We toured both campuses this week, Sant Pau and Sarriá. I´ll only be taking classes at Sant Pau and can i just say, it is BEAUTIFUL!! The campus used to be a hospital and the building our classes will be in was where patients would rest and recover. On the outside it looks like a castle. There are lots of windows inside and lots of brightly colored mosaic walls. Seeing it really made me excited to start classes on tuesday.. the campus is walking distance from my apartment which is awesome. Avinguda de Gaudí is nearby and there´s lots of little restaurants and stuff and the avenue ends at La Sagrada Familia. Brittany, Chelsey, and I ate at a place called Aladin when we were touring Sant Pau.
Sarriá was cool too, I guess, but not nearly as awesome as Sant Pau.

We went to La Boquería, which is an outdoor market that sells all kinds of really yummy stuff. Anything from whole pig’s heads to fresh fruits, and candy. Walking around in there just made me hungry! We walked down Las Ramblas to the very end, down by the sea, and saw the statue of Cristobal Colón. It’s pretty huge and really intricate and pretty. We also saw Montjüic from another angle, and that was really pretty too.

We ended up in the Gothic quarter and walked around there. There’s lots of teeny tiny side streets and anytime we saw a street that looked cool we’d just turn and go. We had no idea where we were but we just walked… We found a little place and stopped there for lunch. Eventually we made it back to La Placa Catalunya. It’s really exciting that, after less than a week, I’m able to semi-maneuver my way around Barcelona!

Last night, Brittany and I went out to meet some people from her school that are here for their architecture majors. The plan was to go to this bar called Dow Jones which works like the stock market? Whatever drink people are buying the most would be the most expensive one. BUT we ended up walking around downtown for 2 hours trying to find the place, being lead by two drunk chicks that had no idea what they were doing or where they were going… disaster.
Eventually, at 3-ish, Brittany and I took the night bus home. Except we got on it on the wrong side of the street and ended up riding it for. ever. The bus driver eventually told us where to go, cause I guess we were kinda close to home, and we walked the last bit, when we got in a little before 4, Margarita was getting ready to go to work.

Today we went on a bike tour around the city with the API group. We rode down to the ocean and rode along the beach and it was soooo beautiful. We went to Ciutadella, a park with an awesome fountain type thing designed by Gaudí. I didn’t bring my camera, so I don’t have any pictures of that.

After the tour, Brittany, Chelsey, and I went to La Boquería to get lunch. The goal was to see how cheap you could get it, but still have a full lunch. I got a baguette with pancetta (2.50), fruit (1), and juice (1). The total came to 4.50, but while we were eating, we figured that you could do without the juice, because the fruit was so good, and it would only be 3.50. Not bad at all.

When we got back to the apartment, we passed out for siesta because we had barely slept any the night before.. it was really really nice, and now we’re energizad and ready to go out. Margarita made us delicious food, as always, and now she’s playing her Nintendo DS. She’s so funny! She’s super into fútbol and loves F.C. Barcelona. They were playing Seville the other night and she was screaming at the tv; for the way they were playing (they lost), and because they’re all so “guapo”. I really like her, and I think she likes us too… Last night before we went out she kept saying to go “con cuidado” (be careful), and she asked if we had her phone numbers in our phones and stuff… She’s so nice (:

http://gallery.me.com/rakel88/100069