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Adios Barcelona :(

¡Hola familia y amigos! Pienso que esto es la última vez de escribir en España. ¡Qué triste!

Before, I get into how much I’m going to miss Barcelona, I guess I can update you all on what I have been up to during my last couple of weeks here. Well, as you all know, Ben was here for

Thanksgiving, so he decided to stay and travel with me to Seville and Granada last weekend. We had a good time together, although Ben and I have very different feelings when it comes to traveling. We eventually worked them out.

In Seville we stayed at one of the best hostels I have stayed at while in Europe. We met some very interesting people, such as a guy from Australia who decided to walk from France to Spain…no big deal. It was just a 400 km walk (he said). His next trip: he’s going to buy a donkey and go on a year-long hike through northern Spain. Crazy Ausies.

While in Seville, we visited the Cathedral where Christopher Columbus is buried and climbed to the top of the bell tower. We also saw a flamenco show, visited Plaza España, explored the city, and shopped in the Christmas markets. We also met up with one of my friends from NMU who is studying in Seville. She took us out for a night on the town. Jess, I’m still mad at your for the shot! Vodka, Tequila, hot sauce, and pepper??? Gross.

One of my favorite memories from Seville was when Ben ordered his lunch. He order his meal and when he was finished he said, “con todo,” when he should have said “es todo” meaning, “that’s all.” The waiter understood, “con toro.” So…moments later, the waiter came out with a plate of food; meat to be exact. We were both shocked and had no idea what it was! We asked him and he said, “Es toro.” And that’s when I knew…Ben had ordered bull.

After spending a couple days in Seville and having a horrible night’s sleep thanks to the guy snoring all night, we traveled by bus to Granada. Granada was absolutely beautiful. Not to mention, we stayed in a hotel rather than a hostel because they were all booked. While in Granada, we visited the Cathedral where Ferdinand and Isabella are buried, the Alhambra, the markets, and explored the city.

We also had some really good Moroccan food at a local restaurant. I think my favorite thing about Granada was the free tapas you receive when you order a drink. It´s a beautiful thing and saves a lot of money.

We returned to Barcelona on Monday night and Ben returned on Tuesday to Rome to then fly home to the States on Wednesday. I, of course, had school to go to on Wednesday and Thursday. Although the week went by really fast since we only had two days of classes that week. On Friday, I went to Montserrat with Elsa and her dad. I thought we were just going to be hiking around and visiting the touristy stuff up there. Boy was I wrong. Instead we went rock climbing. Yes, actually rock climbing. Let´s just say I am still sore. It was an awesome experience though with amazing views. That night, we went out to dinner with some friends as a going away dinner. We went to this place called Cheese Me. The food was amazing. I had this pasta with pear and cheese filling and with a mushroom, cava, and cheese sauce. Incredible. To top it off, I had a steak!!!!!!! I haven´t had one in forever! What a good way to end the evening.

On Saturday, Brittany and I went to Tarragona with plans to meet up with our Señora and Laura at their Grandma´s house in Calafell. We were in for quite the surprise. While in Tarragona, we saw a lot of Roman ruins. Our favorite was the Roman amphitheater. It was mainly because we were the only ones in there and got to play around in an ancient ruin!
Once we were done in Tarragona, we met our Señora and Laura at the train station. Our first hint that something was up was when we saw them wearing backpacks. Hmm….why are they wearing backpacks when we are just going over for dinner??? Well, maybe they brought some extra foods? Our next hint that something was up was when they asked us if we minded sleeping in bunk beds!!!! What?!?! Sleeping….here? Oh no…we were staying the night at Grandma’s house. When we arrived at Grandma’s house, which was really big and pretty, we began making Tortilla Espanola. We finally learned!! It’s not hard at all, although Brittany has a hard time cracking the eggs.

After dinner, we were getting ready for bed when Laura noticed we didn’t have pajamas. She asked us if we forgot our pajamas. Well…yes we did. Let’s see…that was probably because we didn’t know we were staying overnight! Ha ha. She said she would find us something and boy did her find us something. She came back with these ridiculous pajamas. We all started laughing. I’m pretty sure we were crying because they were so ridiculous.

