Day 10 -- May 31 (birthday eve!)

My birthday is tomorrowwwww!!!!!! If only I were in the US con mis amigas L Oh well, hopefully we will have a good time here! I got up for school today (this morning thing isn’t working well for me) and was exhausted during the entire class. I thought I was going to fall asleep, but that would have been really bad. We have a rule book in our folders from ISA about classrooms, and the rules are so different than in the US. We can’t eat or drink in class, chew gum, leave to use the bathroom, miss class at all, arrive late, yawn, etc. It’s crazy. I’m really bad about yawning, but I think she ignores it. I was going to get some coffee and maybe a snack during our 30 minute break, but the cafeteria didn’t take credit cards and I didn’t have time to go to the ATM this morning. I was super hungry though so my stomach was growling all during class. These classes are going to be so boring (they’re from 9 am until 2 pm with 40 minutes total in breaks). Oh well, they’re only a month! After class, it was about to rain so I came home for a little siesta (nap). I was really tired, and I haven’t gotten a ton of sleep lately so it was really nice. I’m kind of mad that I ended up sleeping for 3 hours, though, because it’s going to be tough trying to fall asleep tonight. We had a really good dinner tonight! We ate salad, cooked spinach, rice with peas, and this fajita-type dish of chicken with peppers and onions. I ate way too much, but it’s rare that I feel super full here so I’ll take it J After dinner we had my favorite fruit, watermelon, and then Sara and I came into the room. We’re just sitting around on our computers, and I’ll probably do my homework soon. Right now it's about 9:30 pm, and I think we’re going to go to a café around midnight to have a glass of wine when it turns June 1^st! So soon! Miss you guys. I would love to skype anyone, because I’m getting a little homesick so if you’re reading this, my skype is bri.booth J xox

Day 9 -- May 30

Today was a pretty good day. We started classes, unfortunately, so I had to be up and out of the house by 7:50 since none of us knew where the school was. As always, I was running late because I have yet to figure out the metro system. We went into class and our teacher seemed a little scary – she didn’t smile very much haha. She taught from 9-11 (all stuff that I have learned so hopefully this will be easy peasy), and then we had a 30 minute break. They have a cafeteria downstairs, which none of us knew about, so we went and sat down there to drink coffee and some people ate part of their lunches. I had a salad and an apple so I waited until after classes to eat it. I asked the teachers who work with ISA what to do about the skin irritation, and they told me to call ISA because they weren’t exactly sure. I called and they told me to go to a doctor, but a doctor’s visit is 70 euros up front (which we would get back) and then we pay them 50 dollars per visit. I’m hoping it goes away before I have to spend money on that, so I’ve just been putting lots of lotion on it. Rafaela put some type of powder on it when I got home, but I don’t think it made a difference. After class, Jane and I went to the beach since the other girls had class until 5:00. I think I speak for the both of us when I say that I had no clue what I was getting myself into. I forgot to mention this in my last post, but there are random people constantly walking up to you at the beach wanting to sell you something. Massages, beer, henna tattoos, etc. I have gotten pretty good at sternly saying NO (it gets better and better with practice J). And by constantly, I mean literally every 3 minutes someone else is walking up to ask if you want something. I guess it’s the price you pay for going to a touristy beach! As soon as Jane and I walked up, we were immediately reminded that they do things a little differently here. At least half of the female population on the beach had no tops on. It was not ideal to see like 7 sets of breasts while walking to find a spot to lie down, but I guess that’s just how they do it here? Also, a couple decided it was completely normal to make love to each other in the ocean. It was underwater but very obvious and very repulsive. I think we’re going to lie on the opposite side next time! After about an hour, the clouds rolled in and looked very stormy, so we walked around for a while (it never rained) and looked for the ISA office. We wanted to try to get there without the map, but we eventually had to look at it only to realize we were not even remotely close. We finally found it, and we got on the computers for about an hour while talking with Antonio. I had to get back home at least before 8 so that Sara and I could go to the Vodaphone store and attempt to get our internet working, and when we got there we found out that the PIN was on the bottom of the router (although the original guy we spoke to said it was the one on the card he gave us). So our internet is finally up and running and both of us can use it at once! We are very happy about it. For dinner, we had gazpacho (remember, the cold soup) with croutons, salad, and a Spanish omelet (eggs and potatoes sort of cooked into a pie). It was yummy!
 I did my homework (so easy), and now I think I’m heading to bed. See you tomorrow!

