¡Un gol por España!

I'm sitting here watching the World Cup with my host mom and roommate. Spain is about to win (there are 2 minutes left). It's been such an exciting game! They've made so so so many goal attempts and there have been lots of close calls (okay, Spain just won. Yay!). After watching the USA struggle, this was a nice affirmation of how exciting and rewarding fútbol really is. It was also nice to sit and share it with my host mom - I don't feel like I "hung out" with her enough this summer. Usually between lunch and dinner I'd be doing work in my room or out in Madrid, and after dinner I hung out in my room, many times with the door shut. With something like soccer, you don't really need words to have an authentic experience with someone - rooting for your team crosses all language barriers.

I also finished up my work today, which was nice. I had one final essay to write (which clocked in at about 6 pages double spaced - not a lot, but it was all in Spanish!) and I submitted my entire notebook this afternoon at 5:30. I knew, then, that I wanted to be outside. I've missed the sun - I haven't spent a large amount of time outside since I went to the beach at Barcelona two and a half weeks ago. Being outside is one of my favorite pastimes.

My time here is running out - we have three more days - and instead of rushing around Madrid to visit all the attractions I never got around to seeing, this evening I knew I wanted to just sit and enjoy the city. I wanted to lie on the ground using my purse as a pillow and feeling the sun on my arms and face and smelling the air and just experience this place, this new home of mine, before I have to give it up for who-knows-how-long. So that's exactly what I did, and it felt great. A perfect evening :)

Yikes!

So, I was talking to my mom last night and she said that I really needed to update this thing! Which is completely true - ever sine Barcelona, we've gotten busier and busier with school. In fact, classes are now OVER! I just have an exam on Wednesday and I need to finish up a final paper - and do all the other work I haven't completed, yet. Nuts!

I do still want to update you guys on what has happened, so I'll start with where I left off and make new posts as I complete assignments! A win-win situation!

Barcelona

Although I'm glad I went to Barcelona with the group, it was a huge money-drain. We had to buy overnight train tickets, book a hostel, and pay for all of our food. And, honestly, I much prefer Madrid and the other places we've visited. Why? The Catalán is one thing - I didn't feel like I was practicing my Spanish (and I wasn't, actually, since we spoke English with each other). Also, the city is not as "friendly" as Madrid. What do I mean by that? It's very, very touristy and thus has a lot of pickpocketers. Although nothing was stolen in our group, a few people did lose some very important belongings by being reckless. The train ride was awful and guaranteed no sleep because of the small compartment we were in - I did wind up flying back to Madrid with four other people the evening before. And, all the nice clubs were ~1 hour away walking, so I either didn't go out or killed my feet. Humph.

But, it wasn't all bad. Barcelona has a BEACH, for one thing, so that's where I was every day for an hour or two. I got a great tan! (It's now gone.) Europeans, as I had heard previously, aren't much for modesty. Most of the men were in speedos and a huge proportion of the women were topless. No big deal, right?

We also did some sightseeing. We visited two very unique monuments designed by someone we had talked about in class (Antoni Gaudí): Sagrada Familia and Casa Milà.


(My pictures weren't very good, so this is from Wikipedia). You'll notice that it's still under construction - although work began in 1882, it's not expected to be completed until 2026 due to a halt in construction during the Spanish Civil War, which began in 1936.


(Also from Wikipedia) This "house" was originally built for a wealthy couple.

We also visited Parque Güell, a huge garden/park also designed by Gaudí. We hiked uphill for 436 steps (I counted), then we discovered they had a tourist escalator a block away from where we started. Oh well. I have pictures of this one!

It's so green!


Archways/the tunnel
More neat architecture (my captions are so creative today..)

The main plaza.

Me in the park, photo-bombed by John.

We wanted to see the lit-up fountains that night, so we had to kill some time and eat dinner. The group split up (it's impossible for 20 people to agree on a place to eat, and also, a good portion of our group simply likes to eat McDonalds wherever we go). After a lot of wandering and getting lost, we found a random Catalán restaurant owned by a Chinese family. One of the girls in our group is from China, so they spoke Chinese and she was able to tell us about all the items in the menu. It was a lovely dinner, definitely one of the highlights of the trip. When we exited at ~9:30 (the fountains were from 9-11, I believe), we saw huge blue streaks across the sky - picture Superman, or something. My camera isn't very good, but here's the best I've got:

Turns out it was leading the way back to the fountains - how thoughtful.


This picture is TILTED (so sad!) but it is a good representation - basically the colors and shape/size of the water varied (and was constantly changing). At one point they had classical music playing along, which was nice.

View up-close.

Okay! That concludes my trip to Barcelona. So, I'm caught up until June 6 - go me! I'll try to crank out another update today after I get some work done. Also, I'll be home in 6 days (my birthday!!). I can't wait!

I'll leave you with a panorama of the city:

Blogging from Barcelona!

¡Hola a todos! I´m in Barcelona, Spain, currently. It is 18:08 o´clock and I´m finding it incredibly difficult to type on this Spanish keyboard. We took an overnight train ride at around 11:30 last night for 8 hours. It was INCREDIBLY small! We saw some cots while walking to our traincar and got super excited, but those apparently were for people who had paid more - we got stuck with 8 people in a 5x6 comparement. That´s 30 sq. ft for 8 people. There were 2 rows of 4 seats facing each other, and we had 7 Dukies + 1 random Spanish dude who left at 1am. Sleeping was incredibly difficult and none of us really got much sleep. I slept for maybe 3 hours which is probably the most out of everyone! It was also incredibly hot and the a/c wouldn´t come on. :( I´m seriously considering flying back even though I already have my return ticket. I don´t know if I can do that again.

But, at around 7:30 am, we finally made it to Barcelona! We had to purchase a metro pass to our Hostel which was about 15 mins away. We couldn´t check in yet so we put our stuff in lockers, changed, and went to the beach, which was a few metro stops away + a small walk.

Upon reaching the beach, we were delighted to see rows of beach chairs with umbrellas scattered throughout. Beach heaven, especially since I forgot to bring a beach towel. About 30 minutes later, the reverie was broken when we spotted a man going from beach chair to beach chair requesting money. Apparently the beach chairs were 2 for 17€... that´s more than $20. Just to sit in the chairs, not to buy them or anything. RIPOFF! So we moved down to the sand before he could see us and spent a few hours there. The water was freezing! Also, the sand is a darker brown than normal.

Then we showered (the hot water ran out for me... worst shower I´ve ever taken in my life, probably) and went to eat lunch, then wandered around town a little. So far, I´m a little underwhelmed by the sightseeing, but we´re going other places tonight. Also, the language here (and thus, all the signs) is NOT Spanish.. it´s Catalán, which is a strange mixture of French and Spanish. That´s why the keyboards have these: ççççç as one of the keys. Crazy!