After two weeks, I finally had to face the reality this past week of doing laundry and getting my hair cut. While these tasks are simple for me in Clayton (we own a nice washer and dryer at home and I can get a haircut four minutes from my house with people who speak English!), they are much more troublesome for a non-Spanish speaker in Granollers.
Around town, there are a couple of laundry places that will take your clothes, clean them, and have them ready for you to pick up in a few days (similar, I think, to the types of places in New York City). The cost here, and the uncertain fate that my clothes could face in the hands of strangers, made this is a somewhat questionable route to take. Jessica can tell you just how picky I am about how my clothes are washed and folded, so I typically prefer to keep the laundry under my control!
Eventually, with the help of people at work, I found a self-service laundromat one town away. After driving in circles in this small town for 25-30 minutes, I finally arrived at the proper place. The laundromat was exactly like those in college dorms or found throughout America; each machine requires a certain amount of money (in this case, 4.5 euro for wash and 1 euro per ten minutes of drying) and then you just click a button. Doing my laundry made me feel oddly at home, except for the man there who didn't seem to grasp that I cannot speak Spanish nor Catalan yet! The only issue I had was a slight misappropriation of funds so that I went home with a few items a little damp. All told though, not bad (although I will explore the drop-off option next time since it's not much more expensive and I imagine FAR more convenient!).
After laundry, I was able to finally try a non-US McDonalds! After hearing much about the merits of "American" chains in other countries (and also craving their fries), I wanted to see just how different things were. The food was the EXACT same... I had chicken nuggets with fries and I could have had the same meal (called McMeals here) in North Carolina. The decor, however, was extremely modern and looked more like a club than a fast food chain (pictures on Instagram). The menu had a few extra items (chicken wings and onion rings, for two examples) but nothing too unusual that I noticed. Overall, it was great and I will probably have to go back occasionally to get back thoughts of home!
For my haircut, I was much more nervous. While I am not typically worried about what my hair looks like for a few weeks at a time, I certainly want to look professional at work and I feared that I wouldn't properly convey to the hair dresser what I needed or wanted done. After much debate, I ventured to a local shop and walked in. After greeting everyone with "Hola" I took my seat and waited for another gentleman to finish in the chair. Fortunately for me, he had a cut (fairly standard, slight faux hawk which is common here) that I'd gladly accept, so I tried to explain that I would take what he had. Somehow, this was harder to translate than I expected, but I was saved by a second customer who knew a bit of English. She was able then to let my hair dresser know what I said and it all worked out fine. I even then became a practice tool for those in the shop to try their English! The only "odd" part of the trip was me being asked two or three times if I wanted my eye brows trimmed... either that is common here or mine are unruly but I passed!
At work, things are continuing to go well. I finally started my Spanish lessons (every Martes and Jueves for an hour or so) and I so far have learned colors, a few office items like "table", "paper", "door", etc, and the alphabet. For only having two classes, I feel pretty good and am excited to learn more. I still need to tackle verbs and obviously build up my vocabulary significantly, but at least my early studies in Latin will help with some of the grammar!
This afternoon, I am heading into Barcelona with a few work friends to have some authentic paella, to learn the city for Jessica's visit (less than a month away!), and to take in my first El Clasico between Real Madrid and Barcelona (only by watching at a bar but still). It should be a fun day and I'll write back on anything good tomorrow.
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