Best Two Weekends Ever

So I had an amazing time the past two weekends. I was feeling pretty homesick, not for the States but for familiar faces so spending the past two weekends with Maddy and Lauren was awesome. First, London was everything I expected and MORE. It was wonderful weather and Maddy and Lauren showed me such a good time. We went to a pub the first night after issues with my flight and we literally saw everything to see in London in 2 days..including James McAvoy! It was probably my favorite trip just because it was so different from Spain and America that it was a nice balance. My favorite place was probably Notting Hill or Covent Garden. I also got to see changing of the guard and had a prime spot where someone passed out next to me...it was intense.

THEN, I returned to Barcelona where it was raining and muggy so I spent 3 quality days by myself in the apt, one of which was nice enough for me to explore...so I went to the beach and La Rambla and bought some street art for me and Keegan´s apt next year!

Friday rolled around, and I was so excited because Maddy, Lauren, and Lindsey were all coming to Barcelona and could stay at my apartment because my roommates were gone. I had a great time showing them all the sights (some of which I hadn´t gotten around to) and it was a good one-of-the-last weekends in Barca because now it´s study study study, paper, study study study, presentation...then come home in 14 days!

Its been a great experience and I don´t know if I´ll update this again until I return to America? That´s strange. Oh well.

Muchos Besos!

March Rocks!

So I haven´t been up to much lately besides getting excited for back to back weekend trips and the girls visiting me over Easter weekend. My friend Mal is having her brother, his two friends, and her best friend Julie visiting this week and honestly it´s been amazing. We haven´t really hung out with that many guys because 1. They´re really creepy Spanish men 2. The American guys here are basically the cockiest sons of guns I´ve ever encountered....the east coast stereotype if you will. But, we went out ot eat and I had the best paella I´ve had since in Spain, and then went to Hook again (seriously love Pirate bars) and Sports Bar...not A sports bar but that´s the name of the place and had a great time because all the Americans were at the tourist Spanish places so we hung out with British people the whole night. Saturday, I went with Lorel, her sister and her friend visiting to Tarragona which is about an hour south of Barcelona by train where there are a lot of Roman Ruins. It was nice, but you had to pay 3 euro to get into every ruin, so we opted to look from a far.

This weekend I´m going to an IES sponsored trip to Costa Brava with Linda and Nicolette which should be amazing. We´re going to the Salvador Dali Museum, Girona, and other costal places, hopefully the weather will be warm enough to lay out. Then the next weekend I´m going to London to visit Lauren and Maddy (eee!) and then they´re coming to visit me easter weekend along with Lindsey and her friend! Phi Mu in Barca! Then 3 weeks til I come home. I´m both disappointed and excited to head home. I´ve made lists to pro-con why. (you can stop reading here I´m just killing time)

What I´ll miss: public transportation, cafe con leches, beautiful architecture on the walk to class, the awesome people I´ve met, the cool gimmick bars successfully attracting tourists, tapas, cheap good wine, cooking on a gas stove, traveling, easy classes, olive oil in everything, living next to a grocery store, seeing the crazy people, the beach, the random protests, my RA Anna, my awesome suitemate Linda, speaking another language, how change is actual functional money, no real busy work

What I will not miss: almost getting hit by drivers all the time, getting my butt grabbed in public and the creep guapa whisper cat call, smelling like cigarette smoke all the time, not having a dryer, not being understood all the time, getting lost, pick pocketers, taxis ripping you off, the exchange rate, the majority of the people on my program, 9 am classes every morning, how everything is super late, not being able to see people I care about for extended amounts of time.

When I get home I´m looking forward to seeing everyone, Obama speaking at Notre Dame, new car. But not applying for a jobs, law school, studying for the LSAT. boo.

K sorry for the long post. bye!

I love Barcelona!

So our fight is over. I had a fabulous week/weekend in Barcelona. This week I decided to be independent and walked around Barcelona and take pictures. I took them in black and white because I wanted to see if they would still capture the city. It was also a muggy day outside lol. It was really enjoyable to walk around by myself and just appreciate how lucky I am (sorry to brag). 

Friday, Elizabeth, Missy, Nicolette and I hiked up Mt. Tibidabo. This large mountain with an amusement park and church on top. You can see the church in a distance all around the city so we hiked for maybe 3 hours? I'm pretty out of shape. But, the hike was completely worth it, we got there at exactly sunset and could see the entire city. We picked the nicest day as well. Pictures can't describe how amazing it was. After, Nicolette, Mal, Missy, Elizabeth and I ventured around my neighborhood to a bar and a club. It was fun, but american-infested. I completely know why spaniards hate us. The majority of them were loud, rude, inconsiderate, and don't make any effort to relate to Spanish culture. Whatever, I still had fun.

