Week of March 10-13

Hola!

I decided I'm gonna try and be better about writing what I do during the week (it's actually not that much with school and everything).  Even though my weekdays sometimes aren't that interesting, it is going to be stuff I want to remember so I'm gonna post about it! Enjoy!

Monday:
     Nothing.  I went to class in the morning, first Barcelona Past and Present then my Spanish class.  I had a 2 hours break until my next class so I caved and went to Starbucks (it's literally right below where my school is so it's pretty convenient but not for my wallet!).  In my social media class, we had a guest speaker, Marta Alonso, who is the inventor of Instagramers Barcelona.  If you want all the information on her, you can check out my Storify blog.  She was actually very interesting to listen to and I learned a lot about her, her company and how successful she has become after thinking of a small idea.  After class, I went back to my apartment and made by typical dinner of chicken pasta (usually tortellini) and a salad.  After trying to do homework and attempting to Skype (screw you wifi), I went to bed.

Tuesday:
     Usually on Tuesdays I don't have any classes except for my volunteer time from 5-7pm.  Today, I had to meet with my teacher for my volunteer class to talk to her about my papers I've written for her. She told me I was doing a great job so I was happy! Then I had to meet with a group to make a presentation for my Barcelona class.  He had told us we could redo it because we didn't get a great grade the first time so we did a better job.  After going home for a few minutes to eat a quick lunch, I went to my volunteering after school program.
     Tuesday at my volunteer placement was one of my favorite days there.  When I first walked in, one of my favorite little girls, Nerea, introduced me to one of her friends! They are finally starting to recognize my face and remember my name.  They get so excited when I walk through the door. But sometimes I feel like I'm not contributing enough to the kids being there because they have such a set schedule in place.  Every Tuesday when I'm there, the 3 year old's instructor reads them a book that goes along with the theme for the week.  I usually just sit there and listen because they speak Catalan so I don't understand.  This week, she went to the library and got me a book in English to read to the kids and teach them animals in English!  It was so cute listening to them try to say the English words.  The first animal that came up in the book was a pig (since the book was about a farm) and every animal after that was a pig too since it was the only thing they could remember! It was so cute and I finally felt like I belonged there.
     When I got back to my apartment later, we decided to go to dinner at a new restaurant we had heard about called La Flauta.  It was tapas and we hadn't had tapas in a while.  It was really easy to get to and some of the best tapas I've had in Barcelona.  We got 2 orders of patatas bravas, calamari, little ham and mozzarella sandwiches and some potato and sunny side egg dish.  They were all so good and a very reasonable price! We have big plans to go back there.

Sandwiches

Calamari

Patatas Bravas

Potato and Eggs

Wednesday:

     My Wednesdays are the same except in between my classes during my 2 hour break, Bridget and I have a little lunch date! She comes from her volunteering placement and meets me after my class and we have lunch and coffee somewhere.  We try to go to a new place every week.  We've been to George Payne's for burgers and beer, Pudding (which has turned out to be one of my favorite little cafes, they have mushrooms all over the walls! It looks like it should be in Alice and Wonderland) and this week we went to one of the places she has discovered: Molika Cafe.  

     While Bridget and I were walking there, we walked past all the paparazzi outside a restaurant (sadly, no they weren't looking for me).  We asked them who it was they were waiting for and it ended up being the President of Manchester City, the famous soccer team.  They were in town to play FC Barcelona that night in the Championships Cup.  It was cool to see a local celebrity!

Restaurant he was at

When we got there, we sat inside and talked and had cafe con leche (our favorite), a sandwich and a chocolate croissant for desert.   It's so fun to sit and talk at a new place every week! I love our little dates.  While sitting there, we met a nice French man who is doing work in Barcelona.  He told us he had lived right around the corner from the cafe while he lived he full time.  He told us about his company that he works for Lole, which is an up and coming women's work out apparel.  His last name ended up being Cohen so we laughed at the coincidence.  He gave us some pointers about what do to around Barcelona (we actually had done a lot of what he told us so we felt accomplished) and after talking to him for a while, we got his business card and I headed back to class.

