What's next?

I'm sitting in my room, depressed about finals and my future and life in general, so I decided to go to my blog. And...here I am, 7 months after my last blog! It has been almost one year since I left for Barcelona, starting the best four months of my life. It's hard to say what made it so great; probably a combination of a lot of great people and experiences. I've talked about this with Megan, and we both have the most amazing and content feeling when we reflect on absolutely any event that happened (well, almost any...)! Now I am ending my 2nd to last semester of Jewell, and I still don't know what to do with myself! Grad school is going to wait a few years, leaving me to find SOMETHING after I graduate. What will it be: teach for america? ESL teacher in a foreign country? Nanny some spanish kids for a while and teach them english? Work in Yosemite? Work in Glacier? (I don't really want to be a park ranger...) Maybe start my dream job early and learn to be a whitewater rafting guide? Intern somewhere? I want to do something meaningful, yet I also want to earn some money..really, I just want LIFE to start. I feel as though college has been this dollhouse/prison where I play lots of roles that "prepare" me for my future, while being forced into doing menial homework and losing sleep over papers and tests that aren't going to matter down the road!! I know that I have the control and can do what I want with my life, but I think shrugging off the other expectations of college will help me. These 4 years have been amazing, and I do love my biology courses, and others as well, but I can think of better things I would like to do. I'll be doing some serious soul searching over Christmas break and really try to decide what's best for ME after I graduate.

Ahora, Soy aqui: At home.

Well, I suppose I should have some sort of reflection, now that my time in Barcelona is finished. Whether it is for the sake of this 'ACT-In' major, for the sake of family, or for my own sake, this would be good to write. But, I don't want to reflect and make the experience finally completely finished! I have adjusted back to home fairly well. After speaking with Megan, I should probably say really well! But, I feel...restless, like being here is just not quite enough. I love to relax at home, to talk to friends freely on my cell phone, to drive my car, to spend time with my family, and see the beautiful countryside. But something is missing, and I can't explain it quite yet. I know the obvious answer. I miss all of the people I have met these past four months, both Spanish and other Americans studying in the city, and I miss Isaac terribly. I cannot stop thinking about him, it seems. The city was great and I liked it, but it is the people I miss, not Barcelona herself. But, something else is different and I need to search out what it is. There are so many experiences in Barcelona I will never forget, and people who have made impressions in my life. I will most likely be going on a road trip to the east coast to visit most of my new friends (as that is where they all seem to live) with Megan. And don't worry, I'll be visiting Barcelona again as well, probably for longer than a visit. Isaac is not just a boy I dated and had a teary good-bye with. He is something else, special. He makes me so happy. For those that know me, I don't fall for guys easily. I am what you would call 'independent'..But Isaac is different from other guys I have known and I am excited to see what will happen, however difficult it may be to make a reality. I am up for a challenge! ;)

So, what happens now? Well, I am beyond broke and in limbo. I am moving up to my campus next week with research to do (I hope) and a job to find (quickly!). From there, I have GREs to worry about this summer, graduate school searching and applications, and senior year of college. And, as well, the possibility of taking a gap year to search out options for. Things are moving quickly and changing, and I am changed. But, I feel good about these changes, and am more ready for them than before I left the United States. Whatever the next months and years bring, I am excited to see! I will keep anyone who still looks at my blog updated (if anyone does look, since I am now home again). Hasta luego!!!

I am way behind...

Well, it has been nearly a month, again, since I have posted..oops, mi culpa! My last two weeks in Barcelona were amazing! I was able to do so many things with Megan and with Isaac, and had many great adventures. Megan and I planted ourselves in a great hostel with apartment style rooms after we moved out of our residence. We went to an Espanyol game with Isaac, Jaime, and Jose on Sunday afternoon and had a great time watching them beat Valencia. We left the next day on a road trip to Granada, where we ate good tapas, visited Sarah Hartenberger, explored the Alhambra palace and gardens, and walked around the beautiful town and its gardens as well. When we returned to Barcelona, we left the next day to go on a trip with Isaac and Jaime's university to Lluret de Mar for a 'meeting' of engineering majors from all across Spain. This 3 day meeting was actually a sports tournament during the days and going out in the evenings. It was really fun, and my volleyball and basketball teams both got 2nd in the tournaments. I was in a beach volley pairs team, and also had a good time playing, although we were out in the first round. On Sunday, when we returned to Barcelona, I had a very chill afternoon and ate lunch and went to a park with Isaac. My next three days were a blur; I went gift shopping for the friends I hadn't gotten gifts for quite yet, I saw bits of Barcelona I had not made it to yet (including dragging Isaac to a park that was not so much a park as a forest on a hill in the middle of the city, to our surprise), and spent as much time as possible with Isaac. Wednesday went by so fast, it seemed to pass right before my eyes! I wanted it to last forever...but, Thursday morning came and I said hasta luego (NOT good-bye) to Isaac (it was the most unpleasant good-bye I have ever had to say) and checked in to my homeward flight.

However, the story does not stop there! Megan and I had the most miserable flight home IN THE WORLD! FIRST, our flight out of Barcelona was delayed by over 2 hours. This meant that when we reached Amsterdam, our flight from Amsterdam into the US had already LEFT. Now, we were already down because we had just had to say a very hard good-bye to our novios, not knowing exactly when we would see them again, and now we just wanted to be home again with our families. So, when we found out our re-booked flights were for 10:30am THE NEXT MORNING, we were very distraught. Then, we found out we got a 10€ meal voucher, a 5 minute phone call voucher, and NO hotel. Stupid KLM/Northwest. We walked away from the ticket counter crying. Megan proceeded to talk to 3 more people before giving up and accepting our fate. So, we booked a close hotel and went there after using our meal vouchers. The hotel was actually very nice and the bed was uber comfortable. We both managed to use skype and call home before my computer died. I lay down on the bed to read a magazine afterward and fell asleep within 15 minutes and was out for the next 10 or 11 hours. Our flight the next morning left on time and everything seemed good. Then came customs and immigrations in Minneapolis. I talked to almost every single person there before I was let out! First, I was randomly chosen to have my baggage checked by the agricultural, etc, control. Then, when going through the final checkpoint, they asked my age because I had claimed a wine bottle in my checked luggage. Oops. I went through another line, but the man there was nice, said I looked like an intelligent woman, and got me out of customs, with my wine! I made it to the flight and everything seemed awesome on our final flight! But...a storm was in KC..GREAT! We circled above for 45 minutes, then flew to Omaha, Nebraska until 8 pm (I was supposed to land in KC at 4 pm). I walked into the KC terminal at 9pm. Ohhh but the story's not over yet. Megan and I's baggage was put on the late flight to KC, instead of our own, so it didn't hit the terminal until 10:15 pm. Then, there was a long line in the parking lot, but we finally got onto the interstate at 10:30 or 10:45 and I made it home by 1 am. Thank the lord!! Sadly, the next morning I couldn't sleep late because my sleeping schedule was all messed up and jet laggy..OH, what a coming home story!

Mi flore

Oh, I forgot to explain more about Sant Jordi's day... It is called the day of books and flowers, because men give roses to girls in remembrance of St. George giving a flower to the princess after he slay the dragon. Girls give books to men because April 23rd is Shakespeare's birthday and another great author's death day. There were thousands of stands for books and flowers of all colors and sizes. The whole city was full of flowers and flower sellers and books everywhere. It was amazing!! My two favorite things all at once. And, I received two lovely roses from Isaac! It was a beautiful day overall. The temperature was the warmest and sunniest this semester so far, and the overall tone of the day was very sweet. It was like a true, simple version of Valentine's Day, without the need to buy expensive gifts in order to show how much you care for someone. I loved it! That's all.

Tiempo vuelo

Palabra de el mes: "Tiempo vuelo" = Time flies!
I checked my last post, and yep, it was from April 2nd, the week before spring break! Time has flown too fast for my liking, and in only a few weeks I will be back in the states again. I am so happy in so many ways to be coming home, but I am also sad in so many ways to soon be leaving. So sad, in fact, that I am not going to talk about those reasons. But, as you will soon find out from my mom, I am staying an extra week. I decided that if I came home on the 8th knowing that I had the chance to stay a little bit longer, I would regret it forever and kick myself for not taking the opportunity. A certain person might have had some influence on my decision as well. So I'm changing my flight and coming home on the 14th, just before Jewell's graduation. But never fear, because I will be in the midwest this summer and never far from home!
So, what have I been up to in the past month? Answer: A LOT.

Let's start with spring break...Well, I'm not going to post about it now because that will be a big undertaking, but in a few short words, it was an amazing trip with tons of epic failures that didn't ruin the trip, only made it more exciting!

So after spring break...I actually had homework, with two papers due and things to do to prepare for the end of my classes! I also hung out with Isaac almost every day for at least a few hours. The trip I was supposed to take to Granada with the dormitory fell through on the weekend of the 17-18th. I was sad but also relieved because I had homework to do anyway.

Last week, I did not sleep much. I spent about 20 hours between Monday night and Thursday morning editing an 80 page paper for my sustainability class because I volunteered to be the editor and chief, along with another girl. Worst/best decision of my life! Worst because I stayed up till 3 one night, 4 the next, and 5 the last night working on it, and best because it was a piece of **** before Aura and I did our magic and turned an unorganized non-believable mess into a solid A paper. I'm pretty proud.

