PETA called. They want their bulls back

This past weekend was really great. We took our first excursion with API to Tarragona to see Costa Dourada, which was about an hour away by bus, and it is this old Roman town on the coast. It was absolutely beautiful. We took a walking tour with a tour guide who hated us because we wanted to take pictures of everything and he was trying to hurry us along, but about 25 of us and only one of him meant we got our pictures and he just got angry.

 Funny little sculpture you got there

 that red and yellow flag is the flag of Catalunya

Our tour guide who looks like he's about to throw a punch. He probably wanted to.

 But can you blame us? It was so pretty!

API had lunch for us which little did we know was going to be about a 3 hour all you can eat tapas, muscles, clams, bread and olive oil, and paella followed by ice cream and creme brulee extravaganza. Needless to say we were stuffed and then we got to go to the beach for a bit before we all passed out on the bus on the way back. 

It has been really hot since and sunny since we got here, which has been great don't get me wrong, but yesterday it rained and finally cooled it down a little bit. My friend Annie and i went to get tapas for lunch and smart one over here didn't bring an umbrella or anything so it was another lunch that lasted 2 hours too long since it was pouring and I had the big bad camera with me (it's safe don't worry mom!). But we finally made it and thennnnnn BULL FIGHT!! Catalunya (the area of Spain that Barcelona is in) recently outlawed bull fights, so last night I saw the second to last bull fight in Barcelona EVER. A big group of us went and we were all excited and all of the fighters costumes or outfits were really cool and when the bull first comes out it was so exciting to watch them with the red capes and then the swords came out... The first one was pretty hard to watch because, the rumors are true everyone, they pretty much torture the bull and kill it while everyone watches. And there were 6! But some of the guys from our group met a local hombre who started telling them all about the bull fights and when they blow the horns and what everything means so that was really neat. A few facts from our friend for ya

1. Kids used to be able to go to bull fights, but now you have to be at least 14 to get in.

2. We were at an amateur bull fight so they are still in bull fighting school. The bull fighters we saw have probably been in bull fighting school for 3 or 4 years (kind of like going to night school, they have day jobs and then bull fighting on the side) and are still only fighting bulls half the size that the pros do. He said these were probably 300 kilos and the professionals go up against 600 kilo bulls. WHAT?!

3. The professional bull fighters are to Spain as rock stars are to the U.S. They can make a ton of money from it and live crazy lavish lives with women and parties, Kid Rock-esque, but a lot of people don't like them too because so many people don't support the bull fighting tradition anymore. 

   I'm really glad I went because it was definitely an experience, but once was enough. 

 TOROS TOROS TOROS

winners of the night

This weekend is the festival of La Mercé in Barcelona so I'm really excited for that and I booked flights to Rome and Prague today with 2 friends of mine for later in the semester! See ya summer babysitting money, I've got some Europe to see. ¡Olé!

Blisters and Bliss

Last night I got mistaken for a local! A woman was lost and asked me how to use the metro to get back to where she was going, which of course I knew, looking like a local and all. In hindsight I really hope I told her the right way... But yesterday we had our placement exam to see which level of spanish classes we will be in and got to see the campus of Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) for the first time. Here it is, my school for this semester.                              
                                                (click here -->)   War Damn UPF

Definitely picked the right school. It is super close to the beach, which will probably be dangerous for my studying habits, but it is really cool and I'm excited to start classes and get on a schedule. Starting Monday we will have 2 weeks of just intensive spanish classes every day and then after that we will start our other classes as well. I finally found out what I'm taking! Monday through Thursday I'll have my Spanish class every morning and then on Tuesdays and Thursdays I will have Comunicación y Sociedad en España y Europa from 3-5 and then Imagenes de España en el Cine Contemporáneo from 5-7. Not too shabby. I'm really excited to start meeting locals too, so hopefully that will be easier to do going to the same school.

