Sept 28- La Sagrada Familia

Yesterday we went inside La Sagrada Familia, the cathedral designed by Gaudi that has been under construction since 1882 and is not expected to be finished until 2026. It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen! The cathedral is enormous, none of the other buildings even compare to how big it is. The outside tells the story of the birth of Christ, but the organic line make it look like the whole building is melting. The inside is much brighter with a lot of natural light from beautiful stained glass windows.

Not part of La Sagrada Familia, but I thought it was funny. It's A FC Barcelona soccer team toolbox! They are serious about their soccer here

Sept 23- La Castellers

Today we went to La Merce Festival again to watch La Castellers perform. The streets were packed with people, it was crazy. We pushed our way through the crowd and could see pretty well! There were several different teams and I think they were competing. One of the teams created the entire tower all the way to the top and then everyone fell! It was really scary, I felt so bad for them but all the locals didn't seem to be concerned at all. I think everyone was fine, there was no ambulance or anything so that's good! It was a really cool experience, some of the towers were like 8 people high! Tonight there is a light and music show at La Sagrada Familia, so I will post pictures from that later!

Sept 22- Circus at Montjuic

The Merce Festival is this weekend so yesterday we went to a mountain called Montjuic to watch a circus that was in the moat of a castle! There was dancing and acrobatic performances, it was really cool! Last night my friend and I went to un partido de futbol (soccer game), FC Barcelona vs Granada. It was awesome, the stadium was huge and we won 2-0!!

Sept 19- La Escuela

For the past week we have only been taking a 3 hour Spanish class every day at the CIEE Study Center. Tomorrow our other classes start and most of mine are at a school called ESCI, which is for both international students and local Spanish students. Luckily all of my classes are in English! We decided we should figure out how to get to school today since we have to be there bright and early tomorrow!

The metro stop we get off at to go to ESCI is called

Arc de Triompf. Here is the arc!

Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Advanced Spanish speakers may have one or two classes here but I don't.

We can use their library though! This is right across the street from ESCI.

ESCI- Not as pretty as Universitat Pompeu Fabra but that's ok!

Sept 18- La Castellers Practice

In the Catalonia region of Spain, which is where Barcelona is located, people create human towers called Castellers in the street by climbing on top of one another. Castellers perform during many holidays and festivals in large, crowded streets where many people can see them. There are about 4-9 people on the bottom for the base depending on how high the tower will be. Towers can be anywhere from 3-9 people tall. On the very top of the tower is a child who is usually about 5 years old. Castellers are very popular in Barcelona. This weekend there is a festival called La Merce which the Castellers will be performing at. The festival first began as a Roman Catholic celebration to honor "Our Lady Mercy" and has transformed into a 4 day festival filled with fireworks, dancing, a circus, concerts, and street performers. Last night we went to the Castellers gym to watch them practice before their big performance this weekend. The Castellers usually practice about 5 hours a week and train in strength, balance, and flexibility. In the gym they practice int hey had nets to catch them in case they fel, but out in the streets they have nothing. It was so crazy to watch these little kids climb up 5 layers of people without showing any fear at all! When the tower is complete the little kid at the top will raise his or her hand to signal that they are finished and then they slide down everyone just like they are sliding down a pole. We got to go in and help spot them for a couple rounds. Even though we didn't get very close, it was scary knowing that we had to be responsible to catch these people if they fell!

Sept 16- Montserrat Hike

Today my friends Shimoni, Dan and I went hiking up a mountain called Montserrat which is Northwest of Barcelona. We took a train to the base of the mountain which took about an hour and took a cable car up to the top. There are no cars on the mountain, the only way to get there is to take a train. There are some monasteries on the mountain and we went inside a cathedral too, it was gorgeous!