Girona

It has been a busy and crazy week here in Barcelona! So much for siesta time…I can never seem to get any rest in this city! My week has been filled with going to class, eating at restaurants, going to the gym and going out at night. Yesterday, we went to Girona, which is a small town an hour outside of Barcelona. It was a little rainy at first, but then the sun started to come out, which made for an enjoyable afternoon. Girona is home to only 28,000 people. It was a fun little town, with a huge wall surrounding the city that we were able to walk on top of and get great views of the city. We then headed off to the Dali Museum, which was veryyy interesting. All of his work looked very odd and crazy…I couldn’t quite understand where his brain was at with all of his artwork. Sadly, my roommate Meghan had to leave the program to go back to the states due to health issues this last week. It was a tough transition, but I am trying to make the best of the situation. Luckily, I can see us being friends forever, as I know we will keep in touch with one another and am able to update her constantly on our friends’ lives overseas. It helps that my really good friend Lia lives the floor below me, so she has become my new roommate that comes and goes as she pleases. The other day, we went to this really fun and creative candy store next to the Barcelona Cathedral. It is called Happy Pills and you choose from all different kinds of candy to go in a pill container and choose what you want to have them cure. I chose to help overcome my fear of flying!

 Candy!!

Walking along the wall surrounding the city

Girona 

Friends in front of the Cathedral 

Friends along the river in Girona

Dali Museum 

Yesterday may have been the day I fell in love with Barcelona…if I haven’t already. 30 kids from my resedencia went on a guided bike ride tour through the city. It was a gorgeous day out, as we started and ended along the beach…it was unreal. We started the bike tour at 12:30pm and finished at around 5pm. After, we waited in line for Bo de B (the amazing sandwich shop)…3^rd day in a row??? No shame. But really…I should probably do something about that soon. The tour also helped because our guide pointed out a lot of local restaurants that he suggests we try. Last night, my friends and I went to Catwalk, which is a club along the beach. It was a two-story club that played different music on both floors. We stayed out until 5am (finally we are adjusting to this staying out late ordeal!) and it may have been the best night since we’ve arrived. Since we did not get to bed until extremelllllly late, we didn’t wake up until 3pm ay yi yiiii. It was again, another gorgeous afternoon, so my friends and I decided to take advantage of the beach. We walked from our resedencia to arrive to a busy filled beach area (because it was Sunday many of the locals where out enjoying the weather). We sat and enjoyed the company of one another and the beautiful waves and played a little bit of beach soccer. Short, but great day! Off to bed to get some much needed sleep!

 My friend Shannon from CU A Phi...start of the bike tour

Off we go!

Girls in front of Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya

La Sagrada Familia

Club Catwalk

First week of classes done!! Yipppeee it’s the weekend! Two nights ago I went to L’ovella Negra, which is a great “bar” down the street from us. It is not a standard bar that you’d see in the states…rather it was a HUGE warehouse with lots of long wooden tables. I went to the other L’ovella Negra last weekend, but I have found that this one is more fun and is only a block away from my resedencia. Here we watched my first FC Barcelona game….and because it was against Real Madrid (their biggest rival) it made for an even crazier night. It was unlike any football sports bar I have experienced in the states. Every local there was chanting multiple songs when something good would happen and us Americans would pretend we knew all the words…I need to learn these songs if I am going to become a true Barcelona fan! Nonetheless, it was a wild time and can’t wait to attend a game in person!! (It won’t be versus Real Madrid though because I heard those tickets are at around 550 Euros) Yesterday, I went to Bo de B for lunch, recommended to me by a friend who studied abroad here last year…it was TO DIE FOR! She explained it as chipoltle/subway…but honestly it was 1000 times better than both. All the ingredients were fresh and laid out for each customer to choose their own meal. I had a pollo bocadillo (chicken sandwich), with avocado sauce, garlic sauce, tomatoes, corn, and cucumbers. Doesn’t sound like anything great, but I can promise you it was delishhhh. I met some girls here who told me about a churro stand right by my resedencia…uh oh…we know what this means. It is only a block away and could be realll dangerous for me. For dinner, we went to La Cantonita de Coronela, where I had delicious shrimp tacos near Barceloneta. At night, we went to Razzmatazz, which is a multi-level (mostly American) club. Today my group went on a tour of La Pedrera, which is one of Gaudi’s masterpieces. It was definitely a sight to see! The rooftop was the best part as we saw views all around of Barcelona and got to see the magnificent rooftop itself of La Pedrera.I now can understand the genius that Gaudi was and realize there is no one else in history or current times that can compare to his work. For dinner, my friends and I went to Barceloneta to find some fresh paella. We were told to stay off the main street and head into the alleys to find a local, hole in the wall place. It was a great success, as I am forcing myself to eat all kinds of seafood and loving it all! After, we ventured over to the churro stand, where we got chocolate covered churros and sugar covered ones…thought of you the whole time mom!

