~~~~~~pictures laters~~~~~~~~~~~

We didn't have class Friday morning so me and Reva got dressed up and went out for a night on the town, terrible idea. We tried to find this club called Opium, but for some reason just could not find it. The entire way down la Rambla we were cat called every 5 seconds. At one point Reva turned around and yelled "shut up" and the guy actually backed off. But the most surprising of all people we a cop actually called to us. He said something to us that we ignored, then he got on his intercom and said "hey chicas." is was really ridiculous so we began walking back to the bus. Well, as we were waiting for the bus, a man came up to us talking in Spanish and we said, "no hables espanyol." but he made fun of us and said that we were speaking in Spanish and eventually asked us if he was at the right bus stop. Then walked up 3 incredibly drunk looking blonds (barefoot by the way), so he left us alone and began harassing these girls. They must not have been as drunk as they looked because after a while we heard them shout really loudly "Adios!!!." Well, when we got on the bus, of course, he sat next to them. The whole way home he was verbally harassing them in Spanish, until one of the girls got into a shouting match with him and the bus driver pulled over. He actually waited and pulled over by a police station, and after asking the girls if they were alright, he went in and got the police. The police came and took the mad man out of the bus and talked to him for a while until leading him off to the police station and letting us leave. It was really dramatic and I was ready to run off the bus punching. We came back home early that night but I used the entire day Friday to work on my paper.

Yet another early morning. We got on another tour bus and headed towards Monserrat. Our first stop in Monserrate was a winery and after taking a tour of the Torres facility and seeing how wine was made, we had a tasting. It was pretty good wine I thought.

Then we were set loose at the bottom of Monserrat. These mountains were absolutely beautiful. You could see little boulder people in the mountains.

We took a funicular up to the top of the mountain and did a little hiking and exploring. Once we got back we did a liquor tasting. The liquor was made by a group of monks that live at the top of the mountain, and they were made from flowers, nuts and other unique items. It was absolutely delicious.

Sitges was a little fisherman's town. It was a place where I thought I might want to retire in someday. It had a nice little beach and is apparently where a lot of the rich spaniards have their summer homes.

On Sunday, I worked on my paper for a little bit then went to a Bull fight. It was pretty intense. I cried a little bit during the first bull's death, but stayed to watch the rest of them, totally 6 bulls. I had to sit through it all so that I wouldn't regret missing them.

Before leaving Barcelona, I had to check out one more place, Mount Tibidabo. After taking the train to TIbidabo, taking a trally, and funicular we were finally there. First stop was a church. This church was built in memory of Jesus being tempted by the Devil, believed to have occured on this very mountain. We were able to take an elevator to the very top. The view from the top of the church was beautiful, you could see all of Barcelona, as well as a carnival park below, in celebration of Jesus's accomplishments.

The theme park was a blast. I had more fun here than I ever did at Disney World. In fact I ran around like a little kid. We did everything from bumper cars to bungie drops. There was even a hounted house that was so frightening all of us clung onto each other and strangers for dear life. We also watched a 4D movie, and rode tons of rides (hardly any lines). On the way towards the last ride, the airplane, we took the elevator. In the elevator were elevator clowns that made you sing the entire ride. They were absolutely adorable. We stayed pretty much all day and were exhausted by the time we got back. A great end to a great trip!

~~~~~~~~~~come back later~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tarragona: Friday-Saturday

This weekend we all go up around 6am to catch a train to Tarragona. Tarragona was once the capital of Rome when Rome occupied Spain. It has a rich history and close ties to Roman culture. We got to Tarragona around 9 or 10 am and immediately started sight seeing. The first place we arrived at was the Catedral de Tarragona:

This Church was similar to the Monistir de Pedralbes but it was still a functioning church. In fact as we did the tour there was a group of people having warship in the cathedral. I also saw someone doing confessions for the first time, it was very interesting:

As we walked around we ran into the Placa de Representacio del Forum Provincial:

Next we walked all around looking for a restaurant that was open, and of course none were since it was noon, "ciesta."We found a place we wanted to eat and made a reservation for 1pm. Until then we wandered through The Archaeological Promenade and Walls, which were ancient Roman ruins of the old Circ de Roma de Tarragona:


After spending about an hour in the ruins we wandered back over to the restaurant for a full 3 course meal (paid for by the university). It was delicious, I ordered a glass of Cava, Fideo, and squid. After our tummy's got full we continued on with our sight seeing. We ended up at the Amfiteatre Roma, where many Christians were slain:

The story behind these ruins is that an important bishop was slain and the catholic church built a church on top of the amfiteatre at some point, so their are ruins of both.

