Past two weeks in Barcelona

Sorry that it’s been so long since I’ve blogged!!

Unfortunately Wofford did not win in the NCAA playoffs but it was a great game and we had fun watching it and celebrating St. Patricks’ Day at my favorite bar, Dow Jones, with my favorite bartender, Helgi.  

Last weekend we stayed here in Barcelona and enjoyed a nice weekend here.  Friday afternoon Amy and I walked around the Gothic Quarters a little bit and eventually made it down to the beach on a beautiful sunny and warm afternoon.  The beaches are starting to get really full with people playing volleyball, soccer, Frisbee, and just laying out enjoying the nice weather.  On Friday night we went with Beth, McCauley, Ellen, and Julia to a Japanese restaurant, which was interesting.  Not quite the Japanese we were used to but it did the trick.  I used Saturday to catch up on some work that I needed to do and to try to heal my back, which has been hurting again…ugh… But for supper Amy and I went to eat at the Santa Catarina Market which Molly suggested to us.  It is a restaurant attached to a market that runs during the day with so many fresh fruits, vegetables, meats- everything! And at the restaurant they serve foods from the market.  The wooden walls have baskets of fruits, vegetables, and all sorts of natural decorations.  It was so delicious and fresh!

This past week was a busy one schoolwork wise.  I had two tests and a presentation and it was only a three-day week!  Sometimes I forget that I’m actually here to do schoolwork so this was quite the reminder.  We didn’t have class Thursday or Friday so we had a nice long weekend.  I actually stayed here in Barcelona by myself- everyone else was traveling- and I wasn’t originally looking forward to it.  I will admit that I was pretty homesick last weekend and at the beginning of last week and I didn’t really think that staying here by myself would be best for me.  However I was very pleasantly surprised.  I had the best weekend!  I did everything that I wanted to do and did it by myself.  It was very therapeutic I have to say J

Thursday marked a big step for me- I did not speak one word of English the ENTIRE day!!  It certainly wasn’t correct Spanish the whole time but it was only Spanish.  No English for this girl. 

I slept in and then headed to the gym around 1:00.  I had a personal training session which was pretty intense but awesome…and yes, in Spanish.  That afternoon I did a little bit of spring shopping.  I had some good luck with clothes but I also looked for some bathing suits and that was another story.  I must have tried on 20 different bathing suits in 4 or 5 different stores and they were all sooo revealing and high-cut that I would have embarrassed myself greatly if I actually wore any of them.  So I left bathing suit-less but with some other good purchases. 

Friday I did a little more exploring of the Born district which is a really cool area with a lot of restaurants, bars, and is where a lot of younger people live.  I went to the gym again, still sore from my personal training session the day before but it was another good one.  It was such a pretty day, though, that after I got back from the gym I decided to go for a run in this park in front of the Arc de Triomf.  I didn’t realize how big the park was nor did I realize all of the running paths passing through it, so it was a great discovery.  I’ll definitely go for some runs there more often.  

Saturday I decided to take the day off from exercising since (surprise!) my back still hasn’t gotten much better.  Thinking that being lazy and letting it heal would help, I stayed in bed watching The Office on my computer for a big part of the day praying that my back would heal.  When I couldn’t stand being inside anymore I took a walk down to the beach, ate a late lunch at my new favorite lunch restaurant, and walked along the port and the beach.  It was a little bit chilly with the wind on the beach but a beautiful day nonetheless.  I sat down in one of the stone chairs on the beach and people watched and enjoyed my time to myself.  I called it an early night again to help my back.

This morning we finally had daylight savings time (back to 6 hours ahead of y’all in America) and I slept in very late.  My back is better but is still a little sore from time to time so I again have been lazy today and have been getting a lot of work done… the end of the semester is creeping up on me (whaatttt???) and I have a ton of papers, presentations, and exams coming up so I have been trying to get ahead on some of that while I have time. 

