there is just too much going on to keep up with this every day....so ill have to do a week long update again....here goes....
monday-horrible day. i got up, got lookin cute, and decided to go shopping in town. my book told me of a really great shopping area so i went there. turns out its like the super way expensive area where i couldnt buy anything. bummer. on top of that my shoes some how have gotten so they dont really fit anymore so i kept walking out of them. then, my purse zipper broke. so i said i quit and went to a bar. the waiter liked me and i stayed there for a while then came back to the dorm. everyone was having a test at 7 and i had to go to casue we have food. i turned in my papers which was an amazing feeling...done. after the test the whole group decided to go to george payne. its a irish pub wed heard about and it was really cool. mondays are open mic night and 7 euro pitchers. everyone had a real good time. i really really liked thta place. cant wait to go back.
tuesday-BEST DAY! went to camp nou. thats the FC Barcelona futbol stadium and museum and gift shop. they are my favorite team so i was in heaven. they have the biggest stadium in all of europe and it was pretty amazing to see. we were there all day looking at everything. i got to take a picture with a repllica of their new champions league cup!!! its been my favorite picture so far, it came out real cute. then i did some major damage at the gift shop...$227. i bought a puyol jersey (hes real good and the captian) some flip flops, some glasses, a few gifts, some lighters, a pin for my stocking, shot glasses, a mug, a little giraffe wearing a fc jersey and more. best day.i finally tried true sangria when we got back but it was too sweet for me. i like one glass of it but i couldnt drink anymore than that.
wednesday- everyone had class till 5 so i went out by myself and explored sangrada familia. its the cathedral that gaudi designed. they started working on it 80 years ago and they still arnt finished, they actually dont think theyll be finished till 2030. its huge and the detail on every little things is overwhelming. i can see how its taken so long to complete. i really want to go back when they finish. you take an evevator to the topand look around at the view. beautiful. i wish the inside had been better, the whole thing is under construction...lame. then i met a couple people downtown and while i waited i had a long beach icetea at the hard rock. new favorite drink. then we went shopping and i got a champions league ball! it was the last one so it was 50% off so i had to get it. ive wanted one for a while. its a soccer ball but it has stars on it instead of little hexagons. its pretty, im gonna get a stand for it. phillip and i split up from jessie and andi and then could never find them again. so we just went to a bar and then magicly everyone else from our group ended up at the same bar. it was alright. i get home about 2 and i come into my room and my room mate isnt here...and i kinda freak out becasue we never met back up with them downtown. so i go find phillip and tell him and im knocking on everyoens door looking for them becasue they arnt big party people, they wouldnt really be out. an hour of freaking out later i hear them come out of the elevator, drunk. they had been hanging out with some of the waiters from the little bar down on campus. random. at least they wearnt dead. they felt bad but it was ok.
thursday- picasso museum. disapointing. i expected so much more of the museum dedicated to him in the city where he lived a long time and studied. there wasnt anything real great in there. the area of town it was in was way cute though, i think we are going to go back and just walk around some time. after that everyone who went with us eexcept me and on e other girl wanted to go see harry potter so everyone went to do that and she and i just went to eat at that amazing italian place again. i had pasta this time. delicious. that was about it. we came back and a few people just hung out in my room for a while, nothing special.
firday-7:45 am. trip to tarragona. wed night i could tell i was starting to get shin splints. just in time for tarragona, where we were going to treck around some roman ruinns....great. by the time we got there and walked up the like 200 stairs to get from the train station to the city, i was hurtin. the city is way up on a hill right on the coast. it was beautiful but hard to get to es[ecially in pain like that. then we walked around all day. first we went to a cathedral. it was real pretty, very peaceful. i lit 2 candles and sat and cired for a bit. then we left and i was just kinda bummed form that and hurting. by now my knee hurt too. then we went to lunch. it took almost 4 hours. i hated it. then we went a few more places and then i asked if i ould just go back to the hotel casue i could barley walk. there were lots of stairs everywhere that i ould go up so i couldnt see anything really anyway so me and a few peope just left. they all went to the beach when we got back but i could get down the hill to go so i stayed and took a hot bath and went to a pharmacy to buy a rap for my leg and some pain stuff. when everyone got back we went to dinner then to a rock bar. it was cool. i had taken a codine for my legs so i wasnt going to drink, but then of course i get there and they have desperados aka the best beer ever. it was alomst all i drank in frnace last time and ive been looking for it every where since ive been here and apparently its not popular in spain. but here it was. so i had to have one...two. i was so happy. so happy.
