Modernism & playing with two kitty cats

Helo there, lovely readers! Happy 2015! After 3 months, I'm finally updating this blog! The reason I haven't written anything new so far it's basically because I haven't been anywhere outside of Barcelona since I came back. I feel my daily life in the city it's not as exciting for you guys anymore, haha :B Today I feel like writing so, I'm gonna tell you about my visit to Vilafranca del Penedès, a city 61km (37 miles) away from Barcelona which turned out to be a hidden jewel in the center of Catalonia!

The main reason I visited it's because of one of my best friends Marion, who is from a village next to Vilafranca. She is always the one coming over to Barcelona, so she asked me if I wanted to visit her hometown for once. I had never visited Vilafranca,  and she told me to bring my camera, because the place was worth taking pictures of. So I followed her and brought my baby Nikon! Seeing the results, I think I did well, haha.

I seriously have a thing for window balcony houses, and Marion knows that. I would totally move this far away from my hometown just to live in a beauty like this (probably at a cheaper price than back in Barcelona)!

All the details...!

The city is just full of Modernist buildings and decorations. Catalan Modernism (also known as "Modernisme" in Catalan language) is the historiographic denomination given to an art and literature movement. Its main form of expression was in architecture, but many other arts were involved (painting, sculpture, etc.), and especially the design and the decorative arts. You'll usually find aesthetic and nature motifs in Modernist buildings.

This movement was centred in the city of Barcelona, though it reached far beyond (as you can see), and is best known for its architectural expression, especially in the work of Antoni Gaudí (if you've visited Barcelona, you've probably heard of him)!

You probably can't tell from the pictures, but it was a very cloudy day and it ended up raining after a 45 minute-walk around the city. So we decided to go to Marion sister's place to wait until it stopped. Actually we both had a reason (well, two reasons) to shelter ourselves there... Two furry and utterly adorable reasons! :B

Yessss, kitties! Marion's sister has two beautiful cats: Neko and Mao. Funny story is, both names are written with the same character ( 猫) as they mean the same word (cat) in both Japanese and Chinese. 

The tabby cat is Mao. He's the coldest and most skeptical cat, but he seems to have a thing for me he doesn't have with anyone else! *blushes* He's also a professional model, as you can see!

He couldn't stop posing for me! Cmon Mao, give me your best face!

Aaaaand this one is Neko! Neko was way more difficult to photograph, as he didn't seem to like the camera as much as his tabby buddy. However, I was fast enough to take decent pictures of him!

Neko is the loving and the playful cat in the house. He doesn't mind being petted and he will never scratch you! (Unlike Mao...)

This shot was pretty difficult to take, but I am pretty proud of it! :B

Petting Mao, hehe!

Marion seemed to be better at taking photos than me at some point! Look at this photoset she took of Neko! 

These two seem to be pretty good friends :B

Hey Mao, whatchu looking at?

CL

September: Sum up of the month

Hello my beloved readers! Claudia is back to blogging! *claps claps*

As you might have seen on Facebook/Twitter/other social networks, my life has been kind of "plain" since I came back from Asia. I feel like I don't have anything else to say these days, as my schedule is still kind of uncertain and unpredictable. That is why, from now on, I'll be writing these "sum up of the month" posts instead of doing a blog post about only one thing. I'd say it's gonna be easier for me and it'll be an excuse to keep this blog awake now that my life isn't that interesting, haha.

So here we go! September: 10 things that happened to me...

1. Watched Guardians of the Galaxy

As a good Marvel fan that I am, this past September I've seen "Guardians of the Galaxy" at the theatre. I have to say I liked it a lot, even though I didn't find it very entertaining when I saw the trailer. But it's definitely a very good movie! I also watched "The Amazing Spiderman (1 and 2)" because I wanted to see how Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone worked as Peter Parker & Gwen Stacy. And I must admit, I liked them more than the old Tobey McGuire and Kirsten Dunst (Sorry guys! >_<) Also, I still feel I should give a chance to X-Men, but that's gonna take me some more time :B

2.Started watching “Parks and Recreation"

I've always been a huge fan of "The Office", but now that I've had more free time I started watching  a very similar sitcom, which is Parks and Recreation... And honestly, I don't regret it at all! I watched the pilot episode a long time ago but it didn't really catch my eye, so I decided to give it a second chance... And I'm so glad I did! I'm so obsessed with the show now, the episodes are short and quick to watch and very entertaining! I'm halfway the 4th season at the moment.