Also I turn 21 on Tuesday!!!!! AHHH so I’m trying to get some homework out of the way so I can celebrate.  We have been talking about going to a fondue restaurant on Monday night and celebrating Monday night/Tuesday morning as I turn 21 because I have a presentation on Wednesday and let’s be honest I’m probably not going to make it out of bed for a while the day after I celebrate.  So I am obviously looking forward to this celebration even though I haven’t had to show an ID since I have been here… Soooo anyway hello 21!  It’s going to be a great year J

Next weekend I am going to Sevilla so I am really looking forward to that!!

But until then…

Adios!!

Last week and LONDON

I left y'all last time about to watch the Wofford game...well in case you live in a cave, WOFFORD WON!!  They beat College of Charleston and we just found out last night that the Terriers will travel to Denver on Thursday to play BYU, which is probably our best matchup compared to the other teams we would have possibly been matched up with.  So we will wait and see how it goes!!  The game is at 7:00 Eastern time and since we haven't had daylight savings time in Spain yet it will only be midnight here when it starts so hopefully we can find a sports bar playing the game!!
 GO TERRIERS!


Last Wednesday, my friend David from camp (who I visited in Brussels a few weeks ago) came to Barcelona with his mom and sister for his Spring Break.  It was so good to see him again and to meet his family!  Unfortunately I had class a lot of the time they were here but we met up for lunch both days and did a little bit of walking around together.  They did a lot of exploring on their own, too.

Then, on Friday morning I left for London!!  I made sure to get to the airport very early to make sure there were no problems with my new passport and I'm glad I did!  This airline, Easy Jet, flew out of a different terminal but within this terminal there were three (A, B, and C) and I had nothing to clarify which of the three I was flying out of!  The bus dropped me off at B and I walked into B, to A, and finally to C before I found it.  When I got in line to check in there were about 50 British 8th graders  waiting to check their bags.  After waiting in line forever and listening to middle school drama I finally made it to the counter and the lady assured me that all was well with the passport...phew... and I made it through security and finally on the plane where I had to sit next to two of these British 8th grade girls.  One of their friends came crying to them because she couldn't find her seat and her friend was being mean... so many hormones... I thought I was going to be miserable the whole flight but I actually made friends with the two girls sitting with me when we both disclosed our love for Justin Bieber and we played a few games of Hangman.  The airline was British so everything was said and written in English, which was AMAZING.  But it only got better.

When I got to the airport in London I had to buy a bus ticket to get to Central London.  The bus didn't leave for 45 more minutes so I found a DIET Coke (Not a Coke Light which doesn't taste the same that every other European country drinks...) and Ben & Jerrys Ice Cream and waited for the bus to come.  It was the best wait I've had in a while :)
When the bus finally came, our bus driver who looked just like Bob Marley popped off, helped us load our bags and we were on our way listening to Bob Marley CDs the whole ride into town.
I made it into Central London and tried to find Martha, Ellis, and their friend Marissa who is also in Rome with them because after they checked into the hostel they said that there was no way we were sleeping in there.  Everything from the bathrooms to the sheets were filthy and while they were inside someone found a key to the hostel laying on the ground outside and walked in without a problem.  It seemed really unsanitary and unsafe so we got one night's payment back and were on the hunt for a new hotel.  We walked around London searching and finally we found one and it was great!

We found a cute little English pub near our hotel after we freshened up and had some beers while we waited for Elizabeth to get into town.  When we met up with her we went out to eat dinner at this delicious burger place near our hotel.  We called it a pretty early night because we had big plans to see London the next day!

We woke up at 8:00 and were outside by 9:00 (wow!) and headed to our red double decker bus tour!  The tour took around 2 and a half hours and we saw absolutely everything!  We had a great tour guide, Peetuhh (Peter) and we learned so much!  After the tour we grabbed some lunch, some Fish and Chips!  We weren't really expecting them to be too good, but we just felt like we had to eat some while we were in London!  We were VERY pleasantly surprised when they were delicious.  I'm saying it's one of my favorite foods now.  It's just fried fish and french fries but the fried part of the fish was kind of sweet and amazing.  I want some more!!

