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!
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