01.01.22 - 31.01.22

January has been mostly good to me. There were some not so great moments 😬 and some that I´ll never forget, but overall it was better than I expected - especially concerning my ankle.

02.01.22: It was a lazy morning so Àlex and I slept till noon probably, and decided to have breakfast at a place called Sandwichez 😋 It´s a cool little corner café where you can study and just spend the day if you need to get out of the house, but also need a semi professional spot for working 👍

YUM 😋☕

The food was a bit more on the expensive side, but quite worth it in my opinion. I had a salmon bagel and an acaí smoothie 😋😌 Àlex tried some kind of a Mexican wrap, but it wasn´t as good as my bagel.

03.01.22: I woke up alone and decided not to waste this beautiful day and went on a mini adventure 😎 I had a quick bite and got on my way. I have this to-do-list filled with places where I want to go in Barcelona or where I´d like to take my friends, when they´re visiting. Somehow I still haven´t seen every one of them myself, so it was time to check out some of these 😁

My first stop was Calle Allada Vermell. I saw this place on the internet when I was looking for new places to visit, and there were great reviews about it. The place itself is basically some old couple´s house where they have a lot of plants placed outside, but they´re hanging on the house. It creates this mini botanic garden look and I loved it 😍🌿🌵

Calle Allada Vermell 🌿

I took a metro to Liceu and from there it was maybe 5-10 min walk till the street, and then I just had to find the correct house. To be honest I was a bit disappointed when I finally saw the exterior 😕 Maybe there were some plants missing, or they just weren´t blooming yet, but it didn´t feel as special as I thought it was gonna be. I took a photo and went looking for the next stop. Right now it actually looks better on the photo than it did there 😄

I saw El Beso de Joan Foncuberta on Instagram once and was mesmerised by it 😍  I knew it had to see it for sure, especially when I was already outside and exploring the city. To my surprise it was just across the Barcelona Cathedral 😅 You enter Barrio Gótico and instead of walking straight towards the cathedral, you take a left turn to a little diagonal street and you´ve arrived. I´ve been to the barrio so many times and never knew to just look to my left 😂

El Beso - Joan Fontcuberta 💋

Anyway El Beso is a mosaic wall made up of 6000 pieces of real photos the people in Barcelona sent. Basically the author of the wall collaborated with a newspaper called El Periódico and they posted an ad on the newspaper, asking the people in Barcelona to send a photo of a moment of freedom. All the photos were installed in a form of lips kissing. Next to the mosaic there´s a plaque with a description about the mural and the next quote by Oliver Wendell Holmes: "The sound of a kiss is not as deafening as that of a cannon, / but its echo lasts much longer." This place exceeded my expectations to be honest. I knew from Instagram already that it´s gonna be cool and all, but damn 😍🙈 The location, the story, and photos.. everything was perfect. I spent quite some time looking at the photos, and then you take some steps back -  there´s a whole new perception to the thing. It´s true, that sometimes you have to take a step back to appreciate and understand the art, but this time it´s also recommendable to take a step closer 😉 Every photo was like being part of an intimate moment. Absolutely loved this place! 👍👍👍

Next I wanted to check out a nail polish store in Diagonal. Àlex´s mother told me about it, but I hadn´t had a possibility to go there. So since I was walking around already, it was time to check it out 💪 To my surprise it wasn´t a big store like Tradehouse, but a little boutique sized store with no possibility of looking around on your own. I didn´t enter and kept on walking. 

Some cool things I saw when walking 😻

On my way there I walked by Museu d´Art Contemporani de Barcelona and saw some other cool architectural jewels. Besides that I stumbled upon Casa les Punxes - one of the most emblematic building in Barcelona, and a key to understanding the movement of Catalan Modernism.

