Random Differences Between Here and the Good Old Estados Unidos

1. Electronics.

Forget about using all your chargers, entourage of hair styling tools, iphone charger...all of it. Even if you're the person who's like "yeah but my mom got me this awesome package of converters so everything's totally going to work!". It won't. Your converter from the U.S. will blow a fuse, which will cause your fuse box to semi-explode which will make for an interesting encounter with security. You just have to suck it up and buy all your tricked out hair styling tools here and converters for all your electronics. Yeahh it'll cost 100€ and yes it will be worth it to have the best 4 months of your life.


2. Communication

So you know when you're at Madison (or college in general) and out at night and your phone dies and you have a semi-freakout moment when you proceed to run around the party asking to use someone's mac to charge it because you don't know how to communicate with your friends who are, no doubt, all over Madison? No picture an extended version of that. A reallllly long extended version of that. I feel like my communication problems are 10x worse because apparently I missed the "everyone gets WhatsApp before they go abroad" memo and can't use my iphone for communicating AT ALL (WhatsApp lets you use wifi - or as the Spaniards call it, weefee/woofi - to text anyone else who has the app for free). I bought a pay-as-you-go phone about a week after I got here from Vodaphone (everyone uses pay as you go here...I haven't found out why yet though) and put 10 euro on it (texts are 15 cents and calling is more than that...I don't know how much) and it worked for 1 day and then stopped. Soooo I've kind of given up on that little guy, especially since going and explaining the issues I'm having to the store worker who only speaks Catalan is entirely out of the question. So it's been a lot of Facebook chat and skype for me thus far. Living in the residencia makes it easier too since people just make plans via facebook or knock on people's doors when they want to do something. 

3. Consumption of vino y cervesa

So there's the whole stereotype that Americans drink to get drunk and Spaniards don't, but thus far, I'm not entirely convinced. First of all, you can't fool me into thinking that all the Spanish students that are at the discotecas/clubs until 6am with Avicii and 1000 other remixes spinning at top volume are sober. They're just not. If they were, they wouldn't be raging to Avicii at 6am. It's also VERY common to drink with lunch. In fact, at almost all the restaurants that serve "el menu del dia" (3-5 course meal for around 9€...similar to the "special of the day" in America and very very common in Barcelona) you can choose to have either water or a half bottle of wine. For lunch! Young people, old people, people on their lunch break, everyone drinks with lunch and dinner. I feel like they're in a constant state of being a little buzzed. Maybe that's why they're known for being so relaxed and happy (take note America). Alcohol is also a lot cheaper than in the States. We usually get bottles of wine for around 1€ and hard alcohol is anywhere from 5-10€ a liter. You have to be 18 to drink, but they don't card at all, either. I feel like if you want to buy alcohol and you're 13, you probably could. In fact, Sunday in the park I had what appeared to be a 13 year old boy come up and try to sell me "cervesa frio" (cold beer). 

4. People Selling Things 

There are ALWAYS people trying to sell you things in Barcelona, especially at the beach, in the park, or on the streets later at night. So far I've been hassled to buy light-up jewelry, a rose, a Dora balloon, sunglasses, a scarf, a cross, a coconut?, chocolate donut looking things, beer/Coca-Cola/water (alllll the time), a massage, some stuff in jars that had to do with chicken that a gypsey lady showed us in her lunch box, "any drug I want"...sketch, the list goes on. At first I felt the need to let them down nicely and and smile and say a few words about why I didn't want it. Now it's just, "no". They say that Americans are too polite anyways and easily spotted by their overuse of por favor and gracias. So I'm adopting that part of the culture and now just saying "no" every time someone tries to sell me something. 