Needless to say, we wore them. And we watched the Golden Girls in them. Even though it was our last Saturday night in Spain, we still have a good time playing cards and spending the night at Grandmas.

And now for the part about how much I’m going to miss Barcelona….

I have no idea where the time went. If feels like just yesterday, I was meeting my Señora and moving into my room in Barcelona. How the time sure does fly by! It is such a bittersweet feeling to be leaving. I absolutely love it here and could defiantly see myself coming back here in the near future. Who knows…maybe I’ll find a job that has a partnership in Barcelona?

But really, I have had an amazing time here; words cannot even describe my feelings. Studying abroad in Spain was one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life and would never take it back! I have learned so much about life in general. I have gained appreciation for different cultures, met so many incredible people, and traveled to many amazing places. Barcelona has really become home for me. I feel so comfortable here and love everything about it. That is why it is going to be so hard to leave. My Señora and Laura (her daughter) have become family. I love the time we spend together, even though I can’t understand my Señora a good majority of the time because she speaks so darn fast! I’m going to miss her crazy surprises, like chocolate sandwiches and FC Barcelona wine glasses, her crazy stories and animation while telling them, and her YouTube obsession. Remember that one time, Brittany, when we watched cute babies on YouTube for about an hour? And when we watched Mr. Bean perform the imaginary drums? Ha ha.

I think the worst part about leaving is that I am going to have to leave all my friends here that I shared this experience with; most of them, I will probably never see again. It's a strange feeling to have all these memories with people who I might never even talk to again. It's going to seem like this was all a dream; as if it never existed becaues I won't see them everyday anymore. I guess I'll just have to make an effort to keep in touch with people so that this experience doesn't just disappear. With that being said, I hope you all don't get sick of me talking about my time here. Please, just bare with me :)

I don’t even know what else to say. I wish I could bring everyone to Barcelona to experience what I have experienced here.

Well, for one last time, here is my agenda for the rest of the week/time in Spain:
- Finals
- Packing
- Shopping for wine/olive oil
- GOING OUT FOR THE LAST TIME
- Flying home on Thursday

¡Adiós para la última vez de España! Besssitos!

Bueno…lo siento chicos. Estoy muy ocupada, no funciona el internet, y tengo muchos tareas y presentaciones.

Ay…where to begin? Well it has been a couple of weeks since I have written and a lot has happened during those two weeks. I think the two biggest events that happened were going to Berlin and Ben coming for Thanksgiving. Let’s start with Berlin:

I absolutely loved Berlin! I think that was my favorite city that I have visited so far. I felt right at home, even though I couldn’t communicate with anyone because I don’t know a word of German…well, ok, I know a couple words like ya, nien, unt beir. Just enough. I also felt right at home because everyone was tall!! In Spain, I always stand out of the crowd because I am so tall, but in Germany, I was normal! It was the best feeling ever! I went on this trip with Elsa and Hannah, two girls I met in class and who are a ton of fun to travel with.

We started out our trip by going out to dinner at an authentic German restaurant. It was kind of in the middle of nowhere, but the food was amazing! I got a pork roast with sauerkraut, potato dumplings and gravy. Y, claro, we got a beer as well. The restaurant also had an outdoor beer-garden, which, unfortunately, was closed, but it looked like it would be so much fun in the summer. We decided we would need to go back. We tried to find a bar to go out after dinner, but we were unsuccessful.

La próxima día, we decided to go on a free walking tour of the city. This was one of my favorite things we did in Berlin. We started the tour in Pariser Platz at the Brandenburg Gate. When we arrived at the starting point for our tour, we were split up into different groups and then assigned a tour guide. Our tour guide was Barry. Barry was from Ireland and, at first, we thought he was going to be a horrible tour guide….yes, we judged by his looks. However, he was one of the best tour guides I have ever had. He was hilarious and was so knowledgeable. On our tour, we saw the Berlin Wall, the Reichstag (which was burned and then used by Hitler as an source of blame on the German communists), the location of Hitler’s bunker (now a very popular place to bring dogs to pee), the Holocaust Memorial, the Book Burning Memorial, Checkpoint Charlie, Bebelplatz (which contained an opera house that was boomed twice that Hitler decided to rebuild during the war), Humboldt University, the balcony that Michael Jackson hung his child out of, and much more. Barry also told us the story of the fall of the Berlin wall. It was interesting to find out that it was basically a mistake by the speaker at the press conference.