L'ovella Negra for FC Barcelona vs. Real Madrid

Before Razzmatazz

Rooftop of La Pedrera

La Sagrada Familia in the distance

Paella Mariscos...I ate all the seafood Dad!

Today was a great day! I had Spanish class for the first time today for 4 hours! Luckily, it was my only class of the day, and was out at 12:40pm so I had the rest of the day to play. My teacher is great…she has a great sense of humor and is very nice. In the 4 hours of class, she probably spoke 10 words of English. It was a little intimidating for me because of all my past Spanish classes, my teachers would instruct in English. Even though it was 4 hours, I loved the class. It was surprising how much I was able to understand for how much I thought I have forgotten in the past 3 years. Good thing I enjoy the subject matter, otherwise it would be miserable! The class consists of only 15 kids, much different from my classes at CU. Midway through the class, our professor let us go downstairs to the bakery down the street where we picked up a salami baguette sandwich and a small orange/chocolate pastry. Both were great! After class I came home and put my workout clothes on for the first time in two weeks to go for a run and was determined to find the beach for the first time! Who knew I was only 10 minutes away?! It has been a gorgeous day and seeing the beach made it even better. I have never lived so close to a beach where I could step out my front door and am there by foot in a matter of minutes. Once I arrived at the beach, I continued down along side of it to the direction of the W hotel. I was tempted to go in, but didn’t think my attire was appropriate…it looks veryyyy nice. I then walked through the area of Barceloneta and Port Vell, which are districts right on the water. Walking through this area reminded me a little bit of Italy. Many outside cafes lined the street, which is where I came upon Vioko, a gelato shop. Of courseee I had to go in and check it out. I got Mango and it was very refreshing after my “run”…so much for the purpose of working out. After eating a much-needed snack, I conveniently came upon the Barceloneta metro stop and took it to the Arc de Triomf. This may be my favorite structure since my arrival. It is gorgeous and is the entrance to one of the parks here in Barca…so grand compared to anything we have at home! Tonight we went to dinner at Restaurant 7 Portes, which was a five star restaurant (if I would have known the prices before attending we might have thought otherwise, but…it was worth every penny). I honestly could not tell you exactly what was in my paella…I just ate it! In it was lobster, calamari, shrimp, chicken, someother type of seafood that did not know what it was but it tasted good, and maybe some beef ???? Whatever it was, I recommend! Then of course I couldn’t resist from the homemade tiramisu. Well now, off to bed to rest up for joining the crazy Spaniards to watch the FC Barcelona futbol game at a bar