We found our selves at Muralles Romanes, which were supposed to be the Imperial Gardens:

Then we walked down town and saw the Monument als Castells before heading to our 4 star hotel (also paid for by the university):

The next day we got up around 9am, checked out of the hotel and continued on to sight see. Our first stop was Parc Ecohistoric del Pont del Diablo where we saw the Roman Aqueducte de les Ferreres:

Then we went to the Museu I Necropolis Paleocristians where a giant roman grave sight had been dug up to study and has technically been closed indefinitely:

The last stop of our tour of Tarragona was the Forum Local Roma:

Girona/Figueres: Sunday

Having another early morning, we all met up outside around 6:30am. We had to be at the bus by 7:30 and that was all the way at Plaza de Catalunya (which is about a 20-30 train ride). We all rushed to the train stop, and realized that it was Sunday and the train schedule was delayed. Now we were running late and might miss our bus ride! We made if fortunately and headed out towards Girona. As soon as we got off the bus in Girona our tour guides were ready to start the tour. We started at a beautiful bridge that crossed to where another huge cathedral was:

We went into the Cathedral which was similar to the one in Girona but had an interesting history to it:

There were several Sarcophagus in the church. One was dedicated to a bishop who's casket was opened to expel flies who kept the French from invading Girona:

Another one represented the story of Prosperpina and the creation of the seasons:

And another for the lions sitting at the edge of the gate of the city of Girona keeping trespassers out.

Then we went to the Arab bathes:

After that we made our way through the Jewish quarter onto a park area where some Jewish history was.

Then to the Museu d'Historia dels Jueus:

We then hopped back onto the bus and headed towards Figueres to see Dali's City. Immediately once we got their, we could tell:

We were offered admission to two museums. The Maison-Musee Salvador Dali and the Theatre-Musee Dali, which were both put together by Dali himself:

Then there was a museum called the Collection Dali-Joies, which was a collection of jewelry designed by Dali:

When we arrived back into Barcelona a few of us went to see the Opera Y Flamenco, which was really wonderful. The female Flamenco dancer was of Gypsy decent and had "the gift" of the dance. At the same time we got to see the Palau de la Musica which was a beautiful piece of architecture

Saturday me and Reva went to the Museu Nacional D'art de Catalunya:

Sunday I took a day to myself. I planned to go see the Jardins de Monjuic then make my way to the Museu Maritim, then to Fundacio Joan Miro, then end up at Font Magica de Montjuic in time for the light show at 21:00. Well I got lost pretty much ever step of the way but ended up in some really beautiful places. I started out at metro exit Para.lel. I walked looking for the Museu Maritim, couldn’t not find it. After realizing that I was walking along side a busy highway up a very steep mount and seeing that no one else was walking this way, I decided to turn around and give up. Fortunately, I saw a small little foot path off to the side and thought... hey... why not.

I had already walked into a few parks with quite a few homeless people sleeping, so when I saw two people sitting alongside the path with clothes laid out I thought I was walking into homeless park. I went up the path anyways which got wider and wider and turned into several flights of stairs. Once at the top I saw a beautiful garden with an absolutely beautiful view.

I saw a building that said Mirimar and decided I was at the Jardi de Mirimar.

The gardens were stunning, and the view was amazing.

I decided to eat at a little restaurant overlooking the view of Barcelona. It was wonderful; I had a Hambergueza con queso and a bottle of agua. While eating I compared my map with the buildings I saw below me and realized where I was.

I decided to go to the Museu Maritim. Walking along the way I saw some interesting buildings and statues.