After our tour, we went to some of the Christmas markets. It was so fun! We ate bratwurst, currywurst, bratkartoffeln (the best thing ever invented – potatoes, onions, and pork), and Glϋwien (warm wine). Yummmmmmmmm. We also did a little shopping, claro. Despues, we went to a famous chocolate shop. We spent quite a while in there and only bought a couple pieces of chocolate. Haha. We then returned to our hostel and got ready for a pubcrawl! The pubcrawl was a blast and ended with a shwarma (sp?). I doesn’t matter; it was the perfect way to end the night.

The next day, we went on another tour through the same company; however this one was not free. This tour went to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. This camp was actually the model camp that set the standard for all the others to follow. There are not even words to describe the feelings felt on this tour. It was very mind opening and, at points, unreal. I saw things that I never thought could be real. I really liked that way our tour guide ended the tour. He said that don’t think of this as what, “Germans are capable of, but what mankind is capable of.” He, himself, had family members that were Nazis, and others that were German Communists in the concentration camps.

After we returned to Berlin, since the concentration camp was outside of the city, we returned to the Christmas market for some more wonderful German food. We also visited the Reichstag. When this building was reconstructed after the fire, they added a glass dome to the top. Now, tourists are able to walk up and around the dome to see a full view of the city. It was incredible to see the city from such a high view. That night, we had every intention of experiencing more of Berlin’s nightlife; however, we were too tired to even leave the hostel. Sad. I guess that fact that our plane left at 7:40 am had a little to do with the fact that we stayed in.
We returned on Sunday stuffed with German food and tons of Milka chocolate; three bars to be exact.

Quotes from the weekend:
“Did you make it yourself?”
“I’d like three Uwiens”
“Where are you from?” “Canada” “Wait, you’re from Canada? So am I!” “I thought you were from Greece.”
“So…what is the name of the stop?” “(insert long German word)” “Um….so what letter does that start with?”
“I can’t get Lady Gaga out of my head” – Barry

Sunday was a day full of homework and relaxation, which will be much needed for the week ahead.

Monday was a wonderful day. For my International Business class, we had a huge group project that we have been working on since the beginning of the semester. Well, on Monday, one of my group members decided he didn’t want to do his part because he was too stressed out with other things. Keep in mind that our presentation/paper was due on Thursday. No big deal. Entonces, my other two groups members and I had to work our butts of the next couple of days trying to finish his part of the project. Luckily, we all were determined to finish and finished just in time.

I also met with my intercambio. You can tell my Spanish is getting better. This time I only told him I ate a shark (tiburón) instead of túrron (a popular Spanish dessert para Navidad) y I told him I had a son (hijo) instead of brother (hermano). No worries, he only freaked out a little bit.

Wednesday Ben arrived and we went out to dinner with Brittany’s sister, brother in-law, and best friend. I tried to relax a little before my presentation the next day by drinking about half a bottle of wine. Good life choice.

Thursday I gave my presentation. Let’s just say, I’m glad it’s over and I never want to visit China. It was also our little sister’s birthday and we gave her Reese’s. She went crazy! She absolutely loved them.

Ben and I did a lot of touring this weekend. We visited la Sagrada Familia, Park Gruell, Barrio Gótica, Las Ramblas, Montjuic, La Boqueria, y muchos más. We also did a lot of eating and drinking. I think I gave Ben a good taste of the Barcelona nightlife. So good, that he fell asleep at a bar and in the taxi. The picture below is the whole gang: Brittany, Hannah, Ben, Everet and Ashley!

The only bad thing about the weekend was the fact that I got my wristlet stolen. No big deal; just lost my phone, camera, keys, money, and metro card. Eeeek.

Quotes from the weekend:
“Becky, I can’t get in.” (Dos veces)

Next on the agenda:

-3 most presentations to go!

- Sevilla and Granada on Thursday

- Going out much and taking advantage of my last days in Barcelona :(

Besitos!

