Saturday I finally did laundry for the first time with no dire side effects. Good to know. And I attempted to cook my first meal here. The kitchen is rather scary - very little by way of pot or pan, no spices whatsoever, and the knobs of the stove were all sticky. Yick!

Went out with Heike and her friend Petra from Mallorca. After walking around from 10:30pm to 1am in search of the perfect bar, we finally found it. Patagonia - a very hip lounge bar on Las Ramblas, but not touristy at all. Its one of those places you have to know it otherwise you wouldn´t find it. We just saw some stairs at the back of a gelato shop and decided to check it out. Hands down my favorite classy bar so far.

Las cucarachas se entren, pero no pueden salir

Last night I saw my first cockroach in the metro station. Holy Lord it was huge!! ICK!!!!!!

I continue to enjoy the Barcelona lifestyle :) The weather couldn´t be better!Yesterday after class I went to Barcelonetta, a little beach near the downtown area. We stayed until 7pm and then found a nice place for a glass of wine and some tapas.

Y más Gaudí

The first week of school hasnt ended yet, and already I´m cutting class ;) Rosa and I have decided that we don´t really need la clase de cultura. So we didn´t go today. Probably won´t go tomorrow either. Mañana vamos a la playa!

Today we had menu del día for lunch. Bistec con patatas fritas. I´ve eaten alot of steak and french fries for lunch. But its good stuff. We had lunch with Rudolfo and Heika, the Germans in our class. And of course Tim from NY. I discovered that Heika lives 2 blocks from me, so I didn´t have to ride the metro home alone today. Tomorrow morning, we´re going to meet before class for breakfast. Mañana, desayunos antes de clase. Good times!

After lunch, we journeyed to the Parc Güell. Amazing!! 2 small houses there that looked like gingerbread houses. Lots of swirling mosaic designs and curved walls. Amazing architecture and fabulous sunning spots.






Enjoy the pics! Hasta luego amigos!

Gaudí y más!

So far I´ve met a girl from Switzerland who speaks Italian, a guy who is a Caribinieri back in Italy and an advertising market researcher from New York. Everyone in my class is very nice. There are lots of other languages represented in the class, about 2 people from each Italian, German, English and Portuguese. So its funny when say one of the Germans doesn´t understand what´s happening and then the conversation suddenly digresses to rapid fire German. Or the Brazilian girls start debating a point and move from Spanish to Portuguese. At least class is entertaining!

Yesterday I saw Las Ramblas. Fantastic outdoor market with every kind of fruit, vegetable, meat and candy that you can imagine.






Today we went to the Sagrada de la Família, which is the church designed by Gaudí. Construction won´t be complete until 2025 because they´re using the old method such as cutting, shaping etc by hand all the stones they put in place. Amazing!






I´m definitely enjoying sunny Barcelona. Wish you all were here!

Hola! Let the adventure begin!!

First day of school. ummm interesting. didnt realize my spanish was so bad. I can only speak in the present tense and even then its limited to remedial statements. Boo. The teacher came by to give me the verbal test and i could tell she was thinking "this chick doesnçt know anything" oh well

Airport pickup last night was fine, but the guy didnt speak any english. That was a quiet ride to the apartment. So far I am alone there, but there are 3 other rooms in the apartment itself. We shall see if anyone else shows up. The bedroom is beyond small, I bump into myself when I try to turn around in there. No sheets for the bed, mattress is dirty, pillow is dirty, no towels for the bathroom. Hmm...maybe this is why it was so cheap. Definitely makes me appreciate my house.

Guten Tag!

Let me just say that flyinng first class international is worth every penny. My dinner (I actually got dinner!) had 4 courses, the first of which was crab with a mango dipping sauce. Phenomenal!! My one seat took up what would have been 3 rows in economy. The chair itself had a whole bonanza of buttons to control it every which way - even to fully reclined bed :)

Germany is as beautiful as I remember it being 16 years ago. Winding rivers with little clusters of red tile roofed homes and lots and lots of forest.

Only here for the night tho.... tomorrow its on to Geneva!

F*ck this game! Its 4 in the morning grandma - YOU WIN!

Ok,so its only quarter to 3, but still... I can feel the trip anxiety coming on. Ick.

I'm suddenly having serious doubts as to whether or not my new suitcase truly is capable of containing everything I'll need for 2 months abroad.

*sigh* Time to downsize.

.... are we there yet???