Gorgeous beach only 10 minute run from my resedencia, W hotel in the distance 

Taking a break from my run...trying to get my tan on

Inside Parc de la Ciutadella: Arc de Triomf  

Hola hola! It has been a few days since I have been able to write…been so busy! A few nights ago, Meghan and I went to La Dolca Herminia, a restaurant off the Urquinaona metro stop. It was delicious!! I had pasta with small chunks of pear inside the noodles, covered in a bechamel sauce, and with pesto drizzled on top. In America, by the looks of this restaurant one would think the food would be extremely expensive, but it was only 10 euros. The restaurant opened at 8:30pm and within 10 minutes, it was full of locals with people already waiting…we knew we found a good spot. Yesterday (Sunday) I woke up and took the metro to find where my classes are with my friend Lia. Luckily we did this the day before classes started because we got lost twice…it is so easy to get lost here and so hard to find the street signs! After finding the building, we decided to walk around the area and we found ourselves upon Passeig de Gracia, which is a street directly after La Rambla. It is a beautiful street with many restaurants and the high-end Rodeo Drive type stores. Chanel, Gucci, Burberry, and Tiffany & Co. lined the street…I knew I had to come back here! We continued our way down La Rambla for my first taste of Paella. I cannot get myself to eat all the seafood in Mixed Paella yet, so I settled for Vegetarian Paella, which was very good. We continued down to the bottom of La Rambla where we ended up at the beach…I’ve been trying to find the ocean for the past week and glad we finally made it there! In the distance, we could see the famous W hotel. Upon arriving to the beach, I found a crepe stand; so naturally, I got a banana and chocolate crepe and continued to walk along a bridge to get to more shops….again. Spaniards love their shoes and clothes. I did not get nearly enough time as I wanted for exploring the beach area, but knowing that I am only 15 minutes away makes everything better! We made our way back home where I then headed out with Meghan and some of her friends from Baltimore to go to a sports bar to watch the Ravens NFL game. Meghan has season tickets and is a HUGE Ravens fan so we decided to go to George Payne, which is an Irish Bar. There were surprisingly a lot of Americans there watching the game…the Europeans probably thought we were so obnoxious. We stayed until half time and ordered burgers, then came home because Meghan was not feeling well. We then called it a night because I had class at 9am the following morning. Today (Monday) was my first day of classes! I have class M-TH 9am-12:40pm. I am really lucky with this schedule because a lot of people have all day/night classes. First, I had International Marketing, which is taught by a Japanese woman who was born in Mexico. My classes are taught by foreign teachers and I have a mix of students in my classes as well. Many are from the United States, but today, kids from China, South Korea, Brazil, and Germany were present as well. We all discussed the culture shock that we have experienced since we have been here…looks like we are all on the same page! After, I had Cross Cultural Management and then made my way back to Passeig de Gracia to explore a bit more. Expecting to see shops after shops, I randomly came upon Antoni Gaudi’s famous Casa Batllo. It was so exciting because I was not expecting to see this on my way to window shop. The architecture was so impressive, and not only this building, but also every other building that lined Passeig de Gracia was so detailed and perfected. Even basic shops are held in magnificent buildings, with large Corinthian columns lining the outside. The buildings here are so much more impressive than anything we have in the US. It started to rain after my little bit of touring, so I decided to come back to my room…unfortunately Meghan was off to the doctors, hoping she gets better soon!

 Antoni Gaudi’s famous Casa Batllo

George Payne Irish Bar 

Arc de Triomf at night across the street from George Payne

Last night we went with a group of kids to this bar called L’ovella Negra, which was a lot of fun. It is best to go with a large group of friends because everyone sits at long wooden tables. It was hidden in this back (you could say sketchy) ally with a little door (almost my height) for the entrance. Once inside though, it was filled with many young people, drinking and socializing. We all shared a huge bucket of Sangria (best Sangria yet for only 25 Euros). We left this bar at around 2am and headed for Duvet, which was an American club, getting home at about 4:30am…I can’t keep up with this time schedule! This morning Meghan and I woke up to hit the rebajas (major sales). We went to a couple stores, but Meghan started to feel sick so we separated for the first time since our arrival…scary! I was a little anxious wandering through the alleys of Barcelona by myself, but I found my way around eventually and had success with the rebajas! I came across 3 Zara stores in a block radius of one another, along with 2 H &M’s and many other large and small stores…I think I found where the shopping is! I stopped on my way home to get some “potatoes with salami”… It was interesting.

