This was a blog post I was going to publish a little over 24 hours ago before things got crazy. Like… really really crazy. This is the first time since then that I’ve had five seconds to just publish anything. So yeah I was going to write about the events of Saturday (Natalie and I embraced our inner tourists and visited some iconic Barcelona sights as well as witnessed a castell (human towers) and correfolk (fire dancing? playing?) festival, but then Saturday night happened and what I had thought had been an eventful day paled in comparison.

It’s funny because when I think back on this weekend, so many things happened, but I never remember feeling like that much was happening in the moment. Interesting how that works; maybe I’m just getting used to these plump three day weekends. I’ll give a quick overview: Friday the program took us on a day trip to Codorníu and Sitges to experience Spanish cavas (basically a sparkling champagne, but never tell a Spainard that because apparently they invented cavas before the French invented champagne) and a really adorbale beach town! At the winery, we got to ride a train (which actually felt like an amusement park ride) around the underground caves inhabited by thousands of wine bottles and taste two variations of cavas (I didn’t like either one). In Sitges we walked around, had lunch, left drawings in the sand on the beach, and got gelato (I went with a fire strawberry mango combination).

Natalie and I’s tourist Saturday began a little after noon because we went out on Friday night. We visited the Mercat de Encants first, which was a gigantic market housed in what I think was a bus station. There were multiple levels and so, so many vendors and people walking around. The most common items for sale were: watches, cameras, random vintage objects, fabric, so much fabric, clothes, jewelry, and rugs. Natalie bought an amazing gold heart watch that she adores and we both got matching flower necklaces! We shopped our way over to Mont Juic and the Museu d’Art d’Catalunya, which has free admission after 3:00 on Saturdays! We walked around the Gothic/Medieval art sections and then, desperately in need of rejuvenation, got a coffee/croissant at the museum cafe. We didn’t have time to see much before the museum closed after that, so we headed out to the Gracia neighborhood for the castell/correfolk festival! This is worth a blog post of its own, which it shall get later, but what I’ll note here is that this felt like one of the most authentic things I’ve done so far and I kept thinking to myself: I am witnessing culture! We stayed for an hour and a half and were late for dinner, but the party was still going strong when we left!

And then Saturday night… just a crazy night at the club. It was my first time (and Natalie’s too) going to one of the beach clubs. The beach clubs have a reputation for being the nastiest and the most dangerous of them all, so I haven’t been super keen on experiencing them. However, Natalie’s friend had free tickets and a free VIP table for us, so we decided it’d be worth it. We stood in the cold for an hour waiting to get in, but once we did we got to enjoy our own little area with a bottle of Vodka and a bunch of sparkling lemonade to mix it with. I drank a glass of sparkling lemonade with a quarter-sized amount of Vodka sadly mixed in, and I was sad I had any at all in there because the lemonade on its own was delicious. After we’d had our fill of the VIP life (really not that exciting), we transitioned to the dance floor and crazy stuff ensued. I guess they were right about the beach clubs after all!

Oh yeah, a few other things that have happened since my last blog post…

• I got my first experience of the world-class Spanish healthcare system with a visit to the hospital! Not for me- my roommate sprained her ankle by falling off a two-inch tall step on the sidewalk. She thought she was fine and we kept walking, and then it turns out she was very much not fine and walking turned to slower walking which turned to hopping on one foot which turned to sitting down and not moving. So I got to be the concerned parent who ordered us a taxi to the clinic and sat in the examination room while the doctor took her back for an x-ray. The whole thing was quite an adventure, and if you don’t count not being able to put any pressure on her foot, she’s totally fine! The doctor wrapped her foot up and gave her crutches which made 10 year old Mazie very jealous, and we’re just hoping she’s going to defeat the odds and come to a full recovery in four days before we leave for our Portugal trip!
• Noah Kahan released a new song- the first glimpse at his new album! Now begins three months of pure torture and anticipation and longing until the album is released. Listen to “The Great Divide” NOW! I urge you! Unless you want to miss out on the latest era of great music.

I’d love to keep writing but it’s past 2am and I have class at 9:15 that I still have to finish homework for, so I’m going to go do that! But to tie it all together, time really flies; its February 2nd now! Goodnight everyone and sending best wishes!

OMG I just have to say: Every time I get back for the night, the first thing my host mom says to me is “Que tal su día? Esteis cansadita (How was your day? You must be tired!)” and I know its said out of a kind and caring place, but it comes across as condescending and gets on my nerves, to the point where I flat out will say “Nope!” and give her a big, energetic grin to really prove it. It feels like a statement more than a question; like her thinking through the events of my day, taking a look at me- I must just naturally look tired- and concluding that there’s no way the person standing in front of her could have survived a day like that without ending up weary. Like thanks Cristina, but its going to take more than a 30 minute metro ride, a few hours helping kids with math or science or photography or piano lessons, and a 45 minute walk back accompanied by some banger music to break me down like that.

Some (ok actually kind of a ton) of pictures from the last week!

Even if I am putting other things off, posting is still a very valuable use of time on its own. It’s productive procrastination as I like to say. Anyways, there are two points to this blog post.

1. To tell everyone about my day (cuz why not)
2. To report on recent earth-shaking happenings in the music world that you mines while go bury yourself in a hole if you don’t know about. You can dig yourself back out after reading this.

Today was of the go-go-go type- not quite rushing from one thing to the next, but walking to the next thing, just really really fast. My route to class Monday and Wednesday mornings is: Metro L7: El Puxet - Plaza Catalunya, then a 20 minute walk from Plaza Catalunya to Carrer de Casp 130, Oficina COACB. From there I scan my fancy little student access code and walk up seven flights of stairs and down the hallway to my class. It’s literally the farthest classroom in the entire building. One of these days I’m gonna make a day in my life vlog and you can all watch this process instead of reading about it, which I’m sure is just riveting. Anyways, the point is that I can be a bit of an optimist in the mornings and sometimes the Google Maps walking calculations really do forget that you have two functioning legs and are not 105 years old. This morning I attempted to shove the 20 minute walk into more of a 10 minute kind of thing, which is better than some mornings have been but still not ideal (my dream is a lazy walk down the street where I can stop into a bakery for a croissant). I was 5 minutes late to class and sounded like a freight train bulldozing into the room after championing all those stairs.

