Ramblin' Man

Prague is 5 hours with some really really great people! About to have an unforgettable experience in an unbelievable city! I'm out until Tuesday.

Countdowns!

Two days -> Prague with my girls!

Ten days -> The Dreamers leave :(

Twelve days -> ZP gets into Barca!!!!!!

Fourteen days -> MY 23rd BDAY. yikes.

Twenty-four days -> Back to Wisco! bittersweet.

Finally Recieved My Package!

Finally after much trial and tribulation I have received my package! It arrived here on July 8th and took 13 days to get from Madrid to Bellaterra. I miss customer service sooooooo much. The woman I was contacting at UPS Espana about my package sent me an automated response when I emailed her that she would be out of the office until August 16th...thank you for the heads up. That's so standard here in Spain and Europe in general. Everyone leaves for three-four weeks in the summer for "holiday." I'm really thinking we should have something like this is the states!!

On a lighter note...I just took a spinning class at the gym all in Spanish. So ridiculous! It was so much fun. But its making me even more excited to come home...EVERYTHING IN ENGLISH!!

One of the clubs we went to

This was a club in a legitimate castle! Called La Terrazza! It was amazing.

Two weeks left with the dreamers!

My program is over in less than two weeks, meaning that all the Dreamers are leaving me!! Although I have two weeks of traveling with Zach to look forward to I am really sad that my program is ending so soon. I feel like it took about 4 weeks with everyone to really get settled in and make really strong, long lasting friendship....giving us only another 4 weeks before leaving. So the next 12 days are literally going to have to be packed with time with friends, last minute tours and travels and lots and lots of time spent in the city! I'm going to try and hold off on the sadness until August 1st but its hard when you are watching time slip through your fingers.

This weekend I am going to Prague with my six closest girl friends, another group of four awesome girls and two of the guys! The girls that I'm going with are Margo (obv), Julia, Theresa, Susie and Gina. Its going to be so much fun. All of us Dreamers are on the same Saturday morning flight...it most likely be completely ridiculous! We are staying at a really nice hostel and we don't really have much planned out...but I'm not concerned because somehow we always manage to have the best time ever, no matter what we're doing. Like this weekend Margo and I missed the weekend trip to Costa Brava (don't ask) but we ended up having SUCH a great, completely ridiculous time just hanging out at Bellaterra and in the city. I guess that's really what it means to just go with the flow and make the best of every situation.

So that's that for a some introspective thoughts about my situation and my time left here. Back to work.

Pamplona - Running of the Bulls!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiP82XX7Pro&feature=popular

Copy and paste this post and watch the entire thing. This is what some of my friends here did this weekend! Insane. It was the first time in 15 years that someone has died from running with the bulls....although each year many many people are hospitalized!

All my friends are fine save for a few bruises and a hoof print on one of my friend's backs!

Last weekend.....FRANCE!

So Saturday morning we got up at the crack of dawn (9 am) and we all boarded the bus to France. Now this is four hour bus ride with a bunch of people that just got back from the clubs and bars like 2 hours before.....so basically its just a ridiculous bus ride! And I always have so much fun on these Saturday planned activities, just because we are all in the same boat. Half the people just want everyone to be quiet so they can sleep and the other half just want to continue the party from the night before (I of course belong in the second half....along with Margo). I just had fun exchanging stories from the night before and what everyone else did.

Four long hours later we arrived in Carcassonne, France and checked into our hotel for the night. All of my girls and I were all put on the same floor and Margo and I were put together, so it was bound to be a great weekend! We then took a guided tour of the "Old City" of Carcassonne, which is this old fortress and castle from the middle ages that is surrounded by two thick walls. I guess its like one of the only fortresses in Europe that still has both defensive walls still intact.

The tour was long and hot but the castle was really beautiful and it was huge! We took at least 100 pictures that I will eventually post on Facebook. (one of my friends here broke my camera at the castle during one of the photo shoots so I may start to be slacking on the pictures but I am trying to steal a bunch of memory cards from people) It was really really beautiful and at night it is all lit up and you can see in on top of the hill from anywhere in the "New City". All of the people that live in Carcassonne live in the New City. It was a really quaint little French town and I kind of felt bad that they took us there on 4th of July weekend because the town did not know what hit them when 80 "Dreamers" took over!

