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.

Hola amigos!

Its a lovely saturday afternoon in barcelona... actually thats kind of a lie its cold and cloudy.  (okay compared to the U.S. its not cold at all).

This was a lovely week.

My Spanish professor introduced us to a youtube video... if you've taken any spanish in middle school or high school you will appreciate its funny; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WckCw_-7e3M.

On wednesday night we went to La Rosa Negra for dinner... it was mexican food and it was absolutely delicious!  Definitely my favorite meal so far.  Everyone has been asking me how the food is over here and so far I haven't had anything that is to die for... Somethings have been good but not really that special.  I'm thinking is probably because a) i'm not a huge fan of seafood and Barcelona is right on the Mediterranean and b) I probably just don't really know what to order!

Thursday was a busy day.  My Spanish Contemporary Art class was cancelled because my professor is working on an art exhibition in Ireland, so she set an assignment;  go to the Joan Miro Foundation museum (this is contemporary art), and find a piece of art that you like.  It could be a painting, sculpture, whatever.  After that you had to take notes about it and write a analysis on it.  There were many questions about it like what was the authors purpose? how does it make you feel?  etc, etc. Well, I basically realized that I know nothing about art, I don't understand it, and I have NO idea what the artist was thinking...

This isn't the piece that I chose, but the piece I chose was indoors, and I wasn't allowed to take a picture of it.  This sculpture looks cool, but thats about as far as I can go.  I have no idea what Miro meant by it, and I have no idea how it makes me feel.  I can appreciate good artwork, but some contemporary art is just confusing to me!

This is the view we had on the roof of the museum over looking the city (if you click on it it'll be bigger).

On thursday night I bought a FC Barcelona Jersey!  And we hung around.  Nikki and Mike made a Tex-Mex lasagna.  It was chicken, tomato sauce, salsa, onions, layered in tortillas  it was realllllly good!

On friday we had to wake up extra early because we were traveling to Monseratt which is about an hour and half outside of Barcelona.  We all met up at 9am at the Espanya Metro stop.  There was about 35 of us.  Everyone was sleepy and complaining about being too hung over.  Obviously Barcelona is a party central city (and I don't know why New York is called the city that never sleeps because Barcelona is legitimately the city that never sleeps).  Anyway so a lot of the people on the trip were miserable because they stayed out until 5 or 6 am and drank too much and didn't get enough sleep.  In my opinion, they should all suck it up because we're in Barcelona and there is so much to see and do, and partying is fun, and definitely something to do while you're here but shouldn't be your priority.  So quit complaining or don't go out the night before a trip!

Anyway.... Monseratt is absolutely beautiful!

This is the mountain from a distance.  There is a monestary on the mountain (which is where we were going to visit).  Monserrat is home to the oldest running printing press 1499 that is still in use.  We took a tram up to the top the mountain (you can also go by cable car), but I am pretty curious how the monks did it back in the 1200s.  

The Monestary is home to 84 monks, as well as about 55 choir boys aged 9-14.  These boys come to school to learn regular studies in the morning and finish the day with choir.  Once they turn 14, they're kicked out because their voices change.

The Monastery. 

The view from right outside the monastery with me, cindy, and jessica.

Monserrat was beautiful! And I recommend it to anyone who is visiting barcelona and has an extra morning or afternoon to spare.

We headed back to apartment where some of us napped.  It was Jess's birthday so we wanted to do something fun!  We got ready and we first went to El Bosc de los Farres.  Which is a Fairy Bar.  The bar was decorated like an enchanted forest.  It cool!  After the bar, we headed to Opium Mar which is a club right on the beach.  It was a really cool atmosphere, and we finally got to a place that had a lot of locals.  There were probably a lot of other international people there as well but not as many Americans as most of the other places we have been thusfar.  It was a good night.  We stayed for a few hours before we got back to our apartment around 430 and all crashed.  

Today we're going to an official Barça game!!!!!!! Its going to be amazing to see the best football team in the world, as well as the craziest fans in the world!

I do miss home a little bit, I'm jealous that everyone is going back to college park tonight and reuniting and I won't be there.   But obviously I have a lot to look forward to, there is still so much to see and do in Barcelona and we are beginning to plan our first international trips!!

So this weekend was the first real weekend in Spain!!!

On friday (i don't have any classes yay!)  We woke up early and met in Placa Catalunya.  If you are afraid of birds (yes carys i'm talking to you...) don't ever got o placa catalunya.   Its in the center of the city its beautiful.  There is a huge fountain and beautiful monument... but there are also hundreds of pigeons.

We met up with a bunch of people from our program in this plaza for a scavenger hunt.  I was in a group with Cindy, Jessica, Mike R, and Elaine. We were set out across barcelona to do/find a few things;

1. we had to find a skate park and take a picture with the skaters

2. we had to learn a traditional catalonian dance

3. we had the first half of common catalonian sayings and had to ask people to complete them 

4. we had to locate a statue of the barri gotic

5. find a monument near a park, we were given a picture and had to ask people where it was

there were a few other things but i don't remember.  my group headed right toward a tour guide booth to ask where all the things where.  right away someone directed us to a skate park out on the outer edge of the city.  we circled all of our locations on the map and decided to head out to the skate park since it was the furthest away, and work back from there.