We took a field trip today in my Comida y Cultura class to the Barcelona Chocolate Museum (I don’t think micro.blog really does emojis, but I would put a shocked face or chocolate bar or something here cuz thats how I felt when I learned there was a museum about chocolate in this city- and that we were going!). It was a very small museum; the coolest thing were the sculptures made purely of chocolate. They had Messi, the Smurf’s, Yoda, some historical scenes, a giant elephant, and a bunch more stuff made out of chocolate (I’ll include some pictures). Oh yeah, and our tickets themselves were bars of chocolate! Delicious! Turns out me and one other girl from my class took too long inside, so the rest of the class walked back without us and left us to rush back (no wonder…) to school just in time for my second class.

Cross-Cultural Psych was also fun today- we watched a documentary about babies. There was no narration which would usually bore me, but this documentary was actually really interesting! It followed four babies and their mothers from distinct areas of the world- Namibia, Madagascar, San Fransisco, and Tokyo, during their first year of life and hinted at the multitude of different ways to raise a happy and healthy child.

After class I have a break from 1:00-3:30, and today I set out on a mission: All I wanted for lunch was my absolute favorite “Empanada Pollastre” (which is just an empanada with chicken and peppers) from a bakery, or Forn de Pa in Catalan, right by my internship. As my internship is a solid 30 minute walk from school, I usually try out something different on school days, but today my mind was set. But when I arrived at 1:30 with a chicken empanada shaped hole in my heart, the lady told me that they hadn’t made any today and they’d be back tomorrow. Cry. After much deliberation I found a solution: Tío Bigotes, an empanada chain place that looked good. Another 30 minutes later I walked in the door there and ordered two empanadas: a spicy chicken and a caprese. These empanadas were a little longer and flatter than the one from the Forn de Pa by my internship, so they weren’t quite capable of filling the hole in my heart exactly, but nevertheless they were quite good (and they were heated up!). On my way back to school, and with time to spare, I passed the most adorable and delicious looking bakery I had ever seen in my life and simply had to stop. I ordered this mini hazelnut-filled donut thing and it was the most adorable and delicious tasting donut I had ever eaten in my life. And an added plus was I got to sit there amidst the heavenly smells for a while and do some work before I had to head back for my next class!

My last class of the day is Sustainable Development where the lectures are genuinely so interesting. Today we continued learning about how the city of Barcelona as we know it today has been shaped by historical factors and conflict, especially the Spanish Civil War, Franco’s dictatorship, conflict between Madrid and Catalonia, and the 1992 Olympics. We also had some time to work with our final project groups- we’re building a project proposal for the UK’s Darwin Initiative, assisted and constructed largely by AI with us as overseers and quality control. Its funny how professors have completely opposite views on AI use for assignments- I think my Ecospirituality professor from St. Olaf would faint if she heard about this project.

After class ended it was another 30 minute fast walk over to LOVECYCLE Barcelona for my first in-person spin class in Spain, which also happened to be free! The building was hip and cool, and so were the other people in the class (if I’m going to judge books by their covers). The class itself was SO much more fun than any other spin class I’ve taken, probably because it was live and the energy in the room was palpable, but also because the instructor literally had us dancing the entire time! It was never: Set your resistance to blank and cadence between blank and blank, but instead she would tell us a number of times to spin the resistance dial and then everyone would naturally fall into rhythm with the music. Every song was a dance party- she would give us a sequence of new moves for each one. I’m not kidding when I say dancing while spinning had so many benefits: it gave your upper body and mind a workout along with your legs, it noticeably increased the group’s energy, it made me connect with the music more, and it helped keep me from getting bored. I felt like such a newcomer trying to understand the instructor’s shouted Spanish over the loud music (also in Spanish) and being constantly surprised by class routines and traditions (like when everyone waves their towels in the air during the last song). But it was seriously a really fun time- cultural immersion for the day? check!

It was also right on my way home, so I had the perfect amount of time to get home in time for dinner at 7:40 after class ended at 7:05. If, of course, you define perfect as 35 minutes for a 35 minute walk. I barreled up those streets and ran red lights for fifteen minutes until I glanced down at Google Maps and saw that I somehow still had 30 minutes to go and was going to arrive late for dinner. So I shook off the confusion (my route was basically a straight line following a big road for 2km, so if I actually did manage to stray from the route, I’m honestly impressed) and barreled even harder this time all the way back. I did some serious barreling and walked in the door 8 minutes late, but better 8 minutes than 9!

Dinner was the most wonderful experience tonight. Cristina made cheese tortellinis with tomato sauce which was just so perfect, and we had our usual salad with the crunchy fried onion bits and bread. She also put out these fried fish stick things which were pretty good. After we cleaned up, Natalie rushed off to go see a movie and I ate my leftover chocolate pudding while watching a bit of Cristina’s game show. Then I decided to be smart and kind to my future self and hopped in the shower. Turns out that shower was an experience almost as wonderful as dinner.

Back in my room drying off, it was almost 10pm and I was still lingering in all that wonder and dreaming about getting a lot of sleep when I opened up my laptop to the scariest email I’ve ever received. The sender was Wrangell Mountains Field Studies, Alaska, one of the places I applied to for the summer, and the subject read: “In google meet call- here’s the link if you’re having trouble getting in”. I had totally forgotten that I scheduled an interview with them for tonight, because who schedules an interview for 9:45pm other than a forgetful study abroad student? I immediately turned the light in my room back on, threw a professional-looking shirt on, and logged in, blurting out an apology that was 70% truth and 30% excuse. I quickly realized that it didn’t matter that I’d been late, because there was no way I was going to be participating in this program anyways. Just a few of the reasons, from most to least salient, include: It costs $14,000 for seven weeks, there’s a bunch of fancy required gear, the guy interviewing me was way too cool, and you’re conducting actual field research and writing scientific reports the whole time. I know that last one is literally in the name, but somehow I read “field studies in Alaska” and understood “fun camping trip in Alaska”. It was still cool to hear about the program though, and now I’ll get to see if I even would have the option to go (if they accept me).

