"Ireland's Garden" - Wicklow & Glendalough

Ireland is absolutely beautiful! I simply do not know any other way to describe it.

Yesterday after arriving at the hostel, I immediately got settled in. The first thing I did was get a shower, I know that I probably should have been sight seeing but I start to feel really disgusting after 24 hours. - That's my limit! My hostel is really nice. I'm in a 14 bed room but it's very spacious and each of us have our own little area, it's very clean, and the beds are comfortable and warm! This hostel is supposed to be one of the top 10 in the world and from what I've seen so far I can understand why. The bathrooms are always sparkling clean, they have free wi-fi, free breakfast, a very social atmosphere, and the people at the front desk are great at giving advice and will even book tours for you!! They also have a elevator! I'm really happy I decided to stay here! I'm only paying 40 Euro for 3 nights, which is a really good deal! :D

So after I got ready I decided to talk to the people at the front desk about tours and then do some sight seeing. I really wanted to go to the Cliffs of Moher but the guy at the front desk discouraged me from doing the tour and gave me ample reasons to back up his statement. Instead he recommend this other tour through Wicklow and Glendalough. The other tours were almost 70 Euro and the one he suggested was only 25...so I took his advice because he seemed like he knew what he was talking about. So, I booked it! I was so excited! Next, I thought I should do as much sight seeing as possible since I was going to be on a tour all day Saturday and I would only have Sunday for seeing everything else. I went to see the Christ Church which is very close to where I'm staying. It was beautiful. Old yet well maintained. I got some great pictures and then I proceed to this cafe recommended in my travel book for some Fish and Chips! I have been craving them ever since I saw a sign for them in Amsterdam! This cafe was supposed to be a good value and some of the freshest in Dublin. It was almost 9 Euro but it was huge! It probably weighed more than 3 pounds! I couldn't finish all my fries but I finished all my fish! I had to pick out some bones towards the end and I accidentally swallowed one but Mom said that I'm going to live! haha After fish and chips I went inside the city hall which was pretty. All the attractions close early around 5 or 6 so I didn't a chance to see anything else so I just started walking around and before I knew it I was in Temple Bar!! This area is full of pubs, restaurants, and cafes. Great night scene. I wondered all around this area and then I found myself at O'Connell street so I started walking in that direction. O'Connell is the main street here in Dublin. They have everything, it's sorta the center. They have monuments galore as well as plenty of tourist shops, and other great stores to shop at. I walked all the way up it and then I turned down Henry street where they great shopping is located! Shockingly I didn't buy anything other than 2 pencils for my collection! I saw so many things that I liked and I wanted to buy them but I'm starting to run out of money and I'm trying to save some for Madrid and other things I want to do in Barcelona. I wish I could have an advance on my Christmas presents so that I could do a little bit of shopping without having to worry so much about every penny that I spend!! So after going in 100 shops I headed back to O'Connell and got a great juice smoothie at this juice bar! It was so good and the guy in the shop was really nice. It's a little strange to hear people speaking English on the streets here. To be honest, it's shocking how nice the people are! The guy at the juice bar was so nice and when someone runs into you in the street here they stop to give you a sincere apology! It's crazy! They are just so nice, it's totally different from Spain! I made my way back to my hostel and I got some great pictures of the city at night. The Liffey river splits the city in two so it's lined with bridges and at night they have green lights underneath all of the bridges and they are so pretty! After I got back I messed around on the internet and made friends with some of the girls here at the hostel. The majority of everyone is from the US, 5 girls are studying in Paris, 2 in London, and a couple more. We were all talking about going home soon and how we are all sad to leave! A couple of the girls are very excited to go back though....I went to bed around 1.

This morning I woke up around 8:30 to get ready for my trip to the Irish countryside! Our tour was leaving at 9:45 so I wanted to have ample time to get a shower, get ready, and eat a good breakfast. Five other girls from the hostel were also going on the trip, including a friend that I made last night named Melissa. I convinced her to go on the tour! lol So our tour guide arrives and he is an older man, average height with white hair, and his name was Ed. He said, "I'm Ed, that's an E and a D!" lol He was really funny and as soon as we got on the little bus he got acquainted with each one of us and when I told him I was from West Virginia he was very excited! He said that when he was in the navy and when they were getting close to the East Coast that the first radio station that they could pick up was WVVA or something out of Wheeling, West Virginia!! We shared a laugh and I thought that was pretty cool! lol We were all from the US except for 1 Australian and 2 Danish girls. We meet 4 other girls that were from New York that were staying in a different hostel. So after we all met each other the tour began. It was pouring the rain so the visibility was pretty much zero! I was a little skeptical at first, he took us down the coast which was pretty even in the rain. He also showed us where the rich people live in Dublin, they live in huge castles on cliffs that drop off to the sea! It's like something out of a movie. So after we go through this ritzy neighborhood we head into Wicklow where the scenery completely changed within a matter of 5 minutes! The Irish countryside is just absolutely breathtaking. I've never seen anything like it! It's just unbelievable! So lush, green, and full of sheep! Our first stop was on top of a mountain and the bus ride there was a little scary! It was raining so hard and there was water all over the road! It was also very bumpy and I was joking around with the girls on the bus that we were on an Irish Safari!! lol We all thought that it was fitting! So we pull into this little gravel lot and the tour guide turns around and asks if anyone is going to get out. We all look at him like, "well of course we are." However, after going out of the bus I soon realized why he looked at us the way he did! He made us coffee and hot tea while us crazy students went out the the edge of this cliff! As soon as I got out of the van I was immediately pelted with rain. It was so windy!! It was also very muddy and slippery. Once I had made it out the edge I was literally almost blown off the mountain! I've felt (I think 50 or 70 mph) winds at a science museum before and these winds were much stronger. I couldn't even take a step without the wind moving me four steps! I was a little scared because we were all really close to the edge and the gusts were definitely strong enough to blow someone over the edge. On a couple occasions I felt like the wind was picking me up! I decided that I wasn't going to go any further and started to turn around but then I was pelted in the face with rain. When it hit my face and my ears it stung, it was very painful! It was not a good feeling and by the time I had made it back to the bus my face hurt pretty bad and I was soaking wet! I looked like I had just taken a shower! The fog on the mountain was so heavy that you couldn't even see the lake below you or the old Georgian main that the Guinness family owns! So, I was a little disappointed but I ended up getting a view of the lake while driving down the other side of the mountain. We had wonderful hot tea and coffee on the bus along with a biscuit! It was lovely! After we had left the mountain he took us to the sights where they filmed the movies, "P.S. I Love You," "Braveheart," and "The Reign or Ring of Fire." He said that many movies are filmed in Ireland because there is no tax for artists here. So, that's why "Braveheart" was filmed here even though the actual setting was Scotland, only 10% of the whole movie was filmed there. (I learned many interesting facts on this tour!) After seeing the movie sights we stopped at this amazing waterfall!! Again, breathtaking! It was huge and the rain had finally let up so it was much more pleasurable getting out of the bus this time! lol We took some pictures even though it was really windy and then we walked down the mountain where our guide picked us up and then we headed for lunch in this cute little Irish town! We ate at Anna's cafe and I had a vegetarian panini with red peppers, onions, and goat cheese. Mmmm...it was so good and then I followed it up with a Cadbury bar! Perfecto! It was nice to order my food in English for once also! :) They also had a little hotel there as well as a gift shop so I looked around a little bit before we had to be back on the bus. After lunch we headed to Glendalough where St. Kevin's 6th century monastery is located. Very impressive. Irish ruins are not at all like Roman ruins. They are so much prettier, covered with moss, stoney, and everything has a celtic cross! Don't get me wrong, I love me some Roman ruins BUT, it was interesting to see some other ruins! I got some great photos here and learn some interesting facts about the crucifixion of Christ as well as some Irish history. After seeing the monastic ruins our tour guide left us to walk through the woods, past two lakes, and told us that he would pick us up in the parking lot at the other end. Glendalough means "Glen of two lakes" and that it was. The forest was gorgeous and I took so many pictures! Ireland has so many waterfalls and I'm glad that I came during the fall because the forest was very colorful and it made for a nice walk! We got a little lost in the forest, no one was really listening when our tour guide was giving us directions on where to go. We thought we had taken the wrong path so we walked back to this little fork in the road and went the other way. This path was basically like a bridge because it was crossing a river that was flowing out of the lake, well we all started walking across the bridge and then in the middle of this river, halfway across the bridge, the other side of the bridge was flooded and water was halfway up the side of the bridge! There was really no way for us to get across so we had to turn around and go back. We asked a guy for directions and he told us that we could also go the other way. Still, we were a little shocked to see a bridge like that, I mean, I've seen stuff like that on T.V. when there are floods but to see something like that in person kinda makes you panic at first. It's a little scary because water can be a very powerful force at times and the bridge could have broken! We made it to the parking lot just fine on the other path and it turns out that that was the right way to go anyways! We got back on the bus and made one other stop to look at the Dublin reservoir and the hydrowater plant. It was interesting to learn about both. I was looking at the window pretty much the whole trip back, it was so beautiful that I couldn't take my eyes off of the scenery! I started feeling sleepy when it started getting dark outside and I took a nice little nap until we had made it back to the hostel. After we got back Melissa and I debated on wether or not to do a pub-crawl. We couldn't find one with a free T-Shirt so we decided that we would just grab something to eat and maybe go to a pub instead. We walked over to Temple Bar and had dinner at this Gourmet Burger place. It was really good and affordable. We ended up staying there for almost 3 hours just talking about everything from boys, school, boys, our lives, boys, being independent, boys, life experiences, boys (you get the idea)!! We have sooooo much in common it's crazy! She's from California and she's studying in London right now. I'm excited to have made a new friend! She's coming to Barcelona this upcoming weekend and I told her that I would show her around! I'm anxious to show someone around the place that I have been living for 3 months ya know!? I've already told her so much about Barcelona, my roommates, and the other people there. So, it was a great day! I've made a good friend and I saw the countryside of Ireland! (this is why I like staying in hostels) What could be better!?? When I see such beautiful places like this, I know there must be a God to have made something so breathtaking! I'm a very lucky girl, not just today, everyday!! :D

I must get some rest now, I'm exhausted, it was a full day today and I have to see all of Dublin tomorrow!!

Goodnight!

Going Dirty to Dublin....!