Day 8 -- May 29

As you know, last night was a little bit crazy for me, so I slept in until noon. Even when I woke up, I was still a bit shaken about it all. I just want to say that I have the best parents in the world J Love you mom and dad! If you’re reading this, you probably know me pretty well and know that I’m not a morning person. I went out to get some water, and Sara and Rafaela were chatting in the living room so I sat down. I don’t even like to speak English when I have just woken up, so speaking Spanish was a bit of a challenge. Rafaela likes to pick at me because I don’t speak/understand as well as Sara, and we don’t know why she does that but it intimidates me even more. She now makes us salads every day for lunch, because Sara and I asked her to. I definitely enjoy it more than the sandwich, but it still is not very much food so I’m hoping to lose a few pounds with the lack of food and TONS of walking! Around 2:30 we went to meet Jesslyn, Alicia, and Jane to go up to MontJuic (pronounced mone-to-week really fast) and ride the cable cars to the top of the mountain. The cable cars took us to the castle at the top, and on top of the castle was the highest point of the mountain! It was really pretty, and we were able to see the entire city from up there. We walked around the castle for a bit, and then rode the cable cars back down. Once we got down, we walked over to the site where the Olympics were held in 1992. It’s incredible how big everything was, since they built it all just for the Olympics. They now use the stadium for concerts, and there were a lot of people there to see Shakira tonight. Everything was really pretty and we were so tired, so we sat down for a little while and just took it all in before heading back. When we were on the metro, we realized that the parade for the futbol players was happening so we went up to try to see them but we literally missed them by 2 minutes. There were tons and tons of people, and we could see the buses, but even while running we couldn’t make it to the front to see them because of the crowd. We got back to the house a little late for dinner, but Rafaela wasn’t mad. Tonight she made a vegetable quiche – so good – and salad. After, we had fruit and then took showers. I’m so exhausted and my feet need a good 3 day rest, but I know that’s not possible. I really do like it here, but I’m a big family girl so that’s been hard on me. Especially because my mom and dad have not SKYPED ME yet (AHEM). Also, I don’t know why but my skin has been breaking out. I thought it was my eczema, but there are red bumps; it almost seems like I could be allergic to the detergent on the bed sheets. Someone else told me that if I have sensitive skin, it could be from the pollution. Great, one more thing to make me uncomfortable here. Oh well, hopefully it will calm down soon! I’m getting to bed now because that 7:15 wakeup call is going to be pretty painful tomorrow. Buenas noches! xox

Day 7 -- May 28

I now realize why I have been sleeping so late this weekend (since we don’t have to wake up for anything). The blinds in our rooms are like those blinds you see in the movies where you press a button and a big metal shield goes over it. Okay, not exactly, but there are no spaces between them so it stays so dark in here! I love it, but it may not be good for my 7:30am wakeup call during the school week. This afternoon we took our lunches down to the beach for our first day out in the sun, but unfortunately, as luck would have it, it was cold (literally shivering on the beach) and lots of overcast so we left around 2:30. We walked around for a bit, bought cheap jerseys for the game (go Messi!), and then went home to get ready before dinner. Naturally the sky cleared up and it was sunny and hot outside as soon as we got home. We both showered and basically got ready before dinner since we eat at 8, so that we could leave as soon as it was over to go watch the game with the locals. Rafaela made the same rice and peas, turkey, cooked carrots, zucchini, and onions, and salad as always. We left around 8:45 to go to Las Ramblas (a big street where everyone was around for the game), and we went to La Plaza Real to hang out. They didn’t have a screen up, but the restaurants in the plaza were playing it so we were able to keep up with the game. As you all probably know already, BARCELONA WON!!! And I am not joking when I say that the entire town went nuts. Absolutely crazy! Sara and I met up with our friends Jesslyn and Alicia, and we went out into Las Ramblas to see everyone’s reactions. I really feel like there are no rules in this place. There was a HUGE huge huge crowd (look at my facebook videos) outside of La Plaza Catalunya, and people were climbing trees and light posts and throwing firecrackers in the middle of the crowd. Literally, someone would pull out a firecracker, the group would back away from it in a circle, and then it would go off – they were so loud and sounded just like gunshots so you would never know if there was a mass murderer in the crowd. I have never seen anything like this. It was so cool to witness, though, because everyone was so so excited. Once we had had enough of that, we decided to go down to a dance club called Opium because we were randomly handed free passes. I don’t know if y’all know this, but the dress codes for clubs in Spain are very strict, and they didn’t let us in because I had on a jersey and Jesslyn was wearing flip flops. Isn’t that ridiculous? While we were walking to the train, our friend Katie called and said she had been robbed, so Jesslyn and Alicia went to find her while I took the metro station that we passed to get home. Well, that didn’t go over so hot. I knew exactly where I was, where I needed to switch metros, and where it would take me. However, with the celebrations going on, almost all metro stations around Plaza Catalunya were closed. Because I was alone in a very big foreign city, I got really scared. All of the streets were closed off, people were everywhere drinking and playing with fireworks, and the police were lined across almost every street looking as intimidating as ever. So what did I do? I called my mommy and daddy. Keep in mind, it was 2:30 am here and my roommate had gone home about 2 hours earlier so I knew she would be asleep. I still feel bad because I know I probably upset them (I was crying like a baby), but I was really scared and had no idea who else to call. They talked me through it, and I eventually found a taxi and got home about 45 minutes later (around 3:30 my time). It was awful, and needless to say I have learned my lesson about being alone in a foreign city. 

