Keeping busy in BCN!

Alright, so apologies for not updating my blog in over a week. Its quite a busy life here in Barcelona. I spent the last 3 days at the university here trying to add/drop classes. Definitely not as easy as in Richmond.  I really miss how efficient the US is sometimes.

A few shout outs. First happy birthday to my beautiful little sister Sophia! Hard to believe she is 10 years old already. I miss her so much!

Second, I want to say thank you to my friend Joan for continuously reading my blog! Joan is from Barcelona and studied at Pompeu Fabra. He is a pretty awesome guy :) He loves to show us around Barcelona and knows everything about the city!

This weekend was the famous festival in Barcelona called La Mercé. Friday night I went out to a club on the beach until 6 am so I was very tired all day saturday. I gathered enough energy to attend the gigantes parade - I'm not sure how else to describe it but it is a parade of giant human characters. Saturday night night I was able to see a La Mercé concert. It was a group from Sweden. Their songs were actually very good. Unfortunately it started to rain halfway through so I went home.

Sunday was a great day!! The best part of the day was seeing the human castles perform in Plaza St. Jaume. I have always seen pictures of the famous human towers in Spain but seeing them in person was absolutely incredible. Being so close to the towers made me realize just how challenging they are and the amount of strength, balance, and trust needed to build them. Here are a few photos:

After seeing the human towers Natalie, Bilyana, Joan and I grabbed lunch by the port. Then with other ERASMUS students we took a tour of Montjuic, a hill to the west of the city with incredible views. Natalie and I grabbed tapas and vino before heading to Correfoc, a parade of people dressed up as devils with dangerous firecrackers. You are supposed to wear flame-retardant clothing... whoops? We finished off  the night by racing to Plaza España just in time to see the closing fireworks!  It was a long day but definitely a fun-filled one.

I guess now it is time to buckle down and start doing work. My classes are all in spanish which makes homework more difficult. But it is a great challenge and I really hope to become fluent. This weekend will be a nice break from work. On Thursday there is a huge Pompeu Fabra party at a club on the beach. Then this weekend Richmond students in Barcelona will head to the beautiful Costa Brava. I should have plenty of pictures to post next time! :)

Weekend trip to Milán and Gaudi visit back in BCN

This weekend I took a break from Barcelona to venture off to Italy for the first time in my life. I knew some friends staying in Milán so I decided to crash there. It was a great time - I saw a bunch of students from Richmond who I haven't seen in a while. The Duomo was absolutely amazing and we got a chance to walk all the way up to the top (even though I am afraid of heights...) While in Milán I figured I had to buy at least something. The problem is my current wallet is not big enough to spend on top designers. I bought a shirt at Zara, does that count?...

When going out at night I was amazed at how how fashionable the boys in Milán are. Sorry American boys, but you guys just don't know how to dress. I'm definitely going to have to move to Europe after college to find my dream husband!!

We arrived back in Barcelona on Sunday night. Monday we joined the ERASMUS international student welcome week program in a tour of Park Guell, a beautiful park designed by the famous Gaudi. The park was filled with colored tiles everywhere. We felt like we were in a fantasy land. In addition the park is located at the top of a hill so the views of the city were incredible. Props to Gaudi!

Europe makes America look like a new-born

Its amazing how old Europe is. Today I had the chance to go on a tour of the historic part of the city with other international and european students. We were able to go into two cathedrals, both built around the 14th century. Walking into these buildings was incredible. It is amazing how high the ceilings are and the structures seem absolutely flawless regardless of their countless detail. It is impressive to think that in the 14th century these grand cathedrals were built by men who didn't have access to the modern machinery that we do today. I've never been that fascinated by architecture but coming here you can't help but be interested!

A few good things... and a few bad things...

Ok, so this week has been quite interesting! The start of the week went well. I've made a few spanish friends, which is pretty nice because they know the city much better than us and are full of recommendations. The girls who are coming to richmond next semester from Barcelona are super friendly and love spending time with us! On Wednesday we went up the Tibidabo mountain to have a drink at the top. The bar had amazing views of the city and the ocean. It was really relaxing and nice to spend time with them.

After Tibidabo we all went to an Irish Pub in the center of the city to watch the Barca-Milan futbol match! It was a lot of fun, except a little disappointing when Milan scored at the end to tie the game. There were a lot of Americans at the bar so we ended up meeting some other international students.

After leaving the bar my week turned sour. I went home that night I started to not feel well. It ended up that I had food poisoning and I had to go to the emergency room in the middle of the night. The experience was horrible. No one in the hospital spoke much english and I really had no idea what they were doing to me or what they thought my problem was. Thank god one of my spanish friends was able to drive me there. He also stayed there the whole night until I was able to leave which was super nice. I spent the entire day yesterday in bed. It was awful because I just wanted to be out and about exploring the city like all of the other international students.

I am feeling much better now and will be heading off to Milan for the weekend tomorrow!! I guess its just good that I got sick a few days ago and ot know. I'll be posting pictures of Milan as soon as I return :)

Sitges!

Yesterday we went to Sitges, a small coastal town to the south of barcelona. It was absolutely beautiful and reminded me so much of Nantucket!!! It is definitely one of those summer vacation towns that dies out in the winter. The streets were very tiny and cute with lots of color along the buildings and balconies.

