Barca Game & more
I had such a great weekend! :) Thursday was my roommate Daneale’s 21st birthday, so she had some friends, Christian, Andrew & Darien, come to Barcelona to celebrate! When they got in we got dressed up and went to Pipperments. They have huge drinks you can order (we got the 3.5 gallon one, vodka lemon). We got two of those before heading to Opium. Ah it’s so awesome it’s right on the Mediterranean Sea. We danced and had a great time. This bouncer kept trying to dance with me- then not because he was working- so that was funny. The next day the boys made a huge breakfast for us with eggs, bread & veggies- yum! Then we headed to Las Ramblas and went to this massive market. They have tons of fruits, vegetables, sweets, seafood- you name it they have it. I can’t wait to take my parents; they’ll love it. That night we went to Ovella Negra (a bar). We got some sangria and chatted with friends before heading back to the apartment. The next day we went to Bo de B, this tiny sandwich shop. Its super good though!! We walked around Ramblas again, and my roommates and I bought cute bracelets. When we got home we got ready for the BARCA GAME vs Real Sociedad. I’ve been so excited for this. We go and get our tickets, head into the stadium, and to our surprise- we have 6th row tickets!! We were right behind the goal and could see all the players. So cool. My roommates and I were wearing our Barca scarves and Kristina and I enjoyed our massive bags of popcorn haha. We hurried home to go out and get to the clubs before 1:30am (so it would be free). Of course, me and Christian didn’t make it :( haha. So the two of us went to Shoko, which is next door. The next day we all died on the couch all day, except for when Christian and I walked to Burger King for some food haha. That night was the Superbowl and I forced myself to go out because Kristina wanted to go. So her, Darien and I went to find a bar to watch it. After going where we planned and realizing we couldn’t even stand in there, we went searching for a different bar. We stumbled upon this little bar and went in. There was an English guy, Sam, and a local guy, Sham, (haha.. from Bangledesh originally) who said the bar was closing soon and they’d show us a bar that was going to stay open! So the group of us and 2 other Americans we met went to this larger bar. We got massive mugs of beer and watched the game! More English guys joined us during the game and we had a great time!
Off to Amsterdam this weekend! This is the city I’ve been wanting to go to the most ahhh.
Paris & Versailles
Last weekend I went to Paris and it was INCREDIBLE!!! I had such an amazing time :) Madeline, Pat, and I left our apartment at 3:15am (on 2 hours of sleep) to walk to the train and take it to the airport. So we walk all the way there and the station is closed because it is so early! Didn’t think about that one… so we hop in a cab and take that to the airport. The guy drove like a MAD MAN. I’m not even kidding he must have been going over 100 all the way there. Anyway we get on the plane and sleep for the 1.5 hour flight. Once we get into Paris we take the train/metro to our hostel. Unfortunately, we couldn’t check in until 3. This was a bummer because we were hoping to take a power nap.. but they let us leave our bags so we headed out! We bought 3 day metro passes and took the metro to the Arc de Triumph. It took us a while to figure out how to get over to it, but we finally found the underground tunnel. Then we walked to the Eiffel Tower. We were so excited to see it- it’s massive!! We got in line to by tickets, but it was sooooo long. So then we decided to buy tickets to go up the stairs (cheaper & much shorter line). We started walking up and I was thinking “this is greaaat why doesn’t everyone take the stairs?!” But after walking a while I felt like I was going to pass out haha. We checked out the first floor- walked around, took pictures, looked at the amazing views. There was even a little ice rink and a band! Then we walked up to the second level and that’s when I really felt sick. So after walking around there we headed back down. As we were leaving there was this guy walking around in a scary-old man- Albert Einstein mask and commented “what a weirdo”. Next thing I know, there is an arm on my shoulder. I turn around and it’s that guy!!! I jumped so high and everyone around me was laughing :( haha. We walked down the Seine river and passed the Louve. As we were heading to Notre Dame, we came across the Love Lock bridge. This may be one of my favorite places in Paris. People in love sketch their names in a lock and lock in the bridge. Then we went to Notre Dame. The stain glass windows were breathtaking. As we were walking around the cathedral, this guy dressed in a leapord costume with ears stops singing a “Yellow Lemon Tree” song and beating on a drum. It was pretty funny to look at. But then when you actually listened to him he was super entertaining! He made me and Madeline happy haha.After that we took the metro back to the hostel. We settled into our 6 person room and rested for a bit. Then we decided to go get a drink at a bar around the corner. They had a jazz band playing and we drank some beer. It was so perfect. The next day we slept in and headed to the Louve around noon. We stayed there for FIVE hours. There is so much to see and it’s all so amazing. Pat and I took a break in the middle and got lunch. We ordered these delicious