Barca, Barca, Baaaaaaaarrrrrrca!

Hola todos!

I didn't realize how long it has been since I updated last. Since my last update, I said I was going to a Barcelona football (soccer) game. Camp Nou, the stadium that Barce plays in, is the largest in Europe seating just under 100,000 people! We started off our little adventure by going to McDonalds for dinner. Yes, you heard me right. It was actually quite a crazy experience. Europeans love McDonalds! The McDonalds we went to was the most crowded McDonalds I have ever seen in my life. A worker walked through the lines with an electronic ordering pad and took your order. She then handed you a slip of paper with your order number and the cost of your order. When you got up to the counter, you hand the cashier your slip, pay him, and they had you your food! And, kids meals come with a dessert! How cool is that! haha. Also, McDonalds in Europe are decorated like actual, nice sit-down resturants. All in all, it was a memorable experience.



Despues, after having a few cervezas of course, we headed to the stadium. It was enourmous! The largest stadium I have ever seen! The game was so much fun! I love how the fans are so into the game. Everyone is cheering, singing, screaming, laughing. It atmosphere is incredible. However, they do not sell any alcohol at the games, which we found every interesting. They only sell cerveza sin alcohol (beer without alcohol). Also, Barcelona has it's own theme song, which Brittany and I tried to sing, but it didn't go over so well. We officially have the clapping and cheering down, but not the song lyrics. Some day...


Barcelona won, of course, 5 - 2 of Atletico Madrid, with Messi scoring the last goal to end the game. It was awesome to see that many goals. After the game, Brittany and I were so exhasted, we didn't even go out. Give us some credit though, the game didn't start till 10pm.


Sunday, Brittany, Stephanie, and I hiked up to Tibidabo, which is the highest point in Barcelona. At the top there is an amusement park and a church with one of the largest statues of Jesus in the world. From the top, you can see a gorgeous view of Barcelona. We didn't ride any of the rides because, well, they looked a little sketchy... I don't know, something about sitting in a rollercoaster car over the edge of the mountian doesn't strike me as fun, or safe.

Monday and Tuesday were uneventful, since we had class all day. There is nothing fun about that! haha. Today, I had class in the morning and then my afternoon class was cancelled! What a way to start off the weekend, since there is no class tomorrow because of Mercé. Mercé is a festival celebrating one of the parton saints of Barcelona.

This weekend should be very busy but fun! My parents arrived in Spain on Monday and will be in Barcelona starting Friday. I have a full itinerary planned for them (like father like daughter). Also, last night my señora decided to have them over for lunch on Saturday. She said it will be like an examén to see how good my spanish really is because, as most of you know, my parents don´t speak any spainsh. My dad thinks he can speak spanish, so this should be pretty interesting. Stay tuned to see how that goes...

Culture shocks so far:

• Nude beaches
• People don't say excuse me...they just push their way past you
• The first floor of a building is level 0, the second floor is called primero, and the third floor is 1. This means the when your class is on the second floor, it is really on the 4th! Not cool.
• Oil is put on everything
• There are no dryers so your underware hangs outside to dry for everyone to see
• People take their dogs EVERYWHERE
• If your name is Brittany, they will compare you to Brittany Spears (haha right Brit?)
• Everything closes from 3 - 5pm
• Pig/ham is extremely popular - I think I have eaten every type of pig already

I think that is all for now! Hasta luego!

Cavas, Sitges, and Magic Fountains

Hola todos!

The past couple days have been busy with classes and tours. On Thursday, we went on a tour of the Barrí Gótica en Barcelona. This is the oldest part of Barcelona and was settled before Christ! Crazy, huh? This part of town used to be a wall, Roman city. You can still see part of the wall today, but there is only one part of the old Roman city that still remains. The picture to the left shows these remains; collums from a temple. We also visited the old main plaze, where Christopher Columbus was greated after discovering America. Then we say the Barcelona cathedral, which remineded me a lot of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. It was beautiful and one of Barelona's partron saints, Eulalia, is buried inside.

Thursday night, Brittany, Lindsey and I decided to check out some bar in our area in hopes of meeting some locals and practicing our spanish. We went to this bar called El Dorado. We were all of 12 people in there. However, we did meet some locals. They asked us to play fooseball, which I found out Spanish take just as seriously as soccer, and pool. In comparison to these locals, we sucked at fooseball. Let's just say I scored three goals the whole night, two of which were for the other team. Brittany played very well, but was then yelled at for spinning the fooseball players, which is not allowed. We then moved on to pool. I made two ball is, but they didn't count because the game was already over. All in all, we had fun and were able to practice a little bit of our Spanish: mission accomplished.

Yesterday, we traveled to Cordonui, which is one of the world's largest wineries; the wine cellars are over 30km when combined! It was incredible and beautiful. They make about 50 million bottles of wine and cava a year. Cava is Catalan sparkling wine, which tastes amazing. It was very interesting to learn the process of making cava; the fermenting processes, the aging processes, the sentiment removing processes. I loved it. After we were told about how it was made, we hopped on a little tram-car-train thing and rode through the oldest part of the winery, which was dug out by workers back in the 1800's. We also went into the room where the first bottles of cava were made at this winery. The founder also saved the first grape vine (picture to the left) he used and coved it in metal so it would last forever! My favorite part of the tour was the end, when we got to try the cava. It was some of the best wine I have ever had, which of course led me to buy my own bottle :)

After our winery tour, we headed to Sitges, which is a small sea side town. It was really cute and the beach was beautiful. However, it was too windy to lay out. We decided instead to sample some helado (ice cream), which wasn't too bad of a compromise!