saturday- more walking. more ruins. more pain. thats pretty much it. we went to the aquaduct and you had to hike up a hill that wasnt paved or anything to get on top. i wasnt going to but then i realized there were like 5000000 huge ants at the bottom and i didnt want to stay down there and get bit and die alone. so i hiked up (horrible idea) and walked along the top. worth it i guess, but still crazy painful. then we came backa nd ate and got back on the train and came back to barca. then i passed out. 75% of the group went out drinking that night, i have no idea how casue i was crazy tired but they are more into that than me i guess.
sunday-beach day! man i love the beaches here. we went to a different one and it was so much better than the first one. the sand was soft, the water was clear. perfect. we swam waaaaaay out form the beach and just floated around. since there is sooo much slat in the water its easy to tread and real easy to float. it was so relazing. there was a to go pizza place right near by so i went and got a huge pizza for the 5 of us and we sat and ate on the beach. wonderful. then we went to hard rock for drinks/snacks. good times. tehn we came back and tried to make a list of what all we have left to do. we also got our plans together for our madrid/valencia trip at the end. im excited!
today-im waiting for everyone to get out of class then im gonna head into town, stop and the harley davidson and then head down to nike to get a good pair of tennis shoes to help my legs/knees with all this walking. and also to get a new track jacket. then another test tonight that i have to go to but not take. then its back to george payne again i think. should be fun. i love it here. weve got lots of plans for the next 3 weeks. itll go quick. i cant believe we been here 2 weeks already. ill be back before i know it. i wish i could have staied an extra week and traveled like a few people are doing. i real jealous. like REAL jealous. : ( oh well.
me gusta barcelona
Monday, July 27, 2009
Sunday, July 19, 2009
A Day at the Beach
i had a wonderful day. easy. breezy. wonderful. we took our time this morning, slept in, and when got ready and made our way to the beach at port olimpic. we found a spot (next to a hott lifegrard) and just chilled. there were guys walking around all over selling drinks and snacks and oreintal women walking around giving massages for 5 euro. i got a much needed back massage that was pretty amazing all while lying on my towel in the sand. im gonna say about half of the women walking around and laying out were topless. it was cool, everyone was just so casual and confidant and it was no big deal. i may have to try it out and try to et rid of some tan lines...maybe...i got in the water, which was not cold at all like our oceans. it also had specks of something that looked like gold glitter in the water which just added to the beauty. then i found out apparently there are jellyfish in the mediterrian and i freaked out and got out. i am so not down with jellyfish. then we just layed out all day and people watched and listened to music and just relaxed. i feel much better today, just have a runny nose. we got to see the lifeguards in action too. something happened to some older woman and they carried her away. there was one with dreads and a spedo that was way beautiful. then we left and decided to hit up the hard rock. we were kinda gross and still in swim suit kinda clothes so we figured thatd be an easy casual place. it was yummy. i was kinda bummed at thier pin selection though. i want to get one for my stocking but i didnt really like any of them....delima! then we just came back, showered, and now im relaxing. i got a funky tan, its kinda blotchy? oh well, ill be out a lot, im sure it will even out. i think were gonna head over to our little bar on campus and have some sangria tonight, if its open. fingers crossed! untill tomorrow : )
me gusta barcelona
me gusta barcelona
Saturday, July 18, 2009
The Story So Far...
