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!
if you thought your sleep patterns were a mess before...
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