Then, after all of these nights with little sleep, Thursday was both Sant Jordi's Day (St. George who slayed the dragon and the patron saint of Catalunya) and also Pacos 2009, a big event my dorm hosts that is a spin off of the oscars in which students get 'Pacos' and Miss/Mister so and so. Not only that, but I also played in 2 hours of volleyball matches with Isaac and his friends, along with Megan, because they needed female players. So I went to sleep at 5 in the morning, got up at 9:45, ate, finished the paper, played volleyball from 12-2, ate lunch with Isaac, went to class from 3:45-7pm (and was so tired I couldn't even fall asleep in class), then came home and napped for an hour, before having to get up to shower and look nice for the Pacos, which lasted from 9:45-12:30. Then, afterward, instead of going to sleep like I should have, if I was in my right mind, I changed my shoes and went with Megan to meet up with Jaime and Isaac, and we then went to the 'Pacos After-Party' with our entire dorm to a discoteca. O, jessica. So I got home very late, then got up a few hours later to eat breakfast and study, because o yes, I had a spanish test that day! But I rocked the test, it was very easy. Afterward I came back with Megan and did laundry and then went to a rugby game in which they were playing a really good french team. So good that in the second half, the forwards on each team switched jerseys and played for the other team, so that they would be more equal. We invited friends to come with us to the game, and 6 girls came (the rugby guys were happy about that, haha). Afterward, a man from the french fans insisted we come onto the field and take a photo with the teams and other fans, so we did. Afterward, we waited while all the players went to shower and then walked to a fiesta del dia of the mathematics department with the UPC team. It was similar to the fiesta del dia of the engineering department I went to a month earlier. I stayed there for a bit, then left with the girls and went back to the dorm to eat dinner, shower, and take a nap. Afterward, I went back to the fiesta del dia with Megan, now a fiesta del noche for a while. The fiesta was also a sort of stoplight party with nametags in red, yellow, and green, which made it fun. The rest of the weekend was fun as well, and I slept in and spent most of it with Isaac.
Sunday I finally studied for my history test (essay prompts), and slept a few hours Sunday night and had my final Monday morning. I think it went well. I came back, took a nap, went to lunch, and went with Megan to the Parc del Laberint. It was cool, but had many blocked off construction areas. We consoled ourselves by throwing sticks and small rocks at ducks and turtles! Afterward, in the evening, I saw Isaac and a few of his friends (Jose, Padu, y Sergio) and had a great time discussing such things as American Football and the swine flu epidemic, haha.
And now, today, finally. I had one final and one class. In my class, I found out the good grade on the big big paper I completed. I took the final next in my Oceanography class and did well enough, especially since on the paper due two weeks previously, I received a solid A and that alone was worth 30% of the grade, more than the final. Now on to enjoy the rest of my time in Spain!

I don't know what to call this post...more updates!!

I'll start with last Wednesday, where I was just about to get to in my last post. Megan and I were invited by Isaac, Jaime, and Eloi to a fiesta del dia their university (UPC) was holding. This fiesta was an all day event that students went to between classes and had food, drinks (the innocent and not so innocent kinds), music, and tables for organizations that were fund-raising or just advertising. Megan and I went after our class (well we actually left Spanish class early) and were there from 3:30ish to 9. We witnessed spaniards singing The Beatles and Wonderwall, really well actually, "Flying Flan", a competition to see who could catch flan in their mouth from the farthest distance (SO SO hilarious!! and I got flan splattered on me from being too close to a guy catching it), and Catalan flag shots, another competition between a lot of guys and a few brave girls to see who could down 9 shots of alternating beer/sangria the fastest. When they were in order, the shots represented a red and yellow Catalan flag (very patriotic ha ha). When the fiesta was winding down, I went with Isaac to see if he could find another helmet so he could take me home on his motobike. He didn't find one, but we ran into a few rugby friends of his and ended up walking down diagonal to have a few drinks with them. I primarily just sat there and looked pretty while he and his friends talked in Spanish. I could understand a lot of the words they were saying but had a hard time stringing them into sentences and understanding the whole thing, but I was still proud of myself. Isaac or Jose, the other guy who knew english well, would occasionally fill me in on what was happening or make sure to include me in the conversation. However, a lot of the convo was about rugby and I didn't mind just relaxing since I know nothing of rugby!
Thursday was pretty uneventful, but on Friday I had no classes! Because of this, Megan and I decided we would go to Montjuic with our sack lunches and see MNAC and the Botanical Garden. We also wanted to see the Labyrinth park but that didn't work out. MNAC is the museum of Catalan art, where they have preserved a lot of art from churches and monasteries that would have been destroyed or stolen if it wasn't removed. When we got to the museum, we discovered that we had to pay and decided it wasn't worth it at the time, so we went to the free exhibit (which was NOT cool). Afterward, we went to find the garden. We found a small, wild-looking garden and explored it and ate our lunches there. At first I thought it was the botanical garden but after walking through it we found it was WAY too small to be so. However, the garden was beautiful and had actual dirt paths. We stayed there until a group of 7 yr olds showed up and started running and screaming everywhere. We then walked up past the Olympic stadium and got some good views of the whole of Montjuic mountain, and afterward found the Jardin Botanic behind the stadium. Before going in, we saw a really nice looking patch of flowers and ran and lay down in them! It was refreshing to lie in grass for once. We then got up and went inside the garden and oh was it beautiful!! It was set up with plants from 8 different areas, including California, Africa, the Med., Australia, etc, and a lot of flowers were in bloom. We walked around and often caught a whiff of something magnificent, in which case we would stop and look around until we found the culprit and then go stick our faces in the flowers to soak up the smell!! We walked around until it was almost time to head back to the dorm to get ready for a birthday party! we had to go to that evening. Before we left the garden we found a little boardwalk area over a large goldfish pond, and decided to take some pictures of us doing cartwheels, jumping, etc etc...Well, we returned to the dorm and got ready to go out, and then met Jaime at UPC. It was Isaac's and one of his friend's birthdays and they were all celebrating together. I got to meet tons of new people and had A LOT of fun! We all went out to eat Chinese together, which was delicious, and then went out to a bar, where Isaac's friends attempted to get him and his birthday pal really drunk..those hombres traviesos!
Saturday was a bumming around day because it started raining and then rained ALL day long (it hasn't stopped yet and it's Thursday now!) On Saturday evening Megan and I went to a show called Opera y Flamenco. It was really intense and we both enjoyed it! However, when the show was done, we were flamenco'd out. The show had a violinist, violist, guitarist (2), vocalist, drummer, and pianist. There were also 2 opera singers and 2 flamenco dancers. They would basically just go from song to song, dance to dance, and intersperse these with Opera pieces like the Habanera from Carmen. At one point the female flamenco dancer had a dress on with a very long skirt that she kicked around with her heels and she tripped and fell down HARD. However, that girl was good cause she got right back up and made it seem like the entire fall was part of the act. Megan and I weren't sure that it was actually an accident (but it was :D). After the show we went to Pizza Hut to try their pizza. It was not good. At all. I'll wait till I'm back in the states to have pizza hut again! We then went home and went to bed!
Nothing exciting has happened since then. I've actually had homework to do (I know, amazing) and it has been rainy and dreary. Although yesterday my Spanish class went on a field trip to a market where our teacher had us sample these special donuts that Catholics eat during Lent. Guess what they have in them....Anis and Cinnamon. Anis, as in the alcohol that is in Absinthe...These donuts tasted WEIRD. Those Spanish Catholics....Today I am getting ready to go to Germany for a week!!! I'm so excited!! Frankfurt, St. Goar, Schwalmstadt, Freiburg/Triburg, Nuremburg, and Prague!! Say a prayer for me and my travel safety, por favor. And tonight I am going to see Isaac again as well :)
Goodbye for now and love for all!