Hello! Its Saturday afternoon here in beautiful Barcelona and I'm sick. Go figure, lol. Things have been so busy and so fun so far that i havnt gotten a chance to start this yet so i thought now would be the perfect time.
first of all, some background on why im here-
summer school. kinda. there is a group of 15 of us including the professor and his wife and daughter. it is threw the political science department and everyone is taking basic governement 1 and 2. i have already taken those classes of course since that is my major but i still wanted to come so i talked to the prof and he said that i could do 2 independent studies instead. each one was a 25 page research paper. 25 pages. a lot. but i opted for that cause hey, its a discounted trip to spain for 5 weeks, cant really pass that up. so i did one on the European Union which came to 29 pages and the other on the supreme court that came to 34 pages. a lot. i got them both done before i came casue i know myself well enough that i wouldnt do them once i got here and if i did theyd be 1000 times harder. turns out im the only one to ever have accompliched that in all the years hes done this trip. pat on the back for me. so like i said, 5 weeks (july 12 - aug 13), in barcelona, with nothing to do but explore. : )
Sunday: woke up early, got ready and waited for Gabe to take me to the airport. He was a bit late but nothing major, i got there in time and started to wait. we flew to newark first. i swear, ive never been on a flight with so many screaming babies. we got to newark and tina, phillip and i ventured off to eat. we notices that on the screen our gate had changed to literally the farthest away it could get so we walked aaaaallllllll the way over there just to find out that the screen was wrong and we have to walk all the way back. lame. but it did kill some time durring our 3.5 hour layover and we got to know eachother so i guess it was ok. we took the loooong flight over to barcelona and sort of slept. they have these new things on contenintal that show you exactally where you are durrning the flight, how far youve come, how much longer to have to get there, the temp outside the plane, all sorts of cool stuff. its a channel on the touch screen tv on the ack on the seat infront of you, so no longer do you have to watch the basic movie picked for everyone, no you can watch anymoive you like in thier catalouge of about 50. there are also tv shows to watch and games to play. i was pretty impressed. technoligy has gotten amazing.
Monday: 15 hours of travel later it was 2am in austin and 9 am in barcelona and we were in the airport. when we landed the professor asked if anyone wanted to ride to the university of barcelona where we were staying with his wife in a cab. no one said anything so i jumped on that. turned out to be a great move on my part becasue they had to take like 3 different trains to get here (its about 35 mins from downtown in a car) and ended up going the worng way on 1 and missing another, all while carrying all of their luggage. it took them almost 3 hours to get here. we all rested and unpacked for a bit after that. we are staying in the dorms at the universtiy and they are very nice. kitchen, bedroom for 2, desks, bathroom and closets. and a maid service every monday. nice. at 6 we all took the train 2 stops to el campo, which is pretty much just like walmart. it has everything. we all got a few things and then came back. i got my favorite eropean ice cream bars (magnums), my favorite european cookies (petit ecolier) and some other little things but not my favorite european beer (desperados) bcasue apparently they dont sell it in spain. looks like im gonna have to hop the border to france andd by a few cases hahaha. the walk back from our train stop to our dorm is probably 3/4 of a mile threw woods and hills so carrying grocerys wasnt too fun. some of the group wanted to go into town and go to a club the first night and i figured why not. they took a long time to get ready so we missed the last train and had to take the bus into town. we had a lot of time to kill so we went to the little bar thats near our dorm on campus and got some beerrs to go and then waited. once the bus came and we took the almost 45 mins ride down to the placa catalunya (the city center pretty much) and headed down la rambla which is a big street with a walkway down the middle where people try to sell you stuff and or rob you. we got to a club, dance, met some italian boys who bought us drinks, and then left. one person got a bit too drunk so i got a cab and we took her back, it was 50 euros, i paid it all. oh well. we got back about 5 am.
