9 AM comes around too quickly

This morning I enjoyed waking up around 7:30, ate breakfast, and was out the door by 8:15ish. I was down at the university by 8:40..which is nice to know because I can probably leave at 8:30 and still be on time to class. Since I had the extra time I stopped at il cafe Roma to grab a caffe con leche because I was basically still asleep. I picked up a couple of newspapers and every one had President Barack Obama on the cover, which I thought was pretty cool. Literally everyone had one in their hand, reading about the inauguration. For the first time in a while it made me feel proud to be an American.

This photo is of the newspaper I picked up today...



I sat outside my classroom with a couple minutes to relax and I met some more people who are from Chicago, which was cool. Unfortunately today's lecture was very boring and my professor went over the history of Catalunya and talked about events that I already knew about. The good thing about my class Barcelona: The Cospopolitian City is that 3/5 field studies that are mandatory, I've already seen: Casa Mila, Casa Batlo, and the history of Catalonia museum. We are required to analyze these sights and write a brief report on them..which is nice since I can get a head start.

Once the class was finally over I went to grab another caffe since I had 15 minutes before my Spanish class began. Spanish class was fun and I always enjoy it much more than my other classes. Although it is 3 hours long, it seems shorter than my other classes that are only 1 hour and 30 minutes. We did exercises and most of them had to do with the Spanish culture, which was cool and interesting. We got our syllabus and unfortunately it looks like I am going to have a difficult semester ahead of me, but oh well.

After class my friend Nick and I went to the book store to get our last books. We returned to that same pizza place I previously ate at, and got an individual pizza and large water for only 6 Euros (which is pretty cheap compared to most of the touristy places where you usually pay over 10 euros). We walked back and he went to the IES Center to study because he still had another class, and I headed to one of the UAB campuses in Guinardo to check it out. There were a lot of locals and foreigners and I really enjoyed the campus. It's too bad that I didn't know I would be so close to a local university or I definitely would have taken some classes there (the UAB campus is one metro stop from my home stay).

I headed home to meet with mi madre because she was going to show me where the gym was. It turns out it wasn't a DIR gym, but another gym called Nicks. This was fairly disappointing because now I need to go to the gym in the city..in between classes or after them. I guess it's still pretty convenient but I still wish there was one close to mi casa.

While I was studying I heard some unfamiliar voices coming from the kitchen. I quickly found out that it was Anna's parents that were visiting. They were the nicest people and reminded me a lot of my senora. I thought that it was pretty cool that she had her parents come over to meet us. They sat with us and talked while we ate dinner, and they constantly told us how well we spoke..which was great to hear. I am certain that since I have been in Spain my fluency and pronunciation have improved a vast amount. Anna's parents left shortly after we ate and after dinner we just relaxed and talked.

The FC Barcelona game started at 10 and I decided to stay in and watch it at home rather than go out. The game was pretty slow and Anna and I began to talk about American entertainment. Much to my surprise, I discovered that almost half of the movies shown out here are from the US. They are dubbed, subtitled, or shown in Castellano, Catalan, and English as well. Quickly I realized that Anna loves American movies which I found interesting. She just recently saw the movie "Blood Diamonds" which was one of my favorites, and she also loves Mafia movies such as "The Godfather, Scarface, Goodfellas, etc.. We talked briefly about the US entertainment industry and how popular it is throughout the world.

We finished watching the Barcelona game, and they ended up tying 0-0 against Español, which is another team out of Cataluña. Their stadium is located on Montjuic (Mountain of the Jews) which is also in there area where the Olympics were held. After the game Anna asked me about my family and friends back at home which was fun to talk about. I am planning on showing her everyone on Skype which I'm looking forward to. We talked about smoking for a while because Anna smokes, as does her mother..who is actually getting a surgery done in a couple of days.

Well now it is time to read for my history class, which I am not looking forward to. Tomorrow I have classes at 10:45 and 3:45, so I will have some time to FINALLY join the gym and probably stop at a caffe to do some studying. My oceanography class is going to the Aquarium tomorrow, which I am looking forward to. The Aquarium is on my list of sights I'd like to see here in Barcelona, which is convenient...because now I get to go for free!

