Thursday, January 29, 2009
hola!
Good news and bad news. The good: I am feeling almost 100% better. The bad: I've lost my voice for 2 days now..and I have no idea where Barcelona's Lost & Found is. Ok, bad joke, but my voice really is gone. I'll take it though. It's better than feeling like I'm swallowing fire 24/7.
Second week of school is done! Woo! I know we've been over this but I really don't enjoy any of my classes except Sport and Culture. The teacher is just awesome to put it simply. The material is good but the teacher just makes the class. He loves what he teaches and teaching isn't even his first job. He is actually a sports broadcaster that works for FC Barcelona, the city's soccer team. So during the week he teaches at CEA and when there are games he is working at them. It totally doesn't matter that he doesn't speak English very well and sounds like Borat because he is incredibly upbeat and positive all the time. A group had the first presentation of the semester today. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't like award winning or anything, just your average oral presentation. He starts clapping and saying, "BRAVO! wonderful! GREAT JOB!" Everyone in the class is just looking at him and he goes "Come on people, lets clap them". "Clap them" we did. Gosh I love this man.
After a failed attempt at booking online, a failed attempt to buy them at the train station, and yet another failed attempt online, we finally have tickets to Valencia. The round trip by train was around 63 Euros which was cheaper than a flight. Then I suggested looking into taking a bus because we are literally next door to the bus station. So I go online to research prices and we can get a round trip ticket for 50 Euros. SCORE! Due to minor communication issues (who are we kidding, they're major issues) we had our friend, Jorge, who speaks Spanish fluently, come help us buy the tickets at the station. Turns out the bus station has a deal that is buy two tickets, get one free. Essentially everyone that was going got a round trip ticket for 33 Euros. DOUBLE SCORE! We leave tomorrow morning at 7am (ew.) and get back February 1st, sometime in the late afternoon/early evening. I'm pretty excited to take my first trip! Valencia is a few hours down the coast from Barcelona. It is the third largest city and Spain and is known for its wicked good paella and nightlife. WOO!
So, I obviously won't be able to write for the next few days because I won't be bringing my computer with me. I'll be sure to update y'all on how the trip went and upload some pictures as well. I hope everyone is surviving the snowstorm back home...I know I am! :)
Love and miss you all!<3
Second week of school is done! Woo! I know we've been over this but I really don't enjoy any of my classes except Sport and Culture. The teacher is just awesome to put it simply. The material is good but the teacher just makes the class. He loves what he teaches and teaching isn't even his first job. He is actually a sports broadcaster that works for FC Barcelona, the city's soccer team. So during the week he teaches at CEA and when there are games he is working at them. It totally doesn't matter that he doesn't speak English very well and sounds like Borat because he is incredibly upbeat and positive all the time. A group had the first presentation of the semester today. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't like award winning or anything, just your average oral presentation. He starts clapping and saying, "BRAVO! wonderful! GREAT JOB!" Everyone in the class is just looking at him and he goes "Come on people, lets clap them". "Clap them" we did. Gosh I love this man.
After a failed attempt at booking online, a failed attempt to buy them at the train station, and yet another failed attempt online, we finally have tickets to Valencia. The round trip by train was around 63 Euros which was cheaper than a flight. Then I suggested looking into taking a bus because we are literally next door to the bus station. So I go online to research prices and we can get a round trip ticket for 50 Euros. SCORE! Due to minor communication issues (who are we kidding, they're major issues) we had our friend, Jorge, who speaks Spanish fluently, come help us buy the tickets at the station. Turns out the bus station has a deal that is buy two tickets, get one free. Essentially everyone that was going got a round trip ticket for 33 Euros. DOUBLE SCORE! We leave tomorrow morning at 7am (ew.) and get back February 1st, sometime in the late afternoon/early evening. I'm pretty excited to take my first trip! Valencia is a few hours down the coast from Barcelona. It is the third largest city and Spain and is known for its wicked good paella and nightlife. WOO!
So, I obviously won't be able to write for the next few days because I won't be bringing my computer with me. I'll be sure to update y'all on how the trip went and upload some pictures as well. I hope everyone is surviving the snowstorm back home...I know I am! :)
Love and miss you all!<3
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
I'm alive
I'm alive - BARELY! I went to the Emergency Room yesterday because I couldn't get a doctor's appointment until Thursday. With a fever and my throat swollen shut that simply wasn't going to cut it. Turns out I have strep throat. The doctor prescribed me some antibiotics and pain medication to take for the next few days. I'm already feeling a tiny bit better...thank God. I just need to rest every second I get because I don't think being as tired as I am helps any.