Then I did like two minuscule productive tasks and began writing this and, just like that, it appears my dreams of getting sleep jumped out the window to their death. I should’ve known to never leave dreams unsupervised. Ooooh inspirational quote moment, I like that! Tomorrow I’m back at my internship and part-time piano teacher position with a growing interest base, and then Friday at 4:00am Natalie and I will be heading to the airport bound for a verified 100% rainy, no getting around it weekend in Portugal! But its all good because tomorrow I am going to have a chicken empanada for lunch.

OMG I forgot I was going to write about Noah Kahan! No time- he came out with a new song, you have to listen, it’ll change your life, you also have to go to his tour, that’ll also change your life. And text or call or talk to me about it cuz I’d love to change our lives together :)

The day’s chocolate (and some other things I talked about in my super long post)!

All of the little scenes are from the chocolate museum and were made out of chocolate.

Tomorrow we have a Wind Day. There will be no school, no activities that aren’t completely necessary, and no absolutely no fun. Just kidding. But only about the no fun.

You might say: Huh, that sounds like a snow day… Just with wind. And you would be exactly right!

Although Mazie the Meteorologist says y’all are making a big deal out of a little breezy blustery wind, Weather App the more professional meteorologist argues back with a solid rebuttal, claiming a Severe Coastal Event Warning, Severe Wind Warning, and pleasant breezes up to 50mph.

Although I may not sound it, I am delighted that the Wind chose tomorrow to strike- I was really starting to question how I was going to catch up on six assignments, an ungodly number of pages of reading, two job applications, and packing for Morocco in the 0 free hours I had tomorrow. Well thank you, Wind, for saving my life: by vastly improving the quality of the assignments I will be turning in tomorrow when I would’ve been at my internship and by ensuring that I will not become a wind-flattened pancake on the sidewalk tomorrow (although that may still happen… there’s gonna have to be some pretty serious wind for me not to leave the house).

I don’t like to speak for other people, but I feel that my brother Tyler would also be delighted in this news. How often is it that you get a Wind Day on your birthday? Granted it’s a little less cool than snow (literally and figuratively).. and he’ll still have to go to school… but at least now he can stride confidently into Edina High School knowing that the Catalonians in Spain are taking the day off in celebration of him. If a lot of wind means sound travels farther, he might even hear us singing happy birthday on the breeze and think: If insanity starts to set in when you turn 16, I wonder the state I’ll be in at 60?

There’s actually another birthday tomorrow that might be just a bit more important for Spain, but certainly not for Meteorologist Mazie. It’s St. Eulalia’s day, the Patron Saint of Barcelona and martyr against Roman authorities. Legend holds that the 13 year old girl was beaten in 13 different ways before they managed to kill her- that’s true grit right there. St. Eulalia’s day is celebrated every year at this time to recognize her bravery and defiance and remember the values of faith and justice that her story surfaces. I am fairly certain this year will be the first combined St. Eu-Wind-lia’s Day, but there’s gotta be a first time for everything! Although strong wind and activities like stacking humans and playing with fire- what many Catalán traditions entail- is probably not the best combo. Maybe celebrations will have to happen on Friday the 13th… funny how that happens. As long as we don’t have another Wind Day.

I encourage you all, even if its just in spirit, to get out there tomorrow (probably leaning on spirit for this too unless you’ve been wanting to explore life as a flattened sidewalk pancake) and enjoy you’re Wind Day!

When school is canceled due to the weather 🤷‍♀️ (Me enjoying the Wind Day)

OMG WHAT THE HECK I’M IN AFRICA NEW CONTINENT UNLOCKED THIS IS SO COOL HOW HAVE I LIVED TWENTY YEARS AND NEVER BEEN HERE.

Hey loyal readers! Sup from Morocco!!! I’m here until Sunday and am ready to soak in every last drop (literally and figuratively- it was raining pretty hard today). Today we flew in (can’t seem to escape windy, bumpy flights) met our Morocco Exchange program leaders who are all super nice, rode camels on the beach, got a tour of a small Medina (city/town), exchanged Euros for Moroccan Durham, tried some traditional breads with cheese, took a 3 hour bus ride into Rabat, the capital of Morocco, and met the host families we will be staying with for the next two nights! Our host family is a mom and dad with two daughters who I would guess are 15 and 22, maybe? I could be very wrong. They are all so nice and welcoming and have told us innumerable times to make ourselves at home :). We learned about Moroccan culture throughout the day from our program guides, but there is nothing more real than actually staying in someone’s home. It’s things like being instructed on how to use a squatty potty and told that you won’t use silverware at dinner that really got to me. Then there’s the language aspect: I don’t know a single word of Arabic, and it’s not like Catalan where you can kind of piece it together if the words look similar to Spanish. It’s crazy how impactful it was to look at street signs and store names and just be so completely lost. At dinner, our host mom and host sister mainly spoke to one another in Arabic, which left me feeling unsure if I should interrupt to ask a silly question in English or just smile and laugh along. I can’t even put into words how cool and different it all was and how hard I was resistigg geeking out about every tiny little thing, trying to remind myself that this is just another version of mundane, everyday life. Before I zonk out for the night (I’ll attach a picture of our room), I have to say just how good the food our host mom made was. If I only had one word to describe it I would say: flavorful. She made homemade bread (actually everything was completely homemade) with a veggie/eggplant dip, and these roasted curried potatoes with chicken; those chicken and potatoes were some of the most flavorful I’ve ever tasted.

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!!! I absolutely must go to bed, but wanted to send something on this holiday that I love so very much!

I love you all and eat some chocolate cuz I haven’t had ANY 😱. A valentines not to be forgotten, that’s for sure!

Hashtag sitting in the coolest hostel ever in Morocco trying to do my homework one hour before its due because everyone forgot it’s Sunday but my fingers are too frozen to type and my classmates are throwing up all around me.

Hehehehe at least I’m in Morocco.