Delicious Sangria

La Rambla

Today Meghan and I woke up to go on a Gothic tour with guides provided from ISA. We took the metro and met them in Plaza del Angel. I immediately came upon La Colmena Pastisseria and got a fruit tart for breakfast. We then made our way onto the Barcelona Cathedral and the surrounding areas. The tour lasted about two hours where we learned some history of the establishment of Barcelona and learned that its original name was Barcino. After the tour, Meghan and I went with two our friends, Sara & Sara, to La Rambla, one of the main streets in Barcelona. We didn’t get to explore the entire street because it is fairly long and ends up at the beach, but I figure we covered about half of it. We saw some street artists, flower stalls, many restaurants and shops. I randomly came upon Wok to Walk, which is a Chinese wok chain restaurant that Alex Saltzman introduced me to in Amsterdam when I visited her over spring break. I was excited to try it here, but sadly, I feel like the one in Amsterdam is better. Regardless, it was fun to go there as it brought back great memories for me. After lunch, we continued on La Rambla and came across Mercat de La Boqueria, which is Barcelona’s most famous food market. There were many stalls selling fresh fruits and vegetables to smoothies to fresh fish to hanging meats and delicious (and very expensive) assortments of chocolate. I got two pieces: one was dark chocolate with almonds and oranges and the other one was a chocolate chip cookie covered in layers of chocolate. My roommate got 2 pieces of chocolate and it ended up being 10 euros! I also got fresh papaya, mango and strawberries, which were all delicious! We ended up at the end of La Rambla, where we came across the large retailer stores such as H&M, Zara and their main department store, El Corte Ingles. It reminded me of a Nordstrom on steroids. There were two stores side by side, with each store containing at least 7 floors. One of the stores contained shoes, clothes, and handbags alternating every level and the other Corte Ingles had other clothes, shoes, etc., along with home supplies. I was so overwhelmed, I had to leave…and that’s saying something! Meghan and I were pretty tired at this point so we took the metro back to our resedencia for a siesta so we can hit the clubs tonight. We want to go back to the shops tomorrow because we still haven’t bought any clothes or shoes! Classes start on Monday so we are trying to get as much play and tourist time in as possible!

wok from Wok to Walk 

Meats and cheeses in Mercat de La Boqueria

 Street artists on La Rambla

First day in Barca!

 First full day in Barcelona complete! Meghan and I woke up to go find some sheets for our bed at “the mall”. Surprisingly, it was a lot harder than we expected and ended up buying some groceries instead. Unlike at home where I stack up the fridge for weeks at a time, people in Europe only fill up a tiny cart of food to get them through a day or two. Meghan and I have discovered that pretzels do not exist here and are on the constant search to satisfy our cravings…but we did find Peanut Butter-golden item! Seeing as we got back from the club at 4am and woke up at 10am, we are a bit tired. We took the metro for the first time today and I bought a ticket for 10 rides and have already used up half of them hours after I bought it. I always love people watching on the metro and using it makes me feel like a true European!…and yes mom, I always “mind the gap.” We are waking up early to go on some tours of la ciudad and hope to shop through all the rebajas!!!  

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” 

Note

Note: Click on pictures to make bigger.

