Shunned by a nun and human castles - Wow! What a week this has been!

The past week has been adventurous to say the least! I have been having problems with my computer and Internet connection so I haven’t been able to make any blog posts, post pictures, or download any new music off of iTunes!! It’s been rough! Luckily, I got that all taken care of today and the details are in the post!! And yes, this is a long post, but you better read every last word, because it’s exciting!! …….

Wednesday we went to school and our afternoon class got cancelled so we only had to go to one class. After class got out we decided that we were heading to the beach because the weather was so nice!! It was pretty much 80 degrees all weekend. We lounged around there all afternoon until about 6 or 7. We made some friends with a guy from Colombia and a girl named Jasmine from Arizona! They go around at the beach trying to get people to go out to the clubs they represent and if they end up going, they get commission. After the beach we came home to get ready to go out with our Spanish friend Isabella. Wednesday night was like the kickoff to La Merce and they have a bunch of free activities, fireworks, concerts, etc. The festival celebrates the patron saint of Barcelona. We went to our favorite place, it’s called the Black Sheep in English. They have the best sangria so Alex and I shared a pitcher! We met up with our friend and then we went to get on the metro to go to these concerts. I have never seen a metro so crowded in my life!! The station alone had to be violating some type of fire code!! They had some police controlling the amount of people they would let through to the train dock but still, it was absolutely insane! People were yelling, screaming, drinking, and smoking!! When the trains came into the station they were already packed full of people and when the doors would open everyone would just shove onto the metro! It was crazy and it was so hot waiting in the station because there were so many people! It had to have been 90+ degrees . Eventually we had to do the same thing to get on the metro once we got down there. We got on and it was unbearable. I was literally sandwiched like a sardine between 500 other people. A guy took a piss on the floor because I guess he couldn’t hold it for 5 more stops and a girl threw up everywhere!! Keep in mind, everyone is within close proximity of each other!! PLUS, people were also smoking cigarettes, which is one place here that you are not allowed to smoke!! It was terrible. Eventually we got off though and if I thought that was bad we hadn’t made it to the concerts yet. Isabella brought her friends with her so we made some new friends. Monsey is one of my new favorites. We got to the concert site and before we went we stopped outside and Abby pulled 3 boxes of sangria out of her purse (along with cups) for everyone to drink!! I was like, “gezz you had all that in your purse?!?!?” Once we got inside it was even crazier than the metro. There were over 60,000 people there and it was nearly impossible to navigate through the crowds with our group. We got split up and spent the majority of our time looking for each other. There were 3 different stages with different music and people were dancing. It was insane. We left around 2:30 because we were so tired and hungry and I was sick of people stepping on my feet!!! It was less of a crazy ride home but we were exhausted. We got to bed around 4.

Thursday Alex and I went to the beach for the day. Our friend Guermo from Columbia brought us sandwiches on the beach and they were fabulous. Mine had goat cheese, red peppers, avocado, and French dressing. (It met vegetarian requirements!) After the beach we walked up the boardwalk area and looked at a bunch of shops. They had tons of different stuff. We got gelato at this place called Dinos, the building was pink so of course we had to try it. I got a double scoop of chocolate with hazelnut and banana. It was delicious! We then caught the bus that usually takes us back to our house. Well, since the festival is this weekend the bus had to take a different route because there was a parade coming down Las Ramblas. Well, while we were on the bus we weren’t paying any attention and ended up lost. I saw a metro station so we decided to get off because we knew we could get home on the metro. There were so old creepies around when we got off the bus so we were practically running for the metro. We got on to go home and after one stop a Nun got on the train. (Keep in mind we have on bathing suits with dresses over top and our bags.) The nun was looking in our direction so Alex gave her a smile because we thought she was smiling at us. No she wasn’t!!! She patted her chest a couple of times and gave Alex a “tsk, tsk!!” HAHAHA!! It was hilarious!! She was telling Alex to cover up her chest area! She was shunned by a nun on the metro! I couldn’t stop laughing and it was a pretty awkward ride after that. This was the highlight of our day! After we got home we didn’t really do much. Alex and I went out for a walk on the Las Ramblas around 11:30. We walked through the gothic quarter near some of the stages set up for La Merce. There were still people partying even though nothing was happening on stage. We were looking at a schedule of events for that plaza, of course it was in Spanish and these guys were also looking at it. We pointed to the Sardana, which was one of the only words that we could decipher. The guys started to do the dance to show us what it was like and then we all joined hands in a circle and they showed us how to do it!! It was pretty cool!!! I thought that it was nice of them to show us that! We got home around 2 a.m. and video chatted with her parents while I did some LSAT problems and then we passed out!

Friday, we spent the afternoon at the beach. It was a perfect day for the beach too. It was 80 degrees and sunny with light wind. It was magical! We were there for about 2 hours or so and we saw our German and Russian friends from school. As you know, at the beaches here in Europe the women don’t usually wear tops so Alex picks out the eyesores for all of us to look at, there were so many old women there with extremely saggy boobs and men with “banana hammocks” (that’s what Alex’s dad calls them) aka Speedos. After we got tired of the beach we found something to eat. It was called Foc and the theme was interesting. It was all about giving a “foc” about the world and they had a whole clothing line, souvenirs, etc. to go with it, you know how those places are, like the Hard Rock Café. The food was really good for the price. After we got home we relaxed around the house and had grilled cheese for dinner. (I’ve pretty much been living on grilled cheese recently.) We decided that we would go out for the night since some other people from our program were going out. We went down to the beach where there are a bunch of nightclubs and places to eat. We thought that we had gone to the bar “Opium” but it turns out that we were at the wrong place, we were actually at Sotavento. It was really nice though and we had a great time. Alex accidentally spilled a Bacardi and coke in my lap though; fortunately I was wearing a black shirt and dark skinny jeans (see Chelsea I was being fashionable!) so it wasn’t a big deal. We left around 3, Alex and I wanted to stay but our other roommates wanted to go home and we only had one key between the 4 of us – LESSON LEARNED! We had grilled cheese again when we got home and then passed out. – I wasn’t joking!