bueno bueno bueno

This past week and a half has been pretty busy for me and has made me realize more reasons why I love Spain! Me encanta Espana! I'll start with last Wednesday, when I went to a wine tasting session hosted by a local wine shop and IES after classes. It was very cool, actually, and I learned things like how to differentiate between good and bad wines and old and young. Things such as the "Brightness" and "shininess (sp.)" of the wine, and how clear it is, and also the different color hints when the glass is tilted all determine quality. You can tell the age by the consistency of the wine and its darkness (with a red wine). To determine the consistency you have to swirl the wine in the glass and watch the liquid drip down the side back into the remainder of the glass (I would have never thought of this myself!) I was able to try a cava (champagne, but made especially in Catalonia), a very delicious white wine, and two red wines, one older than the other. The teacher had us smell each wine before tasting, then swirl and smell for a stronger scent, and finally to taste and then notice whether the smell was similar to the taste. The white wine smelled like peaches and tasted really really good! Even the red wines were surprisingly good, and the older wine actually tasted kind of like wood, a sort of juniper. All in all, it was a really good experience and I was able to try quality spanish wines!
After the wine tasting, I went with Megan to a rugby game that our mutual friend Eloi invited us to. They were playing the French Navy (apparently they play all sorts of teams from different countries to get practice since there are few teams in Barcelona). We had a great time, and the field was down by the beaches, although it was night so we didn't get to enjoy any view. The game was hard to keep up with without someone who could explain what was happening as it went on, but we occupied ourselves by talking to some guys who were from the navy and knew some spanish and some english but mostly French. They were fun, but we were secretly glad when the game was over and Eloi called us down to say hi. He immediately introduced us to Carlos, a guy who was a player but coaching as well, and said we should stay with him while everyone showered, and then afterward the two teams would get together to eat and "celebrate" the game, ha ha. So, we went into the sports complex, to this large room that was their "club" and had all their awards, photos, and gifts from teams they had played. It was pretty cool and they laid out food and drinks, and well, Megan and I were one of the few people there NOT boys and NOT on a team, ha ha. There were a few girls with the French team, but we felt pretty special! As you can imagine, in a room full of 50 rugby players and us being one of 4 girls total, we were very content :D. We had a great time and ended up hitting it off with a few players (Mom knows the result of this, ha ha).
My next adventure didn't start until Friday. On Friday and Saturday my days were filled with fun..Oceanography field trips! yay! (not really). They would have been ok, but with the travel time and just general waste of time, I was glad to be done on Saturday night. However, on Friday I went with the classes to Palamos in the Costa Brava region, an hour and a half or so from Barcelona to see a fishing museum, a harbor, some nets, and a fish auction and market. The auction was the coolest part because I had no idea the fishermen sold ALL of their catch through an auction to keep the prices fair and let everyone know total catches. Basically to keep the fishermen honest. We left town at 1:30pm and returned a little after 7pm. Saturday was a MUCH longer day. I left Barcelona at 8:30 (well it was really 8:50 because IES never does anything on time!) and did not return until 8:30 at night. We traveled to the Ebro Delta to see a museum and various parts of the delta, including lagoons, rice fields, bays, and the beach front, and then a secluded beach with a Posidonia Oceanica seagrass meadow nearby. It had potential to be really interesting but I felt as though we spent most of the day in the bus traveling from place to place :(. However, I did see wild flamingos...LOTS of them and they were fairly close and really, really cool! That was the most fun part of my day. After I got back and ran to dinner ( I was starving. But then again, I am always starving by the time I get to have dinner!), I got ready to go out for the night, because a lot of us on the hall had tickets to a club that night to see an artist, "girltalk", perform, if that is what you can call it. He mixes music, all he had to do was technically push play on his computers, and he's not really a DJ either..I don't know what he is, really, but his music was pretty cool. The club, Razmatazz, was crazy and Megan and I didn't let each other out of our sights all night for fear of getting lost in the mass crowds of people. Our friends, well, they disappeared fairly quickly, though we ran into them randomly throughout the night. The club itself was really neat, with 3 floors, and different rooms of different sizes that played types of music like pop, house, alternative, rock, etc., plus the main dance floor where Girltalk was performing. Oh, and Megan had rented a scooter that day so we scooted there and back, saving the hassle of the metro! We got lost on the way to the club and had fun finding our way using bus-route maps at the bus stops, and finally found the club in the end.

Sunday was low-key, with only homework, gotta have a rest day!

Monday, well, I went out on my first date in Spain, with Isaac, who I had met at the rugby game last Wednesday. I had a great time, and although we struggle with communication a little bit, he knows a good amount of English, that with my Spanish, we get along just fine! Es Perfecto. I'll leave it at that :) Oh, and he's still around, in case you are wondering :):)

Tuesday I went to another rugby match, a double-header with UPC vs Harvard. Tara and Megan came with and we had a good time since it was an afternoon game and sunny and nice. The UPC boys ended up losing but fought hard. They were just too tired the second game, when Harvard had put out fresh players and they had none because a lot of guys were in classes. I said hi to Isaac afterward and chatted for a bit before I, too, had to go to class.

Oh, and I have heard that a spoonful of sugar in the milk here makes it taste better, so I am going to try it and see what happens!

Life is good in Barcelona!

Within the past week I have had a lot of fun experiences, it seems like! Megan's sister was here from last Thursday until Wednesday and I did a few things with her and Megan. On Friday after class, we met up with Steph (her sis) and decided to go to Montjuic. Montjuic is a hill on the south side of Barcelona with a large Catalonian art museum (MNAC), botanical garden, Poble Espanol(a place which imitates the many regions, traditions, and trades in Spain), the Olympic Stadium from 1992, and other things..We walked up the main sidewalk up to the MNAC museum, past lots of fountains that were going to be part of a light and music show later that evening. It was a long walk, but the view back the way we came was beautiful, looking onto Plaza Espanol. We walked toward Poble Espanol and on the way, Megan looked over into the bushes and saw a naked man!! She turned to me and asked if he was really naked, and I confirmed it! So we walked by nonchalantly (although Megan kept looking back over as we passed, curious girlie...she told us details afterward haha) and oh, did we laugh! We got to Poble Espanol around 6:30 or so, and decided to go in although the shops were closed. We did walk into some shops that happened to still be open and the dresses/paintings and other artsy things were so neat! The mini town/country was great in general, especially since it was sunset and the buildings were very pretty. We started hurrying at the end in order to go to the fountain show at 8pm. We got there in time to find a seat on some steps in front of the large fountain. The show was wonderful!! The music was classical, although I'm told there is also a pop music show, and the colors and water coordinated really well with the music. I didn't have my camera that night but I plan on going back to see it again, this time with a camera. Afterward we decided to go to a restaurant for dinner, and headed to Benedictus, the small tapas bar where the R.A. took my hall on our first weekend here in Spain. We had many problems ordering with the waiter and he probably tells stories about the dumb americans who came to the restaurant that night lol! We accidentally ordered calamari without meaning to and then wanted to order tortilla espanola but it was out...However, the food that we got was great and we had a good time. By the end of the night the we had reconciled with the waiter, in part because of Megan's spanish skills, saying we were "tonto" ha ha.

On Saturday morning, Tara, Megan, Steph, and I went on a scooter tour! Tara and I were late but not too late to the place, and we got started about 11:15. I rode behind the tour guide because I did not want my first time riding a scooter to be in a city of 3m people. The guide was super cute, too :). Tara rode behind Megan because after testing out the scooter she didn't feel confident enough to drive one herself. On the tour we went down the coastline to Port Olympia, an area revamped for the Olympics with many beaches and clubs and shops. We then drove on to the Sagrada Familia, after driving past a beautiful decorative bull-fighting ring. Next we drove to an apartment designed by Gaudi, the Pedrera (It was neat but I'm not all that interested in Gaudi's work. It's just an apartment!). Here we switched bikes..turns out the guide's 50cc bike couldn't handle 2 people that well so we got on the 125cc one instead lol. We drove to Montjuic next and stopped at MNAC for a break, then we went to the Olympic Stadium, and then down the mountain for a ride once more along the coast before the tour was over. It was so much fun! The ride down the mountain was beautiful, with land on one side and sea on the other, and riding in the city was exciting. I managed to smack helmets with Robert, the guide, many times when he stopped quickly and I wasn't paying attention or holding on tightly enough. I also learned more about things to do and see in the city from talking with Robert while riding around. I got the more "personal" tour ha ha. I might have developed a slight crush on him as well, but maybe that was just an effect of the motobike driving and cute smile...And the fact that he plans on going to India to study yoga(but plans on coming back to Barca because his mother would miss him if he moved to India), which is completely random but so cool! After the tour, Tara, Meg, and I went back to the dorm to eat lunch around 2:45pm and then Megan met back up with her sis while Tara and I went to the beach. We stayed until 6ish (when the sun went behind the buildings and it got CHILLY) but had a great time. I brought homework, which I didn't do, and a book, which I read, and a stolen airplane blanket to lie on. Taleah, after many phone calls and confusing directions, found us and chilled as well. We then went back to the dorm, napped, ate dinner, and went out. We ended up meeting some mutual friends at Pippermint's, a nearby bar (for us that live in the dorm, only 2 blocks away!), and then went on to Elephante, a club/lounge that was also nearby. So many places are close to where I live, which really saves on taxi fares and things when the metro is closed in the middle of the night, because we can just walk home, especially now when it's not freezing outside.

Sunday was a very lazy day, Tara and I went to the beach again and met up with Caitlin, a good friend of mine in IES. We only stayed for an hour and then met Megan and her sister near the Catedral. We walked and found a Gofres shop, which are delicious sweet waffles with icecream and chocolate drizzled all over them. YUM! We ate those, and then split again, with Caitlin and I going to see a church, the Santa Maria Del Mar. The church was amazingly beautiful, with tall ceilings and columns. Even though the walls were bare, it was surprisingly pretty that way, with only soft lights and some priest speaking Spanish up front. Afterward I went home and at some point that night managed to do my homework.

Monday I went out, yet again, for Caitlin's 21st birthday. Megan and I met her at a Mexican restaurant for dinner, where we tried Cava, the catalonian version of Champagne. It was good but not too special. We then traveled across town after some debate, to go to Pippermint's again, and then when her and her roommates were sufficiently drunk, we went to Broadbar, a club not too far away. It was a lot of fun! Megan's sister came with and so we got to show her a bit of the night life as well.

The top of the hill

Oh, and I realized today that the semester is officially more than halfway over! This is exciting because school is blah, but bittersweet since it's all downhill from here and I'll be back in the U.S. before I know it. I'm going to enjoy every bit of the next 8 weeks!

Random thoughts and events

I have a lot of small things I write down on post-its and that never seem to make it to the blog; these are some of those random things.

