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...

Roma: Giovedì

Buon Giorno!

We slept in until 10ish again today, which was nice. We at some breakfast in the B & B and had a few espressi as well.

We really wanted to do the Capella Sistina (Sistine Chapel) and hoped that the lines weren’t too long today. Thankfully they weren’t too long and we got through the lines within 20 minutes or so. Of course we had to go through the Vatican Museum before we got to the Sistine Chapel and it took a very long time. There were some pretty cool rooms that were filled with Rafael and Michangelo’s works which was awesome to see. Here are a few pictures inside…

Some of the statues inside were enormous…

The inside was pretty packed, but I thought there would be more people. As we continued to walk towards the Sistine Chapel, there were numerous rooms with Tapestries and Map rooms, and of course more shops. This next picture is an old map of Sicily, which I thought was pretty interesting…

A few more of my favorite pictures from inside the Vatican…

Once we finally made it to La Capella Sistina, I was amazed about how enormous this was. (INFORMATION) It truly was an amazing place, and I am very happy that we went there. However, it was absolutely packed with people…we literally couldn’t move at all. I tried taking a few pictures inside, which of course was prohibited. Only one turned out decent...

After the Sistine Chapel we stopped and had a few coffees and then wanted to walk down by the water to a place called La Isola Tiberina which was pretty cool. According to the signs that I read, this island had mills as far back as 109 A.D.! I took a picture of the sign so I could remember what the significance of it was.

Here are a few pictures around that area…

We walked around that area for a while and just followed the map to some places that looked interesting. We walked over Ponte Fabricio, which was a bridge that had been around since the Roman times, which was interesting to learn.

We came across some more Roman ruins…

We stopped at Basilica Di San Nicola in Carcera and went inside this extremely old church. Apparently the underground is filled with ruins, but we didn’t see anyone working inside, and had no idea where to go for them.

Then we walked to San Maria in Cosmedin and we walked around the back of the Colosseo and the Arco di Tito and took some awesome pictures of the Palatino.

We wanted to walk to San Giovanni Laterano which was pretty close to where we were at, but we ended up taking a very local road there, which was cool. We walked by a hospital, a military base, and a few neighborhoods. It was interesting to have the opportunity to see a more local part of Rome, which is full of tourists right now.

We made it to San Giovanni in Laterano which was enormous.

After that we stopped and grabbed some pasta for lunch. I had a simple tortellini dish with pesto sauce, and dad got tortellini with meat sauce. In my opinion, the pasta out here is much different than it is in the US. I feel like the pasta out here is much better than it is at home, but also much lighter and healthier. I can definitely say that in general the Italian food out here is much better on all levels that it is back at home.

We took the metro back from San Giovanni and then stopped in a few shops on the way back. The metro system in Italy is very easy to use, but I think that the metro in Barcelona is much nicer. By nicer I mean the inside of the stations and inside the metro is nicer. The Italian people are much friendlier than they are in Barcelona. In Barcelona I feel like the people are much more “shady” on the metro, especially at night. The Rome metro seems to be much safer, but then again I have only been on it a few times so I cannot really compare them I guess.

We came back to the B & B to relax for a little bit, and then we went out to dinner. Rosana came in to talk to us and we asked her for a dinner recommendation. She suggested a restaurant called La Pancia Felice, and she told us that it was a much different restaurant than any one we had been to before. It was very close to Borgo Pio, just a street down or so...and it was basically a family restaurant. They only had a menu for appetizers because the cook prepared different meals every day. The food was excellent and it was very easy to tell that the food was homemade. After we finished eating I heard someone call my name. I looked up and it was a few of my friends who were staying right down the street from where we were in Rome. A few of the girls I know from class, and the other two I met when I was in Madrid! They stopped and talked to us for a few minutes, and then went to eat I believe. It was crazy that we ran into them because there really was nobody on the streets!

Here are a few pictures from dinner...

Homemade tiramisu!

Afterr dinner we made our way back to the bed and breakfast and I couldn't believe how fast the week flew by. We packed our suitcases and bags so that we wouldn't have to do it in the morning. We called it a night and planned to get up kind of early so we had some time to walk around before we had to leave at 11 to head to the airport.

We woke up early like we had planned and went down to the cafe next door and had some cappuccini and croissants. We walked around the Vatican one last time and then walked down to the water. We headed back to the bed and breakfast to get our suitcases and wait for the driver to pick us up.

Well I definitely loved our week in Italy as it was great seeing my dad and Italy was everything that I thought it would be. I'm happy we decided to only stay in Rome because we had the opportunity to see everything we wanted to and much more as well. I am looking forward to visiting Italy again within the next few years, and continuing my Italian studies as well. I can't believe that I have less than three weeks left abroad, this semester sure has flown by. Well I need to try to get my school work in order, and will post within the next few days hopefully.

Ciao