Ok a few observations and such.
1. They walk everywhere. EVERYWHERE. No wonder they have shoe stores on every corner because they wear them out every other day. By the end of this semester I'll have calf muscles of steel baby.
2. The city of Barcelona was built as a labyrinth. COOL. It was a defensive strategy so that if intruders attacked then they wouldn't be able to find their way out of the city. Well done then, Barce because you have sufficiently confused me more than once, leading to my growing calf muscle, worn out sandals, and desire to soak my feet every night and do it all over again the next day. Ahhhh Barcelona
3. The married women will wear a simple gold band or something on their finger, or a lot of times nothing at all, rather than some big bling like in the states. (This reminded me of you Kadie when you said get me a string and a plane ticket! haha)
4. Barcelona isn't too big on air conditioning, lamps, or drinking water. So the windows are always open, I've run in to many a table or wall at night, and I'm eating watermelon like it's my job. Ana leaves a candle on the floor in the middle of her room every night for us so we have some sort of light when we come in. Sweet abuelita.
5. In every store or restaurant I've been to, if they are playing music it is always American music. From my window alone I've heard pretty much everything from Taylor Swift to Kid Cudi to a guy playing classical music on his guitar.
6. Ana said we might burn the apartment down so we're not allowed to touch the hot water heater if we want to take a shower. Early mornings and she's still asleep? In the middle of the day and she isn't here? Helloooo cold showers. But then again I wouldn't want some American hooligans coming and burning down my apartment either. Touche Ana.
7. My spanish is getting so much better already!! And most people here are multi-lengual. Everyone knows Spanish, most everyone knows Catalan, then English, and a lot of people know French or Italian or Portuguese. It is incredible. They say it is a lot easier to pick up another romantic language once you know one, so that's my new goal. Get Spanish down and then maybe Portuguese? Italian? Piece of cake.

Hasta luego!

Somebody pinch me

The cab driver from the airport probably wanted to throw me out of the cab because I wouldn't stop talking about how cool and awesome and beautiful everything was when we were driving. But I'm here safe and sound!

 Our orientation was at a hotel in Castedefells, which is just outside of Barcelona and a maybe 5 minute walk to the beach, which I didn't hate. We had all afternoon while everyone was getting in from the airport to the hotel before our first meeting that night so everyone went down to the beach and I finally got to meet everyone else on the trip! There are 105ish kids on the trip from all over the U.S., but mostly up north so the clash of the accents has been pretty fun. I didn't realize how much I say yall but being one of the only people from the south, it has been brought to my attention that I use it all the time. Sorry yall. Our first meeting was mostly just introductions of all the students and 4 group directors from API who are all pretty young and Barcelona natives. The next day was the day of tours. We split into 4 groups, each with a director and then walked around the city and mostly getting practical tips like exchange dollars to euros at a bank and how to ride the metro, which is great for this directionally challenged girl. We got our first taste of La Rambla with all of the street performers, the market La Boquería, and clinging to everything we were carrying for fear of pick-pockets.

We were free for lunch so we roamed the streets and I had my first taste of tapas! (trying them out for ya, dad) and then we had a bus tour of the rest of the city, which didn't fare well for all of the people still jetlagged from the flight.


The next day we got to meet our home-stay abuelita! It was kind of like waiting to get picked for dodgeball as everyone waited for their name to be called out to be picked up. My host mom's name is Ana Barea and she is maybe 5 feet tall, 70 years old, and absolutely adorable. She makes dinner for Anjana and I at 9:00 pm but she doesn't eat until around 11:00 pm and then goes to bed around 1:30 am! How does she do it?? Anjana and I both get our own room and we each have a terrace that looks over our street below, la Calle de la Princessa (Princess Street).

This must be too good to be true.

Mi abuelita Ana!

Ayy this is kind of long, I'll try and keep the other ones shorter but I'm doing great, absolutely loving it here, and learning a ton already. Adios!