After lunch we went to the Tower of London!  We all thought it was like one tower with the Crowned Jewels but it was so much more.
Here is the whole group in front of it (again, still camera-less so I stole some pictures from Martha, Ellis, and Marissa!)

We went inside and were able to see everything from torture techniques to the Royal Armor to our favorite, the Crowned Jewels!! We couldn't take pictures of the Jewels but we saw all of the crowns and jewelry and coronation pieces and it was all amazing!  We saw diamonds bigger than our hands.  I want one!! :)

Besides the Crowned Jewels, this little area was my favorite part of the Tower.  I LOVE the blue doors!

After we left the Tower of London we took a boat cruise through the Thames River which was included on our bus tour!  We rode from the Tower to Westminster Abby which was so pretty!  While we were standing there taking pictures we got goosebumps thinking that we were standing where William and Kate are getting married, where Princess Diana's funeral was, and where so many important historical events took place!  It was so surreal.

We also saw Parliament, Big Ben, and the London Eye:

Everything was so pretty!!

And eventually we made it to Buckingham Palace!  We asked two different people to take our picture in front of it and both people got only our bodies- no Palace.... Some people just don't understand.  Since there isn't a good one of us in front of it, here's just the palace:

It was kind of disappointing though because the guards weren't outside!!  Apparently from September-April there is only a Changing of the Guards every other day.  Although that was kind of a letdown the palace itself was so cool!  750 rooms, so much history, Prince William, all of that inside!  Sooo incredible.  

We had dinner at a restaurant called Garfunkel's and it was delicious!  We really took advantage of all of the English speaking there since we all live in countries where we have to speak a different language to get around.  And we loved that the waiters came and checked on us during our meals!  We haven't had that for a while.  It was such a comforting trip.  I think we all really needed it.  It was so easy to communicate and there were so many American things there... I already mentioned Diet Coke but they also had REESES!!!  We found them and all bought two packs of three Reeses Cups...and ate them within the hour.  I've missed Reeses.  

After dinner we decided to find Abbey Road and take a Beatles picture!  It was night time but we got a decent picture after trying for about 20 minutes and dodging traffic

So, in conclusion I am moving to London after college.  OK OK maybe not but I am definitely going back to London and soon!!  

Now I am back in Barcelona and we didn't have class today!  I have gotten so much done today which is great because I'm usually so unproductive here!  

I don't have any travel plans until our Spring Break at the end of April when we're going to Greece so I will be enjoying Barcelona for the next four weekends and I'm really excited!  There are still so many things that I want to do and see here and now's my time.  I'm going to try to get a new camera soon so hopefully by my next post I will use my own pictures.  

I hope everyone is doing well! I miss all of y'all!  It's Greek Week at Wofford so on top of all of the NCAA madness, there's so many greek activities going on, so I have to say 

GO KD!!!

Off to study now!

Adios!

When in Rome

So it's about 2:30 AM over here and I can't sleep because Wofford is about to play the College of Charleston in the Southern Conference championship game to try to make it to the NCAA playoffs for the second year!!!  Such an important game that I'm going to follow online... I don't think I can watch it online but I can listen to it I think or at least get score updates!  So lucky for me I don't have class until 3:45 tomorrow so I can sleep all day tomorrow if I need to :)

GO TERRIERS!!!!!