I started to write this whole fleshed-out post for my Montserrat adventure today but then I was suddenly talking about the public transportation system in Barcelona for like five paragraphs and it just didn’t feel right, so I decided to start over. I’ll tell you more about public transportation and why I don’t trust buses later :) Basically I had such a great time at Montserrat today and am thrilled I get to go back with the program in April. I knew I wanted to do something adventurous and fun today, but had not thought about what that would be until 2:00am this morning (Chat helped me plan and figure out logistics as my brainpower was falling fast), so I am proud that I woke up on time, stuck with it, and made it happen, because I can imagine an alternate reality where I didn’t and that would be very sad.

Although I didn’t see the Basilica or the Stairway to Heaven- the two main reasons people visit the mountain-, I saw so, so much more. I hiked from the town at the base of the mountain all the way to the highest point on the mountain (which I think might also be the highest point in Barcelona, or at least it appeared so from up there). There were definitely a few other hikers who did the same thing, but honestly I think most people who visit barely hike. The typical structure of a day in Montserrat might look something like this: arrive at Monistrol de Montserrat, the town at the base of the mountain, and take the gondola or funicular up to the Basílica. Explore the Basílica, grab lunch at the cafeteria nearby, and soak in the views and maybe take a quick hike around before buying ANOTHER 11 Euro ticket to take the gondola or funicular back down. I’m not hating on this itinerary at all, but for me personally, I was much more interested in exploring the mountain itself and getting lost amongst its nature and trails. That was why I committed to using my own two feet as my only form of transportation for the entire time I was up there. If it was going to be an epic adventure, it had to be 100% powered by me.

My itinerary ended up looking like this: Walk and keep walking. In more detail… I got off the metro at Monistrol de Montserrat and spent 10 minutes photographing this amazing mountain from behind the fence of the train station as I slowly remembered that places other than gigantic chaotic cities also exist in the world. I don’t know how many times I repeated some combination of “This is so beautiful. OMG It’s so beautiful here. I love this. I have to go hiking more often” as I walked through town and to the start of the trail, but it was a lot. There were three other groups of hikers that started at almost the same time as me, but I overtook them all hehe. They gave you no gentle introduction to the path- it was an immediate straight shot up. I climbed SO. MANY. STAIRS. Its not even funny, but the scenery was absolutely breathtaking (in the literal way, not the cliche way). It only got better after I arrived to the Basílica- the hike from there to Sant Jordí, the highest point on the mountain, was by far the most beautiful. And to think that 99% of tourists miss that! I will say that this section somehow had even more stairs than the initial ascent, but that does make sense if you’re hiking to the top of the mountain. Honestly it was more of a stair master session than a hike. But SO WORTH IT when you pop out at the top and are faced with a contender for one of the three most pretty things you have ever seen in your entire life. I could have sat up there forever just looking out over the landscape, but the wind was going absolutely insane and making it freezing cold.

I did meet someone at the top after trading phones to take pictures of each other, and we ended up hiking most of the way back down together. He’s studying abroad in France and randomly decided to come on this hike just like I did after seeing the mountains out of the airplane window. We saw a mountain goat family- another thing that you only get the chance to see if you hike up to the top- and hiked up to a bunch of little outlooks along the way. It was perfect timing- I got the solo, self-directed adventure I’d been craving and then just as I was starting to feel like it might be nice to have someone to hike with, I had someone to hike with!

I spent almost two hours hiking down from the mountain as the sun was beginning to set because I couldn’t find the way back to the Monastery and then, once I finally did, the descent seemed to have increased in length since that morning. By the end I was running down the (very rocky and treacherous) path with basically no light left to see where I was stepping. I managed to avoid any evil rocks or camouflaged snakes (my two main worries), and if you were to ask me how many times I almost sprained my ankle falling over a rock, I would answer at least 52. After my serene day in the mountains I was instantly stressed about the metro again once I got back into town. I didn’t technically have anywhere to be by a certain time (I had told Cristina that there was no way I was going to make it on time for dinner), but the metros out here only come every 30 minutes, so missing the next one would’ve been a huge bummer. I made it with plenty of time and transferred to my middle metro and my last metro without a hitch (but still with lots of stress), and was home by 9:30 for dinner!

So yeah basically it was a great day and if you were ever thinking about hiking Montserrat, DO IT! The hike will be way more fun and enriching than simply seeing the Monastery, and those views will haunt you in a good way for days and months and years.

More pictures to come later. I am just really tired and must go to sleep because we have to get up early tomorrow :)

Museums were free today! Hashtag first Sunday of the month :)

Picasso Museum First stop! I read every single plaque and description in the entire museum.

Museu Etnológic I de Cultures del Mon Very classic museum style. Lots of cool art from around the world.

Museu d’Història de Catalunya My favorite of the four. There was so much to do and interact with and such cool displays.

Museu d’Història de Barcelona Honestly I don’t know if this one should even count. I spent most of the time I was there trying to call US Bank.

Today (as in Saturday February 28th, when I began this post) the program was so kind as to take us on a day trip to the Dali Museum and the medieval town of Besalú. Natalie and I left the house at 8:28 and metro-ed to Plaza Espana to meet the bus at 9:00. It was a two hour ride to Figueres (the birth and death place of Dalí and where his museum is), but that was fine with me because I had plenty of time to talk to people and sleep. We got there at 11 and were able to recognize Dali’s Theatere-Museum instantly after stepping off the bus. It was this giant pink building with big yellow decorations (I don’t know how else to describe it) stuck to every wall and ginormous eggs crowning the edge of the roof. There were divers with baguettes on their heads and fake Oscar trophies added to the mix. If it sounds bizarre and a little crazy (and more than a little hard to describe), that’s because it was!

We met our tour guide a few minutes later- she was great and it was really helpful to have someone to explain the significance and double meaning behind everything (trust, everything Dali did had like five layers of meaning behind it). She showed us some notable paintings including the bread basket and a bunch inspired by his wife Gala, a few crazy optical illusions (there was one that you could only see if you looked through your phone camera!), and some wacky but really cool gallery rooms. It’s called a theatre-museum because it was originally a theatre, but Dali kept that sentiment alive by making the space so much more than a museum. It’s sculptures, displays, and hidden meaning with museum elements showered in. Every room is a theatrical experience: ordinary objects and ideas juxtaposed together, bathtubs and boats hanging from the ceiling, and faces made out of furniture that can only be seen from a particular angle.

