This post is ridiculously late, but I want to write it now before I forget details of my trip.

Okay so the weekend of March 11th, I went to Morocco.  It was by far one of the coolest places I've been to.  I've found that I am most interested in places that are so different from everything that I know.

I got up around 7am, and left my apartment by 730.  I met Elaine, a friend in my program at the metro and we headed off to the airport.  In order to get to Morocco we were meting a tour group "we love spain" in Sevilla.  When we landed in Sevilla  it was POURING so we couldn't even really enjoy the city (which i've heard is beautiful and awesome, so it was a bummer that we didn't have good timing or weather).  At around 2:30 we met our group in front of the Torre del Oro (gold tower).  There was a woman from canada and seven students studying at the University of Sevilla (Kristin, Lizzy, Brad, Ellen, Joe, Katlyn, and Jill).

We took a two hour bus ride to Algericas.  Which was the port we were leaving from.  When we got to the port we found out that the ferry was really delayed because of the terrible weather.  It wasn't until about 830pm until we actually got on the boat!  We arrived in Africa and got off the boat, but we didn't have to go through customs it was the strangest thing!  But then we realized that we had arrived in a Spanish territory in Morocco, so technically we were still in Spain!

We found our tourguide and got on a bus.  Our group grew, we had Gloria a women from the UK, and a girl and her mom from Brazil, and a Spanish couple.  We crossed the border from the Spanish territory and we were finally in Morocco.  We didn't get to our hotel until around 1 am, where we were directed into the restaurant for our complimentary meal.  Our hotel was a 4 start hotel and we had a huge balcony overlooking the ocean!

Me at the hotel.

We were first served soup and bread, then some kind of traditional chicken dish, and finally flan.  It was a good meal, but me and Elaine were exhausted because we had been traveling since 7 am and we had taken the metro, a train, a plane, three buses, and a boat we were ready for bed!

The next morning we got up early and ate breakfast.  We got on the bus for a two our bus ride to Chefchauen.  The bus ride was two hours but hardly seemed long at all.  We drove up the steep mountains overlooking valleys and villages.  The whole time I kept thinking about lucky I am to be studying abroad and seeing so many countries and cities, while most of the people in Morocco have never even left their hometowns.

We finally arrived in Chefchauen, and right when we got off the bus it started to rain.  I didn't have an umbrella because i lost it (or rather my roommate stole it and had it for a month and I had no idea where it was), but my lovely mother bought me a raincoat and forced me to bring it with me, so I stayed (mostly) dry.  The tow of chefchauen was an old Arabic town in the mountains, and all of the buildings were blue.  In each city in Morocco all of the cities are painted a different color.

I really enjoyed chefchuaen it was a small city, with steep windy roads, after about 20 minutes I had no idea what direction we came from.  Our guide brought us to a blanket store.  We all sat down around the big open room and the Arabic men showed us many different colored hand made blankets.  After they laid them all out they tried to sell them to us.  A couple people bought some scarfs, and after a while we headed back out into the streets.

We were given an hour a free time where we paid 1 euro to enter a beautiful garden and old ruins.  It was still raining but it was beautiful!

After free time we all sat down for a huge lunch.  I ordered a traditional Moroccan meal chicken couscous with the sweet sauce, it was made with raisons, grapes, and cinnamon and it was DELICIOUS!  I also had a traditional Moroccan soup that was really good, and we had a lemon cheese cake but it kind of tasted tooooo much like cheese.  

After lunch we got back on the bus and headed to Tanger.  Tanger was my least favorite part of the entire trip.  When we got there we got off the bus, dropped our stuff in the hotel and walked around the city.  The city was really modern, and not very exciting.  I found it to be a lot like any other modern city, we weren't even in any historical part of the city so I wouldn't have minded skipping out on this part of the tour.  We went back to our hotel ate dinner (which consisted of Fish and Chips) and then went to bed.

We woke up early the next morning for a quick breakfast, and then headed out around 9am.  We got back on the bus and drove another two hours or so to Tetuan.  When we made a few stops along the way.  First we stopped at the cave of Hercules.  It was amazing to see.

Right after visiting the caves, we headed over to the beach to ride camels.  There were a bunch of Moroccan men standing around waiting for us, and as soon as we got off the bus we had our camel rides.  It was fun, but also the most toursticy thing I could have possibly chosen to do.

Our bus headed into the city of Tetuan and dropped us of at the city center.  We headed right into the Medina quarter which is a maze-like area in many north African arabic cities.  This was basically a market and had table after table and store after store.  Our tour guide led us through, and I felt like I was in a labryinth because there were so many twists and turns.  Our guide joked about giving us free time and meeting us back at the bus, but there was no way we would have been able to find our way back.  

We went to a carpet store where they really pushed the carpets on us.  The carpets were handmade, and really amazing.  but obviously a bunch of 20 year olds have no need for a carpet!

After the carpet store we headed deeper into the medina where we did a little bit of shopping, and then stopped for lunch.  We ate a delicious traditional meal at a place that used to be a palace. 

This was our last stop.  We got back onto the bus and headed back over the border between Morocoo and Spanish territory so we could catch our ferry back to Spain!

 I’ve been here for about 2 1/2 months. It is crazy. I have never been so far away for so long. I’ve missed home, some days more than others. I think mostly I just miss the people from home. I have taken for granted the friends I have met in college and I’ve missed them even more than I could have ever imagined. It’s easier to miss my friends from home because we go so long throughout the school year without seeing each other; but the best part is now I know which of these friends I will be friends with for life, so the distance doesn’t matter anymore.