Hopefully I'll be able to take some great pictures to post tomorrow, assuming that I will have some time. This weekend I might head to Sitges with a couple of people, travel to another local town in Barcelona..about a hour from me, or stay here and do some traveling in the city!

Bona Nit

A Great Day in American History

Ciao!

So classes have finally started, and my 9 in the morning ones will probably start to get tough as the semester goes on. Other than my Spanish course (which is 7 credits) I am taking a class about Barcelona, History of the Mediterranean and the Middle Ages, and Oceanography in the Mediterranean. The class Barcelona: The Cosmopolitan City will definitely be fun, and easy too. We get to do 6 field studies throughout the semester, which I'm looking forward to. My other two classes each have 5 field studies as well, so I will be exploring even more now!

One of my professors is from Belgium, and the others Cataluña. My history and Barcelona courses will be difficult, unfortunately but it is definitely nice that I get to do some traveling in them. I ate a couple nice caffes the last couple days, and had a great Italian dish! I haven't been doing that much other than preparing myself for classes, getting my books, etc.. I met some more people in my other classes, and also have some people that I previously met.

I still haven't gotten a membership to DIR yet, but tomorrow my senora said she will show me where it is at.

Today is the first time that I wish that I could have been in the US because the Obama inauguration was awesome! I'm definitely happy that I had the priviledge of witnessing this unforgettable day in American History. The inauguration was shown all over Barcelona (and I'm sure the entire world) and was on 3 different T.V. stations. Unfortunatally it was being translated as Obama was giving his speech which made it difficult to understand. Thankfully CNN.com had everything live so I had the opportunity to see Obama's speech and parade as well.

Apparently there were some bars on Las Ramblas that were showing the inauguaration live on CNN, but I ended up being too lazy to hop back on the metro do go to the city. I met a couple other people today that were really cool, from DC. One of them told me that people in DC are letting random visitors stay in their house for $1000 a night. That's pretty amazing. Apparently 2 million people traveled from different states to DC, which is mind boggling.

I also found out that there is a campus of UB (University of Barcelona) off the metro stop Guinardo, which is just one stop, literally five minutes from mi casa....wow it would have been nice to know that before...then I could have taken some classes at local universities.

Well 9 in the morning is going to come around much too soon, and yo necesito estudiar mi español.

Hopefully I will have an opportunity to do some exploring tomorrow, but it depends on how tired I am and how much I do after mis clases.

Hasta luego!

My first day exploring Antoni Gaudi

!Hola!

Today has definitely been a fascinating one. I woke up around 11 and had breakfast which was the usual. Mi caffe con leche was extra strong today, or at least it tasted like it was. Last night I made a list of the sights that I wanted to see today and I did pretty well. I wanted to go down to the Eixample (Expansion) part of Barcelona which had some amazing sights, particularly the architecture of Antoni Gaudi. I hate to preach about history but for those who are unaware Antoni Gaudi was the leading exponent of Catalan Modernisme. His ideas are just genius and I didn't expect what I explored today to be as awesome and unreal as it was.





The first place that I visited was Casa Batallo. It has five stories, I believe and also an amazing view and architecture on the roof. Once I entered the Casa, my mouth literally dropped. Gaudi's integral approach to architecture can be seen in the doors and the windows as well. The outside is covered with iron balconies which are simply amazing.



The entire casa was just filled with architecture that I have never seen before, nothing that was have anywhere in America. The terrace and rear facade is the outdoor space at the back of the house that allows a view of the rear facade. It has iron doors and balconies as well which was awesome.





The stairways and doors were also very interesting. The ceramics were just incredible..I have never seen anything like it. If you ever make a trip to Barcelona, make sure that you see some of Gaudi's works because they are remarkable.





The roof might have been my favorite part of Casa Batllo mostly because of the chimneys. These are usually the unseen parts of the building, but have become Gaudi's trademark. They are tightly packed and covered in abstract patterns.