5. Daily Schedule and Meals

First of all, they get up later and it's very uncommon to find any store open before 9am. They have a light breakfast which is usually some kind of pastry - they incorporate chocolate into their breakfast food a lot more than Americans do - which I am completely okay with. A common breakfast could be a chocolate filled croissant or chocolate squares with milk (a cereal that I have yet to try and heard isn't all that great...especially at 9am). Lunch is eaten around 2:30 and is the biggest meal of the day. It's meant to be eaten slowly and it's almost impossible to find a food place that will let you take things "para llevar" or to-go. The meal is meant to last a couple hours and the waiter/waitress doesn't bring you your check until you specifically ask for it. If you don't ask for it, they'll let you sit there for 8 hours. Lunch is always served with a dessert, too, but here fruit is considered a dessert, and is the most common dessert (something I'm completely okay with). Stores and restaurants close around 5 for about 3 hours while everyone goes home to take their siestas (love love love this) and then dinner is served any time between 9 and 11pm (sometimes even until midnight) and is something small, usually just tapas (various little appetizers). 

6. All Things School-Related 

School, or at least college, isn't taken quite as seriously here. Students typically go to the college that they live closest too and it is very unusual for a student to travel to another part of Spain to go to a different university. Most of the Spanish students in Barcelona live with their parents still, but a few have apartments downtown. They talk a ton during their classes and don't really pay attention to the teacher. I'm in a class with 99 students and it's usually nearly impossible to hear what she's saying and she just keeps right on teaching because "she's not a fighter". She even told us we can sleep in class and we can leave whenever we want and she won't care or write our names down (her effort to get the people who talk to either shut up or leave). Classes never start on time and it's normal for a class to run 10 or 15 minutes late (or get out 25 minutes early). The starting and ending times of classes are kind of irrelevant. I also don't need textbooks for any of the classes I'm taking and there's absolutely no day to day work. We get graded solely on participation, one or more projects/papers, and sometimes a midterm and/or final. Three of my classes are centered around taking field trips (which is a dream come true) and all of my classes have at least one field trip. Also, every class has at least one 10 minute break which we see as a break to talk (since we don't talk the rest of the time because we feel rude talking over the teacher) and get coffee (because our sleep schedules are screwed up from being at the discotecas all night and having class at 9:30 at night) and they see as a smoke break. They alllll smoke here it seems. Also, on a side note, I've noticed when parents walk their kids to school, they all carry their children's backpacks for them. It is adorable. There'll be a dad carrying this tiny little superhero backpack on his shoulder and a little boy scootering alongside him (the kids love their scooters here...wish I would've brought my Razor!)

7. Transportation

One, left turns are usually not possible and Barcelona lovvvves the roundabouts. All the streets are one-way and if you need to go left, you just can't. You have to go in this little lane to the right and turn right and then go around a roundabout and then end up going the direction you wanted to go in the first place. Cars are smaller and mopeds/motorbikes are plentiful. Everyone uses the metro all the time. It's cheap, fast, and convenient and it comes every 2 minutes. Finally, you can't just tell a cab driver the name of a place and expect him to know where it is. They never do. You have to know the exact address and sometimes even have to explain what it's close to. The metro only runs all night on Saturdays so I feel like I've definitely been to doing my part in contributing a large amount of money to the income of the taxi drivers. We always take taxis at night, which is annoying and adds up quickly, especially if they know you're unsure of where you are and take you the long way to get home. 

8. Doggggs

There are dogs everywhere and they are always dressed in cute little outfits and are the most well-behaved dogs I've ever seen. Usually, they are not leashed and they just follow their owners everywhere and even wait outside obediently when their owners will run into the supermarket for something. I want onnnne.


9. Water


It depends who you ask about the water whether the tap water is safe to drink or not but after 2 weeks of trying to drink it (it tastes kind of bad) and feeling not sick, but just off, the entire time, I've broken down and only buy bottled water now. Restaurants NEVER serve tap water. In fact, water always come in glass bottles and makes you feel really fancy. Apparently, they're afraid of getting sued if anyone gets sick from the water so it's just a common practice to only serve bottled water to customers. There have also been some stomach issues going around the program which I can't help but think is somehow related to the water.

10. Americans are loud. Spanish people are touchy/repeated offenders of personal bubble area.

These stereotypes are true. Americans are loud, and therefore get stared down by locals quite often. They see it as being rude and quite honestly, I agree with them in that respect. And the Spanish people don't respect the personal bubble rule. Besides the whole "kiss, kiss" thing when you meet someone (which feels strange especially when its a 50 year old guy or something) they're just very touchy and like to stand very close to you when they talk to you. It's taken some getting used to, but I'm getting there. 