Casa les Punxes

The name of the house comes from the 6 pointed towers (punxes-spikes) 🏰 The house has always been a tourist attraction, but now is also a co-working space. I actually didn´t know about the house, and found it when walking by it accidentally, but it turned out as a great discovery. I had something new to add to my tourist list for my friends 👌

After that I wasn´t sure what to do or where to go and out of nowhere I decided that it had been to long since I saw Sagrada Familia last, so that was my next and also my last destination for the day. I remembered since the first time that the best part was walking there, because you walk and walk and don´t see anything special. And then suddenly you see a tower, then another one and finally the whole building 😁

Sagrada Familia at sunset 😍

It was in a better condition compared to the last time and there were almost no people. It was so weird for me, because usually the place is filled with tourists and it was sooo empty. I took some photos and started my way back home 💪

04.01.22: Àlex had a job interview in Montcada and asked me to go with him. We took a metro to the city centre and then a train to Montcada. It was rather early in the morning so it was quite cold still 🧊 The sun was up, but air was still chilly. We found the place and he went inside. It was supposed to take only 10-15 minutes, but somehow took 1 HOUR 😱😬 Spaniards and their time counting.. I was freezing outside and had already walked through the "city" twice. I checked out every possible thing there was, read all the plaques meant for tourists - they were in Catalan, but I actually understood quite a lot - and peeped into the local stores. Then finally Àlex called me and we could catch a train back to the centre. Everything aside he did well and they were very interested in him 😌👍

05.01.22: Triinu  came!!! AGAIN!! I was so happy 😍💛 We´d agreed to meet up in Placa Espanya, so she could practice coming to the house on her own. First time I went to pick her up from the airport and this time we met in the middle. Next time she´s already trying on her own. It was already 16 when we met up at the Placa. She bought herself a metro ticket and we drove to the house together. It was getting dark already so we didn´t want to start our list of places to visit - instead of we went to Placa Catalunya. There were soooo many people there when we arrived. I totally forgot that locals were celebrating the Three Wise Men. They had a show and everything for that.

Decorated El Corte Inglés

In Spain they celebrate Christmas, but in January they also have the Three Wise Men who leave presents for the kids 🎁 So because of that they have a huge show where the kings and others march around and throw candies to children. There wasn´t much happening at first when we got there, but later on when we were done with the shopping, the march was full on. It was very cool actually. People were dancing, there were huge horses and other thing constructed and everyone seemed to be enjoying the festivities 🎉

06.01.22: A few days ago a girl from my high school days wrote to me saying that she´ll be coming to Barcelona for a few days and asked if I just share some locations for others to visit, or show the city myself also. I told that I´m definitely up to meeting up and showing around 😊

I´m like a mini guide already here, so if anybody wants a tour, you can definitely let me know. Or I can also just share my list of locations to visit. I know some things about the locations, but can´t give like a full guide experience 😄

So Triinu and I met up with her and started our route. I had some things planed, but we walked through everything much much faster than I had anticipated. We visited Barrio Gótico, El Beso, Parc de la Ciutadella, Barceloneta, Port Vell, Maremagnum and Sagrada Familia.

Sagrada Familia

It was a really long day, but I had so much fun. My feet were hurting from all the walking, but at least this time I wore a bit better shoes 😄

In the evening Triinu and I got to try roscón de reyes. It´s basically a cake which is shaped like a circle, cut in two and filled with creme, usually marzipan creme 😋

Our roscón with truffle cream 😋

When everyone sits down by the table to eat they get to decide how big of a piece they wish to get. You can ask for a half of the cake, if that´s what you wish, but you have to eat it too then. And the fun part is that there are two things hidden in the cake 😉 Firstly a little king and secondly a little bean, so the one who finds the king in their piece gets to be the king of the party and wear a crown 👑 which comes with the cake. And the other person who gets the bean is the "slave" of the king and has to pay for the cake next year. Others, who don´t find anything in their piece, can just enjoy the cake and have fun 😜 None of us found anything in our pieces, and in the end it looked like there was a mishap with our cake, because only the king was found. Maybe somebody ate a piece another day and didn´t say anything..?

