I absolutely love my new flat! Now that I’ve been here a few months, I can better explain it and the people inside it. The first thing you notice when you enter the flat is that it has a very long history of artists living under its roof. It has a very long history in general – the building is over 400 years old (that’s older than the US!). There are paintings, drawings, and sculptures all over the place (even on some of the furniture). I love the inspiration I get just from living here. I’ve already painted my room with swirls of blues and whites and left one wall blank to draw on and fill up with cool quotes and stuff (mostly in Spanish, of course). There are actually two complete flats connected by a very nice patio outside, but we live like one big family. In each “side” of the flat there are three people (that makes six all together). Let me introduce the cast of characters:
My side:
1)Me (Josh) – you already know me.
2)Paolo – a 28 year old architect from Italy. He’s sort of the dad of the house. He and I have the same work schedule (only in the evenings) so while I’m playing volleyball on the beach, he’s windsurfing.
3)Mar (I love that name, it means “the sea”) – a 23 year old student from right here in Barcelona. She’s very hippie. Very jazz. Very sweet.
The other side:
4)Johannas (yo-Han-as) – a 27 year old guy from Germany studying architecture. Johannas has a deep desire to perfect his Spanish so he’s always looking for a conversation. He plays the guitar and frequently changes his hairstyle. Really into photography, as well.
5)Sabine (sa-BEEN) – a 21 year old graphic design student from Germany (I don’t think I’ve met a German girl yet that isn’t taller than me), Sabine is very talented and has already turned me on to some cool music that I’d never heard of before. I can’t really get into the techno, though.
6)Damien (dam-YA) – a 22 year old visual communications (?) student from France. Damien is a freak – in a good way. He likes to speak with sounds rather than words and his French accent while speaking Spanish is fun to try and imitate. He made me this really cool chess set out of dried sponge for my birthday which I now force him to play me on.
We really are kinda like a family in that we all eat together whenever we’re home at the same time and we like to go out together. I love it. This week is Semana Santa (the week before Easter) so I have 10 days off of work. This is a very popular time to travel here in Europe as exemplified by our 13(!) house guests this week. Even my Russian friend from University, Evginey, is coming to visit. Should be interesting.