Coming abroad was a good decisions. It’s such a learning experience and there are new challenges, places, and things to experience every single day. I will admit that it is also somewhat lonely. I haven’t met many people that I have truly connected with here. A lot of people are here for all the wrong reasons… well I guess they’re just the wrong reasons to me. Barcelona is the party capitol… probably of the world. And a lot of the kids in my program are here for that reason alone. They go out everyday of the week and they drink themselves into oblivion, and that is definitely not my goal.

However, the opportunity for me to be in Spain and have most of europe easily at my disposal, is unreal. I have already visited Czech Republic, Italy, Portugal, Northern and Southern Spain, and Morocco. On my list of places that I am still going to hit up are; Belgium, Netherlands, France, England, and Greece. I am so lucky to be given this opportunity to see a lot of the world in a span of a few short months.

I have about a month and half left here. And, while I am excited to be going home because I’ve missed it more than I ever imagined I would, there is still time left for me to embrace all of my opportunities and to make the best of what I have. At the end of the semester I will be traveling for about 3 weeks, and I could not be more excited. Its going to be three weeks of having nothing to worry about except for seeing as much as I can, and learning as much as possible.

That being said… I miss friends and family so much; but I would never give up this opportunity for anything.


next post will be about morocco so stay tuned :)

So as of yesterday I have officially been away from home for two full months.  I am also going back to the U.S. in exactly two months.  Its strange, on one hand i feel like time has gone by so fast but on the other hand i feel like its been forever since I've been home.

So with two months left I have a ton of things coming.  I have a two 5 page papers, a 15 page research paper, two exams, a final exam for spanish, a final presentation for art, a presentation based on a 200 page book, a presentation based on my 15 page paper, and another 5 page paper based on someone else 15 page paper.  So....... yeah. I have a lot of work to do.

I am also busy the next couple of weekends; this weekend I'm going to Morocco, next weekend I will be in Valencia for a day for las Fallas a huge festival, the next weekend I'll be in Brussels, and the next weekend in Amsterdam.  It is so incredibly exciting to get the opportunity to visit so many diverse places in only 4 months.

After the semester ends I'll be in Europe for another three weeks.  Me and nikki have booked our flights and here is our plan;  two days in venice, two days in florence, and then we take a train to Milan where we fly to athens.  We'll spend a night in athens, and then six days between different islands including santorini and mykonos.  We'll fly from Mykonos to London, where we will be for a few days.  We will be there on April 29th when the prince is getting married which is going to be crazy!  And finally we will spend a couple days in Nice, and then back to Barcelona to gather our things and head back to the states.

At first it was really difficult for me to spend my money, but I came to realize that right now I have such an amazing opportunity to see and do things that I can't normally do, so I'm trying not to worry about money.  I probably wont have any money left when I return home, but it doesn't matter because I will get a job and I can worry about all of that later.

Last week was a crazy one.  For one I got an internship at Mental Health America as a non-profit accounting intern! So i'll be living in college park for the summer .. i'm really excited!!

So I'm going to attempt to explain this story but I really dont actually have any idea what happened...  I was in the metro and we stopped at the Sagrada Familia stop which is one station away from my stop (Sant Pau Dos de Maig).  A bunch of people were hurriedly walking up the metro train and out of my door, they looked worried and wanted to get off urgently... but I didn't know why.  Then some people started yelling and I turned and saw a man strangling another man.  Somehow they got off the train and a woman was holding each man by their sleeves (obviously not effective at all).  I really dont know what happened next but all of a sudden one of the guys was pushing the woman (or even hit her or something) I didn't really have a good view because everyone on the metro was trying to move towards the door to get a better look.  A few men sprinted of the train and grabbed the guy to get him away from the woman.  It took three men to hold this crazy guy back.  The whole metro was loud and everyone was talking about what was happening, but I literally had no idea what was going on.  The man started screaming something about la policia (and my guess is that he was saying don't call the police), but I missed the rest of the sentence.  The whole metro was a buzz and i couldn't focus on anyones conversations to try and figure out what had happened.  It was really strange to witness something like this and have no idea what was going on.  I was really confused and completely frustrated at the language barrier.  I guess i will never know what happened...

On Wednesday I was talking to Meera who was going to Prague this weekend with Michelle and Kirstie.  I kept telling her I was jealous, and wished I was going, and she told me to go.  I looked up plane tickets but they were really expensive since the flight was two days away.  I considered buying the tickets, but then realized I was maybe being ridiculous so I emailed my parents asking them what I should do expecting them to be the voice of reason and tell me I was crazy for thinking of spending so much.  They told me that they thought I should go because I probably wouldn't have another opportunity to go in a really long time... so I bought the tickets and on friday I went to prague!

I arrived in the Czech Republic around 130, and waited till about 4 for the girls from Rome to arrive.  We had to switch our money to Krowns.  The exchange rate is about 1 USD = 17 krowns.  We took a bus and then the metro to our hostel;  St. Christophers.  The first night I was in a room with 5 random people because there wasn't room in the girl's room, but the second night I moved down with them and about 20 other girls.  The hostel was really clean, and pretty centrally located.  It was about 22 USD a night which is a pretty good deal.