Tuesday: first day of class for everyone. i had to come for the first few minutes while he talked about so basic stuff about the trip then i got to leave and come and go back to sleep. i woke up a little later with a migraine, took some stuff and went back to sleep and pretty much slept the whole day. that night we went to dinner down on la rambla at this really really amazing italian place. i had a pizza and some of my friends little bread and dipping sauce stuff. everything was great. then we just wondered down the street looking for a bar, not a club, to try to have a little more of a chill night. no one could agree on where to go so we just walked around. we saw this girl like running and screaming and this guy chasing after her. then suddenly he just straight up tackeled her. turns out she had pick-pocketed him. he got his money back and then we talked to him and he became our friend and followed us around. he was from manchester. we never found a place to go so we decided to turn around and go catch the bus back. the bus comes at :05 after. it was about 2:40 so we hurried back and waited. in the worng spot. we missed the 3:05 and couldnt figure out where our bus came to pick us up becasue everyone we asked said something different. so again, cab. this time it was only 30 euros (from the same place at the night before when it was 50?) and i paid again and we all came back. it was about 4:30am.
Wednesday: i went sightseeing with my roomate and 2 others pretty much all afternoon after they got out of class. we went to la pedrera, one of gaudi's bulidings. it was beautiful. the roof was covered with scluptures and was just amazing. it had origionally been built as an apartment complex so we got to tour and apartement. then we walked along and i found my shopping area! valentino, channel, d&g, LV, everything. cant wait to go back and wonder around. then we went to another gaudi building but didnt go inside. saving that for later. we came back to the dorm and rested for a bit, and then just went to the cafe/bar thats right by our dorm for dinner. my throat started to hurt when we got back so i just went to bed.
Thursday: i woke up and felt horrible. my throat, my head, my nose, everything, horrible. i had planned to go to sant cugat, a high class neighboorhood near by where apparently most of the FC barcelona players live to have lunch and walk around then head into town to go shopping but i was feeling too yucky. my roomate came back and was nice enough to go get me some halls with vC in them and that seemed to help for a bit. everyone was talking about going to the icebar that night. its a bar on the beach that is made completely out of ice. they give you coats and gloves when you get there. seems fun but i looked online and it wsa 15 euros for 45 misn inside and wed need a reservation casue there was over 5 going. that plus hanging out in 17 degree weather and not feeling well, i opted out. appaerently so did everyone else. well save it for later. me and 3 others decided to go back to that amazing italian place for dinner and then to go see the magic fountian. its a fountian that every night, every half hour it puts on a show thats has lights and music. it was massive and beautiful and it kinda took your breathe away. im definately going back. by the time we got back i wasnt feeling too hot so i just went to bed.
Friday: i woke up and felt like dirt but our professor got us a 2 day pass for those double decker bus tours. we decided to take the intown route and see other parts of the city that we havnt ventured to yet. barcelona is beautiful. we stoped at the coast and got out and went to the aquarium. it was so fun, i love aquariums. they had the biggest and best tunnle thing, you know when you walk threw and the water is alla round you and the fish and sharks siwm above you. super cool. then i got my first look at the mediterranean which is the most beautiful water ive ever seen. i cant wait to get in it. we got back on the bus and finished the tour and then headed back. on the way back on the train i started to feel really bad. i could tell i had a fever and i was shaking the whole time. there is a pharmacy right by our stop so i went in there and talked to the lady and she gave me some stuff you put in water and drink. i just came back and went to sleep. i felt awful. that was the end of my day.
Saturday: today. im just here by myself. everyone went out for day 2 of the bus tour up to tibidabo and parc guell. tibidabo is the highest point in the whole city and apparently the view is amazing, ill have to see it later. i opted to stay in today and just focus on getting better. weve got over 4 more weeks left and i dont even have class to go to so ive got plently of time to see stuff. i'm going to go down the the grocery store that is right by my dorm and get a few things here in a bit when they re-open from siesta at 6. oh another thing i forgot to say is that every cultural thing we do that we have to pay for, if we give our reciepts to our professor, the school pays us back. amazing? yes. sorry texas state but you have no idea how much im going to take advantage of that. i tink ill just stay in again tonight and get 100% so this is it for today. ill try my best to keep up with this day by day now. adios!