07.01.22:  This day was as long as the last one, but we had so much fun 😆💪 We started with Montjüic castle, then went to see the Olympic stadium, Telefonica tower, MNAC and had a quick bite at Arenas 🍔 In the evening we went to a restaurant in Diagonal. I can´t remember the name of the place, but the food was good and company even better. It was a great day 😊

Croquetas, patatas bravas and chicken paella 😋

08.01.22: When I first came to Spain, and my parents came to visit me, we went to a a place called Montserrat. It´s this monastery in the mountains, and one hour drive away from Barcelona. It´s probably one of the coolest places in Catalunya that I´ve seen so far 🙈😍😍 Triinu has wanted to go there for a while, and since I told about the place to Brita also, it was decided. We were going to Montserrat. We took a metro to Placa Espanya, then a train to Monistrol de Montserrat and finally a cremallera to Montserrat. The whole trip took maybe an hour and a half, but the views made it worth it. Also the tickets cost only 25€ for a round-trip, so when you have time you should definitely visit Montserrat! 

Magnificent Montserrat 😍

We walked around everywhere and even took a mini trip to the other side of the mountain where we saw a huge cross. On our way back there were 3 people standing and looking at something, but we didn´t understand at first what was going on.

Ibex up in the bushes

Then some guy showed us that there were 3 ibexes eating 😮 One was behind a bush, one was walking around and another one was on its feet eating the tree leaves or something. We stayed there for probably 10 minutes looking at the animals 😄

10.01.22: We were back at Carrer de Padua with Triinu. We´d tried to take a photo there once before, but it was too dark that day.

Carrer de Padua 75

This time we managed to get a perfect picture for her 👆 After that we had a reservation for my favourite Sushi restaurant here - Kyoka 😋😍 I was sooo hungry.

SUSHIII 😋🍣

We ordered a lot of different things, some which we hadn´t even tried before and of course Triinu decided to order the weirdest thing on the menu banana sushi 😂 And she actually liked it 😮😄

 

Banana sushi

Maybe just the name makes it unusual and it might be good, but it was too much for me to try this time. I like trying new things, but I have to draw a line somewhere. And this time banana in a sushi was the line for me 😂

11.01.22: Ever since I went to Polleria, Triinu has wanted to go and try out their waffles also. But these aren´t any normal waffles. They´re dick waffles. There are also coochie waffles, so everyone can choose a preferable one. And you can get it covered in different sauces and sprinkles if you want 😌😋 The waffle itself is actually really tasty and tender.

Triinu with her waffle 🍆

13.01.22: The time to go to Brussels was here 😆 I had a Spanish class in the morning and the flight left around 21. Àlex´s father picked us up and brought to a bar called Meeting Point, which was just around the corner from the house. There we met up with Bryan and Max - my friends from the internship in Pineda de Mar. I was sooooo happy to see them 💛 I saw them last in the summer, so it had been too long already. We chatted and after a drink or two went to see the house. We ate the pizza 🍕 Àlex´s father had ordered, talked some more and then said goodbye to the boys. 

14.01.22: We woke up early, had some breakfast and met up with the guys 😁 We were supposed to meet them near an apartment Max went to see, but we had a problem with the pipes at the house, so we met up in some park. There was so much to see and do. We started with the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium. This place was so cool! 😍👍

Me, Bryan and origami birds

They had tons of origami birds which were part of a bigger art piece, and every bird was in a different colour. There were 3-4 floors, all the walls had different quotes in French and Dutch, and the art was interesting for all of us 😇 In the end there was a gift shop were I could´ve bought the René Magritte bag where it was written - Ceci n´est pas une pipe - but I didn´t buy it. It was a bit too expensive and I thought they´d probably have those in other places too 🤞 After that we went to Brussel-Centraal which is a train station they have there. It was really cool, just before you arrive at the entrance, there´s a tunnel where there are Smurfs drawn in the ceiling 🔹

💛💛💛

Later on we visited some parks and chocolate stores, I almost bought some souvenirs, but decided not to at the last moment. Then we went to the Grand Place which is like a central square. It was marvellous! 😍