So Sunday I wake up around 1 in the afternoon. I was pretty exhausted from my adventures in Tarragona! As I make my way into the kitchen my roommates inform me that there is no hot water and of course, at this point, all I want is a nice hot shower. Lol Sam tells me that the pilot is lit but the water is not hot. I said, well we’ll figure it out later. In the meantime, I had to wash dishes in order to eat anything that morning because every single dish in the house was dirty. To prove this – Sam drank water out of a creamer dish!! Well, we all know that you can’t wash dishes without hot water so I started boiling some water and one pot at a time, slowly but surely, I washed every single dish in the house! By the time I was finished I was starving so I made myself some poached eggs and toast! Mmm! After breakfast I decided that I would try to figure out what was wrong with the hot water issue. First I sat down and emailed our landlord to let him know that we didn’t have any hot water. Then, I went to the hot water heater thing and decided that I would just blow out the current pilot light and try to light it again! I did this and I guess while I was making all this noise on the back patio our landlord heard me and I look up and he is staring down at me from the balcony above us (they also own the flat above us)! He scared the crap out of me. I said, “Oh, there you are! I just emailed you, we don’t have any hot water.” So, he came down and told me everything that I already knew about the situation, like he didn’t believe me when I said there was something wrong, and said that he would call someone first thing in the morning and that it wouldn’t take long for someone to come over and then he mumbled something about leaving town Wednesday. In the meantime he gave us a key to the flat upstairs and told us that we could take showers there. As for the rest of the day, I got a shower and after Sam and Goncalo came home from playing futbol I hung out with them for a while. I got ready for school, did some homework and went to bed. Not too exciting!

Monday – In class we had to give a presentation, like usual. My first class was pretty boring and my group is ahead of the game because we did next weeks presentation this week! So, that’s one less assignment that I have to worry about this weekend. In our second class we got our assignments up until the end of the semester. It’s so weird to think that my time here is almost over and that I’m almost done with college. It’s extremely heartbreaking. After school Monday I was determined to get some things accomplished because I felt like I hadn’t gotten anything done all weekend. So, I went to the grocery store, I cleaned our bathroom, swept and cleaned our room, swept the rest of the house, and took out the trash. I don’t think my roommate Stephanie knows HOW to clean a bathroom and I’ve come to the conclusion that that HAS to be the reason she hasn’t cleaned anything or washed a load of towels since she’s been here! She’s pretty messy and we all know how I feel about messy people – it’s just disgusting and there’s no excuse for that type of laziness and disorganization. So I come to find out, Alex told me, Stephanie told her that she had cleaned the bathroom a couple days ago. So Alex being the cleanly person she is asks her how she cleaned it and Stephanie proceeds to tell her that she cleaned it with soap and hot water and that she scrubbed it with the toilet brush!! – I almost choked on the cereal I was eating when she said this. #1 – When she says soap, I’m curious if she used my bar of soap in the shower? Because we don’t have anymore shower cleaner and Gel de Bano, or shower gel isn’t shower cleaner. #2 Who the hell uses a toilet brush to clean a shower? That’s just nasty! It’s common sense that you don’t put your shit where you take a shower! EW! Again – the stupidity of the average person amazes me sometimes.

After I had given the bathroom a thorough scrub, I did some homework and I FINALLY uploaded my pictures from Rome – which btw took forever so I want to hear that you enjoyed every last one of them! :D Went to bed around 1 or 2 – pretty normal day, wait, I take that back, there is never a normal day in my life!

Tuesday – Catalan class was challenging. Over the weekend we were supposed to study so that we could have a “party” in class. A “party” is when we get up and mingle around with our classmates and only speak in Catalan. I survived and I learned some new words! Com et dius? Ehm dic Leandra. Soc de Estats Units. Tinc bint anys! After Catalan we finally had a class with Marta after her class has been cancelled for the past month and a half! I swear we’ve only had her class I think 3 other times since being here, only one of those in which she actually taught us something! So, it was a surprise to see her actually conducting class because we usually only see her when she has something to tell us about a schedule change or something going on at the school. And another thing I want to mention – I can completely see why Johnson and Freaking Wales does an exchange program here because they are almost just as equally disorganized. Now, the cultural boundaries aside, I think they do a better job here at Sant Ignasi as far as school things go BUT, in every single class this week when the teacher’s have been taking roll and they call out the names of the Maastricht students (who keep in mind left last week) we had to tell them that they left! And every teacher this week was like, “Oh my, they left already? Marta never mentioned anything about them leaving.” (AKA they obviously have some communication issues, and the Maastricht students lucked out by not having to take a final!) So After Marta’s class was over I had to meet with my group to put together our PWP for next week’s street presentation. The meeting didn’t last long before I realized that I was going to be doing the majority of the work which I don’t really mind that much because that way I know it’ll be done on time and done right. I despise group projects and I blame being a hospitality management major for this. At this point in my college career I know how these “group” projects work out – they usually don’t. If JWU has taught me anything about the management industry it’s to not rely on your co-workers! – I’m not sure if that was one of the objectives on the syllabus or not? I can’t remember… lol

We made the outline and then I went home and just started adding pictures and stuff. Tuesday night I managed to get my pictures of Amsterdam uploaded and I washed some towels. That’s about it really.

Wednesday – John, our landlord, told us that the maintenance guy would be by sometime between 9-1 and that we should just stay there to wait for him. He came around 10. He came inside, went back, played around with the water heater, turned on the water a couple times and what not and then came out and gave us an invoice for 335.65 Euro! Now, I wasn’t home when John had come by Tuesday night but, Alex told me that he left us 150 Euros and said that it should cover the cost. I’m assuming that he left town but I’m not sure. So I wasn’t downstairs when the maintenance man left but Alex said he came into the kitchen, said that it was fixed, gave them the invoice and when Alex said they didn’t have enough money he said, “That’s ok, just have John call me and I’ll come by and pick it up whenever!” – It seemed like such a painless process! Well – when we got home that evening we tried to do dishes but there was still no hot water! I was so mad. After talking to a Spanish friend of ours she informed us that he didn’t fix it and won’t fix it until we pay him the full amount of money, that he probably just came over to assess the problem! –GREAT! So I sent John an email but of course he hasn’t responded. It’s currently Friday when I’m writing this and we still don’t have any hot water AND on top of that, Alex locked the key in the flat upstairs that John had given us to take showers. So, I couldn’t get a shower this morning before leaving for Dublin, so I’m going dirty to Dublin! Lol I also find it really rude of John to go out of town, for who knows how long, when we don’t have hot water. As our landlord, and for the amount of money that we pay every month, he should have made sure that the problem was being taken care of.

As far as the rest of my day - Ugh, Events Management – enough said! I honestly used to be interested in doing events and working in that area but after BOTH of my event classes I’ve come to despise the entire idea. I think I’ve just had some shitty teachers. Luckily we had a guest speaker this week. Her English wasn’t perfect so it was hard to follow along and I remember bits and pieces but for the most part I was dozing in and out the whole time. In this class we are going to go to a conference of some sort called the EIBTM first week in December. We were all supposed to register online and then they send you a badge in the mail. Well, Alex and I, registered as soon as they told us about it over a month ago and we still haven’t received our badges! Stephanie and Sam registered like 1 week ago and got theirs in the mail this week!? Please tell me how that is logical? So, just to make sure I get one, I registered again! Hopefully it will come in the mail soon!

After events, I met with my group for Thursday’s class, had a quick lunch, and headed to Katherine’s class. My group will present next week, which will also be our last class. I got to see the other 2 groups present this week and their presentations were good! After school I took the metro home like usual, grabbed something to eat and went out to shop for a coat. I also looked around a little bit Tuesday night. After shopping Wednesday I had it narrowed down to 2! I decided to sleep on it and try them on again tomorrow. After I got home I felt exhausted! I tried to work on some stuff for school but I didn’t get much done! I went to bed around usual Spanish bedtime, 1 or 2.

Thursday – It was so hard to pull myself out of bed yesterday morning!! I really debated just not going to Catalan. I haven’t missed any classes at school yet and I so badly wanted to take a personal day!! I tell you what – I’ve discovered that I’m a pretty dedicated and motivated college student! Back home at JWU we obviously have a strict attendance policy so I’m pretty much forced to go to class but now when I have the luxury of being able to miss a class and I still decide to go – that’s dedication! I actually enjoy school PLUS, I’m footing the expensive bill for this education and you would be stupid to think that I’m going to pay for a class and not attend or fail at that! I know so many students that pay for classes, don’t go half the time, don’t try, and then when they fail them, they’re upset because they are out an average of $1200 for that class, and they FAILED – both are bad but, the money part is non-refundable and usually they have to retake the class. What a waste of time and money. College is such a money making scheme in America for this reason- STUPID PEOPLE! They thrive on young, irresponsible teenagers who think they are adults! So I decided that I better go to class because I only have 3 more weeks left as an undergrad and I need to take full advantage of it! I show up to class and there are only 4 other people in the room. I guess everyone had the same idea that I had! So many people miss Maria Jose’s class and I think it’s just plain disrespectful. Plus, if you don’t go to class you really can’t learn the language. After Catalan I headed straight for the CDT, or library, and started working on my project. I was determined to finish my “To-Do” list that I had made for myself at the beginning of the week. #1 on that list was to book my room for Madrid! I’ve been trying to accomplish this for weeks now! #2 was to finish up all my homework for next week before the weekend so that I can be stress free for a few days! I need it!

The room I booked for Madrid is really nice! I will be staying at the Hotel Husa Nuevo; it’s located in the business district close to the school where I will be taking my test, St. Louis University. It’s a brand new hotel with flat screen TV’s, a sauna, modern rooms, and most importantly FREE wi-fi! AND because I have booked so much stuff through Expedia lately they have been sending me coupons for travel left and right. I had a $50 off coupon and a $10 off each night stay coupon; I used my $50 coupon. For a 4-night stay I only paid 330 Euro, which is $82 US Dollars a night! That’s pretty good from what I’m used to seeing! I was excited to find such a good deal. After I booked my room I worked on some of my project and then headed to my last class of the week! We watched 2 presentations and then I headed home. After I got home I went out with Sam to help him look for a new hat. He wanted a female opinion so I took him to H&M and picked him out a nice hat and a nice sweater. I was his personal shopper and I made the process painless for him. After that I went to buy my coat. I decided to go with the more expensive one at Zara because it was of better quality and it’s classier. The coat at Bershka was 20 Euro cheaper but it was more casual, not as heavy, and I knew that I would have to sew the buttons back on probably 5 times! Plus, the classier one I can wear anywhere. It was a good investment. Merry Christmas to me! UGH – growing up sucks. It’s sad when you have to buy yourself a coat as a Christmas present to yourself…I’d much rather have other things…but I’m thankful that I can buy a coat…that’s what’s really important, well that and the fact that now I won’t freeze in Dublin or Barcelona!

After I got home I decided that I was going to plant myself in a chair and that I wasn’t going to move until our power point for next week was done. It worked out! I only got up to make scrambled eggs with cheese and toast and to socialize when Goncalo and his cousin, who is visiting from France, dropped by. It seems like all the students from Europe have a family member or a boyfriend coming to visit. Every week there is a different girl in our class whose boyfriend is visiting! I guess if I lived close I’d visit too but us American’s don’t get any visitors. I feel kind of left out because I don’t have anyone to show the city too! So, if anyone would like to come visit, just let me know, I’d love to have you!!