I made my way over to the Museu Maritim and was pretty disappointed. The museum was a little bit lame and was full of just models of boats and only one life sized ship.

After this I decided to get back on the metro and get off at Poble Sec to see the Fundacio Joan Miro. I got off and was completely lost again. I walked up and down the street trying to secretly look at my map until I saw a sign. I followed the signs for quite a while. I stopped at a theatre-park where it seemed like they were getting ready for a concert.

 

Then I wandered past some museus that were closed, so it figured it was getting a little late. I walked until the tourist signs went blank, never finding the Fundacio Joan Miro or any of the jardins I was looking for.

 

I decided to turn back around and go to the MNAC to wait for the Font Magica do Montjuic. I sat there for a while then asked the woman next to me "Que hora es?" She answered me in spanish, of course and I didn’t understand, then she motioned for the fountain down below and said 9 in English. Through out the next 2 hours, she and I made gestures to each other about how anxious and tired we were of waiting for the fountain to start. She would try to talk to me and English and I would try to talk to her in Spanish. I found out that she had been waiting a total of 4 hours, definitely beating my miserable 2 hours. But then it finally began! It was beautiful; I took a lot of video footage of it, and a few pictures.

 

Then I got back on the metro, and at the first stop, you guessed it, I got lost yet again. This time though, it was dark out. I wandered around looking for the metro train that would take me home. Finally after walking all the way around Plaza de Catalunya, and getting catcalled at least 2 times, I found it. Apparently, I must have looked very lost and panicked and they must have seen this as an opportunity. Once on the train I saw one of my classmates Juan and we sat and talked about our adventures until we got back to the dorm. Once I got back to my room it was already almost midnight, meaning I had a full 12 hour day. I was exhausted!

Later during the week, we went to the beach:

Wednesday and Thursday morning me and the graduate students got up early and went to the tourist office by the Sagrada Familia to buy 2 day passes for the Barcelona Bus Turistic a double decker bus. We saw most of the sights in Barcelona and I took TONS of pictures. This is our 2 day adventure:

Temple de la Sagrada Familia:







Upon buying our tickets:

Inside of the construction site of Sadrada Familia:

A little history: Temple de la Sagrada Familia is not even finished! The expected product will be a catholic cathedral. It is an architectural attraction by Antoni Gaudi. He started it in the late 1800's knowing that he would never see it finished. It is expected to be finished in 2028, 100 years after his death.

Then we went up an elevator to be in the inside of the top of one of the huge towers. The view was beautiful!:


Park Guell:


This was some choir group singing in a little cave



This video was taken from the top of Park Guell:
A little history: Park Guell is yet another piece of architecture done by Antoni Gaudi. He was employed by Eusebi Guell in 1900 to become a place for Barcelona's rich. 14 years later he gave up and now Park Guell is present for anyone to enjoy.

Museu Monestir de Pedralbes:

Views from the outside of the Monistary


The courtyard after entering


Inside the museum, the cathedral, the kitchen, some stairs, some tombs, and a glass floor

This picture doesn't capture how nice the bathrooms were. There was just one hallway, with maybe 5 stalls. Each stall had either a male or a female on it. When you step it it was like a miniature full sized bathroom, each one complete with toilet, sink, and hand drying.

A video of the tomb of Elisenda and Francesca ca Portella

We just drove by the Futbol Club Barcelona:


and another interesting architectural building by Gaudi:


Anella Olimpica:

This is where the 1992 Olympics were held.

Santa Maria del Mar so far my favorite cathedral, it was beautiful:


Some sights in and around the double decker bus:






At the end of our bus tour we stumbled across a band playing on the street:

Today we went to the beach. I haven't had to go to class at all this week so i slept until about 1pm when everyone got out of class and we all met up to go to the metro. To get to the beach was a loooong way. First we had to walk up to the metro station, then go all the way to the end to Barcelona, get on the L1 take that one stop down, then get on the L4 to Barceloneta. Once we were off the metro exit we had to walk all the way down the street to the beach front. This probably wasn't as long for anyone else going because I had to pee while still on the metro. We finally got their though and it was packed! The first thing I saw when entering the beach area was a little girl about 12 years old with no top on. NO ONE wears their tops in Spain. And men wear granny panty Speedos, it's very odd. So we go lie down on the beach for a while and take it all in. I went and walked down to the bottom and felt the water wash all over my feet while everyone complained about the topless women. It was nice to spend a little bit of time alone at the beach and wade a little bit out in the water. After a while it got really hot and i got really thirsty. There were Indian men walking around yelling out "Beer, Cerveza, Agua, Fanta, Coke" and i asked one of them how much and he told me 2 Euros and I told him too much and he went down to 1.50 Euros but I still declined. I decided to walk up to the beach front bar and get myself a cocktail. I started off with a Pina Colada, which was nothing like the states; it was kind of gross actually. Then I decided to try something new, and I got the attention of the waiter and said, "Yo quiero sex on the beach." He laughed at me and said, “me too” and then I realized what I said and we laughed a little bit. After my cocktails, I decided to swim out to a man made rock island and check it out. It was alright, but along the way I cut my toe on a rock and it bled like crazy. We swam back, and then I and a few other people walked along the beach to see some abstract looking building and take pictures, By the time we got back everyone was ready to go so we headed back to the Metro. Along the way I got another chocolate crepe… mmm.... so much chocolate. We skipped the L4 and L1 trains, and walked all the way down La Rambla so that we could stop at the food market. Once we got back on the S2 train, I walked on first to see if anyone would follow me to the empty seats, and to my surprise (not really) they all turned and went the opposite way to some seats in the back. I continued the way i was going and sat down with some locals at attempted to read a news paper. I actually enjoyed my time alone up there, I felt like I was getting a lot more from trying to mold into the local life, than sitting with a group of Americans talking in English. I was also surprised that I was able to understand a majority of what I was reading. After I went through the new paper, I took a short nap and enjoyed myself. It was a relaxing day.

Pictures:


More pictures of the view from campus


this really big vending machine in the Metro station


pictures of the playa


one of the boys in our group playing in the sand








Walking back to the metro, some really beautiful sights

This first weekend we were fortunate to have a 3 day weekend. We done with class on Thursday and planned to go out that night. Well me and Reva fell asleep and ended up staying in on Thursday night but Friday night was a different story. Friday during the day we went out with our fellow Texans to La Rambla. On the train we were all starting to doze off when all of the sudden we heard some really beautiful music come on. At first I thought maybe there was a speaker system somewhere, but it didn’t make sense since we had never heard music any other time. I turned around and saw a man playing to violin. He was really fantastic at violin and when he was done he walked around with a little coin purse, and I gave in a Euro or two. Another thing that is strange about the metro station is the security. They walk around with these really big beautiful dogs with metal mussels on their faces. I thought perhaps they were looking for drugs, but the dogs bark at everyone and the guards never flinch. We walked all the way down La Rambla again to the mall and went shopping. After we went shopping for a while, by the way I only spent about 80 Euros total, we met some English girls with Indian decent in a tattoo shop. We hung out with them for a while until we had to go back and get ready for our big night. Before we left we got a little bit of dinner, and wanting to try something new, I ordered Sangria. He looked at me and Reva kind of funny when I asked, and said “the liter?” and I said yes, figuring this would be just a little bit. When he left we started thinking about it and realized that this was going to be a full pitcher. The Sangria was really tasty! We managed to drink it all down and go back to our rooms to finish getting ready.

 
The Violinist

 

This is for Alyssa


This one if for daddy and kate

We decided to go out with some Americans (from New Jersey and New York) that we met on the metro a few nights before. Several of them do promotions so they get into a lot of places for free, so we tagged along with them. We went up the S2 towards Barcelona then hopped onto the L4 train and walked a short distance to the club. It was a huge club, bursting with dance music. All the girls got in for free, but the guys had to pay 10 Euros and they got 2 free drink vouchers. Our group walked in and we were escorted to the VIP section. The music was really great, it was actually music that I knew, that happened to even be on my Ipod. Before we went i was a little apprehensive to go dancing because I'm shy, but as soon as we got their I couldn't  control myself, in fact I couldn't stop dancing. After a while i went out to the middle of the dance floor and danced with a bunch of people. We met a few people from Brazil, and some from Australia. There were a couple weirdo’s who would come dance with you and whistle or sing in your ear, it was kind of funny though. We danced for at least 5 hours, and stayed out till maybe 5:30. It was really fun; I definitely got a workout and sweat a ton of water out. On the way back we got on the metro and the guy that brought us there, Anthony, fell asleep and started drooling, it was the perfect end to a wonderful night.