Also there's Chris Pratt from Guardians of the Galaxy" (who I find very attractive <3) so... One more reason to watch it! He's definitely one of my favorite characters, haha!

3. Started taking Korean & English classes again

In order not to forget my Korean, I started taking Korean class on Mondays and Wednesdays from 6.30pm to 9pm. I've taken the first two classes and I feel this is not what I signed up for : There is a huge gap level between the 17 of us in the class, and I feel I'm just reviewing what I've been doing for the past 10 months in Korea instead of learning new stuff :\ But there's no other place I can study Korean at in Barcelona, so I guess I'll just do my best in class and try to help my partners in anything they need ^-^

Speaking of English, I decided to re-start my English language classes in the fancy&super famous Institute of North American Studies in Barcelona on Tuesday and Thursday afternoon (Woo hoo!). I definitely needed some fresh air after studying at Merit School for most of my life, and I also need to brush up my grammar after 3 years dating an American who literally, and I quote from him "Destroys my English". So back to write complain letters, reports and essays in English! Yay! XD

4. Had Korean food again 4 months after I left Korea

It's a fact: Korea was, is and will be my second home from now on. And as a good second home that it is, I miss its food so badly! That's why I decided to take my parents, cousin, uncle and aunt to a Korean restaurant in Barcelona a few weeks ago.

The food wasn't as good as back in homeland Korea of course, but pretty close. Also waaaaay more expensive, but worth paying whenever you have a Korean food craving! ^_^ Yum yummm! Plus, the owner knew my name from last time I went TWO YEARS AGO! She was surprised to hear my super fluent decent level of Korean, and I was so happy to have someone in Barcelona to speak Korean with! Can't wait to go back again :)

5. National Day of Catalonia

The 11th September Catalonia celebrated its tercentenary since its defeat during the War of the Spanish Succession. In other words, we became part of Spain back in 1714. Yes, we might be celebrating a defeat (which is kind of silly) but the reason we went out of the streets was because we're proud of our origins, we're proud of who we are and where we come from. And also to claim our independence from Spain again, something we've been doing for years now but due to this current financial and political crisis, it has become a bigger movement lately. If you have seen the news these days you might have seen pictures of this year's demonstration!

That day we all formed a human V (for Vote) to seek choice on split from Spain. We were 1.400.000 people in there! More info: Here

Us posing with the V sign :)

6. Sent tons of emails with my CV looking for jobs

I'm still not being lucky with this job hunting thing, specially when there's a 25% unemployment rate in Spain at the moment... :\ I've been sending and handing out my resume to several companies, from Hyundai to Urban Outfitters, passing by a Korean school, Disney Store and Starbucks (I always keep the faith on Starbucks, sorry). I'm still not looking for a long-lasting job, just a part time job to save up money & gain job experience (something my CV completely lacks of).

7. Back to (unexpected) classes

Due to some credits problem with my university, I'm still an undergraduate student... Which means I have this last one class I have to attend to! It's called "Migration and Diaspora in East Asia", and I have to say I'm loving it so far! Plus I'm taking it with students/friends of mine from different years, and it's nice to have them altogether in this class! It's only 3h and a half a week, which isn't too bad (I wish it was 5h a week instead :B), and there's only one exam & 3 papers. So since it's my last class as as an undergraduate student (and I have time to focus in this only class I'm taking), I'll work hard and do my best to get good grades ^-^ I love when you feel you're actually learning something in a class, and you enjoy it!

8. Talked with my favorite teacher about masters and what I could do in my near future

As I said before, I feel my future is still kind of uncertain. Just like I said in number 7, I am currently taking one more class at university so I can graduate and finally finish my undergraduate studies. That means companies aren't as interested in an undergraduate student as they would be in a graduate student! Despite that little drawback I'm still trying to be a busy bee this year, looking for a job for the mornings I don't have class, Fridays & weekends. Also, I might be taking a master's degree on International Relations in my home university next year, so my teacher recommended me to read Henry Kissinger's "Diplomacy" until I get back on track with IR. I don't really agree with Kissinger's policies back when he was a diplomat, but he seems to have very interesting things to say in an international context. Am I gonna like it? We'll see!