I finished the majority of the presentation and then I started packing! I decided that I was going to take my laptop and my LSAT book with me this weekend because the hostel has free wi-fi and a safe deposit box to store my laptop in. I have become an expert packer over the past few months, not that I wasn’t a great packer before hand, because I was! Ask anyone; I always have anything and everything you could ever need. I come prepared for almost any situation. Austin had 2 reasons for dating me - #1 was because I always had everything he needed when he needed it and #2 was because I had a big butt! Lol So, I’ve always been a good packer but I have recently learned how to pack perfectly, in 20 minutes time, for a weekend getaway without having to check a bag at the airport. Believe it or not people, this does take skill, and no, JWU did not teach me this!

I got to bed around 3 last night and woke up around 8:15 this morning. I didn’t make it on the train to the airport so I had to pay 5 Euro to take the bus. Then, after I arrived to the airport they informed me that my flight had been delayed by 30 minutes. So, I grabbed some breakfast at the airport, found my gate, and then it was off to Dublin! It’s so weird to think that I’m flying to a place where they will be speaking English as a first language! I’m kind of excited in a way but I’m still in Spanish mode so I wouldn’t be surprised if I start asking for things in Spanish, I’ve done that in Rome and Amsterdam! I’m just so used to it now! The flight was extremely bumpy. I was panicking as usual. I thought we were going down! I asked the flight attendant if this was normal and she said that when flying do Dublin there is always a lot of turbulence because of the tailwinds but going back will be nice and smooth. I hope she’s right! We made a safe landing and since I was in seat 2C I was practically the first person off the plane! It was weird to see the signs in English at the airport and even though it's my first language I was still roaming around lost! Don't even ask how! I finally figured out where I was supposed to be going so I bought a bus ticket, hopped on the bus, and made my way to the Four Courts Hostel, rated one of the top 10 hostels in the world! I'm safely at the hostel now and I am already pleased with it! I'm off to see the sights in Dublin and I'll update tomorrow!

P.S. (don't forget to read about my trip to Tarragona, I posted both of these posts at the same time!)

Hopefully the Irish will bring me some luck!! :D

Tarragona

So late Friday night Sam, Goncalo, and myself decided that we were going to take a day trip down to Tarragona last Saturday. We didn’t want to get up too early but we didn’t want to get up to late because there is a lot to see in Tarragona and because it starts getting dark so early now you have to get up early to see stuff! We made it a goal to leave by 9:30. We left more or less on time and didn’t really have a plan or an idea about what we were going to do. I knew how to get there but I didn’t really know too much about Tarragona other than it has nice beaches and well preserved Roman ruins. We get to the train station and I think that we had just missed a train going in that direction because 2 run per hour and we had to wait almost 45 minutes for the next train after we arrived. In the meantime, we occupied our time in the train station’s cafeteria. Goncalo bought some sandwiches for later and Sam and I had croissants. We caught the train around 11 I think and it took about an hour to get to Tarragona. The train ride down was beautiful because it was right on the beach and the beaches outside of Barcelona are real beaches and they are beautiful! After we arrived we weren’t really sure what to do! We decided to go left out of the train station, which we would soon come to find out, was the wrong way, we should have taken a right! Lol That’s ok, we took a nice walk down the port, stopped at the maritime museum and got a city map and navigated our way to the center city. This is about the same time that we started getting hungry and Goncalo realized that he had forgotten his sandwiches on the train!

Tarragona is a smaller town so it was easy to walk around. We made our way to the main Ramblas of the city where we ran into this really cool statue/monument. As you have read in my early posts, human castles are part of an important tradition here in Spain, especially in Catalunya, and here in Tarragona they actually made a human castle into a statue. It looked so life like that it was scary! It was very cool; you just have to see the pictures! We made our way down the rest of the Ramblas to the sea where the view was amazing! We took some pictures and then we spotted the ancient ruins of the Roman Coliseum. It’s actually very well preserved and it’s right on the beach so it makes for a great photo. We walked down, took some pictures and decided to grab lunch before heading to the famous aqueducts. We ate at a nice café where we each had different paella. Sam had seafood, I had vegetable, and Goncalo tried the arroz negra (black rice, this is when they use the squid ink and it makes it black) mine was really good, the service was slow but that’s normal.

After lunch we decided to make our way to the aqueducts. This is where the real adventure begins…I’m assuming everyone knows how to use a map, well as you know, most maps have the sights marked, especially touristic maps, and this one used numbers like most maps. Well 22 was the number of the aqueducts on the map but it was partially cut off at the top so we weren’t entirely sure where they were located. So, we start walking in the general direction that we think we are supposed to go in. We were definitely going the right way according to the street names and I’m pretty much an expert now at navigating my way through these European cities but then, the sidewalk starts to taper off and all of a sudden we are in the middle of a major highway (the highway between Barcelona and Valencia)! So we decided to stop and ask for directions. The people we asked told us that it was too far to walk to and that we should take the bus. So, we then went about trying to find the bus. We waited at one bus stop for about 15 minutes and then decided that we would try another one. We finally got onto a bus, which was difficult. Thank goodness we had Goncalo with us to speak Spanish because if not then we probably would have gotten onto the wrong bus! We told him that we were trying to go to the aqueducts and when he pulled off along side of the highway and signaled for us to get off I think we were all a little confused! Turns out, the bus stop for the aqueducts is in reality, on the side of the highway! Very dangerous. So we finally made it there and we proceed to walk towards the sign that says “Roman Aqueducts.” They are actually located within a park so we analyzed the map and just started walking towards what we thought was the right direction, again. We made it to the aqueducts and they were amazing. I had no idea that they were going to be so huge! I thought it would just be some arches in ruins but almost the entire thing was still in tact! It was definitely a sight to see and worth the trip. After we took some photos I think that we made a wrong turn. We thought we were following the right path because we kept seeing signs like their was a path marked but somehow we got lost. We were walking and Goncalo stops because he saw some thing attached to this bush, almost like a hair clip. We have no idea what it was but we’re calling it the “Catalan symbol” haha we took a picture and moved on! We stumbled upon some more ancient ruins in what used to be a garden for some member of the royal family. We walked a little bit further before we admitted to being lost! Lol We started seeing bullet casings on the ground and then we saw some yellow signs in Spanish that symbolized a gas line and we started to walk down this huge hill and then we saw signs in Spanish that said, “hunting grounds.” So, I guess we could have been shot! We had wondered from the park with the aqueducts to a hunting ground! I’m not sure how it makes any sense to put a park next to a hunting area but we all agreed that it seems like a very “Spanish” thing to do! So after we made our way out of the woods we were still lost. Somehow we had ended up next to the highway again but this time the bus stop was nowhere in sight! In order to get back to what we thought was the path we had to walk through a field that had been tilled up like they were going to plant something in it, maybe corn? (Picture an empty fresh, dirt field the size of 2 football fields) As we started to walk through this field, again we are probably lucky that we didn’t get shot, the dirt was so soft that we were practically sinking in it. Sam and Goncalo had the bright idea to run, full speed across the field. I tried this but it actually made it worse and I had so much dirt in my shoes by the time that I had gotten to the other side that it was disgusting! We made it back to a path finally and then it was like the shining light at the end of the tunnel, we were back at the entrance! We had to wait along side the highway for the bus for about 30 minutes. The sun was going down and it was starting to get cold and at this point we were pretty tired. After a long bus ride with stinky sweaty people we made it back to the civilization! We decided to walk through the old city and then go to this point on the beach to get a picture and then we would leave. Plus we were starting to get hungry again. We bought a ticket to see the old Roman city walls. It was dusk outside but the walls were beautiful at night! The lights on the walls made for some excellent pictures. We were the only people there so we took tons of pictures and played around. Sam picked an orange off of an orange tree, we thought it was lime though because it was small and green but, after being in my purse for a while we immediately knew it was an orange. When we were at the Castle of Montjuic he also picked a piece of fruit off of a tree, we think that one was a lime though. So, it has now become mandatory for him to collect a piece of fruit off of a tree every time we visit ancient ruins! After the Roman city we headed down to this point on the beach called playa de miracle. We thought that it would be nice to see the city at night from this point. It took us a while to walk there but we walked back to the train station on the beach and the weather was so nice that we only needed a light jacket, so I didn't mind. I think the high was around 73 or 74 during the day, perfect temperature. We made it to the station on time for the 8:40 train so we grabbed a sandwich and took a nap on the train on the way back. Overall it was a great day, it was quite the adventure, of course, traveling with two men I didn’t expect any less! One thing is for sure, after we got home it wasn’t long before we were passed out! We were exhausted!! Great day trip though, I'd highly recommend it although next time I'd prefer to do some more research on the area I plan to visit. BUT, sometimes those Sporadic trips are the best ones! ;)

My life ...a never ending adventure..

First let me start off by saying that I honestly need to write more often to avoid such long posts. I know this. I've just been lazy about it and I really need to get on the ball. The longer I wait, the harder it is for me to write and the more details I leave out. So, I vow from now on to do better with this issue.

Second...I forgot to say something else about my flight from Amsterdam last time. At the check in line at the airport these stupid people acted as if they had never been through airport security. Stupid people and airport security do not mix well - this is also one of my biggest pet peeves. So there is this husband and wife and then there are two security people on the other side of the walk through archway beeper thing. So the wife walks through and it beeps and the husband starts walking through before the wife had really even exited the other side of the arch. Now, these arches, as you know, are not big!! So then they each had to go back through and they repeated this same stupid thing seriously 3 times before the security had just about had enough of their shenanigans. They security arch was beeping like it was going to explode, I wanted to smack some sense into these people because they were holding up the entire line. If they wanted my opinion - these people were either #1 hiding something, or terrorists trying to get through security by going at the same time to cause confusion, OR #2, my personal favorite, JUST PLAIN FUCKING STUPID! Aaaaaannnnnnnndddd guess what folks, it was #2! They finally made it through and then it turned out that they were on my plane and acted just as stupid on the plane. Everyone clearly knows that on a plane the flight attendants are going to come up and down the aisles with their carts so if you need to use the bathroom you should plan accordingly. - The average person knows this. Well, the flight attendant is trying to move back through the aisle but this stupid lady (same lady) wants through to her seat and the flight attendant had to tell her not once, not twice, but three times and then literally move her into an empty seat in a row to get by and this stupid lady didn't even seemed phased by the fact that the whole plane was staring at her like she was mentally ill. I mean seriously? These people acted like it was their first time on an airplane and I clearly could tell that they were of Philippine or Asian decent and were not from Amsterdam because they spoke zero English. Therefore, I know that they have been on a plane before! lol

The point of all this - I'm constantly amazed by the stupidity of the "average" person. Sometimes I just can't believe how cluelessly people move through life. It just never seizes to amaze me!

Alright, now that I've got that out of my system..on to more important things. I think I left off with last monday so we will start with tuesday!

