Mi Ultima blog!

Mi Ultima Blog!

Well the time has finally come….it is time for me to head back to the the windy city. This entire week has been extremely hectic..with exams, and trying to see all of my friends before I left…it has been crazy. Even though I have been studying intensely, I have still had a very good week. I met with each of my local friends this week, and had the opportunity to say goodbye, which was sad. I really don’t believe that I have been in Barcelona for four months….it is absolutely insane how fast this semester has been flying by.

This morning I had my last final and after I was finished it felt so good. I went home and began to organize some of my stuff and go through some of my school work that I didn’t want to keep. After I packed most of my suitcase I went to a sushi buffet with my friend Alex, which was delicious!! For 11 Euros I was able to get all of the sushi that I wanted and many other types of food as well. After I ate lunch I went to ‘attempt’ to finish my souvenir shopping, which turned out to be more difficult than I expected. I wish that I wouldn’t have waited until the last minute to do all my shopping because I didn’t buy as much as I would have liked to, but oh well.

I really don’t believe that I have been out here for months, and I really have met some awesome people out here. It really has been the highlight of my experience in Barcelona; I absolutely loved meeting the local people that lived here. Here are a few pictures that I took from walking around El Born and some other parts of Barcelona. Alex was very nice to take me on her motorcycle which was awesome because it gave me an opportunity to see Barcelona from a different aspect. Here are a few pictures of my last few days in Barcelona…

Well after I finished shopping I went home to eat dinner with Anna and Travis. I couldn’t believe that it was my last dinner that I would have at my house for years. We really didn’t have anything special, but it was still delicious. I spent some time organizing some more of my belongings and then went out for a second dinner.

Anna and I ....our last picture together until next time...


My roommate Travis and I....




Cristina and Lizzy’s parents were both in Barcelona for a few days and they invited a few of us out dinner. We went to a restaurant that I had previously been to, and it was delicious. We basically just had tapas for dinner, which I was fine with since I ate dinner a few hours earlier.

Here is a picture of our group at dinner...Cristina, Nick, Lizzy, Me, Mike, and Roxanne:




After we were finished eating, the parents all headed back to their hotels. We all went to a bar called Pippermints, which was extremely fun, as it always is. It was really nice to spend my last few days with the people that I met in the beginning of my trip.

A picture of Nick and I at Pippermints...


Roxanne and I...



Cristina and I...



Cristina and Lizzy...my first two friends I met in Barcelona!





I got home relatively early and finished packing the majority of my items. Anna offered to call a taxi for me to pick me up at 4:30 in the morning. As I was in the taxi going towards the airport I honestly didn’t believe that I was actually heading back to the United States.

Right now it is 6:30 in the morning and I still have about forty-five minutes until the plane departs to London. I will be laid over in London for a couple of hours, which I am fine with…I guess.

As I am now back in the United States, I really can’t believe that I am here. The last four months have passed by faster than I could have imagined. My experience in Barcelona has been the best time of my life, and definitely has been a trip that I will never forget. I feel that I have successfully accomplished all of the goals I made before I came to Barcelona. I really had the complete cultural experience, and I am so happy I ended up living with a family. My Spanish has improved immensely, and I am happy I became so close with my family in Barcelona. I met some awesome Spaniards and I will do all I can to continue to stay in contact with them, and hope one day they will visit me in Chicago, and I will definitely return to Barcelona. My favorite part of my trip was meeting my local friends and having the opportunity to travel all over Spain, and also to Zurich and Roma. I strongly feel that I took advantage of this opportunity as much as I possibly could have. These last four months in Barcelona have been the best time of my life, and I will never forget my experience abroad. I hope to return to Barcelona, or at least Spain within the next year, depending on how much money I make this summer and next semester.

I surprised myself with how much I kept up with this blog, and it definitely was very time consuming. I am thankful because I will always have this blog to look back on and realize how much I enjoyed my experience abroad in Barcelona. I will continue my studies this summer at Northern Illinois University and plan to pursue my degree in Business Management, and Spanish Business Translation. I look forward to using my Spanish knowledge and Spanish cultural experience in my career, and I will continue working hard to perfect my fluency. I hope that everyone enjoyed reading my blog as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Take care,

Jeremy

Mis ultimas días en Barcelona...No lo creo!!