At the Grand Place

The buildings and everything were sooo beautiful and covered in gold 😍 After that boys took us to see the Mannekin Pis, which was a bit of a disappointment 😐 but interesting anyway. I always imagined it to be much much bigger, and it was so tiny 😄

Mannekin Piss and a fun pub across the Mannekin Pis

The last touristy thing we did was to go see the Eglise Notre Dame du Sablon. After that Àlex wanted to rest and eat for a bit and I went with the guys to Max´s apartment. He made us pancakes 😋 I finished my homework and Bryan did some of his 👍

It was such a fun day till the moment we started going back to Àlex´s parents´ house. We walked to the metro and when we had entered the platform, something unimaginable happened, the worst thing that I´ve ever had to witness 😬😱😬😱 There was this our aged guy, who was weirdly nervous. He was checking his phone, surroundings and the metro. And then when the metro was reaching the end of the platform where we were walking, he pushed a woman onto the rails in front of the metro. I was in total shock. I was just standing there not knowing what to do or think. Then I saw the guy, it looked like he went to see if the lady was hurt or not. I don´t know what he was expecting to see. After that he started running and some others ran after him trying to catch the guy. I finally understood what had happened, I was shaking and my heart was beating. I was in a total shock. I started looking for my friends, and tried to find out if the lady was alive or not. I saw Bryan and then Max, who told me she was alive. Some people had jumped straight after her onto the rails and helped her up and then to a bench. The conductor had stopped literally in front of her nose. My hands were shaking the whole way home.

Me and the boys in the middle picture

Later on we found out that the guy was only 23, police caught him and they were doing a psych evaluation. The woman and the conductor were in a hospital, both in shock but overall fine.

Right before reaching the house we saw two guys with a camera and microphone. They approached us and started asking questions about EU, Russia and Ukraine. Bryan had been reading a lot about these topics and everything concerning and was totally on fire answering everything 🔥

Bryan with his precious wine bottle 🍾

It was so funny looking from the side, because he had a wine bottle in his hands and with every sentence it became more and more visible 😄 They even had to reshoot one question because the bottle was too visible from the camera. When the interview was finished we went to the house and started explaining everything to Àlex, who had been sleeping at home like a baby. Around 22 we decided to go downstairs to the same bar we were at the night before. We ordered some drinks 🍹 and more pizza 🍕 and just chatted. It was supposed to be a dance night at the bar, but there were almost no people. When it was time to pay, we were let know that we can´t pay by card, which was very strange. We could use the phone, but it didn´t work, so Max had to go and get some cash 💰

15.01.22: In the morning we had to go to Max´s place real quick and then we had to find the train station 🚆 We were going to Antwerp! 😆💪 I was very excited about it and couldn´t wait to be there already.

Antwerp train station 😍

When we arrived we had to find a toilet, the easiest option was McDonald´s, so we went there. When I found the toilet there was a lady there, who demanded 0,50€ from everyone who entered the toilet, even the costumers! I have never seen a McDonald´s where you have to pay for the toilet! Especially if you already eat there. Like wtf 😑 

The golden shopping centre 😍

Anyway after that we went to a shopping centre, but it didn´t look like one at all. The insides were covered in gold and it looked more like some kind of a palace than a shopping centre 😄 After that we checked out the chocolate stores and sat down at a café ☕🍰 Right beside the café there was a french fries 🍟 place, where the had a line till our café. It made me wanna try the fries, so I took Àlex with me and we went to find the fries. There was only one guy working and he had huge piles of fries behind him. He was running around like a madman, but still had the energy to be so kind to every costumer 😊

FRIEEEES 🍟🍟🍟

When I finally got my fries I couldn´t wait to try them 😆 Aaaand they were totally worth the long line and 15 minute wait. The fries were perfectly crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, and the taste.. they had just enough salt and pepper. I was in heaven 😍😋😇

Then we went to Haven Antwerpen, saw the Grote Markt and it was time to say goodbye. Àlex and I took a train back to the Brussels, checked out the European Quarter real quick and had a quiet night in eating cake and watching The Eternals 🎥

A house at the European Quarter

16.01.22: Àlex´s father came back from Barcelona in the morning, he left the day before for a quick visit and then came back. He took us to see the Atomium. It´s this cool and modern tourist attraction, which was actually constructed for the 1958 Brussels World´s Fair 😃

Atomium

The building is made up of 9 spheres which are connected to each other. The spheres have different exhibitions inside and in the upper sphere you can find a restaurant 🍴 Entrance to the Atomium was a bit pricey - 18€ - but you can visit 2 other places besides the Atomium with the same ticket. We didn´t do that, so because of that it seemed too expensive. 

