Sept 15- Girona y Tossa de Mar

Today the study abroad program that I am on took us on a trip to Girona and Tossa de Mar, 2 cities north of Barcelona. Girona is an old town of 100,000 people. There is only one vacant house in the town that is for sale, otherwise people just pass their houses onto other members of their family. We got to go on a tour of one of the cathedrals in the town and it was amazing! It has the largest nave in the world without any columns in the middle to support it (the nave is the big area inside the church in front of the altar where everyone sits). After we left Girona we went down to a beach town called Tossa de Mar. It was absolutely gorgeous with clear blue water and not a cloud in the sky! Some of my friends and I rented snorkeling gear and swam around in the water for a while. We saw lots of fish, sea urchins, and some jellyfish! The water is still very nice for this time of year, but by the time we got out I was freezing. Overall it was another perfect day in Spain!

Girona

The cathedral at Girona

Tossa de Mar

Sept 14- La Boqueria & La Playa

Today we went on a field trip during our Spanish class to La Boqueria, a huge famers' market located on La Ramblas. It is always packed with people and has tons of stands with fresh fruit, vegetables, seafood, other frightening sea creatures, meat, and candy! We split up into teams and went on a scavenger hunt where we had to talk to the shop owners and ask questions about different types of food, quantities, and prices. I had a delicious peach raspberry juice smoothie and it was the most delicious thing I have ever had! Besides the Nutella gelato I had the other day. After La Boqueria a few of us went down to the beach to play soccer and go swimming. The weather here is always beautiful, the temperature is still in the 80's everyday! Overall, it was another perfect day in Spain!

One of the many fruit stands at La Boqueria

Heaven! Look at all this candy!

The view at la playa!

Sept 12- Park Guell

Today we went to Park Guell on the hill of El Carmel in the Gracia district of Barcelona. Park Guell was designed by Antoni Gaudi and was built from 1900-1914. It was meant to be a small town with houses, schools, and markets, but only 3 houses were built and it is now a huge park instead. It is really close to my homestay, probably only about a 25 minute walk. Our Spanish friend Carles says that a doctor lives in one of the houses now. The park is located on top of a huge hill overlooking the city. We also went to a Spanish Civil War Memorial on a huge mountain over the city. It is so gorgeous here, I  might not come home!

Me in front of our school, CIEE, 

which used to be an old house

The view from the Spanish Civil War Memorial

La Sagrada Familia off in the distance, another Gaudi creation

One of the houses created by Gaudi at Park Guell

Houses at Park Guell

Sept 11- La Playa y La Demostración

Today was a National catalan holiday commemorating the defeat of the Catalan troops during the War of the Spanish Succession. The Catalan people are very proud of their heritage and want to be their own country because they have their own language and their culture is different from the rest of Spain. Since the Catalan region is more wealthy than the rest of Spain, they have to pay more taxes than other areas of Spain. The support for Catalonia's independence has increased in the past several years due to the economic crisis, and with the Spanish nationalism with its attacks against the Catalan language and its attempts to re-centralize Spain. Every year on the 11th of September the Catalan people gather in the streets with flags and instruments and march around singing and yelling as a demonstration to show that they do not want to be a part of Spain. This year there was about 1,000 buses bringing in protestors from out of town. There was expected to be about 40,00 people coming from out of town for the demonstrations plus all of the locals, a much larger than demonstation than any of the past years. We went to the beach today and then stopped by the demonstrations to see watch the Catalan loyalty in action!

Sept 10- La Ramblas

There is a street in Spain called La Ramblas that is filled with shops, cafes, kiosks, markets, street performers, and live statues. It is similar to Pearl Street in Boulder, CO but about 100 times crazier and more crowded. I went down there with some friends yesterday to have lunch, go shopping, and observe the madness.

                                                     shops and apartments on La Ramblas

                                                         una tienda de flores- a flower shop
                                   

                                                        the view going into La Ramblas

                                                 
                                             a fountain in the square outside of La Ramblas

Sept 8

I met my host family on Thursday and my roommate, another CIEE student named Marie. She is from Minnesota and is so sweet. We are living with a Senora, a single lady who is in her 50's and she is really nice! She keeps talking about her golden retriever and showing us pictures but for some reason the dog is living at her nephew's house right now. Our Spanish isn't very good, but from what we can understand Marie and I think the dog will be coming to live with us in the next few days which would be so fun!

We went on a bus tour through the city yesterday and saw Mont Juic, a gorgeous mountain overlooking the entire city, the Olympic Stadium where the 1992 Olympics were held, La Sagrada Familia, a very famous church by Gaudi which has been under construction since 1882 and won't be done until 2050, and many other cool things! We have "guardian angels" who are Spanish students that are studying at the same school that we are and they take us out and show us around and stuff. It's great because we get to practice our Spanish and they get to practice their English.  We went out for tapas (delicious appetizers) with our guardian angels last night and then went to a club on the beach which was really fun! Apparently Spanish people are crazy, no one goes to the clubs until about 1am and they stay open until 5 or 6am! We left around 3:30 which is unheard of for them. There is a party on the beach tonight that everyone is going to so I have to go! I miss you all!

Sept 4

There was a small speed bump at the beginning of my adventure. My flight to Philadelphia from Denver was delayed to I missed my connecting flight to Barcelona. After a small meltdown and many phone calls with my parents (thanks dad!) I got put on a flight to London, and then will fly from London to Barcelona, and if all goes well I will arrive to Barcelona at 6:30pm tomorrow night. So hopefully I will make it! I haven't even made it across the country yet and the adventures are already beginning. Here we go!