Tuesday - First day of Catalan!! Now I'm not sure if I've explained this before so I'll go ahead and go through it again just in case someone has been a "lazy reader" *cough* Julie *cough*! Spain has 9 or so Autonomous communities and Barcelona is located in Catalonia, probably the most important one. It's similar to us having states in the USA, we have federal laws and then each of our states kind of governs itself with its own laws and stuff. It's similar to that concept. So in Catalonia they speak two different languages. First they speak Catalan which is spoken by almost 7 million people most here in Catalonia, Andorra, the Balearic Islands, some parts of France, and some parts of Italy and then they speak Spanish. They are both nationally recognized languages. All of the signs, museums, even McDonald's is in Catalan here!! It's similar to Spanish in some ways but it is also similar to, and sounds like, French. A mixture between Spanish and French would be the best way to describe it. Therefore, Barcelona is not the BEST city to learn Spanish in because everything is in Catalan and sometimes when I think I'm learning a new Spanish word, I'm really learning a Catalan word! It can be very frustrating at times.

So we stated learning Catalan in class on tuesday. It's a very hard language but it sounds very pretty! I don't think that I will master this one but it's useful to my everyday life here in Barcelona! Our second class was cancelled again on tuesday. We have literally had this class I think 3 times since we've been here. It gets cancelled every week but I honestly don't mind! The less work I have to do means more time to party and relax for me! After school on tuesday I can't even remember what I did. I probably just procrastinated about doing homework and was lazy.

Wednesday we had, the always dreadful, event management. The class ran over and I felt like just getting up and leaving. I didn't take a single note all class I just surfed the internet on my iphone! lol I hate this class with a passion, it's just so poorly taught that I can't even bring myself to pay attention anymore! We grabbed a quick bite to eat after class and went to our research class with Katherine. We got to watch one group do their street presentations and then we voted on who was going to go on the 18th and who was going to present on the 25th. My group got the 25th, thank goodness! My group decided how we were going to split up the paper and our presentation and then class was over! After we got home from school I went to the store for a few things, Sam and I made homemade tomato soup and grilled cheese! It was okay. The soup was a little to tangy for my taste in tomato soups and the cheddar cheese that we bought for our sandwiches tasted like crap. lol It's not the same here at all! I worked diligently on homework this night for Thursday's class. I got one of the assignments done. I laid down at 10:30 to take a short nap and ended up sleeping all night until I woke up at about 7:30 the next morning!! I guess I was really tired! **

Thursday - A very busy day -My day started off pretty good, I had plenty of time to get ready and enjoy my breakfast and then it was off to school! We practiced our Catalan in class, learned our alphabet and numbers, as well as some useful phrases. After class we had a 3 1/2 hour break but I had to meet with my group members for Thursday's class at 2pm to put together our parts for our "Basque Country" presentation. So, I had to quickly do my part!! I hurried through it and when I went to meet with my group at 2 only one other girl showed up and she wasn't even at the meeting last week! I was ticked off! Our other 2 group members could have at least called or texted us to let us know that they weren't going to be coming ya know!? We worked on the project anyways since we were there and had nothing else to do! I felt like we got something accomplished and then 10 minutes before it was time to go to class our other group member shows up and says "oh hey guys! Sorry i'm late!" - Suuurreee, try 2 hours late!? Like WTF? How can you be that late? She just didn't want to come but she could have had the decency to call and let us know!. I thought this was pretty rude of her so I just ignored her. I packed up my stuff and headed to class because I didn't want to be late. We got to watch two groups present and I'm so glad that my group didn't go first because after the presentation I wanted to change everything about our project!! This class is really tough, it's probably the hardest one that we have next to Catalan! The class is mostly Spanish students and then there are the Americans, the Norwegians, and two of the Finnish girls! The class is in English and the professor, Joseph LOVES the USA and basically told us the first day of the class that we are there to help the Spanish students with their English! How lovely! So before the groups started their presentations he went around the class and handed certain people a piece of paper to "judge" one of the four people presenting in each group. I thought, ok so it's just a 1 - 10 scale and some comments BUT, at the end of the presentations he made the students stay standing while each of us "criticized" their presentation skills and many of the students where harsh and the teacher was too!! I was in shock! I couldn't belive that he was actually saying these things. I don't consider this "constructive criticism" I consider it insulting and rude!! I guess this is another one of those cultural boundary things. I'm really nervous to present anything though after the process I witnessed! We don't do things like that at my school! I mean speech class was somewhat similar but it wasn't even that harsh!

After school was out we rushed home to get everything ready for all the Erasmus students to come over. Five of the girls on our program are from a school called Maastricht in Holland and their semester system runs something similar to our trimester system at Johnson and Wales. They have 3 terms just like us and their new term was starting on Nov. 16th so they were leaving earlier than the rest of us to go back home to start their new semester. Sooo, we had a little get together at our house and we made pizza's for everyone. They supplied the ingredients, we supplied the venue, and we had a lovely party! It was great and then after the pizza party was over we all went out to club it up at this fancy discotec called Suton. It was really nice and I had a good time. Alex accidentally tripped me at the club though and I now have a massive bruise on my knee because I hit something on the way down and it's pretty painful. However, at the time I didn't really notice because we were all pretty drunk! lol It happens! We didn't get home till around 5:30ish, I had a pastry and a banana and called it a night! I was exhausted physically and emotionally. It was really sad having to say goodbye to a big chunk of our group! The Maastricht girls were sooo much fun! We called them the 'professional party-ers' because they would go out every single night to the hottest clubs, stay out till 6 am, and then come to class the next morning looking perfect like they had gotten plenty of rest! I'm really going to miss them and their partying abilities! I'm telling you these European girls are professionals, I really need to step my game up!

Friday I slept in until about 2 in the afternoon!! I had a very lazy day on Friday. After I woke up....well, let's just say I enjoyed a honeymoon type whimsical state all day! :) Dinner was good and then afterward I went for a walk around the Gothic Quarter. Late friday night we made plans to go to Tarragona the next morning. We choose between Tarragona and Montserrat. I'm obviously going to do both, it was just a matter of deciding when to do them! I called it a night around 1 am in order to get some rest for my adventure!!

Tarragona and the beginning of this week will be in a separate post...! :D

Such a free people - The Dutch

Where to begin? Hmmm, I have so much to say about my weekend in Amsterdam. First of all, we need to back track to last Thursday night before my early departure. It was a fairly long day at school, I was definitely feeling very tired and still had lots to do before my trip. Well, that evening, I went to the ATM around 10:30 to take out the cash that was needed to pay for my hostel because they only accept a cash payment upon arrival. So I insert my card at the same ATM that I use every time, I type in my pin, it takes me to the next screen, I select the amount of money I want to take out, hit "continuar" and then the screen says something along the lines of "your card isn't coming back out, please contact your bank for further info." I nearly had a heart attack in Plaza Catalunya at this very moment. After everyone that I've talked to, no one seems to be able to tell me why the machine kept my card, just that it did! I guess it was just feeling frisky!? lol WHO KNOWS! So I immediately come home and call Bank of Freaking America...another screw up company that the government gives money too! Anyways, I explain the severity of the situation to the lady and she says that the only thing to do is to mail me out another card in standard mail and it should arrive in 10 -14 business days. I tried to kindly explain to her that 10-14 business days in America isn't the same as 10-14 business days in Spain and that i'll be lucky to receive it by the end of the month with the way their mail system works here. (This was during my "nice" phase.) She had really ticked me off by the end of the conversation mainly because she just acted like she didn't really give two flying fucks that I was living in a foreign country with no access to my money which I "trustingly" put into their hands because they said they could "offer me a lot through their international banking options." So, later on when I had calmed down and looked at all of my other options for cash, Alex and I decided that we would call back and talk to someone else. Luckily, we got a guy on the phone this time and he told me that they have options for this and that I could also call VISA 911. Gezzz, who knew this? Obviously not the first idiot that I talked too. So he says that it is possible to send the card through FED-EX (another option the lady insisted was impossible) and that they could also wire me my money, free of all charges, through western union and that I could just pick up however much I needed to hold me over until my card got here. So, TA DA!!! I felt a little bit better about the situation but I still had no cash, so I had to cash two of my traveler's cheques the next day in order to have enough cash for the weekend. So, point of this story is Bank of America and I are finito (finished) upon my return to America (if I come back!) Before I knew it it was past midnight and I was supposed to catch the bus at 3:30ish to get to the airport so I decided that instead of sleeping for about an hour that I would just go ahead and finish my packing, get a shower, head to the airport, and sleep there just to make sure that I didn't miss my flight. I'm glad I left when I did because it took the bus forever to get us there. I got checked in, went through security and tried to take a nap before my flight. I didn't get much sleep because I was nervous as usual before I fly but miraculously I got some sleep on the plane which is rare! I guess I was just THAT tired! I slept through the descend into Amsterdam so when the plane hit the ground at full speed I woke up scared to death!! I thought we were going down. (probably not a good experience for someone who is already scared of flying!)

So after I landed I had to wait around in the airport for about 30 minutes because Kevin and I were on different flights. I located some directions and such and when he arrived we caught the train to Central Station. Our hostel was a short walk from the train station, easily locatable pretty much in the center of the red light district! How pleasant! The hostel...hmm...I'm not sure where to begin on this one. My book recommended some good ones but they were completely booked and we would have gotten into this one hostel if it wasn't for Kevin wanting to wait and see if we could get a house boat? So instead, we had to stay at the White Tulip, Kevin also found this place. The name is a little decieving. There was nothing pure about this place. Granted, it could have been worse but the showers weren't the cleanest, and I had originally requested to stay in an all female dorm but upon arrival the stoner at the front desk was like, oh well I'll just put you guys in the same room together! I didn't want to come off rude and ungrateful because he probably felt like he was doing us a favor when in reality, he wasn't! So, I had to sleep on a top bunk in a room with 2 other girls and 7 other guys! It was a sausage fest in the room and guys are disgusting and loud. It's like they don't know how to sleep peacefully. They snore and they make noises, i don't know its just not the same as a room full of girls. I was not happy with this situation but it seemed like the hostel was pretty full and you can't really do much complaining at these places. Also, the guy who was sleeping on the top bunk perpendicular to mine, his feet were in my bed pretty much the whole night. It was so nasty, I couldn't sleep because I was scared that my feet were going to touch his. EW!! AND another thing - right across from our hostel was a shop called *Ohmibod - The most vibrating shop in town* if this gives you any idea about the area that we were staying in! lol We were surrounded by sex, sex, and more sex!!