So this past weekend I went to ROME!  Martha and Ellis are studying there this semester and Elizabeth, Claire, Virginia, and Sara all came too and we had such a good weekend.  I was the last to arrive because everyone else could go Thursday but I didn't get there until Friday afternoon.  Martha and Ellis were on a field trip but Sara and Elizabeth came and picked me up from the train station after I left the airport.  It was so good to see them!  We met up with Claire and Virginia and since I hadn't eaten lunch yet (it was about 4:00-yikes!) we went to a restaurant where I had my first real Italian pizza and we had a few glasses of wine.  Martha and Ellis met us there- it was the first time I had seen them since we left so it was very exciting!!  We headed back to our hotel which was conveniently on the first floor of Martha and Ellis' apartment and freshened up a little bit, went to the grocery store to get some more wine, and got ready for the night.  We just hung out at their apartment for a while which was so nice since I live in a homestay and cannot just hang out with friends whenever I want.  After lots of bread dipped in olive oil, wine, and of course some singing to our favorite songs, we went to Martha and Ellis' favorite restaurant.  I had this amazing lemon linguine... I have been craving it since then and I'll probably never have it again...or at least not that good!!  It's killing me haha.  We stayed really late at the restaurant and just enjoyed all being together.  After having some post-dinner gelato we decided it was best to head home and get ready for a day of sightseeing the next day.

Saturday we got up (relatively) early and set out.  Our first stop was the Colosseum. WOW.  It was so incredible.  Since my camera was stolen last week I had to steal some of Martha and Sara's pictures off of facebook because y'all have GOT to see them.  So I don't take credit for these!
















Don't forget- if you click on the photos they get bigger and it's easier to see!
No big deal...we're just hanging out in front of the Colosseum...  This was so cool!  We went inside and it was even more incredible.  HOW did the Romans do this?? They didn't have bulldozers or cranes or anything.  I don't understand... I'm just amazed.
Inside we walked right by where Caesar would have sat to watch the day's festivities.  We had some strange encounters with some people inside including a group of Asian boys asking us to take pictures with them

We're thinking they were on some sort of photo scavenger hunt based on the "2:00" sign he was carrying around...but honestly who knows!

After the Colosseum we made the trek over to the Vatican!  Talk about surreal.  I have seen pictures of it obviously but being inside of it was so intense.  It was so beautiful and I was able to see everything I have seen pictures of in person like Michelangelo's Pieta.  The detail all over the church from the ceiling to the paintings...just everything... was so beautiful.  I cannot even try to explain.

Here's the group in front of the Vatican:

Our photographer we found outside clearly was not a professional... at least he got all of us AND the Vatican!
After the Vatican we went and got the most delicious gelato I've had in Europe... wow!... and then tried to go to the Sistine Chapel but we got there just a few minutes too late and it was closed.  By this time we were pretty tired so we headed back to the apartment/hotel and Virginia who is studying in Florence and is taking a cooking class made us some Bruschetta which was delicious before we made supper- salad, pesto pasta and grilled chicken!  Eating in was so nice.  After dinner we went to a chocolate shot bar which was really cool-the shot glasses were made of chocolate so you put the whole thing in your mouth at once and it was delicious!  Then we made our way to the Trevi Fountain with a couple bottles of wine.  At the fountain it is tradition to throw coins into the fountain over your shoulder for good luck with love.  Our motto was "everything but bills, cards, and passports are a go"  So nobody had any coins by the end if you can imagine...
Here's the whole group at the beautiful fountain and then Elizabeth, Martha, and I tossing our coins:

The next day, Sara, Elizabeth, and Claire all had to catch flights pretty early in the morning but mine didn't leave until 9:00 PM so I was able to stay for most of the day with Martha and Ellis!  We did a little exploring and planning for travels.  Eventually I left Rome for the airport.  Our flight was delayed for an hour and I don't know what I would have done if I didn't meet two other students studying in Barcelona this semester waiting to go back.  We hung out for a few hours in the airport and on the plane.  It was great to meet them and like I said I don't know what I would have done without them.  My phone was dead so I couldn't check facebook or anything and the airport was shut down so I couldn't even buy a water if I wanted to.  So FINALLY I made it home in Barcelona and slept for a long time since I didn't have class today because of a Bank Holiday!

Anyway, the Wofford game is starting so I will leave you now, but I'm getting ready for LONDON on Friday!!! I seriously cannot explain how excited I am about it!!!