first of all, some background on why im here-
summer school. kinda. there is a group of 15 of us including the professor and his wife and daughter. it is threw the political science department and everyone is taking basic governement 1 and 2. i have already taken those classes of course since that is my major but i still wanted to come so i talked to the prof and he said that i could do 2 independent studies instead. each one was a 25 page research paper. 25 pages. a lot. but i opted for that cause hey, its a discounted trip to spain for 5 weeks, cant really pass that up. so i did one on the European Union which came to 29 pages and the other on the supreme court that came to 34 pages. a lot. i got them both done before i came casue i know myself well enough that i wouldnt do them once i got here and if i did theyd be 1000 times harder. turns out im the only one to ever have accompliched that in all the years hes done this trip. pat on the back for me. so like i said, 5 weeks (july 12 - aug 13), in barcelona, with nothing to do but explore. : )
Sunday: woke up early, got ready and waited for Gabe to take me to the airport. He was a bit late but nothing major, i got there in time and started to wait. we flew to newark first. i swear, ive never been on a flight with so many screaming babies. we got to newark and tina, phillip and i ventured off to eat. we notices that on the screen our gate had changed to literally the farthest away it could get so we walked aaaaallllllll the way over there just to find out that the screen was wrong and we have to walk all the way back. lame. but it did kill some time durring our 3.5 hour layover and we got to know eachother so i guess it was ok. we took the loooong flight over to barcelona and sort of slept. they have these new things on contenintal that show you exactally where you are durrning the flight, how far youve come, how much longer to have to get there, the temp outside the plane, all sorts of cool stuff. its a channel on the touch screen tv on the ack on the seat infront of you, so no longer do you have to watch the basic movie picked for everyone, no you can watch anymoive you like in thier catalouge of about 50. there are also tv shows to watch and games to play. i was pretty impressed. technoligy has gotten amazing.
Monday: 15 hours of travel later it was 2am in austin and 9 am in barcelona and we were in the airport. when we landed the professor asked if anyone wanted to ride to the university of barcelona where we were staying with his wife in a cab. no one said anything so i jumped on that. turned out to be a great move on my part becasue they had to take like 3 different trains to get here (its about 35 mins from downtown in a car) and ended up going the worng way on 1 and missing another, all while carrying all of their luggage. it took them almost 3 hours to get here. we all rested and unpacked for a bit after that. we are staying in the dorms at the universtiy and they are very nice. kitchen, bedroom for 2, desks, bathroom and closets. and a maid service every monday. nice. at 6 we all took the train 2 stops to el campo, which is pretty much just like walmart. it has everything. we all got a few things and then came back. i got my favorite eropean ice cream bars (magnums), my favorite european cookies (petit ecolier) and some other little things but not my favorite european beer (desperados) bcasue apparently they dont sell it in spain. looks like im gonna have to hop the border to france andd by a few cases hahaha. the walk back from our train stop to our dorm is probably 3/4 of a mile threw woods and hills so carrying grocerys wasnt too fun. some of the group wanted to go into town and go to a club the first night and i figured why not. they took a long time to get ready so we missed the last train and had to take the bus into town. we had a lot of time to kill so we went to the little bar thats near our dorm on campus and got some beerrs to go and then waited. once the bus came and we took the almost 45 mins ride down to the placa catalunya (the city center pretty much) and headed down la rambla which is a big street with a walkway down the middle where people try to sell you stuff and or rob you. we got to a club, dance, met some italian boys who bought us drinks, and then left. one person got a bit too drunk so i got a cab and we took her back, it was 50 euros, i paid it all. oh well. we got back about 5 am.