Day 6 -- May 27

Last night, a few of us went to an American bar called the Dow Jones bar. It was full of other Americans (yay!) and the drinks were like a stock market. They had TV screens with the drinks on them along with a price, and it told you if the market was up or down. Every so often, the drinks would all drop down, and people were buying like 4 at a time. It was very entertaining haha! It was my first day to sleep in today so I woke up at 11:30 – I was still so tired and sleep-deprived. When I woke up, I got in the shower and we went on our way to La Pedrera, one of Gaudi’s many works of art, for the Modernism Tour. We learned the way he formed the insides of the building, which was by hanging a chain and seeing how it arched. They also took us up to the top of the buildings to see the entire city, and then we went into his apartment. It was very nice! After that, a lot of us were really hungry, and I was packed the same cheese sandwich, so I stopped and got chicken nuggets from McDonalds. We sat down on a bench inside of McDonalds while looking at Gaudi’s other house (maybe Casa Batllo?) and we were talking about how cool it was that we could be sitting in McDonalds and looking at very famous art all at the same time. After lunch, Jane, Sara, and I went to the ISA office to use the internet and to figure out how to get ours fixed. We stayed for a good 2 or 3 hours just playing around on the internet (we didn’t have anything else to do and we were having withdrawals J), and then Myriam walked with us to Vodaphone to see about getting it up and working. We ended up having to pay 30 euros each L but at least we’ll be able to use it whenever needed and not have to go all the way to the middle of town! But when we brought it home, the pin didn’t work. When we put the USB straight into our computers it works, but we can only use it one at a time. We’re going to go to the store again on Monday and try to figure it out. We were supposed to have another tour called the Gothic Tour to see the old part of town, but there are huge demonstrations and protests going on right now. We had to walk by La Plaza Catalunya to get home from Vodaphone, and they were just starting a really big protest. Police were everywhere, and they were fully armed (they were scary). It was kind of cool since I’ve never seen anything like that, but we didn’t stay because we were worried it might get dangerous. We walked home (I’m getting way too tired of walking that whole way so I bought a metro pass) and then I went with Jane, Nichole, and Meg to the ports at the beach to just kind of sit around and hang out. It was really nice outside. Oh, side note, another really strange/uncomfortable thing about Spain is the PDA! They really aren’t ashamed of anything, and it makes me very uncomfortable to be sitting across from a couple making out while she rubs his you-know-what. Gross. We’re going to the beach tomorrow for the first time, so it should be fun!