On the first night we went out to eat.  We saw a few signs for Pilsner Urquell, and yes this is embarassing but at first we thought it was a resturant, but after seeing about 3 or 4 signs (they really did look like resturant signs) we realized it was a type of beer.  Obviously we know nothing about beer.  Anyway we went to a typical Czech resturant, and we ordered some pilsner urquell and some hardy czech food.  The food was pretty good! I never expected czech's to have good food.  Later we went to the old town and saw the astronomical tower which was lit up at night, and we went to a few bars.  We also stopped into a bakery had a traditional bakery and had a typical Czech desert.  It was good!

The next morning we got up early to go to an out door market.  They had typical markety things; purses, sunglasses, t-shirts, etc.  Nothing too special.  After the market we dropped some purchases off at the hostel and continued to old town to eat lunch.  We at some more Czech food and were again impressed with what we got.

After lunch we headed to the main old square where we met James who would be leading our free tour.  James is a 20 something guy from Ireland who fell in love with a Czech girl and is now living in Prague.  he gives 3 hour free tours of the city (which they ask you tip if you enjoyed them) and paid tours of the Prague castle.

I'm really glad we did the tour because we learned a lot of the history and many stories about Prague, things that I had no idea.  For example, in prague is one of the only Jewish quarters that they did not demolish during WWII because Hitler loved Prague and planned on retiring to Prague.  The Jewish quarter was going to be turned into a museum of an extinct race upon the completion of Hitler's "Final Solution."  

During the tour we stopped for a break for coffee and we stopped at a place that had bagels! Me and meera split one and it was delicious.  There are barely any places with bagels over here!!!  Also I forgot to mention how cold it was in Prague.  I went from the 60 degree weather in Barcelona to 30 degree weather in Prague and I was not prepared at all because I sent all my winter clothes home with my parents!!

The end of the tour left us by the Charles Bridge which was a historic bridge constructed in 1357.  In the old times it was the most important way of connecting Prague Castle to the old city.  

We crossed the bridge and on the otherside we stumbled across a Bohemian Carnival.  There were peopled dressed in costumes, a band playing, and tons of stands lined up with all kinds of food.  It smelled so good!  There were sasagues, nuts, candy, cotton candy, hot wine, and much more.  We came across a stand of churros and decided to get some.  They were the best churros I have ever had!! I wish i could explain how good they were.  After exploring the carnival we decided to look for the Lenin wall, but it was getting dark, we were cold, and we couldn't find it so we headed back to the hostel.

Charles Bridge by night.

For dinner we had some Thai food!  It was really good, but I realized that I never wanted to eat again after a weekend of so much food.  We decided not to go out because we were exhausted from eating and spending the whole day exploring the city.  

We woke up early once again and went to the Prague Castle.  It reminds me a lot of hogwarts! 

It was bitterly cold so we didn't hang around for long.

This time we actually did find the Lenin wall and it was awesome!  It was full of graffiti and quotes from different visitors. I can't describe how awesome the wall was but I'll try to show you.

So anyway Prague was awesome, and it was great to spend another weekend with Michelle, Meera, and Kirstie.

On a final note, my grandma passed away last week.  I wasn't expecting it, so it was definitely shocking. She lived a long, good life, and she will be missed.  I can't go home to go to the funeral and for the first time I'm really realizing how far away I am from home.  I wish I could go home and say goodbye, but I know its not possible.  Rest in peace grandma, I love you.

Its getting warmer! I love Spring and can't wait for the beautiful weather to continue...

So i've been really busy!  And finally have time to take a breather... and update this of course.

Last friday, I got up early and headed to the BCN airport to meet my parents.  They landed around 8:55, and finally came out of the terminal around 9:40.  They left the U.S. at about 9pm EST out of Newark after a very long day.  At 6am EST my dad headed into Philly because he lost his passport.  By about 12:30 he was given a new passport, and he headed back to Doylestown to pick up my mom and head to Newark airport.

So anyway, we finally reunited in BCN airport where we headed straight off to a car rental place, and jumped in the car to drive north.  It was great to see my parents (it felt like such a long time since I saw them even though I go way longer without seeing them in college park).

We started our journey off in a town called Llieda about an hour and half from Barcelona.  This town is still in Catalonia.  I feel like I haven't really explained anything about Catalonia so let me do that right now;

Barcelona is the biggest city and capital of the autonomous province of Catalonia.  Everyone here speaks both Catalan (a mixture of spanish and french) and Castilian (which is the Spain version of Spanish).  There are two other autonomous provinces in Spain; Galicia (they speak galician ) and the Basque country (they speak basque).

ANYWAY, So Lleida was nothing that special.  I don't even recommend stopping there if you're driving by...  We had lunch and it was delicious, but besides that the town really had nothing to offer.

The highlight of Lleida, it was part of the church and the oldest part of the city on the highest hill of the city.  The flags are the Catalan flag, Spanish Flag, and... I'm not sure what the third one is.

We hopped back in the car.  I offered to drive, but the cars are all manual and being a stupid American born in 1990 I have no idea how to drive stick shift... so i was excused from driving.  We drove for another hour and half, and we ended up in a city called Zaragoza.  This city was beautiful, small, and a really cool place to visit.