In other news, our day trip to Calcotada and Sitges was cancelled. We walked outside to leave for the trip around 10am on Saturday and we were nearly blown over by the wind. I have never experienced gusts of wind that strong in my life. We weren't really sure if it was normal or not but we assumed it was ok to walk around because everyone else in Barcelona was too. On our way to the meeting point we saw trees uprooted from the cement, signs that had blown off their posts, and furniture that had been swept from balconies, etc. We finally got to the meeting point and the lady told us that the trip was cancelled because of the wind conditions. She said wind like this was not normal here in Barcelona and that traveling in it would be very dangerous. Apparently we had to go over a bridge to get to our destination and they were worried that the bus would blow off the bridge if a gust was strong enough. Not to mention, the winery we were going to had no power because of the weather. I was surfing the internet later and when I went on CNN.com I saw a headline that said "Severe Wind Storms in Spain". I was pretty surprised the storm had made international headlines so I opened it up to read it. It talked about how Barcelona was experiencing uncharacteristic winds that had reached up to 99 mph. Buildings had their siding ripped off (see my picture below, HAH!) and there were dead birds everywhere that had met their fate...a wall...due to strong winds. Anyway, note to self: When the wind literally can blow you over...stay inside.
Classes are going decent this week. I love my Sport & Culture class a ton. The other 4? Not so much. Oh well, nothing I can do really. Hopefully I will be feeling 100% in a day or two. I'll try to keep writing but if I'm not feeling to great I hope you can understand. Love and miss you all! <3
In other news, our day trip to Calcotada and Sitges was cancelled. We walked outside to leave for the trip around 10am on Saturday and we were nearly blown over by the wind. I have never experienced gusts of wind that strong in my life. We weren't really sure if it was normal or not but we assumed it was ok to walk around because everyone else in Barcelona was too. On our way to the meeting point we saw trees uprooted from the cement, signs that had blown off their posts, and furniture that had been swept from balconies, etc. We finally got to the meeting point and the lady told us that the trip was cancelled because of the wind conditions. She said wind like this was not normal here in Barcelona and that traveling in it would be very dangerous. Apparently we had to go over a bridge to get to our destination and they were worried that the bus would blow off the bridge if a gust was strong enough. Not to mention, the winery we were going to had no power because of the weather. I was surfing the internet later and when I went on CNN.com I saw a headline that said "Severe Wind Storms in Spain". I was pretty surprised the storm had made international headlines so I opened it up to read it. It talked about how Barcelona was experiencing uncharacteristic winds that had reached up to 99 mph. Buildings had their siding ripped off (see my picture below, HAH!) and there were dead birds everywhere that had met their fate...a wall...due to strong winds. Anyway, note to self: When the wind literally can blow you over...stay inside.
Classes are going decent this week. I love my Sport & Culture class a ton. The other 4? Not so much. Oh well, nothing I can do really. Hopefully I will be feeling 100% in a day or two. I'll try to keep writing but if I'm not feeling to great I hope you can understand. Love and miss you all! <3
Sunday, January 25, 2009
It was only a matter of time...
Nearly everyone I know here at CEA has come down with something these past two weeks. All of the teachers have said that sickness levels go through the roof the first few weeks because of stress, fatigue, new germs for your immune system to fight, etc. I have pretty much been living in a hospital here at Residencia Onix because almost all of my suitemates have been sick. With all necessary precautions taken, I somehow managed to hop on the band-wagon and get sick. I've been dead for about the past 24 hours or so. What started as a little tickle has since progressed into the swelling shut of my throat/fever. I think I'm going to try and find a pharmacy tomorrow and see if they have any medicine for sore throats. I really don't want to miss any classes so I know I'm going to have to be drugged up to get through both of mine tomorrow. If after my classes I'm still not feeling any better I'm going to try to find the doctor that CEA recommends we visit if we become ill. Until then I'm going to lay around in pain, be miserable, and wish I was home. Here's to you anti-bacterial hand sanitizer...thanks for nothing!
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
La Rambla
We left to go the Barcelona Aquarium at about 2 in the afternoon. It was about 62 degrees and a beautiful day here in Barcelona. We figured we would save ourselves some money and walk the ten million miles to the aquarium. About two miles before the aquarium you get to this street called "La Rambla". It's a pretty famous street here in Barcelona and very popular with the tourists. The whole street is lined with little cafes, stores, street vendors, entertainers, and pick pockets.