We learned a lot about Dali himself and even got to walk on top of him (he requested to be buried under the museum!). Although most people can agree he was un poco loco, he was a good kind of loco. He never failed to make life interesting and to make anything that interested him an obsessive part of his life. He lived in the space between dream and reality, and our guide explained that his wife was so important to him because she was able to ground him. After she died he lost his ability to create and spent the last years of his life living in the house attached to his museum and reveling at his popularity as he watched the crowds lining up to go inside. He was a great, but never known for being particularly humble. I also found it funny that the famous melting clocks piece, The Persistence of Memory, is not even at this museum but at the MOMA in New York, and is scarcely bigger than a postcard.

Quite sadly we didn’t get any time to explore after the tour ended. We got right back on the bus for another 30 minute ride to Besalú. Everyone was confused when the bus pulled into this tired looking town off the side of the road, but its medieval charm became apparent after we left the abandoned parking lot and walked into the heart of the city. We had two hours to have lunch and explore on our own (I don’t understand why they never give us more time in these towns- with two hours you always spend the majority of it at lunch). Natalie, Ellie, Kieran, and I ate together at an Italian restaurant. I had a cheese pizza which has been my go-to meal out in Spain (I didn’t realize how much I would miss pizza… meaning I must eat a lot of it at home. Honestly I didn’t expect to miss it at all!). After lunch we strolled through town and across the medieval bridge on which I commented ill-intentioned invaders had probably been killed hundreds of years ago. We walked down to the water and met an adorable duck family and wandered into a few cute shops. I may have found a few cute gifts! We walked past this frozen yogurt place as we were leaving and somehow were just magnetically pulled towards it- it looked so delicious there was no way we could not go! There were two remarkable things about this yogurt shop: It really was frozen yogurt, not ice cream by a different name. It was basically like we were eating a fruit and yogurt bowl! That was the other thing- they had so many toppings including fruit, fruit sauces, chocolate, chocolate sauces, and everything in-between, and you could add as many as you wanted for no extra cost! Made my day.

We were speed walking back to the bus because, thanks to getting sidetracked by literally everything, we were running quite late. Due to our inhuman speed, we almost didn’t realize that we zipped by our trip leaders and a bunch of other students finishing up their lunch! It was already past the time we were supposed to leave and they were leisurely enjoying their dessert- honestly a perfect reminder of how time works in Spain (and great proof that we needed more time to explore because all that group did was eat lunch). We got to join them in leisurely enjoying our dessert, and then shopping even more while we waited for them to be ready!

It was quite a fun day and one of my favorite- maybe my favorite?- day trips so far. It’s so nice of our program to plan these excursions because I’m fairly confident I never would have visited the Dalí Museum if it wasn’t for today!

WOW. Just had the lemon pie cookie from El Desván bakery (they call themselves a bakery but all they make is cookies). Genuinely one of the best cookies I have ever eaten. I’ve been wanting to go ever since I saw a picture of one of their massive cookies online and I decided last night that today was going to be the day. The entire experience was great: I walked over as soon as I was free from my internship, stood in there for probably five minutes (no exaggeration) trying to decide which flavor to get (Kinder Bueno, Lotus, Nutella, Lemon, Macadamia nut, Ferrero Rocher, Peanut Butter, and so many others) while the lady patiently stared at me and waited, and then walked over to a nearby park for the experience of a lifetime. It was a (giant) lemon flavored cookie with a half tangy, half sweet lemon filling and white chocolate chips with meringue piled three inches high on top. Because it was so big, the cookie itself was underbaked and almost gooey- exactly how I like them! It was so good that I will openly tell you I was mumbling to myself the entire time about how exquisite it was. I can’t upload the picture right now, but I definitely will the next time I do a photo dump. I honestly wan’t very focused on getting a good photo anyways, as that meant I had to set the cookie down :)

What is Wednesday is such a fitting title, because what a Wednesday it was! Well, you won’t have to wonder anymore because I am here to wring out any worries and… tell you! I give up on the Ws.

My alarm went off at 8:00 and I was out the door by 8:30 meaning I was able to calmly walk down the street to school- I even had time to stop for a ham and cheese croissant for breakfast!- and walked into my classroom at 9:15 exactly. Couldn’t have been more perfect (or impressive if you ask me, because the last time that happened was the first day). Now, of course I had a good reason for being on time- we had our midterm exam. It ended up being super easy. Like, and this is not meant as an insult, about the level I would expect from a fifth grade reading comprehension quiz. The multiple choice section was directly copy and pasted from the practice kahoot she gave us to review, and I could’ve written books about the short answer questions with how much I’d drilled the answers into my brain. If you’ve got any questions about los métodos de preservación y porque las patas traseras son mejor, Ferran Adrià and his world-renowned El Bulli, or the first chapter of the novel Circe, I got you.

The exam ended at 11:00 (although I just described to you how easy it was, never fear: I was the last one to finish by a good long ways and still scrambling to finish writing as time ran out). By the time I packed my things up and left it was 11:05, and I had a 20 minute metro ride between me and my next class, a field study for Cross-Cultural Psych at El Casal dels Infants. We had to be there by 11:30, but out of curiosity I asked Google Maps how long of a walk it would be. As soon as I read 38 minutes I was dashing down the stairs and running red lights- With a little running I could surely fit Google Map’s fat 38 minutes into the 28 I had. I made it on time, and my professor led us inside the center and to a classroom for a very intellectually stimulating conversation with a psychotherapist who works there. She talked a bit about her career and explained how she creates this super complicated family tree diagram for all of her patients to better visualize their situation and relationships. Then she walked us through the diagram of a Moroccan family she works with, confounding us with just how complicated things can get. It kinda made me wish I was studying psych.

As soon as class got out I was rushing once again, this time hopping on the metro towards one of my favorite cafes near school called Boldú. I got a chicken sandwich which was a delicious lunch but also my ticket to being able to sit in the cafe and study for two hours. I claimed a giant table in the back where I could spread my backpack and papers out and started madly transcribing all of my notes from my sustainable development class onto an exam cheat sheet (it was midterm day today) onto a fresh sheet of paper in the smallest handwriting I could still read. My heart was pounding the entire time because I didn’t think I was going to get through them all in just two hours but somehow I did! Although it would’ve been a better lesson if I didn’t finish: maybe don’t leave the most important things until literally the last minute. Maybe. It honestly served me well, though, because everything was very fresh in my brain for the actual test! I bullet pointed, diagrammed, and mind-mapped like crazy just like he wanted us to, and I’m pretty confident I turned out an exam that my professor is going to enjoy reading/deciphering.

