Long Weekend- Barcelona and Brussels

We had this past Thursday and Friday off from classes which was awesome!  On Thursday, Amy and I did a little exploring of the Diagonal area of Barcelona which was cool but it was a little bit rainy that day.  We found a lot of new stores, restaurants, etc. and we found this DELICIOUS cupcake shop so we stopped and got some red velvet cupcakes and a cafe con leche.  It was so so good.  Here are a few sights we saw along the way...

They almost had it right...just one more T!

So normal...

Thursday night, Amy and I decided to try out Dow Jones Bar and it was so much fun!  This bar, like the name suggests, is stock market themed.  When you walk in there are pictures of America on the walls, a Statue of Liberty in the corner, and information about the stock market on the walls.  There are computer screens at the bar with the lists of all the drinks and their prices.  The more popular the drinks are, the higher the prices.  Every hour or so the "Stock Market Crashes" and drinks are half price!  It is such a great idea and it was so much fun.  We made pretty good friends with the bartenders, especially after they played all of my favorite songs.  They started playing two songs from Grease (my FAVORITE movie) and then they played Time of My Life from Dirty Dancing (my OTHER favorite movie) and then they played a little Backstreet Boys, N*Sync, Britney Spears, Hakuna Matata ( I love any and all Disney Songs), some Hanson, Beach Boys... I could go on and on... but I seriously felt like they stole my iPod and were playing it over the speakers.  It was absolute perfection and so much fun!  We had a fairly late night and I had to wake up the next morning and catch a flight...

So Friday I woke up and headed to the airport for my trip to Brussels, Belgium!  It was my first time flying by myself- so exciting- and I actually really liked it!  I have taken the same airline, Vueling, the past two times I have flown and both times I had the entire row of 3 seats to myself!!  It was sooo nice.  There were no random people sitting next to me, I could stretch my legs, do whatever I wanted!  I have really lucked out.  So I got to Brussels and my friend David was at the airport to pick me up!  It was so good to see him.  We spent the rest of Friday walking around and he showed me all over Brussels.  It is such an interesting city.  The architecture was a lot different than other places I have seen but it was so pretty.

Brussels is known for their Fries, waffles, chocolate, and beer- all of which are delicious!  We went to several unique bars and restaurants while I was there.  It was such a neat city, just really cold!

On Saturday we walked around a little bit more, saw some more buildings, parks, monuments, and ate lunch at the most delicious pita restaurant I've ever been to.  Then we went to see Atomium which is this gigantic atom shaped thing.  They made it for the World's Fair a long time ago and brought it back to Brussels.

 Clearly it is this huge statue thing and it attracts quite the crowd. haha.
It was a really cool trip and I loved being able to catch up with David in Europe!
I flew back Sunday morning to Barcelona.  I wasn't as lucky on my flight back- I had two Italian boys who smelled pretty bad sitting next to me.  But I got back to the Barcelona Airport and stepped outside to beautiful Barcelona weather- sunny and warm!
Last night was quite the night at the homestay.  At about 8:00 Laia and Nil (the 7 and 9 year old children) came in and told Amy and I that we were going out to have dinner at a restaurant.  I was so excited because it was so early for dinner and that we were going out!!  So I put on my jacket and followed Laia to the door...to the living room...where she had a "restaurant" set up and where she was the waitress.  So we ordered our food and she brought me a plastic hot dog, a plastic tomato, and a plastic egg.  My three least favorite foods ever- real or plastic.  So much for an early dinner....or even a real dinner!  So finally around 10:30 we had REAL dinner... and then Laia made us another plastic dinner after that (yes that's three dinners in one night... wow).  This time she went all out and set the table with flower shaped napkins (toilet paper) and made us place cards.  Thought y'all might get a kick out of mine.

Yep, that's me- Jarlet!  Actually, she came closer than most other people.  When my teachers read my name off the roll it's usually pronounced something like "Char-LOTE" and the Ch is definitely not pronounced like "Sh" like in Charlotte... so like Ch in chocolate and a long O in the LOTE.  I never realized how difficult my name was!  haha.  Anyway, after our third dinner it was about bed time.