sandwiches- ham in between bread w/melted cheese, tomatoes, sausage, and an EGG on top. It was so great haha. That night Madeline took off with some guys she met, so Pat and I went to get some drinks in the Latin quarter. After a couple drinks, we decided to go get a bottle of wine and go to the Eiffel Tower. We searched forever for a store and couldn’t find one anywhere! We were about to give up and we turned to go to the metro- and there one was!!! The Eiffel Tower is so so beautiful when it is lit up. And at midnight (to our surprise) it starts sparkling/lighting up. We didn’t expect that at all and it was incredible. On our way home we stopped and got these massive greasy sandwiches we kept talking about we were going to get haha. YUM! The next day we went to Versailles with the group of Australian guys Madeline had met the night before. We took the train and they kept making fun of me for being American and we quoted Talladega Nights haha. We realized out train took a wrong turn or something and we weren’t headed to Versailles. We get off and ask someone and it turns out it was just a 15 minute walk from that station! We get to the Chateau and it was stunning. I’m so glad I got to see it. What I liked the best was the gardens, but it was SO COLD and we couldn’t handle walking around. We head back and we FINALLY meet our roommates in our hostel! They were 3 guys from Argentina. We all sat on the floor and talked while eating baguettes and drinking wine. I kept asking them how to say different words in Spanish haha. They were really cool. After a while they go and get some beer and we decide to go to a bar with them. We go to this little bar and it was this great mix of people. There was one local young guy who got wasted and was like dancing on the pillar haha. We played a Russian roulette drinking game- 18 shots and 6 were non alcoholic (don’t know which those were though). They had this bathroom there with a button that said “Do you like Disco?” You press it and it started playing disco music and a disco ball drops down. It was hilarious haha. We headed back after a couple hours because we had a flight early in the morning. Such a great weekend :) I’ll be back Paris!!
Site Seeing, lazy weekend
This past weekend 3 of my roommates went to San Sebastian, Spain. So, it was just me and Madeline in the apartment! On Friday, Madeline, her friend Emily, and I decided to go site seeing! (Since I haven’t really done so yet.. embarrassing.) First we went to to Park Guell. It was so cool! I loved it. Then we went to Montjuic. There is a funicular that takes you up a mountain and you can see panoramic views of Barcelona! So beautiful. Not a fan of the the funicular though haha. The next day we cleaned/picked up our entire apartment. Not exactly fun, but it needed to be done. On Sunday we just laid around all day. EVERYTHING is closed on Sundays here because it is a “day of rest”. They take things to the extreme here.. any excuse to sleep really. I wouldn’t be complaining about that but around dinner time we realized we didn’t have any food to make dinner! So, Madeline and I went on a walk in search of an open supermarket. After about an hour we decided to give up and walk home. Luckily, when we were almost home, we found one! We bought a bunch of vegetable to saute and some wine. Later that night we wanted to meet some guys at George Payne to watch the Niners game. It wasn’t on until 12:30pm here.. ugh. We headed over around 10pm or so and it was packed! Fans from each football team wearing their jerseys, drinking beer and yelling at each other. It was pretty entertaining. The Niners game finally came on, but around 2am we decided to head back because we had school the next morning.
This post wasn’t very exciting, but I booked my flights to Paris (this weekend!!), Amsterdam and Belgium (Sensation!!). Here are some pictures!
Park Guell
Funicular ride AHH
Montjuic
First day of Classes
Yesterday was the first day of class! I had 3 straight and I was exhausted since I haven’t been able to sleep much. My classes seem fairly easy and I like all my teachers. :) At the end of the day I switched a class, so now I have 2 M/W and 2 T/TH- much better. I’m meeting so many people from all over the U.S. I love it! People have been really nice, and it’s fun to go out and explore different places with them. We went to a bar called George Payne the other night to watch the football games with some guys we met. Turns out there was a FC Barcelona game on too, so the atmosphere was nuts! SO much fun. We all ordered burgers, french fries, and beer. Last night we went out to a bar and club and had a great time! Made for another miserable day at school though. And I got lost. :( I hate not knowing where I’m going and then I have to ask random people on the street. Of course no one speaks English, only Spanish or Catalan (this is a mix of Spanish, French and Italian). So that makes things interesting. Still trying to get into a routine here, but I’m sure that will happen soon now that school has started!
Random things- I wanted to laundry when I got home but nobody has dryers in Spain. My sheets wouldn’t have been dry, ugh.
Everyone stares at me like I have 10 heads when I’m walking down the street or on the subway. Not kidding.
View of Barcelona while flying in
Arc de Triumph- where our city tour started
La Familia Sagrada (View of front)
(View of back)
Another view of the city
Me and my roommates eating paella!
