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!