Thursday:

     Thursday was pretty boring.  I woke up, went to my International Service Learning class from 12:45-2:15 and then came back to the apartment.  Every other Thursday, our cleaning lady comes to our apartment so it is always nice to come home to a nice and clean apartment.  I took a nap, skyped then made dinner.  We decided to go to a bar that night, L'Ovella Negra, one of our favorites.  We got ready and headed out around 11:30.  We drank beers while we were there and hung out and had a really fun time.  We got back around 2:30 and went to bed.  

Overall, it was a great week! We have big plans ahead for the weekend, so stay tuned for more blog posts!

Besos!

     

Week with Mommy and Fred - Part 1

Hola!

For the first time in a few days, I'm finally able to relax in my bed and write a blog post!  But I'm not complaining because I had such an amazing 5 days with Mommy and Fred in Barcelona! We ate, drank and were complete tourists and made such great memories we'll always remember.

They got to Barcelona on Friday morning (February 14) and after walking them to their hotel, we put on our walking shoes and headed down towards Las Ramblas.  They couldn't have picked a better week to come because for the first time, we were able to walk around outside without jackets on! We to Placa Real where we ate lunch.  We had our first of many pitchers of Sangria and enjoyed the most beautiful weather! After lunch, we walked around La Boqueria (which as of right now, is my favorite place in Barcelona) and up and down Las Ramblas.  There were so many street performers outside (even Fred tried to participate!) and people walking around.  We walked to the end of the street and looked at the Christopher Columbus statue and the port.  After shower and siesta time, we went to a restaurant called Margarita Blue.  It was Mexican and it was delicious! It was a little local place with great drinks (I got a mojito) and cheesy, yummy food.  We split nachos and each got an enchilada. After finishing, we went to L'Ovella Negra and had a pitcher of Sangria and then walked to the Hard Rock Cafe for a change of scenery.  After a long night of eating and drinking, we made a quick pit stop at McDonalds for a late night snack and went our separate ways.

The next morning, they met me at my apartment and I showed them around my neighborhood.  Saturday was Gaudi day since we were planning on going to see the Sagrada Familia and Parc Guell.  After the apartment tour, we walked to Sagrada Familia and went inside.  I am obsessed with it.  Every time I walk by the outside, I see something new.  The outside is so intricate and detailed.  I had never been inside either so I was excited to see if the inside matched what I had seen outside.  The inside was so beautiful too! There were stained glass windows, chairs set up for the church and huge columns that looked like trees.  It was amazing and indescribable.  We kept talking about how pictures don’t do the church justice.  After, we took the metro to Parc Guell.  First, we walked around the outside of the Parc and then went inside and had a snack of a baguette, cheese and salami.  Just what we needed (except for all the pigeons around)!  The view was beautiful as always.  Aside from La Boqueria, Parc Guell is also one of my favorite places here.  After going home and taking a siesta, we met up with my roommate Lainie (my other roommates were travelling in London that weekend) and we went to a restaurant called La Pijama.  We had burgers, fries and beers.  Probably one of the best burgers I’ve had.  After, we went to a little local bar called Una Mas.  It was pretty empty for a Saturday night so the bartender came over and each made us a special drink.  We called it a night pretty early because we had had a long day.  I don’t think Mommy and Fred knew how much walking we were actually going to be doing!