All of us before going out

 
Me, Reva and Anthony after dancing all night.

The next day, Saturday, we didn’t get up until 5pm. We decided to get some food at ElCampo, but with our luck, it was raining out. The rain here in Spain is incredibly cold. Not only that, but there is a lot of walking we have to do between the campus and the metro, and the metro and the grocery store. We made it though, but realized we forgot our rolling basket to carry all our groceries in and our passports. I only had about 27 Euros, so I was really hoping that they would accept my card without my passport. Well… I was wrong. My total came out to a little over 30 Euros, so I ended up having to take some items out. The woman who rang me up though, treated me like an idiot. I handed her money, and she counted the money I gave her to me, as if I couldn’t count. She was also very anal about the bagging process, certain products couldn’t go in certain bags, and it was very strange. She also rang up some of Reva’s items twice. We think she did it on purpose.  Once we got back to the apartment (soaking wet) we made ourselves some baked potatoes with butter and cheese. Mmmm mmmm (we could not find any sour cream!).

 

Even though it rained well unto the evening, we still decided to rough it and go out again. This time we were going to go to CatWalk where they were going to play hip-hop music.
Once we got outside, the air was pretty chilly, but the rain had stopped. We all walked up to the metro and planned out our evening. Once we got to CatWalk the bouncers would not let us in for free. Our special connection didn’t go through because some famous house DJ was their and no one was getting in free. We decided to go to Opium which was right next to it with the guys. Opium was HUGE. There were different floors, and it was so easy to get lost. The most amazing part was that we found the same Australians that we had danced with the night before. They said hi but didn’t stick around for very long. We danced the night away to yet even more dance music. Towards the end I started to get really tired of dancing. I went to the bar to buy some water and was really surprised to find that one fairly small bottle of water was 5 Euros! It was really a rip off, but I ended up buying 3 bottles, because I was so dehydrated by the end of the night. Our Aussie friends came by and said goodbye to us and we stayed for maybe an hour after that. By the time we made it to the metro, we were swamped. We came home and went straight to bed.

These are all pictures taken from other people's cameras!


Here I am, going Picture crazy on La Rambla.


Walking in the food market.


Eating my Gelado in Plaza de Catalyna


Meeting up for our night out at La Rambla.


At the Metro Station waiting for the S2


Right out of the station with the new friends me we made on the Metro


Barcelona at night.


Getting some late night food. Whatever it was, it was good.


Club Guru


This was Giovani... huge inside joke


The Christopher Columbus statue


Walking to get my chocolate crepe.


One of the prostitutes on La Rambla


Bus ride home

The First day of class: so we started class and hour later than we will normally, at 10am to help recover from jet lag. By the way, according to Reva I hum in my sleep. Still could not keep my eyes open. So when we took a break around 11, he suggested we go to the cafe machine and get coffee for 50cent Euros. Excellent idea! This machine was like a soda vending machine where you select which kind of coffee you want along the side, and you can even adjust the spoonfuls of sugar. I got the cappuccino and boy did it help. The second half was also more interesting, and I wasn't even shy, so I spoke up a lot in class. It was really entertaining; my professor is really funny and knows how to relate politics to our daily lives so we understand. After another little bit of class, we got out early, (around 11:30) and he gave us a tour of campus. Oh my goodness… Spanish men are very attractive. Me and Reva adventured off around campus to find out where the gym was and get memberships. Well, we could not find the gym because we didn’t know what the Spanish word for it was. So I went up to this mucho guapo Spaniard and asked “Te hables englais?” He said, a little so I asked “Donde esta… gym?” and he pointed right in front of us and we said gracias. Once inside, we tried talking to the membership representatives, and they gave us a price, about 32 Euros, not as bad as we were expecting so we asked to take a tour. Well the place was under a lot of construction so we had the most difficult time navigating around this monstrous gym and ended up asking an even more guapo Spaniard directions. He said “come with me” and Reva and I both looked at each other with big smiles on our faces. We decided to get the membership.

