Valencia and this past week

This has been such a busy week for me!  Last Tuesday night we celebrated our roommate, Brittany's, 21st birthday but unfortunately we had to wait until Wednesday to really celebrate because we had to be on a charter bus at 8:00 AM the next morning- ahh!- to begin our "Study Journey".  Our bus made its first stop in Tortosa, a small town in Southern Catalonia on the way to Valencia.  It was a cute little town but I have to admit, there wasn't much to see...  There were some pretty spots along the tour so here are some pictures:

So that was Tortosa!
Then we were on our way to Valencia which is the third largest city in Spain after Madrid then Barcelona but it was a lot smaller than Barcelona.  It was very pretty with several parks and pretty buildings and monuments.  We checked into our hotel rooms- I was put in a triple room with two girls from my Spanish class.  We had dinner at 8:30 that night which was a treat since we're used to being fed around 10:30 at home.  We had a plate of pasta and the main course was grilled vegetables.  It wasn't too filling so our table ate about 20 pieces of bread a piece.  We then headed out to this bar called Radio City for the night where a lot of other IES students went.  We called it a night relatively early so we could wake up early in the morning to begin our tour of the city of Valencia.

The next morning we woke up and had a guided tour of the city.  It would have been a lot more enjoyable if it hadn't been freezing cold and rainy.  The tour guide said it doesn't rain more than 300 days of the year so of course we would go on one of the 60 or so days that it rains... and it poured and we were outside. Regardless we saw some beautiful things.  The Cathedral was probably the highlight of the tour- it was so beautiful!

 The Holy Grail is in the Cathedral in Valencia!

The High Altar in the Cathedral

St. Vicente Martin's Mummified hand- GROSS

After the guided tour of the city, we had a lunch break and then we were able to go to the famous City of Sciences and Arts.  We actually just went to the aquarium but it was really cool!  I love a good aquarium.  There were lots of fish if you can imagine.  The highlight of the entire trip for me was the Spanish dolphin show.  It was freezing cold and raining still and the seats were very wet but it was so cool.  I just really like dolphins.

Mas fotos:

 They never have Charlotte on anything like this in America but they have Carlota in Spain!  I was pretty excited

After the aquarium we went back and took naps before dinner.  We had paella which was of course delicious.

The next day we got up early again and headed to the Torres Vineyards and had a tour.  We rode in a train thing around the vineyard but it was was out of season.  There were no grapes growing on the vines so it was kind of strange but it was cool to see how the wine was made.

The Grape-less Vines

Barrels and Barrels of wine!

Bottled up and ready to go

After the tour we headed to this restaurant outside of Barcelona and had a traditional Catalan meal.  We started off with Calcotadas which are spring onions charred that you pull the outside layer off of and dip the inside into this delicious sauce and lower into your mouth.  You have to wear these really cute bibs when you eat them because they're so messy.  Here's me eating one...

Cool bibs, huh?  Then we had some potatoes, some sort of beans, lamb chops, and artichokes.  Finally we were on our way back home to Barcelona.

This weekend was pretty relaxing but amazing.  On Saturday I met some of my uncle Paco's family for lunch.  They took me to an area that I hadn't been to before near the port and we walked around to a couple of tapas bars and had some cervesas and tapas before we went to the delicious seafood restaurant.  Patricia and her husband Manolo and their son Manolo and their niece Ines all came to meet me and eat with me and I really enjoyed meeting them.  They were so nice and I can't wait to see them again!  Thanks for setting me up with them, Paco!

After lunch, Amy and I went to this little coffee shop across the street from our apartment and got some coffee (yes, I'm starting to drink coffee now!  I'm trying to use less and less sugar in it each time I drink it so I can finally be grown up :) We did  some reading for our classes there and actually got a lot done so it was very productive.  We went out last night first to this bar called Summums and then to this club for a while.

Today was a day of adventures for Amy and I!  We went to Sagrada Familia, the huge church that has been under construction for what seems like forever and won't be finished for around ten more years.  It was so big and different but beautiful.

The ceilings are so high and beautiful.  It was almost overwhelming being inside of the church but it was so cool!

