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!!