We finished our evening off by going to the magic fountian show at Montjuic in Barcelona. It was so romantic; wish I had someone to share it with :(

On the agenda for today: BARCELONA SOCCER GAME!! Can't wait to hear them say "GOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAALLLLLLLL"

Adios!

Constipation means "to have to poop"

Hola!

I have now officially been gone for 2 weeks. It is crazy to think how much I have done. It seems like I have been here longer than that.

We have been in school for a full week now. I really enjoy how the classes are so diverse. In fact, it is often quite entertaining. For example, on Monday, our professor was talking about introducing products into foreign markets and how in depth research is required before releasing the product. As an example, she talked about introducing a constipation medicine into India. Almost half the class is German and not quite fluent in English so they didn't know what "constipation" meant. Instead of the teacher explaining it, she asked us native speakers to do the honor. One kid said, "it means to be clogged up." Then the German's asked, "what does 'clogged up' mean?" So another kid adds another definition that they don't understand. Finally, someone shouts out, "it's when you can't poop!!" It was quite entertaining. I think the professor could have picked a better example...

In addition to going to class, we have been doing touristy things as well. This past weekend we went to Park Gruell, la Sagrada Familia, la playa (beach), and of course, shopping! The Park Gruell was really pretty. It was initially supposed to be a private community, however, at the time, it was very far from the center of the city and not many people wanted to live there. Only two houses were built out of the 60 that were planned to be built and Gaudi, the architect, lived in one of them. To the left is a picture of the view of Barcelona from Park Gruell. Que bonito no? Also, on of the finales of America's next top model was shot in the park. Of course we had to practice our modeling. Ms. Jay would be so proud :)

As mentioned, we also went to la Sagrada Familia, which is Gaudi's masterpiece, although it is not finished yet. They are estimating that it will take another 30 years to finish. Que loco! I'm going to be 51 before they finish it...that is only if they stay on target. Brittany and I decied that we will have to do a reunion trip in 30 years to see if they have finished la Sagrada Familia!

The beach was nice as well. However, I saw more than I wanted to see, if you know what I mean. It definently is true that Europeans are more comfortable with their bodies than Americans. I'll leave it at that!

Last night we went to an Irish bar to watch Monday Night Football. We didn't end up watching the entire game being that kickoff wasn't till 1am and halftime was around 2:30am. I wish I could have watched the Bears play on Sunday. I'll just have to wait until they play on Monday night.

This weekend is full of activities! On Thursday we have a tour of the Gothic part of Barcelona. Friday, we are going to Sitges, which is a beach town close to hear, as well as a winery. Then, on Saturday, Brittany and I are going to a Barcelona soccer game!!!!!!!!!!!! We are so excited! It should be an amazing experience. We can't wait. On top of those activities, we'll probably through in some more touristy things to do. You know what they say...when in Rome. Maybe that doesn't apply here....

Hasta luego y muchos besos!

Perchas y Cervezas

Hola amigos y familia!

It has been 5 days since I arrived in Barcelona and I am already having so much fun! We started class on Tuesday. I am taking 4 classes; Spanish for Business, International Marketing, International Business, and E-Commerce and Online Business. Sounds boring right?? But, I think they are going to be very interesting. The best part about my classes is that there are students from different countries. There are Germans, Swedens, and Chinese people is almost all my classes. Es muy interestante.

Besides classes, Brittany and I have had some adventures of our own. Our first little adventure we had was our quest to find perchas, or hangers. We only received 5 hangers each and, being girls, we have tons of clothes. There is a store here called El Corte Ingles and is like a Target on steriods. So naturally we thought they would have hangers. After walking about 20 minutes to get there and after searching through all 7 floors, we had no hangers. So we decided to start walking back and look for stores along the way they would maybe have hangers. We were so excited when we saw a store called "Perchas." We ran up to the door and, of course, it was

locked. Must have been a late ciesta porque their hours said they should have been open. Great. So we contiuned walking, getting distracted by a bakery and a jewelry store until we found ourselves back at our apartment. As we were about to go back home, the store directly next to our apartment door, caught our eye. It was called "Etc, etc, etc." We figured, why not look. Sure enough, they had hangers! RIGHT NEXT DOOR! haha.

Our next adventure was trying to get a beer bottle open with no bottle opener. Let's just say that belt buckles, key chains, and bed frames all don't work. Lesson learned: buy cans. See mom and dad, I am learning so much already :)

The picture to the left is of me and Brittany on our first night out in Barcelona! And luckly, in this picture we are both on our good sides! Perfect match!

Adios!

We have finally arrived!