Aside from the hostel, I had a great time in Amsterdam. Oh the Dutch! There is just so much to say about them and their way of life. They are such a free people. Anything goes in Amsterdam is my observation. It's a beautiful city with a rich, rich history and it's equally full of an extremely diverse population. Everything is very laid back in this city, at first, like other people, I wanted to contribute that to all the ganja they smoke but after a weekend there I don't think that's the only reason! lol The canals are so soothing and peaceful and everyone rides bikes, there are hardly any cars. Therefore, the city is very quiet. So quiet from the normal hustle and bustle of Barcelona that it almost seemed eerie at times. I thought that Amsterdam was a non-stop party kind of city but now I'm on the complete opposite end of the spectrum and I've decided that it would be really nice for a peaceful weekend getaway, as long as you don't stay in the Red Light District! lol So here are a few essential things to know about Amsterdam. Like I stated previously, almost anything goes here. It is legal to smoke weed here as well as do other "soft" drugs (Mushrooms were banned in June of 2008). Any place that you can buy weed is called a "coffee shop" and a bar is well, a bar. The government put these terms in place in order to differentiate the type of establishment in which the weed is actually sold. Some restaurants and bars are smoker friendly meaning that you can smoke weed inside but not cigarettes in most cases, obviously in some bars you can smoke either. Amsterdam also has many sex shops and smart shops. A sex shop is well...basically a porn store or a sex shop and a smart shop is where you can get all sorts of different herbal enhancers and hallucinogens as well as vitamins, aphrodisiacs and things of that sort. You can also buy space cake in amsterdam otherwise known as "weed brownies!" Ok, so now that we have the basics down....let's start with my adventure.... :D

The first thing we did after dropping off our bags was head straight for something to eat. We first made a stop at a "coffee shop" so that Kevin could buy some "laughing buddha" (the name of the weed that he bought) and then we ate at a small cafe that was smoker friendly. lol The food was really good, I had a banana juice with a raw salmon, cream cheese, and tomato sand-which on a white bagel. It was delicious! After lunch we headed for the Anne Frank Huis or House. We had to wait in line, it was pretty crowded. I have never read the book! (I know, don't judge me!) I've always wanted to but I've just never found the time (It'd probably make a good christmas gift!) I've heard a lot about it though and I know the story so it was still interesting for me. It was also sad and just seeing the actual journal that she wrote in made the whole thing so much more realistic for me. It's really terrible what happened to her and her family. Unfortunately you weren't able to take pictures, which is understandable, so I don't have any photos to show you. The house was really amazing though. It was so small and the stairs were incredibly steep. It has been renovated somewhat but for the most part, it's in the original condition. It was a really moving experience. I'm glad that I did it.

After this we headed back to the hostel to take a nap because we hadn't gotten much sleep obviously and we were really tired. After we woke up later we headed out for some dinner. We ate at a chinese restaurant and it was also good. After that we went to another coffee shop called El Guapo, it's pretty well-known. I bought an already rolled joint here and Kevin rolled one of his own. (Now don't act so surprised, I know what some of you are already thinking, OMG she smoked weed and she's writing about it in her blog for everyone to read!?! --- NEWS FLASH - #1 I'm in Amsterdam - Like they say, when in Rome, do as the Romans - Same goes in Amsterdam!, #2 I'm not ashamed of anything I've done - no regrets - if you don't live like this then your cheating yourself, and #3 This is MY blog about MY trip in Europe and I'm not about to not write something in here just because someone might not agree with it, these are MY memories and I gave everyone a fair warning with my email invitation.. *It might be rated "R"*) Deal with it!

So we stayed for a while and watched some pool on TV and then the international timber chopping championship came on and guess who was representing the USA? A husky looking mountain man from...you guessed it...WEST BY GOD VIRGINIA!! AH!! lol I was pretty excited! After all this we stopped and got a sweet treat at this little cafe, it was basically a small waffle with chocolate topping with nuts and whipped cream - served hot! Delicious!

Saturday we had a lot that we wanted to accomplish so we started out the day at the Heineken Experience. Now, I'm not sure if you are aware but Heineken isn't actually brewed in Amsterdam anymore, they recently moved the brewery to some other town in Holland so they converted the brewery into a museum basically and called it "The Heineken Experience." With admission you get 1 free taste and 2 beers so basically you get 3 beers. For 15 Euro though, I'd better get a gold beer mug! lol It was expensive but it was a pretty cool place. I'm not a huge beer fan but after the tour, I definitely liked Heineken a little bit more. I'm trying to expand my horizons to drinking beer and I'd say that I've definitely pushed the boundaries and improved my tolerance on this trip. Beer is just such a big thing here in Europe that it's hard to not partake in drinking it! I took lots of pictures here!!

After the Heineken experience we headed to the Van Gogh Museum. It was a whopping 12.50 Euros to get inside. Now, I know your thinking oh, 15 Euro here 12 there isn't really that much, but let me spell it out for you.... E-X-P-E-N-S-I-V-E! Here is a nice calculation to go by 15 Euro is equal to 22.50 US Dollars! So, these admission fees add up and in Amsterdam not many places offered student discounts so I was kinda disappointed in this aspect. The Van Gogh Museum was really great. I got to see many of his famous pieces but the one that I really wanted to see Starry Nite wasn't there! Come to find out, it's in NEW YORK! UGH! I was really sad but, I got to see Iris's and some other really good works. I also got some cool pencils for my collection here! :D (The best ones are always found at the museums.) After the museum Kevin and I went our separate ways. I did some shopping and he did some seed shopping and frequented some more coffee shops. He likes to smoke in case you haven't gotten the hint! lol I met up with him later at the hostel and we went out for a quick bite and went to another coffee shop to hang out. Afterwards we took a nice stroll around the famous Red Light District! WOW! I've never seen so many prostitutes in one concentrated area in my entire life. There are seriously 100 on every corner. It's rude to take pictures so I didn't but it's just like in the post cards, half naked women in little rooms with a door with red lights framing the door. It's truly something to see before you die! It's a little outrageous. There were some pretty girls and then there were some really nasty girls! lol

Sunday - We slept in and after we woke up we went to the Cannabis College, Hemp Museum, and Hemp Gallery. All together cost 9 euros. Not too bad, I learned some interesting facts so I wasn't totally disappointed! I learned a lot about hemp and I had no idea that it could be used for so many different things. It's such a versatile product. I was really amazed. AND, I bet you didn't know this but, the USA is the only industrialized nation in the world that refuses to use hemp or allow it past it's borders!! I don't want to go into how stupid America is AGAIN so I'll spare you the misery of another rant and just go ahead and say it...we're pretty fucking stupid in America. Who's really in charge anyways. Also, did you know that the US jails more people per year than any other country in the world!? Again...I don't even need to say it..you already know what I'm thinking... Overall it was a pretty educational museum and I got to see some serious weed plants which was pretty cool. The Hemp gallery was equally as cool and did you know that they make hair and body products?? Hemp is supposed to restore dry and damaged hair and since I burnt some of my hair last week on my stupid roommates straightener that she melted, I decided that I was going to try it. So, after the museum we headed over to this shop that the lady at the museum recommended for Hemp products and I bought some conditioner to try it out! After that we stopped and had breakfast/lunch. I had a pancake which was really a crepe with bananas and chocolate! It was really good. After all this we decided that we were going to take a canal cruise since this is one of the "must do's" in Amsterdam. It was educational. I learned about all the different types of houses and the history of the canals. It was very picturesque. After the canal cruise we grabbed a quick bite to eat. A traditional dutch snack, French Fries with some type of sauce that is similar to mayonnaise. They were really good and then after this we split up again to do our own thing, I went to do some more shopping and he went to some more coffee shops. lol Afterwards we met up at the hostel. I got back around 8 and decided that I was going to go ahead and pass out because I had such an early flight this morning.

I got up around 4:30, checked out, and booked it to the train. I was trying to wait for Kevin but he was taking forever so I told the guy at the front desk just to let him know that I couldn't wait any longer. I couldn't afford to miss the train because then I'd be cutting it a little too close for my flight! I'm glad I left when I did because the airport was busy when I got there, Amsterdam has a great airport as mentioned earlier. I find myself spending a lot of time there too. This is my 5th trip there in 2 months! lol Soo....I pretty much know my way around. They also have a casino which I plan on checking out on my way back through. Both of my flights were with KLM, which always exceeds my expectations usually, they always give out great sandwiches and little dutch cookies!!. The flight back was a little bumpy when we got to Barcelona. I've noticed that coming into Barcelona there is always so much turbulence, I'm going to attribute this to the wind coming off of the mountains and also the wind coming off of the sea. After landing I made my way to the train station, and eventually I was home around 10:30!! So, it was quite the morning of traveling! I unpacked, got ready for school, and then when we arrived to school today we found out that class had been cancelled! It was great!! So I had an entirely free day. I spent most of it just lounging around, cleaning up my room, getting ready for the week too come. I also had to go to Western Union today to get the money that Bank of Freaking America sent me. That was awfully nice of them and then, my debit card also came today!! They said it wasn't going to be here until friday but it arrived today! I activated it but I haven't used it yet, honestly I'm a little scared to put it into the machine!! lol I'm going to give it a few days! Tonight we had some friends over for dinner and stephanie made halibut and pasta and of course we had some wine! It was a great time and we also got into some great conversation about Jewish people, Catholic vs. Christian, USA values vs. European values, politics, more politics, and even more religion! It was a very heated conversation at points but it made for a good night!!

So, I have much more to tell you but I'm going to end it there because I'm exhausted. This week I really need to work on posting pictures of my trip to Rome and Amsterdam. This weekend I'm taking a break from traveling unless it ends up being somewhere in Spain and then next weekend it's off to Dublin!! :D

Hasta Luego Amigos!

Feeling a bit drained....

The past 3 days have been rather interesting. I've been very tired recently and the work load at school this week has really been putting a damper on my fun activities. lol I haven't seen the inside of a "discotec" or a club for about 2 weeks. (withdrawls) I think I need to go out dancing in order to rid myself of this constant "DRAINED" feeling. I can usually handle much more...at home I work a full time job AND go to school. I think that the environment here is just different, it's so much more relaxed so it's hard to get in the mindset 'I need to get things done today' because things seem to be put off until 'manana' here all the time!

After my weekend adventure it was sadly time to return to school. Honestly though, school is fun and I don't mind it so much, a lot of the work we have though is redundant so it tends to get annoying. I'm also not used to having such long semesters. We still have two months left and I feel like we should be having exams next week! Classes started slowly and they have given us all this time to do our so called "group project research and work" but it's hard to do this research when we don't really know what exactly we are researching! They don't provide you with a schedule or syllabus here or the written requirements and outline of how they want the papers and presentations so it's hard to just make this stuff up when that's the format that we are so accustomed too. So, now they want us to put the information together, that we don't really have, and put it in a presentation. I'm also not used to having 8 different classes. So, as you can tell.. I have a lot on my mind as far as school goes.....