Saturday, Nicolette and I were going to hike up another mountain, Montserrat, but we were sore so we joined Mal and Jess to Sitges (the scene of my robbery) for a day on the beach b/c it was glorious weather. I got to wear shorts! The sand castles were amazing. There was one that had a sand fireplace with an actual fire going! I got a little color, ate our packed lunches, creeped on Spanish families and then headed home for a relaxing evening.

Today I looked for what I'm doing during Spring Break and I found a cheap flight to London! So I'm coming to visit you Maddy and Lauren! yay!

Until next time,

Muchos Besos

Navarre

This past weekend we had a mandatory "study trip" to the Basque Country, named Navarre. It was surprisingly a really good time. It didn't start off well however because directly behind Linda and I at 8:00 in the morning....there was this girl who is to be referred to as "drunk girl" for the remainder of the weekend by everyone on our bus because of her drunk yelling at 8 in the morning. But, moving on. After our 6-7 hour bus ride (I don't remember, I was asleep) we stopped in Olite where it was snowing, cold, raining, and high velocity winds. The castle was still pretty and I met some cool people, 2 of which were from TEXAS! We bonded because everyone on our trip was complaining about everything. But, we got to our Hotel....it was called Hotel ABBA! HOW EXCITING! I stole a lot of amenities. 

Day 2: We went to a winery and got some wine out of a vending machine. It was delicious! We then explored a monastery, a church, and a castle. It was good times. Later, me and some of the girls had a heart to heart in our hotel room.

Day 3: We explored Pamplona, where our hotel was, and saw the route the bulls run during Running of the Bulls and the bull fighting arena. If you don't know what happens to the bulls after they run...don't read on. THEY KILL THE BULLS! what? Why? It's pretty terrible. So, then we got on the bus watched Penelope Cruz's first movie...strange Jamon Jamon. and TITANTIC. I haven't seen the whole movie in such a long time. I cried a little. 

But, I took my last of my midterms today and then made dinner and started doing some work about Law School, LSAT, and what I'm doing this summer. 

Maddy and Lauren are visiting in two weeks!!!! I'm so excited!

Spain and I are in a fight.

Hi everyone. Sorry I haven't updated in a while, Spain and I are in a fight. I still love it here and being abroad, but this week....Spain has decided to hate me. I'll recap things that have happened both good and bad recently.

Last weekend Linda and I had the apartment to ourselves because our new roommates Chelsea and Lindsey went to Geneva to ski and Anna got to spend the night in an igloo? I don't know it was something she'd always wanted to do. It was nice, we bummed a lot. I had a paper to work on and therefore didn't do much, but went and saw an authentic Spanish movie "La Dieta Mediterranea." All in Spanish...no subtitles and I understand most of it! Note: Spain has a lot less tolerance for violence and more tolerance for nudity. Not going to say much but there were several threesomes. It was weird. 

So, I wrote a paper, and then everyone we've talked to told us to go to Sitges, Spain for Carnival. Carnival is similar to Mardi Gras because it's the Tuesday before Lent and there' a parade and just overall craziness. Linda, John and I took a train around 3 pm to see Sitges because it's GORGEOUS and has really nice beaches. So, the craziness started around 8pm because the parade was starting at 9pm. It was really cool, almost like Halloween with all of the costumes and such. But, while watching the parade, my wallet and Spanish cell phone were taken from my purse. Awesome. So I called my Dad immediately to cancel my credit and debit cards and thank GOD that i cancelled in time so I know for sure they didn't charge anything on my debit card. But, it's so annoying. 

Yea, also with the theft, I had two midterms on Thursday while I was busy filing police reports and talking to IES to loan me money b/c i had none.  I was at IES on Thursday and at 2:45 I realized I had left my folder with my notes that we could use during my Intro to EU midterm at my apartment. I have barely enough change to catch the metro to my apt and then snuck on a bus without paying back to IES, 15 min late to my exam, out of breath....I don't think it went well even though I studied and had my notes. I just couldn't focus. Good thing my GPA doesn't transfer, but it's just frustrating.

So...yea. I went to the beach today with Mal, Amanda and Lorel to kind of unwind. I hope this whole Spain being mad at me ends soon. 

Lighter note, we have the week off classes. We have conferences Monday, Tuesday and WEdnesday about Spanish culture and we leave Thursday for Navarre for 3 days for IES field trip. So that'll be fun.

I miss you all even more right now!

Muchos Besos

Catherine

k!

So first time in 3 weeks that I was in Barcelona this weekend. It was half good and half bad. 