I have started learning Catalan! I never thought I would be learning another language other than Spanish when I came here to study, but that is just one more advantage of Barcelona. I haven't learned much, just random phrases and the words posted all over Barcelona, but most things in Barcelona are primarily in Catalan, and in Spanish secondly. So, the metro, bus, signs and stores, everything in the dorm, it is all in Catalan. One evening a few weeks ago, Megan and I also went to a dorm meeting about a trip being organized to Granada. After the meeting, Xavi decided (with some of our help) to teach us some Catalan phrases, as well as more Spanish. It is so interesting!

To do with that, last night I went to a speaker at the University de Barcelona, near the hospital, where the medical program is. I met up with Monica, a girl from across the hall. She had told me at lunch that the speech was about refugees and had to do with Doctors without Borders, and could very well be in English. It sounded interesting, so I went. Well, it turns out that the speaker was actually 3 speakers, a lawyer, a doctor, and an architect. The lawyer spoke in Catalan about the process of applying and living in Asylum in Spain when a refugee, the doctor was from Medicos sin Fronteras and spoke in Spanish, and the architect spoke in Catalan about refugee camps. It was challenging, but with the help of the powerpoints and Monica translating some things for me on paper, I understood a good part of the presentations, catalan and espanol! I found it very interesting, but was languaged out by the end of all the questions. By the way, the spanish LOVE asking questions; they used 45 minutes or more for them, whereas at presentations at WJC, questions have to be pried from the students. The guy/girl ratio was about the same in the medical program there as it is at Jewell as well (lack of guys). Monica also said in engineering it is the exact opposite, which is also similar in the U.S.

On the way home from France, while on a bus back from the airport to Plaza Catalunya, I realized that I have become truly comfortable in Barcelona. I felt at home surrounded by Spanish people and language, compared to the relative foreignness of French language and custom. I was so relieved to be back in the city after traveling, and it was a new feeling I hadn't noticed before. This doesn't mean I am settling down for good, but it is nice to not feel out of place and to have a home, while I am away from HOME. I also almost lost my nalgene bottle on the ride home and was really sad, until I found it behind me. I've been through a lot with that bottle, climbed mountains and into alpine lakes and seen bears and buffalo, and would have been sad to lose it!

Public bathrooms in other countries are not truly public because you have to PAY to use them! It ranges from 20-80 cents as far as I've seen, but is totally unfair! Why should I have to pay in order to perform a bodily function that has to happen?? Ridiculous. I can't wait to be back in the US where I can use the bathroom anywhere without worries of payment or dirty looks from the shopkeepers.

Megan and I have officially decided we are lazy and have to start leaving our rooms more often and exploring. Our excuse is that it's been cold, but we haven't explored too much of the city. And even though most days it has been nice in the middle of the day, I've only been to the beach one time in Barcelona so far. I need to fix that problem!

Parks in Barcelona compared to parks I am used to at home are very different. Here the parks are more walking paths with beds of flowers, bushes, trees etc. I am comparing this to at home where parks include tons of fields of grass, and areas you can walk in with just trees and grass. Plots of grass are very hard to find in the city, and if there are some, there are usually signs that say no walking on the grass. So different!

Like Megan did on her blog, I created a list of things I miss/crave from home...

Milk(of course)

Country music on the radio

A sky full of stars ( I saw two last night and was excited)

Mom's fajitas

family meals (the kind we have at birthday parties and Sunday meals, with mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls, chicken, scalloped p., pie, you know...)

My room

Brownies

My car! (I'm having car withdrawals, and I hate public transportation. I want to go where I want, WHEN I want)

The country in general(Being in the city is neat for a new experience, but in general, I don't like it)

Morel shrooms...(I hope to pull some out of the freezer when I get home..hint hint)

to be continued.

I love and miss you all from home! Send me emails and comments, pretty please!

More about the best/worst trip

So, the Castle de Javier was beautiful on the one hand, and super touristy on the other. Just about the whole bus had to go to the restroom once we stopped, and then most of us also bought some roasted almonds on the road leading up to the castle since there were many snack booths. The almonds were ok, but nowhere near as good as roasted almonds at Good Ol Days! On the bus ride to the Castle, the tour guide had explained all about Francisco de Javier and his life and works, and how the castle was built to defend the valley of the river Aragon in the 10th century. It was only finished as a true castle in the 14th century. Javier was born in the castle in 1506 and is the patron of Navarre and Catholic missions. The castle itself is beautiful in construction and the surrounding countryside only adds to the beauty. However, inside, there are too many additions of walkways, roped off paths, etc that make it so touristy. The castle also held a large collection of paintings of Javier's life. We took a tour of most of the castle. The last bit I saw before leaving the castle was the Tower of Saint Christ, where a crucifix from the 13th century hung in a room of frescos representing the dance of death. Jesus is smiling on the crucifix, indicating his triumph over death even as the dance of death continues around him. This crucifix was the very opposite of the German version in Puente la Reina. Megan and I also explored the dungeon before leaving the castle to head back to Pamplona! On the way I napped, and then did some homework before dinner. Dinner was better than the night before, with salad, baked chicken, french fries, weird flan, and yummy scrambled eggs. I went out with Megan, Tara, and a group of others I met on the trip, had a lot of fun, and of course stayed out far too late for having to be up at 7:30am. I stole food from breakfast again for a lunch, and in a bit we all left for the tour of Pamplona (once all hung-over people had been dragged from their beds...). The tour was really interesting and I learned all about the Festival of Enfermines (Running of the Bulls, among other things). Only 25 people have died since the festival started! But...over 200 get injured every year, though the guide says they're the stupid, drunk ones who have know idea what they're doing. At one point, Megan and I ducked into a shop because I wanted to get a postcard. Well, not only were there no postcards, the shopkeeper and her son were SO slow that when i finally bought a shot glass for Zach, they took way to long and Megan and I couldn't find our group when we came back outside. We ran down the road and found other groups and walked along till we got to the bull ring, where our group was also. We learned how to lead a bull through with the cape and many other things. On the way back to the hotel, we learned about Ernest Hemingway, who made the Pamplona area popular with his books and had a lot to do with some areas of the town. Then, it was time to go home..I napped a good amount of the way home, though I heard that I missed a really good Spanish movie. After I got home (just in time for dinner!) Megan and I watched a movie and then went to sleep; we were exhausted.

Sunday was another day of relaxation, the last day of study week. I should have gone outside and enjoyed the day, but I wanted to be lazy and nap and read instead, so I did!

The rest of this week has been uneventful. The days have gone from chilly and cloudy one day to sunny and 65 the next. Today it's back to sunny and 65 again! I had a really fun night dancing with Megan, Britney, and some of Britney's friends on Wednesday, and yesterday Megan's sister Stephanie arrived. I'll have a lot of fun exploring the city with Megan and her sister in the next week!