I could literally go on for hours about how much I enjoyed Casa Batllo, which was also got the nickname "House of Bones" by Salvador Dali. I took over 200 pictures today and it would take me way too long to put each of them on the blog, but I will be posting them on my facebook, and probably another website when I have some time.

Next, I walked down the street to Casa Mila, also known as La Pedrera (The Stone Quarry) which was another one of Gaudi's works. Casa Mila is Gaudi's greatest contribution to Barcelona's civic architecture and his last work before he devoted the rest of his life to the Sagrada Familia, which I will hopefully visit next weekend. The photo I have below is the front of Casa Mila and if you look towards the top you can slightly see the roof, which has been my favorite sight I've seen yet.



The inside of la Casa Mila was pretty cool, but not close to the inside of Casa Batllo. I was more interested in the roof of Casa Mila because I have seen pictures of it, and have been hearing about it since I've been in Barcelona..and today I finally got to see it.



The sculptured ducts and chimneys have such a threatening appearance they are known as espanta bruixes, or witch-scarers.



This following pictures are of me in front of these enormous sculptures. I believe that these were the chimneys, but I'm not positive. I was probably on this roof for over a hour, and the sight was just unbelievable.





So far Casa Mila has been my favorite sight in my study abroad experience. I haven't even been here for two weeks yet, and I feel like I know the city already. The metro goes EVERYWHERE which is extremely convenient and I am just starting to memorize the different lines.

The following pictures show the great view I had of the city. I could even see the Sagrada Familia from the top, but I couldn't get a decent picture of it.





This next photo is probably my favorite of the entire trip so far. I swear some of the pictures I took turned out better than the ones in my guidebooks. I literally took 50 pictures from the top of Casa Mila and only added my favorites on my blog, but there are plenty more to come.



After we left Casa Mila we stopped in a tapas bar nearby to have a quick bite to eat. It was already after 4 by now so I just had some pan con tomate, and una tortilla Espanola, which were both pretty good.

We decided to walk to Passeig de Gracia a little bit longer and then turn onto Avinguda Diagonal to check out Casa Terrades which is a six-sided apartment block by Modernista architect Josep Puig i Cadafalch. It sometimes gets its nickname "Casa de les Punxes" (House of the Points, from the spires on its six corner turners. There were some shops underneath it, but they were all closed to I just viewed the building from the outside.



We finally headed back to Maragall and then stopped in a local bar and finished watching the Real Madrid game, and they ended up winning 3-1. A lot of the locals in the bar were pretty angry but it was a good game to watch. The only type of sports I can watch out here. Although one of the sports bars off Las Ramblas is showing the football game tonight, so I might head down there with some people..but I haven't decided yet.

I had an excellent dinner tonight, arroz con gambas, salad, bread, and conejo (rabbit) which was interesting. I've never had rabbit before and I definitely would never order it...but it wasn't bad. Like I said before I am going to try every food that I can while I'm out here. I guess that conejo is a very popular dish out here, and I was surprised to hear that.

After dinner I practiced some Catalan with my senora, and she talked to us about what we liked and didn't like about Spain, and then I asked her what the Spanish thought of Americans. I really wasn't surprised to hear her answer, but I wanted her to be honest. She told me that every American she has ever met, she has loved. Not everyone dislikes us, it's more our government...but everyone is entitled to their own opinions right? It's very interesting, yet disappointing that America has gotten such a bad reputation over the years. But everyone that I have met have been nothing but nice to me, and I think that most of the people who "dislike" Americans have never met one.

Most of the people in Spain are very excited for us with Obama getting inaugurated this coming week. Maybe change will come to America, but will Americans ever change? Maybe all it takes is a trip abroad? An opportunity to experience another culture? Well that's a topic for another day....

This blog has taken me hours to put together and I need to get some sleep. What was I thinking when I signed up for 9 in the morning classes on Mondays and Wednesdays?