Saturday we slept in till 1 and we went shopping with Isabella around 3. I bought a new purse that I absolutely love! It’s gray and it’s perfect for protection against pickpockets! I can put it around my body and it has two different zipped compartments! Hopefully it doesn’t get stolen cause it’s really cute. After we went shopping we met Isabella’s mom! She is so nice and she invited us to come over to her house for lunch one Sunday. This is a big deal in Spanish culture so we were very flattered! Spanish people rarely invite guests into their homes and if they do, it is done on Sunday. She is going to cook some traditional Spanish cuisine for us and Isabella is going to let us play with her dog! We parted ways and then we got ready for correfoc with means fire run, it is a La Merce tradition here in Spain. It is a parade of fireworks in the street with demons and dragons. Two words here – DANGEROUS & SCARY! Holy crap…they pretty much shoot fireworks into the crowd. The program said to wear long pants, long sleeve tees, glass, hats, and a scarf. (But of course we didn’t go all out.) So basically they wanted you to cover your entire body and after this experience I completely understand why! It was insane. We stood as far back as we could. I tried to get a few pictures of the way the people were dressed but the smoke from the fireworks prevented me from getting good pics. I will post what I have though. It was pretty cool even though it was a little scary. It’s great to see the traditions here. We were really tired from Friday night’s events so we stayed in for the night. This was the same night that my computer quit working. (more about that later.

Sunday we got up early and went to see the Human Castells or Human Castles. Now for those of you who don’t know what this is here is a brief description. It is when the guys wearing like red or green shits, white pants, and wide black belts climb up one another creating a huge human tower. It’s cool and if you go to youtube.com and type in Human Castles in Spain you can see one. I was hesitant to go that morning because I was tired but I’m really glad that I did because it was awesome to see and they only do it a few times a year! The event was really packed and people were again sandwiched like sardines and people were pushing and shoving and stepping on my feet. It was annoying and it was really hot. I wanted to leave but there was no way out! It was to hard to make a path. After that Alex and I went over and watched the Sardana dancing in front of The Cathedral. It was great! It’s the traditional dance here in Catalonia. It’s actually really pretty. It looks easy but it’s not! It starts out kinda slow and then speeds up at different times. I tried to take a video of this also but it was hard to see because it was packed. Everything is closed here on Sundays so I came back and ended up video chatting for most of the night and then when I got back we all went out to an Italian buffet at Sotavento, our new favorite nightclub or shall I say “disco” that’s what they call them here. The food was really good surprisingly, there weren’t very many people out but we danced the night away and checked out two other discos and got home around 4. It was a good night.

Monday we went to school early because it was school picture day. Classes were really boring and then one of our professors scheduled a tour for this Friday. We don’t have classes on Friday so I guess they just assume we have nothing better to do and schedule things for us. I think that’s really poor planning and inconsiderate but whatever. Luckily it’s at the museum that I have already been to so I’m not missing much! After school on Monday I had some errands to run which brings me to the drama of the week...

My computer stopped connecting to the Internet on Friday night. We use a USB Modem supplied by Voadfone. It is a mobile company here in Europe. It is similar to buying like an air card at AT&T. So one day it just wouldn’t load so I had to take it in Monday night and we finally got it to work, I had to uninstall and reinstall the program 3 different times. So I brought my computer home and while I was doing some research over the past couple of days trying to figure out what was wrong with my computer I came across some articles about setting up a wireless network with a USB Modem through a Mac. So, after I got home I fooled around for a while and figured out how to share the Internet between all 4 of us! My roommates acted like it was no big deal and were like, “Oh we could have done that too.” – obviously not! So, anyways they owe me a chocolate croissant. I called Julie and my mom immediately to let them know that I had won the technology prize of the day because no one else could figure out how to do it and to also say “Thanks mom for going the extra mile and buying me a Mac, it’s worth every penny!” :D Today I had another problem with the Vodafone software though and had to go back to the store again for the same problem but next time it happens I think I know what to do to fix it and I’m not planning on unplugging it from my computer!! Vodafone needs to get the kinks worked out with its’ software so that it’s more compatible with Macs.

Also, this week I heard back from my relatives in Finland. I have some family there so I wrote them when I first got here to see if I could come visit. I received and email from one of my cousins and I booked a ticket on Friday night to go there this Thursday! It’s a long flight but it’s going to be a great weekend! I spoke to some of the girls on the international exchange that are from Finland about things to do and such. They gave me some great advice. My cousin Maijia is taking the day off of work on Friday to show me around, she is letting me stay with her for the weekend. We are going to meet the family and have dinner together at her sister’s house on Saturday night and then sit in the sauna, which is a Finnish thing. The high every day is 50 degrees so it is going to be a drastic difference from the 80 degrees that I have been experiencing everyday. I can’t wait though and I’m very excited to meet them and learn about my heritage. So, stayed tuned for an update on how my trip goes. I’ve also been researching other weekend trips. I registered for the LSAT on Thursday. I’m going to take the test December 5^th in Madrid. That is one of my longer weekends so I’m going to spend some time there exploring. I booked my roundtrip flight there for $98 US Dollars! I was very excited to get such a good deal. The only left to do for that is to book a hotel room, and of course STUDY!