 

After our gym experience we tried to go into a hair salon in the center of campus and buy a hair straitened. The woman in there definitely did not speak English and we struggled quite a bit. When we finally walked out of the salon, there was a boy waiting for us outside. He asked us if we were American in really sloppy English and said that he could help us. Well he couldn’t understand what we wanted either, and soon we realized that he just wanted to talk to us. His name was Albert, and he really didn’t have a sense of personal space. He kept looking at me with a goofy grin on his face and standing really close to me. We kept trying to walk away from him but he kept walking alongside me very close. We exchanged email addresses and he said he would email me so that he could show us around Barcelona and then we told him we needed to get back. I wasn’t sure if he was pulling my leg or not, but he asked for a kiss and said that’s how they do it in Europe. I understood that, but I figured it was something you do with people that are more than acquaintances. I was pretty shocked and we ended up telling him that in America we just shake hands and we walked away. Very awkward but we laughed about it for a while afterwards. He emailed me about 2 hours later asking if I remembered him and that he wanted to be my friend.

 

After going back and changing into warmer clothes, we decided to go into downtown Barcelona and go to “La Rambla,” a touristy place with lots of shops. After about 20 minutes on the S2 train we stopped at Pl. Catalunya. As soon as we walked up the stairs from the metro, it was amazing. Very beautiful. The buildings looked very old and people were everywhere. It resembled New York in a way, except, pedestrians do not have the right of way, AT ALL. I pretty much went camera happy and took pictures of anything and everything. 

 

Andy and Victor admiring the view.

Some museum we might go back to.

About to enter La Rambla

A tour bus we might go on later.

La Rambla was HUGE. There were 3 sidewalks running parallel to each other, the one in the middle the most walked on and the widest. On that middle walk there were a lot of street venders, and people dressed in silly costumes asking for money.

This was the first costumed person we saw. She stroked this stick in such a strange way... it was creepy.

They were selling birds and chickens in the middle of the walkway.

Iron Maiden is playing next week, I want to go.

We stopped this really fresh fruit and meat market.

It looked so delicious, i ended up buying some watermelon.

Some more ham...

Me and Reva, my roommate

I thought Kate would like this.

There were a lot of these little cars.

Mopeds are probably the most common vehicle besides the public transportation.

You hear that daddy?

We walked until we hit the Plaza.

Plaza de Catalunya

I tried some of the famous Gelado, “freshco” flavored, and encountered some ugly Americans tying up the line and not even attempting to speak Spanish. It was really good.

Another poster

We walked the entire stretch of La Rambla until we hit Ocean. Right on the ocean was incredibly touristy area, and a mall. Inside of the mall was pretty much mostly stores that you get in the states, but we window shopped anyways.

 

Almost to the water

This is a statue of Christopher Columbus at the port that he sailed out of

 

 

A little bit of the view of the water.

A tourist day boat... might go on.

This jelly fish was really big.

The mall we went to.

The mall we went to from the start of the bridge.

This street was so narrow, Spain is definitely not handicap accessible.

This guy was juggling, and he dropped them, and he asked in Spanish, "will you give me another chance?" and a little kid in the audience yelled, "no." then after he finished everyone practically ran away from him so that they wouldn't have to give him anymore. It was kinda funny but sad at the same time.

In the train station there were little snack machines but inside of them were condoms, drinks, snack foods, and pacifier.

One the way back from “La Rambla” we were in the metro station, and there was a boy that Reva thought was very attractive, and we actually accidentally got on the wrong train so that she could just look at him.