The best (and worst) 3 day trip sponsored by IES

Well, do you miss me yet?? Haha. My “study week” has turned into lots of traveling, as I left for Navarra on Thursday morning, after only being back from Paris on Monday night! Navarra is in the central, northern region of Spain, a place termed Vasco (pronounced Basque) country. The trip was sponsored and run by IES and they called it “The Journey”…. It went along with our day trip to Besalu and Vic during orientation week, as far as medieval history of Spain. IES wanted us to discover more about Spain as we also discovered more about ourselves. Neato, right? My bus left on Thursday morning at 9:30am. By 9:30 I actually mean 9:50am, because one of the girls was late…and she got up an hour and a half beforehand, as she told everyone who asked if she slept through her alarm. We drove through the Spanish countryside, which was beautiful during the 30 minutes or so that I was awake. Around noon, the bus stopped for a 20 minute snack break, and then 30 or 45 minutes later we left again. We stopped an hour later because some boy had to pee so bad that he couldn’t hold it. He was sitting in the front cussing up a storm, and all the stop did was put us even later for our lunch stop. We watched Marie Antoinette on the bus, which I thought was cool even though I’ve seen it before, just to see Versailles as it might have been during her reign. We finally reached Olite, the town where we were to eat lunch, at 3:45pm. It was very disorganized, but we were shown to a few places where sandwiches could be ordered. The town was too small for a barrage of 150 hungry college students. Luckily, I brought a lunch from the cafeteria and so I didn’t have to wait in any lines. Olite is in the Navarra region and was the seat of the royal court of the Navarran kingdom in the middle ages. We toured the Palace of Olite and the nearby church which all dated back to the middle ages, although somewhat reconstructed because of fires (Napoleon’s fault, supposedly). Our tour finally got started at 5ish and we were leaving Olite by 6:45pm. Keep in mind, however, that according to the schedule, we were supposed to have started the tour at 3:30pm, and left at 4:30pm. IES tends to be very disorganized and slow, but what else can be expected when there is such a large group of students who don’t want to be there. We didn’t want to be there because it was only 3 degrees Celsius outside, snowy/rainy, and windy! The palace was really neat, as was the story behind it, but it was FREEZING, and our female guide didn’t like us because most of the group was being rude, so she didn’t try to be loud, and I didn’t get to hear half of what she said. We drove on from Olite and it was only an hour till Pamplona, the town of 150,000 where we were staying for the duration of the trip. When we got to our hotel, we were assigned roommates; my class was told we would be roommates with whoever we wanted in our Spanish class. But no, they did it alphabetically, so my roommate was a girl named Clark whom I had never met before. She was nice, however. Megan ended up having no roommate because they had her down as Michael Hathaway on the list! I chilled with Megan in the hour before dinner. Dinner was a set menu for everyone in the hotel (3 buses worth of kids) and oh, was there some complaining about what was served, and oh did I have some picky eaters at my table! I mean, dinner wasn’t great, but it wasn’t horrible either. We had rolls, then Spanish tortilla (good but very bland), salad drenched in olive oil (pretty good), “white fish with sauce” (tasteless and very, very white), and then ice-cream (delicious). Girls who either were truly vegetarian, or who just didn’t like fish were served steamed veggies that looked worse than the fish. After dinner, Megan and I hung out with Crissy, Caitlin, and Colleen and we all talked as though we would go out. But, after not doing anything and it becoming 11 at night, I decided to just shower and go to sleep, and it was a great idea! We all snacked and shared stories from the day, as well as from the past few weeks since we hadn’t seen each other in a while. The next morning, after the really, really annoying wake-up call that was not at 7:45, but at 7:35am, I got ready and met Meg for breakfast (which was actually really good). We were back on the bus by 9:15 and leaving by 9:30, 30 minutes behind schedule yet again. We left for the Irache vineyards and monastery and got there after an hour or so, during which time the guide who was with us for the weekend told us all about the history of Navarra and winemaking in northern Spain. The tour guide was amazing!! He made the trip so much fun. He knew everything about Navarra and was hilarious and made jokes that us college students actually found funny. He gave us a tour of the monastery, and then the wine museum, current cellars for wine storage, and warehouse where the wine is bottled and shipped out. Some fun facts about the tour:
Wine started being produced in the area in the 2nd century B.C., introduced by Romans.
The Irache vineyards have the quality of Denominaciones de Pago, which only 6 other estates have and that is the highest quality rating Spain gives.
American oak is the best type of wood barrel to age wine
Spain is known for it’s Rosa wine (pink), but now for it’s red wine as well, since the French brought the right type of grapes to the area.
The Holy Mary inside the monastery’s church is Romanesque, which means she was seen as the “throne” of Jesus, rather than playing a motherly role. This changed in the Baroque time period, when a simple adjustment in her hand placement to where she held the baby meant her role had increased as a mother and therefore a more important part in Jesus’s life. (I found this really interesting) It gave women a more important role in general once this belief change occurred.
The winery has a pilgrim’s fountain, which has been around for years, for the pilgrims passing through on their way to Santiago de Compostela, since the monastery was an important resting point. The fountain has one spout for wine and one for water, to keep the pilgrims’ strength up on their journey. (We all were able to sample the wine from the spout; not bad, I’d say!)

After Irache, we went on to Puente la Reina, a crossroads of pilgrim’s paths, (the name translates to ‘the crossroads of the ways’) with a famous Roman bridge and Church. Here we had a short tour of the church and then the bridge, where our guide said the bridge is the model for the bridge on the back of the 10 euro bill. The bridge was also build as a metaphor for life, with a high point in the top so only half of the bridge can be seen at any time. This symbolizes how no one knows what the future holds. The guide also told us all about the scenes that referred to sex on the archway into the church, and then about the crucifix inside the church. It was a gift given to the town after German pilgrims passed through and were kindly met. The crucifix is German in that the arms of the cross point upward at an angle. The crucifix is also one of the most, emotional, I guess you could say, in the pain expressed by Jesus in it, and the graphicness of the scene. It was really interesting. After our tour, we had two free hours for lunch, which Megan and I spent in a warm café, where we ate our lunches stolen from breakfast and I drank coffee. We then took photos on the bridge and at the river, and played on a swing set near the river. It was great fun. We were back on the bus at 3, though our sponsor didn’t make it back till 3:15pm. Once again, late. I forgive him though, because Caesar is HILARIOUS! He was always saying Venga! Vamos! Come on! Let’s go! And cracking jokes and just making the bus an all-around good time for everyone.

Our next stop was the Castle of Javier (de Francisco, the same Francisco that San Francisco is named after).

In the north of Spain

The guide showed us how the bullfighter leads the bull through with the cape while visiting the bullring in Pamplona. (and the cape IS supposed to be pink, not red like in movies)



The castle of Javier (San Francisco's namesake saint) that is 45km south of Pamplona. The mountain background was beautiful.



The scallop shell signals the Camino de Santiago, or the Pilgrim's route to Santiago de Compostela, where Saint James the apostle is believed to be buried.




In the wine cellar of the Irache vineyards, where some of the most prestigious wines in Spain are made!

Around the world

Feeding the crazy birds in the Luxembourg gardens



In Marie Antoinette's hideaway near the back of Versailles



Marie Antoinette's Petite Trianon built for her by her husband, the king



The Hall of Mirrors in Versailles




Standing in front of Notre Dame



Standing in front of the Louvre

Auxxxxx Champs-Elysees!

Sunday morning, Megan and I were up and ready to go by 12:30 or so (we decided to sleep in), and listened to a French music video countdown while getting ready. We met up with Bailey and Aric and grabbed food for lunch in a bakery and market. We walked to the station and said goodbye since they were returning to Angers and we were going to Versailles for the afternoon. We got to Versailles just before the tickets were reduced for the afternoon, good news for us, so we got some and were helped by an attractive French man (Megan liked him more than me, I found him slightly creepy). Versailles was BEAUTIFUL and really BIG! I kept repeating how big the place was, palace and gardens, the whole time we were there, you can ask Megan. She turned it into a that's what she said joke every time I said it lol. The rooms were filled with amazing art-ceilings and walls and tapestries and fabrics, it was all way luxurious. I could never imagine living in that palace. And we only saw certain parts; there were so many rooms we did not even get to go into. The beds were ridiculous, as were the whole rooms where the King, Queen, heirs, sons, daughters, etc slept. The funny thing was that the rooms were set up as to have not very much privacy, with doors on either end leading to waiting rooms, sitting rooms, etc. I can see that from the period books I've read as well..The Hall of Mirrors, one of Versailles claims to fame, is absolutely amazing. It is full of chandeliers and light (and mirrors, obviously) and I could almost imagine kings going about important business and making treaties in the room. Outside, the gardens were just as amazing (and BIG!)! They still had a wintry look, since nothing had bloomed as of yet and the fountains weren't running, but still beautiful. Megan and I explored all around, and then walked to Marie Antoinette's estate on the far end of the gardens. Her estate I found even more beautiful, in a simpler way, than the larger Versailles. We sat and rested for a while, then explored her gardens and found a "temple of Love" and went further to find a farm and summer cottage sort of place she stayed in at times to be away from the etiquette of the court. The farm area was my favorite area. After looking around we attempted to find a way out which the map pointed to near the farm, failed, and walked all the way back to her estate to escape the gardens. We then walked back to Versailles, found some sheep along the way, bought pop as a pick-me-up after all the walking we had done near the train station, and hopped on a train back to Paris. I crashed on the way back (30 minute ride is all) and was exhausted! Our plan was to see the Eiffel tower again and find some dinner and we did. We found a crepe place near to the metro station and I had a DELICIOUS ham and cheese and egg crepe. Wow, it was good. After we got one, we looked at the tower for, oh, 2 or 3 minutes, and then decided we were tired and got back on the metro to go home. This was at 8 pm. We were in bed by nine after having a Mars bar, and asleep by 10. It was glorious!

Sunday morning we got up at a decent hour and checked out of the hotel at 9:30am. We got food for breakfast and lunch at a grocery store and then went to find the Catacombs, a long metro ride away. When we got to the stop, we had no idea where to go, and looked at a map till Megan asked some British-sounding people if they knew where they were. Turns out they were looking for the Catacombs as well! We followed them for a few minutes till they found it (It was right across the street from the metro stop, haha). Turns out as well that the Catacombs close on Mondays! We were SO disappointed! There was nothing we could do, so we took pictures of the entrance and went to find something else to do. I'll come back someday to see them! We went to the Eiffel tower next, which we hadn't seen during the day, then past the Hotel des Invalides and down some strange streets till we made it back to the Luxembourg Garden. We ate lunch, and had pulled some chairs up closer to the duck pond until two police officers told us we couldn't have the chairs there. What a dumb rule. We moved and continued to eat lunch, and some pigeons started coming over, so of course we fed them! They kept coming over, and soon our lunches were gone and the only thing we had left was cheese slices. We kept it up with cheese, and then some sea gull looking birds came over as well. They had really good eyesight and caught the tiny cheese pieces in the air. They would even jump off the ground to catch it and fight each other. Hilarious! Soon, we got them to jump by waving our hand like we threw something with out ever throwing it. Then we got them to hover to wait for cheese and then they started flying to right over our heads and we threw cheese to them. It was great fun, but reminded me a little of the birds off Alfred Hitchcock's movie...creepy! People nearby were having a laugh at us and the birds, especially this older lady who spoke some english sat nearby till the flying happened.
We left and went back towards Notre Dame after the cheese ran out, got a delicious Nutella and Banana crepe on the way, and proceeded to 'chill' in Notre Dame, where it was warm and relaxing with background music, for nearly an hour. We went past the Hotel de Ville next and got on a Carousel right outside the Hotel (Megan's idea, but such a great one!). We went next to the Moulin Rouge area, where we did not expect to find SEX shops everywhere!! I guess we need to actually watch the movie, cause we thought we were going to some antique part of town lol! The only think related to Moulin Rouge that we recognized was the theater itself. We sat down by a fountain at one point and saw what we think was an eyeball! We didn't go closer to find out...At this point we were tired and so we just went back to the hostel, grabbed our bags, and went to meet a bus for the airport, which we had to get on soon anyway. We were home in Barcelona by 10:20 or so and I was in bed by midnight, exhausted! (sorry for not calling, mom!) The end.