I woke up this morning at 10:00 to an email from my Spanish teacher saying that he was sick and our class was cancelled!  And I already had another class cancelled later in the day!  So it's now 5:00 PM and I'm about to go to my first and last class at 5:30.  It was another beautiful day so I was happy to have so much extra time to myself!  I got in an early morning workout and got a project finished up, so it was a productive day. Oh and I also just ordered my Justin Bieber tickets!!! He'll be in Barcelona a few days after my birthday so it's an early birthday present to myself!!  And I am SOOOOO EXCITED!!
This weekend, Sara is coming to visit from Madrid and I can't wait to see her again!  I have so much I want to show her in Barcelona so I'll have to choose which ones are most important because there's so much to do in just one weekend.
I hope everyone has a great week, wherever you are! And until next time,
Adios!

Great weekend and week in Barcelona!

I stayed in Barcelona this past weekend and I am so glad that I did!  Don't get me wrong- I love traveling to different places but it is so nice to be able to stay here and enjoy all that Barcelona has.  There is so much to see that I still haven't seen!

Friday morning I had what was probably the best workout of my life- Lance Armstrong came on my iPod and told me congratulations for running my fastest miles...what great motivation! And then I did a group ab workout... I couldn't really understand what the instructor was saying but I just followed what he was doing and I was sore all weekend, so I think that's a good sign!

Friday night Amy and I met some people to go to a "Magic Fountain Light Show" at Mont Juic and it was so cool!  The fountain lit up all different colors and they played music too.  They do this I believe every Thursday through Saturday night so I will be taking everyone who comes to Barcelona here first because it was so pretty and fun!

Then we went out for tapas and drinks which were all delicious.  Amy and I really wanted to try out this bar that Molly told us about that was down by the port and always has a live band.  It's called Kennedy's Irish Sailing Club.  We headed that way later in the night and seriously had the best time!  The band was amazing- they played everything from Black Eyed Peas to Stand by Me... and the funniest part is that we were the only Americans in the bar but everybody else knew every word to every song!   Amy and I met this boy named Mark from South Africa and hung out with him for the rest of the night there.  As it got later we made plans to all meet back there Saturday night...which we did and again had a really fun time!  There was a different band Saturday and it was even better than the first.  We will certainly be going back to Kennedy's very often!

Saturday morning when we finally woke up we decided to do a little exploring!  We knew we would be doing a lot of walking so we apologized to the Spanish Culture and wore sweatpants and t-shirts.  (You never, ever see anyone who isn't put together out on the streets.  At Wofford I get into these awful habits of wearing running shorts and a T-shirt and tennis shoes to class.  We all do and it's very acceptable at Wofford.  However in Spain you don't leave the house if you're not dressed and put together.  Some mornings I roll out of bed, put on real clothes and make up to walk down the street to the gym just to undo all of that and to put on gym clothes. I'm hoping this habit will stick and you will see less of my workout clothes in class next year!)  Anyway, like I said we apologized to the culture and went for it. It was a beautiful day and by mid walk I took off my sweatshirt and was just wearing my Camp Gravatt t-shirt.  That pretty of a day... In February!  We walked past the Arc de Triumf and the park by it and then made our way toward the port.  I cannot believe we haven't been down there yet.  It is my favorite place in all of Barcelona!  There were several games of beach volleyball going on and it was the perfect day for it!  We saw sailboats out on the water and everything was just perfect.

This is a really popular spot for runners and they even have workout equipment ON the beach!  I think that Sundays when the gym is closed I'm going to have to come down here and take full advantage of this.  Who doesn't want to work out on the beach??

Like I said earlier, we went back to Kennedy's Saturday night and had a great time... we stayed out way too late but had so much fun.

