Phone & Keys

As of two weeks ago I am gainfully employed as an intern at cloud9 (http://www.e-cloud9.com/), a small architecture firm in Barcelona lead by Señor Enric Ruiz-Geli ( http://www.ruiz-geli.com/). Among other things, the practice makes buildings out of plastic, lights, and salt. I am slowly becoming reacquainted with my old friends 3D Studio Max, AutoCAD, and Photoshop. The coworkers are pretty terrific. Only a few are Spanish, but nearly all speak English, and those that don't still seem to better communicate with me using their few English words rather than my few Spanish.

The weekend before my first day there was an after wedding party in Empuriabrava at a cloud9 project currently under construction called Villa Nurbs (http://www.villanurbs.com/). A bubble man named Pep Bou (http://www.pepbou.com/) performed in the house, cloud9 people set up projections and d.j.ed, and we danced for hours.

The first week of work was a little stressful as I still without an apartment. Finding one is practically impossible here without a phone, so I recently became a proud owner of a spring loaded, sexy, black Nokia 2652. During the search I spent a couple of nights with one coworker, a couple nights with another, and one night under my desk in the office, slightly cold and worried throughout I would not wake up before the first person arrived in the morning. However, at the beginning of this past week I found a good room at a good price in a good location with a good person. It even has a window! (feels like winning the lottery).

Betty, a young happen'n interior designer from just outside Barcelona, is working outside the city for the next two months and I am subletting her room of the apartment. The refrigerator is in the living room, the sink is in the shower (or rather the bathroom as a whole acts as a shower), and my room is taller than either wide or long. My new flatmate, Anna, is my patient part time language teacher as we speak only in Spanish. In reality she is an actress in a theatre, Barcelonian soap opera, and a fancy restaurant where the guests are blindfolded...and she secretary work part time in a university. Some of this may not be true, as I misunderstand much of what she says.

These past two weeks have consisted of seemingly endless computer time (for the moment, very satisfying), cafe/smoke breaks, 2 hour lunches, cooking and over eating in my 2 square meter kitchen, delirious happy hours until morning, super sound sleeping in a real bed, and countless small discoveries on the 20 minute walk to and from work.

Maybe I've said this before, but Barcelona is really quite amazing. There is an incredible variety of people here, and something for each of us. At long last I have found the perfect store. It is called Servei Estació. Imagine Home Depot, Hobby Lobby, and Ikea interbreeding and giving birth in the center of Barcelona (http://www.serveiestacio.com). Last Wednesday there was some Salsa classes with Felix (giant coworker from Germany), and a sweet Swedish girl named Elin (flatmates of another coworker). This might become a weekly occurrence. There are rumors of a Dabadaba party this weekend (still not sure what this is). Last night was tapas and pool playing in an extremely smoky bar. I am still searching for a place with air hockey.

Loneliness pervades, but I'll be damned if it keeps me from having fun. Mid-May is the magic deadline. By then I have to know if I stay or if I go- if stay, where will I stay- if go, where will I go- etc. Until then, here's my info...

Address:
C/ Diputació, 354, 1-2
08013 Barcelona
Spain

Phone:
011 34 660312584
(it's free for me to receive calls)

Please drop me a line, and let me know if you're doing fine.