So, the traveling has begun and it’s all very exciting! This has been a crazy and hectic week but I’m glad that everything has worked out for the better. I’m finally getting into the grove of school AND my Spanish is improving everyday, slowly but surely! I love my Spanish teacher, she is wonderful! I only have 3 months left and I just know that everyday is going to fly by! I wish I could stay longer but I’m going to have a good time while it lasts! They are keeping me very busy here but I’m loving every minute of it and I’ve met a lot of really cool people here.

As for today, school was lengthy and I had some great sandwiches for lunch at La Torre de Sarria, which is Spanish for the Tower of Sarria. It is a local café where everyone goes for breaks between classes. Overall it’s been pretty uneventful but I have some homework and packing to do before the weekend gets here because I’m leaving for Helsinki in 2 days!!!

Stay tuned…it’s just now getting good…

Different school, real homework

Yesterday was the first actual day of classes. We started at 11am. We got our schedules and these cool binder things, they are really classy. I was excited! I finally found out about Friday classes and turns out, I don´t have them!! YAY! So, this means that I am more freely able to travel on the weekends. We have a total of 4 classes, 3 small classes and one big class that consists of 4 separate classes taught by different instructors. We have on average about 2 to 3 classes each day. So, it´s not bad. They only bad part is that we start classes at like 1030 in the morning, have like a 3 hour break, and then have to go to class from like 3 to 5pm. That sucks, so basically, I´m going to spend my life here during the week. (I´m sure you can see the excitment on my face right now.) lol

Normally on the first day of classes you don´t usually have to learn anything of importance, the professor usually just goes over the syllabus and classes expectations along with an outline of what you´ll be doing during the semester. NOT HERE!!! NO NO!! Here you call the professors by their FIRST NAMES!! I was like, ¨What?¨ That is so weird. Usually at the big campus of JWU Charlotte professors that have a doctorate MUST be called Dr. Young and if you call them Professor Young, she just won´t even answer you!! SO hah! Here they are much more laid back, no syllabus, no written anything, no text books, no outlines. I guess really what´s going on is here in Europe, college isn´t a freaking money making scheme and they actually care about you learning something instead of trying to get all the money they can out of you. HUH?? There´s an idea America! It´s kinda nice that someone isn´t trying to rip me off this semester. lol
I mean, if you really think about it all colleges want from you is money. They could care less whether or not you are succesful by any means. They want money before you start, tons of money while your there (along with other hidden fees and expenses), they want you to buy $200 textbooks that you can only sell back for a mere $25 at the end of the semester, they want you to pay for your cap and gown, and THEN even after you graduate they send you a little envelope in the mail every month asking you to donate money to your beloved alma mater. BELOVED MY ASS!! Johnson and Wales isn´t getting one more dime from me!! lol

So, we actually had to stay the entire time in class and learn on the first day which was a downer but oh well. After school Alex and I got a McFlurry at Mcdonalds and then visited the tourist booth to get information on this weekend´s up and coming La Merce Festival. It is in Spanish of course but we can manage at this point. lol We went to the CarrerFour which is the grocery store here to get stuff to pack in lunches. Needless to say my vegetarian/organic diet isn´t going well with the food they have here. The choices are slim and most choices include meat. BLAH! So I got some type of sliced something or other that resembles pepperoni but doesn´t really taste like it. lol I bought some Gouda chesse and mustard that is similar to French´s but isn´t tangy. Their mustard here is more like honey mustard. It´s sweet. I got some plums and some popcorn and some juice boxes. BY THE WAY!! I´m sure everyone knows how they sell boxed wine right? Well here in Spain they sell individual boxed wine sorta like juice boxes except wine!! HAHA! You can get red or white, whichever you prefer! To take in your lunch!! OMG! I was laughing so hard! So after I stood in the longest lines I have ever seen at a grocery store (longer than walmart) I went home and went out shopping. I browsed in a couple of different places but didn´t buy anything and it was about to rain so I went home. We stayed up having girl talk till 2 in the morning and finally passed out.

8:30 came early this morning even though we didn´t have to be here till 10:30! Relying on public transport is pretty unreliable! lol And especially for a foreign country, you just never know what your going to get! We got to school very early today and our first class was spanish. So, we all go in, keep in mind that I am in this class with people from Norway, Germany, Russia, and Finland who speak english but their english isn´t impecable. The teacher, whom we met, taught the entire class in Spanish! She also gave us homework on the first day, lots of it! Thank goodness that I knew some beginner spanish or I would have been completely lost!! It was a lot of fun though and I think that I´m going to learn a lot from her teaching this way. I´ve already learned a lot since I´ve been here! After our first class we began our 3 hour break, we ate our sandwhiches and snacks, I was reading this 80 tips for your stay in spain brochure they gave us because I forgot my LSAT book, and then I went to the library. While I was in the library, some young girl about my age came up to me and was trying to tell me that I could not look at facebook while I was in here. So of course I ask the obvious question, ¿PORQUE?, why? lol I don´t think she liked this and she said something that I could not understand and then she left. So, now I´m writing in my blog. I mean, I can understand if there were lots of people on computers or waiting to use them but seriously? I´m in a room with like 30 empty computers. lol WHATEVER!! My next class is Tourism & Culture in Catalunya in 15 mins!!