Day 5 -- May 26

After waking up in sweat (gross) Rafaela had breakfast put out for us this morning, but she wasn’t home. She had cornflakes, really hard bread (kinda small, almost like crackers), orange juice, and milk. They don’t keep their milk very cold, and I’m weird about milk to begin with, so after one bite of the cereal I had to switch to the bread. I accidentally put raspberry jelly on it instead of strawberry, because I thought they were the same, so I finished it and that was all I ate. She made us “picnics” (aka: brown bag lunches) to take with us for the day. My lunch was a “turkey sandwich” with an apple. The reason turkey sandwich is in quotations is because the sandwich was two thick pieces of white bread, two thick pieces of cheese, and one very thin slice of turkey in the middle; I guess I should call it a cheese sandwich? I ended up only eating the piece of turkey and the apple. We took our placement exam at 9:00 am in one of the rooms of the university and then went to look around. We walked around Barcelona and went into the market and a couple of small stores. The market was so cool! They had tons of fresh fruit, candy, slushies, etc., and they also had a lot of meat and fish (animals’ heads included). That part made me want to throw up. We met back up for a meeting in the same classroom at 12:30 and received our class assignments. Originally, I registered for intermediate on the internet so I ended up having to stay in that because that was what I chose. However, my friends all wanted advanced and placed into it, so I’m a little nervous about not being with them since I’ve done everything with them so far. I guess I’ll have to make new friends. We went and got our schedules, books, and folders and then went to the ISA office. The good thing about being in intermediate is that I have class from 9-2 and then can go to the beach, while my friends in advanced don’t get out of class until 5. Sara and I are having trouble finding internet in this apartment, so we tried asking the people at ISA, but RealCom only rents for 2 months at the least. We’re going to try to figure things out tomorrow, and I think Antonio (the housing director) is going to call Rafaela tomorrow. It just kind of sucks because Rafaela told us there is nowhere near her apartment with WIFI, and we would have to go into La Plaza Cataluña just to use the internet, which is a 40 minute walk. I think I’m going to buy the unlimited metro pass so I can get to places easier, since our apartment is so far away. It’s expensive, but it will be worth it rather than having to make a 40 minute walk every time I need to go somewhere. Oh! How could I forget? I went to take a shower today and had a nice surprise waiting for me. Not only did Rafaela ask us to turn the water off when we weren’t using it (ie: while shampooing hair, while conditioning hair, while washing my face and body, while shaving, etc.), but I also discovered that we have to hold the shower while we rinse off. Needless to say, I think I covered over half of the bathroom with water. At 5:30, we went on a bus tour around Barcelona and got to see La Sagrada Familia built by Gaudi, the port for the boats, Mont Juic (a big mountain here), and a lot of other famous stuff in the city. We went to Park Guell at the end, which Gaudi is famous for, and got to walk around and take pictures and stuff. They had an America’s Next Top Model finale there one year! It’s really pretty. We walked back to our house from there because it was the last stop and we live nearby. We were a couple of minutes late to dinner because we got a little bit lost, but she didn’t mind. She made us gazpacho (cold vegetable soup made with tomato, onion, cucumber, pepper, salt, and olive oil but the tomato is the main component because the consistency is similar to tomato soup), which was really good. Here they like to offer you seconds and thirds and fourths, so I had 2 cups thinking that it was our dinner. Then she brought us out fish and salad. I’m not sure what kind of fish it was, but it was a white fish and it was really good. Overall, the dinner was great! I knew I would like it more when I didn’t have to go to restaurants every night. And afterwards, we had fruit again for dessert. It’s definitely going to take some getting used to here, but I think it will become a lot easier to adapt to the culture changes once classes start. Hasta Luego!

PS – We found a store called Taste of America (the workers even speak pretty good English!) with peanut butter, Dr. Pepper, and kettle cooked salt and vinegar chips. I am a happy girl.

Day 4 -- May 25

Today, we woke up at 7:00 am to be ready for our 8:30 drive to Barcelona. The ride was really long and everyone was exhausted, so most people slept the whole way. I read a good bit, watched a movie, and slept for around 4 hours total. We stopped twice for gas and for people to eat; there were restaurants behind the gas stations. I ate spaghetti because I don’t trust things that I don’t know what’s inside J We finally got to La Plaza Universidad where we were meeting our families, and I could immediately pick out Rafaela (she’s 73). She’s short, skinny, and very cute, and she also had a sign with our names haha. We took a taxi to her apartment (which she made us pay for???), and then came inside to unpack. WHY DID I BRING SO MANY CLOTHES/SHOES?!! She asked us when we wanted dinner, and we ended up eating around 8 pm although they usually eat around 9 or 10. Rafaela made us baked chicken, rice with peas in it (yes, I ate the peas), salad (mine was just lettuce), and bread. It was actually good, which is a good sign seeing as I haven’t had much luck with my meals. Afterwards, we gave Rafaela her gifts. Sara gave her honey and chocolates from Wisconsin, and I gave her a small tervis tumbler with the SC emblem, coasters, a hand-made painting, and a necklace with a monogrammed R on it (which she immediately put on). After the gifts, we ate peaches and nectarines for dessert, and then Sara and I went and walked around for like 5 minutes. She’s watching a movie now and said she would be going to bed around 11, but I’m tired and the movie is in Spanish so we’re going to study a little for our placement exam tomorrow. Unfortunately, we don’t have internet here L but she said that we could rent a WIFI router from our program, which is good because I’m already starting to feel a little homesick. We also don’t have air conditioning, so we’re leaving the window open for some breeze. The only thing I haven’t liked about Spain yet (besides having to adjust to their food) is that everything is SO EXPENSIVE. Aside from the fact that a euro varies between $1.50 and $1.80 American dollars, almost everything costs so much more money than America. A bag of chips in the gas station, that would normally be 1 dollar back home, was 2.70 euros. This could pose to be a problem.