Girona, Figures, Fútbol, Amsterdam

Oops...kind of forgot to update :(

Hmm...what have I been up to for the past two weeks? Well...two weekends ago we went to Girona y Figures, which are both small towns located north of Barcelona. In Girona, we went on a walking tour of the old city. It used to be a walled city, like Barcleona, and still has a lot of the wall still standing. We got to walk on the wall and see the beautiful view from the top of it. We also saw the Arab Baths of Girona. It was reall cool to see these old bath/sauna houses that they used to use. The sad thing about Girona is that the French came and stole a lot of the statues and destroyed a lot of the city :( Pero, there is still a lot of interesting things to see.

After our guided tour, we went to Figures where we visited the Dalí museum. Dalí designed the entire museum so the entire museum is a work of art. The outside of the museum is pink with egg like sculptures on the top. Its sounds very strange and, well, it is very strange. He is also buried inside. Since there is no guided tours through the museum (because Dalí wanted visitors to tour freely throught the museum and get what they want out of it), we had a scavenger hunt that our program gave to us. Whoever answered the most questions right, won. And yes...guess who won...................ME! haha. I won a Dalí elefante. Sounds strange...well it´s Dalí.

That night Brittany, Elsa and I went to go see 500 days of summer at a local theater that plays movies in their original language. The theater was so small and so cute. And yes, they do sell popcorn there. They also sell beer in the vending machine....quite interesting. The movie was very good and despues we found a crepe place and ate crepes.....yum. I got a banana and nutella crepe. Perfect ending to the day.

The next day we decided to go shopping, what else is new? At least everytime we go shopping we go to different malls. Haha. Then, that night we went to the FC Barcelona fútbol game. This time Brittany and I had much better seats. The game was good, but they didn´t play their best and Messi only played for half of the second half. However, he did score the penalty shot. After the game, Elsa and I went out to the IceBar. Its the first Ice Bar in the world and its located on the beach. It was very fun and the drinks were so good. The entire bar is made of ice including the seats and the cups. If you don´t drink your drink fast enough, it starts to freeze...DRINK UP! We only lasted about 30 minutes inside and then we went outside to warm up and stand under a heater. Haha.

Sunday, we spent the day lounging around with our family; watching movies and chatting. Also, the internet stopped working that day...que malo! The following days were the same old same old. School, homework, research. Wednesday I went to see La Bella y La Bestia (Beauty and the Beast) the musical in Spanish. I was surprised how much I understood! I understood almost all of the speaking parts...the songs were a little harder to understand, but I knew what was going on. I think my favorite part was hearing Lumiere speak in Spanish with a French accent. Que interestante!

Thursday, Brittany, Lindsey and I left for Amsterdam. Our tripped didn´t start out so well. I found out that my bank canceled my debit card and the airlines lost Brittany´s luggage. Usually we don´t check our luggage, but this was the first time we were not flying with RyanAir (a cheap airlines that makes you pay when you want to check your luggage) and we were allowed to check our luggage for free so we figured...por qué no? Well, we should have carried it on. Then, we had to take a train in order to get into the city after we arrived...well, the train decided not to show up, so we were stuck in the train station till 2am. Awesome. We did however entertain ourselves with Lindsey´s kid´s meal toy from Burger king....Patrick from Sponge Bob Square Pants.

Besides the start to our trip, Amsterdam was beautiful. I think it is one of my favorite cities that I have traveled to so far. On Friday, we went to the Anne Frank house. I don´t even know how to describe it; there are no words. It was very powerful to be standing in her room where she wrote her diary. We got to walk through their entire hiding place. We walked through the secret passage way that was covered with a bookcase. It was amazing. Really sad, but amazing.