With a throbbing hand (so much writing) I left the classroom and met up with my friend Gracie to go pick up our ceramics pieces from a workshop we did a few weeks ago with the program. It was a relief to finally be able to walk normally again and not have to think about any more midterms. I like my piece, but it turned out a bit streaky, like how it might look if a little kid just slaps paint on and doesn’t pay any heed to layering. I blame the fact that we only had an hour to paint our entire piece! Honestly, finishing was an accomplishment. I did really like my mini giraffe that I pained just for fun in the 30 seconds before we had to start cleaning up. Somehow he has one coat of paint and is less streaky than my other piece.

Gracie and I wandered around for a bit and she bought tape and bread before catching the metro back home. I wanted to walk, and I knew that el Desván Bakery was nearby, so we parted ways and I went off in search of a gigantic cookie. I was going to need a snack before dinner anyways, so I just called it a little celebration for myself for finishing midterms :) I tried the Happy Hippo flavor- chocolate chip cookie stuffed with white chocolate hazelnut filling (like a Kinder Bueno) and topped with Kinder Bueno pieces in the shape of a hippo. I’d been really wanting to try this one because I can’t get enough of anything Kinder Bueno flavored, but I think I preferred the lemon pie one I tried yesterday.

Next it was time for the trek back home. I ended up following almost the exact same route I’ve walked for the past three days now (I keep starting from almost the same location). I popped in my Air Pods- Mumford and Sons Prizefighter, of course, complimented with a little Jonah Kaegan, this new guy I found out about who I’m worried may be a Noah Kahan copycat but is nonetheless pretty good- and enjoyed the relative warmth and bustle of the streets.

We had dinner a few minutes after I walked in the door, and it was one of my favorites: Chicken and vegetable gnocchi. I could eat that every night. Tonight we also had these chicken and veggie wonton things and bread, and oranges for dessert.

That brings me to right now. Writing this blog post is procrastinating doing what I really need to do, which is work on a presentation I have to give in my psychology class next Monday. As I’m going to be in Switzerland over the weekend (oh yeah, if you didn’t know that I’m going to be in Switzerland over the weekend so there you go) and there’s absolutely no chance I’m going to get anything done while I’m there, I really need to finish it by tomorrow night. It’s just really unappealing when the first step is reading a 20 page academic journal article to THEN create a presentation on. But don’t fear- I chose my slide template and the title page is 100% complete!

I am also attaching some random photos here. You’ve got (in order): My lemon pie cookie from yesterday, a quaint street I walked down, the one picture I took inside El Casal dels Infants, my sandwich and the bakery where I studied, my cheat sheet (don’t you dare copy it), and my Happy Hippo cookie from today (adorable I know). Be on the lookout next week for some crazy Switzerland adventure updates! I’m not prepared- eek! If any of you know what’s coming, you know what I mean. Anyways, adios!

An idea that stuck with me from class this week was the fish out of water concept that we revisited from the first day. In particular, I found this impactful: “When you’re in your water you know how to swim really well. But who do you become when you’re not in that environment any more? Your routines and actions are going to change meaning your purpose and, undoubtedly, your identity will too.” This was something I thought a lot about when I first moved to college, but in the opposite way. I was intent on constructing a new identity for myself and knew that I would naturally become associated with the clubs and activities I participated in. By my second year I was a member of the running and rowing club and worked at the climbing wall and as a SOAR leader. Since then these things have become my water- they start and end my response anytime I am asked to describe who I am; they give me a purpose. Moving to Barcelona completely detached me from this purpose. Right now I don’t have any jobs or belong to any clubs. The superficial layers have been stripped away, leaving my purpose bare for everyone to see… It’s just me! This realization is exciting and fun and terrifying at the same time: Without all that extra stuff latched on, what does “Hi, I’m Mazie!” even mean anymore?

• 4:35 - Alarm goes off. All Mazie wants to do is go back to sleep. Sad.
• 4:53 - Walk out the door of the hostel. Refill our waters.
• 5:10 - Bolt car to bus stop
• 5:22 - Bus stop to Zürich HB train station
• 5:37 - Spend a while being really confused, finally ask a train conductor and the helps us find our platform.
• 6:02 - Train leaves to Bern. Didn’t realize we were sitting in first class and almost had to pay an 100 CHF fee. Whoops.
• 6:58 - Train arrives to Bern. We walk to Platform 10 to board the next train.
• 7:04 - Train leaves to Interlaken.
• 8:00 - Arrive in Interlaken. First destination is the hostel to drop our bags off in their “storage room”.
• 9:00 - Walk over to a nearby bakery for a light breakfast. I got a delicious pretzel bun.
• 9:30 - Walk into the city center, shop around, stop for coffee at Dunkin Donuts
• 10:00 - Stop at this really expensive and fancy chocolate shop but of course I’m gonna get chocolate. The Dubai chocolate here was amazing.
• 11:30 - Photo shoot at this cute bridge with incredible views.
• 12:00 - Stop at Toblerone and Lindt stores. More and more and more chocolate (and free samples!)
• 12:30 - Brief rest sit at a bench
• 1:00 - Long rest sit in a park watching paragliders land and talking about politics, power, and the history of Barcelona (and practicing our Spanish and eating a lot, lot, lot of really amazing chocolate)
• 3:00 - McDonald’s for a late lunch (don’t worry I didn’t get anything)
• 3:30 - Stop at the Edelweiss gift shop again. I bought some people some things…
• 4:00 - Walk back to hostel to check in. Everyone else takes a quick nap, I take a walk and sing (because finally there’s no one to see me being loud and obnoxious).
• 5:10 - Walk to a really pretty lake to watch the sunset. Sky was very foggy/not clear, but we skipped rocks, had more good conversation (this time about car accidents), and took quite a few pictures despite the lackluster colors in the sky.
• 7:00 - Walk back to hostel. Includes (probably illegally) climbing a fence (ish).
• 7:30 - Drink water, colect more layers
• 7:45 - Walk to bus stop
• 7:50 - Bus to train station
• 8:00 - Train to a lake with the gigantic floating boat that we selected as our dinner spot (they have.a very nice restaurant on board however it is only Gracie and Mya who eat because everything is insanely expensive. The water was tasty though).
• 9:45 - Catch the bus to the train station.
• 9:50 - Stop in a small supermarket for Natalie and I to buy dinner right before they close (we kinda didn’t think about the fact that things may not be available to us 24/7 in a small ski town.
• 10:10 - Walk back to hostel. Commotion in the hall
• 10:30 - Get ready for bed
• 12:00 - Almost ready for bed

Goodnight!