11. Spanish people take the time to enjoy life. 

On Sundays, everything is closed and no one is reachable by email. The parks of the city are PACKED with families doing cute little family things, and big family lunches on Sunday are common. Many Spaniards also take the month of August off to go on vacation and spend time with their friends and families. Similar to the relaxed culture of school, life is just more relaxing and enjoyable. It's refreshing to see people doing things that actually matter instead of getting old, fat, and gray climbing up the corporate ladder doing mindless work. 

I'm sure I'll think of many other things that I'll be sure to write in another post, but this post is getting way too long and I have to study for my Spanish exam at some point that is in 9 hours. So adios! Buenas noches

It's A Beautiful Life

Last Thursday we all went to Diplo at a club 2 blocks away called Razzmatazz. It was amazing and definitely one of my favorite nights here thus far.

Saturday we took a day trip to Montserrat. We took a train from Barcelona for a little over an hour and then took a cable car up the mountain. Our train/cable car tickets were 18€ but it was more than worth it. The cable car was pretty big and they pack 30 or so people in it and send you up.

When we got to the end of the cable car ride, we really wanted to hike to the very top of the mountain but had a minor freak out moment where we thought we didn't have enough time before the last train left to go back home to Barcelona so we started RUNNING up the mountain. Mistake #1. Hiking Montserrat isn't like casually hiking and enjoying yourself on a quiet wooded dirt path. No. Hiking Montserrat means climbing 193085743 of these stairs:

We did a 2.5 hour hike in just over an hour. I thought I was going to faint and fall down the mountain at one point but it was totally worth it to see views like this at the top:

Booty Wurk was going through my head the entire time haha

We got back from Montserrat around 9pm and definitely didn't feel like going out so we went to Ovella Negra (a casual bar down the street...I think I talked about it in a post before this?) and just got beer and popcorn and hung out with our new Norway friends that decided to come sit at our table. They were by far the funniest people I think I've ever met. Sorry for the ummm hand signals? in the following pictures.

A lot of things are closed on Sunday, so we took the day to lay out at Parc de la Ciutadella and read. The park was PACKED with Spanish couples and families picnicing, riding their bikes, and playing ping-pong on the outdoor ping-pong tables. I even watched one couple teach their little girl how to ride a 2-wheel bicycle and witnessed a makeshift choir of little kids singing in Catalan (wish I knew what they were saying). We stayed there until around 5 and then walked to a little cafe for lunch that we always pass on the way to the beach and see a sign for nachos (I don't know why but we'd all been talking about eating nachos nonstop for the last week). We got nachos (naturally) and sandwiches. I got a ham and brie sandwich and it was delicious. I love all the different kinds of cheese they use here! I feel like brie and goat cheese are the most common, and it's nearly impossible to find anything more familiar than gouda or havarti.

On our walk back to Marina, I got Tiramisu gelato. yummm. There's soooo much gelato here. It's heaven.



Monday was the start of our full schedule of classes. I thought I wouldn't like going to class and that I would dread making the commute everyday, but I couldn't have been more wrong. I lovvve my classes. I feel like I've switched around my schedule 12 times, but I finally finalized a schedule today and am taking Branding & Cultural Icons : The Case of Barcelona, Marketing Cultural Heritage, Past & Present Barcelona, Human Resources Management, and Spanish. Most of them don't have midterms or finals and for each of the first 3 classes listed, we have take anywhere from 5-10 field trips =) For Mkt Cult Heritage the only requirements are that we write one blog post per week about a cool place we went either in Barcelona or anywhere in Europe and then talk about it with the class. So not only will it be easy and interesting, but it'll be fun to hear about all the places people go and get ideas for where I want to go before I leave. I. love. class.

P.S. Sorry for the sentimental title of this post but I never know what to title each post and Ace of Base is timeless/what I was listening to when I started writing this post sooo now it's the title.

GLADIATORR

Sunday was Tarragona day. It was awesome to see a city that dates back to 218 BC. We checked out the city walls, Roman ruins of the circus (chariot races) and ampitheater (where the gladiators casually fought lions...and eachother), and had lunch and tapas at two little local restaurants. When we got back, a lot of the people from the residencias went to watch the Packers vs. Giants game at George Payne's, an American sportsbar not too far from here, but since I'm not a Packers or Giants fan, I stayed in caught up on episodes of Dexter (so. addicting.)