After that, we went on a walking tour of the city. It was very interesting to learn the history of Amsterdam. Amsterdam is named after the river Amstel (like the beer) and the dam that was built on the river...very creative. It was also, at one time, the financial power of the world. Amsterdam is centered around business and making money. They will do anything to make money; hense why almost everything is legal. We also had the famous Dutch pancakes and also went on a pub crawl. Want to hear something crazy?? You have to pay to use the bathrooms at the bars! See...Amsterdam will do anything to make money. I tried to bargain with them. "But what if we all go together and only flush once?" Yup, we still had to pay :(

Saturday, we went to the Heinkien Factory, the IAMSTERDAM sign, the Van Gough Museum, a romantic canal cruise (right Brittany?), and the Red Light District. The Heinkien factory was so much fun. We went into a simulator where you pretended like you were a Heinkein beer and were being brewed and bottled. It was hilarious seeing everyone pretending to be bottles. We were also able to record a video of use signing karaoke to a Dutch song and then send it to people. The Van Gough museum was also very impressive. I love his work. It's amazing to see how many pieces of art one person can paint in their life. I could never paint enough paintings to fill an entire musuem! Our romantic canal cruise for two was through this company called "Lovers"...haha...it was interesting. And...the Red Light District. Wow, can you say culture shock? Didn't see that one coming. If you want to know more...just ask. haha. Sunday we came home :(

And now...it's just another Monday.

Agenda for the week:
- 2 papers
- 4 presentations
- Meet with intercambio

- BERLIN on Thursday!!

Quotes from the weekend:

- "But what if we all go together and don't flush..."

- "I only have 25 cents"

- "Patrick!!"

- "Bwittney is such a charwictor"

- "There's a cat in our hostel"

- "Is this train going to Central Station? No? GET OFF GET OFF!"

- "Lindsey, help us!" "I can't...we need to leave"

- "This is the cutest little street I've ever seen!" "I know, let's walk down it" "...so yea, that was the red light district"

- "I love men with bodies like yours"

- "Yesterday there were three, and now there are only two." "Yea, we lost one" "Oh, it was a difficult night?"

- "Pues siiiiiiiiiiiii"

- "Lindsey, you are a horrible mother..." "You're a horrible mother, you lost Patrick in the Van Gough museum"

- Pancakes.....

...y ya está. Hasta luego. Muchos besssoos!

La Ovella y La Mantequilla, no es La Aveja y La Mariquita

Hola, hola, hola!

I think I just had the longest weekend of my life, primarily because it started on Wednesday. Last week we had midterms, which, for me, ended on Tuesday! It felt so good to be done with everything that we decided to start the weekend a little early.

Pues, Wednesday we went to L'Ovella Negra, a local bar that is muy divertido! Me encanta. También, muchas días conocer personas nuevas de Barcelona. Anyway, we went there for a couple of beers, some sangria, and to socialize. It was a chill night, but a good way to celebrate. And yes, for all you parents reading, I did make it to my 9am class on Thursday morning!

On Thursday, after going to class of course, we decided to go out again. ¿Por qué no? We don´t have class on Friday. So, we decided to go to Bar Marsella. Bar Marsella is one of Barcelona´s oldest bars. Hemmingway, Picasso, and Dalí were known to go there back in the day. Also, at this bar, they sell Absinthe, which is an alcoholic beverage that is (parents cover your eyes) illegal in the States, only because it is too strong for us Americans. Seeing as I am basically Spanish now, I figured I could handle it. It is actually a pretty interesting process in order to drink it. The bartender hands you a glass (about 1/3 full) of Absinthe, a fork, a sugar cube, and a bottle of water. First, you dip the sugar cubes in the Absinthe to allow them to soak up the alcohol. Then you place the fork across the top of the glass and put the sugar cubes on the fork. You then take a lighter and light the sugar cubes on fire. When the flame goes out, you spray sugar cubes with the water and mix it all together. The end result should be a full glass that looks kind of like lemonade. We were not successful on our first try and therefore had to drink a very strong glass of Absinthe. However, we mastered it on the second glass :) We then attempted to go to a club, however, the line was enormous and Brittany's foot got crushed. Don't worry though, I made her elevate it and it is all better now!