Week eight-Going to Paris!

Last week, after Carnaval, was pretty uneventful. I had 3 midterms to study for and take (none of which were too challenging) and a trip to Paris to plan, which Megan and I waited to do till Friday evening, the night before our plane left. On Thursday (I think) Megan and I were convinced by Xavi and Eloi to come to a meeting where some students were working on details for the Granada trip. It was interesting, and our input was asked on dates and flight times, but other than that we understood nothing because they spoke in Catalan the whole time! Catalonians have SO much pride, it is unbelievable. We got in on a little bit, however, because after the meeting Xavi started teaching us some Catalan words that we might need. We had fun in our little learning session. On the way back to our hall, we then taught Xavi the 'that's what she said' joke and showed him clips from The Office to give him examples. I think he found it funny...I hope so, atleast!

On Saturday morning Megan and I left for the airport at 3:45 in the morning...We had to take a taxi since nothing else was open, but got there with plenty of time and were in the CDG airport outside of Paris by 8am. (Side note: Vueling flights are some of the best I've been on as far as landing and taking off-I could hardly tell we had left the ground or were back on it because they were so smooth!)
We took a bus into the Paris city center, with a bus driver who barely watched the road and swerved all over the place. We were dropped off by the Opera house where Phantom of the Opera takes place, and immediately found a cafe to grab a quick breakfast. The breakfast turned out to be not so quick, since in Europe they do not believe in ever bringing you a check, but delicious. I had cafe au lait and a chocolate croissant (expensive: 5euro for the coffee and 2.5euro for the croissant...didn't know that beforehand) and we spread our maps out and planned our day with a few tips from our waiter. He was hilarious, spoke 5 languages, and cussed in english like a sailor. An example: "Versailles...Where is %$#*ing Versailles? I think..no, here, you must go here. S**t! &*#@ing map! This map is crap...Oh the catacombs? Well, I know where the illegal catacombs are, but the legal..? Let me ask her...Here you can access the legal catacombs. The illegal entrances are here and here, but there you will find water up to here and rats." Etc. Haha! We left after finally paying and found our hostel across town to drop our bags off. We then started walking. And oh, did we walk! We walked to the Arc de Triomf (beautiful), then down the Champs Elysses (not that impressive, all big brand stores) to some really cool buildings and took a side trip to the Pont Alexander III bridge with awesome monuments on it, then back down the road till we found the Concorde (an Obelisk) and on to the Tuileries Gardens. The gardens were not that impressive, but then again, nothing was in bloom yet in Paris. We sat in some reclining chairs to take a break in front of a pond, then walked on to the Louvre, where we took photos outside but didn't go inside.
After, we walked toward the Jardin du Luxembourg and found big, cheap sandwiches for lunch on the way there (mine was delicious) because we were starving! The Jardin du Luxembourg was beautiful! Tons of people were there, but it was big enough so that we did not feel crowded at all, and voices were just a pleasant hum in the background. We sat on a stone fence that ran around a raised area and looked out over the central area and sunbathed and people-watched for a while. We then explored the rest of the garden and looked at all the statues of historical queens and other amazing women in France's past. We went and sat down by some cute guys to see if they would start a conversation with us next. They didn't. Losers.
At 2:30ish we left the Jardin du Luxembourg and headed to Notre Dame. It was beautiful inside, and an actual Mass was going on while people were filing around the outer parts to see the windows and alcoves. I felt bad, but we were really quiet, as were all the other visitors. We went the long way around the church trying to find the entrance to see the bell tower (my fault) but on the way we got to see the entire outside architecture of the church and some sweet gymnasts doing flips in the grass. We got in line for the bell tower, got spanish guide pamphlets cause the english ones were out, and watched an entertainer jump out at people across the street and yell "MAMA!" and then to the crowd "That's me mother!". He was hilarious and kept us occupied till it was our turn to ascend the MILLION stairs on the spiral staircase. The tour took forever because they squeezed a bunch of people on the narrow balconies, but the view was amazing. We could see all across Paris! We then went up MORE stairs to go above the bell tower to the highest part of the church. Then we went ALL the way down (as fast as we could go cause we were first in line) and out the doors. We walked to find a snack at a French passaterie afterward and found a metro that took us to Sacre Coeur. We met up with Bailey and his friend Aric at Sacre Coeur and went inside the Basilique to look around. A choir was singing and it was beautiful, light, French hymns. I loved it! The interior of the Sacre Coeur was beautiful as well. Afterward we got a good view of the Eiffel tower at sunset and then went to find dinner and I caught up with Bailey. We ate kebabs for dinner, which are pitas, basically and the same thing as the weird pita pits here in Barcelona. These kebabs were better tasting and came with french fries! Afterward we walked along the Seine and chatted, then decided to go to the Eiffel tower and go up it. The Eiffel tower was beautiful at night, and sparkled every so often. When we got there, the top level was closed so we just went to the second level (wasn't that cool) and then raced down the stairs cause the elevators were taking a long time. We went to the hostel to check in, changed to go out, and then walked back towards the center of town. Some of Bailey's and Aric's friends were in a club along the Champs-Elysses called Queen. We went there, found out the overhead was 20euro and decided it wasn't worth it, so we walked back toward our hostel, found a lame bar, and then decided to just call it a night.

Mas Carnaval!

Ok, so..the barrier. After we ran through, we spent a good hour or two running up and down the streets, through parade floats and crowds of people. We were distracted by some Spaniards dressed like Irishmen and took some photos with them, and later by some Spaniards dressed like Frenchmen. Haha. At one point a policeman told us we couldn't go down a street, but we stood there looking distraught and after a minute he just waved us through. (The policemen secretly loved our costumes too, we heard them sometimes say Barca! as we passed, but with a serious look on their faces so you couldn't hardly tell. It was funny.) We found the beginning of the parade again, our favorite part, and this time danced in the street with the red, bird-looking men, and the abominable snowpeople, and the chiquita banana people, etc. We met the "Prince of Sitges", who was pretty adorable in his black and white suit and had a FCBarcelona flag. We also ran into the 80's costumed men (still my favorite) and a float where we almost jumped on with the revelers, but were told we couldn't by someone at the last minute :(. The parade began dying down as the costumed people in it either got to drunk to run around or just left the parade altogether, so we walked around some other places to see where everyone in Sitges was going to end the night. We got some more policemen to let us through barriers, found a party where you had to have a ticket to get in (no fun!), and then walked toward the street of bars. We walked through but were pretty tired and it was close to the time we needed to be leaving. We decided to head back towards the train station to find our bus. On the way, Megan really, really wanted a muffin, and I was hungry as well. We found the street the shop was on, but 5 or 6 policemen were blocking it. Megan started talking to the one on the end, explaining that we just wanted a muffin and weren't going to the parade that was at the end of the street. He claimed he didn't speak english (though he said it in english) and pointed us to someone who did. That guy also said he didn't speak english and pointed us to someone else. By this time we were getting what was happening, these policemen were having some fun and trying to confuse us! We proceeded to tell them we weren't drunk but continued to play along, trying to get on their good side so they'd let us through. We talked to them for 5 more minutes, asking for photos, to be let through, phone numbers, and more, haha. Finally one of them talked to someone behind him and then waved us through. Victory! The muffin shop was open (miraculously) and we got one each and ran off towards the station. At the train station we asked around till they told us where the buses stopped (which was far away!). We got there, and saw a huge line. A policeman told us only one more bus was coming. We went ahead and got in line, now in a bad mood because it was 3am, we wanted to go home, and buses were supposed to run till 5am. Megan asked him again to make sure, and then we left because there was no way we'd be getting on that bus. We walked back towards the city center, slightly dejected and wanting our beds-the fun had mostly worn off, and the train station didn't open till 4:30. However, after we found a bathroom we felt better and decided to make the most out of our last hour. Even though we'd be getting home really late, the night had been so much fun that it was worth it! We ran into some friends from our dorm on the way to the bar street who were heading for the train station, and we said we'd see them there. We then ran into someone else we knew who was lost and we made sure she made it back to the rest of the crew. Later on in the street we ran into more people we knew, danced a little, and then decided to go back to the station. When we got a block or two away, we saw a horrible sight-a line stretched down the street away from the station-everyone waiting in line to get a ticket and wait for the train. Oh no. We walked closer and luckily found our friends about half-way up and jumped into line with them at about 4:25ish. The line actually wasn't so bad and only took 15 minutes before we made it into the station, but I waited another 10 minutes in line for a ticket, and then 5 minutes outside for the train that came right before 5am. The rush for the train was crazy. People cheered when they heard it coming and police had to be by the doors to make sure no one was pushing and shoving to get on the train. Megan and I made it on with no problem and I was surprised at the number of people who fit. We had made friends with a French and a German exchange student while waiting and talked to them on the way home. They were both studying spanish in Barcelona. They were nice, but we promptly forgot their names after leaving the train and heading home. Oh well. It was a long walk home from the metro station, our backs and legs hurt from standing and dancing around for 12 hours, and we hopped into bed without even washing off our makeup at 6:15am. I then got up for class at 7:45, and came straight home afterward to sleep for hours! What a night!