After Sagrada Familia we went to Montjuc and the Olympic park.  I had a mild freak out when I got to the Olympic park because I thought it was so cool!

OK so sorry that was super long!  But now I have to actually go to class tomorrow- what? who does that??  And then Thursday afternoon we're flying out to Paris until Sunday!  I really am living the life over here- Thanks Momma and Daddy :)

Have a great week everyone! Adios!

Our Weekend in Andorra

Yes, Andorra....ever heard of it??  It's a VERY small country in between France and Spain.  Ellen had a  spontaneous idea on Thursday night to go skiing in Andorra for the weekend, so eight of us girls packed up and left Friday afternoon after our classes!  We took a bus there and when we crossed the border from Spain into Andorra it began to snow.  I'm not a huge fan of snow but I have to admit it was beautiful!  We finally got to our hotel, Hotel Pyrenees, and had a delicious dinner in the restaurant in the hotel.  I had escalope (a breaded thinly cut steak that I tried in Comillas a couple summers ago) and it was just as delicious in Andorra.  We called it a night pretty early so we could hit the slopes the next morning.

View from the town of the mountains:

We woke up in time for the complimentary hotel breakfast -YUM- and then caught a bus up to the resort.  We stopped at a rental place to rent some skis and we decided to purchase the lift ticket for half of a day so we waited until 1:00 to begin.  We waited in a cafe at the bottom of the mountain and had a couple of hot chocolates with Baileys before we headed up in a Gondola to the top of the mountain and were on our way.  It was SO cold and we didn't have real ski wear so we looked silly in our leggings and rain coats but it was a lot of fun... well until part of my ski broke off at the top of the mountain.   Here I am with my broken ski...

So I had to get someone who worked there to help me down the mountain since I obviously couldn't ski anymore and he called a van to come pick me up and take me back to the lodge at the top.  That ended my day of skiing, but now I can say that I have been skiing in Europe!!  It was a lot of fun and such a great experience.

We went back to the hotel and took a nap to rest up from our long day.  We woke up to go out to dinner at a cute little restaurant down the street.  I ordered an "Ensalada Catalonia" or a Catalonian Salad... it didn't have a description underneath it but I thought I'd give it a try.  It was basically lettuce, Spanish ham, and cheese and it was delicious.  For dessert, Amanda and I split what we thought was creme brulee but it was actually like a frozen creme brulee and of course it was also delicious.  We then went to the discoteca in Andorra called "Buda" and stayed there for the rest of the night.

We slept in this morning and went to lunch at Mama Marias before we headed back to Barcelona on the bus!  Now we're at home and I'm preparing for classes on Monday and Tuesday before IES takes us to Southern Catalonia and Valencia from Wednesday until Friday.  We're stopping first in Tortosa then to Valencia and then to the Torres Vineyards.  It should be a lot of fun!

Adios!!

A week already?

I seriously cannot believe I have been here for 8 days already.  Wow!  We've been exploring a lot.  Amy and I explored Las Ramblas (don't worry we kept our bags very safe from pickpocketers- apparently this is the most well known pickpocketing spot in the world).  There were several street performers dressed up, for example, like Bob Marley:

Of course we got some Gelato...yum!

And then we walked all the way down Las Ramblas to the Christopher Columbus monument... it was very impressive.  This is it from a distance...

Here is some of the detail: Ferdinand and Isabella statues...

And of course we went to La Boqueria... they had such a variety of meats, fruits, vegetables, chocolate, seafood... pretty much everything!

And then we walked down Passieg de Gracia and saw some beautiful architecture by Gaudi and others...

Clearly we did a ton of walking this day (Saturday) so we went home, napped, and went out with Brittany, our new roommate, to L' Ovella Negra, or the Black Sheep, a local bar with delicious Sangria.  It was a lot less touristy and more friendly than some other places we have been and we really liked it so we will most definitely go back soon.  