We dropped my dad off at a hotel to see how much it was and if we'd want to stay there.  Because there is very little parking in many of these European cities we drove around the block a few times before he came outside.  Finally he was waiting on the curb and we pulled over to let him in.  Meanwhile a cop was pulling out of his parking place and he slammed into our rental car.  He broke the tail light and left a lovely scrape.  Jeri and Henri were freaking out, but after the cop took the blame and starting writing a report I was cracking up.

They were good sports and took all of the blame!

We ate dinner a random restaurant called Sidecar where they provided us with a small grill and we were able to cook our own meat on it, it was really good! We also ordered Sangria and it was delicious.

We walked around a little bit the next morning, but headed back to the car where we continued to drive north.  Along the way we stopped in Pamplona for lunch.  We parked on the outskirts of the old city on green striped lines (remember this).  It was about 3:30 and the first three or four restaurants turned us away because they were closing the kitchen up.  In Spain stores close everyday from around 2-4.  The restaurants in Barcelona are usually open all day, but apparently in Pamplona which is a much smaller town this isn't the case everything shuts down around 4.

We finally found a restaurant that was willing to serve us so late.  The food was okay, but really nothing too special.  We walked down the street where the running of the bulls happens.  Too bad this event happens in the summer because it would have been awesome to see!

The street where the running of the bulls takes place.

We walked back to the car, but when we got there it wasn't there.  Of course my dad didn't even notice, and he said "which car is ours?" And I pointed to the empty space...

The note they left us.

We found a taxi and he asked where we were going and my dad showed him the towing sticker.  He kind of laughed ... my dad said that we parked on green lines which is usually pretty universal for meaning "Free or good."  When we got to the towing office they had no sympathy for us.  We had to pay 112 euros (About $140).  Of course if we were Spanish residents it would have only been 70 euros... Again we had to laugh at our bad luck.  My parents were ready to turn the car in, but instead we headed further north to San Sebastian.

San Sebastian is absolutely beautiful!  It is located in the Basque Country.  First of all let me say that basque is the weirdest language ever!.  "Euskal bitxienetariko hizkuntza da inoiz" (this is the google translated version so its not perfect, but you get the idea).  


San Sebasitan is in northern Spain touching the Atalntic Ocean.  Its about 10 minutes away from the France border, and it's the place where all the rich and famous people go for their summer vacations.  The beach is kind of like a cove with all of the city surrounding it.  It also hold one of the famous film festivals.  If you get a chance to go visit it!  We walked around the city and an amazing four cheese pizza with onions.  The onions were made with wine and sugar and were actually really delicious! one of the best pizzas i've ever had.  


Before leaving the city we drove up the side of a mountain on the edge of the cove and looked out over San Sebastian.  One of the prettiest views ever!  Because it was sunday it was time to head back to Barcelona for a week of classes.

The drive back was awesome.  It took 7 or 8 hours but we drove back all the way through the Pyrenees mountains.  The roads were extra windy and very steep but the views were breath taking.  I didn't even really mind I was in the car until 5 hours later.  My mom would disagree as she was driving most of the way...

A very narrow two way bridge we crossed.

On the other side of this mountain a whole village was built but i couldn't get a good picture of that.

The week was a short one.  On Monday night my dad wasn't feeling well, so me my mom and Nikki went out to eat.  We went to a place called Hamburgesa where they had delcious gorument hamburgers and delicious hummus and guacamole.  Dinner was good!

On Tuesday Mom and Dad went to visit Sagrada Familia and Monjuic (which is a mountain overlooking all of Barcelona).  Later me and Nikki met with them to go out to dinner again.  We went to Las Ramblas (which is where all the tourists go... there is tons of shopping and many resturants).  We went to a Tappas resturant and we all order all you can eat tappas for 14.95 euros.  

So... story time. They had these things called Potatos Bravas and they had an orangish colored sauce on them.  So i tried them, and the potatoes were crunchy, and I thought the sauce was funky but kind of good...  After the meal my dad asked what they were and it turns out they had mayo in them.  I CANT BELIVE I DIDNT NOTICE.  After dinner I felt sick... my parents and nikki obviously think I'm crazy but I can't believe I ate them.  I will never fall for something like that again.  Also we got sangria and they totally ripped us off charging 40 euros for 1 Litro (think half a soda bottle) of Sangria.

Wednesday, we went out to lunch, did a little bit of shopping and I took my dad to the outdoor market on Las Ramblas.  It is a market that has a ton of fruit stands, meat, and fish.  Its a beautiful market and I recommend that everyone go to it.  My dad LOVED it.  Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me so I'll have to steal some of my dads pictures later.  Later I got a haircut, and they gave me really Spanish bangs... uhh hair grows back right?

Wednesday night was crazy.  We had to leave my apartment by 715 the next morning to catch an early flight, so I was busy finishing up my work and packing.  Around 9 pm I went on to the R.H. Smith School (business school) website to check something about my business school application.  A month or so ago I read that my application was due on June 1st for the priority deadline, so I knew I didn't have much to worry about while in Barcelona.  When I logged on on wednesday night, it now said application due March 1st.  As of wednesday that gave me 4 days to complete the application, but I was leaving for portugal early the next morning. 

I started to freak out because I had no idea how I was going to send my application and have it make it to the states on time.  My resume was finished but I still had to fill out the application, write a personal statement, find someone to write a recommendation, and fill out a couple of other forms and letters in order to have everything I needed.  I contacted my advisor but even she wasn't convinced that the date was March 1st, she thought there was a mistake.   I was on hold for over 20 minutes with the Maryland undergraduate department, and finally got through and they told me that yes, the application was due on March 1st.

