After we got off the phone with Vietnam, we checked Alexander's email. He had 2 emails from other countries. One was from a father and his 10 year old daughter from Berlin, Germany. They want the daughter's class to make a video to send to us. If they can't get the class to do it, they will make one themselves. Awesome!
The other email contained a letter from a new friend, Mario in Barcelona, Spain. This is what he wrote (Warning, it's long.)
Carta De Invitacion
Hi Alexander. I´m Mario from Barcelona! I saw that you are thinking to travel to some place but you are not sure about where. I highly recommend you to come and visit me, why? i will list you what you can do and some places and things you can google and see the images of these places…
First i will introduce myself. At this moment i´m a photographer www.sinnombre.com/en but i try to keep it as a hobby, also i have been golf teacher for a few years. I was born in Barcelona, and have spent one school year in junior High School in the USA in a small town in WA state, called Centralia. I also have been in NY, Boston, and all the west coast, from Seattle to San Diego. I like to travel, because i think it is one of the nicest things where you can learn from others, and it is always nice to see new people and places. I have also been in Africa (Morocco and Senegal), Asia (India, Thailand and Myanmar) and various countries in Europe. I hope that in the future you will have time to travel around the world and will have fun doing it!
Barcelona is a medium/big city (less than 2 million people) in the state of Catalonia and this is inside the country of Spain. Spain is in Europe and we talk spanish, like in Mexico. some words and the accent is different but we understand each other. We also have a local language that big part of the local populations knows, that is called Catalan. But all of the people will understand you in spanish. Some of the younger people will know english too as we learn it at the school.
We use the Euro currency like almost all the countries from the European Union. Right now is really good for american traveling here to change from US dollar to Euros 1.20$= 1 € (usually has been like 1.35$= 1 €).
In Barcelona we have pretty good weather all the year. We have the Mediterranean sea, and the weather is close to the California one. Usually doesn't snow in winter, just once every 8 years we have snow, but usually is just for a day… and the rest of the year it is pretty good weather. I usually recommend you to visit us before or after summer, as in summer there are too many tourists and the places to visit get really full.. soo from April to June or from september to november it is a great moment to come.
If you like to eat, Spain is one of the best countries in the world to have all kind of food. I said food, not what you can find on a fast “food” restaurants that you probably love ;o) We also have Mcdonalds, Kentucky and those places, but guys seriously, thats not food…and you should try to change your habits if you love them...
A typical place to eat in Spain is a tapas Bar. It is a restaurant where you order small portions of food in a plate, so usually people share the dishes with friends.
A typical place to eat in Spain is a tapas Bar. It is a restaurant where you order small portions of food in a plate, so usually people share the dishes with friends.
Some of the typical ones you can google it are. “Patatas bravas”, “ensaladilla rusa”, “bombas” ( typical from Barcelona), “tortilla de patatas con cebolla”, “chocos” (like fried calamari), “jamon de jabugo”, some people will say it is like prosciutto, but NO, it is different and more tasty.
Also in this area is typical to spread tomatoes on the bread, we call it “pa amb tomaquet” that means bread with tomato. A lot of locals don’t know why it is so typical or how this thing started in the past… but you are lucky because i will explain it to you guys…. In the past .. the farmers, just could do bread once a week, so at the end of the week, that bread was getting stale…. and the farmer was so smart that he always had a tomato and a garlic in his bag with the bread, so when the bread was getting hard… he cut the tomato, and spread it on the bread, so this one got softer and tasty… also he spread first the garlic to give some flavour… so it started to be a local tradition, and in most of the restaurants you can order “pa amb tomaquet” that usually is made with toasted bread “pa de pages” sometimes they spread a garlic on it, and then some tomato, from a fresh one.. and to finish salt and olive oil…. yummmy!!
Also in this area is typical to spread tomatoes on the bread, we call it “pa amb tomaquet” that means bread with tomato. A lot of locals don’t know why it is so typical or how this thing started in the past… but you are lucky because i will explain it to you guys…. In the past .. the farmers, just could do bread once a week, so at the end of the week, that bread was getting stale…. and the farmer was so smart that he always had a tomato and a garlic in his bag with the bread, so when the bread was getting hard… he cut the tomato, and spread it on the bread, so this one got softer and tasty… also he spread first the garlic to give some flavour… so it started to be a local tradition, and in most of the restaurants you can order “pa amb tomaquet” that usually is made with toasted bread “pa de pages” sometimes they spread a garlic on it, and then some tomato, from a fresh one.. and to finish salt and olive oil…. yummmy!!