We woke up early Sunday morning to go to a mass at Santa Maria del Mar and it was amazing.  The service was in Spanish but there was a choir from Princeton there to sing for the service so they had a couple of people read different parts in English... like one Bible verse and what seemed to be the Prayers of the People (I don't know if this is different than in the Episcopal Church but it sounded similar to what we say as Prayer of the People...) so there were a few things said in English which was nice but I think it was just for this special occasion.  The church itself was beautiful.  It was built by the working class many years ago when they wanted a church of their own.  It was a huge stone building with tall columns, stained glass windows, and really pretty crests/paintings on the ceiling. My pictures aren't very good quality because the lighting wasn't very good in the church but here are a couple of pictures

We both said that we want to go back when we can.  It was a great experience and it was really cool to be able to pick out words and phrases that the Priest said that I could understand in Spanish!  The service was in Spanish and not Catalan which was so nice!

After the church service we found a Mexican restaurant for lunch!  It was called Rosa Negra and it was possibly the best Mexican food I've ever had (Sorry La Fiesta, San Jose, and Coronas but it was amazing!)  We went back and napped a bit and did some school work for the rest of the day.

I have really enjoyed our dinners the past few nights.  The meals themselves are always very good (Berta, our host mom, is a nutritionist so we have very well-balanced meals) but I've been able to actually understand a lot of what is being said at the table.  Instead of just politely nodding my head and saying "si" and praying they didn't ask me anything else, I have been able to participate a little more in the conversation and we have been helping the children with their English (which is better than our Spanish)  The seven year old girl's biggest problem is that she has trouble pronouncing "Zucchini".  How embarrassing when she can speak 4 languages and I'm struggling on my second.  Haha, but we are learning a lot and I am so happy that I decided to live in a homestay.

I have had a difficult past two days because I hurt my back pretty badly Monday night.  I did this once before at camp this past summer and it is so weird- I'm too young for back problems!!  But I could barely get out of bed yesterday to go to class.  I literally rolled out onto the floor and used the desk to help me up.  I struggled through the day but it seemed to be less painful when I was standing up and walking around.  But getting up from my desk in class was probably pretty humorous for everyone around me.  I had a Spanish test this morning so I didn't want to take Advil PM last night again because I didn't want to be groggy for the test but I sure wish I did because I slept for a good 45 minutes last night.  I got in bed at a very reasonable hour but because of the pain in my back and the construction going on across the street in the middle of the night... ALL NIGHT LONG I could not go to sleep until 8:00 this morning just to wake up at 8:45.  It was the most miserable thing ever but I took my Spanish test and I feel very good about it, so that's good but I'm going to have to go to bed early tonight.  I still have two more classes this afternoon so that should be interesting but thankfully we have tomorrow and Friday without classes!! So I will sleep in late tomorrow and then Friday I'm going to Brussels, Belgium, to see David Roth!  I'm very excited about the weekend!

I hope everyone has a great weekend in America or wherever else you may be, and until I post again,
Adios!

Paris!!

Whoops, sorry it's been so long but I have been so so busy!

Let me start with the best weekend of my life- in Paris!!!!  Last Thursday afternoon, Amy and I flew out of Barcelona to begin our amazing weekend.  It was just the two of us the first night so we got to our hotel which was teeny tiny but fine and once we got settled in we went out for dinner.  We called it an early night so we could get up and explore the next morning.  So we took the metro to Arc de Triumph and walked from there down Champs Elysee which is famous for its shopping and just wandered around finding cool things.  We were somewhat far from the Eiffel Tower but we were able to get some really cool pictures of it over a bridge.

Then we did a bit more exploring and then headed back close to our hotel because Elizabeth, Claire, Meredith, and their new friend Emma were almost there!!  They were taking a train from Nantes, France, where they are studying this semester, to Paris.  We waited like little kids waiting for Santa at the top of the stairs off of the metro stop for them.  I hadn't seen them since December so I was so excited!  My heart was beating out of my chest.  It seems so silly now but I was soooo excited to see them!  When I finally did I absolutely freaked out and we went back to the hotel so they could settle in.  We waited a while for Sara and Lizzy (coming from Madrid) who's taxi driver didn't know where he was going but when we finally saw them it was a similar reaction. I believe someone actually screamed too... maybe Sara?  So we were finally all there and so happy to be with each other.  We went through a few bottles of wine in the hotel room before heading out to find dinner.  We tried to go to one awesome restaurant (more on that in a second... we ended up going there the next night) but it was packed so we settled for one down the street.  After dinner we went to another restaurant for dessert and champagne and we ended up making friends with this British couple sitting next to us.  We were having so much fun with them when all of a sudden about 6 men in kilts walk in and one is playing the bagpipes.  So naturally we all absolutely LOVED these men and asked them to play us songs so they sang us Scottish songs complete with bagpipes and kilts and we loved them and they loved us and it was hilarious!