Sunday, when the REAL Carnaval begins!

On Sunday morning we got up and made ourselves really productive so we could go to Sitges again that night for the parade. Megan studied for her midterm and I got some things done that I had been putting off. We decided we would be FCBarcelona futbol players, and we looked good! We also painted our faces again, as well, to be fun. We left the dorm around 7pm and were in Sitges by 8ish. While in the metro we were the only ones looking Carnivalish, but by the time we got to the train station, we saw many more people in costume! We actually got seats by each other on the train ride (amazing). When we got to Sitges, we went to the center of town (Megan got another muffin) and saw where the parade would start, and then followed the route out to the beach front. We stood in line for some Pans sandwiches, then took them to a good spot on the parade route. We soon decided the spot would not be good because people could push in front of us, so we walked down the sidewalk till we found openings right at the barrier and got ourselves a place there (while probably squeezing people to the right and left to us, but oh well). The parade took forever to get down to the street we were on but around 9:45 we finally saw it (it started at 9). It was the slowest, and most awesome parade I have seen in my life, haha. The first float was our favorite from the past weekend and the red-costumed men danced with us (through the barrier) and took pictures! Throughout the course of the parade, people from almost every float came over to take pictures or atleast commented excitedly at our FCB jerseys; they loved them! Either that, or they would mention RealMadrid or Espanol, two rival teams. When that happened, we would boo them or just chant in their faces. We had some indian girls bow to us, and a few girls from another float started up the Catalan anthem for the team, which we knew some of. We were very popular that night, and loved every moment of it! My favorite floats were the first one, and then the 80s themed one, where we had lots of attention from some adorable guys, and the Chiquita Banana themed one as well. Our cameras were used well; Megan's died, and mine died at the end of the night after going through two pairs of batteries! Every once in a while we thought the parade might be over, but then another float would come around the corner. At about 12:30am, we were tired of being behind the barrier, and wanted to go exploring, so we cut through the street to the other side and made our way down till we could see down the street the floats were coming from. We thought about staying, but then just decided to go up that street where there were no barriers. On the way, we came across some scantily clad men who wanted us to stretch our legs on a wall with them since we were in sports costumes, and then began worshiping us! It was hilarious. Megan was lifted up into a rugby position (we would have never known except that we experienced a game before) and I was lifted up at one point as well. We went over to the street where the parade was coming from and the boys all sneaked through the barrier of policemen. We were stuck to the side and watched a few more floats before Megan convinced me to run through. And we did! The parade became ten times as fun when there was no barrier, because we just danced in the streets with the paraders, or on the sidewalks with other costumed people!

To be continued... (I got tired of typing. Go visit Megan's blog for ALL the details, haha)

Carnaval!

This past weekend, which started out as a nice, relaxing three day weekend, turned into mass chaos, crazy, parade-chasing fun and excitement! It all started when Megan and I left for Sitges on Friday afternoon around 2:30pm. We were set to spend the night in the little town which would soon become crowded with people searching for the most fun. When we got there, the town was DEAD. In fact, it was dead until 7pm, because that was when people were finally off of work and strolling in the streets. (We forgot about the fact that it was still a weekday b/c we were in weekend mode.) We asked a policeman for directions to our hotel and started walking. Pretty soon we heard music in the distance and walked into a plaza to find lots of costumed people and two large floats with base pumping from their speakers! It was a mini-parade! We danced around because the song was a great one (Rise Up) and then decided to continue to our hotel. We had to walk up and down the beachfront 3 times and asked two more people until we finally had success and checked into the hotel. We then went to find a snack and walk around the town. We did find our snack and then while looking for someplace to eat it we happened upon the parade again, this time going down the street! So we sat on a low wall and just enjoyed it as the (2 float) parade went by. By this time, we had decided that the man driving the tractor of the second float was pretty good-looking, as were other costumed men, so we were content :). After eating, we decided to follow where the parade had gone and found a schoolyard of some sort where children were running around and loud techno music (like the kind you would find in a club) was playing. These kids were crazy; half were dancing around like maniacs, and the others were playing a game where they all pulled each others pants down..Confusing children. We kept walking and thought we had lost the parade forever, but then we found it again, parked and all the costumed people were eating refreshments. We walked on because we figured it was finished but then hurried back when we heard the music start up again! They probably recognized the two blonde Americans acting like groupies by then, but we didn't care. We took some more pictures, then walked back to our hotel, stopping along the way to see the Palau de Maricel and walk through the sand on the beach.
At the hotel, we met up with Crissy and Caitlin and two friends that were with them. We eventually left the hotel again to explore some more and find food and a grocery store with them. While out, Megan and I found a great pastry shop with delicious muffins (I'm pretty sure Megan fell in love with hers; I just thought mine was good. It didn't beat 85cent Boqueria muffins). We then found 2 euro masks (mine broke the next day on the way home) and a very large grocery store next to the train station. While there, Megan and I decided to make sandwiches for dinner, and not eat out. We walked back towards the center of town with our purchases and what did we find but the parade, again! The others hadn't seen it yet so we caught up with it and it parked itself in the square and the people in the parade danced around for a while. When it slowed down, we split up with the girls and went back to our hotel to eat and get ready. It took us a long time to get ready because we hadn't used face-crayons before to decorate our faces, but we looked pretty good by the time we were finished! Crissy, Caitlin, and Kristen also used the crayons.
We all left the hotel together and went where the guy at the front desk told us we were find the most people. We were lost at first, but just ended up following the loads of people dressed in costume and found the street of bars. We were definitely the minority since we didn't have a costume and drunk people kept asking us "Que es tu disfraz?" Everyone's costumes were very neat but we never found anyone from the parade with the extra-cool costumes. Later on in the evening we met up randomly with five people from our hall who had come to Sitges later in the afternoon and said hi; a few of the girls were upset because they had lost their bags-with their stuff in them, a phone for one girl, and a phone, camera, and ID for the other girl. I felt sorry but there wasn't much we could do at that point. We went home soon after that and fell into our bed. I say singular because although there were two beds in the room, one was bigger and since it was FREEZING, we took the blankets from the second bed and piled them all on so we could be warm! We also slept in our jeans. That's the sort of quality we get for 18 euro apiece.
In the morning we dragged ourselves out of bed for breakfast since it was free (and good: orange juice, coffee, toast, bocadillos) and then packed up and jumped on a train back home. But, we didn't leave before seeing the parade TWICE more that morning, once on the streets near our hotel, and again from across the train tracks. Haha that parade loved us!
The daytime on Saturday was uneventful. We went to lunch, slept till 5, and then did stuff till dinner, and went to find a parade in Barcelona after dinner. The parade took forever to find but we finally took a metro across town and heard the parade in the distance. We caught up with what was left and watched it go by. It was not that fun but still enjoyable. Afterward, we thought we might go out, but decided instead to find churros and chocolate. We gave up soon on that idea and decided instead to get flurries at McDonald's and eat them on the NitBus home. We found the Nitbus and got on, and rode around for a while before thinking, hmm, we've been on the bus a long time...Then the bus driver stopped at a stop and the only other person got off. He made hand gestures at us to leave, but we just thought he was being weird. Then the bus driver flashed his lights at us. We hurried up the the front and asked where we were, and he told us Forum. Well, we got off of the bus, really confused, and asked some people where the nearest metro stop was, and went there, still feeling very giggly and confused. When we found it, I remembered that it was the place where I had been on a field trip earlier that week and was on the OPPOSITE end of the city and near the sea. We took a really long metro ride (what we were avoiding in the first place by taking the bus) and finally made it home after 2am. We thought we'd be home at 12:30...Turns out we took a bus going in the wrong direction and they didn't loop. Oops.

Week six

This week hasn't been too eventful, but exciting none the less! I went to the Fiesta de Laia on Sunday and in the evening went to the Correfoc events. Correfoc translated means 'running with fire' and that is what was happening! There were tons of people in the plaza in front of the Catedral and interspersed with the spectators were people, young and old alike, wearing capes and dancing around with sticks that had firecrackers attached to them. They were like big sparklers that exploded at the end and blew sparks EVERYWHERE. I soon found out why all the spectators were wearing hoods; at one point a (dead) spark flew into my hair...scary! But more than scary, the festival was exhilarating. Along with people holding firecrackers, there were tall dragons and horses and other creatures that also spun around and flung sparks everywhere. A few large drum groups added to the mood with fast drum beats. Near the end of the festival the drum groups took their place on a raised area of steps and began a sort of 'drum-off' between the groups. I was lucky enough to have already been on the steps and right next to them. The green team was clearly better, haha! I was very glad I got to see this festival. But, I found out while at the festival that the Castellers had been in the plaza earlier; I had no idea! I hope they are back in Barcelona before the semester is up. (Castellers are a group of people that create human towers, it is a very cool experience and a symbol of Catalunian pride.)

As for the rest of the week...