Monday we gave some presentations in class and I noticed that my roommate Sam wasn't in class so I was curious as to where he could be...class was pretty boring, we went over some more traditional food and customs... On break I learned that Sam had gone to the hospital early in the morning and that's why he wasn't in class. I guess he thought he was having an allergic reaction because he was breaking out on his neck and his face. We didn't really know much so we had lunch and then we went to our second class. During break, Kevin, the other American guy, had seen Sam and found out that he had chickenpox! Of all things to get in Spain, he gets the chickenpox! What terrible luck right? And where on earth did he get this!? We were all a little shocked and some of the girls in our program have never had the chickenpox so they were a little shocked. It's not as prevalent in Europe although most people do get it when they are young and they also don't have a vaccine for it here as well. I immediately thought to myself "I've never had the chickenpox either!" I called my mom and my school to look at my health records to find out if I'd had the shot, both said yes HOWEVER, I've read and heard of cases were you can still get the chickenpox or shingles even if you have been vaccinated! I tried not to think about it and went on with class, after we got home from school we got all the details from Sam about his hospital visit and what not, turns out, Sam has also had the chickenpox vaccine and he has the chickenpox! What do ya know!?!? So, I've decided that I am going to stay as far away from Sam as possible! I really do feel bad for him though because he isn't going to be able to go to Amsterdam with us this weekend and now he has to cancel his flight and his hostel room! I really hope that they refund his money, he's looking into it as we speak..

Monday night was pretty uneventful, I did some grocery shopping and decided to try out a few new "Catalan" items this week like Cream Catalan, something similar to Creme Brulee but different, some pesto sauce, and a different kind of bread. I haven't had the Catalan Creme yet but the bread and the sauce were both good! I worked on some homework this evening and then went for a walk down by the port with some friends.

Tuesday we had Spanish early as usual. We are having our Spanish exam tomorrow morning and then next week we are going to start learning Catalan!! Soy nerviosa! I'm nervous! I feel pretty confident because most of what I have learned has been a review but I've also learned many new things so I'm going to spend the majority of my night studying!! We have a written and an oral part to the exam, I'm nervous about the oral! After Spanish ended our other class with Marta got moved up to 12:30 so we didn't have a long 3 hour break! Muy bien! We haven't had her class for 3 weeks so we finally got to give our presentation on America! lol We turned in our homework and then we found out that next week she can't be here for class again!! I honestly don't know how I keep getting so lucky! Hopefully this luck carries me through the chickepox scare! After school I went with Alex's group to the Chocolate Museum of Barcelona because they were assigned this specific location this week. I was so jealous, my group got some stupid Theatre! Overall it was a good museum, very short. When you think about a chocolate museum you think that you'll probably get to see them making the chocolate but actually they don't make any chocolate there, it's basically just the "history"of chocolate. The ticket that they give you is an actual chocolate bar and they had some pretty cool interactive exhibits. I got free chocolate and I learned something new! What could be better? After the museum I went with Alex to buy some stuff for her hair and then I came home for a little while before meeting with my group at 6. My group and I went to our streets and this week we brought my Spanish friend, Monsey, to do some interpreting for us! She was great and we talked to 5 or 6 different people. Turns out, there is a lot of prostitution and robbery on both of our streets! We had no idea, so today in our research class we had much to tell Katherine about our project! After I got home I didn't really do much, I worked on my map project with Alex, took a short nap, made some dinner and hit the hay!! I've been going to bed around my normal time 2 a.m.! lol I know that sounds crazy but that's life here!!

Today I had to get up a little earlier to get some of my traveler's checks cashed for rent today. Our landlord sent me a message yesterday asking if he could come by today and pick up the rent so I had to go to the bank early today because all the banks close here at 12 or 2! After I got that accomplished I went to school, mapped out a route for our motorbike project and went to class. Event management - at this point in my blog everyone should know how I feel about this stupid class - B-O-R-I-N-G! I dread this one every week. The teachers just go on and on and today they made us watch a video and then she directly asked us what we saw in the video, not like a normal teacher who would ask questions related to the video, no, no, she asked us what we saw and when we all just looked at her like, "is she seriously asking us this?" she began telling us what we saw in the video. Like, HELLO??? Anybody in there?? I just watched your boring video, I clearly saw what was in the video, I don't need you to tell me what I saw AGAIN in the video! It was boring enough the first time around. Gezz....

After class I housed my lunch and then surfed the internet in the CDT and then headed to Katherine's class. It was pretty uneventful, she finally told us, half way through the term how she wants us to put together the group project. Nice. After class I went home, relaxed, made dinner, hung out with some friends, and now I am up late doing some last minute studying for my Spanish exam tomorrow!! Wish me luck!! Hopefully I'll be able to make one more post tomorrow before I leave for Amsterdam early on Friday morning!! I'm excited but I definitely need to get some rest before my trip!

Hasta Manana Amigos!

Jet Setting Around the World!!!

So this past weekend has been so amazing and jam-packed full of stuff that last Thursday is just a blur now so I don't really have much to say about it. lol All that I can remember is that I didn't make it to bed until 1:30 in the morning and had to be up at 4:00 to catch the bus to get to the airport. So, this starts the story of my trip to the Ancient city of Rome and the Vatican....

I get up around 4, get ready and head out the door after syncing some new tunes to my iphone. I have to catch the night bus this time around because the metro doesn't open until 5am and I have to be at the airport at 5:30 for my flight so there just wasn't enough time. I looked up all the information, which was of course, in spanish. I arrive and the bus is there waiting, I think that i was catching the last bus to the airport actually. We all get on the bus and I meet some other people that are studying here in Barcelona from the US. They all looked my age and the two girls that were sitting beside me on the bus were those "obnoxious" American tourists that everyone here hates. Those "omg, nu huh, and she did what, omg nu huh, I can't wait till all my wake forest friends arrive, it's going to be crazy." (This isn't Miami ladies...You don't recreate the US here, that's not the point.) lol I was thoroughly annoyed while listening to their convo. So we are on the way to the airport and all of a sudden the bus stops in the middle of a turn and there is an ambulance in the lane and I guess he didn't think could get around the vehicle so he just sat there for like 15 minutes like the car was just "magically" going to move even though it was clearly turned off and no one was inside. lol So, we're all sitting on the bus wondering what's going on because we don't want to miss our flights. Someone finally asked and I'm not sure what he said but everyone started getting off the bus so I of course followed. (I've learned on this trip that when in doubt, follow the crowd or the people that look like tourists.) So we get off and those two girls ask me in spanish if I want to share a taxi with them and I replied with "I speak English, I'm also from the US and sure I'd like too. lol The whole way to the airport they told me about their program and such, they are here with 300 other American students so they don't feel like they get to hang out with any real Spanish people. (DUH! why did you come with 300 other Americas!?!) So, long story short I had to pay 10 Euros for a cab ride to the airport, (not in the budget for this trip, so I had to skip breakfast.)

So I finally arrive and this time I was flying out of Barcelona's newest addition to their airport (Terminal 1) which I just want to comment on, probably the nicest airport I've ever been in, granted it is brand spanking new, and I give it a year or two and it will probably be in the world's top 10. Kudos Barcelona. I was flying with Alitalia, obviously Italy's airline. It took me a minute to figure out how to get to the right check in desk but I managed and before I knew it, I was on the plane. It was definitely an older plane, everything looked like it was from the 80's, the plane smelled like 10 bottles of febreeze had been emptied into my seat, and it was very squeaky. Overall it was nice flight without too much panicking on my part and a nice snack and beverage service. KLM has really set the bar high as far as airline service and quality for me within Europe. Once we arrived I was really excited to start my adventure but I was also very tired so I took some Excedrine and made my way to the train. The train was expensive at a whopping 11 Euros for a one way ticket into the city. I located my hostel easily, which was very nice, dropped off my stuff, bought a metro ticket, and headed straight for the Roman Colosseum.

The eternal city has so much to offer from the Vatican city to the Roman Forum, to the Colosseum, and all this combined with great shopping, delectable food, and nice people, it's seriously a tourist paradise. So I initially started at the ancient city. I bought my ticket and began my exploration, It's amazing how much of the ancient city is still standing. The Colosseum itself is just unbelievable. Pictures can never do it justice, just standing in front of it is amazing and indescribable. It's such a rush to see it and think about how many people died here for entertainment. It's something that I think everyone should see once in their life! After the Colosseum I went over to Palatine hill where Julius Caesar's palace was along with the stadium and the Roman Forum. I entered the gate with my pass and was just following the crowd up the hill and then all of a sudden this lady started giving a tour in English so I just joined in!! haha It was pretty cool. I spent about 4 hours total doing all this exploring and then I made my way to the other sites after a bounty bar and a water. I saw the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II, the Pantheon, Fontana de Trevi, (the one in Vegas is crap compared to the real thing!), Piazza Navona, The famous Spanish Steps, and Piazza del Popolo, where Augustus placed the Obelisk of Pharaoh Rames II that he brought back from Egypt in AD 10! Pretty impressive. I also did some shopping down Via Del Corso, Rome's well known shopping area. It was a very busy day and I honestly can't imagine doing Rome with anyone else because I felt like I was practically running from monument to monument in order to see everything! So, I didn't want to be out after dark and the sun was about to go down so I headed back to my hostel for the night. I got in and I felt like passing out I was so tired! I pushed through it though with a hot shower and then I went downstairs for the "Pizza Party" that they have every-night at 8:30 in the bar area. It was pretty good pizza, not to bad, it was free ya know and I also met some cool people from Brussels and Australia. I didn't stay long because I was tired.

Saturday I got up around 8, got ready, and headed downstairs to get some breakfast. The hostel also had free breakfast, it was just cereal, some breads with butter and jam, juice, and coffee. Again, it was free so I indulged. After this I took the metro to the Vatican City. I decided to start with the museums first since I've read that the lines can get pretty long as the day progresses. The Vatican houses one of the best art collections in the world so I was pretty excited to explore it. They had some great pieces and at the end of the museums was the Sistine Chapel, Michealangelo's masterpiece. It was gorgeous. There were so many people bumping into me but I didn't even notice because I was too busy staring at the ceiling. It is truly a masterpiece. You aren't supposed to take any pictures but I definitely snapped a few! After the chapel I left the museums and headed for Basilica di San Pietro or St. Peter's Cathedral. Just standing in the square was really cool, all I could think about were the movies The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons. After I took some photos I went into the church, which was amazing! I took so many pictures and then I went next door to see the tombs of all the popes, that was pretty boring and it was a little creepy. To those of you who are Catholic, I hope I don't offend you but: When I woke up I thought, I'm going the Vatican City today and for some reason I thought, "It's going to be a very spiritual day today." Because when I find myself visiting so many different Cathedrals and Churches I usually walk inside and immediately get a good feeling of just being in church ya know. Well it wasn't like that with the Vatican at all, in fact, I left the Vatican feeling a bit angry. Surprised? I know right? I respect everyone's beliefs and all the different religions in the world, I'm not saying that what I believe is the right thing to believe because everyone does feel differently BUT, there are just some things about the Catholic religion that I absolutely do not agree with, and I can honestly say this based on my personal experience at Notre Dame, not from just some idea that I have formed in my head of what "I think" the Catholic religion is about. The Vatican City is beautiful don't get me wrong but it made me think even less of the Catholic religion because sometimes I feel like it's all about wealth and power. Just my personal thoughts. But anyways, after that was over I was pretty tired and my camera battery was almost dead so I took a walk across the Fiume Tevere, the river, and proceed to do some more sightseeing. I went to Capitoline Hill and saw the Musei Capitolini. They also had some great art, I got to see Bellini's "Portrait of a Young Man" and Caravaggio's "St. John the Baptist" and "Gypsy Fortune Teller." I spent most of the evening here and then I headed by to my hostel.

