so i have a lot to fill you in on haha. lets start with
last week:
started the class orientation - had to sit through boring presentations from each professor, but they were helpful so it's okay. found out that someone i went to high school with is studying here too - small world eh? (how cliche) and i guess that was pretty much it for the week, well until
thursday:
we left at like 10:45 for... barcelonaaa!! haha took an overnight bus, and got there at like 7 am. upon realizing we couldn't check in until at least 11 am, andrew baby gave us the idea to book it to the beach and watch the sunrise. we got there a little after it had come up but still pretty early so it was fun. so bummed around there, played in the meditteranean and then luckily found a bus that took us straight to our hostel, but through the city so we could see everything. the
hostel:
was at the top of barcelona, i guess you could say north of the city, but well not really cos barcelona's like on it's side, so we were on the far west side of the city. about 20 min away but worth it. it was really pretty, nice and quiet for a change (from my room above a traffic plaza that is). we got there around 10:30 - figured thirty minutes early wouldn't hurt, and then found out we couldn't actually check in until 2 pm. so they were nice and let us freshen up a little, leave our luggage in a room, and we took off for parc guell. it's this park that was created by some guy but had lots of help from antoni gaudi (famous famous architect especially in barcelona, i.e. our two days turned out to be tours of gaudi buildings). so the parc was awesome, and at like one of the highest points in the city. so from the top of, i guess a mountain?, the park you could see the entire city. it was awesome, like really. and there were a couple houses that were designed by gaudi, and this common area. it was like a dirt balcony kinda but huge, and you could go underneath it. and there were these awesome benches that had mosaic designs by, of course, gaudi, it was just really cool to see. so after the park, a texan/spaniard/english-man helped us find a bus that would take us straight to
la segrada familia:
this is like a giant cathedral that gaudi designed but never got to finish. so now like 5 architects are collaborating to finish it inthe style that he would have, but it's supposed to take more than 30 years to finish. after that, and freakin tonsss of walking, we decided to head home to nap, freshen up again, lol and get ready to
go out!:
we wanted to have our first spanish night out. so we went to plaza españa cos theres supposed to be like a nightly fountain show thing, but we missed it, and had already walked a long way from our metro so we found a bus to take. jerk drove right by us. so we had to walk ourselves back to the metro - take note that i'm already walking barefoot by now which is a huge no no in spain. so we took the metro to the top of las ramblas. we were supposed to meet up with our other friends there (btw i went with four other girls, and then there was a group of four others that ended up staying at a different hostel). upon arriving at las ramblas, we called our friends to meet up with them - who forgot to tell us that they were at the bottom of las ramblas and wanted us to meet them down there. tired of taking the metro and def. tired of walking, we bailed on them and just found a tapería to eat at. that was nice :) oh okay so ps las ramblas is this long section of street that has an area in the middle that cars can't drive on so theres all kinds of street vendors, like art, jewelry, souvenirs, pets haha they totally had rabbits, people giving shows for money, like dressed up as cool things or statues and whatnot. lol it's cool. but so we ate, and then being tired and grumpy from an 8 hour bus ride of inconsistent sleep bailed to the hostel for the night.
saturday:
(yes, that was all friday) we got up and headed for la casa batlló. another gaudi house that was designed to look like underwater aquaticy fishy type. lol it's gorgeous. as i'm running pretty low on money, they all took a tour inside the house and i window shopped. then again in the theme of saving money, we decided saturday would be american saturday - ie we ate at mcdonalds and pizza hut for the day haha. awesomeee! but so after batlló we walked down las ramblas (see description above...) and finally ended up at the gothic quarter which at first was not what we thought it would be. until we found the really cool buildings. lol so again, tired of walking, we headed back to our hostel (stopping for pizza hut on the way). went to bed that night with alarms set for...
8:30 am sunday:
which was when we had to get up to catch the bus back. wasn't so bad, okay so we walked up the hill to the metro, metroed to the bus station, and spent 8 hours again on the bus. not too bad, because as tired as we were, it made it easy to sleep. finally made it home around 7 pm, and then passed out at 11. lol quite a long, but awesome weekend :)
this coming weekend we're going on a school sponsored trip to cordoba and sevilla, so that will be fun. thank god i don't have to spend money cos i'm definitely lacking in that area... but march comes too soon :)
so today was the first day of classes. i'm currently in the computer lab, attempting to waste 3 more hours until my next class. hence i decided to write you this novel haha. but i had coloquial spanish and professional spanish this morning, with periodismo (like media communications i guess) and geography tonight until like 7. spectacular... not... but should be interesting. all my friends are pretty much in the same classes, if not theres at least one or two people i know so it's not bad at all. and i'm excited about my language classes that i had this morning. having those two and then my actual spanish lesson later on tuesdays and thursdays will make me like fluent = yeah!! haha oh well. on to my next activity... library? nah i'll stick to more facebook stalking... hey what's your name? i'll friend you ;)