 

After “La Rambla,” we were exhausted and we hung out in our room for a while. Then we met up with the graduate students and decided to go back into town in the evening to check out the night life. My camera battery was charging, so all the pictures I have are from one of the grad student’s camera, but I will post those when she sends them to me. It was pretty fun at night. There were people EVERYWHERE. People were standing along the walkways, with 6 packs of beer, selling them for 1 Euro each. There were people aggressively promoting clubs and bars also, and they would offer you coupons for one free shot or free entry into the club. A lot of these people were actually American. There were tons of couples too; Spain appears to be the amour capital of the world. One the bus home from “La Rambla” it almost got to the point of being disgusting. There were lots of prostitutes also, but only males dressed as women. I don’t think we saw a single female prostitute. After walking through the street to the edge of the water, there was a crepe shop open all night, and I got a chocolate one… so delicious. Walking back to the train, I got hit on by two Indian guys… they are very aggressive. We were traveling with a guy, so every time this would happen, he would stand between me and the guy and he would leave me alone. There are a lot of stories and pictures that came with this evening; I’ll tell more with the pictures. We ended up staying out until 5am.

 

The next day of class was pretty terrible. We had class starting at 9am this time. For some reason, I don’t remember doing this, but when the alarm went off in the morning I turned it off, and Reva woke up at 8:51am and we hurried down. We actually made it before the lecture started, but even with 2 cups of coffee this time, it was a struggle to keep my eyes open. Once we came back we both took naps, and decided to just relax for the rest of the day.

 The flights were pretty nice, no delays, no problems. I got to know a lot of my classmates and we talked about possible day trip options. Pretty laid back, it didn't really hit me that we were really going to Spain until maybe the second flight, from Houston to Newark. The only part that wasn't that great was the start of the flight from Newark to Barcelona. I fell asleep almost immediately once on the plane, and woke up about 45 minutes later. When I woke up, it felt like we had just landed so I asked the people around me if we were there. Well, we weren't, in fact we hadn't even taken off yet. I managed to fall asleep again, and attempted to watch "Be Kind, Rewind" and "Drillbit Tailor."

 

At the airport in Spain.

Once we arrived in Spain, we had to get passes for the metro. The ones we got will work on all the local metros in Barcelona for one month. The machines that make them though were definitely not Americanized, so there was trouble buying it with my credit card, but fortunately I exchanged some money for Euros in the Houston airport and used that, and borrowed about 11 Euros from the professor’s daughter. Once we did that it was a huge workout jumping from train to train, and going up and down stairs with a 50 pound bag. The Train we took was S2 Sabedell and the final stop we made was Bellaterra. Once we made it to Bellaterra, we had to walk up hill... with our 50 pound bags. By the time we got there our hands were all calloused and our backs and legs were about as sore as could be. Then we heard the bad news. Our rooms were not ready and one girl had lost her wallet. So, we ditched our bags in the professor’s room, and proceeded to ElCampo the Spain equivalent of Wal-Mart. The inside of El Campo was pretty amazing, and the baskets they used were very unique. Me and Reva bought so many groceries their, each of it coming out to be about 30 Euros each. In the ElCampo, we ate at a pizza place and found that the cheese in our cheese pizza was definitely not the same cheese they use in America, it was very interesting. As we checked out, we tried to ask our grocer a question, but as expected, we had a communication problem and all laughed together, grocer and all about how we could not understand each other. After we got our groceries, which also weighed a ton, we walked back up the hill, and by then our rooms were ready. Me and Reva walked into our room, and boy were they nice. Then I noticed that in the bedroom there was one full sized bed. We looked around for another one and realized that there wasn’t one. We wandered around the dorm until we found someone from our group and asked if they had one or two beds. They had two, so we found the one girl rooming by her self and traded with her since she had 2. Problem solved, but it was pretty hilarious seeing the one bed and realizing we were going to have to share it. After settling in we pretty much stayed in for the night.

 

Some trashcans taped together to make a trash chute, right across from professors dorm.

 

One view of campus.

 

El Campo, the grocery store.

 

The pizza place I ate at in El Campo.

 

The famous/infamous ham.

 

Shopping at ElCampo.

 

My room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The campus view outside our window.