Anyway tomorrow is the due date, and thankfully I finally got everything completed.  A special thanks to Meghan who is turning everything in for me.

On thursday morning we headed out early to our flight to Porto, Portugal.  When we arrived we once again rented a car and headed towards Lisbon (a three hour drive).  The weather was beautiful! About 68 degrees.  I started reading the Hunger Games (and actually finished it by sunday, its really good i recommend it).  We stopped in a small town called Mira for lunch. 

We ate at a small restaurant and the table next to us was four old men playing cards.  The atmosphere was wonderful, the men were yelling at each other, and one keep saying "Mentirioso" which means liar.  The owner who we think was one of their lives kept coming out to yell at them and tell them to be quiet because they were disturbing her guests, but we really enjoyed it.

We drove into Lisbon which has a beautiful old town and found an hotel.  The next day we walked around and decided to take the Lisbon bus tour.  If you ever go to Lisbon, this is a really good way to see the city I definitely recommend it.

We stopped at this monument:

The Padrão dos Descobrimentos, Lisbon, Portugal, celebrates Portuguese explorers. It is probably the coolest monument I've ever seen if you go to Lisbon make sure you see it.  

We also walked into a monastery that was beautiful.

I'm obsessed with ceilings...

Later we took a tram car up the tiny/steep streets of Lisbon up the mountain overlooking the whole city.  It was beautiful and exactly what I pictured before arriving in Lisbon.

And finally a random picture on the tram;

On the last night in lisbon we were looking for a place to eat when we came across Bamba.  He is about 40 years old and is from Dakar, Senegal.  He asked us where we were from and when we said the U.S. he got really excited.  He loves Obama, and was so excited that he gave us free bracelets for good luck.  (we gave him a euro or two...).

The next morning we drove back to Porto which is an old beautiful city build on the side of a river.  We did a boat tour and cruised up and down the river which was a perfect way to see the whole city.

That night i got NO sleep because my parents were having a contest of who could snore the loudest... let me tell you it was definitely a tie!

Now I'm back in Barcelona and trying to plan my three weeks of traveling after the semester ends.

So it's been a while since I posted anything.  

Last weekend Meera, Michelle, Kirstie, Kaylin, and Grace all came to visit.  They arrived in Placa Catalunya around 1:30 am and we headed back to the apartment.  Everyone was tired from traveling and we missed the free entry into the clubs so we decided to lay low and go to bed early.  

We woke up around 11 am, and headed back over to Placa Catalunya.  We were walking around the streets of the gothic quarter doing some random shopping and looking for a place to eat.  Finally, we found a restuarnt that looked good.  It included four courses and a drink for 10 euros. 

First they brought out bread and some kind of delicious oily dipping sauce . Then they brought out the soup of the day which was kind of a really plain potato soup.  After that i got hummus.  The hummus was really good!  The next course consisted of garlic chicken and potatoes.  And fianlly you got to pick a desert and I got spain's version of apple pie (it was nothing like American apple pie but still delicious).  After the meal we were stuffed!  But we had barely done any shopping so we continued on our journey. 

We got back to the apartment at around 8pm.  Everyone showered and got ready for the evening.  We headed to la Bolsa which is a stock market themed jobs.  The prices of drinks go up and down with supply and demand.  The drinks get more expensive when everyone orders the same one and less expensive when no one is ordering it.  The concept is really cool and exciting, however, it really wasn't that exciting when we were actually there.  After the bar we were going to Razzmatazz which is a very famous spanish club with five different floors.  Each floor has different types of music.  We got there around 130 am and paid 15 euros to get it.  Each club is free on a different night of the week (for Razzmatazz its usually wednesdays but the girls from Rome really wanted to go).  No one was at the club yet because it was too early.  We walked around and kind of danced for a while.  Around 3 am people were just starting to come.  Around 330 am we decided to leave because we were tired, the club still wasn't full, and we really didn't like the music very much.  However there were tons of locals which was a really cool mix up from the other american packed clubs we have been to thusfar.

On Saturday we started the day at La Rosa Negra which is our favorite mexican resturant with wonderful guacamole!  We then took the Roma girls to Parc Guell which I'm pretty sure I talked all about in a older post so I wont elaborate.  After the park we decided to go to the mall.  All the rome girls did a TON of shopping.  Apparently Barcelona is much cheaper than rome because each one went back with a few pairs of boots, some tops, leather jackets and various other items.  I bought a leather jacket and a dress (for 5 euros!).  I'm pretty proud of myself for not spluring on clothes because those are really the first things I bought.  I might have more of a problem in the summer because I love summer clothes.

After shopping we headed back to the apartment to again to rest and get ready for the evening.  I made everyone fried rice (we're all broke and fried rice is super cheap to make).  We headed to a bar called "chupitos" which translates to shots.  They have over 350 shots to chose from.  They have the "Harry Potter" that is lit on fire and sparks like a wand, they have "the boy scout" which is where they give you a marshmallow to roast on the fire, then you stick it in your shot then drink it, they have finding nemo where they put whip cream on top of a shot, and a little gummy fish in the whip cream, you have to find nemo in the whip cream, show and show the bartender the fish before you're allowed to take the shot.. and obviously many more.