Monday was back to classes again and catching up on a lot of sleep, and today Cara and I went to classes and then went to check out Holmes Place (the gym) with our free pass we got from CIEE. It was gorgeous inside and reminded me of the posh Chicago gyms with jillion dollar membership fees (it costs about 300 euro for 3 months). If I thought people stared a lot on normal occassions, holy Jesus do they stare a lot at the gym. I mean, even in America you always get the girl next to you that checks up on your treadmill screen at least once every five minutes, just so she can either increase her speed by .2 mph so that she's going faster than you, or gloat that she's already going faster than you and obviously more athletic. Today was even more ridiculous than that! The guy on my right legitimately had his head OVER my screen for approximately 90% of the time he was on his treadmill, I could conveniently see through the mirrors that cover the entire front wall that the Spanish guy on my left was looking at me for about 90% of his workout. I ignored it for a while, but it got to a point where I was seriously laughing out loud. I couldn't believe it. Needless to say, I think I'll stick to running by the beach and doing my P90x ab workouts rather than joining Holmes Place.

Other than that, we planned out first weekend trip...to Portugal! We're going the weekend of January 27, and I. can't. wait.


Here are some pictures of Tarragona...

You follow me?

Today marks two weeks in Barcelona, and it is going by way too fast. I feel like it's just one big whirlwind. 

Thursday night, Roman took our GA group for tapas and cava at this little local tapas bar near the Barceloneta neighborhood. It was called La Champagneria. It's really small with absolutely zero chairs or tables and is always packed to capacity. Roman said normally you have to fight to get to the bar to order or befriend someone closer to the bar and give them your money to order for you. We tasted many different kinds of meats and cheeses and of course had plenty of croquetas (fried outside with cheesy, doughy, ham or chicken heaven inside). We also took full advantage of the 90 cent glasses of Rosat cava. The food was great and it was fun to be amongst all the locals. We stayed there for around 3 hours and then took the metro back to the residencia to meet up with everyone, which is where the title of this post comes from..

 So Morgan and I are walking in the metro, switching from the yellow line to the red line and there's this guy walking in front of us, probably in his 50s, who is also switching from the yellow line to the red line. As we were walking, he kept glancing back at us, so we just figured he was partaking in the Spanish cultural habit of staring at people (they do it nonstop). Then all of a sudden, he stops in his tracks, turns around (seeming like he's kind of scared) and looks at us and goes "You follow me?!" hahahaha We could not stop laughing while we attempted to assure him that we were not, in fact, following him. It was great. Rereading this, I feel like it might be one of those things where you had to be there, but I'm keeping it anyways. 

After we got back to the residencia after meeting our great new friend in the metro, we headed out to Ovella Negra, a warehouse style bar that serves wine and sangria in huge containers with spickets for 25 euro and has free popcorn (obvious bonus), with a group from the residencia for a much needed chill night out. 

After class on Friday we checked out the Chocolate Museum in Barceloneta and then walked to the beach. It was sooooo pretty and way closer to the residencia than I thought. We managed to fend off people trying to sell us scarfs, sunglasses, coconut (?), massages, and Lord knows what else as well as the encircling pickpocketers who I feel are way more obvious than they perceive themselves to be. Later that night we had a few people over to our den, had the chance to meet a few people from Milan and London (yayy Melon District is finally starting to get SOME diversity), and then ended the night at Club Duvet.

Today (Saturday) we went on a 3 hour bike tour of Barcelona through a company someone found online called Bus2Alps that caters to study abroad students. I was expecting more of a small group kind of thing but was surprised to show up and find the tour was composed of 2 groups of 35. Besides the fact that it was freezing cold (the only cold day we've had so far...my fingers didn't have circulation for 75% of the ride) and we looked like a freaking circus with 35 of us at a time trying to meander the 5 foot wide streets of the Gothic quarter, it was a really fun tour and I think has done the most, so far, of helping me to get acquainted with the layout of the city. 