GO TERRIERS!!!
Adios :)

What a Week

Last weekend, my friend Sara came to Barcelona!  She got in around lunch time so the first thing we did was meet up with McCauley and head down to the beach.  It was a beautiful day and I actually got a little sunburned on my face!  We ate lunch at a restaurant right by the beach and got a big jar of Sangria for the three of us to enjoy.  We walked around a little bit more and then decided to head back, take a siesta, and get ready for the night.  We found Sara's hostel which was actually very close to our homestay and went back to get ready.  We met back up to go to the Magic Fountain Light Show that we went to a couple of weeks ago but this time the music wasn't quite as good so it was a little bit disappointing, but still cool to see all the pretty lights!  Then we headed to a restaurant for dinner and went and found a couple of bottles of champagne to enjoy by the port before we went to a few bars down by the water.

The next afternoon we went to Milk, a restaurant that Molly recommended to us, which is like a typical American brunch restaurant.  It was amazing- pancakes, omelets, eggs benedict... everything was so good!  Then we decided to go show Sara Park Guell.  I had been before, but if you remember, they were filming a music video there on our last trip so it was nice to be able to see it in a normal way!  The park is so pretty- everything from Gaudi's bench and entrance to the path walking up to the top.  
After Park Guell, we explored the Diagonal area....where we actually ended up spending a lot of time.  Diagonal is a street that runs all the way through Barcelona, pretty much from one side to the other.  We started off near Passieg de Gracia and walked until we found a Metro station to get back, thinking there would be plenty along the way since we were pretty exhausted.  But it wasn't until 45 minutes later that we finally found one!  So needless to say we had about had it with walking for the day and went back for Siestas and to get ready for the night.
We went to this really good restaurant called Tapa Tapa Saturday night and just ordered all sorts of Tapas for dinner.  Then we went to one of our favorite bars, Dow Jones, for a while.  We let the stock market crash a few times and took advantage of the cheap drinks when it did.    We stayed there for a while and then went to find another bar, Chupitos,  but when we got there it was closed.  So we just decided to walk by the port for a bit until we decided it was bedtime :)
Sara had to leave the next morning so we said our goodbyes and headed our separate ways.

Monday night, I had my first bad experience in Barcelona.  I really just wanted some quiet time for myself so I went to a cafe near where we live to do some studying.  I found a table upstairs where there wasn't another person around and I knocked out a good two hours worth of studying.  When I got up to leave, however, my purse was gone.  I had it under my chair under my feet and there was nobody else upstairs!  I guess, though, that I did have my back to the door and someone must have snuck up behind me and just grabbed it and run.  It had my wallet (with no money though- I was going to the ATM after I left, thank goodness), my passport, my camera, and my Euro-phone.  So I had to go to the police station, file a report, and pray that someone turns it in.  Since I didn't have any money in my wallet there is a chance that the thief threw it in the bushes or something but that's definitely wishful thinking.  So for now, all of my cards are cancelled so they cannot be used.  I went to the US Consulate's office Tuesday morning and got an "emergency passport" so that I can still go to Rome this weekend but everything is so frustrating.  And remember that I'm in Spain (!!) so I had to file the police report and figure out where the Consulate is all in Spanish.  Honestly I have never been so happy to see an American flag as I was when I found the Consulate building.  So I definitely learned a lesson through all of this.  Even when you think you're being careful, be more careful.  I did as I had been told and put my bag under my seat, not beside it and although it wasn't between my feet I thought it was pretty safe... But these pickpocketers are just too good here.  So you better believe that I will never take my bag off of my body again, whether I'm eating at a restaurant or wherever I may be.  This was one of the most frustrating experiences of my life and I hope nobody else has to deal with something like this!
Anyway, like I said I can still go to Rome this weekend and I am SO excited!  I haven't seen Martha or Ellis since December and I finally get to see them again!!!  Elizabeth, Claire, Virginia, and Sara will be there too so I am really excited to see everyone and of course to stuff my face with pizza and pasta for the entire weekend!  I just won't have a camera to take pictures with :(
I hope everyone else has a great weekend and I can't wait to let you know about Rome!!
Adios!