9. Had sleeping and health problems

It seems either my body isn't used to Spain yet, or I'm getting lots of stress lately: I feel sick at times, kind of dizzy, I have mood swings way too often... I feel like a 14 year-old teenager again! But it might be just the fact that I don't have a stable life yet. That is why I'm being more strict with my diet, I take weekly healthy/vegan smoothies for an extra vitamin boost, I ate vegetables 5 times a week and fruit 3 times a day... If my mind isn't healthy yet, at least my body will be!

Green vegan smoothie I prepared a few weeks ago. 

10. Started wearing fall outfits ❤

If you say there's something cuter in this world than a "skirt&over the knee socks&boots" outfit, I won't believe you. Haha. After a long ass hot summer in tropical Asia, I was dying for chilly weather to come back to Barcelona! I was so looking forward to wear long sleeved t-shirts again, baggy sweatshirts and fluffy scarves! It's still not cold enough for all that haha, but I feel this year I'm missing cold weather more than any other time. I'm sick of tank tops and shorts already! >_<

So this is all for now, sweethearts! Thank you for reading, and hope you all have a lovely October! Do you have plans for Halloween already?

Lots of love from,

CL

Summer village n' shopping

I'm having a wonderful time with my family and Peter this week :) We're in the summer village I always spend my holidays in, in the north of Catalonia (Costa Brava area). He's loving the place so far! We have great and fresh food, warm but windy weather (so it's not super sticky) and many things to do. For example, a BBQ! ^_^ Last weekend my cousin came back from Regensburg (she lives in Bayern, Germany with her boyfriend since he works there as an engineer), so they brought back some authentic German sausages, yumymum!

                                      

Also big pieces of bacon, hehehehehe…

My cousin had some sausages left though! :P So today in the morning we had a typical Bavarian breakfast: Weisswurst & HÄndlmaier sauce (something like a sweet mustard)… Simply delicious! I just had three because I told myself to stop, otherwise I would've eaten the 20 of them XD

Later today we went to Palamós, the village next to mine (and bigger, haha) to celebrate my parent's 24th Anniversary. I just love this place, it looked so quiet and beautiful today…!

We had lunch at a rather fancy restaurant for the occasion :) We had watermelon gazpacho as a starter…

Our classic and mandatory "Pa amb tomàquet" (as good Catalans :B)

And finally our main courses :) my dad, Pete, my cousin's boyfriend and I ordered "arroz negro" (rice with squid ink), one of the best Spanish dishes along with "paella" (with very similar ingredients too). 

Last but not least, my wild berries sorbet <3 So tasty but I couldn't finish it… I was too full x_x

Pete and I after our good but heavy meal ^_^ (I don't have my iron with me these days so I forgot about my bangs hahaha).

Then we walked around the village for a bit and we went back to the campsite we're in.

Now I want to show you guys the last things I bought myself, since this last Saturday I went to a flea market and I bought myself some new stuff:

This black lace jacket I fell in love with <3 I'm a lace lover so when I saw it I couldn't hesitate to buy it x_x

Those homemade painted sneakers were only 4€! I don't know if the drawing will fade with water, rain or other products, so I'll try to be careful when I wear them!

I got this green vintage dress from my aunt. She bought me a purse I didn't like for my birthday, so I went back to the store and I changed it for something I actually like. When I saw it there I didn't think it twice… I grabbed the dress, found my size and straight to the fitting room! Luckily it looked great, yay! I've always wanted a dress like this ^_^

And oh! I bought myself those flats in a friend's Asos Marketplace website (sorry for the super-bad quality >_<). Laia is a well-known blogger in Catalonia (and Spain I bet too!) who sells her clothes on this website. I thought those are totally my style so I bought them the next day I saw, them haha! Fortunately I know Laia in person, and since we're almost neighbors I went to her place to pick em up (I saved shipping money, yay!). You totally should check out her blog if you like fashion :)

And this is all by now! I'm having a great time with my family and boyfriend, so I guess I can't complain at all. I know this time will be over eventually, but I should be positive about it and see how much I'm enjoying my summer vacation this year. It'll be hard once he's back home but well… We all have things to do this upcoming semester :) Hope things go as good as expected!

Love,

CL