I think I'm almost all the way over my jet lag. Phew. Ella and I woke up on our first full day (Tuesday) a little sleepy still, but we drank our coffee and headed to el metro- the subway. Ella had an earlier orientation so I walked around the streets near Plaza Catalunya for two hours. It made me realize how much I don't mind being alone sometimes. That may sound sad, but it was so much easier to explore and start to check out the area. After my orientation, I met with about 7 other girls and we walked around until we found a cute little place with pastas and focaccia pizzas for lunch. DEE-lish. Then we wandered Las Ramblas which is full of tourists but it has awesome little stands with food, flowers, gifts, and more. I loved how busy it was- made it great for people watching. Then we wandered La Boqueria which is a huge market with stands full of fruit, vegetables, breads, candy, meat, seafood,.. everything. I'm obsessed with farmer's markets so I was in a mini heaven (actually went there again today with Ella and Getty to get fruit to eat with our baguette sandwiches). Then we wandered around more until a welcome gathering at the IES center. After that, Ella and I came home and slept for 2 hours. We ate dinner around 9:45 and it lasted until around 10:30- Mariana looooves to talk during dinner so they're longer than what I'm used to. I don't mind though because it's really helping my Spanish. Soon enough, we were ready to go and headed to a bar called Dow Jones to meet our friends. It was a cool bar where the shot prices change with their supply and demand, but we maybe stayed for about 5 minutes because every other IES kid had heard to go to the same spot. Our group left and walked around the corner to more of a pub place. We sat at the counter and I enjoyed my first beer from Holland. After about an hour there we wandered about 7 blocks up to a street we were told has more fun bars. We found one called Chupitos which seems to be the Cheers of Barcelona. The place has to have at least 200 shots-to name a few- Finding Nemo, Osama bin Laden, Boy Scout.. and over half of them involve the bar or shot being lit on fire. We had fun there because it wasn't too crowded, but a little before 2 we hopped in a cab and headed to the beach to go to a discoteca (love that word) on the beach. It was basically a huge rave with lots of fun music and we danced and ended the night walking on the beach to put our feet in the water. (I actually saw a girl in a white dress get all the way in.. one)brrr. two) bad idea). By 4:30 we hopped in a cab and headed home. Overall- great first night.
Today we had class, met our teacher- she seems really nice, ate lunch outside, and skipped the beach to wander more in the area where IES is. We went and saw the University of Barcelona and it was beautiful! The building is so old but the architecture is gorgeous. All the walls and doors had such intricate designs and the stone was incredible. The school also had multiple terraces with trees, gardens, and benches. I wish we had a building like it in Austin. We also found a bunch of places we want to eat at. Anyways, we went home later, had a delicious hour long dinner with Mariana (every Wednesday she makes spanish tortilla- it has eggs, potatoes, peppers, onions, kinda of quiche like to give you an idea-and it was MMMM YUMM!) So that's life in Spain so far. Tomorrow after class a big group of us is going to the beach for lunch and some sun. Then we're going to a Calvin Harris-whooooo!- concert and it's Emma's birthday- Can't wait! On Saturday, we want to take a day trip to Montserrat so more to come on that adventure! Adios for now!
p.s.- in a market today I bought myself golden grahams for my room- I was already having cereal withdrawal... they taste just as good as they do in America
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