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!