Sunday morning, after I snuck into their hotel for the breakfast, we went to the Gothic Area (Barri Gothic) and Cathedral.  We tried to get inside but because it was a Sunday, by the time we got there, it was closed.  We met a headless man and watched street performers as we decided what to do.  Instead, we went to get sangria and paella and Restaurant Port Vell, the place where my friends and I went the first week here.  After getting lost (of course) we finally made it!  Fred and I shared seafood paella (yum!) and Mommy got chicken paella.   Delicious as usual.  Later that night, we went to a steak restaurant called Alfonsina.  Literally the best steak I’ve ever had (and I’m not just saying that because I had been craving steak but it was just so amazing and good).  We also got empanadas and risotto to go with it.  I’m thinking about it now and it’s making me hungry.  After dinner, we went to the W Hotel and had fancy drinks! I had the second best drink in all of Europe (according to the bartender) and it really was that good! The environment of the W was so cool with all of the lights and the modern furniture.  It was pretty quiet because it was a late Sunday night but we had a lot of fun drinking and talking!

Another Weekend, Another Adventure (January 31-February 2)

Hola,

This weekend, my roommates and I were determined to check a lot of activities off on our list on things to do in Barcelona.  Luckily, we picked one of the most beautiful weekends to stay in the city and explore!  After a long, busy weekend, I am excited to take it easy tonight and relax with my roommates.

On Friday, we went to brunch at the cutest restaurant called Brunch and Cake.  It's a little place with white walls, wooden tables and couches and of course, cake!  We had high expectations for this place because we had heard so much about it from people who had already been.  They were so right!  Brunch here was amazing.  I had eggs with turkey and cheese on a "bagel" and it came with a side of guacamole.  I put it all over the bagel and ate it as a sandwich.  I never wanted it to end it was so delicious.  With it, I had a cafe con leche which is basically a latte.  We came out of the place wanting to try everything on the menu so we know we will be back.

After brunch, we walked around the neighborhood we were in.  My favorite thing about Barcelona is how different each neighborhood is.  In this one, every other store was either a bakery or a candy shop. We walked into so many different stores tempted to buy all kinds of things.  It took a lot of restraint to come out of each store empty handed.  We found ourselves on the street called Passeig de Gracia which is one of the main shopping areas of Spain.  It is similar to 5th Avenue in New York.  As you walk down the street, you see Burberry, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Rolex, etc.  There are also less expensive stores like Mango, Zara and local Spanish chains.  In this area as well is one of the Gaudi houses called Casa Battlo.  The house was originally called the House of Bones because on the outside it looks like there are skeleton bones.  I love how surrounded by the most high end stores there is an ancient, beautiful Gaudi building.  It offers such a contrast between old and new.

Saturday we had big plans to sit on the beach but mother nature ruined that with rain.  Instead, we went to Bo de B, a sandwich shop that abroad students love.  Again, we had heard great things about this place and again, we weren't disappointed.  You pick what kind of meat you want and you get to design your own sandwich.  It is similar to Chipotle but sandwiches.  I had steak on a baguette with lettuce, cheese, corn, little brown things (I don't know what they were), and three different kinds of sauces.  It was one of the best sandwiches I had and it was so cheap!  Luckily, it is close to my school so it is an easy metro ride to have a good lunch.  Later that night, we went to a bar called Ovella Negra.  This bar is famous for its huge beer and sangria towers.  As usual, we got lost on our way there so we find ourselves there a little late.  We ordered a pitcher of sangria and hung out for a little bit before heading back to our apartment.  This is an awesome place to come with a big group of friends to sit and have a good time!

Fountain at Passeig de Gracia

Casa Battlo

Casa Battlo

Ovella Negra

On Sunday, we took the metro to the far part of Barcelona to a labyrinth park called Parc del Laberint d'Horta.  It was a beautiful park filled with trees, ponds and flowers.  Many people brought picnic lunches and sat on the benches enjoying the sunny day.  We spent a few hours there walking around enjoying one of the first warm days.  In the park, there is also a maze.  We thought we would be able to get through it pretty easily but we couldn't find our way!  Once we did find our way to the center, we were stuck and couldn't get out!  To everyone else at the park, we were those girls who were entertaining to watch.  After taking some pictures and enjoying the scenery, we were on our way home with another weekend in the books.

Besos!