Buenas noches!!

Well the weekend flew by as always and it was very fun. I do not believe that I will be back in the US in less than a week, I literally feel as if I just arrived. As I have been talking with my first friends I met here, we don't believe how fast the time has went by out here....it is absolutely insane. I have finished three out of my four finals, and it isn't until Thursday, which is nice since I can have tomorrow to start getting some of my stuff together. This week I have been studying a lot....well at least attempting to study a lot. It has been very difficult studying since I have been trying to see all of my friends, trying to buy souvenirs, packing..just way too much for one week. I still believe it is ridiculous that the program makes us leave our accommodations the day after finals...it really is not logical.

Since I always talk about my intercambios and how I am always meeting with them, I finally got a few photos with them. Unfortunately I only have pictures with two of them, as the other two I expected I would see again and didn't end up getting any photos with them.

This is my friend Alex and I at a restaurant/bar the other night!





This following picture is of Me and my friend Axel...




This picture is of Axel, Elana, and me ...originally there were four of us but Abbey stopped meeting with us.




These next few pictures are from dinner the other night. Apparently this is a very popular Catalan dinner. Obviously it consists of many different types of cured meats and pan con tomate. It was delicious! I definitely miss some of the food from the states, but I am definitely going to miss the excellent cooking of Anna! I don't remember the exact names of the meat in Spanish, Catalan or English but it was a great dinner!





Tonight I began packing all of my clothes except for what I will be wearing the next few days. I have a much lighter load since I have used most of my medicine, shampoo, soap, etc..so I will have some room to bring back some souvenirs, which will be nice. I am still trying to figure out my summer schedule with work and school, but I will save that until I return to the US. Tomorrow I don't have an exam so I will finish my shopping and hopefully study and have a productive day. I still don't believe that I will be home in a few days, but I'm excited to see everyone, but at the same time I really don't want to leave here. I believe my roommate Travis is staying here for a few more weeks, and I think they are going to come to an agreement for a price for a few weeks longer. IES has no responsibility for us after May 1, and apparently if the families don't have new students arriving, it is normal for students to stay longer and pay a little bit extra. I WISH that I would have known about that a few weeks ago, as I was under the impression that we literally had to leave our accommodations. I definitely would have liked to stay here for a few more weeks so I had some time to relax, but oh well....I will be back here within the next year or two...I hope.

I will post either tomorrow, or Thursday..my last night here!

Adios!

One Full Week Left...

Hola!

Well it is official, I only have one full week left in Barcelona. As I have been finishing up my last research paper, I still have finals all of next week. Thankfully my Spanish final is tomorrow so I will be be able to get one out of the way.

This week has been very busy and I feel like I have been running myself down. It really sucks that IES makes us leave with so little time in between finals and the departure date. Monday I had class and after went for another nice run in the mountains. Tuesday night Anna and Casi took us out to dinner down the street at this restaurant Ven Ven, which is where we have eaten before. It is just a local place and Anna and Casi both know the owners. We eat some patatas bravas, pan con tomate, shrimp, mussels, calamaris, and more.

A picture of Anna and Casi inside the restaurant.




These next pictures are of a few of the dishes we had for dinner. The first picture is shrimp, and I forget what type of seafood the second one was, but it was very good. Many people have told me that I must suck the head of the shrimp, which is apparently the best part. As you can see by the pictures they had eyes, legs, skin, literally everything. Of course I had to suck the head of the shrimp, and it was actually very good...when I wasn't thinking about what I was eating.





Wednesday I had class and then went out to lunch at one of the usual menu del dias, which was amazing....as always. Here is a picture of some of my friends from our Spanish class, with our professora, Marga as well. From the left it is Stina, Marga, Nick and then Brit!



Wednesday evening was the IES cocktail party that didn't have cocktails. Haha it was a pretty interesting theme, but some students joked that they had a difficult time translating the name into how they wanted it. I went to my friends Cristina and Lizzy's apartment before and there were about 15 of us or so who all went to the IES dinner together. It was located at a restaurant that was inside El Museu de la Historia de Catalunya. The dinner really only consisted of appetizers but most of the students and faculty were there which was fun because I saw many students I had not seen in a while. Our Spanish teacher, Marga actually won an award for the Best Language Professor, which was pretty cool.