After that we went to the centre again, we saw the King and Queen´s Gallery, which was magnificent 😍 I don´t know how we didn´t go there before with the guys, but it was amazing. 

King and Queen´s Gallery 😍

The Gallery was soo beautiful and had the origami birds once again 🐥 This time they were made of golden paper which shimmered when light fell onto it. Then I bought some souvenirs for my friends and mom. I ended up at the same place where I first wanted to buy the souvenirs. I thought I was maybe gonna find something better, but I didn´t. On our way back to the house we walked by a bubble tea café and I managed to talk Àlex and his father into going there. I´d been wanting to try the bubble tea from the first day, but every café had long lines all the time, but this one didn´t 😁 I ordered my bubble tea with passion fruit syrup and cherry bubbles. It was soo good 😋😋 I want more! After that Àlex´s father had to go home, but we still had to see the Parc du Cinquantenaire.

Parc du Cinquantenaire

It was really beautiful, but I would definitely be nicer during summer. The wind was blowing and there was some rain, so we didn´t get to enjoy the park too much. We went back home to pack our bags and flew back to Barcelona 🛩

17.01.22: It was the last class before my Spanish B1 exam. We didn´t study much, just talked over things and got the information we needed for the exam. And in the end we gave a little present to our teacher. She was so funny and kind with us and the greatest language teacher I´ve had 😊 We took a photo together and it was time to leave. 

Our class with the teacher in the middle

19.01.22: The day of the exam had arrived 😱 To my surprise I wasn´t feeling nervous at all. I finally started to feel something when I was walking towards the school. We were asked to be there before 9.30, but the exam started at 10 which I didn´t know about. The half an hour was spent explaining about different rules and where we had to write our information. Then it was time to start the exam 😬 First was reading - usually there´s 4 or 5 texts and after reading you have to answer some questions. Reading was my favourite part till now and I hadn´t had any problems with it. We read texts from last years exams also and I didn´t have any problems, but damn.. the ones this time, these were hard. Two of those were giving me a real headache 😭 Then we moved on to the listening part, I think, not so sure anymore. Anyway there were 5 listening tasks and these were also quite horrendous 😬 Even the teachers complained about them later on! The 2 parts that I was most secure about turned out to be the hardest parts for me. The last task for this day was writing. I´d been dreading this part, because this had been the hardest for me ever since I started the classes. Although I felt quite good after, I was still a bit upset with the listening and reading, but there wasn´t anything I could do about it anymore. I just had to hope for the best, but to be honest it felt like I wouldn´t be getting my certificate. I couldn´t dwell on it for too long, because I had to prepare for the oral exam we had the next day 😅

20.01.22: I ended up not doing much the day before, so I practised the oral part few hours before the exam 😬😄 I was feeling sick to my stomach. I feared this part somehow even more than the writing, which thinking back is quite dumb, because I´m the only one in my class who has the possibility of practicing the language every day and with native speakers 😄 Anyway I left the house feeling sick, I couldn´t even eat anything so I felt a bit dizzy besides every other emotion. I met up with my partner at school and waited for the professors to arrive. I was rather surprised at first when they told us, that oral exam will be taken in pairs. Usually with language exams it´s everyone on their own, so I was also worried that maybe I won´t understand my partner, but I ended up with someone who had good pronunciation 👍 We entered the class and sat down in front of the teachers. I let them know immediately that I´m super nervous. They managed to calm me down by just starting the conversation about our origin and why we were in Barcelona in the first place. Then we were given the tasks - we had to describe a picture, explain an anecdote and have a normal chat about a given topic. I was happy that I got the B part, because I had some time to prepare, but at the same time I had the worst picture to describe. Basically there was just a hand on the photo and some accessories and an open laptop. After that I told a story about the time I ordered myself some shoes from About You, but they turned out to be too big for me and I gave them to my friend. And for the last part we had a chat about cinemas and what movie we would like to go see. And then the exam was done 🎉 I felt really happy about it and knew that I was gonna pass this part for sure 😎 I managed to control myself and didn´t talk too fast, because usually when I do that, I also start making mistakes. Now there was nothing else I could do no more, so I went home and started waiting for the results.