Day 3--May 24

We drove to Toledo this morning around 9:00 am. I wasn’t really excited because I thought Toledo would be just a small, historic city, and the idea of moving my suitcases up to a hotel room for only one night wasn’t very appealing. However, this city is so gorgeous. We went into the scenic part of town, and took a lot of pictures overlooking the entire city. Everywhere we went; there was a view of the city. We toured the synagogue and went into a couple of churches/cathedrals. The entire place made me feel like I was in a princess in a castle with the way the walls were built and how gorgeous it was. We ate at a small restaurant in one of the plazas, and again I had no luck with food. I ordered a cheese pizza, but OF COURSE they didn’t have cheese. Who doesn’t have cheese but has pork and salami and peppers and pineapples etc.?! So I bought a salad. An 8 euro salad with nothing but lettuce and cheese, since that’s what I like. I figured a Greek salad would have feta cheese, but it had some other cheese (which was good, but I didn’t like it with the dressing). We had some free time to look around, so we went into some small shops. I think it’s like 90 degrees (if not more) outside today, and the bus’s air conditioning is definitely sub-par – which, by the way, we will be riding in for our 8 hour drive to Barcelona tomorrow. UGH. Oh well, I can’t wait to get there! We have a meeting here at 6:00 pm and then free time, but there’s not much to do when nothing is in walking distance from the hotel and the pool is closed.

Day 2--May 23

Day 2

After almost 12 hours of sleep, I actually woke up pretty quickly at 9:00. We got ready, went to eat breakfast in the hotel (so good), and then went on a walking tour at 10:30 of Madrid. We walked up to La Plaza Mayor and then all around the city, finishing at the Reina Sophia (Queen Sophia) museum. After the museum Sara, Nicole, Meg, Jane, and I were STARVING, so we went to a small restaurant inside of the plaza where the entrance of the museum was. Again, I didn’t have any better luck with ordering food. I thought I had order a mini bocadilla which was 4 euros and French fries which were 2.5 euros, but somehow I had to pay 16 euros. Not to mention, the sandwich was a very thing piece of fried chicken (the menu said grilled) with one small slice of cheese on it. That’s all. My luck is just getting better and better. After lunch, we decided to explore the city on our own, and we probably ended up walking around 7 or 8 miles in total. We went back to La Plaza Mayor like 4 times (not always on purpose), then visited the Botanical Gardens which were so pretty! Then we went on a crazy man search for gelato and/or ice cream and finally found it… near La Plaza Mayor. So we decided to stay and have a few sangrias and eat dinner. We got there around 7 and split a pitcher of sangrias, ordered our food at 8, and then eventually split one more pitcher (there were 5 of us J). I finally ordered Spanish food! I split a salad (all salads here have tuna on them) and a paella, which is a Spanish dish of rice and either vegetables, meat, or seafood. It was good but not something I would order all of the time. After dinner, we came back to the hotel, got on Skype/facebook for a little while, and then decided to go out and sit at a plaza because it was so nice outside. I think we got home around 2:00 am.

Day 1--May 22

Ahhh! I survived my 7 hour flight! After a minor panic attack on the first plane, I finally got it together and ended up toughing it out on the longer one. I sat next to local from Madrid named Avaro, and he told me some information about Madrid and Barcelona – he was super nice! Once we got there, we met up with the group, where I met my roommate Sara who I basically already felt like I knew, and we all got on the bus to the hotel. We dropped our stuff off and had some free time to roam the city, but I’m pretty sure I have strep so I took a much needed nap. After the nap, we went searching for an ATM and somewhere to eat. The ATM was a little difficult to find since it was our first time asking people where something was, but didn’t take long. The food, however, did not look appetizing anywhere we went. So I did what I always do and resorted to McDonalds as my first meal in Spain J We went to a meeting at 530 and a bus tour at 7 (which I fell asleep on because I was sooo jetlagged). After the tour, I got on facebook for a little while and then went to bed by 9:30.