I had the chance to lay out on the beach for a half hour or so and got to swim in the mediterranean for the first time! It was definitely a lot saltier than the Atlantic. It was very nice to be at a beach that is not right next to a giant city because the beaches in Barcelona can be dirty and crowded. 

We found out our class schedule for the next two weeks. We don't start official classes until september 21st so until then we are taking an intensive spanish class every day. My class is from 10-12:30 which I am very happy about as it will give me the opportunity to explore barcelona and its surroundings every afternoon. I think I'll probably be making a few afternoon trips to Sitges again because it was just so beautiful and reminded me of home :)

Monserrat adventure :)

Today we went to Monserrat, the famous monastery located on the top of a small mountain an hour outside of barcelona. It was absolutely an amazing experience. After the long train ride we ventured up to the monastery in gondolas. I am terrified of heights but thought it would be a good opportunity to conquer my fear of heights.

When we got to the top of the mountain we went straight to La Basilica and were lucky enough to catch a performance by the church's young boys choir. The church was beautifully decorated with much grandeur and detail. We went next to see the statue of the virgin mary which millions of people from catalonia make pilgrimage to every year. The line was very long but it was definitely worth doing as the virgin is the most famous part of Monserrat.

After exploring La Basilica we decided to go on a hike. It was a little bit more strenuous than we were expecting. But we are decided to be adventurers and continue on. The views were definitely worth it. 

It was a really great day and I'm looking forward to going on more day trips like this through out the semester.

Major Tourists. Time to be locals.

On Sunday Natalie and I decided to buy tickets for the hop on hop off barcelona bus. Major tourists, yes we know. So, for the past two days we spent our afternoons exploring the city by bus. My favorite stop was the Sagrada Familia. It is absolutely amazing and even more impressive than in pictures. I think I could spend hours sitting outside of the Sagrada Familia looking at it and still would miss some of its beautiful detail. I wanted to post photos but for some reason blogspot isn't letting me at the moment.

We also had a chance to walk a little bit around the barri gotic, the old part of the city which is made up of hundreds of small winding roads decorated in gothic architecture. Its amazing to think that almost all of the buildings were built before the 15th century. When you walk through these streets you feel like you are going back in time and are apart of a different era. I'm definitely going to spend a lot of time exploring these streets.

Goals for the next few weeks:

1. Speak more spanish
I would love to arrive back to the US fluent in spanish. The problem is that I've been hanging out with a lot of americans and we are constantly speaking english with one another. In addition, because this is a city of many different nationalities and plenty of tourists locals will often converse with you in english. I need to make it a priority to speak in only spanish with them and meet as many spanish speaking students as possible.

2. Stop planning each day
The way of life here is much different than at home. We are used to scheduling and planning our days. Each time I wake up in this city we usually have a plan of the places we want to see during the day and the bars/clubs we want to go to at night. But the reality is that they live differently here. During the day we see plenty of locals sipping coffee together in the park or strolling slowly along the streets. At night they seem to hop from bar to bar and sometimes even party on the road or in the plazas. It doesn't matter where they go necessarily but who they are with and if they are having fun or not. I think one day we need to just walk into the city without a plan and explore. I'm sure it would be worth it to see where we end up.

3. Cook better food.
Saturday night our spanish roommate invited some of her guy friends to come over and cook dinner for us. They made gazpacho, tomatoes with goat cheese, and chicken. It was delicious. Unfortunately, we don't have these kinds of resources every night. So far our specialties include pan tostado con tomate, yogurt, frozen food, and salad. I think we need to work on our spanish recipes!! Perhaps tonight we will look one up and attempt to make it. I'll let you know if we don't burn down the apartment....

Just a few photos of our apartment :)

Siesta?

Siesta is definitely the most awkward time of the day. Since we live in the less touristy part of the city businesses actually close for 2 to 3 hours in the middle of the day and the streets empty out pretty quickly. I'm not really sure what to do during these hours - I'm not tired and I just want to explore the city!! I think adapting to a new daily schedule is going to be the hardest part in my adjustment process.  But as soon as classes start I'm sure I'll be welcoming a daily afternoon nap with open arms!

First day in Barcelona!

After a long night and morning of traveling I finally made it to my apartment in Barcelona and spent my first night! Our apartment is super spacious (pictures will be up soon). My room still doesn't feel like home yet. We are going to buy sheets and bedding today so hopefully that will decorate the room up a little bit. Out of my bedroom window I have the perfect view of Gaudi's famous Sagrada Familia. Of course I also have a perfect view of a construction site and giant crane, but its still a nice view none the less.

After taking a quick nap, Natalie, Biljana (two of my housemates who are also from the University of Richmond), and I took a walking tour around our neighborhood with a lady who works at the University here. Our neighborhood is somewhat on the outskirts of the main city so it has a very charming and cute feel to it. Most of the streets are tiny and its easy to get lost among all of them - believe me, we already have.

I still haven't been in the main (historic) part of the city yet but am hoping to do that today. I am just excited to finally be here and can't wait to spend an entire semester in this beautiful city!