Here is a picture of me, Nick and Marga inside the restaurant.



Me, Brit, Marga, Stina and Nick again..




After the dinner we went to an apartment and hung out there for a few hours, and then I took the night bus home.

Thursday was El Dia de Sant Jordi, which is a holiday here in Catalunya. St. George was a patron saint of Catalonia, and this day is the second largest holiday. The tradition on this day is for men to give women, whether it is a friend, mother, girlfriend, etc a rose, and in return the women give the men a book. This day is also when both Shakespeare and Cervantes died, which is why the books are given. The legend is that Saint George fought a dragon that was holding the princess captive. In the end, St. George kills the dragon and on the sport where the dragons blood spilled a rose grew as a symbol of love and friendship. I have been hearing all about this day when I arrived here, and it was insane. There were rose vendors on every street corner, as well as book stands. All books are 10% off, and this day is also a very large day for business. There were people everywhere, especially on las ramblas, and the more popular streets, but it was pretty cool. People walking everywhere had roses and books, I was really amazed on how crazy this day was. Of course, I bought a few roses for Anna, a few friends, and a few professors!

A photo in Plaza Catalunya, which there was live televison broadcasted..




A picture of when I was walking down las ramblas, you can see how many people are there...




This is really only a Catalan holiday, as far as I know...and there were obviously Catalan flags everywhere. It really was an interesting day, and I'm glad I was able to be here for it!



I walked down Las Ramblas with my friends Nick, Cristina, and Roxanne and we walked down to MareMagnum, a commercial center that I never had been to. We had some ice cream and sat outside by the port and enjoyed the beautiful day. Thursday was the nicest day yet in Barcelona, as it was completely sunny in the mid to upper 70's.




My oceanography class went to the beach today which was fun. Unfortunately, we actually had class but we couldn't have asked for a better day.



After class I met up with my friend Alex for a few hours, which was awesome as always. We walked around the the city, and tried finding a place that wasn't as packed...which was basically impossible. I had an amazing drink called a "horchata" it tasted like some type of milk, but much lighter and I think it might have had some kind of fruit in it. I'm not exactly sure but it was literally one of the best drinks I have had since I've been out here. It was definitely something to drink when the weather is hot. We sat on the stairs of the cathedral for a few hours and just talked, as I can realize she has learned many English words and phrases. Of course I may not be the best teacher because those who know me, know that I tend to say some bad words from time to time, haha. Intercambios are literally one of the best ways to learn a language, and how to speak it...in my opinion at least.

Today, Friday...I had my final exam in my Spanish class. It was slightly more difficult than I though it would be, but oh well. We took a class photo, and said goodbye to Marga, our professora and some of the students from our class. I came home and then Nick and I ran Tibidabo, which was probably the best run I have had here. We ran over 10 miles for well over an hour! It is much easier to run looking over the city of Barcelona! We went down to the beach and met up with some friends for a while! I am about to eat dinner and then go out for the night! I will post again this weekend!

The Last Few Days..

Buenos Noches!

Well since I returned from Roma and the Costa Brava the week has flown by, just like this entire semester. I have been pretty busy with my classes with projects and finals approaching. I met up with most of my local friends this week, which was fun! Thursday my friend Alex took me to a really cool bar close to Las Ramblas, which is basically a forest inside! The weather has been absolutely crazy here, sunny for an hour then raining, and then sunny again. Friday I went out with a bunch of my friends from IES which was a really good time. Saturday we all went out to lunch and went down to the beach for a couple of hours until the rain came in. But I have been keeping busy with my classes and everything and pretty much relaxed most of Saturday night and figured I should rest up for the week. Today I got some studying done and then ran from my house up the mountain and realized that I was pretty close to Parc Guell. I ran for about an hour which was one of the better runs I have had since I have been out here. It is a little easier to run when your in a mountain looking over the city of Barcelona and the sea...haha kind of distracts you from the running part!

