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