Again another rapidfire timeline because I am attempting to get more than 5 hours of sleep :)

• 4:35: Somebody’s alarm goes off and I wake myself up thinking its morning. Sigh.
• 7:00: Alarm goes off, pack backpack
• 7:27: Leave room
• 7:30: Throw backpack in secure storage aka hostel basement
• 7:32: Grab breakfast. The hostel had a free, home cooked breakfast that was my favorite meal of the trip. I grabbed a giant hunk off freshly baked bread, cheese, and cucumbers.
• 7:34: On the road- bye bye hostel!
• 7:51: Meet our paragliding instructors at the park
• 8:00: Hop in the van and drive 20 minutes up the mountain. We randomly draw for instructors. Mazie gets incredibly nervous the closer we get.
• 8:25: Five minute walk through a somewhat snowy forest to the hill we’re going to be jumping off (it was more like running until you lifted into the air but its cooler if I call it jumping off the side of the mountain). My guide Lea got everything ready while I put on more layers, looked over the side of the hill, and finished getting properly nervous and excited.
• 8:45: 1-2-3 Take off!!! It really was not even that scary and it was SO FUN OMG! I will have to write another post about paragliding, but I can say it made me want to get my pilot’s license.
• 9:05: Land in the park. From the experience of the passenger, landing is no biggie at all- you kinda just stand up.
• 9:10: Caved and spent $50 to buy the photos of me in the air. All my friends were doing it…
• 9:15: Walked over to Dunkin’ Donuts with Gracie and Natalie for coffee while Mya left to go paragliding (she booked a later time)
• 9:40: Watched Mya land. Exquisitely done!
• 10:00: Walk around town a little bit more.
• 10:30: Mya and I split off for a hike! We began our quest to Harder Kulm wearing three layers each. Five minutes in we were both down to our t-shirts and sweating. It was absolutely beautiful and very much uphill. The highlight was encountering a natural drinking fountain part of the way up right when we were about to wisp away of thirst
• 1:00: We’re still not at the top and are wondering if we should turn around because we need to be back at the hostel in less than two hours. But that makes us sad because there’s a cheap fondue restaurant at the top with beautiful views. We befriend this guy on the trail who tells us that the restaurant is closed for the season and the funicular is also closed, so we had to get a move on down the mountain.
• 2:10: It took us less time to get down than we thought. We randomly run into our new friend at the base of the trail again and ask him for a fondue restaurant recommendation to which his answer is all of them are tourist traps and suck.
• 2:30: We find a place serving fondue and get some anyways. It’s quite insanely expensive but at least they let us share one (they’re usually very strict about prices per person)! The fondue itself was pretty good but the bread left something (many things, actually) to be desired. I kept wishing we would’ve saved fresh hostel bread…
• 3:00: Walk back to the hostel
• 3:30: Grab our stuff and refill water bottle
• 3:40: Insanely full bus to the train station. You know when you cram toys or books into a closet and slam the door closed so they don’t fall out but the next time you open the closet you forget that you did that and everything comes crashing out? That was what was happening on this bus, and we were the last toys haphazardly thrown on top.
• 4:05: Arrive at Interlaken Ost. Walk to train.
• 4:15: Train departs, heading to Basel. I pull out my laptop and work on the presentation I have to give in class tomorrow that I am not done with, of course. We invent SIDES syndrome. If you’re confused you should’ve been there.
• 6:15: Arrive in Basel. We all instantly like it here.
• 6:30: Bus to the Euro Airport. We had no idea beforehand, but the airport is technically in France so it was all of our first times visiting France together!
• 6:50: Arrive at the Euro Airport. Scan my location just to make 1000% sure there’s no Airport POAP here.
• 7:15: Get through security and find a nice corner to sit in. My laptop is back out and never have I been so appreciative of good, fast, clean airport WiFi.
• 9:00: We board the flight. Gracie and I are sitting next to each other with Mya and Natalie one row away!
• 9:15: The takeoff usual: AirPods in, Twenties game out
• 10:45: Land in Barcelona 25 minutes ahead of schedule! The Swiss will make sure you are there on time.
• 11:15: After a wild goose chase of random airport signs, we all hop on the Renfe. Natalie and I transfer to the L5 and then the L7, getting off the train a few minutes before it closed for the night.
• 12:00: Back to Cristina’s!!
• 12:15: Decided to save my “un sandwich” for breakfast tomorrow, but I had a banana and unpacked.
• 1:00: Sat on my bed furiously trying to finish my presentation that is now technically late
• 2:00: Realized I could not form sentences in my head anymore and couldn’t even read the words I was typing so I decided to just go to bed and wake up early to finish. Of course by the time I brushed my teeth and everything I felt awake again and couldn’t fall asleep, so I got a few more minutes of work in.

That’s it for Switzerland! One of my favorite trips so far! What can I say, the land of cheese, chocolate, and paragliding never disappoints.

Well this one is super after-the-fact, but better late than never and I don’t want to make the first day of our Switzerland adventure sad by not giving it any recognition.