On Friday, we woke up around noon, at lunch, an decided to go shopping. Well, you can never go wrong with shopping and of course we were very productive :) That night, we ate pizza for dinner (this will come in play later in the story). Our señora ordered us our own pizza for the two of us. Of course, we didn´t finish it, however we put the last two pieces in the refridgerator for later. So, once again, we went out. We ended up at L'Ovella Negra once again. This is where Brittany found the love of her life (not really). However, she was able to practice her Spanish again, only this time he was not a native Spanish speaker...actually he lived in England. Before finding this out, she asked him if he wanted to practice his English while she practiced her Spanish. He answered in perfect English...nevermind. haha. We finished off the night at a club called City Hall, and luckily, we didn't have to pay for a cab because we stayed out long enough for the metro to open up again! Again, parents, we are only trying to be financially smart. Well, when we got home...we were a little hungry and we knew that there was some leftover pizza in the refridgerator. I think you can figure out where this story is going...yes, we ate the leftover pizza out of our Señoras fridge. Oops. The best part is, the next day at lunch, our Señora said, "La pizza fue rico no?" She knew....

Saturday was a lazy day. We lounged around all day. But then we remembered that we didn't have Halloween outfits. So at about 5pm, we decided we should probably go find some. We looked for about 2-3 hours and finally settled on being a bee and a lady bug. Our Señora loved our costumes, but her friend thought it was strange that we weren't something scary. After getting ready, we went to say goodbye to our Señora. We stayed and talked to her for about an hour. She taught us the words for bee and ladybug in Spanish, but we kept messing them up. "Aveja" is bee and "mariquita" is ladybug is Spanish. However, we kept saying "ovella and mantequilla" which means sheep and butter. haha. Also we learned that you have to say "UNA mariquita" because if you don't it means you are gay. We had a good time. The rest of the night was way to much fun. Let's just say we took 80 pictures while waiting for the metro, fell asleep with the lights on and snuggling my computer, and my keys were found in the toilet the next morning. ¿Quieres pan Brittany?

Sunday was All Saints Day. Because it was a holiday, Jorge (Laura´s father) came over to eat and spend the day with us. Let´s just say socializing, and eathing seafood is very hard when you are hungover :( I'm pretty sure our Señora wants to test our stomachs every Sunday morning. She also offered me wine, and made me smell this cherry liquor that she has.

A tradition they have here is they eat panallets, castañas (roasted chestnuts), and boniatos (sweet potatoes). Entonces, later in the day, we had these as a snack. These went over a lot better than the seafood...

Today and Monday, were the same as they always are.

Things on the agenda for this week:

- Ice Bar

- Girona y Figures

- FC Barcelona game on Saturday

- La Bella y La Bestia (Beauty and the Beast) on Sunday

-Shopping?

- Parc Cuidadella?

- And, homework of course...

Adios! Bessssssssssos!

Otras cosas que he aprendido en España

I have been here for almost 2 months now and have learned some more things/have noticed some cultural differences. Here are some. Disfrútate!

- The mullet is a popular haircut here
- People dress with the season, not with the weather. For example, if it's 70 degrees in October, people wear jeans, long sleeve shirts, jackets, boots, etc. I wore shorts and got strange looks.
- People think I'm French. I have gotten "merci" more than I have gotten "gracias"
- Pico means beak, not apartment
- Spanish men are short
- Germans are tall, large, and generally good looking (must be where I get my good looks from!)
- "Hamburger" said in English by a German is the funniest thing ever!
- Swedish people speak almost perfect English
- Cava is my new favorite drink
- The TV series "Friends" is called "Colegas" in Spanish and I think it's 10 times funnier!
- It's true that Europeans don't shave.
- Finding shaving cream here was hard...and they only had 1 type to choose from.
- Nata means whipped cream...not scum
- The Marilyn Monroe peircing is very popular
- Spanish people judge you by your shoes
- Cheese flavored snacks do not exist in Spain
- My English is getting worse...You thought my spelling was bad before...Dios mio! Ahora es horrible!
- When Spanish people speak in English, they have British accents
- Gofres con chocolate (chocolate waffles) are my new favorite snack.
- They sell beer at McDonalds, but not at the Barcelona soccer games
- "¿Tienes sueño?" means "Are you tired" not "Did you have dreams?" Do not respond with "No recuerdo (I don't remember)"
- Dogs are so well trained here!! The other day, I saw a dog waiting for its owner outside a shop without a leash. The dog was like a British guard...I tried distracting it and it wouldn't even look at me.
- Nudity is normal
- Spanish children in school uniforms are adorable
- Soccer is a religion
- People smoke like it's there job
- It is legal to drink alcohol on the streets, in the metro...basically wherever you want.
- They don't refridgerate their eggs here and they don't refridgerate their milk until it is opened
- Ice cubes are rare

I think that is all for now, I'm sure I'll have more later!