So the adventure began at the beginning of La Rambla where there is a big plaza called "Placa Catalunya". Placa Catalunya is this big walking area that has been taken over by pigeons. When we got to the plaza there were probably thousands of pigeons just chilling there. Unfortunately, we had to walk through the mini pigeon army to get to La Rambla. While it was one of the most scariest things I've ever experienced, it was probably one of the funnest things that I've been around here. Yes, sounds stupid I know, but the pigeons were fascinating to me. This one man came and had bread in his hand and literally ALL of the pigeons swarmed to him. I would have freaked out had I been him. There were these precious little kids who were playing with the pigeons too. Then there was this HUGE gust of wind and all of the pigeons started flying RIGHT at us. I was so scared I was going to get hit or pooped on by a bird; either would have been mortifying. If both had happened simultaneously I probably would have sat in a box and shipped myself home.
Then we got on La Rambla where I witnessed my first pick pocketing incident. The guy was looking like a total Creeper McCreeperson when we saw him walking our way. He slowed down near this one person and all of the sudden you see this person's wallet in his hand. Within seconds he had disappeared into the crowd. All in one swift motion this persons wallet was gone and they didn't have a clue. Scary stuff! Everyone spent the rest of the walk clutching their wallets and purses for dear life. Me? I took an extra level of precaution and walked around the rest of the afternoon with my wristlet in my pants :)
The rest of the walk down La Rambla I just took a million pictures and took in the sights. Every few hundred feet there are these entertainers that paint themselves to look like scultpures and what not. Then there is this stretch of street that has artists who sell their drawings and paintings along the side. I also found this nice little gelatto place about half way down La Rambla. I bought a large (I had to) and that meant I got to have 4 different scoops. I chose raspberry, kiwi, mango, and cookies and cream. All of the flavors were delicious but raspberry was by far my favorite. I definitely want to try some more another time!
We finally got the end of La Rambla where we thought the Aquarium was located. Turns out it was about two miles down another road. We were exhausted from walking around all afternoon so we opted to go to the Aquarium another day. I'm so overly tired it's not even funny anymore. I could probably sleep for two weeks straight and not wake up once. All in all it was a good day and I am really excited for tomorrow (the day trip to a couple towns). I'll be sure to post some pictures from today and tomorrows trip next blog. Love and miss you all <3
So the adventure began at the beginning of La Rambla where there is a big plaza called "Placa Catalunya". Placa Catalunya is this big walking area that has been taken over by pigeons. When we got to the plaza there were probably thousands of pigeons just chilling there. Unfortunately, we had to walk through the mini pigeon army to get to La Rambla. While it was one of the most scariest things I've ever experienced, it was probably one of the funnest things that I've been around here. Yes, sounds stupid I know, but the pigeons were fascinating to me. This one man came and had bread in his hand and literally ALL of the pigeons swarmed to him. I would have freaked out had I been him. There were these precious little kids who were playing with the pigeons too. Then there was this HUGE gust of wind and all of the pigeons started flying RIGHT at us. I was so scared I was going to get hit or pooped on by a bird; either would have been mortifying. If both had happened simultaneously I probably would have sat in a box and shipped myself home.
Then we got on La Rambla where I witnessed my first pick pocketing incident. The guy was looking like a total Creeper McCreeperson when we saw him walking our way. He slowed down near this one person and all of the sudden you see this person's wallet in his hand. Within seconds he had disappeared into the crowd. All in one swift motion this persons wallet was gone and they didn't have a clue. Scary stuff! Everyone spent the rest of the walk clutching their wallets and purses for dear life. Me? I took an extra level of precaution and walked around the rest of the afternoon with my wristlet in my pants :)
The rest of the walk down La Rambla I just took a million pictures and took in the sights. Every few hundred feet there are these entertainers that paint themselves to look like scultpures and what not. Then there is this stretch of street that has artists who sell their drawings and paintings along the side. I also found this nice little gelatto place about half way down La Rambla. I bought a large (I had to) and that meant I got to have 4 different scoops. I chose raspberry, kiwi, mango, and cookies and cream. All of the flavors were delicious but raspberry was by far my favorite. I definitely want to try some more another time!
We finally got the end of La Rambla where we thought the Aquarium was located. Turns out it was about two miles down another road. We were exhausted from walking around all afternoon so we opted to go to the Aquarium another day. I'm so overly tired it's not even funny anymore. I could probably sleep for two weeks straight and not wake up once. All in all it was a good day and I am really excited for tomorrow (the day trip to a couple towns). I'll be sure to post some pictures from today and tomorrows trip next blog. Love and miss you all <3
Thursday, January 22, 2009
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