After the tour we ate a traditional French meal in the hotel, took a little napper and then got ready to take over for the 4th of July!! We hit up some traditional French bars and an Irish bar with everyone from our program. It was just really cool because since the town was so small we pretty much just overtook each bar. And it was nice to be to just talk to everyone and have room to walk around and not be packed into a club with a thousand other tourists like we are here in Barca. So after our mini bar crawl and a pit stop to play in one of the fountains we headed back to our hotel and made it to bed just before the sun came up!

Sunday, on the way back to Barca, we stopped in Figueres, Spain to see a Dali Museaum. It is called the Teatre-Museu Dali and is the world largest collection of Dali originals. Figueres was were Dali grew up and so many of the showcased works were from his own private collection. This was definitely my favorite tourist thing I've seen yet in Barcelona and the coolest museum I've ever been too! The building itself is a work of art...really look it up its so cool! Its all built to reflect the surrealism that's inside. Besides paintings there were unfinished pencil and pen drawings, 3-D sculptures and this living room furniture set that, when viewed from a certain spot in the room, looks like the face of Mae West. IT WAS SO AMAZING! I could have spent so much more time in there. I just wanted to stand in front of every single piece and just think about what could possibly have been going through Dali's mind at the time.....he must have been completely insane! Teatre-museu Dali was one of the things that I wanted to see the most in Spain and I was definitely not disappointed!

This short weekend trip to France was so amazing not only just for the sights that we saw but it was just a really good bonding experience for all of us. I finally feel like I have my 'crew' here all figured out and its really pretty amazing how well I feel like I know some of these people. Like I can say right now that there are a handful of people here that I feel I will keep in touch with the rest of my life. Like Margo is for sure coming to my wedding!

Now I finally get it. I finally understand why traveling abroad is such an important and fulfilling experience. You just have no choice but to put yourself out there, keep an open mind and embrace all these new friendships and relationships that come from it. I love it. And that is why, since France, I have been a lot worse about calling everyone back home and keeping in touch. I just don't ever want to be out of the moment and miss even a second of time with my friends and the city here. My time here is winding down and of course I miss everyone at home but for right now I feel like I just have to live each moment to its fullest. I will be home in just over a month!

Time needs to slow down..........

4th of July in France

Alright well now that its Wednesday I am finally fully functioning after last weekend in France. (it was completely nuts) I have completely fallen in love with the people in my program, Barca and this lifestyle in general. Someone wise (Cait) once told me that it would probably take about a month to get over being homesick and to begin to really embrace life here. Well I got here on June 2 and by July 4th I was ready to never leave again!

Since the beginning life here has been non-stop..... go, go, go......and it picked up even more this past week slash weekend. Let's just say that when I go home I will have to hibernate for at least 8 months. I need to catch up on all the sleep that I am not getting here!

Last week we went to a MJ tribute party at this club called Shoko on Tuesday night. (It's a club right on the beach and its amazing) It was so much fun and I felt really lucky to have at least caught the 3:05 am bus home (believe me that's a feat to catch that one.....considering the club does not ever really shut down). So that was a great night of 4 hours of sleep before work on Thursday.

Thursday after work I met up with Jeff Poe who was in Barca doing his Eurotrip!! I was sooooo happy to see a friendly face over here. We had been trying to meet up for days but since neither of us had phones and he was staying at a hostel without WIFI....we were really having problems. I met him and his five friends at Agua, a delicious seaside seafood restaurant and we had a blast eating a 5 hour, 3 course meal just like the real Spaniards do! It was so much fun, we had some vino, traditional Spanish tapas like calamari, churizo, spicy potatoes and praws and then I had ahi tuna for my entree. Delic! Then we had after dinner drinks to top it all off. It was just so good seeing Jeff and meeting his friends....and speaking English....and eating a great meal....overlooking the sea.

