Roman Ruins, Crazy Parties, and Lazy Beach Days - Yes, this is school in full swing!

Alright alright, enough already, I know that everyone has been sitting around their houses ready to read about what’s happening next in the “Fabulous Life of Annie”…. Lol

School has been keeping me very busy with all my group projects....sooo I am sincerely sorry that it has been so long since my last post, this past week was hectic and then I was sick for a few days so I apologize but here is a “quick” recap and Julie do not skim, you better read the whole thing!!! Every detail!

Let’s start with Monday – Monday I was very tired, I was up until about 3 am after getting home around midnight talking to Alex about my weekend plus I was very tired from my trip. 5 hours in the Amsterdam airport took it out of me! At school we got assigned lots of homework because we had the next Monday off from school because October 12^th is a national holiday here in Spain – I’m sure your just baffled aren’t you!? I have the same professor Carmen for both classes on Monday and in both classes she gave us things to see and do around Barcelona. In the first class we were assigned to a group so that we weren’t with the same people from our countries. Our assignment – each group had to visit a different museum, park, and restaurant and do a presentation on our findings. Second class was pretty much the same except we got to pick our groups this time so all of the Americans are together. Assignment – a monument in the Gothic Quarter that we have to give a presentation on. This class is a class about tour guiding so next Monday we will be going for a tour and each group will present their monument or area and give a quick description. So, needless to say, this has kept me pretty busy the past week. I had lunch with the girls from Norway. We went to a local bakery and I had a vegetarian quiche. It was really good and then I followed that with a chocolate pastry BUT, I was walking up a hill as I ate it, so I don’t count those calories because they kina cross cancelled each other out!

Tuesday we had Spanish class and another class called Destination Barcelona. We had to prepare a power point on American culture. Every country had to give a presentation. Luckily, we ran out of time and didn’t have to present. We are taking a tour of La Pedrera on the 20^th and class got cancelled for the 13^th so we don’t have to give our presentation until the 27^th! Sweet! In-between classes I went with Alex’s group for Monday’s class and ate at their restaurant with them. It was called Bar Thomas and they are said to have the best Patatas Braves in Barcelona – they even got a write up in New York Times! And I can honestly tell you – they are probably the best that I’ve had so far! In case your wondering what they are – it’s like home fries from Bob Evan’s or cubed potatoes like that, fried and then topped with a spicy sauce and aioli (A sauce similar to mayonnaise) Tuesday afternoon I roamed around the Gothic Quarter for a while and I tried to go to a museum but it was closed so instead I explored my streets for Wednesday’s class and did some shopping! I got a cute outfit and new scarf!

Wednesday my group made some progress in event management. We are starting to brainstorm ideas and stuff and then our second class was also good. It is a research class with Katharine (our program coordinator). Instead of making us do boring research our project is a group effort and each group is assigned two popular streets within Barcelona to explore and do research on. We actually have to go to these streets at crazy hours and eat at the cafes, check out the shops, meet some of the locals, and just generally observe!! It’s one of the coolest projects even though it’s hard to coordinate between everyone’s crazy schedules! In the afternoon I went to the Museu d’Historia de la Ciutat or the City History Museum. It’s the most popular museum here in Barcelona and it is one of the coolest museums that I have ever been too. It is actually underground! It exposes the foundations of Barcino – the original Roman city. It’s amazing how well it’s preserved! I went by myself and ordered my ticket in Spanish!! However, they have an audio tour on a remote and she was going to give me Spanish but I had to blow my cover and settle for one in English. No one ever told me that I wasn’t allowed to take photos so for the first 20 minutes I was snapping pictures until a guy came up to me and told me that I wasn’t allowed to take pictures!! I don’t really understand why either. I know that you aren’t allowed to use a flash when your taking pictures of stuff like that but even in Greece we were allowed to take pictures of stuff that was much older!! I find this ridiculous! So, I didn’t get many pictures but I will post them shortly. I spent probably 2 ½ hours wondering around. I couldn’t believe how much of the roman city still existed! The remains are remarkable. If I was starting school all over again I would definitely go into archeology and writing. After the museum I also saw the Roman columns of the Temple of Augustus. Also very cool. I grabbed some Patatas Braves – which I also ordered in Spanish – and returned home. I almost booked a ticket to Milan for the next day but changed my mind and decided to go this weekend instead! So, BTW I’m going to Milan this weekend!!

Thursday started out slow but progressively got better. We had Spanish in the morning and then our second class got cancelled so we went to the beach instead! That night our school was throwing a party at this place so we bought tickets and decided to go. I had an awesome time. When we first got there they had a pretty famous Spanish band playing so we got some drinks and then they started playing dance music around 1 a.m. It was packed. I danced all night until about 5 am when we left! I didn’t get to bed until 7:30 in the morning!! What an awesome night though! I had so much fun.

Friday Alex woke me up around 10:30 to go to the beach! We spent pretty much the whole day there even though we didn’t really get there till about 1 p.m. We practiced our Spanish and got a tan! I lost my voice on Thursday night so Friday we all stayed home and did our own thing. This is sort of when my sickness began. The next morning I woke up coughing my head off and have had this cough for about 4 days now. At first I just thought that I lost my voice because I was practically screaming on Thursday night or that maybe it was from all the cigarette smoke but Saturday it was confirmed that I was indeed sick. BLAH!! I hate being sick in general but being sick with no one to take care of me sucks even more! LUCKILY, Alex is the best roommate in the world and has pretty much catered to my every need! She made me hot tea and toast for breakfast! So after we made it to the beach we hung out there all day and then that night we went to our favorite bar “The Black Sheep” and had some sangria. Almost everyone from our program was there that night. We were having a great time until these idiots from Germany called us “bitches.” They were really rude and basically wanted to fight a bunch of girls…it was retarded and they left shortly after they realized what an ass they had made of themselves! We got home around 3:30 and passed out.