Friday night, Jess and I wanted to try to eat dinner on one of the various restaurants on our

block and came across "El Quete Pincho." It had opened very recently, and was very modern withblack and red and white decor. 

But, we just sat ourselves and looked around the restaurant confused really. When our waiter

finally came across to taking our order, we ordered a vodka limon drink. In which...we just got bottles of lemon even though vodka translates. I know this! Then when I tried to order the same thing as Jess, saying "El mismo, iqual, y tambien" The waiter looked at me like i was retarded even though I know those were correct! The entire menu was in catalan, but Jess and I managed to order some really great food: tortilla espanola (my favorite), croquettes, ensalada formatge, hamburquesa (so good) and shared a romantic chocolate mousse. 

We then went back to Jess's apt and met Amanda and Lorel's (her roommates) friend Miriam, who is spanish and super nice. She said my Spanish was good. Go figure! 

Due to unknown circumstances unbeknownst to me, my stomach did not agree with me, I went home and proceeded to puke my guts out for the next couple of hours. That was fun. But, Linda and Renana went to Anna (our RA's) hometown...I could not go with them, my stomach hurt. So i spent my valentines day in my bed watching Lost and The Office and other random videos. How romantic right?

Today, I spent a lovely Sunday afternoon with Jess, Mal and Lorel at Montjuic Parc. We got to see all the Olympic Stadiums from 1992, and everyone knows how much I love the Olympics. The museum was closed, but I'll go back. We explored the park, couldn't go on the cable cars to the top b/c they're closed for maintenance...booo. but found the fountain that has a stellar light display friday and saturday nights for future endeavors. We grabbed lunch/dinner and then watched some break dancers on Las Ramblas, until they started asking us for money....you're a street performer, just have a hat lying out, don't approach people and start begging, i think it makes street performers lose their cred.

K. that's it. 

muchos besos

-catherine

Lisbon

Sorry if this has taken a while to update. Other stuff has happened that I wasn't in a cheery mood to give Lisbon the right amount of awesome justice.

Even though Lisbon is the capital of Portugal, I didn't really know what to expect. But, the second we arrived, it was amazing! The weather was even better than Barcelona, the whole city is in the hills, making walking both fun...and exhausting. There was a beach and some really neat monuments.

Our hostel was AMAZING! Lisbon Poets Hostel. It was beautiful with orange and red decorations a lounge with bean bag chairs, free internet, a kitchen, free breakfast, a hammock a tv that played the Simpsons in Portuguese on loop. It was a quality establishment.

Torre de Belem: An old Bell Tower that was so much fun! Although, we couldn't find the bridge over the train tracks at first and got there by going underneath a highway. Whoops. It had about 5 stories that you took cool windy stairs up, beautiful views of the entire city. 

Christopher Columbus Monument: So CC left from Lisbon to you know, discover America and they have this MASSIVE monument in his honor. It was really neat. We were there at sundown and then took a bunch of fun pictures. 

Our hostel was located in Barrio Alto, or the Bar district, so we went out and explored the local bars. Beer was only about 2 euro each but we had been traveling since 5 am that morning, so we turned in early.

After the first day, I didn't know what else we could do to top them. I was wrong.

Flea Market: We went to this cool flea market where everything under the sun was being sold. The normal jewlery, Portugal futbol jerseys and pashminas. But also, camera chargers, old tvs, porn. Whatever. Also, Lisbon is known for their tiling. All the buildings had the coolest tiles so they were selling tiles here that dated back to 1890. I got a yellow pashimina for 3 euro and a cool guys fake rolex for 5 euro.

Castle St. Georges?: I think that's the name. Whatever, it was SO AMAZING. It was this huge castle I felt like a kid playing Princesses and was running all around this place. We took the coolest pictures climbing on things we probably shouldn't have. So much fun.

Our concierge told us about Fado music. It's apparently this really soulful, guitar music that Portugal is known for. Our concierge made it sound like it was a whole evening with dinner, music, wine and was really popular for about 20-25 euro. He was wrong. He made us reservations at this really expensive restaurant that had music. Everyone cleared out around 11:30 and it was just really strange. That was the only downside to Lisbon. 

But we still had all Sunday to finish exploring b/c our flight wasn't until 8:40 pm. You know that statue in Rio of Jesus on the mountain? Well, Lisbon has a replica. So we went. To get there we took the metro, to a boat, to a bus. It was raining. But still really cool. After, we didn't feel like doing much but we went to a museum for free and then packed and went home.

Lisbon, Portugal, highly recommended. I don't have enough time to write all of the amazing things, but remind me to tell you more about it in person!