Friday I finished up my last day of the work week so excited for the weekend!! We all (by all I mean all the Dreamers) went to a bar called Pippermint. It's kinda a tourist/American bar (which I love and have no problem with) and they serve really really really ridiculously big drinks! I mean we split a 13 liters mixed drink between 10 of us! It was a fantastic night spent with all the dreamers. I needed a change of scenery from the club scene. It was nice just being in a bar where I could actually talk to my friends and have room to move around! But we had to call it an early night because we were going to France at 9 am the next morning!!

US vs Brazil soccer game

So last night I thought it would be a great idea to participate in a cross cultural activity by supporting my country play Europe's favorite past time! Margo and I went to an Irish pub that is near where I work downtown. Overall it was probably my favorite night here yet! (although I am of course not including the turnout of the game as part of my fabulous night) The bar was called George Payne and it was an enormous, beautifully decorated Irish pub that served great bar food (like real bar food....I'm talking burgers and fries) and it actually had more than like two beers on tap. The bar was packed with Americans and those who were not American at least spoke English. It was great....just like being back in the states! When we scored the first goal and everyone started chanting "U.S.A. U.S.A" and I was eating my fries and drinking my pitcher of beer....I damn near cried! It was a beautiful thing.

Now don't get me wrong, I am loving it here and the culture is so different and so wonderful in its own way but I miss home! So in honor of last night I am going to name the top six things that I miss about the states. (of course the first things I miss are the things that really matter....friends, family, boyfriend, puppy, Madison) The following is all just random American culture things.

1. Everyone speaking the same language as me (I miss the random conversations with strangers, bartenders, the guy next to you on the bus, etc. I just miss being able to understand everyone)

2. CUSTOMER SERVICE. It doesn't exist here. i miss it. a lot. It makes me proud that my country does such a nice job of treating its customers well. And if you disagree with me because you've had a bad experience with your cable provider (Charter) or a bar tab.....believe me you have no idea.

3. Fast food. I'm not talking about BK or McD's or Taco Bell or anything. I am talking about eating your lunch in under 2 hours. When I'm eating lunch by myself during a work day I do not need to be staring into my coffee cup for 30 minutes while 'I relax and enjoy the day.' I just want to be in and out in 25 minutes. yeah right.

4. Normal hairstyles. The hip youth here have the most insane hair styles. Their favorite is the dreaded mullet. It is a mullet with short hair up top and like 4-6 nasty long dreadlocks in the back. This is everywhere!! On girls it's maybe some weird short bangs or a mullet with like two or three longs braids or dreads that are hanging about 6 inches longer than the rest of their hair. I cannot explain. I will have to post pictures.

5. Microbrews and variety of beers. Not a beer drinking culture...most Spanish places serve 2-3 different kinds....that's it.

6. Seafood that doesn't stare back at you from your plate with its still intact eyeballs. I am so afraid of most of the seafood here because it looks the EXACT same on your plate as it did when it was alive swimming in the ocean. Yikes!

I'll probably come up with more but that's a fairly good list I think for now.

Pictures from the bar on Tibadabo

I stole one of my friends pictures just to give you an idea of how amazing that bar was and how beautiful the view was....

Sant Joan

So this past Wednesday was the national Spanish holiday Sant Joan. Yes, on a Wednesday so Spaniards have the excuse to take at least Tuesday and Thursday off as well as Wednesday.....hell why not take off the entire week?? That's how I feel it operates around here in terms of their liberal business practices. Sant Joan is a celebration of the summer solstice and the 'official' kickoff to the summer party season! Tuesday night, Sant Joan eve, is the REAL celebration where as Wednesday it really just a relaxing/recovery day (like New Years Day). So Tuesday night all of us went down to the beach around 10 pm to watch all the fireworks and party and drink on the beach. We got a huge speech from our program advisor and had to sign a waiver prior to going down there (they were just trying to scare us and talk us out of participating).

Every year on Sant Joan someone isn't paying attention to the fireworks or the fires and ends up losing a digit or burning their face or something moronic like that....hence the waivers. But not to worry I played it safe and still have all 10 fingers and toes. It was basically just a lot of fireworks...a lot of them set off by the locals....and a lot of trash fires, burning of furniture, children throwing firecrackers....and partying on the beach! It was a really great night!

