Grocery Stores and Homesickness

Yesterday I made my first venture out to the grocery store. There's a small basic one near the house called Consum. Small means there are three short aisles, and one of those is toiletries, pet food, and cleaning supplies. I was getting very basic stuff that hopefully will last a while, like rice and lentils and beans in addition to vegetables and water (our tap water tastes really weird). Big grocery stores like Food Lion or Kroger are rare over here, mostly there are small specialty stores. There's a big indoor market here in Sant Boi that looks like a big box store from the outside and on the inside is set up exactly like the outdoor street markets!

So Consum is tiny, and yesterday it was PACKED with loud Spaniards, and loud music playing in the background. Grocery shopping has always been kind of overwhelming for me, and this tiny crowded noisy place was hard to be in. Add to that the unfamiliarity of well, everything, and I found myself almost in tears in front of the shampoo. Even the vegetables are different. The fresh ones almost all come packaged in plastic on styrofoam plates, like meat, and they have jars of things like green beans and corn instead of cans.

I do like that most of what I bought yesterday is a product of Spain, even the rice and the orange juice. Another perk of living outside the main city of Barcelona is that things are waaay less expensive. I only spent a little more than 11 euros yesterday, and probably won't have to go back again until next week.

Yesterday I started really feeling the absence of familiar people and things, and I was pretty sad for most of the day. I miss Ethan and Angie especially – they're the two people who share the bulk of my daily life. I miss the kids at Twin Oaks and the tall trees. Feeling homesick for the landscape is something I experienced in France, too. I'm also a little sad at the idea of missing fall and winter. They're such cozy nice times at Twin Oaks.

I've been here for over a week now and i'm all settled in (even cell phone purgatory is over!), so i've been a little bored the past couple of days. I think the lack of specific activity has exacerbated my feeling homesick. School starts tomorrow, so hopefully that will help me reconnect with my sense of purpose. Also i'll activate my monthly metro pass tomorrow so it will be cheaper for me to venture into the city. I'm looking forward to meeting my classmates. I'm hoping to find a kindred soul with whom to experience the famous Barcelona nightlife! There are two art exhibits i'm looking forward to (Olafur Eliasson and Nancy Spero, both brilliant contemporary artists), and there are a couple of touristy things I still have left to do in the city – Park Guell and La Sagrada Familia, both Gaudi projects.

Soon i'll need to do laundry. A Spanish laundromat - that should be an adventure too!