When we got to Forum, where the skate park was supposed to be we came across a beautiful part of the city.  It was right along the beach, and it was in a reall non-touristy area so it was fun to explore.  We walked around for an hour and half looking for the skate park, and every person directed us in different way.  After two ours of looking we were hungry, tired, and we decided to give up.  The only part of the scavenger hunt we completed was the phrases!  

We headed away from the beach and decided to have lunch at a cafe.  Lunch is Spain's biggest meal.  I got a salad, macroni bologense, and a "cafe con leche" AND a free drink, for 9 euros (11.70 american dollars so... not that bad?) 

After lunch we contemplated retrying the scavenger hunt but because we were two hours behind we gave up.  Instead we went to a local grocery store and bought 2 bottles of wine.  They were so expensive!!! Each bottle was 1.90 euros! I can't believe we had to pay 2.50 dollars for a bottle of wine now that i just ridiculous. 

We headed back to the beach and hung out.  It is beautiful in Barcelona.  The weather has been in the sixties!  This day it was 65!  We hung around on the beach and right before we left we wrote a message in a bottle and we sent it into the ocean.

We were about to locate a metro station when we saw a 15 year old go by on a skateboard.  After searching for the skate park for 2 hours we decided we had to find it!  We asked the kid where it was and he told us to follow.  Turns out the skatepark was about 100 yards away from where we gave up our  search.  We walked up to the skatepark and befriended Jonas and Linius.  They are two Swedish guys in their twenties who saved money, quit their jobs and moved to Barcelona to skateboard.  

While many people would probably look down on Jonas and Linus life decisions, I truly admire their spontaneity and their willingness to live for what they love. We got their phone numbers and mabye we'll hang out with them in the future!

We headed back to the piso (apartment) where it was time for everyone to take a nap!  That night we decided to go to the Up & Down club.  Every night a different club is free, so many people try to take advantage of these.   Me, nikki and our neighbors who live in another apartment on our floor Cindy and Jessica, decided to head out into the town to go to a club.  We took a 30 minute metro ride and and walked another 15 minutes or so.  We finally found the address we were looking for.... but it was Up & Down gym.  Oops! Nikki's really good at finding places we need to go! hahah just kidding she usually is.  But it was about 230 in the morning and we decided that since we had no idea where the actual Up & Down was we would just head back to our apartment and go to sleep.

The next day we ate lunch at a restaurant outside of sagrada familia.  It was a beautiful day!  Later we went with our roommate Mike to Torre Girona, where many of the other Maryland program people live. This dorm is in a very pretty part of the city but kind of far away from most things.  At about 130 am we left the dorm to go to a club.  The clubs don't even open until 1 or 2 in barcelona its crazy!  So of course we got lost on our way to the club, but we got in a taxi and he took us were we needed to go.  When we got to the door we gave the bouncer the name a of promoter and we were let in for free.  

The club was crowded and we danced for a while.  Around 430 we decided to leave... we left when the club was still mostly full.  People dance and party until 6 or 7 in the morning!  We came back to our apartment and crashed.

On Sunday I was in my apartment walking down the hallway. We have a part of the wall that sticks out a few inches.  Well I'm a genius and I jammed my toe into the wall.  It swelled up really big and it looked crooked.  For an hour or so I thought it was broken (turns out it wasn't thank god!)  Now its just blue and ugly... oops.

Nikki was super excited for the Jets win... we are hoping to go to a sports bar next weekend to catch some of the NFL games.  George Payne is the place were all the Americans gather to drink beer and watch American football.  

Now its Monday, and we have another week of classes...  But we have a lot to look forward to this weekend.  I trip up the mountain (right on the outskirts of barcelona) and we're going to a Barce football game!

On Monday me and Nikki ventured out into the city to find an outdoor market.  We took the metro to the area it was in, but we didn't find the market...

Instead we came across the Torre Agbar. Which is a building designed by a french architect Jean Nouvel.

We also stumbled across a huge "centro commerical" or shopping mall.  Ryan told us that the city prevents too many malls from being built and putting local stores out of business. The mall had an H&M (which is apparently a Swedish store), and Star Bucks, and some really cool and fairly priced spanish clothing stores Mango and Zara.  We came across a Carrefour which is a huge store kind of like target, they had EVERYTHING. 

On Tuesday, we had orientation at Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona.  The building used to be an old hospital, but was eventually converted into the University.  In fact, the rest of the hospital is still behind this building.

Later we did a walking tour of Barri Gotic (Gothic Quarter).  Which is the oldest part of the city.  This part of the city has Romantic and Gothic architecture.  So far, this area was the most beautiful part of Barcelona I have seen.  

The two side structures mark the gates of Old Barcelona.  This was the main entrance into the city, and dates back to when the Romans occupied Barcelona. 

The church of Santa Maria del Mar.  A 14th century gothic church.

The tour was beautiful, and our guide was phenomenal! 