Oh well, I guess I'll just need to suck it up...after all, I am living the dream in Barcelona!

A domani.

Sorry I haven't posted in a few days..

Sorry that I haven't wrote my blog the last couple of days, I've been pretty busy. It's nice that it is Saturday because my other classes all start on Monday, oh yeah...I also have to go to school while I'm out here. Although I have only been out here for a little bit over a week, it feels like it has been a month. After my class on Friday I got my books for my Spanish class, which were only about 20 Euros. It beats paying $150 USD for one, huh? I have to get my other ones for my other classes, but I've been told that they aren't that expensive. I really didn't do much sight seeing Thursday or Friday but I definitely became more familiar with the city. I ate at a little pizza place, which actually was very good. Most of the places out here (that I have seen) only have small, individual pizzas. They don't come cut, and you eat them with a fork and a knife. I went out the last couple of nights and experienced a little bit of Barcelona night life, which is great. There's always something to do, and the metro runs late on the weekends, which is very convenient.



Today I got some nice sleep, and woke up around 11. I had my normal breakfast and then decided to see some sights today. I have made a list of all the places I want to see in Barcelona before I start traveling to other parts of Spain and other countries. The tourist books that I invested in turned out to be a great idea, and they have really helped me find some awesome sights. I have decided that every weekend I am going to see 2-3 different sights in Barcelona.



Today I planned to go down towards the beach and see a museum and a park since they were close to each other. At about 1:30 I headed down to Barceloneta and went to the Museu d'Historia de Catalunya which is enormous. There are four floors and each one went in chronological order. There were definitely some interesting parts of the museum but it was a bit overwhelming. It took about two hours to go through the entire museum and most of the writing was in Catalan. Only about half was in Castelleano, and less that that in English.



It definitely was interesting to learn a little bit more about the history of Catalunya. My senora was telling me today that by the time I left I would probably know more about Catalunya that she does, which I thought was funny. Catalans are very passionate about their culture and history and they all know it. But many of them haven't visited all of the museums, from what Anna was telling me. She said that a lot of people don't go because they are huge tourist attractions.



After we left the museum we decided to grab a bite to eat. There was a small Irish pub right on Port Veil, which was close to the museum. The local bars and restaurants around there were ridiculously expensive (usually there are more tourists by the beach) so I had a chicken sandwich which was decent. The view on Port Veil was amazing, and there were a ton of boats. Apparently that entire area is always busy during the warmer months, which doesn't surprise me. There were many tourists that I saw as I was eating my lunch at the pub.



I have heard that it is much nicer down here in the warmer months, so I will definitely be returning.



After lunch we decided to head towards the Parc de la Ciutadella which was designed by Josep Fontsere and Antoni Gaudi. Unfortunately some of the park is being restored, so it took a little bit out of the park. It seems like everything out here is being restored, but I'm sure once everything is completed they will look beautiful.



The park is huge and I only saw a small part of it today. There is a magnificent entrance to the park called the Arc del Triomf which I will take a picture of the next time I am over that way. The park also has two different types of zoos which I also want to see when I return there. Parc de la Ciutadella was beautiful and was filled with trees, statues, and even the Catalan Parliament. Once all of the trees bloom the park will be much more interesting.





The Catalan Parliament:



After we left the park we had some time to kill so we headed to the Museu Picasso, which was not far from the park. Picasso was from a small town in Andulucia but spent some time in Barcelona. Many of his early works were dedicated to the museum I was at. The Picasso museum had three different floors, and was only about 6 Euros to get in, with my student discount. There was security everywhere, and I wasn't allowed to take pictures which was dissappointing. There were different rooms everywhere holding some 3,000 Picasso works. This museum opened in 1963 and all of his works were donated by friends, or left in his well. I usually am not into art, but Picasso's works were quite interesting and very weird. I have been to more art museums in the last week than I have seen in my life. The picture below was a self-portrait Picasso drew of himself, definitely a very interesting man.