Arrival!
Hellooo from Barcelona!
Day One
I arrived here yesterday after 12 hours of flying. First I flew to Frankfurt, Germany. I lucked out because the seat next to me was open, so I got to spread out a little! In my row was a woman from Greece, and I talked to her a lot during the 10 hour flight. She was a bit crazy, but she was entertaining. The only bad part about the flight were the crying babies that seemed to be surrounding us (the woman talked about taking them out haha). Although I only slept maybe an hour, the flight went by fairly quickly. I got into Frankfurt and walked to my gate. My roommate, Heather, was on the same flight, so that is where I met her! She is from Texas, and goes to school at the University of Oklahoma. We waited around there for a while and as it got closer to our take off time, we started wonder why there were only a few people waiting with us. We decided to look at the monitor and saw they changed the gate on us! But we figured it out. After a 3 hour layover, we boarded our flight and flew to Barcelona in just 2 hours. The airport in Barcelona is beautiful, and it seems more like a mall than in airport. We get a cart and load our 3 suitcases on them and meet CEA outside the baggage claim. Heather, 2 other girls, and I get into a taxi to take us to our apartments. Our driver was a talkative Irish man and he gave us a lot of tips about the city so that was nice! We get to our apartment and my other 3 roommates are on the balcony yelling and waving at us! Daneale and Kristina go to Penn State and Madelina goes to LSU. Once we get inside we talk a while and decided to go on a walk. We live in a more residential part of the city, Les Corts, so its the most fun part we could be in. The futbol stadium is like 5 minutes away though! I get back, unpack and then we all get ready to get dinner and go out! After drinking a little bit we head out. We wander around our neighborhood looking for a decent restaurant, but aren’t having much luck. We finally just walk into a place and sit down. The locals sitting at our bar immediately start talking about “Americanos”, and Kristina tells us they are talking shit about us (she is pretty much fluent in Spanish). So that was annoying.. to make matters worse, the restaurant is all sea food and none of us care for that. So we apologize to the waitress and say we’re going to leave. She says, “I knew they weren’t going to order”. So we run out of there.. We finally find a place and ordered some food and sangria! I asked for calamari, but she insisted on a similar dish so I got that. It was fried squid- not what I wanted AT ALL, but it wasn’t bad. It didn’t taste like anything haha. We got to a bar that everyone is pregaming at and it’s packed! We drink a little more than go across the street to a club, Sutton. It was SOOOO much fun!!! Apparently there were 1700 people there- everyone drinking and dancing. Everyone was so nice and social. There are people from all over the country. Heather and I get separated from our other roommates and after looking for them for a while we decide to head pack to the apartment. Neither of us have money and we decide to walk home. Barcelona is a safe city; we only have to look out for pickpocketers! Everyone here says it is the national sport. I’m terrified of getting my stuff stolen! Anyway, we wander around and have no idea where we are going. We ask multiple taxis that pull over for directions. Finally I tell one I have 3 euros and ask if he can take us home. Finally we make it home and I pass out at 4am!
Day Two
At 9am Heather wakes me up to go to a tour of the city put on by CEA. We take the metro to the Arc de Triumph, grab a water and croissant, and get on a bus. We go to La Sagrada Familia, the Olympic stadium, and a hill that overlooks the entire city. Half way through the tour I wanted to die we are so tired haha. But it was nice and we met some people! After the tour we have to wait for a meeting at my school, so all of go to a little cafe to get a bite to eat. Heather and I sit with some guys we met and we get some food. They get beer, but we pass haha. We eventually go to CEA and listen to an orientation. My group does an icebreaker and everyone is really funny. Afterward I’m so ready to go home and sleep. I try and take a nap, but only sleep maybe an hour or so.. We go out to dinner around 10pm. We’re looking for a sushi place, but it took us a while to find it. My roommates want to go out after, but I need a full nights sleep to be able to handle this city, so I’m staying in with Madeline. They just left (it’s almost 2am!), so I’ve put on some comfy clothes and am drinking some wine. Tomorrow I am going to buy a metro pass, go to the grocery store and buy a Spain sim card. Then we have a welcome reception/dinner with CEA. I’ll try and put up pictures as I see/do more here in Barcelona! I looove this city so far!
Home for Now
Crazy to think that in less than 2 weeks I will be living in Barcelona, Spain! But for now I have been relaxing at home, not doing much at all. I need to start getting things together soon though.. Lots to buy/do!! I’m so unbelievably excited to be able to study abroad! I just hope I don’t miss my family and friends too much.. I guess I’ll just have to spend as much time with them as possible before I go! 12 days.