22.01.22: Àlex´s parents were in town and invited us to go to the pilates class together. I was really excited and managed to talk Àlex into it also 💪 The class was fine, but I definitely needed a bit higher level. It felt like a warmup for me, but I was still happy that I went. It was so funny to watch Àlex trying to do the movements and everything 😄 He´s extremely stiff, so most of it didn´t even look like what it was supposed to, but I was so proud of him for trying and coming to the class in the first place. After that he stayed at the club for a padel match and I went to the city with his parents. We went looking for churros,  chips and chicken. We bought some croquetas also, which was my favourite part for sure 😋

Churros and bunyols 😋

23.01.22: Àlex and I felt quite lazy and ended up doing almost nothing till late in the evening. Then we finally got up from the sofa and went for a walk 🤸

An orange tree we saw on our way back 🍊

My ankle was hurting a bit so we were walking really slow, but it was a warm night, so it didn´t matter much. We walked till Fontana where we bought some candies and started going back home 🍭🍬

24.01.22: Ever since I came back to Barcelona, I was trying to get an appointment with a physiotherapist. Àlex´s friend works as one, but it was difficult to find a suitable option for both of us. Finally we found one and met up at his place. He looked at my ankle, gave me some new exercises and just tried to help as much as possible.

In the evening Àlex and I had a reservation for a ramen restaurant 🍜 He´d been wanting to go there with me  ever since we met, but I never felt like it was for me because I don´t really like soups 😬 He told me that before Covid it wasn´t possible to make a reservation at this place. Usually people would start making a line an hour before the restaurant opened and you had to stay there till you finally got a table. That lighted some interest in me,  so I finally gave in, and we went to his favourite ramen place.

My miso ramen

We started with some gyozas, which were the best I´ve tried till today. And then it was ramen time. I ordered a miso ramen. The pork they´d made was incredible, it was so tender and well seasoned 😋 Then I tried the soup - at first it was great, but then it got too strong for me. I don´t know if there was too much soy sauce or what it was that made the flavour so strong, but I couldn´t finish mine. Alex´s soup was a bit more bland and suited better to my tastebuds, but after some time felt too strong again. Nevertheless the overall experience was great and I´d like to try some other ramen restaurant too 👍

25.01.22:  Last time when Triinu was here, we went to see a cool house in Lesseps in Carrer de Padua. It´s really fun and different compared to the other houses next to it - it´s red and yellow and just so fun looking 😜

Carrer de Padua 75

Anyhow I took Àlex with me to see the house, he took some pictures of me and we walked around the Lesseps and Fontana. I even got a few photos of him 😁😌 He doesn´t like to pose much so sometimes I have to be subtle about it when taking photos of him.

26.01.22: Having a cat 🐱 as a pet has been a dream of mine ever since I could remember. I´ve always had dogs 🐶 at home, but they had to be outside dogs. It´s because me and my sister are allergic to most animals. Sometimes even when my dogs licked me or I petted them for too long, I would get a rash. So when Àlex and I came to Barcelona we were talking about getting a dog or a cat who would be fine for allergic people also. We were almost settled on one cat, but hadn´t been discussing it anymore for some time. Then one morning when we woke up, totally out of nowhere we decided to get a hamster! A hamster!! 🐹 I don´t know how we managed to come to this from dogs and cats, but somehow we were actually on our way to the pet store to buy a hamster 😄 I don´t even know anymore whose idea was it, but now thinking back at it, I don´t know how we didn´t think about it earlier. A hamster is a great start, a wonderful first pet. It´s small, doesn´t want your attention all day long and quite easy to take care of. 