Tomorrow CIEE is sponsoring a trip to Tarragona where we'll see Roman ruins and a different part of the coast. I'll be sure to post about it tomorrow and upload pictures since my camera battery is finally charged! 

 Barcelona!

 La Champagneria

 Rosat Cava

 Segrada Familia made out of chocolate at the Chocolate Museum

 Barceloneta neighborhood

 Beach with Maddie and Karen

Wisco Ladies

Back to School Back to School

Classes started! ...well only my Spanish class and ESCI courses. Classes here with Spanish students are so much different than back home. I'm in a human resources class that is about 3/4 Spanish students and 1/4 American students, and the Spanish students talk the entire time. They don't even whisper, they just talk in their regular voices, and the teacher doesn't really seem to care. They also don't pay attention at all or take notes. They're just so much more relaxed about classes and don't seem to concerned about learning too much.

Most of my classes are in English, while 2 are in Spanish. Thankfully, I was able to switch around my schedule so Spanish is my only Friday class (hellooo weekend trips). Classes at ESCI are only about a 15-20 minute walk which is also nice since we've been walking in groups from the residencia. In a couple weeks, my CIEE classes will start which are a little further, but only by about 10 minutes.

Another difference is that during class breaks, the American students see it as a snack break while the Spanish students see it as a smoke break. It's impossible to not notice all the Americans heading to the cafe for coffee and pastries while all the Spanish kids head out front to smoke (smoking just became prohibited in public building January 1).

I still don't really know where to get my books, if I need books, what the heck this system "Moodle" is that our teacher has mentioned a couple times, or how to access the course website/slides (if the slides are even posted?) but I'm not too concerned with it for now. I figure I'll figure it all out within the next couple weeks before anything is actually due.

Also, today I finally got a camera charger so no more dead camera! So now I can actually take pictures!!

Besides all the escuela stuff, we went to lunch at a little outdoor cafe today and then took the metro/climbed a mountain (surprise!) to Park Guell,which was amazing. We got to see a few of Gaudi's works and climbed to a really high lookout where you could see the entire city and the ocean. It was gorgeous. Tonight we're going to Sutton (discoteca) for the "Official Spring Semester Study Abroad Welcome Party" (I feel like I've gone to at least 3 things called the exact same thing...) so tonight should be fun (not so much 9am Spanish class tomorrow..)

El Corte Ingles

Imagine if Wal-Mart and Macy's had a baby and the baby was 10 times the size of both of them combined and on every other street corner. This is starting to not make sense but long story short, I'm talking about Corte Ingles.

So the story begins with Morgan, Jordan, and I deciding to venture for our first time into Corte Ingles to get straighteners, hairdryers, etc (none from the US work over here) a few days ago. We walked in and stared at a sign for about 10 minutes (while narrowly avoiding being trampled by the constant Black Friday-esque crowds continuously going in and out) until we figured out where hair supplies were and ventured over to that section.

The first thing that we noticed was very different than Wal-Mart, Corte Ingles doesn't put prices on anything. You have to individually take each product over to a bar code scanner that will then tell you how much it is. So I finally settle on a decently priced hair dryer and straightener (it was stil ~70 euro for both) and then am going to get shampoo/conditioner etc from the other section when one of the ladies who works there comes up to me, says something really fast in Catalan, and then takes the hair dryer and straightener out of my hands and walks away. I had no idea what was going on, so I followed her to a little cash register set up randomly by the hair supplies and she proceeds to put stickers on each of the products and place them under the cash register. I still had no idea what was going on and tried telling her in Spanish that I wanted to continue shopping, but she just kept. speaking. in. Catalan. a million words a minute.

Finally giving up, I decided to get the rest of the things I needed and go back to the cash register in hopes of her ringing everything up and letting me pay and take my stuff. I mean, you'd think this would be a relatively easy process, right? Wrong. After going through an entire section of "Veet" looking for just one pack of disposable razors (apparently they're crazy about Veet over here) and having absolutely zero luck, I just wanted to pay and get out of there. Not only did the workers not speak a word of English (expected), they didn't/wouldn't speak any Spanish either!

