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