Sunday after I woke up, got ready, packed my bags, and checked out of the hostel I decided that since I only had about 4 hours left that I would try to go and see the Galleria Borghese. Well, after I had taken the metro all the way there tickets were sold out until Monday at 5 p.m.!! I was pretty upset because I really wanted to see the staute of David but instead I got a postcard at the gift shop. I only had 20 Euro on me and the guy at the cash register couldn't make change and so he just said, take it! So I got a free postcard so then I wasn't as put out about not getting to see the museum. lol So, I took a walk around the nice park that the museum was built in, did some shopping and then took a brisk job across the city of Rome in order to make sure that I was going to make it to the airport in time! lol (It was more like a sprint!) I made it to the airport just fine, got checked in, went through security and was on the plane shortly after. The flight wasn't bad, it was a little bumpy and I was wide awake so I was a little more panicky on this flight that the last one. At this point in my day I was definitely a little frustrated with people and things in general. One of my biggest pet peeves is when someone stands in the middle of the pathway, I find this to be so annoying and it happens a lot, I ran a guy over with my suitcase on accident but really it was his own damn fault because he was standing in the middle of the walkway. How can you be so stupid ya know? lol So, I finally made it back to Barcelona and once again, it felt good to be home. I had a little trouble at the train station with my ticket on the way back, the machine ate my 4 month pass and it was really busy so I had a hard time finding someone to help me. I spent about 20 or 30 minutes at the train station trying to get everything sorted out. The language thing was an issue and I spent most of this time trying to communicate what had happened. UGH, I was very frustrated at this point and I nearly had a break down but, it resolved itself and I was on my way. I stopped at the bakery on the way home to grab a chocolate croissant and suddenly everything was better! :D

I had so much fun in Rome and I saw so many great things but I was ready to sleep in my own bed and use my own shower and eat my own food. lol This is what I like about weekend travel, it's nice to go somewhere for the weekend and then it's nice to come home feeling refreshed. Overall my trip was great, I was pleased with Aitalia and my Hostel. If I could pick one thing to change it would have been the knowledge of the staff at the hostel on how to do different things in the area. They didn't seem to be very good at giving directions or tour information, but other than that, it was great. I met some really cool people my age and one of the girls that I met had been traveling for 2 months and we talked for hours about all sorts of different places and things to do. I told her about my upcoming trip to Amsterdam and she gave me this really cool map/pocket guide booklet. I thought that was really nice of her! Some people always talk about how terrible hostels are and stuff but honestly you just have to find the good ones. I love hostels because the people staying at them are almost always students or young people who are traveling just like you so it's really nice to meet people and also they are just as clean as hotels, and it's nice not to have to sit in a hotel room by myself in the evenings. It's nice to have a social environment.

My Let's Go Europe travel book has seriously become my best friend on this trip. I've taken pretty much all of their recommendations and they've all turned out really great so far. I think that I would like to be a travel writer. I enjoy writing leisurely and I love to travel. This job would be perfect for me!! If anyone is thinking about a trip to Europe, definitely pick up a good travel book with great recommendations like mine. It really does make all the difference!

Alright, that's all about my trip to Rome, I'm off to Amsterdam this weekend and I will update you on Monday and Tuesday's events tomorrow! I've done some good brainstorming this weekend and my next post should be pretty insightful so stay tuned. Thanks for reading!

CHOW!

Looong days and longer nights...

It’s currently 3 in the morning and I am just now getting home from a bar. It’s been a long day to say the least. Last night I ended up going out with everyone to the Mojito Club. They were having a Halloween party and Alex got her face painted like a skeleton. I also had the most disgusting mojito of my life at this place. The bartender put bitters in my mojito and it tasted so gross that I could barely drink it. Why she did this, I’m not really sure, maybe that’s the way they make mojitos?? I didn’t stay long and left early around 1:30 to come back home. I was tired.

This morning I was a little disorganized and I kept forgetting things. I was supposed to take my laptop to class today and I had forgotten to charge it up last night. So, I took the charger to school with me today but there wasn’t anywhere for me to plug my computer in so it was useless. There was one outlet in the entire classroom and I couldn’t use it. It was frustrating. We didn’t really have class today. We had to go to class and work in our groups but we didn’t really accomplish anything and after class I met with my other group to go to our streets to do research. We had a cheap lunch at a nice café and did some exploring. I didn’t make it home until about 6 and I was exhausted so I took a quick nap around 7 and when I woke up around 8:30 I went to the Vodafone store to put more credits on my phone and then I went to the grocery store to pick up dinner. My roommate Sam and I have a deal that one of us buys whatever we need for dinner and he does the cooking. Lol It works out pretty well. I had Salmon with sautéed spinach and rice. It was really good. After dinner we went over and meet some of our classmates at the Black Sheep and from there we went to a club that was playing 80’s 90’s, and Pop/Rock music. I wasn’t really planning on going out so I didn’t stay long but it was a fun place and I wouldn’t mind going back.

Tomorrow I have school pretty early and then as far as the rest of the day goes I really need to get some stuff accomplished like homework, group projects, and packing for Rome!!

Buenos Noches, Hasta Mannna

To Milan, back to Barcelona, and now off to Rome!!

I’m definitely feeling better this week! In fact, I’ve had an awesome day today! I have much to tell you about my trip to Milan and my first week back in Barcelona. Once again, it feels good to be home! So let’s start with the rest of last Thursday…..

My second class drug on and on Thursday. My Spanish friend Isabella was really worried about me being sick. She offered to let me come home with her to have her dad take a look at me since he’s a doctor or to go to a doctor with me to translate. She is so sweet and I sincerely appreciate her trying to help me. I was feeling pretty bad. After school was over I came home and took a nap to try to regain some of my energy and rest before my long weekend ahead. I woke up late around 10 and started packing. After I was packed we tried out best to get some sleep before having to get up early to catch our flight.

So Friday morning came early and we got up, got ready and decided that we would try to take the train to the airport since it’s free because we all have a pass. Well, next time we need to look up a train schedule because we missed the train by 1 minute and had to wait nearly 30 minutes for the next train. Our flight was at 8:55 and we were still waiting for a train from the center of Barca at 8:10. We finally got on a train and then it took forever to get to the airport. My roommates were freaking out that we weren’t going to make it on the plane. I was surprisingly very calm. I’ve been later than this before for a flight and still made it on and this was in the US! European airports seem to flow much smoother so I wasn’t panicking. We got off the train at 8:30ish. We took a brisk jog to the gate and went seamlessly through security and got right on the plane. I was also pretty calm on the flight surprisingly. We had a great take off, flight, and landing. I had a pastry and an orange juice on the plane. I flew with EasyJet, a European budget airline, so they offer cheap fairs but you have to pay for things like checked baggage, snacks on the plane, etc. So basically, I guess its like flying on the airlines in America!! WHO KNEW! Except, you board the plane in groups and can choose your seats like Southwest flights. After we landed in Milan we proceeded to get tickets for the bus to take us into the center. We bought 3 roundtrip tickets and ended up saving like 30 Euros! We went out to catch the bus and this short little Italian man let a group of 34 people get on this one bus that we had stood and waited for. We were really mad because we had to wait another 20 minutes on another bus. Another bus came, no room, so then again, we had to wait another 20 minutes. It was crazy. We ended up standing there for about an hour before we could actually get on a bus! By the time that we made it to the central station I was pretty frustrated to say the least. Then, my roommates wanted to walk to find the hostel instead of taking the metro. I was pretty tired and I didin’t really want to wander around lost. We eventually made it to the hostel. Thank goodness. It was run by an Asian family and they’re English was not great. I was just happy that we were finally there. After we filled out some paperwork she showed us to our room. There was a double bed and a single bed. Alex and I shared the bigger bed since she sleeps in my bed at home most of the time! Lol We have girl time in our room and she usually just sleeps in there. The fact that we had to pay separately for a bed though and then had to share one didn’t go over well but when your in a foreign place where no one really speaks English is hard to argue with someone about it. Lol Other than that, the hostel was really nice. After we got settled in we made our way to the metro and went to the center of Milan to see the Duomo Cathedral, the main attraction. We first grabbed a bite to eat at a little café. I had Milan style risotto, it was so good! After lunch we also had some Gelato at the same place and the owner kept telling me that he loved me and he kept starting at me. It was a little weird but it was cute so I got a picture with him. Lol After lunch we headed to the cathedral. We could have paid 8 Euro to take the elevator to the top but instead we decided to pay 5 Euro to take the stairs! So, we climbed 300 stairs to the top! The views were amazing. We could see all of Milan from the top and the architecture on the cathedral was so intricate. The pictures that I took were amazing. After we descended from the top we went in and checked out the inside. It was nice too. While we were trying to take pictures of the front of the Cathedral from the outside these crazy men, who always want you to give them money, were putting pigeons on Stephanie! Haha, I looked over and she had like literally 10 pigeons on her arms, her head, everywhere!! Lol It was really disgusting but at the same time Alex and I thought it was hilarious!! She was pretty upset but she was letting this guy put the pigeons on her arm so she must not have been too disgusted! After all that excitement we went and checked out the “Mall” where all the expensive stores are like Louis, Prada, Burberry. You know, the good stuff. This is also where the “Bull with no balls” is located. It’s tradition to spin on the bull for good luck. After this we did some shopping on Via Torino where the more affordable shops are located! After shopping we took the metro back and ate some Italian pizza at a restaurant across the street from our hotel. Mine had ricotta and mozzarella. Mmmmmm, very yummy. We went to bed pretty early because we were exhausted.