When we arrived at the pet store I was a bit thrown back about how noisy it was there 😬 Poor little creatures. There were soooo many parrots and other birds making loud noises 🐥 To be honest I don´t know how the lady working there could stand it every day. We checked out every pet they had and I saw only 3 hamsters, they were quite big and the one I wanted was reserved already 😕 Then the lady came and asked us what were we looking for and when me mentioned hamsters, she brought out a cage with tiny tiny hamsters inside 😮 I´d never seen a hamster that small in my life. They were so cute, but seemed very fragile. At first I wanted a hamster who had orange fur, but they had only Syrian hamsters with orange fur. So we chose a grey little hamster baby, because that species were supposed to stay quite small even when they´re fully grown. The lady there told us that ours is a Chinese hamster, but now I think she was mistaken and we have a Winter white dwarf hamster 🐹 Anyway, we bought everything necessary and got on our way. When walking back we started talking about names - Àlex´s first thought was Junior, but I didn´t like that at all. Then he shouted out Oscar and it was perfect 😍 The hamster totally looked like Oscar 💛

Oscar 💛

We found a spot for him and let him adapt to his new home a bit before trying to make friends with him.

27.01.22: The day I was waiting so badly for had finally arrived! It was time to find out if passed the Spanish exam or not 😬 I wasnt´t too nervous about it, because there wasn´t anything I could do, so I just had to go to school and find out if I had disappointed myself or not 😄 Our teacher stood before us with a smile and told that 75% of the class had passed the exam and only 5 people failed. That was good news, but there was still a possibility that I was part of the 25% who didn´t pass. She started giving out the exams with results and said "enhorabuena" or "lo siento", meaning congrats or I´m sorry. My heart started racing when she was walking in my direction. She handed me my paper and said enhorabuena 🎉🎉🎉 I could´ve cried. I was so sure that I was gonna fail because of the reading and listening part, but I passed. Not only did I do great, I did damn excellent!!! I got a 92.75 out of a 100! I got the BEST result in the class and I´m darn proud of it 😆💪 My teacher was telling me also that she couldn´t believe that I was even thinking about maybe not doing the exam. I thanked her for everything and had tears in my eyes when it was time for us to leave. 

28.01.22: It was Hedi´s birthday. Sadly I couldn´t be with her this year, but I was going home soon, so it made the situation a bit better. 

Àlex surprised we with a breakfast in bed and after that we went to the club.

Tortilla de patatas and bocadillo de jamon with yogurt 😋

We had a stretching class, which Àlex was in great need of. Ever since he started to play more and more paddle, he´s knees and whole body has been stiff. Maybe he´s having some peculiarities that come with the age. Anyway I really liked the class and Àlex felt a lot better after 👍

In the evening we went to an escape room with Àlex´s friends. I hadn´t seen them before and to be honest I don´t think I´ll be spending much time with them hereinafter. I didn´t feel welcomed at all and it was just so uncomfortable for me the whole time 😬 I was excluded from most of the conversation even though they knew that I don´t speak Catalan. It was  just a really shitty night for me. It was so damn cold also, although there was like 17 degrees during the daytime. 

A weird tree in Badalona

29.01.22: It was my mom´s birthday! I talked with her on the phone and wished her happy birthday. My sister was in town so they went out with the dogs and had a picnic in the forest. I wish I could´ve been there 😢

In the afternoon our Amazon package arrived. We´d ordered some things for Oscar 🐹💛 We wanted him to have a garden with toys, so we ordered some things and created a bigger space for him to play at. I hope he likes it. Also, I haven´t had any allergic reaction yet, so I think I´m fine with hamsters, only cats and dogs might be problematical 😄

Hasta la próxima! 😊👋