After the bar we went to our apartment, but the girls had to pack up there stuff because they had a 630 am flight back to Rome on sunday morning.  Around 330 we left the apartment and took them back to Placa Catalunya so they could catch the night bus to the airport.  We departed around 445.  Because the metro doesn't run as frequently in the middle of the night on saturdays we didn't get home till 530 am so we crashed, and slept until about 2 on sunday afternoon.

The rest of the week was very boring and busy.  I had an exam in Cultures Without the State (which proved to be easier than i thought but unfortunately I only studied the harder material so we'll see how that goes) on wednesday and a presentation about Andy Warhol today. Finally those are over and I can relax!

 Our apartment is falling apart.  The internet does not work, and we have to try to feed off of other people's unsecured networks (this is proving to be very difficult because there internet doesn't work either).  on monday i decided to do my laundry.  When i finished the wash i opened the washer but it was still completely full of water, so all the water came rushing out and went down the balcony.  (since i'm on the six floor it soaked everyone's clothes on the way down.  I had to attempt to let out the rest of the water into a bucket, and then I had to ring out my clothes one by one and hang them on my drying rack... fun times.

Oh! I have a Skype interview on Monday with a prospective internship for the summer!  Wish me luck, I've never did a virtual interview before... this should be interesting.

And finally my parents are arriving in Barcelona tomorrow morning!  I am very excited to see them (and i especially can't wait for the free/delicous meals that come along with =] )   Thats all for now!

This weekend was one of my favorite weekends yet.  I ate way too much food, saw practically every touristy thing in Rome, and hung out with Meera, Michelle, and all of their rome friends.

Nikki, Cindy and I started our tripped at around 430, when we left the apartment.  We took the metro to the train station, then the train to the airport.  We took Ryan Air which is cheap but actually sucks.  You're only allowed to bring one carry on (but you can't even have like a purse or something like that, literally one bag) and it really cant be much bigger than a backpack.  Its a good thing we were visiting Michelle and Meera because we used their clothes all weekend.  Anyway, Ryan Air was 40 minutes late (for no reason), and we finally arrived in rome at about 10:15.

When we got off the plane we found a kiosk for the bus we needed to take into the city.  I felt like such an idiot because I realized that I didn't know a single word of Italian.  Literally nothing... I walked up to the kiosk and asked if she spoke english.  She gave me a dirty look and rudely said yes.  So we bought our tickets.

I turned my phone on so I could call Michelle.  We were planning on meeting at the Nike store Termini Station which is the central bus and train area in Rome.  When I turned on my phone it asked me for my PIN number.  Trouble is i have no idea what my pin was because I have never turned my phone off before.  I use my phone so infrequently here that I only have to charge it once every week and half.  I was freaking out because we were 40 minutes late, my phone didn't work, we didn't have michelle's number, we didn't have their address, we had nothing.  40 minutes later we finally got to Termini, and luckily found them near Nike so all was well.

We took a bus back to their apartment which is on the edge of the city (kind of far away) but in a pretty neighborhood.  Their apartment was HUGE.  We put our bags down and met their friends.  After about 20 mintues we decided to go out to a bar called Scholars.  It is an Irish pub.  It should really be called American Exchange Students because that would apply to about 90% of the people there.  But it was fun.

We woke up around 10 the next morning to go out and explore Rome.  Meera made me a sandwhich with some kind of red pesto, tomato, mozzarella and basil it was delicious.  We headed out into the city by bus and tram.  After being spoiled with Barce's wonderful public transportation I can honestly say that Rome's system SUCKS.  You can wait up to 30 minutes for a bus to come, and there really is no way to know when to catch it.

Once we got into the city we first went to the Pantheon.  Kelly was quite knowledgeable and told me that the pantheon is made of marble and other materials from all over Italy.  It has the biggest dome in Rome, and I realized that I really like the architecture of domes.  Fun fact; when Michael Angelo was designing the Dome for Saint Peter's Basillica he wanted it to be the best of the best.  He frequently went to the Pantheon to study it.   When it came time to make the Basilica's dome he decided that he loved and admired the pantheon so much that he couldn't bring himself to make the basilica's dome bigger... so its 4 meters smaller in diameter.

Anyway after this we ate a big lunch.  We got wine, bruschetta (which was the best I've ever had) and pasta for 11 euros.  I was actually really disappointed in my spaghetti carbonara but ohh well.

We headed to the trevi fountain where we made wishes and through our coins in.  Of course me and nikki want to watch the Lizzie McGuire movie because we've been to Rome now. We finished out the day at the Spanish steps.

We all headed home on the awesome bus system where everyone took naps because we were all exhausted.  Later we decided we were going to go to a club, but we never made it there because we couldn't find it. We stopped to ask for directions in a little pizza shop and of course had to try some of the food.  Me and michelle split a tomato mozzarella and basil pizza, and i got supple which was delicious.  I I really cannot describe whats in it so I'm not even going to try. We went to the Drunken Ship but it was over crowded and everyone was wasted so instead we decided to head home.

We woke up and went to the Vatican.  Some tour guides almost swindled us into pay 30 dollars each for a guided tour.  This also included the admission for the museum and skipped any lines.  The man told us that it was originally 50 but because we were a group of 10 it was 40. Then he said he would give it to us for 30 because we were students.  We almost did the tour but at the last minute we decided to bail.  You could tell the tourguide was pissed, but oh well.  