The next day we woke up pretty early again to go do more exploring.  We went to Notre Dame, the top of Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, and just stumbled upon some other places. 

In front of Arc de Triomphe

View from the top of Arc de Triomphe of Paris

At the Eiffel Tower!!

After we left the Eiffel Tower we found a great little French Cafe where we got drinks and FRENCH Fries. So French :)  and then we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the night.

We wanted to go to this really fun restaurant that we heard about so we left relatively early for dinner.  It was this Fondue restaurant where they served you wine out of baby bottles!  It was the strangest thing but so much fun! The atmosphere was great and so was the food.  

After dinner the four of us decided that we had to go to the Eiffel Tower at night to see it first when it was lit up and then to watch it sparkle... I didn't know that it did that but once every hour (I think) it literally sparkles.  It is the absolute most beautiful thing.  So we left dinner, went and got a couple of bottles of champagne and sat in the lawn in front of the Eiffel Tower for probably two hours just enjoying being with each other.  If I could go back to that moment I would in a heartbeat.  I was the happiest girl in the world.  I was in a beautiful place with beautiful people.  I wouldn't have traded those couple of hours for anything.  It makes me look forward to all of the moments I will spend with my friends all over Europe and it really made me appreciate our friendships.  I feel like we have already grown up so much in the month we have been here (because yes, exactly a month ago today I left America- so hard to believe) .  I can't wait to see what these next three months will bring before I have to go home. Paris was truly amazing and I can't wait to have a similar experience soon.

We came home Sunday and as sad as I was to leave those girls, when we got off the plane in Barcelona it was 67 degrees and sunny and a beautiful day!  Despite my lack of sleep the entire weekend (It's Wednesday and I'm still not caught up!) I wanted to spend the day outside, which leads to another story:

Long story short, Elizabeth's cousin who goes to PC has a friend who was studying in Egypt for the semester and was evacuated because of all of the protests and chaos there.  Her insurance company evacuated her to Barcelona while she figured out her next plan of action.  I ended up getting her name and got in contact with her because she didn't know anybody here and would be here for about a week.  We met up and went out for lunch and walked around Barcelona a little bit.  She ended up deciding to go to a study abroad program in Wales and left this morning but we hung out a good bit this week.  I really enjoyed getting to know her and hate that she had to leave Barcelona!

Anyway...Sunday was obviously the Super Bowl and of course we had to go watch it!  I met up with Beth, McCauley, Ellen, Julia, Christie, and Amanda and we went and watched it in a very American way- at the Hard Rock Cafe!  We got our first drink free- a Budweiser- so American- and ordered foods such as onion rings, milkshakes, etc.  We figured it was one of the only times we would really want to be total Americans and it was definitely worth it!  But keep in mind the time difference so the game didn't even start until 12:30 our time. Eek.  So it was another late night after a weekend full of late nights, but totally worth it!  The only bad thing was that since TV networks don't play the SuperBowl I guess Hard Rock ordered it from somewhere but we couldn't watch the commercials!  Such a bummer, but to make up for it when there was a commercial break, Hard Rock provided us with entertainment- Dallas Cowboy style cheerleaders wearing red, white, and blue sequined dresses and pom-poms.  It was very unexpected but so funny!  

So here I am back in Barcelona and still loving it so much!  There's so much that I still have to see and do.  This weekend we're staying here and will probably explore a lot, and then next weekend I'm going to Brussels to see my good friend David Roth who I work with at camp and I am so excited to see him and to go to Belgium!  I don't really know much about the country except beer and waffles so I'll probably over-indulge in both.  Can't wait!  And I have a London trip in the making right now!  I have so much to look forward to.  But for now, 

Adios!