So I take the rest of my products over to the same random little cash register and try reminding her about the products under the register and telling her that I wanted to pay for everything. Instead, she puts everything in a bag, gives me a receipt (still without accepting my money), and starts walking away really quickly with my bag. By the time I find Jordan to ask if I should follow the woman, her and my bag are nowhere to be found. So now I know that a bag with EVERYTHING I want in it is floating somewhere in this gigantic store. When the lady returned, I asked her where I should pay and she just pointed the opposite way into the crazy jumble of people and unconventional shopping displays that is Corte Ingles and says something about "2 floors below" (we're on the first floor).

Set on finding my bags (Morgan and Jordan both were able to pay right at the cash register and got their bags given to them right away), we took the escalator down as far as we could go...only one floor down. Confused, we decided to walk around and see if there was another escalator somewhere. When we all of a sudden started seeing random dogs, we figured we must be both hallucinating and nowhere near where we needed to be, so we walked back up to the hair section and tried asking someone else where I could pay for everything and find my bag. In the proceeding 2 minutes or so of rapid Catalan, we managed to pick up one word...elevator. After about ten minutes of walking around and asking anyone and everyone, we finally found an elevator (not exactly what you would consider centrally located...or efficient for that matter) and got on and pressed -2, the mysterious floor 2 floors down that somehow and for some reason now had all my bags.

We got off the elevator and went into the biggest room we saw and followed procedure by taking a number. We still had no idea what was going on and no one was speaking anything but Catalan. Morgan asked the woman waiting next to her if she spoke any English, and the woman managed to explain to us that if you show them your passport, upon returning to your home country and going back through customs, you get refunded all the tax money you paid. I don't know if I was looking extra foreign that day or why my stuff got sent down there while they could pay for theirs, but I didn't even have my passport on me, I just wanted to pay.

After waiting for about 30 minutes, they finally called my number and I explained that I didn't have my passport, didn't care about paying taxes, and just wanted to pay for my things. The woman kind of laughed at me and finally let me pay for all my stuff. She then was gone for about 20 seconds and somehow magically returned with my bags! Feeling completely overwhelmed, Morgan and I got out of there as fast as we could and took the metro home to take naps haha. Needless to say, I think I just experienced my first "culture shock" moment.

Time Difference

So I hate when people complain about "jet lag" and whine so people feel sorry for them that they can't get used to the time difference in Timbuktu or wherever they're traveling because I don't feel sorry for them. You are in a foreign country, traveling and having the time of your life. Don't complain about it.

So, in accordance, this post is not a complaint, merely a testament of the things I have come up with to occupy my time as I sit wide awake...once again...at 5:10am (I've been awake for 3 hours).

1. Look through my Lonely Planet Europe book for the 87th time in the last 3 days and made a list of places I want to go and things I want to see both in Spain (one list) and in Barcelona, in particular (another list). 
2. Briefly started a "Restaurants to Go To" list based off Trip Advisor's recommendations and then remembered that I don't have enough money to eat at any of the restaurants that are rated more than one "$". That list was shortlived.
3. Researched what the "$" scale means anyways? Shouldn't something so common be standardized?
4. Went through my orientation packet for the residencia in hopes of boring myself to sleep.
5. Stared at a 3 foot by 3 foot map of Barcelona in hopes of somehow hoping to become one of those people I've always admired, those with a "sense of direction".
6. Researched spring break destinations in Italy.
7. Did 100 sit ups and then felt better about continuing looking at spring break destinations in Italy.
8. Read the first chapter of "The 4-Hour Workweek" in hopes of either again boring myself to sleep (it's actually interesting so that plan was a no-go) or better yet, finding some way to travel like this all the time.
9. Signed up for a StumbleUpon account. It was bound to happen sooner or later.
10. Watched an episode of House Arrest.
11. Watched a video of a baby doing the Single Ladies dance.
12. Speaking of Single Ladies, I continued my intense search for a picture of Beyonce's new baby, Ivy Blue Carter. Still no luck.
13. Read 50 quotes by Einstein. That guy was brilliant.
14. Planned with Morgan what we're going to eat for lunch at McDonald's today.
15. Read http://betcheslovethis.com/node/180 hahahaha
16. Wrote this post.
17. Annnnd now I guess I'm going to go shower and get ready for the day.

