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!