Hasta luego! Besos

Mallorca, bird pee, and nata.

Well, it is about that time of the year for midterms...so what do Brittany and I decide to do?? Stay in Barcelona and study our brains away??? No way, we decided to go to an island in the Mediterranean called Mallorca. We were looking at airplane tickets one night and noticed that a round trip flight to Mallorca was 15 euro ($23)!!! Que guay! So we bought them. The flight was only 40 minutes, however it left at 7:50 in the morning and the airport is an hour away. Eekk! After waking up at 3:15 am, taking a bus to Plaza Catalunya (main plaza here), catching a taxi to the bus station, and taking a bus to the airport, we finally arrived around 6:15am to the airport. Since we were there that early, we treated ourselves to a McDonalds breakfast! Yummy.

Once we arrived in Palma, Mallorca, we had to take a bus to Plaza España to transfer to another bus to take us to our hostel. Well...being unfamilar with the trasportation system, we got on the right bus going the wrong way. We rode the bus all the way to the end of the line, where it stopped, the bus driver got off and locked us on the bus!!! So here we are, on the ourskirts of Palma, completely out of our way, locked on a bus. Awesome. After about 10 minutes, the bus driver returned, let more people on and continued on our way, this time in the right direction. We finally arrived at our hostel about an hour later because it was located at the last stop at the other end of the line. So what should have been a 25 minute ride from the airport to our hostel, turned into a 2 hour trip! I guess it wasn't so bad, because when we arrived at the hostel, our room wasnt ready anyway.

We walked around a bit, got some ice cream, por supuesto, and returned to our hostel about an hour later to get our room. We then changed into our suits and headed to la playa! The beach was glorious; just the thing we needed. We took a little siesta. While I was napping, I felt a little drip on my head...I thought, "Is it raining?" No...it wasn't raining. Just a bird overhead...

I heard that getting pooped on by a bird is good luck, but I'm not really sure about pee. However, getting peed on TWICE has got to mean something. Yes, you read that right. About 30 minutes later, I felt another drip...another bird. Gross. We headed back to hostel, got some tapas & sangria, and headed to bed.

Saturday, we slept in, which was amazing. Something I haven't done in a long time. Then we decided to take an old vintage train to a small port town called Soller. The train was so cute and it went through the mountains which was so beautiful. We arrived to Soller around convienently around lunch time. Perfect. I treated myself to some pealla...I just can't get enough! Me lo encanta! And, of course, after lunch we found an ice cream place and got ice cream otra vez :)

Then, we hopped on a tram that took us down to the port. It was absolutely breath-taking! Pictures do not even do it justice. We found some beach chairs and plopped ourselves down on the beach. Total relaxation! Unfortunately, we could not stay there all day. We had to catch a train back to our hostel. We finished our night by getting drunk in our hostel while listening to Brittany Spears and Baby Got Back....hahaha. Just kidding...or am I?

The next morning at the airport consisted of NOT seedless grapes, and trying to figure out what was in these boxes that EVERYONE was bringing back with them from Mallorca. We obviously did not get the memo.

When we arrived home to Barcelona, we were greeted by our textbooks. They were so happy to see us, however the feeling was not mutual. Our señora suprised us with chocolate in bed though as a bust to our studying! It was nice. My favorite part of the night was when we were eating dinner and our señora asked us if we liked to eat "nata." We didn't know what it meant, so Laura looked it up on the computer. The online dictionary said "nata" meant "scum." So she asked us again..."Te gusta scum?" HAHAHA Brittany and I started cracking up. We said no!! But we found out later that "nata" means "whipped cream" so I changed my answer to yes :)

Well, I should probably get back to studying for midterms...I'm so good at distracting myself.

The agenda for this week:

-Two midterms tomorrow

-Halloween (we are being Fanta girls!)

-Ice bar?

-Outlet mall shopping?

-Homework?

-No sé hay más

Adios! Besossssssssssss