Saturday we woke up early, got ready, and headed out to do some more sight seeing. We started at the Sant Ambrogio (not sure of the spelling) It is the oldest and most important medieval building in Milan. It was a beautiful church. The mosaics were amazing and in the back there were two dead bodies, which you can see in my album on facebook, it was a little creepy to say the least but kinda interesting to see something that old. I read that while they were digging around the crypt they uncovered the bodies and they are really old or something along those lines. After 80 pictures and an hour we headed over to see if we could get into the Last Supper. One of the reasons that I wanted to go to Milan was to see the Last Supper but when I tried to make reservations they were completely booked through November. They of course told us the same thing at the ticket office. We had run into a couple from America the night before while eating pizza and they said that if we didn’t have a reservation that we should at least try to go because sometimes people will sell their tickets, especially Asian groups. However, we were unsuccessful and decided to move onto the Castello Sforzeso. It was built in the 14^th Century and was first used as a defense against Venice, later as Leonardo’s studio, and nowadays as a historical monument that houses many different museums and collections. Leonardo has many famous pieces and ceilings located here such as Madonna and Child and Michealangelo’s famous Pieta Rondanini, his last uncompleted sculpture, is also located here. He was working on it when he died. After visiting all of the museums we went over to a market and got a pastry…none of them were very good. After that we made to Buenos Aires to do some more shopping. We shopped pretty much the whole evening, and then we sat down at a restaurant to grab a bite to eat. The food was really good, very authentic. After that we started walking back to our hotel. We got in around 9ish and we met the guys staying next to us. I think there were three guys one of them was from Texas originally but now lives in Amsterdam with his girlfriend. They offered to grab some drinks with us or something but I was tired so just Alex and Stephanie went. The thing about staying in hostels, is that you always meet other students that are traveling too, so it’s nice!

Sunday morning we woke up and headed downtown to see the famous theatre. We could have taken a tour but it would have been in the dark because they were setting up for a performance. So, we skipped that and took some pictures and did some souvenir shopping instead. We tried to see the Arc of Peace but after we had walked a mile to see it, it ended up being under construction like everything else in Europe…lol Soo…we did some more shopping, took an afternoon nap, woke up, ate dinner, and did some more sleeping because we were tired and it was Sunday.

Monday - I knew two weeks ago that this was going to be a very busy day for me. We got up at 4 am to catch the bus that takes you to the airport from Milan. We arrived on time for our flight and grabbed a quick croissant and OJ at the airport. Our flight back was pretty good, I got to see the sun rising over the Alps, it was beautiful! The descent into Barcelona was not ideal, I got a little panicky but I made it through and pretty soon we were on the ground. After landing we tried to hurry to the train so that we could get home and get ready for the day ahead. We missed the train by literally 1 minute and had to wait nearly 30 minutes for the next one. It was cold, and I was tired. After we finally made it back home, I got ready for school and went early to meet with my group members to discuss our presenation for class. My first class went well. In the second class we gave the monument tour and it wasn’t very warm outside so I wasn’t really enjoying it. Plus, the Spanish students tend to be a little rude when measured by American classroom standards. They are always talking and whispering and laughing during class when the teacher is talking and stuff, I find it to be rude and annoying especially when I can’t hear. I guess it’s normal though. The teachers don’t really seem to have very much control over their classrooms here in that sense. After school I met with one of my many groups to discuss the workload and then I went home and did some laundry, grocery shopping, etc. I was passed out by 11 o’clock, which is rare for me over here! Usually I’m up until at least 2! I was really exhausted.

Tuesday started out good. Spanish class was good, and we were having a tour for our second class so we didn’t have to stay at school. I came home, made lunch and then got ready for the tour. Alex and I left a little early in order to allow time to get lost and such. We found it easily though. We went to La Pedreda which is a house that was designed by Gaudi. It was pretty cool, nothing extremely special. The roof was the best part and even then I wasn’t extremely impressed. We also walked to the Sagrada Familia and we saw another important house. Our tour guide was a senior from school so it was a little dis-organized. I decided that I’m going to go back to all these sites later on to get good pictures. From this point on I can’t really remember the rest of the night.

Wednesday we only had our morning class, which just so happens to be the class that I despise the most. It was really boring and I was so happy when it was over. After school we had the rest of the day off to do research for our other class that we usually have on Wednesdays. That evening I hung out with some friends and I also booked a ticket to go to Rome next weekend!! I’m really excited!! My flight was a little higher than what I initially wanted to pay but it’s Rome, and I don’t have many weekends left to go and I would like to see Rome when it’s not freezing outside.

Thursday – In Spanish class we finally got our class schedule. Lol We are having our Spanish exam on November 5^th and then we will start learning Catalan until the end of the term. So, that’s exciting. Our second class was entertaining. I really enjoy Spanish Culture and Tourism. It was raining cats and dogs outside so we didn’t really do anything this night. When we got home from school though we had a sticker on our mailbox saying that I had gotten a package so I immediately took the bus down to the post office. I got in the wrong line the first time, took a number, and then stood around for like 20 more minutes before I figured out how to get my package! Lol Turns out, my church sent me a package all the way over here in Spain! I couldn’t believe it! I was very excited to get something in the mail from them. It was basically a bunch of small snacks and Halloween candy so I shared the majority of it with the European kids that came over that night to hang out. They enjoyed most of it. Lol

Friday – I slept in because I was tired and when I woke up Alex and I went shopping. We shopped pretty much all day and I finally bought a pair of boots!! I think I’ve seriously tried on every single pair in this city!! Lol They are nice and I really like them although I haven’t worn them yet. When we got home Kevin was here so we worked on booking a hostel for Amsterdam. We were successful and I have hostels and flights for everywhere that I am going so far except for Madrid. Friday night must not have been too exciting because I can’t remember if we did anything.

Saturday –We slept in again and went to the beach around 1 or 2. It was a nice day for the beach. It wasn’t too cold or windy and the sun was out. The temperature was 76 degrees Fahrenheit. That will probably be one of the last times that we are able to go to the beach because it’s definitely starting to cool down and we’ve only had a few nice days like this recently. While we were at the beach my purse almost got stolen because I wasn’t paying attention. (I was distracted) BUT, Alex was looking out for our bags so they stayed safely in our possession. I also finally went swimming in the Mediterranean here in Barcelona! I figured that it might be one of the last times that would be at the beach and I wanted to get fully in the water at least one time. It was ice cold, like Titanic water ice cold, but it was refreshing and I’m glad that I did it! After the beach we went to get my hair cut! Friday when we were shopping we ran across this really cool looking salon and we went in to check the prices. It wasn’t too expensive actually only 30 Euros for a shampoo, cut, and style. This is about average here so I made an appointment because my hair has been in desperate need of being evened up. My stylist was actually a guy from Holland. He was really nice and his English was really good so I felt comfortable having him cut my hair! We talked about all sorts of different things like the languages spoken here in Barcelona, the culture of this area, and other cities in Europe. He gave me some good advice on Madrid and I think that I’m really going to like it there. My hair turned out really great. I’m trying to grow it back out so he didn’t really take off any length instead he evened it up and angled it a little bit by making it shorter in the back. It actually looks pretty good. I’m really happy with it and I rarely say that about haircuts. Lol After my haircut I did some grocery shopping and we went out to the other Black Sheep across town to check it out. We have one literally on our door step, it’s the original one but they also have a mega taverna across town so we decided to check it out. Turns out that Saturday was also daylights savings time here so we got an extra hour at the bar!! How lucky are we?!? Haha. So currently I am only 5 hours ahead of East Coast time until you have daylights savings time there this weekend.

Sunday was a lazy day as usual. Alex and I worked on some homework, tested out the Laundromat, and were lazy. That night we went out for Sushi at this cool Japanese restaurant. They had a conveyer belt with a variety of small dishes or tapas and it was really good. I tried some new things and the majority of it was good. After eating out we went to Hogan’s, an Irish Pub, to watch the FC Barcelona game. They won of course and while we were all hanging out some really drunk Danish guys came up and started chatting us up. They were a little weird but it made for an interesting night nonetheless.

Monday – Back into school mode again. We got homework in both of our classes Monday. It’s nothing to hard though. In one class we have to research the meaning of the name of a street and in the other we have to research a traditional Catalan dish and explain it’s ingredients, how its made, etc. For lunch we went to my favorite place for Patatas Braves, which btw is my favorite Catalan dish. We went to Bar Tomas again and it was soooooo good. I’m seriously in love with this place and would eat there everyday if I could. After school we decided that we would have people over for an “American” dinner. My roommates did the majority of the cooking and I of course did the majority of the dishes before, during, and after. We had fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and a spinach salad with raspberry vinegarette. It was ok, it wasn’t KFC and to my standards if the food isn’t better than fast food then I might as well just eat the cheaper, tastier fast food! Lol After dinner we drank a bottle of Moscatel, a Portuguese sweet after dinner wine. It was really good and it’s my new favorite drink. We were up pretty late and didn’t get to bed until about 2. We had a good time though.

Tuesday – Today we got up early, got ready, went to school and then class was cancelled. BOTH of our classes were cancelled today because both of our professors have the same flu bug that we all had last week! Kathrine, our coordinator had informed me that my package had come from my dad and that it was as big as me! I went up to her office to get it and she wasn’t lying! Lol My roommate offered to help me carry it home. I was pretty excited to open it when I got home. It had all sorts of goodies inside one of them being some velveta shells and cheddar which I immediately consumed. After I opened that up I decided that since we had the whole day off from school that I was going to go out exploring in Barcelona. I have realized recently that we don’t have much time left here in Barcleona and since I’m traveling almost every weekend I had to try to visit as many sites, museums, and parks that I can during the week. So, I decided to start by exploring the rest of the Gothic area today. I walked around lost for a while and saw the church of La Merce, the patron saint of Barcelona, the church of Sant Just, Plaza George Orwell, and did some shopping. I bought a really cool scarf, had some churros with hot melted chocolate for dipping, and then met up with my roommate Sam to go to the Picasso Museum. We had to wait in a pretty long line to get our tickets but it was well worth it. Picasso was an amazing artist in many aspects and this is the largest collection of his art in his home country. It was outstanding. It was packed but I still enjoyed it and afterwards I bought a bookmark and postcard of my favorite painting since you aren’t allowed to take any pictures inside. I also got a cool new pencil for my collection. Which, BTW, my roommates made fun of me for having a pencil collection but, if you ask me, I think it’s pretty cool. It’s very unique, inexpensive, and within the past year it has become an International pencil collection, not just any pencil collection! After the museum we went over and visited the Santa Maria del Mar, another famous Gothic cathedral here in Barcelona. It was beautiful. Fisherman and sailors built it back in the 13^th or 14^th century. After the church we had some tapas at a little café and headed home. It’s been a very busy day today so I’m pretty tired but we might be going out tonight, I’m not sure yet, you’ll have to wait till the next blog post to find out!

As for other things, I’m sorry it took so long to get this post out, I’ve tried to sit down and finish it a couple of times this week but it’s been hard to find the time and motivation with so many other things going on. However, now that I’ve gotten this long post out of the way I plan to post more or less everyday that way they are shorter and easier to read! Lol Also, there has been some tension recently between my roommates and I to say the least but that’s a whole other story for another day. Oh and by the way I’M GOING TO ROME THIS WEEKEND!!! AHHHHHH!!! I’m so excited. Rome is the one place I have always wanted to go!!! I’ll let you know all about it!! :D I’ll be traveling by myself this weekend also, I’m excited about this but also keep me in your prayers!!!