After the museum I headed back home for la cena. I had a tortilla Espanola, a soup with chorizo and beans, salad, bread, yogurt, and fruit. Then I enjoyed watching the rest of the Barca game, and of course they won 5-0. I have just been relaxing since I ate and hopefully will head out for the city in a little bit. Midnight is still early here and I have figured out that 2 in the morning is when people start going out.

Spain loves Obama and it's interesting because I had a conversation about him with a local Catalan which was cool. There is a group called Spanish Democrats or something and they are all getting together for the inauguration. I've been keeping myself updated on CNN.com because there aren't any American T.V. stations out here. I'm dying not watching ESPN and college basketball, but at least I have futbol...but it's still not the same.

Tomorrow I hope to do some more exploring and hopefully walk all the way down Las Ramblas. Definitely not looking forward to classes on Monday, but oh well I guess I need to suck it up..after all I'm in Barcelona.

And did I heard that it was -35 at home in Chicago? Hmm...I might just stay out here for the winters from now on?

Ciao

BARCA

Today I had a slightly difficult time getting up, and woke up late around 9:30. I quickly ate breakfast and was still out of mi casa by 10 or so. It was quite chilly this morning but turned out to be a beautiful day with temperatures in the low 60's. The metro ride was quick today and I still arrived at class before 10:30 which was nice. We had to write a composition about our goals for the semester and what we really wanted to get out of our study abroad experience. I made my first dent into my credit card today and had to withdrawal some cash. I took out 300 euros, which was $415 US dollars which was worse than when I previously exchanged.





After the short break I returned to class and we got some information about transportation and how to get around the city. Barcelona has over five different ways to get around, buses that run between small cities, buses that run only in the main parts of the city, trolleys, tour buses, trains to get around to the outskirts of town, trains to only get the the neighborhoods, and that's just to name a few. I love the simplicity of traveling in this country, it definitely makes my commutes much easier.

After class was over I decided to go walk around and explore for a couple of hours. Everyone that I talked to was either going home to sleep, or going shopping, or doing something that I wasn't quite interesting in doing. I took a walk down Plaza Catalunya for a while and then decided that I wanted to go check out one of the local universities here in Barcelona. The university was much different than the ones I am used to at home. The entire layout is just different in general which was interesting.




After I walked in a couple of shops I decided to stop at a caffe for a bite to eat. I stopped at a place that had outdoor seating which was perfect since it was so nice outside. I had a drink and a croissant and then had patatas bravas, which are a very popular type of tapa here in Spain. They are small fried or roasted potato cubes with some type of tomato sauce which has been different every place I have eaten them. The term "brava" translates to the English "fierce" referring to the spicy sauce. I guess it depends where they are ordered but they weren't extremely spicy, but I enjoyed them.



Then I finally walked back to the metro and returned to mi casa. I cleaned my room and organized some of my stuff. I talked to Nick and we decided that we would meet around 8:30 for the game which starts late at about 10. I hoped on the metro and met up with Nick and we headed to meet up with Peter. Our seats were pretty good, and we moved down into an excellent section (the game was only about half full because it wasn't an important game). Half full for them is like 50,000 people, there are well over 100,000 people when it's an important game. So I decided that before I leave I will see one of those games.




This stadium was absolutely enormous and I really enjoyed the game. Although the game didn't really matter it was still pretty cool being there. Especially since we were sitting in seats that probably costed 100 Euros and we only payed 35. After half time we met up with some other Americans on the opposite side of us and just sat in some open seats next to them. This was nice because we were on the side that Barca was scoring on. The crowd was pretty insane for only being half full, I can't imagine how crazy it gets when the place is packed.



The stadium was quite different than I expected. First of all, I didn't expect it to be as big as it was. Second, they only served non-alcoholic beer inside, but you were allowed to bring alcohol in. Third, there were people smoking marijuana in the middle of the crowd without anyone thinking twice about it, except us Americans of course. The crowd was screaming and singing every chance they could get. The Barca theme song echoed throughout the entire night. The wave went around the stadium a couple of times which was fun and also some song that they sing and dance to. It has the same concept as the wave and goes from one part of the stadium to the other.