Sunday, Amy and I decided to go to Parc Guell and explore.  As I got off the metro (which we know how to use now yay!) I realized I didn't bring my camera...oops... but no worries we're going back soon and this is why:

We walk into the park entrance and there are tons of speakers blasting this one song on repeat, people shouting orders over a loud speaker, dancers, and so much commotion- we had no idea what was going on!  We walked up the steps and there were people dressed up, a man on stilts, and people handing out black and white balloons.  Amy and I were so confused.  After a while we put two and two together...they were filming a music video and were trying to get the public involved in it!  So obviously Amy and I went over to be in it.  We couldn't understand what the people with megaphones were saying but we just copied what the people around us were doing and just started dancing and waving our hands in the air... We eventually found out that the City of Barcelona wants to start charging admission for entry into Parc Guell and this was a commercial in protest.  So, Hola Espana!  Look for us on TV!  

It was quite an interesting experience but we want to go back when it's not as crowded so we can explore the park again because it was so pretty.

I have had Spanish classes for the past 3 days and our regular classes begin tomorrow, so it will be really nice to get in a routine soon.  Yesterday, Ellen, Amy and I went to the gym for the first time.  It's a really nice gym but we weren't thinking about the differences in measurements in Europe... so on the treadmill we didn't know how many kilograms we weighed and we weren't sure of the equivalent miles we ran to kilometers we ran.  Luckily I have my Nike running iPod gadget so I could see the distance in miles which made much more sense to me!

It's amazing how much better my Spanish is after only a week.  I feel a lot more confident speaking to people...well, until they speak Catalan and that's just another story.  But we're still learning a lot!  My Skype has finally started to work so Skype if you can!  Hopefully it will keep working.  

Adios!

Exhaustion

Wow.  I have been going, going, going and haven't stopped since I last posted.
We went out Tuesday night to George Payne's and then to this club called Opium.  Amy and I got to George Payne's and got a drink while waiting on our friends and we made some friends from France.  They were very friendly and we really liked talking to them.  It's so bizarre to me how Europeans speak so many different languages.  These French people were living in Barcelona and speak Spanish fluently (and obviously French) and their English was almost flawless.  I was embarrassed to answer "Spanish" when they asked me what my second language was since it is so terrible right now.  But I am learning... that's why I'm here!
So then we went to Opium which was hilarious.  There were so many interesting people there and we learned very quickly how aggressive the boys can be.  This seems to be a very touristy club and we met several other American, Irish, and Brazilian people.  We finally left and took a taxi home since the metros had already shut down for the night.  Speaking of Metros I'm sort of starting to figure it out...

I think what I'm having the most trouble adjusting to besides the language barrier is the big city.  I've never even been to New York or anywhere like that so learning how to get around the city is so new to me.  I have finally stopped trying to apologize to every person that I run in to on the streets since they certainly don't apologize to me when they do it.

Yesterday we had an orientation meeting and then Beth and I tried out the "cafeteria" on the top floor of Corte Ingles which had this amazing view of the whole city.  I had some Macarrones and then we did a little bit of shopping.  One thing that I can't get used to is that tit is really difficult to drink water here.  I order it everywhere I go and they only give me a tiny bottle of water.  I got a water bottle from a vending machine today and I was surprised when it wasn't water that I tasted...it was actually a clear gatorade type drink...they don't even have water bottles in vending machines??  The water here at the house tastes funny too so I don't really want to fill up my Nalgene with it... so I'm really hoping I can figure something else out so I don't have to keep spending 2 Euros on water bottles....yikes.

Last night, Amy and I met with our RA, Magda, who took us out for Sangria with four other girls to answer any questions that we had about Barcelona and then we headed to meet our friends at the FC Barcelona Futbol game!!!  It was my favorite thing we have done so far.  We of course got scarves and went into the game which started at 10:00 PM.  Barcelona won 5-0 against Real Betis and Messi scored 3 of those goals- a hat trick... very impressive!  We ate dinner at the game... stadium food is very different over here.  I got a sandwich that was basically a baguette sliced in half with a slice of cheese and tomato remnants on the bread.... it was like they put a tomato on the sandwich and then took it off after enough of its juices had gotten on the bread.  Not exactly what I would consider stadium food but I liked it!  After the game we went out to George Payne's for a little bit and then headed back home to sleep a little bit.

More orientation today... woo hoo... and I got a go phone finally to use over here that looks like one that I would have had back in middle school.  Then we had a scavenger hunt around Barcelona that I have to admit I wasn't too excited about but we actually saw some really interesting things... pictures...