It is very normal to have a meal with this kind of bread and some cold meat, like the ham i have talked about before, or “fuet”, “llonganisa” or the tipical sausage made form the porc that is called “butifarra” but this last one you have to cook, and on the BBQ it is a good way to do it!. Also you can have the bread with some cheese, or cooked veggies, like the “escalivada”
Another fun places where you can eat are the “pinchos” restaurants. Pincho, means “spike” Because all the pieces of food have a toothpick in them. It usually is a small base of bread, then the food and to maintain all together- the toothpick.
The fun part is that all the pinchos are on the counter side, but you choose the ones you want and put them in your plate. At the end of the meal, as all the “pinchos” have a toothpick in them, you will know how much you have to pay depending on the toothpick you have in ur plate :o)
There are all kinds of pinchos, if you google a little you will see all kinds of them!
The fun part is that all the pinchos are on the counter side, but you choose the ones you want and put them in your plate. At the end of the meal, as all the “pinchos” have a toothpick in them, you will know how much you have to pay depending on the toothpick you have in ur plate :o)
There are all kinds of pinchos, if you google a little you will see all kinds of them!
Another typical plate in Spain is the Paella, but it is more typical from Valencia, a city that is 2 hours driving south from here. It is a rice made in a big saucepan, and can have meat, seafood, veggies.. or a mix of all… umMMM i love it.
Also here we do the same but with small straight noodles, and we call it “fideua” we also have a famous mayonnaise that is made with garlic and olive oil!! It is pretty strong the flavour, but it tastes great! And the name is “ alioli” or “ all i oli” that mean garlic and oil! I know in the US the olive oil is kind of expensive, but here in Spain we have a lot of it, and most of the olive oil you will see in your supermarkets is from Spain, but usually the Italians buy our oil and they put it in a nice bottle and export it to US, so you will think it is italian, but most of it is spanish :o)
Also here we do the same but with small straight noodles, and we call it “fideua” we also have a famous mayonnaise that is made with garlic and olive oil!! It is pretty strong the flavour, but it tastes great! And the name is “ alioli” or “ all i oli” that mean garlic and oil! I know in the US the olive oil is kind of expensive, but here in Spain we have a lot of it, and most of the olive oil you will see in your supermarkets is from Spain, but usually the Italians buy our oil and they put it in a nice bottle and export it to US, so you will think it is italian, but most of it is spanish :o)
That was just the food part… now about my city. It has a lot of history…in the downtown you can see where the romans lived, and how after the city expanded they grew and grew, until now when we don’t have any more space, as we have the sea on one side and the mountain on the other side. We had a big modernist architecture moment with nice buildings. One of the famous architects was “Antoni Gaudi”. There is a big Church that is under construction that he had designed called la “Sagrada Familia” and a nice park he did for a rich family, that now belongs to the city and is called “parc Guell”
Barcelona is a good city in Europe where you can find nice concerts, with all kinds of music. we also have really nice natural places very close and some small old fishing towns that maintain their old nice look with small houses near the sea. The area is called “Costa Brava” and some towns to google are “cadaques” where a famous artist lived - Salvador Dalí. “Calella de palafrugell”, “Tossa de Mar”, and also some medieval old towns, that will make you think you are in a movie when the kings lived in castles… like “Peratallada” or “Besalu”
Barcelona is a good city in Europe where you can find nice concerts, with all kinds of music. we also have really nice natural places very close and some small old fishing towns that maintain their old nice look with small houses near the sea. The area is called “Costa Brava” and some towns to google are “cadaques” where a famous artist lived - Salvador Dalí. “Calella de palafrugell”, “Tossa de Mar”, and also some medieval old towns, that will make you think you are in a movie when the kings lived in castles… like “Peratallada” or “Besalu”
We have one of the most famous world soccer teams Futbol Club Barcelona where we have one of the best players in the world, Leo Messi. Also we had the Olimpic games in 1992, where i helped as a volunteer and i was 18 years old.
After this email i m sure you will come to visit me hahha. If you want a place to sleep and i´m in town you can come to surf my couch. I usually show the city to a couchsurfers and sometimes I host some of them… also there are hotels and hostels with pretty good prices. So tell me the dates you are coming and i can do the planning for your visit!
After this email i m sure you will come to visit me hahha. If you want a place to sleep and i´m in town you can come to surf my couch. I usually show the city to a couchsurfers and sometimes I host some of them… also there are hotels and hostels with pretty good prices. So tell me the dates you are coming and i can do the planning for your visit!
If you have any more questions, i will be glad to answer you!
Un saludo,
Un saludo,
Mario :)
Sophie and Kaz are writing a response to Mario.(Couchsurfing refers to a website that links travelers to hosts around the world and lets them stay for free. I used this website to get the word out around the world. Mario knows that he is not writing to a real person, and is not actually inviting any of the real students to stay with him.)
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