My friend Alex invited me to go and see a movie tonight which was really fun! Her mom came with too, which was awesome because she is an extremely nice woman. I really have had some excellent luck with everyone I have met out here. We saw the movie Señales de Futuro, which I believe translates to Signs of the Future, or something close to that. It is an American movie with Nicholas Cage and it was actually a very good movie. We watched it in Spanish and I understood much more than I thought that I would. I really was able to understand the entire movie which was pretty cool. After the movie was over we dropped Alex's mom back at home and then she took me all the way to my house which was very nice of her. I'm pretty far away from the city, it took us almost 20 minutes or so to get to my house from the theater. It was the first time I have been inside an actual car in Barcelona, which was pretty fun. Her mother invited me to their house to have paella one night which I hope I will be able to do! I have yet to have homemade paella so that would be exciting! Like I said, I really have had a lot of luck with everyone I have met out here. I definitely will miss everyone from out here once I return to the states.

It's pretty cool that a lot of my friends are from the Chicago area, so I promised a few of them that I would take them to a Cubs game this summer! Speaking of the Cubs...looks like they are off to a pretty decent start. I've been extremely busy but I've been checking out the Cubs website every day or two. I definitely can't wait to start going to Wrigley this summer! Hopefully this is the year!

Well I still can't believe that I have less than 2 weeks here in Barcelona. These past months have flown by way too fast. I have begun registering for classes which don't begin until June 15, which is nice because I have some time to get my life back together once I get back to the States. Unfortunately my flight got changed to 7:00 AM the day I leave, which doesn't give me much time as my last final is the day before I leave. I have to much to do, so many people to see, and so little time to do it! I'm going to be running around these next few weeks, but I will try and post sometime again during the week!

Figueres and Cadaques

Hola!

After returning back home I unpacked my suitcase and talked to Anna about my trip to Roma and everything. I talked to my friend Aleida and she invited me to go to Figueres and Cadaques with her and some of her family for an small excursion. I couldn't resist because it was such a generous invite and I had only heard awesome things about both of these places.

Figueres is in the Catalan providence of Girona, which is up north from Barcelona. It is famous because the artist Salvador Dali was born there, and there is an enormous Dali museum located in Figueres and I really wanted to go see it. Aleida's sister and boyfriend live outside of Figueres and their family also has a weekend home in Cadaques, which is more north than Figueres is. We took the RENFE Saturday around noon and it took about two hours on train to get there. Unfortunately, the weather was terrible as it was one of the first times I have actually been cold since I have been abroad. It was raining, the wind was very strong, and it was cold as well. It didn't help that the Dali museum had a line that was probably a couple of hours of a wait, and we decided that it wouldn't be worth it to wait. As much as I wanted to see the museum, I really didn't want to stand in the rain for two hours in the cold, without an umbrella.






Here are a few pictures around Figueres, like I said the weather was absolutely crazy but it was still really fun! These next few are outside of the Dali museum.








A few pictures of one of Figuere's beaches that was a few minutes from their house!







I went to my friends sisters house and we ate dinner and had a Mona, which is a dessert famous here to have around Easter time. We just relaxed the entire night and then planned to get up early and go to Cadaques the next day.

A few more pictures from Figueres...







Cadaques was probably the most beautiful place I have been to yet, and it is said to be the nicest part of the Costa Brava. Cadaques is literally the tip of the Spanish peninsula and I was able to see France looking in the distance, which was awesome. Here are a few pictures from the car ride to Cadaques, which was less than a hour from Figueres...





Here are a few photos of when we got into the actually town of Cadaques...








These next few pictures are from the back of my friends summer house, it really was an amazing view. How nice it would be to have a house in Cadaques. Within the last few years the town has been exploited with tourists, but it still is awesome.





Here is a picture of Dali's house in Cadaques, which is one reason why the tourism is so high there. He has a few restaurants and shops that he always used to go to, and also a museum in his old house.



A few more pictures around Cadaques before we headed back to the train station! I finally got back to Barcelona after a long week but I really had a great Semana Santa week. I really am lucky to have met such awesome people out here, I really have had a much different experience than many of the other students here. I had a great time with my friend and her family this weekend, and owe them a lot because they literally were my tour guides for the last few days!









A few last pictures from the trip...