Sorry for anything that wasn´t spelled correctly! There isn´t any word correction on these computers and they have some pretty weird keyboards....

Parc Montjuic

One thing I have learned on this trip is that you should not buy a clothing item just because it is on sale. Lol I tend to do this a lot and I have contemplated throwing out everything that I brought and just buying all new fashionable clothes. Sometimes it is worth it to buy the item that is more expensive if it will go with more things or if it is of good quality and will last a whole season or more.

I forgot to mention that the other night these people were wheeling a pig down our street. It wasn’t a live pig it was just a huge pig that looked like it was made out of plastic. Haha I ran home and got my camera and took some pictures off our balcony. I will post the pics!

Yesterday we decided to try to take the cable cars again up to Parc Montjuic. We were successful this time! It cost 9 Euros for a one way, which I thought was steep but we went anyways. The view was great for taking pictures. Once we got to the other side we walked around. It was very pretty up on this mountain. See, Barcelona is on the coast and then it turns into mountains not very far from the beach. So this creates a spectacular view and this is also the reason that the Romans decided to settle in this area because it provided protection. Montjuic is the site of the 1992 Olympic Games, the Castelle of Montjuic, and this was also a ceremonial area for the Romans. We toured the Olympic facilities and they were huge! I got some pics. There was a lot to see and it was pretty spread out so I didn’t get to see everything but we saw the main stadium, the diving pools, and the baseball area. After this we took another cable car up to the Castle and walked around up there and took some pictures. It was very old and there were cannons everywhere. I’m not sure of its particular use though. They also had botanical gardens but, I was so tired from walking everywhere that I just decided to take the train back. After I got back I went over to the Vodafone store and finally got a phone. After 3 trips to that place I was a little more than frustrated! I went to the store and got some dinner. I had rice and mushrooms. It was pretty good. I was worn out from walking everywhere yesterday so I just lounged around pretty much the whole night.

Today I woke up around noon and went to the beach for the afternoon. Everything is closed here on Sunday’s so there isn’t really anything else to do! We have to be at school by 11 tomorrow and classes are supposed to start. I’m going to ask about the attendance policy and find out if we have Friday classes then I’m going to start booking weekend trips. If we have to go to school on Fridays I’m going to be really disappointed. The girls who came on the exchange previously told me that we did not but I guess we’ll wait and see. Also, we already got a list of holidays and one of them just so happens to fall on the same weekend as the LSAT in Madrid and I’m not sure if I want to stay in Madrid for that long, I would like to use that weekend to go somewhere else in Europe that takes more than a couple days. So, I don’t know. I can’t decide if I should try to take the test and apply to law school before the deadline in February or if I should just wait and take the test this Feb or later and go in the Fall of 2011. I’m just not sure what I’ll do during that long gap between schools. However, I don’t want to rush and then end up not getting into a good school. I’m just not sure what I should do, like I said, I have a lot going on right now! Lol As of right now I’m just concerned with traveling and I do not really want to look at what the next step needs to be.

First Museum!!

The past two days have been fun. We watched the game at a bar and then came back and went to bed. The next day at school was pretty boring, we were five minutes late but the majority didn’t even show up and no one seemed to be distraught that we were late. They aren’t really timely over here so that’s a good thing on my part. So we had like two more orientation presentations and they were both pretty stupid. We also asked our academic advisor for our schedule and she had no idea and then we told her Kendrick had resigned and she had no idea what we were talking about…haha. I wish you could have seen her face, that’s pretty rude of him though to not even say anything, very unprofessional. So after school we got back and decided that we wanted to take the cable cars up to Montjiuc. We took the bus down there, walked the rest of the way and they were closed due to strong wind. So, needless to say I was mad. Everyone wanted to go to the aquarium but I refused to pay 18 Euro to go so instead I went to the Museum of History of Catalunya. It was pretty interesting. They didn’t have many interesting artifacts there, it definitely wasn’t Greece, but they did have a lot of hands on activities. I got to get up on a horse and have my picture taken and then I got to dress up in some knight’s armor. So there were some cool things there, it was only 4 Euro and with my student ID card it would have been free but of course, I didn’t bring my wallet because I’m scared someone is going to take it. After the museum it was still rainy and windy so I took the bus back, bought some stamps for my postcard which I order my stamps entirely in Spanish!! :D I was so proud! So I got 11 stamps and then I shopped around for a while and went to this store called Lefties and got a really cute top for only 9 Euro, they were having a sale! I went to the Internet café last night to video chat and was there for like an hour. Before I went to sleep I was reading my law school book and I’m almost finished with it and hopefully I can finish it by tonight.

Today we got up to go on a tour of the Gothic Quarter but it was pouring the rain so our guide took us to the market and showed us a church and then let us go because it was just not possible to do a tour. I mailed out my postcards and then I went to Vodafone to get a phone today but their computers weren’t working. I don’t understand how this can be happening. They told me to try back later, I went back again, and they are still broke. Lol Soooo I guess I’ll have to wait till tomorrow to get a phone. I got my metro pass taken care of today as well. It was 112 Euro for 90 days of unlimited travel, which I have decided is worth it. I got the ticket today and then they will mail me a green student ID card to carry with me on the metro system just in case an officer needs to see it. Until then I have to use this receipt. Lol Their systems over here are a little weird sometimes but then other things are really efficient so I can’t complain. America has way more issues. I’ve been pretty tired the past few days. I am also stuffed up. One of my roommates has been sick recently with some sinus issues and the lady in charge of our program said that it was because he has been drinking the tap water. (I told him it was a bad idea, but no one listens to me!) She said that he probably had a bacterial infection and told him to get this stuff that looks like theraflu at the pharmacy. So, hopefully that isn’t what is happening to me because I don’t have time to be sick!!

