so clearly a traveler’s hat:).
Another thing I’m trying to discuss with myself is engaging with the students/participants through the classes and shared experiences but acknowledging that each of us will create our own trip experiences. We are here as a group and yet we are also here as individuals and it is not on me to organize get togethers. I hope they happen naturally but I need to be attentive to boundaries around my own needs. Hmmmmm…
A couple of big items have been checked off the list (taxes, money management tools, unlocked phones, meds) while there are still a couple more that I need to check into before we go (social security/medicare). Sort of getting down to the wire….
24 hrs out 16/03/2022¶
Well, we finally heard where our apartment is (Carrer del Clot 182 C). El Clot is apparently an older neighborhood that has a distinctly Catalan leaning. The apartment is a few blocks NE of the Clot metro station which serves the L1 and L2 metro lines. L1 will get me to Arc de Triomf and L2 will get me to Placa de Tetuan. Cool!
Current plan is to book a taxi to get us to the apartment (Welcome Pickups or BCN Taxi) The Aerobus finishes at Placa Catalunya which is still a mile away. The bus will be about 16€ and the Welcome Pickup is only 37€. Seems like a modest difference given how tired we will be and just schlepping the bags etc.
Just doing a little exploring on google and it would appear that the restaurant Lanto (Carrer de Valencia 646) is very much loved by all who go there. Perhaps it’s expensive - I have no idea - but it’s just a block or so away and everyone seems to love it and the responses from the owners are lovely. Similarly, the Italian restaurant just down the block (La Biga) impresses many folks. Seems like we won’t starve in the first few days:)
Getting quite excited to start this trip. The main worry is the aggravation if we can’t make the connecting flight to BCN from Paris. We are likely to need to get from a 2E terminal (non Schegen) to 2F which are the Schengen flights. Air France runs most of it’s flights from Terminal 2. Here are some helpful articles to scan if we can find out where we land and leave. Navigating CDG gives a general sense of the layout. Air France has a apparently clear guide for getting from 2E gates (International arrivals) to 2F gates (Schengen flights). We’ll hope that we don’t arrive at a ‘K’ gate which will push us very hard to make it to our BCN flight. As soon as we know our arrival gate I need to take a look at these and get some familiarity.