It has been a few days since my last post so I figured I should update ya’ll on what I have been up to. Shortly after my last post, my roommate, Brittany, arrived. It was so nice to finally meet her and I’m so glad that we get along so well. I can tell that we are going to have a lot of fun this semester.

On Thursday, we went to the Prado and the Reina Sofia museums in Madrid. At both museums we had a guided tour with a man named Carlos. I did the whole tour in Spanish and I was surprised how much I understood. At the Prado we saw works by El Greco, Goya and Velazquez. Las Meninas by Velazquez was my favorite. It was interesting to hear how each artist influenced the art of the time. For example, Velazquez was one of the first Spanish artists to paint lower class portraits and to include himself in his paintings. Another very interesting part of the museum was Goya’s dark paintings, I think that was what they were called. Goya painted these paintings for his own personal enjoyment. Because Goya was very tormented mentally, the paintings were disturbing.

At the Reina Sofia, we saw work by Dalí, Picasso, and Miró. Me encanta Dalí. One of his paintings is called The Invisible Man and it represents his older brother, who was named Salvador Dalí también. When his older brother died, his dad, who was also named Salvador Dalí, wanted to have another child, which was the famous Salvador Dalí. Dalí always felt like he had a second identity and that he was supposed to be someone else, hence, the painting. We also saw Picasso´s Guernica, which is another awesome painting.

We finished the day by going out to dinner, drinking sangria and skyping our friends and families.

On Friday, we woke up early to visit the Valle de los Caidos. This is the place where Franco is buried. It is also a memorial for all the people who died fighting in the Spanish civil war. The view from the memorial was beautiful, however, the memorial itself is rather controversial because many people died building the memorial. In order to build it, after winning the war, Franco used Spanish prisoners to build his tomb and the memorial. Franco said these prisoners would not have to serve as much time in jail if they helped, but most of the prisoners ended up drying trying to build that memorial.

After that, we traveled to El Escorial. El Escorial is a castle, monastery, burial ground, and school. On our tour around, we went inside the tomb where all the kings and queens of Spain are buried. The room was constructed 40 meters below the group and was made of Spanish marble. It was such an awesome feeling to be standing in a room filled with so much history. Also there was a room in El Escorial called the secret room. And in this room you can stand in one corner and wisper something while facing the corner and another person can hear your secret in the other corner. It was crazy.

After we finished our tour, we headed to Toledo. We had a beautiful view of the whole city from our hotel. It was amazing.

For dinner we went into the city of Toledo and had pealla, a spanish dish with rice, vegies, and otras cosas, usually meat or seafood. We tried one with chicken and rabbit. Yes, I tried rabbit. It was interesting. A little tougher than chicken but pretty good. After dinner, we searched for a bar to get a few drinks. Being in a large group of Americans, we found an Irish bar and drank there. The bartender played very "American" music such as Tom Petty, the Beatles, and even Avril Lavine. It was quite entertaining. The bartender also had a very strong Irish accent.

When we asked him for directions to a discoteca loacted in a church, he told us, "not to take the second right, but the terd right. Ha ha.

Now, I am in Barcelona. We arrived yesterday (Sunday). Brittany and I have a señora named Doloras and a hermanita named Laura. They are very nice. They are so animated and love to talk. Their apartment is very nice too. There is a large living room, a terrace, kitchen, two bathrooms and three bedrooms. Brittany and I share a bedroom and a bathroom. So far there hasn't been too many communication problems, except when my señora told me to get out of the elevator and I go in. Está bien. They laughed.

Tomorrow we start school. Wish me luck! Hopefully I won´t get lost :/

Long flight, too much luggage, and new friends

What a day, and it's not even over yet. The day started off with lunch from panera, which made a good last meal, and some tearfull goodbyes. Shortly after, I went to O'hare. My trip started out by the receptionist telling me I didn't have a seat yet. Awesome way to start my trip. So naturally, I panic. Then, going through security, I of course had to get my luggage searched. Again, awesome. So finally, I get to my gate and they assign me a seat, which made me feel better.

The flight went surprisingly fast. I sat next to an ecology professor from Ohio University. He liked to talk and smelled of alcohol. Greaaaaaaaaat combination. I arrived in Madrid this morning around 7:30 am (Spain time, which means it was 12:30am Chicago time). I met Kylie, a girl on the same program and who was on the same flight as me . We had quite a little adventure together. After getting our luggage and stopping for a quick drink, we headed out to find our group.

After realizing we were in terminal 4 not terminal one, we loaded a bus with our luggage. Between the two of us, we had 6 or 7 bags. We piled our luggage on the bus to save space, however with everyturn, a piece of luggage fell off. When we arrived at terminal 1, we found a luggage cart and loaded it up. Then we realized we had to go downstairs, not an easy task with all that luggage. So we decided to take the elevator, however, our cart, beacuse it was so full, would not fit into the elevator. We ended up throwing all our luggage, and me, in the elevator and Kylie met us downstairs since she couldn't fit. Quite the show...let me tell you. I think we made a good first impression.

Quickly after we found our group and met a bunch of people, loaded a bus and went to the hotel. This leaves me to where I am now.

The agenda for tonight:
*nap?
*dinner
*bus tour
*meeting
*SLEEP!

Adios amigos!