I have a lot going on right now, going to school, learning Spanish, trying to travel Europe, and studying for the LSAT’s all at the same time is stressful!! But, I’m sure it will all get worked out. I seem to have plenty of downtime here, the only issue with that is that I find myself shopping a lot because I get bored and it keeps me entertained. I haven’t really bought anything yet though, just that shirt. I intend to buy a pair of boots though if I ever find the right pair, I’ve tried on a thousand!

Alright, I’m going to go finish my book!!

School has started! YAY!

Sooo much has been going on in the past couple days. First of all, yesterday I slept in and when I woke up I had already planned to conquer the bus system as well as the post office to mail out the letter that I wrote to my family in Finland. So, it was definitely pouring the rain for most of the day yesterday which made it hard to be outside, this was also the first time since being in Europe that I truly missed my fabulous Honda civic. lol So I walked down the Ramblas until I saw a bus stop and just happened to get on the right bus! Lucky me!! I got off at the third stop past Christopher Columbus just like John told me, righto! I had to cross some streets but eventually I was inside. Now, let me say this, their post office was much more organized than the one that I had to go to in Greece!! So, I couldn’t really figure out if I needed to take a number or not. I also had to go online the night before to make sure that I had the letter addressed correctly and in the right places. – Things like this are always important in different countries. So, after I got inside I decided myself that I didn’t need to talk to anyone, I just needed a stamp and then low and behold…a stamp machine just appeared out of nowhere!! Haha AND, it could be changed to English, so I was pretty happy at this point. So, I put it in English and selected a whole bunch of different things to send it within Europe, then after this I tried to put in money but the stupid machine only took exact change and I needed 62 cents for one stamp!! Which I thought was pretty expensive, so I thought I was going to get off the hook when it came to having to talk to someone, of course I was wrong though. I had to ask a couple different people for change until someone understood what I was talking about. So, I got some pennies and got my stamp, now the only left was to figure out which box to put it in. I dropped it in the one that I thought said other destinations but there is no way to really know for sure! Haha So, I guess if they write me back then I’ll know that it made it!! Lol I took the bus back, this bus driver was really nice, she was a lady but the bus driver that I had on the way to the post office was mean.

After this adventure of learning the bus system and the post office I tried to get a metro pass and this even more of a task. The woman of course didn’t speak any English and I had to break out the phrase book, haha, it was a little embarrassing, anyways, she knew by the end of the conversation what I wanted but gave me a paper and told me I needed something from the school and my passporte! So, obviously I couldn’t do anything about it yesterday because school hadn’t started yet. Instead I came back lounged around for a while, got a shower and decided to go for a walk down the Ramblas to get some postcards for everyone and then ended up at the mall. I didn’t buy anything but I saw some stuff that I liked. After the mall, on the way back I stopped and got a geofre – I think that’s how you spell it but I’m not sure, it was like a mini waffle with chocolate sauce on it, there were other flavors but I had a hard time reading the menu, so I just settled for the original. Lol So, it was a nice night out and I decided to sit down on the port area there and eat it. Well as I was eating my waffle I saw something out of the corner of my eye moving so I look over and there was RAT!!! OMG!! I mean, I’ve seen mice before and big mice but this thing was the size of a New York City rat!! EWWW!! As soon as I looked at it, it saw me and ran back the other way so I just continued eating and then left! Hahahaha…I was still pretty grossed out though. After I got back it was like 11 or so and everyone was going to bed so I went to sleep too.

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!

I got up around 9 to get ready because we had to be there by 10:45 and we wanted to allow plenty of time to get there on the metro. After we made it to the school, no sweat, we had to wait around for a while before it started. So, this was our first time inside the school and it was absolutely beautiful. We found out that it used to be a Jesuit seminary and that is why no photos are allowed because it is considered such a historic site. So, we go into the orientation room, which is very nice and modern, and they had little backpacks for all us of full of interesting information and such. We got a schedule of this week’s orientation things and blah blah blah, it was pretty boring and I quite frankly would have rather been taking a nap. So during orientation though we got to see where everyone was from, there were about 4 students from Norway, 2 or 3 from Great Britian, 2 from Germany, 2 from Russia, a few from some other places and THEN there are about 5 or 6 kids from FINLAND!! I was like, no way!! So, I didn’t get a chance to talk to them today but I intended to befriend them tomorrow. After the orientation we got a tour of the facilities and it is just beautiful! They of course have like a church in the school and the architecture is just amazing. They also have a whole recreation center behind the school, it’s a little old school in ways but they have a swimming pool and that’s an A+ in my book! I will try to sneak in some pics. Lol

