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