After the game was ofter the street outside was unbelievable. There were thousands of people walking everywhere. It took forever to get down to the metro (which is usually closed by 12, but I assume stay open later on nights of futbol games) and once we finally got on we were all basically on top of each other. Again, this is only when the stadium is half full, I bet it would have taken ten times as long if there would have been more people. Anyways, I finally made it back home and I am debating about whether I should go out or not. Many people that I have talked to tonight are going out now (it's 2 AM my time) and I have a feeling that I will have a difficult time making it to my 10:45 class, but we'll see.



Tomorrow I will probably buy my books after class and maybe do some more exploring, or just come home and sleep depending on the situation.

Ciao!

2nd Day of Classes

Ciao!

Today I woke up around 9, had a semi-warm shower, ate breakfast and was on my way. I decided to time my trip from home to the university and it was about 25 minutes. After I got off I had some time to kill so I grabbed a caffe and sat outside. Another beautiful day, sunny and around 55 the majority of the day. I thought this was great weather, but many people were complaining, like always.



Class began and we did a lot of talking about the Spanish culture and how they are much different than the American culture. I already knew most of what we talked about but it was interesting hearing my teachers opinions on our cultures. She lived in the US previously and definitely knew what she was talking about. During the break I had a caffe with some people from my class and then returned.



After class was over I went and had something to eat at a local Basque restaurant that had some very interesting tapas. The menu was a bit overwhelming so I decided that I would order 5 tapas variadas (which were just 5 tapas that the chef chose).

These tapas included sardines, ham, crab salad, and others that I did not know. I never tried sardines before and didn't realize how salty they were. They weren't as bad as I thought they would be. After almuerzo we went to Dir to check out the gym. I got some prices and decided that I am going to join a gym out here. Apparently Dir is the best gym out here in Barcelona and it is very convenient because there is one 5 minutes from my house, and one 5 minutes from the university.



Then we returned to IES to meet with our groups for our scavenger hunt. Our professor ended up not showing and our group leader dismissed us, which was nice. Then a couple of us (who I had just met) went to a small restaurant to have some tapas and vino, which turned out to be hours long. We just visited and then a couple other girls joined us, one from Chicago and the other from Minnesota. After we left the restaurant a couple of us went back to the Barcelona Cathedral and also visited an enormous church. Unfortunately, I do not remember the name of the church, but it sure was beautiful. One of the things I love about Spain is the architecture that I will never find in the US.



\

After walking into another caffe and just walking around a small district called Born we headed back to the metro. I parted ways with the people I had just met and it was back home for la cena. We actually had sardines for dinner with una sopa, papas, y frutta. It was quite funny that I had sardines for lunch and dinner as well. I was explaining to Anna about that and she also thought it was hilarious because I had never tried sardines before. I relaxed for a couple of hours after dinner and then decided that I would go out tonight. Most of the people I know all went to a club but I decided just to go to Las Ramblas with my roommate and a couple other people which was fun.

I really enjoy meeting new people each day which is one of the aspects that makes this study abroad experience so great. I just got home a couple minutes ago, and it is about 4 AM here in Barcelona. I bought a Barca ticket and will be attending my first futbol game tomorrow which I am very excited about! Class is at 10:45 so hopefully I will get some good rest and have no problem getting up in the morning. Tonight when I was at the caffe a man from India thought that I was from England. I pretended that I was from Italy and I somehow convinced the man which I thought was hilarious.

This picture is amazing, and I took it in the last church I visited today:



A domani

El primer dia de la clase Español

Today was the first day of my Spanish classes. I just found out that my Spanish classes are every day this week (Once my other classes begin they will only be MWF). I was fairly disappointed because I had planned going out most the week since my other classes haven't begun yet. It all worked out because I had an extremely long day and it feels nice to relax a little bit. I need to continue reminding myself to pace myself with spending money..I do have over four months left here.



