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…