Tuesday: first day of class for everyone. i had to come for the first few minutes while he talked about so basic stuff about the trip then i got to leave and come and go back to sleep. i woke up a little later with a migraine, took some stuff and went back to sleep and pretty much slept the whole day. that night we went to dinner down on la rambla at this really really amazing italian place. i had a pizza and some of my friends little bread and dipping sauce stuff. everything was great. then we just wondered down the street looking for a bar, not a club, to try to have a little more of a chill night. no one could agree on where to go so we just walked around. we saw this girl like running and screaming and this guy chasing after her. then suddenly he just straight up tackeled her. turns out she had pick-pocketed him. he got his money back and then we talked to him and he became our friend and followed us around. he was from manchester. we never found a place to go so we decided to turn around and go catch the bus back. the bus comes at :05 after. it was about 2:40 so we hurried back and waited. in the worng spot. we missed the 3:05 and couldnt figure out where our bus came to pick us up becasue everyone we asked said something different. so again, cab. this time it was only 30 euros (from the same place at the night before when it was 50?) and i paid again and we all came back. it was about 4:30am.
Wednesday: i went sightseeing with my roomate and 2 others pretty much all afternoon after they got out of class. we went to la pedrera, one of gaudi's bulidings. it was beautiful. the roof was covered with scluptures and was just amazing. it had origionally been built as an apartment complex so we got to tour and apartement. then we walked along and i found my shopping area! valentino, channel, d&g, LV, everything. cant wait to go back and wonder around. then we went to another gaudi building but didnt go inside. saving that for later. we came back to the dorm and rested for a bit, and then just went to the cafe/bar thats right by our dorm for dinner. my throat started to hurt when we got back so i just went to bed.
Thursday: i woke up and felt horrible. my throat, my head, my nose, everything, horrible. i had planned to go to sant cugat, a high class neighboorhood near by where apparently most of the FC barcelona players live to have lunch and walk around then head into town to go shopping but i was feeling too yucky. my roomate came back and was nice enough to go get me some halls with vC in them and that seemed to help for a bit. everyone was talking about going to the icebar that night. its a bar on the beach that is made completely out of ice. they give you coats and gloves when you get there. seems fun but i looked online and it wsa 15 euros for 45 misn inside and wed need a reservation casue there was over 5 going. that plus hanging out in 17 degree weather and not feeling well, i opted out. appaerently so did everyone else. well save it for later. me and 3 others decided to go back to that amazing italian place for dinner and then to go see the magic fountian. its a fountian that every night, every half hour it puts on a show thats has lights and music. it was massive and beautiful and it kinda took your breathe away. im definately going back. by the time we got back i wasnt feeling too hot so i just went to bed.
Friday: i woke up and felt like dirt but our professor got us a 2 day pass for those double decker bus tours. we decided to take the intown route and see other parts of the city that we havnt ventured to yet. barcelona is beautiful. we stoped at the coast and got out and went to the aquarium. it was so fun, i love aquariums. they had the biggest and best tunnle thing, you know when you walk threw and the water is alla round you and the fish and sharks siwm above you. super cool. then i got my first look at the mediterranean which is the most beautiful water ive ever seen. i cant wait to get in it. we got back on the bus and finished the tour and then headed back. on the way back on the train i started to feel really bad. i could tell i had a fever and i was shaking the whole time. there is a pharmacy right by our stop so i went in there and talked to the lady and she gave me some stuff you put in water and drink. i just came back and went to sleep. i felt awful. that was the end of my day.
Saturday: today. im just here by myself. everyone went out for day 2 of the bus tour up to tibidabo and parc guell. tibidabo is the highest point in the whole city and apparently the view is amazing, ill have to see it later. i opted to stay in today and just focus on getting better. weve got over 4 more weeks left and i dont even have class to go to so ive got plently of time to see stuff. i'm going to go down the the grocery store that is right by my dorm and get a few things here in a bit when they re-open from siesta at 6. oh another thing i forgot to say is that every cultural thing we do that we have to pay for, if we give our reciepts to our professor, the school pays us back. amazing? yes. sorry texas state but you have no idea how much im going to take advantage of that. i tink ill just stay in again tonight and get 100% so this is it for today. ill try my best to keep up with this day by day now. adios!
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