Sunday was a lazy day. As I have stated many times before – everything is closed here on Sundays. This still baffles me! I just can’t believe that the grocery store isn’t open on Sundays! We all got together to go to the beach but as soon as we got there it started getting cold and windy like it was about to rain. We didn’t stay long. We had some drinks and some snacks and then we left. We went for a stroll up Passeig de Gracia – the best street for shopping in Barcelona. Even though everything was closed, it was still cool to check it out. We grabbed a baguette at a little shop and then proceeded to the Black Sheep. We didn’t stay very long and were in bed by 3.

Monday/ Today – Christopher Columbus day in America – Spain’s National Holiday in Spain. Again, most things were closed. I met with my group early around 10:30 to go to our museum, our park, and our restaurant. The museum was closed, the park was under construction, and our restaurant was closed so it was a failed attempt! We had lunch at a cute little café though and we hit the beach. We went out to the beach clubs last night – Opium and Shoko. We had a good time but we didn’t stay to long because we had Spanish this morning at 10:30. It was definitely hard to pull myself out of bed this morning after the crazy weekend that I’ve had and especially since I still feel sick. I think my throat is worse now!! My cold has moved from a sore throat to a chest cold. I don’t physically feel sick and I still have energy but I have a nasty cough. I’ve been trying to eat better since I’ve gotten sick but it’s hard! Also, FYI – I went to the Pharmacia to get some medicine on Sunday. In Spain you can buy birth control, prescription painkillers, and other strong medicines over the counter! You don’t have to have a prescription for these things. This is how it works – You go in and describe your symptoms and they just hand you a box of medicine! It’s very easy and it’s not really that expensive. Whatever they gave me though I don’t think is working. I think it was more for sinus congestion.

Also, I’m very excited to be going to Milan this weekend. I’m hoping to be able to take the train over to Venice and/or Verona while I’m there also. Leonardo’s famous “Last Supper” is in Milan and I can’t wait to see it!! I love art and history! I was originally going by myself but then Alex’s mom said that she could go and now Stephanie is also going. So, we’ll see how this weekend works out! I don’t think that I’m taking my laptop with me because we will be staying at a hostel and I don’t want to worry about my most valuable item being stolen!! I don’t know what I would do if my precious baby disappeared into the hands of an Italian stranger! <3>

Other things: My Aunt Jo Ellen sent me a wonderful package in the mail with two different books that I’ve been wanting to read that deal with law – one is called The Firm by John Grisham and the other is called Pinstripes and Pearls and is about the women of the Harvard Law Class of 64’ – I’ve already started it and I already like it! It’s very empowering! They also sent me a bunch of American candy! YAY! :D THANK YOU!!

Learning Spanish – I’m getting really good, or well, at least I think so. I make it a point to use my Spanish everyday and I try to read different things in Spanish everyday. In class we have learned the basics and now we are starting to learn the verbs and how to conjugate them and everything. So, it’s getting harder but I’m learning. I used to think that Spanish wasn’t a pretty language but I’m slowly starting to realize that it’s nice. I’ve never really enjoyed Spanish mostly because the Spanish that we speak in America is informal Mexican Spanish and working in a restaurant, I hear all different sorts of words in Spanish – most of which are not appropriate to post on here! However, I have a new respect for the language and it’s simplicity. Spanish culture and Mexican culture in general are very different. One of my main concerns when choosing Spain, as my next destination to study in was “I hope its nothing like Mexico.” My views of Mexico are not the greatest and I attribute this to a variety of different experiences. However, I’m happy to say that I’m falling in love with Barcelona and I might not come back home!! I know it sounds crazy but if I had my choice I’d stay here forever. (I’d miss my family & friends though!!) Life is so different. People enjoy their lives here, daily life isn’t about how much money you make, and how nice the car is that you drive or the job you have, it’s about what really matters, family, friends, flowing wine, and food!! Last week when I got off the plane from Helsinki my first thought was “I’m home,” and I haven’t been able to say that about any other place except for West Virginia. Yes it’s hot, and stinky, but there’s just something about this place, it’s like an infection and I love it! It’s also nice to be able to just go to the beach whenever!

I’m having the time of my life and I couldn’t be happier. This trip is very different compared to my last one. Both have had their challenging moments to say the least! My last trip was a tour around the entire country of Greece and was definitely the most important learning and growing experience of my life. This trip though, this one is different because I’m actually LIVING in Spain; I’m not quite a tourist and not quite a resident. I’m somewhere in between. I must tend to blend in pretty well though because people come up to me all the time and ask me questions in Spanish when their lost! Lol

I’m 20 ya know, and I’m all about having a great time and seeing the world. This is my goal in life, I have this passion for experiencing different cultures and people and if there were a job for it I would just travel to a new country each year! I’m really glad that I changed my focus to International Tourism Operations because I feel like that one little change might make a huge difference when I go to find a job doing something that I love. But who knows…!

**Here’s what I’ve discovered this past week or my most important thought for the week:

It’s impossible to be happy everyday but it’s important to try to be happy everyday. Like they say, we have to have bad days to appreciate the good ones.

I will blog more this week as long as you promise to read!!! And leave some comments please! I think my mom left directions on another blog post. I’d like to get one from someone that I don’t know who’s reading!! Hi NAN!!