Anyways, I woke up this morning around 9 and decided not to shower because there wasn't hot water. I have taken a total of 1 hot shower since I've been here which is pretty crazy. The house is very cold in the mornings (it doesn't help that my bed is up against the window) and it's never a good way to start off a day shivering in the shower. Oh well, tomorrow I will just have to suck it up, it could be much worse. After mi desayuno I relaxed and finished my coffee until 10 when I left for the metro. I arrived at the IES center around 10:40 and then got into the classroom early and talked with some students that were already there. We have a great group of students in our class and I can definitely see us becoming close. There are less than 20 people in our group which will help us learn more and get to know each other.



Once la clase started our Profesora talked a little about herself. She actually lived in Madrid most of her life, and is not Catalan. She has most of her family in Andulucia but also in Madrid as well. She has lived here in Barcelona for 5 years I believe and also studied in the US for a couple years. She seems like she is very friendly and outgoing which will help us become close with her. She made it clear that she would love to get to know us and be more than just our teacher, which was cool. After she was finished talking we did a little icebreaker activity and introduced ourselves and where we were from, etc..



We got a 15 minute break at 12:15 (Class is from 10:45-12:15, and 12:30-13:45) and I grabbed a caffe with Peter, one of the guys in my class. He is from California around San Francisco, and seems to have the same interests as me when it comes to traveling all over Spain. Many of the students studying here have little interest in understanding the culture and the Spanish people in general, which is somewhat annoying. After the caffe we returned to class and discussed a little history, phrases to use while eating at a restaurant, and where to find certain items around the city. Finally class was over, and we got together with a little group to find a caffe to grab a sandwich. We had to be back at the IES center by 3:30 for our "scavenger hunt" around the city.



We ended up eating at a little sandwich shop, which surprisingly had great food and wine as well. We talked and I met a few more people but it was mostly people I already knew at the caffe, about 7 of us in total. We finally met back at the IES center but the entire meeting was completely unorganized. In my opinion, IES had been on top of everything for the most part, but today was a different story. I was with half of my group and the other half already left. We got a map and took a shortcut to where our group would be walking by at some point. It was four of us guys, and one girl named Kelly. I almost forgot about this, but Kelly is from Crystal Lake, which is ridiculous because it's about 10 minutes from my house in Algonquin. What a small world! Anyways, we sat outside a cervesaria until they walked our way and we all met up and talked for a little bit. We all went to a small caffe to have a snack and some refrescas. The girls all left, and then all of us guys just hung out and talked a little bit. I met another guy, Paul who is also from California but goes to school in Indiana. I also met Nick who runs Cross Country in Pennsylvania at a D3 school which was cool.



Finally I made my way back to the Passeig de Gracias where I hopped on the metro to head home. I was thinking on my ride home about why so many countries dislike America but I kind of realized why today. Some of the American students here are so ignorant to the culture, it bewilders me. I was thinking about home and about how fast my time here will be. I could definitely see myself living here, not necessarily in Barcelona, but in Spain. It truly is a beautiful country and there is always something to do.

This photo below is one of the crazy costumes on Las Ramblas. This actually was a man, dressed up as a fat woman, which I found hilarious. But every day I see something different on Las Ramblas which is one of the reasons it is so great.



Once I got home I ate a delicious dinner, as always. Anna made us an excellent chicken dish with sauteed vegetables, a salad, bread, and I had some flan for dessert. I relaxed and had some tea before coming into my room to clean up a little bit.

I finally figured out some information about the gym, Dir. It is very expensive depending on the package (Including my student discount)between 300-400 Euros for the semester. There is a Dir gym right down the street from mi casa, and also from the IES center which is very convenient. I need to figure out which package is the best for me and then I can finally start working out again.

The weather here was absolutely beautiful. I can definitely get used to this Mediterranean climate and the 50's and 60's every day. Today was sunny and 55 which was a great temperature for browsing around la ciudad. Tomorrow is supposed to be nice as well, and I hope I will find out more about the Barca game on Wednesday.

We took a few pictures last night with my family that I forgot to post...





Buona nit