The next day I took full advantage of having a random Wednesday off from work and I slept in, watched a movie and chilled at Bellaterra all day. That was the first day in the 22 days that I had been here that I did not do a single thing or have anything planned. It was beautiful.

Weekend #2 Recap

Another highly successful weekend here in Barca. A simple recap....

Thursday night: Margaret met me downtown at my work and we went to Dow Jones to meet up with all the girls for some after dinner drinks. I love this bar so much. It reminds me of a bar that would be in Madison or something....a little slice of home. Also, the bartenders speak English so we can sit at the bar and actually have full out conversations with them and talk about what's going on the upcoming weekend. After a few drinks at Dow Jones, Margo and I headed back to Bellaterra for dinner and went to bed. I decided that going out on Thursdays is not appropriate here considering we never seem to make it back before 6 am and I get up for work at 7 am. So some happy hour drinks and home to bed worked out perfectly.

Friday night: Because my work is so awesome and the guys I work for are so great I ended up leaving work on Friday at 2 pm. I mean it's Barcelona and its beautiful out so who wants to work on a Friday? My bosses names are Mike and Jason so I am just going to refer to them as that from now on. So Mike talked me into going to this festival on Friday night called Sonar. It's the world's largest electronic music festival and it takes place in Barca each summer! About 70 - 80,000 people from ALL over Europe come to this festival. So obviously....I had to go. Let's be honest I need some festivals in my life. So Margaret and I went to Sonar around midnight on Friday night. What an experience that was! Very interesting. Quite unlike any other festival I have ever been too. But it was still really really amazing! I'm really glad that I went because it was so different to be in a place with so many different types of people and hearing so many different languages being spoken.

Saturday: After getting back from Sonar around 5 am, we had a 9 am wake-up call for our programs' weekly sponsored activity. This weekend it was a tour of Torres winery and a visit to Monseratt. Seeing everyone on that bus at 9 am in the morning after a Friday night out was quite a sight! It was just so much fun because everyone was in the exact same boat.....struggling. We made it to the winery around 11 am and took a really cool tram ride through the vineyards and through some of the processing warehouses. We also saw all the cellars where the wine is stored while it ages in huge oak barrels. We then went inside for a wine tasting and tried a house red wine and white wine. Absolutely delicious! It was a really cool experience and it was refreshing to get out of the city and see some of the Spanish countryside. It actually kind of reminded me of Wisco or somewhere in the midwest except that all the cornfields were vineyards. (which is a major upgrade)

After the winery tour we ate a traditional lunch of paella, which is a Spanish rice dish with vegetables and sea food. I stuck to the vegetarian paella though because the seafood dish had shrimp and crayfish that were staring at me. In Barca I have yet to see shrimp served without their eyes, legs and shell. No thank you. I do like how the Catalonians eat their lunch though. A traditional Spanish lunch is two courses and a dessert. It's a very long and slow meal that is always finished with a dessert and coffee. That's why most businesses have their lunch breaks from 2-4. It's really relaxing.

Finally, after lunch we traveled to Monseratt. Since I already had been there I knew what to expect but I had forgotten just how beautiful it actually is. It is definitely my favorite thing that I have seen here thus far. The girls I was with all fell in love with the mountain and the monastery immediately. We all have vowed to visit it at least one more time before we leave.

Saturday night we traveled up to Tibadabo, which is a high peak right outside the city, where we went to a hilltop bar. The bar was almost all glass and you could see the entire city below. It was a super classy place and had a courtyard with a koi fish pond in the middle. This bar was a really nice change from the crazy downtown bars that we had been going to. It was really nice to just sit in the courtyard, order a bottle of wine and look out over the city that we live in.

Sunday: Margo and I got up early and met all the other girls on the Port Olimpic beach. I think this is pretty much going to be our Sunday activity because its our only totally free day of the week. We layed out all day and people watched.....there are SO MANY INTERESTING SIGHTS TO SEE ON THE BEACH! You have to see it to believe it. Perfect after a long, exhausting weekend. We then all went out to dinner at Rosa Negra because we were all craving Mexican food for some reason. It was super delicious and the perfect ending to a great weekend!