Sorry this was so long but so much has happened in these past few days!  I have lots more pictures on facebook so check those out too. 

Adios!!

Day One!

Still loving Barcelona!  We spent the rest of yesterday playing Monopoly and Uno with the two kids and we didn't get a nap like we had planned so Amy and I passed out at around 10:30 last night and slept until around 1:00 this afternoon... I'd say we're pretty well rested.  Today we didn't have anything planned with the school so we had the day to ourselves!  Amy and I walked down the street to Burger King for lunch (we weren't feeling too brave today and loved the familiarity) and then walked a little further to Plaza Catalunya which is beautiful but swarmed with hundreds of pigeons and I get really grossed out by birds.  One woman was standing in the middle of them and let five or six crawl all over her arms and shoulders... EWWW...Getting past them was tough and they got so close to us but the rest of it was absolutely beautiful!  The architecture and sculptures and fountains were so pretty.  (if you click on the pictures they get bigger)

We went into Corte Ingles which is this huge department store... I think it's 9 floors and each floor is a different department.  Amy and I rode the escalator all the way up to the 9th floor then all the way back down to the first floor before we realized that the shampoo and other toiletries  (our reason for going) were in fact on the floor we came in on.  We did some more exploring in the plaza and then met up with Beth, McCauley, Ellen and two of her friends from her program to go buy tickets for tomorrow's FC Barcelona fútbol game!  We took the metro for the first time and it was a little stressful but thankfully Ellen's friends are from big cities and knew what they were doing. When we got to the stadium to buy our tickets they had just closed so we aren't going to be able to get them until tomorrow.  One man said that it wouldn't be a problem getting them, though, so we'll just wait.  We took the metro back, stopped at Starbucks on the way back to our apartment (yay America!) and we just ate supper with the family- fish sticks, salad, bread, and pasta.  I don't think I've had fish sticks since I was about 4 but they were homemade and delicious!  We're going to meet back up with the other girls later and head out to George Payne's Irish Pub tonight and then orientation starts at 10:45 tomorrow morning for me!  I guess it's about 4:00 across the pond so have fun in the snow today... so glad I'm not there freezing- I didn't even have to wear a jacket on this warm day in Barcelona! Adios!

I'm Here!!!

We made it to Barcelona!!

After many hours of traveling, we are finally here!  Amy and I left the Charlotte airport yesterday afternoon and met up with Beth, McCauley ,and Julia in Philadelphia for our flight to Munich.  We landed in Munich around 8:45 AM local time which is 2:45 AM what we're used to and then got on a flight to Barcelona two and a half hours later after enjoying a glass of champagne in the Munich airport to celebrate all of our "21st birthdays".  We then took off for the last leg of our flight to Barcelona!  We were all very lucky to have gotten all of our luggage all the way through. After getting information from IES (our school here) we set off on our own.  Amy and I had to take a minivan taxi to fit all of our luggage and we were off to our homestay.  We had a bit of trouble fitting all of our bags into the elevator and there was no way we were carrying it up several flights of stairs but we eventually got it upstairs and met Berta, our host mother, who is very kind.  She showed us into their beautiful apartment that was built in 1866.  It has beautiful high ceilings and huge windows.  The room that Amy and I share has a balcony overlooking the beautiful Barcelona streets and lots of drawer and closet space for all of our clothes. Here are some pictures of our room

So far we have met Berta and her husband Jordi who are both very very nice and Amy and I seem to have lucked out with them!  They have two children who we have not met yet but I think they will be back soon for us to meet!  We are just relaxing now after our flight and trying to get over jet lag but we are going to have supper later (MUCH later... I'm still on Wofford time where we eat at 5:30...it's 5:15 now here and they don't eat until late late at night) and then we are going to meet up with Beth, McCauley, Julia, and Ellen later tonight to go out!  We don't have anything planned for tomorrow since people will still be arriving but Wednesday we begin orientation at 8:00 AM.

Hopefully I'll have a more exciting post in the next few days but we are here and safe and so glad that we are not in SC for the huge snowstorm!  It's nice and warm here :)

Adios!