making friends

I'm growing up. Or at least that's the way it feels. I returned to my homestay from our trip to Barcelona about an hour ago and all I can say is that I feel like I'm growing up. To be honest, I think that this most largely has to do with the fact that this is the first trip of any sort that I've taken (granted, it was a trip within a trip... but still) and been completely and 100% responsible for myself and every decision in the process. I successfully managed to stay within the 400 euro budget I set for myself (including train tickets, lodging for three nights, food, outings and general touristy expenses - I think I overestimated how much I'd spend on food and travel but underestimated the costs of going out while there - good to know for future trip planning). We stayed at Hostal Mambo Tango near the Metro stop Paral-lel and it was incredible. Nothing was fancy, not much was included in the price, and yet I would never have wanted to have stayed there in any other way because it gave me the opportunity to meet, however briefly, so many people. Young travelers through Europe seem to carry themselves with a certain down-to-earth air. Everyone is independent, working their way through their excursions on their own agendas, and yet because of this very independence it makes us all more open. It is unofficially acknowledged that we come from different walks of life, but because none particularly want to be alone however independent we may be, we end up making friends.

Mambo Tango was a youth hostal that's part of a chain of hostals in Barcelona called Sant Jordi, and the age of most travelers ranged between 17 and 26. From our program, we took up four of the thirty-five beds the hostal offered. Incidentally, there were a total of SIX Duke students/alums there (including ourselves). And so I introduce to you the first of the friends I've made.


THE DUKIES
1 - Taylor and Kemal - Both Duke students in our program. Taylor I've known since freshman year through activity in the Duke Catholic Center. Kemal is a year younger than us, Turkish and VERY proud of it, and studying Civil Engineering at Duke. The two of them, Caitlin and I planned our weekend away to Barcelona together.

2 - Ryan - Not actually a participant of Duke in Spain 2012, but Kemal's roommate for the coming year at Duke and doing some sort of alternative immersion program in Madrid as well. He tagged along for this weekend away with us.

3 - Christine - Ok, so this coincidence is actually really cool. Taylor, Kemal, Caitlin and I occupied 4 of 9 beds in the first floor room of the hostal, Christine was also allocated to our room. She graduated from Duke undergrad in 2008 as a pre-med BME, just finished up med school at UPenn and was on the end of her month and a half long trip back-packing through Spain before returning to Durham for residency. I had the opportunity to chat with her quite a bit - who knew I'd actually end up getting applicable life-plan advice from the common room of our hostal?

4 - Brandt, Ian, Sean, Madison, Leasly and Elizabeth - These guys comprised the other group of six from our program that stayed in an apartment right on La Rambla. Brandt is a rising sophomore from Pittsburgh. Ian is my year and was actually in the same six person Spanish class as Caitlin and I fall of our freshman year. Sean is also my year and from New York - he's working on walking onto the Duke LAX team. Madison I actually introduced in my first post - she's from Indiana and plays club soccer with me. Leasly (pronounced Leslie) is a rising sophomore from Los Angeles and in our program in Madrid she and Elizabeth are roommates.

MORE HOSTAL FRIENDS
1 - So I feel bad because I can't actually remember this kid's name, but he's definitely near the top of my list of most interesting people I've ever met. He's half Kenyan and half Indian, but grew up and still lives in England. He's about a year younger than me and at the end of his gap year before starting university in the fall. He spent the first ten of the past twelve months working to save up enough money to backpack through Europe on his own for 45 days and Barcelona was the end of his journey. He'll be studying chemistry when he starts school in the fall, and we talked a lot about the similarities and differences between American and English school systems. He was also in our nine-bed room.

2 - Mateo - A 25 year-old Electrical and Computer Engineer from Mexico who's first words to me were something along the lines of "Before you start talking to me, you should know that I'm a huge nerd". He specializes in plasma and some of the more material science type applications of electrical engineering, and it was actually kind of refreshing to talk engineering and tech with someone (yes I realize I'm professing my own nerdy status here). I've been more or less enjoying my courses here, but talking with Mateo reminded me just how much I do enjoy engineering and science, and I'll confess I kind of covet and could easily see myself living his kind of lifestyle about six years from now if I ultimately decide not to pursue medicine. Talking with Mateo was also particularly fun because his level of English about matched my proficiency in Spanish and so conversations flowed in and out of the two languages easily and almost imperceptibly. The hostal organized a bar crawl in conjunction with a couple of the other Sant Jordi hostals in the middle of Barcelona last night where they paid for our cover and guided us to a couple of places in a less touristy part of the city. While there I introduced Mateo to Long Island Iced Tea, a drink that so fascinated him that I honestly don't know how to describe his excitement about the drink that tasted not quite like iced tea, not quite like lemonade and not at all like alcohol. I thought a few of my Duke friends (you know who you are) might appreciate that little anecdote.

3 - Andrew and crew - Andrew was a year or so out of college and lives in NYC. He majored in English and now works for a company that essentially expedites and sorts out calls to complain about police. I jumped into the conversation where he was explaining his job a little late, so I'm not sure I can actually do justice to how interesting his work sounded, but it seems like he answers, records and sorts calls and complaints to determine whether or not and which kind of authorities should be alerted about them. He was in Barcelona following up a trip to Israel to visit family with his sister and her boyfriend, who were also in Barcelona with him and thus comprised the rest of his 'crew'. They were highly entertaining - the sister was super chill and seemed to walk around in a constant state of embarrassment because her brother and boyfriend had this kind of goof-ball-tag-team relationship that I found highly entertaining. They went on the bar crawl with us and suffice it to say that Andrew and his sister's boyfriend were the reason the middle of the bar became a dance floor. Come to think of it, the middle of the Metro became a music-less dance floor thanks to them as well.

4 - Piotr - Piotr / Pedro / Peter / Peeta was from Poland. Literally, he just up and decided to come to Barcelona to learn Spanish. He's staying at the hostal for three weeks while he takes a course there. Haha, I wish him the best of luck with this endeavor. He had shoulder-length (to be frank, slightly greasy) blonde hair that he pulled back in a ponytail with a neon orange scrunchy while we were out.

5 - Thomas - Originally from Cleveland, now lives in Boston, but went to college in France and China. He lives a kind of mod-podge-ish lifestyle. Maybe well-rounded is a better way to describe it. He studied economics in school and now teaches and tutors college kids in it, in addition to working part time for a small start-up and as a consultant for another small fashion company. He looked like Johnny Depp sans makeup, tattoos and piercings, and honestly his mannerisms and the way he carried himself continued to remind me of Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow.

6 - Daniel - From Portugal but went to school in Madrid. Daniel was absolutely awesome. He worked the evening shift of the front desk of the hostal and was our guide for the bar crawl. He was just super friendly, cooked us lentils for 2 euro a piece our second night there. My conversations with Daniel also flowed in and out of languages, and he was particularly entertained that, thanks to my awesome Brasilian friends, I could understand him more or less when he muttered to himself in Portuguese. Daniel was also like a fountain of knowledge for doing particularly unique stuff around the city - he was the one that had suggested we rent bikes for a couple of hours to get around cheaply and easily, he directed us to the Gracia neighborhood where Caitlin and I wandered for a few hours and honestly which might have been my favorite part of the city, and overall literally just made our stay at the hostal the incredible experience that it was by serving as a catalyst for creating a feel of community amongst the guests.