After the tour they told us that we would be having some snacks in one of the courtyards with some of the incoming freshman students and that they were all a little nervous because their English isn’t excellent. So, we got to this orientation thing and there was a little pond with turtles in it and I thought that was pretty cool, so I mingled with some people and met a girl from Germany named Angela and she seems really nice but I didn’t get to talk to her long. Then, one of the teachers brought over this one girl who was interested in meeting “the americans,” I think she was the only one brave enough because they were all looking at us but no one was talking, lol. She was like, “when we heard there were going to be American’s here we all couldn’t wait to meet you!” – I was like WTF???? We were like freaking celebrities. Haha I thought it was cute! So, of course she asked us the question that people always ask Americans – “Do you live in New York? Have you been? – people seem to be fascinated with this over here, and it was like this everywhere in Greece as well. Lol So, anyways she turned out to be really cool and she grew up here in Barcelona, I could talk forever about our convo. She wanted to know all about what music, books, TV shows, movies, and shopping that we liked. She loves Abercrombie, Hollister, and American Eagle….so the first thing I said after that was, “Hey come by and I’ll give you all my clothes and you give me yours! We’ll just switch!! Haha. She got very excited. So anywho, she seems really great and so I invited her to come to the beach with us and she did! After that thing was over we came back, got ready, grabbed a pita, and headed to the beach and she met us there. We had fun and she helped us with some Spanish. Her dad’s a doctor and her mom’s a dentist and she said if we didn’t want to go to the beach that we could go to her pool whenever…haha so I think I made friends with the right person! She also said that she would take me shopping with her to help me pick out some things, so I’m excited! She seems really nice. As for the beach, I didn’t really get a lot of sun, it was really windy but we hung out for about 3 hours and then came back. We’ve been relaxing but we are getting ready to go down to an Irish pub to watch the Barcelona vs. Milan game tonight that is going to be on TV. Tomorrow at school we are going to get some introductory classes and then they are going to give us a TEST to see how much Spanish we know to determine what class to put us in. lol I’m a little nervous, all these kids from other countries said that they knew a little so I’m not sure what that means. I also found out that all of them have been here for 4 weeks already and got to go to a Spanish class that the school offered early!! I was like, why the hell weren’t we invited!?? My answer to this is probably because Kendrick Delaney, our study abroad coordinator in charge of the exchanges was too busy looking for a new job because he quit as of September the 4^th!!! Hahaha How freaking convenient right? Gezzzz…..AGAIN, if all else fails, Johnson and Wales…. Don’t even get me started on this rampage….

That’s all for now, look for another post within the next day or so, it’s starting to pick up over here so I’m starting to get excited…

The Magic Fountains

Yesterday was a pretty good day. I slept in because it was sunday. Nothing is open here on sundays so there isn't a whole lot to do. I got ready and decided to go to the beach for the day. I took the metro down and it was pretty when I left but when I was coming out of the metro on the other side it was definitely sprinkling outside!! I didn't want to go back because it took me like 30 mins. to get down there! So I went to the beach anyways, got a chair, which I had to pay 5 Euro for. Annoying. There are these men from Africa that make these designs in the sand next to the sidewalk. It's a little crazy I posted a picture of some dogs that they did on facebook and yesterday when I was down there he was doing a cruise ship! You should have seen this thing, it was complete with portholes, a little white railing that looked like it was made out of toothpicks, and pools on each end that looked like he used two blue plastic bags!! It was like a mini model it was pretty cool. Anyways they do these designs and put out their hat and wait for people to give them money. Like, seriously? Get a real job! haha Some of them do look pretty cool though. So the beach cleared up for a while and there were quiet a few people there I was surprised. It started getting really dark and cloudy but it wasn't raining. I stayed for about 2 hours total and then decided that I was ready to go. I walked back and located the post office. Yay! After I got back I took a shower and got ready to video chat with Austin. We only talked for an hour though because football was on!! gezz!! lol Skype is my new best friend because it's free!!!

After all of this I went out to get something to eat and order something called a Falafel. I'm not sure what it was but it was absolutely the worst thing I have ever tasted! Ugh! It was like fried little balls of who knows what!! I'm not sure if it was meat or what but it tasted like straight garlic and honey mustard dressing and other things. Anyways it was not good and I was not excited that I paid 4 euro for it and could only eat the pita bread on the outside. lol So, I came home and stuff it with some spinach, goat cheese, and mushrooms and dipped it in olive oil. The lesson learned here: Falafel is bad, I didn't really know I was ordering it, and next time I'm having lamb. lol

And after that excitement I decided that I was going to go see the Font Magica otherwise known as the magic fountain. We took the metro to Plaza de Espanya and while we were waiting for the train I noticed some people beside us bouncing around so I looked down and saw that a roach was headed straight for us! I said watch out and stephanie perked up on her tip toes and when she came back down she smashed it! It was like perfect timing. Then while I was looking at the roach I noticed something else moving in a hole and it was a baby mouse!! He was so freaking cute!! He kept peering in and out of this hole munching on some bread. I took a couple of pictures and people were looking at my like "this crazy american." lol I posted the picture on my facebook for everyone to see! I'm telling you, we have encountered the wildlife here! lol Our landlord brought by some roach spray yesterday and I've already seen 3 dead bodies so it must be working! So anyways, back the magic fountain show, It is this huge fountain that dances to music and lights. It has been compared to the Bellagio fountains in Las Vegas. Now that i've seen both I can say that each are unique in their own way and I wouldn't really say one is better than the other. The fountains here were beautiful! They danced to a Spanish opera type song i think and the lights were fabulous. It was one of the biggest fountains I have ever seen. There were tons of people there and we sat like right under the fountain. It was a little misty! I took lots of pictures and I also took a video. After the show was over we left and came back to the apartment. We were up till about 2 talking about random things and then I went to bed.