Work was great again today. It's just so relaxed and I feel so comfortable in the office and in the area where I work. I am going to take some pictures of the surrounding area to post because it's such an interesting part of the city and the architecture is gorgeous. I am so happy with my work situation..... I am starting to feel really lucky to be here!

Some quality group shots.

We do a lot of waiting for mass transit so we end up with a lot of pictures like these!

Work Week Number 1

Almost the end of my first work week and so far, so, so good. I am really enjoying my time at work thus far. The two founders of the company are both young and American. They actually were in a situation similar to mine four years ago when they both decided that after college they would work for a while in Barcelona.....and long story short, they still haven't left. So it's been really cool to be working with two Americans who know so much about this city after living and working here for the past 4 years. I think they also appreciate having someone new to talk to about the things from American culture that they miss like baseball, football, Thanksgiving and tailgating. I have already learned so much from these two locals. They have given me important local information, such as where the best tapas are, the best chill bar, the best champagne bar, the best pizza-by-the-slice (had it today....ridiculously good and delicious), the best museums and the one place in the city where they serve food late! (obviously very important). I guess in the end all the hoops I jumped through, the challenges that I faced trying to find the right internship and the struggling through being homesick and questioning why I am here has all been worth it. Because I am starting to really fall in love with this city and it's relaxed way of life. Tomorrow brings an end to my first work week and the beginning to weekend number two! Things are really falling into place.

Some pictures of the people I'm with and the things were doing!

The bottom two pictures are my roommate Margaret and I. She's going to be a senior at Kent State and she's absolutely great! I could not have asked for anything better! I have really been enjoying getting to know her and going out with her. The best thing is she has the size feet as me so now we can share shoes! She's really chill but loves going out and getting crazy, not unlike myself.

The top picture is from Friday night....well actually about 7 am on Saturday morning. We went out until we saw the sun rise on the beach. And this picture is all of us walking back to the metro so we can get some breakfast and.....pass out!

The other two pictures are us girls and a two of the guys that we've been hanging out with. The girls are all really great. The big group picture was taken while we were waiting for the metro to take us into the city. All of these girls in this picture are from the east coast - Philly, NYC, DC - and two of them are from L.A. So its just Margo and I who are representing the midwest! (obviously we're holding it down and are the only two girls who drink beer) So it's been nice to be getting some flavor from the coasts. That's the greatest thing about the people on this journey with me....I probably would not be friends with very many of these girls and especially the guys had I met them under different circumstances. But here since we're all going through this together, we allow ourselves to open up a little more and to go out of our comfort zone.

So as for our weekend plans, here's the breakdown.

Thursday night: Chupitos. It's a pre-club bar that serves over 600 different shots. We took Harry Potter shots which included lighting the bar on fire with marshmellow 'wands'. Very cool. We then went to Catwalk Club. Which is a huge dancing club right off the beach. This club was pretty ridiculous.....LOTS and LOTS of dancing! My feet were incredibly sore the next day from not only the dancing but the long journey we made to get home from the club. We're really trying to figure out all the transportation still.

Friday night: Dow Jones. We got to this bar at around midnight and everyone settled into some beers before heading down to the clubs. This bar operates like the stock market (or like stock night at Brat's) so it's really fun drinking at the mercy of the supply and demand of the drinks. And every once in a while....you never know when....there's a "crash" and if you happen to be at the bar at that moment you get you're drink for like a euro. Its really fun! This bar closed pretty early (and by early I mean like 2) so we went in search for our next watering hole. We tried a few clubs but the cover charge was pretty ridiculous so we ended up sitting outside a random bar right next to the port. I don't know the name of the bar. After the sun came up we all headed back to Bellaterra for a bite to eat and some sleep.

Saturday: Slept until 5 p.m. and just couldn't do another night of watching the sun rise so a bunch of us girls stayed in and watched The Hangover! Which was so funny and a much better idea of trying to push through another night!