Instead of going into the Vatican we obviously decided to eat first.  We got delicious Pizza once again.  We then headed into the Vatican where we did not have to wait in line (because there was none).  The admission to the Vatican was 15 euro, but we only paid 8 because we are students.  

The vatican is huge! The museum is tons of rooms with tons of amazing paintings and sculptors and all other kinds of art.  We finally made it into the Sistine Chapel....

(shh don't tell anyone i wasn't supposed to take a picture of this).  Honestly they ceiling of the sistine chapel kind of disappointed me.  Don't get me wrong it was amazing, but after spending the whole day in the Vatican museum and seeing ceiling after ceiling painted better than I've ever seen before, the chapel didn't have the WOAH affect it would have had, if it was the first ceiling I saw.  

After the musem we headed over to Saint Peter's Basilica. It is absolutely enormous and beautiful! On normal days you can go to the dome at the top and look out over the city of rome but for some reason this day it was closed. 

To give you an idea of how big the basilica is the letters written on the building are 8 feet tall!

(Look at nikki and michelle posing in the background hahah...)

We headed back to the apartment, and got ready for dinner.  We went to a resturant that is owned by a professor at American University of Rome (where Michelle and Meera study) so he offers a discount to students.  For 10 euro you get bruschetta, pasta dish, wine, and a desert.  The meal was delicious!  We were so full at the end of it but it was really worth it.  

We went back home because we were exhausted and knew we had a long day on Sunday.  Sunday was slow moving to get out of the apartment but when we finally did we headed to the Coliseum.  It was awesome!  We paid 16 euros for a guided tour and entrance fee.  It was worth it because we learned all about it.  For example, the animals were kept in the basement and were brought to the stadium using elevators made of wood, ropes, and pulleys.  The coliseum was probably my favorite site that we saw all weekend.  

After our tour we said goodbye to Kelly, Kirstie, Kaylin, and Grace.  We headed to a resturant where we got pizza and more suple for 4 euros!  And went back to pack and go to the airport.  50 minutes later when we were almost at the apartment Michelle realized she didn't have here key.  The rest of the girls were out shopping so we didn't know if Nikki and Cindy were gonna be able to get into the apartment to get their stuff (my stuff was in Meera's apartment).  Finally we got in contact with one of the other roommates and luckily they were at the apartment. 

Our ride home was uneventful.  The flight was 45 minutes late (I don't know if we're unlucky or this is typical of Ryan Air).  I dropped my boarding pass on the ground, but luckily 10 minutes later it was still were i left it... oops!  

We arrived back in Barcelona and were finally home by about 2 am.  I was so happy to return to Spain because I spent the entire weekend having no idea how to communicate with anyone.  I didn't know a word of Italian, and it was really nice to go back to Spain where I could talk to most people and ask them simple questions.  I did however realize I love the way Italian is spoken its really cool!

It was really fun weekend, but I ate way too much!  I am really glad I'm not studying in Italy because I would come back 50 pounds heavier!

This is gonna be a short one;

This week has gone by much faster than I expected.  I got an 84 on my 5 page paper that I wrote the second week of class (and considering I'm in Barcelona, and this paper definitely was not even close to one of my better ones AT ALL, I'll take the 84).

On Monday, I went shopping.  Thank god I'm cheap because I only bought a purse. There are clothes, and shoes, and accessories everywhere, I'm glad that I have self control and can stop myself from shopping! I have already spent a lot of money so I need to be careful!  Also the Euro just went from 1.33 to 1.37 so now things are even more expensive!

Tomorrow I am going to Rome!  I will be visiting Michelle and Meera, and the beautiful city :).  I could not be more excited!!!  I'll be updating about that next week.

So by the end of March the Maryland-in-Barcelona program is having a photo contest among all the students and the winner will win 50 euros!  There are three categories; best photo, funniest photo, and best cultural photo... so keep a look out at my pictures and let me know which ones you think I should pick... I have until March so I will remind you.

Thats all for now!

This post is dedicated to things I keep meaning to write about but forgetting;

Every day either two or four times a day I pass through the metro station "Verdaguer" its a connecting line.  There is a long hallway to get from one track to the other, and every day there is a musician planning some type of music.  I have been through this station probably about 30-40 times, and I'm pretty sure I have only seen the same musicians two or three times.  There are people playing guitar, accordion, saxophone, drums, and a bunch of instruments I don't even know the title of. This is my favorite part of my commute, sometimes I want to stop but I never do (because no one else every does!) So I slow down so I can listen longer. 

I thought that my art class would help me learn to appreciate art more.  But really I just find a lot of things super bizarre.  We were learning about performance art, which is when an artist does some kind of exhibit in front of you, a lot of times they do risky things to "test their limits".  One Artist Gina Pane, but thorns in her arm until she bled.  She then took a razor and cut her palm in the shape of a rose.  I know a lot of people see this as art (as my teacher does, and even kids in my class).  I don't get it you can explain to me all the symbolize in the world and I still think its ridiculous.  Another artist laid on a table for a long period of time (several hours or so).  She laid on the table with a skeleton laying on top of her, and breathed loudly.  The skeleton would move when her chest moved because she was breathing.  How is this art? If i lay on a table and put a skeleton on myself no one will call it art they will just think I'm weird.