This morning I got up early at around 8:30 and went to the market. I had a natural fruit juice. It was a mix of orange, pina, and mango. It was pretty good but it was very pulpy so I couldn't finish it. They had so many different flavors and next time I'm going to try the kiwi and pineapple one. They all looked delicious. Since I was there so early not all the stands were open. This is one of the biggest markets I have ever seen. There are like special sections for everything. I bought about a dozen farm eggs for 1 Euro...pretty good deal! I also bought some raspberries and another small mixture of fruit. It was kiwi, pineapple, honey dew, watermelon, and some other weird fruit that has a tough outside the color of red onion and a soft center that looks like kiwi except it is white instead of green. I'm not sure what this was but it did NOT taste good. It was kinda gross. So after the market I came back to get ready to go to the beach but it started raining. So instead, I took a nap! I've decided that I need to take it easy today and tomorrow because school starts on Wednesday!! Ah!!

This has been a drab week....

Yesterday afternoon/early evening we ventured down to the waterfront and found the beach. I suggested that we take the metro but instead we walked and then everyone’s feet were hurting by the time we were there. I stuck my feet in the water, it was cold but the sun felt great and it was absolutely packed. The beach was just full of people, not many in the water though. They have little bars that serve fruity drinks and you better believe that I’m ready to have a FROZEN, yes that’s right, a FROZEN pina colado tomorrow!! We left the beach and tried to find our way to the metro, we finally did. The trains were packed and I felt like my roommates had never used a metro in their lives, they seemed a little lost. We had to take two different trains and between the connections we probably walked like 3 miles!! It was insane. We stopped to get something to eat. I had a mushroom risotto that was really small and it costs me like 12 Euro. It was pricy for rice with 3 mushrooms. Lol After dinner I came back and pretty much relaxed until I fell asleep. My roommates went out and got back around 2 in the morning.

Today started out early around 9 a.m., I got up and ran out to the store quickly for some breakfast and some juice. I came back and hopped in the shower to get ready. By the time I was ready the roommates were back from coffee and wanted to go to the store. We walked down Las Ramblas to the La Boquirea, which is Barcelona’s central market! It was pretty amazing. It is supposed to be one of the best seafood markets in the world. I think it’s #2 in the world. Anyways they other things besides seafood, they had tons of fuits, nuts, olives, meats, vegetables, and bars serving tapas and booze. This place had to be the size of the state of Rhode Island. Each of the individual stands, like the olive stands for example, has like 22 different barrels just full of olives. There are so many varieties and choices. I didn’t buy anything at the market and the meat kinda grossed me out. So then we went to the store to do some grocery shopping. I’m in the process of becoming a vegetarian so my roommates seemed to be annoyed by my picky eating habits. We needed some stuff for the apartment like toilet paper, laundry soap, etc. I ended up paying for these things and they said they would get them next time. I had a hard time finding stuff that I liked or that I thought was edible and affordable. It wasn’t like the Greek grocery stores that actually had stuff that I liked. So, therefore, it was a little frustrating but at the check out I was ecstatic to find out that they take credit and debit cards!! Places like that are always nice to find.

After the store we came back put everything away and then went our separate ways. I needed some space too so I went out exploring and shopping! I found some fabulous shops and I have decided on a few items that I am going to buy while I am here. Item #1 will be a pair of stylish boots. Everyone has a pair here and they are very in style so I’m assuming they will be in the USA in shortly. And yes Chelsea, they are sort of like the ones that I showed you in target! Item #2 will be a nice jacket, I love unique and classy jackets, I saw a couple today that were very cute. Item #3 will be a handbag, something classy and convenient. These are the top 3 but I’m sure there will be many more. So after shopping I came back to the flat and Sam cooked for everyone and made pasta. As for the rest of the night, I’m not sure but I am very tired.

Nothing to extreme has happened to me yet on this trip, I’m sort of having a drab week I feel like so my blog isn’t really that exciting yet. I wouldn’t call it homesick but I just don’t really have anyone around me to do stuff with yet. I hate to say it, but I’m kinda ready for school to start so I can perk up and meet some people. Usually I’m the social butterfly but this week has not been the case. It’s set in stone that I am definitely going to the beach tomorrow and spending most of the day there, I bought a towel today, I need to relax in the sun and get some reading done. I finished To Kill a Mockingbird last night, it was a very good book. It was on the recommended reading list for Law school so I indulged. I doubt I will be able to find any of the other books here that were on the list. Everything is in Spanish!! I wish I would have brought more books with me to read because I’m going to have a lot of free time from what it seems BUT, then again I’ll be studying that LSAT prep book like it’s the bible probably!

That's all i've got in me for today....someone leave me a comment or something!!!

The metro

Today we conquered the metro. Nothing is open today because it is a national holiday in Spain, even the grocery store is closed. Blah! So we had to eat out again and we decided to find our way to the school today. I got the address and directions and we managed to get there. It's huge! From the pictures it looks so small but it is really big and its fairly easy to get too. It's a short metro ride and then a short walk up a hill. It's beautiful though, i'll post some pics later. After this we stopped to eat at this place and because we are americans and went to a touristy place they tried to charge us like 30 Euro a plate. Ugh, that is soooo annoying. As for the rest of the day, I'm not sure what we are going to do. Everyone is napping now and I'm thinking about taking off and going to the beach or to the park! I want to do stuff while it is still daylight outside!