Sunday: Went to lunch in the city and then spent 5 hours on the beach bronzing.

So here's to a successful first weekend and things can only get better as we get more familiar and comfortable in the city! Cannot wait for next weekend!

Working in Barca: Round Two

My internship started here on Wednesday. It ended on Thursday.

It was a disaster. The company that I was supposed to be working with was a real mess. It took me about five minutes to assess this. My best guess is that they are struggling financially and trying to stay afloat by using almost 100% free labor. The company is called ComVort and is an international network for small, privately-held marketing firms. They are a German company that recently moved their headquarters to Barcelona. My first day was terrible, they had no idea who I was or what I was doing there. The woman that hired me left the company in February! The only people that still worked there were the two German bosses and FIVE international interns. That's what I mean by surviving on free labor. The interns were from Germany, France, Columbia, Peru and the Netherlands. They all gave me a heads up on the first day: If I didn't ABSOLUTELY HAVE to be there I should get out now! They said that it was a horrible internship and that the company was really disorganized and there wasn't ever anything to do.

So I did just that. I got out. Yesterday about half way through the work day, when I realized that there was no way I was going to waste my summer in Europe at such a place, I packed up and left. I met some of my girlfriends on the beach and spent the rest of the day relaxing. Best decision I've made here yet.

When I returned to Bellaterra after the beach I met with my internship adviser and explained the situation to her. She of course agreed that that was not the place to spend my summer and we quickly resolved the problem. So now I have a new internship starting next Tuesday. Its a start-up marketing firm. Well they're a start-up in terms of Barca but they do have successful offices and businesses set up in France and London. Working for this company is a really good opportunity and I am actually glad that this all happened because otherwise I wouldn't have had a chance to work with them. The CEO came to my adviser looking for a marketing intern to help him launch his website and office in Barcelona. The only problem was that he came too late and all of the interns were already placed in other jobs for the summer. That's why I think it worked out for the best because now I have the opportunity to fulfill that open intern position. So I am just going to keep an open mind and hope for the best. The thing is....it cannot be any worse than my internship. The only direction to go is up.

I ended up sitting and talking to my adviser for a while after we figured things out and I figured out that this situation may have given me the first thing that I can really take away from my time here in Europe. My first day at this job was really bad and was about the exact opposite of what I was hoping for. But I did not want to say anything until I had given it another chance and another day. So I tried to come up with positive things about my first day and tried to envision how it could get a lot better on the second day. In the end it obviously did not, but I am still glad that I gave it a second chance before getting worked up or really upset about it. And that's what I mean about learning from this experience. It has been my tendency to jump to conclusions when things do not live perfectly up to my expectations (which are usually unreasonably high) and to get worked up and stressed out over it. And I accredit this new relaxed, open-minded approach completely to the European and particularly Spanish lifestyle. If things don't go the perfectly the way you wanted, adapt. Move on. And everything will get figured out in the end. And everything will be just fine. And everyone will move on and continue living life to the fullest. That's what they seem to do here. And I intend to work towards living my life more like this. Because this second job may be just what I am looking for but I never would have realized it had I not had to jump through some hoops and climb over some hurdles. So here's to hoping that round two goes a hell of a lot better than round one!

Some idea of the gorgeous view I was talking about.

Exploring the City on my last day of Freedom.

Last night was one of the biggest buzzkills of my life and certainly the biggest one of the trip thus far. Before the night got started I had emailed a friend who had studied abroad here in Barca a few semesters ago (Darcy, for those of you who know her) and she hooked it up with a list of the best pre-bar bars, shot bars, beer bars, after-bar bars and every type of club imaginable. Also, she hooked me up with a local club promoter. I obviously immediately facebooked him and within minutes he gave me a list of places to see and be seen on a Monday night along with his number for future tips. So we were all set on going to the bar Chupistos (means 'shot' in spanish) first followed by clubbing at Apollo. Apparently its the club to be at if your trying to get down on a Monday night. So after setting up our intinerary, getting ready, pre-gaming with the girls down the hall, we set out for our night. By the way, I was in a room with like 12 girls all getting ready and drinking their screwdrivers.....it was really intense. I have probably never been in a room with that many girls in my entire life. Never again. I'm used to being in Madison where I'm one of what...like 4 girls....among about 25 boys. Now that's a ratio I can live with. So, needless to say a small dorm room of that many girls takes about 1.5 hours to actually leave after it is initially decided that its time to leave. So end of the story....we missed the last train into the city and desparately tried to call cabs to no avail. So my roommate Margaret and I have learned an important lesson: Pre-game with boys.