I forgot to write about this a week or two ago was my first time in Placa Catalunya, which is where all the pigeons are that I talked about a while back.  Anyway this was my first culture shock freak out.  I was heading to class.  I was heading into the metro and put my card in the little slot, so I could get in.  I thought I was on the green line, so I went down stairs, but realized that I was actually in the area for trains, not the metro.  Thats fine, I went back upstairs and tried to exit.  In Barcelona (unlike DC), you don't need to use your card to exit the metro, only to enter.  I tried to exit through the electric doors, but it wouldn't let me out.  I saw someone use their card, so I tried that and it didn't work.  So I tried my card like seven more times and it didn't work.  I started to freak out and thought I was stuck.  I saw a police officer so I went over and asked him "Donde esta la linea cinco?"  And he pointed which way to exit but didn't say anything else.  So I went back over, and my card still didn't work (obviously).  I felt like such an idiot... but I finally I went back to the police officer and attempted to tell him my card didn't work with the great spanish taht I have.  He directed me to the booth were some guy was working.  The guy gave me a new card that literally said "sortida" which means exit.  The location I was in was for a train so there are different cards you ahve to buy.  Apparently I'm not the only one who makes this mistake if they have sortida cards lying around!!

Thursday night was the first night it rained and we ventured out into the city anyway.  It was wet, and cold but fun.  We went to Gracia which is a certain neighborhood in the city, and we went to a Bohemian bar called Sham's Lounge.  They have couches, and canopies you can sit in with a huge menu of delicious drinks!

Friday we went into the city to do some shopping.  The only thing I bought was purple nail polish (obviously) and peanut butter!!!! I finally found some!  We were looking for a thrift store but we never actually ended up finding it so we went home almost empty handed. 

We woke up super early on saturday morning to beat the crowds at Sagrada Familia.  Today was the last day that we could go for free.  Sagrada Familia is the most famous structure in Barcelona.  It was built by Guadi, started in 1882.  It is still not finished!  They plan to finish it in 2025.  So anyway my friends decided to wake up at 830 to go see, it and I almost decided to pass it up.  I'm glad I didn't though because it was beautiful inside.  Probably the prettiest church I have ever seen.

Later on today we decided to go to the Xocolata Musem!  A whole museum dedicated to Chocolate?!?!  It was two for the price of one so we figured why not.  We each paid 2 euros to get in.  And we were kind of happy it was only two Euros because it wasn't that special.  However, it did have really cool sculptures made out of chocolate.

Our entry tickets were chocolate bars!

On Saturday we went to a Barca football game!  The team is absolutely amazing.  I think I can now appreciate soccer, I actually found that I really like it more than I ever realized.  We were almost as far away as you can possibly get.  Think nosebleed seats.  But thats okay because the game was included in our program so we didn't have to pay for tickets!

Me and Jess

Barca won 3-0!  After the game the entire crowd poured out of the stadium.  The streets were full of people to the point where no cars on the streets could move... I guess this happens every time there is a game?

On Sunday we slept in really late (to make up for lack of sleep during the week).  We decided to go to Parc Guell because we had heard a lot of good things about it.  So around 2 Cindy, Jess, and I headed out to meet Elaine C at the Joanic metro stop.  We walked the 20 minutes to Parc Guell.  Parc Guell is situated on a hill on the side of Barcelona.  It was designed by Gaudi because he used to live in a house at the beginning of the park (where you can now visit as a musem).  If you climb high enough you can look out over the entire city.

I really can't even describe what the park was like because it is so unique and amazing.  If you go to Barcelona this place is definitely somewhere you can't miss. 

On the platform that overlooks the city there were vendors selling jewelry and other touristy items.  There was also a bubble man blowing enourmous bubbles!

I was intrigued and probably took far to many pictures of the bubbles.

We headed up to the top of the hill/mountain (honestly i'm not even really sure what you would call it).  We were walking down a gravel path when we decided to venture off into the woods... there was a trail and we figured why the heck not.  We walked along the trail for about 5 minutes and we came across a huge wall, that was sort of falling apart but had really cool graffiti.  My and Cindy climbed to the top of the wall and there was an amazing view!  We also took tons of pictures beacuse it was so beautiful.

I was a model in a past life....

Anyway we decided to leave the park, so we went to a cafe for a late lunch/early dinner.  I got a hamburger and they put it on french bread.  Literally any sandwich you order over here is on french bread! So delicious.  Except all the people here are really skinny, honestly barely any fat people live here... its confusing because all the food I have seen out is not healthy!  I guess it probably has to do with proportion sizes.  

We headed back, and I started some of the homework I have.  I actually have a ton!  

So anyway the fast couple days have been pretty stressful.  For one we are trying to book some weekend trips, but Ryan Air doesn't go very many places out of the Barcelona airport which is frustrating.  But we're still working on weekend trips.

Additionally someone told me that my Spanish class that I'm taking is the same level I took last semester at Maryland.  I didn't find this out until a few days after the add/drop period ended.  I asked someone who works for Education Abroad at Maryland if it was going to count, and she informed that it wasn't.  I'm really glad that they're so informative and really make sure you take classes that will count and help you out (I also keep forgetting that sarcasm doesn't really work over the internet).  So now I have to wait and see if the Universistat Autonomia de Barcelona administration will let me change levels even though the add/drop period is over.  If not the credits aren't going to count which is frustrating because its a waste of time and money.  

On a better note, Yev is helping me professionalize my Teaching Them 2 Fish website so I'm really excited about that.

Well, I should stop procrastinating and finish my Five page paper thats due tomorrow.