I decided one of the older ladies who works in the cafeteria is a word I will not post on this blog. She is mean, never smiles, gives me dirty looks, and the past few times I have asked for sack lunches and she never gives me what I want even when I specifically ask for it. On Monday she turned around and ignored me before I was even done speaking. Grr. I do not like her. Cheese is good, but when I get a foot-long sandwich with only cheese and I asked for ham, I am not a happy camper. I'll see what happens next week.

On Wednesday I had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. The funny thing is, I don't know why I was having a bad day. It started when I entered Spanish class and suddenly did not want to be there, AT ALL. Class was terribly long, and then I stalked right out the door and got on a bus home. While I was angry at the world on the way home I decided I wanted to go to the beach. I got home, put on my running shoes, and started the long commute to the beach (not having a personal vehicle sucks sometimes here). When I saw the ocean, I instantly felt ten times better. I went and sat for a while on the shore and then began running. It helped tremendously. I left when it got too chilly for shorts and headed home. I think I was just feeling suffocated by the city in general. It is so different, with so many people, and so much noise, and I had to get away. The mountains weren't close so I went to the beach!

On Thursday Megan and I met up with Chrissy and Caitlin for some Japonese buffet at this place called Castell. Megan and I were wary of the restaurant at first but the girls assured us it was delicious. And it was! It was a restaurant with tables situated next to a revolving belt of small Japonese dishes. We just had to grab what we wanted off the conveyor belt! For the price we paid, we got a very big deal. We stuffed ourselves and had a great time doing it. Megan even tried the sushi and enjoyed it! I think that at the end ( I counted the plates) I had between 20-30 pieces of sushi roll...they were cut small but still! I even tried clam, and thought it was ok.
During my sustainability class we took a field trip to the Forum, a huge building built specifically for a 2004 conference and that now just houses tons of information about Barcelona Projecta. BP is a plan to advance the city's sustainability and connect the city's communities and people in various ways. We watched a really cool interactive video. Our teacher tried to get us up to the roof but we weren't allowed. Mediterranean Oc. was fairly boring, but David and I did add Paul to our group for the presentation/paper, which our teacher has told us nothing about so far..I guess we won't worry seriously about it till he does! He also hasn't told us anything about our midterm, happening two classes from now. I guess I won't worry about that either.

Thursday night after dinner, I wasn't planning on doing anything, but we were chatting with the spanish students on our hall, and it was kind of collectively decided that we should all go to the pub. So we put together a large group, 13 or so, and walked down to the pub and ended up staying till 1:30 in the morning. It was a lot of fun! Eloi told us that the rugby players, when we went to watch their game last week, thought we were nice. I was confused by what he meant, because we never talked to the players, but then he further explained that it implied good-looking. Ah, makes more sense now! Megan and I walked back with Xavi and Ludo, who had to be up at 7 in the morning, and they told us that our Spanish vocabulary has improved A LOT since the beginning of the semester! That is really cool, because it doesn't seem as though it has, but they said we are speaking really well.
We also were told about a dorm sponsored trip to Granada in March. It involves going to Granada and doing a room-exchange with the Col.lego Major in Granada so we don't have to pay for a place to stay, only the travel there and back. It sounds like a really neat idea and I will probably go, because I really want to see the south of Spain.

Today Megan and I are going to Sitges, a small town thirty minutes away that has a Carnival celebration. We are meeting up with Crissy and Caitlin and staying the night in a hotel tonight. During the day there are parades and costumes and such, and at night, well, you know :). It should be a lot of fun!

What holiday?

Ugh. I detest Valentine's Day. It is a holiday invented by stores and restaurants and flower shops to get people to spend money for no good reason. I would hate it even if I had a significant other to celebrate it with. I don't intend to do anything remotely related to Valentine's Day today, including wearing red/pink (Meg's idea)! But enough of that!

This week wasn't too exciting, but I have a lot of little comments about things that have happened. On Sunday evening Meg and I went to our second futbol game (the first one was free). We had better seats than the first game, even though they were still nosebleed section, and we made it in time for the fight song before the game started. At halftime, we went to find everyone else from Jewell who were also at the game. They were in a section below ours, and in order to get to them we had to jump a barrier, which was probably not allowed. The barcelona stadium is set up so that the gate you go inside takes you directly to your section and no where else. It is really, really hard to go find better seats and crowd control is everywhere. Definitely not the Royals stadium where you can go sit on the bottom level if you want. Well, we found the boys and sat with them for a while, but it was COLD and windy so we eventually left. We saw all three of the goals that were made so we didn't miss out!

I'm entertained by something new everyday in my two Tuesday/Thursday classes. Last week we taught my teacher how to properly say 'feces' in English. The only word equivalent he knew was 'shit' and boy did he use it, to talk about the fish and the seagulls and the little plankton and nutrients, etc. He figured something was up when the whole class kept giggling with the way he used the term. We taught him a few different words that were a little less crude. I've heard my Spanish teacher say it as well when talking about caca, so maybe it is just a perception that Spaniards have of how America uses that term..very strange.

Thursday, Megan and I went with Eloi (a student on our hall) to a rugby match. We had never seen one before and were excited to go. The game was a match between UB and UPC, two local universities. Eloi normally plays for UPC, but he was injured (shoulder) and so was not playing in the match. On the way to the match, he made a comment, out of the blue, that we looked very "American". We asked him to enlighten us as to why, and he just said everything and then mentioned our sunglasses (it was sunny out, others had on sunglasses as well!), our blonde hair, our shoes..I guess we're not trying hard enough to blend in, but oh well. I'm not going to change those things, I'll just have to look American. The rugby match itself was very different. I enjoyed watching, but it just seemed like 30 men competing to see who was the toughest. It also looked like a painful game, and I didn't see how it is much related to football. UPC was slaughtered and lost by 8 goals or more, but no one seemed too disappointed.

Yesterday, Megan and I walked around Barcelona in the afternoon in the process of finding a hotel her sister is thinking of staying in when she visits. We were in a very neat area of town, but the coolest thing we found was a little hole in the wall candy shop named "Happy Pills". You can buy jars of different sizes that look like prescription containers, put a label on them, and fill them with any sort of candy. It was a brilliant idea and very cute. We are definitely coming back. Some people might get happy pills as their souvenir, haha.

Yesterday was my first Spanish midterm! I actually think I did pretty well on it. I was worried because I don't know how she tests, but the test was not bad at all. Also, at the end of class she brought us an example of a spanish cultural afternoon snack (but for little kids, I think). It was delicious! It was a type of milk made from Chufas (also called Horuchata, or Tiger nuts) and tasted sort of like soy milk, but sweeter. She compared the nuts to almonds. She gave us a sweet bread to dip into the milk as well.

My last thought has to do with the girls' dressing habits over here who are from the U.S...this is probably the 'style' and is totally in right now, but why does every girl have to wear tights, only tights, with every outfit? Tights are NOT pants, and they don't cover anything, even if you can't see skin...About half the girls in every one of my classes wears tights, and just with normal shirts, not even something that will halfway cover their butt. The other day in class, three girls went up to the board to answer a question and they looked like triplets, with boots, tights, maroon shirts of some sort, and a scarf. Made me wanna barf. The worst is that many girls just don't have the body shape to look good in that sort of outfit. If you look nice, then go for it, but dress for your body, because tights don't hide anything! That's all of my complaining over that subject, haha. Tomorrow I am going to a festival in another part of the city. I'm not sure what it is about, but my spanish teacher mentioned dragons and free food and music so I'm going to check it out!

Ciao!

Saturday in Tarragona

Yesterday, Megan and I went to Tarragona, a Spanish town with Roman roots about an hour down the coast. We took a train and were in T. by 10:15 am. We decided to wing it and just walk into the town and see what we could see. We did, however, come across an information booth and a lady gave us a map and circled some areas where we would see the most interesting ruins and buildings. The area of town we walked around was the 'old town' and had lots of shops, as well as the ruins and tunnels and churches interspersed. It was COLD out, because of the wind and the clouds.. We walked by the ampiteatre (spanish spelling), the Circ Roma (a long underground tunnel where races were held), other places, and the large Catedral. While at the ampiteatre, we stopped to play in a park; it was very tempting to swing and climb on the equipment. The only place we went inside was the Catedral, and it was absolutely beautiful and very old! We were not supposed to take photos, but we did sneak a few. The inside was full of arches, and side rooms with artwork, statues, sculptures, paintings, etc. The main sanctuary was huge. We got to watch someone ring the bells for noon, which was very neat. The Catedral also had an outdoor courtyard surrounded by a semi-open passageway, very beautiful as well. Afterward, we went to find lunch, and had some not so good pasta. We then walked to the more modern area of town to see the Rambla Nova and the Castels statue. This tree lined walk was a smaller, more peaceful version of Barcelona's Las Ramblas.
After our escapades with the statue, we walked to the beach (a very long walk..but worth it). We rolled up our pants and walked into the surf for a refreshing and COLD bit of water. We also met some boogie borders who were enjoying the surf (they had wetsuits to keep them warm!). We continued our walk to the rocks and walked to a point jutting into the sea to take some photos, before heading back to the train station. On our way to the station, we ran into some people from our hall who did not leave as early as we did, said hi, and then went home. I really liked the town and all there was to see. I would like to go back when it gets warmer to visit the beaches, as Tarragona supposedly has the best beaches in the Catalonian province of Spain.