Toledo/Arriving in Barca-1/12/12

After an hour on the bus, we have arrived to Toledo, which is a beautiful medieval city, with castle like walls intertwined throughout. The stonework and brick on all the walls are so beautiful and detailed. We went to lunch, where I had my first authentic Spanish cuisine, consisting of sopa de pescado  (seafood soup) and empanadas (filled with tuna, eggs, and tomatoes…interesting?). We were given a three-hour guided walking tour of Toledo, where we came across small churches and boutique shops. Many of the shops had ancient shields and swords to purchase. Toledo is known for having gorgeous, antique swords and marzipan. (a sugar and almond paste usually in sweets such as chocolate…Mommy’s fav!)  The city consists of small, narrow, cobblestoned streets, which wrap around like a maze. I was not able to learn much about Toledo on our tour because our tour guide had an extremely strong Spanish accent, which made the English very hard to understand.  We then were taken back to our hotel, which felt a lot more American than our first hotel in Madrid. The rooms were a lot bigger and it had a large lobby and swimming pool. They also had a restaurant in the lobby, which was where we ate dinner. All these components are very unusual for a European hotel. We then had to wake up at 7am for the bus ride to Barcelona. We arrived in Barcelona at around 7pm, which made for a very long day. By the time we arrived in Barca, it was dark so we could not see anything in the city. We arrived to our resedencia, which is very nice and modern. The resedencia consists of nearly 6 buildings, with kids from my program dispersed throughout. My roommate and I have yet to meet our hall mates, but plan on doing that within the next few days. Our room is great and is about the same size of a dorm at CU. We have our own cooking lounge that we share with the other students on our same floor and a pool on the rooftop ay yi yiii!! Once we arrived and settled into our room, we did what the Spaniards do best…fiestaaa!!! Meghan, Lia (a new friend from Santa Cruz), and I went to two bars first before hitting up the club of the night: Sutton Club. Tequila shots and rum and cokes were the drinks of the night, as we then made our way across the street to Sutton. This club was specifically a club opener night for all new Spring ISA students. While there were hundreds of people there, it was fun running into new friends and familiar faces. While this was a “small”, one level club for Spain, it was the largest and wildest club I have been to yet. The 5 story discotecas will be hit up this weekend!! Our resedencia is located 5 minutes from one of the largest, most well known discos in Spain called Razzmatazz. Of course a night is not a successful night unless it entails late night eating. Meghan and I took a cab to nothing else but…McDonalds. I swear it is better than in the US. First night in Spain and I guess you could say we did it like an American…oh well, we still have all semester! The cab driver spoke no English and am proud to say that Meghan and I had a 20-minute conversation all in Spanish. The cab driver got a kick of how poor our Spanish was and decided to blast music as he zipped through the streets of Barca. Yo amo hablando en espanol porque es muy divertido!! After only being in Spain for nearly 4 days, I am getting more confident each day with speaking Spanish. I am trying to speak it when I can even though I’m sure it is terrible and they can tell I’m just another American speaking “Spanglish”. The one thing that is extremely difficult is how fast they speak it here…by the time I am trying to understand the first few words, they are already done telling me an entire story. Time for siesta…adios!!!

Finally Arrived!-1/12/12

Hola mis amigos!! I have finally arrived in Espana! The flight went smoothly and I met three other kids on my flight from JFK to Madrid. I also got to sit next to my new friend Liza, which definitely made the flight more enjoyable. Our first two days in Spain were in Madrid. It was a little difficult to enjoy the city because we were so jet-lagged, but we did our best to sight see and of course, check out the shops. The stores have ridiculously cheap sales with most clothes ranging from 10-20 Euros. I can’t wait to get to Barcelona to shop my heart out! For the most part, Madrid was not what I was expecting. Minus a few components, Madrid felt a lot like a large U.S. city. It was strange in that we could not find many restaurants to eat at. They were either little cafes or very expensive restaurants. We are all a bit eager to get to Barcelona to move into our housing and discover the ins and outs of the city.  Our hotel was very nice, and more modern than most European hotels. It was small with two connecting twin beds. While the program had a group tour organized for us the second day we arrived, my roommate, Meghan and I decided to stay back, sleep in, and do our own walking tour. My roommate is wonderful! She is from Maryland, but goes to school at University of North Carolina at Wilmington.  Our program did a great job in matching us because we get along great and have discovered that we are pretty close to being the same person (we are so similar!...minus looks). Alrighty, signing off now… Toledo in the morning!

 

1/5/2012: Pre-Departure

Less than 48 hours and I will be mid-flight to Barcelona! I land in Madrid on Sunday morning, where we will spend two days touring the city, with our program orientation to follow. Our group then heads to Toledo, and then Barcelona by the end of the week. I cannot wait to arrive to my new home and am so excited for all the experiences to come! ¡Adiós!