Picasso...

Okay so…Friday.  Teaching was observed again today, meaning the tutor sat in the corner and wrote down literally everything we said or did. I didn’t really notice him while I was teaching, but afterwards, he pretty much tore our lessons apart!  I hope I’m getting better though—I have 3 next week, and I have no idea what I’m gonna teach for mine tomorrow!  Crap.

Welllll, anyway, afterwards, I went to happy hour with my friend Jade, at a nearby bar. If you can call it a bar—it has wicker chairs.  But it did serve alcohol, so that was good. The whole thing was orchestrated by the Barcelona teacher’s association, so there were all these random people coming and going.  Jen (the job guidance woman) told us that in Spain, you have to include a picture on your résumé, and after meeting some of these aspiring “teachers” I can see why!    

Well, me and Jade decided to go find another bar, but it was still too early by Spanish standards, so even though we found plenty of bars, there weren’t a whole lot of people in them. We ended up in an American pop-culture bar, but we were only there twenty minutes until our other classmates texted to say they were at the first place.  We went back, but Jade only stayed a bit because she was worried about taking the Metro.  I wanted to win favor, and do a little more “relaxing” so I decided to stay.  I only meant to stay another half hour, but I ended up staying out until 2:30, and I wasn’t in bed until three…oops.  I guess I got caught up in everthing.  (And they were all still there when I left!)

Saturday, I had to sleep in.  I was just too tired not too.  After a wonderful breakfast of eggs, I grabbed the map and some fruit, and headed downtown.  I had in mind that I wanted to see the Picasso Museum that my sister Tori had told me about—and had even visited!  It sounded really cool, so I was looking forward to it. It was only 6 euros (under 25 get discounts!) and it was actually pretty neat.  It started off with early Picasso paintings, and he could actually paint!  At the tender age of 13, he was painting like an adult.  He won some award when he was 15 by joining the I-painted-a-sick-person-to-represent-the-new-age-of-medicine movement that was taking off in his time, but after that, he got all depressed and started painting everything blue.  By mimicking other painters, adding his own flair, and mixing in the blue, his art started to become more wonky, and next thing you know, he had started Cubism. Freaking weird, slightly creepy paintings with lines and cubes and lots of colors that don't fit = cubism.  Before that though, he had a fascination with “the other” aka fringe dwellers. Inmate, criminals, crazy people, homeless, etc.  He did this one sketch of a homeless-looking man, with a caption informing us the man was crazy.  There was something about the man that just caught my attention, and I looked at that one for awhile. 

Well after that, I moved (a little quicker) through las Menias, the really wonky, disjointed paintings that he is so famous for.  Some of them are really cool, but some looked too childish!  At the end, there was a quote saying that he started off painting like an adult, but by the time he was an old man, he was painting like a child. What was that Shakespeare quote?  All the world’s a stage, it starts off with infancy, and ends with “second childishness and mere oblivion/sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.”  Full circle.

Afterwards, I tried to find this church that was supposedly free, and I nervously walked through these really narrow alleys.  I really like how alleys look, but I was nervous because this is supposedly a semi-bad part of town 9frequented by pick-pocketers), so I walked quickly, with my head down, and my purse tight under my arm.  Unfortunately, I forgot about the seemingly endless lunch breaks everyone here takes, so it was closed and I didn’t want to wait.  Instead, I snapped a few shots, including a few of Passieg del Born (plaza where they used to joust!) and then headed back. I was gonna try to find and explore the Barrio Gotic, but I didn’t feel that great.  My stomach had been feeling off all morning, and suddenly, I just felf like crap.  So instead, I metroed back (I barely made it, it was sooo stuffy in the metro and I really didn’t feel good) took a nap, and skyped people from home.