Bellaterra

I have officially moved into my summer home and I am currently looking out my huge panoramic window at the gorgeous Spanish countryside. Literally there are rolling hills and bluffs and hiking trails and forests all around me. It reminds me a lot of northern California (which I love)! I'm living at a place called Bellaterra and it is a university campus, the Universitaria Automona de Barcelona, right outside of the city. If Barcelona was Chicago (they're roughly the same size and population) then I would be living in Oak Park. And because the public transportation here is so amazing here...as it is in most of Europe...I simply hop on the metro, about a 5 min walk from my dorm and 20 min later I'm dropped off in the middle of Barcelona! Its so easy. So I have all the opportunities and excitement of the city but I'm sleeping/eating/living in the serene suburbs. Best of both worlds I guess.

So yesterday I mostly just worked on getting unpacked and settled into my dorm, which is really more of an effeciency because it has a small kitchen and full bathroom and a lot of closet space and storage space. My roommate was still in Egypt for the night so I met some of the other girls on my floor on we all went out into the city last night. The girls were really nice and down for going out and dancing! They were mostly from the east coast or the south....so a little different from the midwesterners that I'm used to but still a really good time. We went to a few different bars and clubs and stayed out until 4 am. Which was early for here....we got harassed a little by the locals for leaving so early! Every local that we met was really cool and pretty friendly; they didn't seem to mind too much that they had tourists in their bar. Most of them found my attempt at Spanish after a few cervezas comical. I am getting better though already.

Today, I explored more of the campus and Bellaterra and waited for my roommate to get here. She arrived around 4 pm and since then we have just been chilling and talking. I think this night will probably be the most chill, relaxing day and night of my summer so I figured I would get a good night sleep in before the summer really gets going tomorrow! So far so good. I will say this though, along with my friends, family and Madison I kinda miss tv (its sad I know but I haven't even seen a tv since last Tuesday).

Buenos noche!

3rd day in Barcelona. Walking tour of Gothic Quarter.

The 3.5 hour walking tour was really interesting and I learned so much history about Barcelona and the Catalan culture. It was also really exhausting and after a lunch of tapas and vino I am about to embark on my favorite tradition in Spain....the siesta. More when I wake up later.

2nd Day in Barcelona, Cont.

Well my second day was packed with activities. We hired a local Barcelonian to drive us around and show us the major attractions. Starting at 9:30 am we traveled to Montserrat a beautiful monastery tucked up in a mountain. From there we traversed the downtown neighborhoods of Barca and stopped at Guadi's park, Parc Guell and his two private homes that he designed. We also toured the inside of La Sagrada Familia, one of Guadi's most famous works. It is an impressive cathedral that has been under constant construction since 1882. It is still no where close to being finished. We ended the grand tour with a stop at the Olympic stadium from when Barcelona hosted the Olympics in 1992 and a stop at Montjuic. Montjuic is one of the tallest foothills that surrounds the city and from the top there is a very impressive view of the entire city. It was absolutely beautiful! The tour really gave me a sense of the entire city and at least got me a little bit orientated to where everything is in comparsion to my work, to our hotel, to the sea, etc.

Tomorrow we are taking a walking tour through the Barri Gotic (Gothic Quarter) which is the original Barcelona. After this tour we will have caught a glimpse of all of the neighborhoods de Barcelona!

2nd Day in Barcelona

It is my second day here in Barcelona and I am already settling into the laid-back Spanish lifestyle. As I am about to take a siesta for the second day in a row. I will be updating my adventures and telling my stories throughout the summer starting today.