• 3:30am: Alarm goes off. Once again, Mazie must get up even as everything wants to drag her back into bed. Throw the last items into my backpack.
• 3:50: Out the door
• 3:53: Catch the night bus to Plaza Espanya.
• 4:15: Catch the A17 bus to Airport Terminal 1.
• 5:00: Arrive at airport.
• 5:30: Through security, meet Mya and McDonald’s and wait for Gracie. Eat breakfast (whether that’s McDonald’s or the random snacks in your backpack)
• 6:15: We realize that we should probably head to our gate because the plane is boarding.
• 6:40: Make it to the gate just in time!
• 6:55: Flight leaves.
• 8:55: Arrive in Zurich
• 9:15: Linger at the airport while we figure out a plan. Decide to buy the Zurich card which allows us free public transportation, free or discounted access to many museums around the city, and discounts at select restaurants.
• 10:00: Catch a train into the city center.
• 10:30: Visit the National Museum which was conventionality located right outside the train station and was such a cool museum! I’m really glad we went. The design was very Swiss- simple but effective, hands-on but clean, and they had some really niche exhibits like fans and accessories, a whole bunch of crazy rings from different places around the world (that one was a group favorite), and exhibits covering the historical and current political and environmental landscape in Switzerland.
• 11:30: Walk over to the old town. Walk along the main street in search of a coffee shop. Natalie, Mya, and Gracie got iced lattes at this one place where we (sort of) made a new friend, and then we went to a second coffee shop where Mya, Gracie, and I got a feta and spinach quiche kinda thing for lunch. Of course we forgot to use the discount from the Zurich card- oh well.
• 1:30: Mya left for a tour at the Lindt House of Chocolate (I was tempted but tickets were quite expensive and I have already had the privilege of sticking my spoon under their chocolate fountains). The rest of us continued walking around the old city and shopping.
• 2:30: 30 minute trek by train to our hostel. Free access to public transportation was great, but no one ever checked our tickets anyways :)
• 3:00: Check in to hostel. The room took a little adjusting to as there was nowhere to lock anything up and no curtains. I guess Switzerland is just a very secure place.
• 3:45: Bus to the Museum Reitberg. Free access again thanks to the Zurich card! Was cool to walk around and see art and sculptures from all over the world, and we got to make our own Japanese postcards!
• 4:50: Walk over to the FIFA Museum. Mya rejoined us :) The National Museum was really cool, but the FIFA quickly stole the prize for my favorite museum of the day. Their exhibits were beautiful, really cool, and highly interactive. I set a new high score for this soccer dancing battle thing, and the last room (which we very sadly only had like 10 mins to play around in) was basically a human-sized soccer arcade! They had mini games like soccer pinball, shoot out, dribbling, hit the target, and once you created a player you could go around to the different stations and try your hand at the games. There was a line for everything so I didn’t get to try all the games, but it was a lovely set up and I could’ve spent much longer in there.
• 6:00: FIFA museum closes and we head to the big park overlooking the city. I remember catching our fondue ride here last time (I think)! We watched the water and these adorable ducks as it started to get dark.
• 7:00: Wandered back into the city towards the Pandora store so Natalie could take a look at the charms.
• 7:30: Randomly stumbled across this pretzel sandwich street vendor on the way which ended up being the perfect dinner, and for a much cheaper price than we were going to find anywhere else! I got a lettuce-mozarella-tomato sandwich and it was genuinely so good and inspired me to look into pretzel sandwiches in the future.
• 8:00: Natalie ends up buying a cute box of chocolates charm!
• 8:15: We end up in a Swatch store which makes me remember my old Swatch and marvel at the really fun, chunky ones on display in the store. Gracie caves and buys a pretty green swatch!
• 9:00: After some more aimless wandering, we decide to grab a bottle of wine (consumed by all but yours truly) and head back to the park for some deep conversation.
• 9:30: Although it was really dark and really cold (especially sitting next to the water), the deep conversation we had on the park bench was one of my favorite parts of the trip and was a great bonding moment.
• 10:30: Caught a bus back to the hostel because we (mainly Gracie and I) were freezing and extremely tired.
• 11:00: Back at the hostel, got water (sooo thirsty), and got to bed as quickly as possible. We got to listen to the dad who was also sharing our room talk to his kids on face time which was really cute.
• 11:45: Legit go to bed (destined for a night of about 4 hours of sleep, but that was at least an improvement from the night before!)

I really don’t like sausage. Like, not at all. Maybe I’m the crazy one, but something about chunks of leftover meat and fat collected from factory floors and stuffed into a clear intestinal casing just doesn’t sound too appetizing. Most of the time things I sweep up from the floor go into the garbage, so by my logic it would be fair to call sausage another form of garbage. I bet the Latin word for garbage was something like “saucsus”. Well anyways, guess what I spotted on my plate when I sat down for dinner tonight? Three long glistening (the intestinal casing makes for a really nice glimmer) speckled sausages. To add insult to injury, my roommate Natalie is currently on a week long trip in France so my plate was the center of attention; I had nowhere to hide and no other option (other than break my host mom’s heart, make the situation real awkward, and waste a poor pig’s life) than to eat the sausage.

The longer and the larger they are, the worse they are. These were probably 3-4 inches long and on the skinny side, so I had hope that they might be manageable if I really just dove in and embraced the garbage-loving part of me that surely had to exist somewhere. The moment I cut into the first one, however, I knew it wasn’t going to be that easy. I had to saw at that casing to get it to snap and I didn’t notice the giant fat blobs until they were bouncing and squeaking between my teeth. But I put on a smile and tried to focus on how good of a blog post this experience was going to be. When the inevitable “do you like it?” came a few minutes later, I nodded and responded enthusiastically, speeding up my pace and controlling my face to make sure I didn’t accidentally resemble Emily Hobbs eating maple syrup spaghetti for breakfast in Elf. I was sawing, stabbing, and chewing like a lumberjack turned racecar driver. In fact, I probably looked like I’d been craving some good old sausage and no doubt my host mom made a mental note to serve it again soon.

I made a pact with myself that I only had to eat the middle of each piece. I could cut the ends off and leave them to the side (that would be weird, right? It would be like cutting the crust off of toast). Although they looked slightly more flavorful, that was where I assumed any extra casing would be hiding and I wasn’t about to take any chances. I discreetly shoved any fat bits I could spot into the same pile and covered it with my napkin when I finished. After washing my mouth out with the rest of my dinner (the beans, veggies, and bread I had all ‘saved for last’), I walked my plate over to the the garbage and returned those sausage bits back where they belong.