Also a few things I forgot to include in this mornings post. We have cockroaches! Eww..it's so disgusting. Sam swears that everyone probably has them because we are so close to the water and the buildings are all old but still....it's gross. They are crunchy and they're crawly critters. So the landlord stopped by yesterday and I mention it to him and he said he would get some spray. They are just mainly in the stairwell but we did see one in the hallway and that night alex felt that it was necessary to sleep in my bed with me... Our landlord is english and he is sooooo english. He says righto! and other weird things and is very sarcastic and comes off extremely rude! He is kinda funny at times though..he's nice though. Like I said...totally British!

Tomorrow I'm thinking about going to Montserrat. It is way up in the mountains and is the home of The Lady of Montserrat and a benedictine monastery with one of the oldest boy choirs dating back to the 14th century! I love history so this sounds exciting...I'm going!..then I might also bop up to costa brava the next day and check out Girona, a city full of jewish history!! I've decided that I'm going to take day trips and check out some stuff here and then travel on some other weekends after I discover what to expect from school!

Adios Amigos!

Dia Dos

So it was day two with the roommates yesterday. It was kind of a rough day for me yesterday. I'm dealing with giving my roomies time to adjust to everything here. I always want to give my advice on everything but at the same time, they really have to learn on their own. So, hopefully by the end of the week and by the time classes start they will have adjusted. I know that the first week is hard and I didn't expect myself to be able to step right back into the swing of things here but it's like it was yesterday that I was in Greece and if feels great to be back. We we ahead and signed up for the USB thing and are splitting it 4 ways. Anyone want to make a bet on how long that's going to last?? haha One of my roommates, stephanie, bought a prepaid phone with vodafone. I looked there and a mobile place down the street that seemed a little cheaper. I'm going to observe how well her service works for her and how much money she spends this first week or so and then maybe I'll sign up for it too. I don't want to get ripped off and I'm in no urgent need of a phone because I'm not really going to be using it that much anyways. I'll have to rely on what internet I have access too really. Yesterday after the phone fiasco I did some exploring around our neighborhood. There is literally a bar on every corner. I found two grocery stores. The one I went too was really small and not at all like the one in Greece that I went too. However, as I was walking back of course, I found the big one! Go figure! Soo last night I went with sam to this bar called the black sheep literally next door to our flat. It was ok, we shared a sausage plate thing with some bread. This wasn't my ideal thing since I don't like pork and I'm trying not to eat meat anymore...blah! However it wasn't pork really it was like black bull sausage, white bull sausage, and a variety of others. Needless to say, my favorite was the white bull and I ate a whole loaf of bread for dinner..lol

Then I came back to the flat a started hardcore into my "Let's Go Europe" book and was thinking about going somewhere this weekend. That plan got cut a little short when I realized that airfares are freaking outrageous!! I'm not paying 200 Euro for a 1 hour flight to rome. Therefore, I'm going to make it my goal to really do stuff on the weekends no matter how tired I am. I'm going to just plan things out ahead and book flights so that it is cheaper. I narrowed it down to the places that I MUST see. Honestly, I really tried.

They are: Dublin, Amsterdam, London (it's going to be expensive, I know)

Vienna, Prague, Budapest ( hopefully I can do these three in like a long weekend before it gets too cold, they are very close)

Germany- lots to see, not exactly sure what cities yet

Paris - its obvious that i'm just trying to get here to see the Louvre and Disneyland Paris duh!

Italy - Rome, Florence, Milan, Naples, Pompeii and so on

Then maybe luxembourg and berlin and maybe back to greece if i have time and money...

Well got to go start my day!!

Step aside, I have arrived! HOLA!!!

Alrighty, so I finally made it! I arrived around 2pm on tuesday. I took 3 flights to get here, each of them was a little scary. Good food though, Kudos to Northwest. They plane I was on had to have been brand spanking new!! It was great, and I was pretty relaxed after the first 3 hours or so. I had a layover in Amsterdamn. That was interesting the security checkpoint we went through at customs was a little crazy. They put me in this tube like thing and it spun around and then they patted me down!! I was like gezzz...then they searched all my bags. It was a little over the top. My thought was, ¨all this just to get a netherlands stamp in my passport book?¨ lol They had a nice airport though. Then i took KLM to Barcelona. They gave us a weird sandwhich, I really honestly don´t know what it was, but i ate it and then they came around with cookies!! I´m telling you, international airlines are like the best thing!! Plus i got to sit in an exit row and I was beside a chinese girl from SAN FRAN and she was pretty cool, we had alot in common. She was vacationing for the week here. As soon as I actually arrived I took the AEROBUS from the airport to plaza cataluyna and easily found my way. Thank goodness I did not have to wonder around for 3 hours like I did in Greece!!! So our apartment is on this extremely busy street right off of Las Ramblas. It´s very happening here. I arrived and carried all my crap up thestairs. It´s really cute. ALOT bigger than I imagined. I´m rooming with Stephanie and I got the double bed so i´m pretty happy. All my roomies arrived today and we have been hanging out and exploring all day. I am yet to find something affordable for a phone service. Also, the internet is 50 Euro a month for unlimited but we all have to share one USB stick! ONE!! I don´t see that working with my addiction and unless mommy dearest is willing to foot that bill, then I am going to search for something more affordable!! As soon as we get something figured out then I will be able to blog more. Rightn now it is 2 in the morning and we are at some pakistan internet cafe and it is like 100 degrees in here!! lol It´s beautiful here btw. I´m glad this isn´t my first rodeo. All my roomies are trying to adjust and are going through that stage, so I´m glad I can skip that this time around!! I´m already enjoying myself!! I will write soon!! This is only the beginning!! haha!