It has been far more than a week since I returned home from Barcelona, and I have shared no more stories or pictures. As I am in Heathrow now, the updates will be brief, and photos absent. The good news, however, is that I will start being more regular in my updates once I get down to South Africa, so keep checking back!
Alright to wrap up my adventures in Spain. The last week at Mas Bellpuig was very chilly, I think I spent most of the time with a layer of underarmour as well as a sweater and sweatshirt on. We did a lot more planting, and Marisa and I accidentally let the cows out. Gerard's father, Carlos, was not pleased with us. On my last night there, Gerard took Marisa, a Chinese WWOOFer named Fan, and I to the circus. Luckily, the comedy relied mostly on slapstick, so it was pretty easy to keep up even though neither of us followed a word of the Catalan. Perhaps the highlight of the evening, however, came during the intermission when the four of us went to a nearby pub to get sandwiches. The place was deserted except for a few locals at the bar, but this didn't stop Fan from breaking it down in the middle of the pub, all by herself. The locals started cheering and created this wonderfully surreal and awkward moment that Marisa and I shared. Anyway, very strange.
Directly after I left Vic, I met my parents in Barcelona, and we spent a week on vacation, which was wonderful. We stayed in a lovely little hotel deep in the Barri Gotic, a few blocks from La Rambla. I ran up and down La Rambla on a few mornings, including one morning in which there was some sort of charity race going on. This wouldn't have been a big deal as I was running the other way on the wrong side of the street, except that I was wearing a bright orange t-shirt...just like everyone else in the race. Thus, people all along the route kept turning around and cheering for me and trying to tell me I was going the wrong way. Some of our other adventures included visited Gaudi masterpieces like Sagrada Familia (which, as of 11/7 was consecrated by the Pope and therefore the interior is finally considered "complete"), La Pedrera, and Park Guell, as well as the Palau de Musica, which was a truly unbelievable sensory experience. We also ate a lot. And when I say we ate a lot, it is important that this statement is considered in the context of the Widings. When we decide to eat and enjoy a good meal, this usually involves a number of courses, a bottle of wine for my dad and I, and might add up to the day's worth of calories at dinner alone. Now imagine these meals composed of heavy, rich Catalan cooking every night for a week. It is perhaps no wonder than that we all had some degree of digestive distress at some point throughout the week. The food was so unbelieveable that I would posit it was worth it. Marisa also came down to Barcelona to visit one afternoon, which gave us time to wander the city a bit more, and head down to the waterfront. In the course of our wandering she also told me that since I left she had discovered that the Mencos Bellpuigs are in fact Spanish royalty, marquis to be exact. This explains how the house and land has been in their family for 900 years.
My parents and I also spent two night in Madrid. While it was a very short trip, I think we managed to get quite a bit out of it, albeit mostly tourist attractions. I really loved the tour of the Royal Palace we went on, as well as the Flamenco dancing we saw. If you've never really seen flamenco, it is a loud, high energy dance that gets really in your face, since the raised stage puts the dancers feet right at eye level. Madrid had a completely different feel from Barcelona; it felt a lot like I was walking around New York, but with different architecture. Based on my limited experience with both cities, I think I have to say I liked Barcelona better, if only because it felt more unusual.
And finally, updates about since I have been home. I've been very busy running all over the east coast going to med school interviews, which have resulted in an acceptance to Tufts thus far. I'm thrilled about this as Tufts is a great program, and many of my close friends from Williams now work and live in Boston. However, I also really like Columbia and UPenn, from whom I will not hear until mid-March. I also attempted and failed to find some sort of gainful employment, which meant I got spend a lot of time with my parents, who were also kind enough to hire me for a number of household chores. Alright, so my time is almost up, but I will be sure to let you know how Cape Town is once I settle in!
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