Yesterday was the first day of classes!  Most of my Classes are at UAB Exiample campus which is a 25 minute metro ride away.  The metro system in Spain is AMAZING.  A new train comes every 2 or 3 minutes.  The city is completely connected by the metro and you can get anywhere really easily.  

I start Mondays and Wednesdays with a 9am class called Culture Without the State:  The Case of Catalonia.  I love my professor for this class he is awesome.  He completely understands that we're all here to travel across Europe and experience Barcelona.  He does not expect us to be in class every single day. 

My next class was called Politics of the Developing World.  it sounds really interesting but we didn't really get into anything on the first day. This calss ends at 12:40.

My Spanish class is six credits.  Its every day from 540-720.  Its frustrating because I have a five our gap everyday and then have to head back to campus at night.  I guess this isn't really a big deal since you can't even go out around here in till 2 in the morning. 

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I start at 11am at the Sant Pau campus which is a 5 minute walk from my apartment. I have Spanish Contemporary Art.  We'll be learning about Picasso and Dali, and many other famous Spanish artists.  We also get to visit a number of different exhibits during class time so this should be really interesting! And then at 5:40 I head back to the other campus for Spanish again.  

I have come to realize that my Spanish is horrible.  I have taken Spanish for 6 years (or six semesters worth).  5 years in high school/middle school and one semester at Maryland.  Communicating with people here has been very difficult at times. A lot of people told me that everyone in Barcelona speaks english (they were wrong!)  However, I am actually happy that a lot of people don't speak English because it forces me to work on my Spanish instead of falling back on what I already know!

So here I am in my awesome apartment enjoying my first full day in Spain!

The flight was 8 hours, which wouldn't have been to bad but I slept for less than an hour.  We finally landed in Spain, at 8:50 local time (Almost 3 in the morning our time!)  We met some of the people on our program at a cafe in the airport while we waited for Ryan and Naila to find us (these are the program directors via Spain).

When we were leaving the airport nikki had a big cart of all her bags on them.  Spain has a moving sidewalks like the U.S. but they are more of a ramp and the are inclined.  A girl put her bag on nikkis stuff and all of Nikki's suitcases fell off onto the ramp, in front of the cart.  Nikki was behind the cart so she couldn't pick them up.  I ran my suitcases off the ramp and then proceeded backwards up the ramp running towards nikkis to grab what i could.  Nikkis cart got stuck on the end and there was a pile up of 15 other people and their suitcases.  It was really funny and all the spanish peopled hated us.  This was Europe's way of saying welcome. 

After everyone was together we got on a bus to head to our various living arrangements.

The view from our balcony/my and nikki's bedroom window.

I live on the 6th floor of a piso (apartment).   I live with Nikki, Kim and two Mikes.  We have a small kitchen and two bathrooms, and we're about two blocks away from a metro stop so its really convenient.   We're also a couple blocks away from Gaudi's famous the Sagrada Familia.

(this is what it looks like at night)

Nikki and I unpacked a few things and then headed into the city with Mike to explore and buy a few things.  We bought pay as you go phones, and realized our Spanish was much worse than we thought as we tried to communicate with a women who spoke no English.  After we returned to our apartment we finally decided it was time for a quick nap (it was 11 am american time). 

This we headed over to Universitat Pompre Fabre where we met up with Ryan and Naila for orientation.  After the orientation we went to a resturant that was included in the program and they brought out all kinds of food.  They kept bringing out plate after plate.  There was calamari, fried anchovies, mussels, some other kind of fried fish, and bruschetta.  I tried all the fishy things even the anchovies (dad you would be proud). 

fried anchovies (or sardines not really sure)..... they were gross

After the appetizers, I got a huge plate of chicken paella, which was delicious but i was already so full.  They even gave us lemon smoothies, and cookies after the main course, and put 4 or 5 bottles of liquor on our tables. 

After a stroll on the beach of barcelona (its been 60 degrees the last two days!) We're exhausted, and ready to nap.  And then we'll hit up the town later tonight!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

I am leaving for Spain in six days!!  I haven't really started packing yet, and I am trying to figure out how I am going to put four months of necessities in a backpack and one suitcase... this could be interesting.  Im both excited and nervous, but really at this point it has not hit me that i'm going at all!

After reading Molly's blog I have decided that it is important for me to make new years resolutions about my semester abroad and really about the upcoming year.

So here they go...

For Europe Specifically:

1. Put myself on the spot, and speak Spanish as much as possible (honestly this one is probably going to be the toughest for me)
2. (a) Make friends with the Spaniards and try to be a party of their culture.
 (b) don't surround myself with only other Americans
3. Travel as many places as possible.
4. Experience new and different things that I've never tried before.
5. Not be seen as a stupid American tourist.

For the year in general:

1. Continue to learn about myself and life and continue to grow as a person.
2. Obtain an internship in D.C. for the summer.
3. Get into the R.H. Smith Business school
4. Be the best person I can be academically and socially (okay maybe not the besssst academically while i'm in spain because obviously there might be a few other things on my mind, but definitely for the rest of the year).

Those are my major goals and resolutions and I'm hoping to be able to stick to them.