=)

Best Place in the World

Honestly, I cannot express how much I absolutely love it here. It is like nothing I've ever experienced in the United States. I know I haven't posted in a while (because I've been so busy) so I'll try to catch up for my parents, aunts, uncles, etc. The first night was orientation, and Morgan (my friend from UW) and I stayed in the same hotel room with a girl from Colorado University, Boulder, Jordan. She's awesome and is in our "GA group" (or Guardian Angel group, which is 7 study abroad students that are paired up with a local university student).

Our first night, we were so jet-lagged and tired that I passed out within 5 minutes of returning to my hotel room, so me, Morgan, and Jordan all stayed in (as did most of the program), but we did have a couple beers (Estrellas, which is brewed in Barcelona) with a few of the guardian angels who go to school here.

The second night was club night (as is EVERY single night here except for Sundays and Tuesdays). Honestly, this culture is crazy! Monday night is "pub night" and then Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, EVERYONE goes to the bars and then to a club until 6am. Also, being an American girl isn't bad, as we've gotten into every club for free and have had to pay for no drinks (you typically get a VIP bracelet which not only gets you into the club but also gets you free drinks all night, which is very nice considering cover for the clubs is usually 30 euro and drinks are 17 euro a piece).

Our program has a promoter within it, so all 140 study abroad students all go to the same bar and club every night, which while it's completely fun for the first week, we're all hoping to branch out from "Kike's clubs" within the following weeks.

The clubs here are amazing. We've been to Otto Zutz, Opium Mar, and one other club since we've been here, and it's nothing like I've ever seen in the United States.

I'm living in the residencias which are AMAZING. I have my own room, own bathroom, huge closet, and a flat screen TV mounted on my wall. I share the floor with 8 other students (most of which are from UW, and all of which are study abroad students). I went into this thinking that at least half of my floor would be local Spanish students, but most of the college students in Barcelona live with their families (it's part of their culture) so we don't have any local students. There are definitely positive and negative sides to this, but by far, it's been mostly positive. I know one concern people who stay in residencias have is that they won't be immersed into the culture enough. Let me tell you, I feel like I have been plenty immersed into the culture. In Barcelona, their first language is Catalan, which is spoken by more people, surprisingly, than even Dutch. It is not a dialect (they'll get really offended if you call it that), but actually a completely different language similar to a combination of Spanish, French, and Latin. The way I explain it, I understand about every third word when Spaniards speak Spanish to me, and about every tenth word when they speak Catalan. It is a little similar but also very different. The 9 of us share a kitchen lounge which is also very nice, has a 10 person table and a giant flat screen TV. Also, we have a cleaning service every day for our kitchen and once a week for each of our rooms, so they change our sheets and towels and clean our rooms every week (my room is 10X cleaner than it has ever been in the states). That is especially nice since laundry is super expensive, 3 euro to wash and 3 to dry (converted to US dollars, that's more than $6 per load).

Although everyone here (besides those who are very old) speaks Spanish as well as Catalan, they will sometimes pretend to not speak Spanish. This is because the Catalan people have been trying to get independence from Spain for quite some time and form their own country so they don't like being grouped in with the rest of Spain (I compare it to the Canada vs. US). Therefore, communicating can sometimes be VERY hard. I never expect anyone to speak English to me, after all we are in Spain, but the chance of me actually understanding when people speak to me in Catalan are very slim. Hopefully, I'll pick more up (especially from our guardian angel, Roman) while I'm here.

What have I been doing here? So far it's just been a lot of going out. Our classes don't start until Monday, and Barcelona has a huge going out culture so we've been doing a lot of that. We were joking that we'll probably return to the US with 10 hours maximum sleep for the whole 4 months (obviously an exaggeration) but really, the young people of Barcelona don't sleep. As far as my class schedule, it got completely messed up, but thankfully for us, classes are really easy to switch, so I think all of my classes should be able to transfer. I've definitely been really close friends with my guidance counselor at UW lately to say the least.

Other than that, although we haven't had much free time, we've really been trying to explore the city. We went to Segrada Familia yesterday and on a bus tour of Barcelona and then we went to an absolutely amazing park in the center of the city today, which is by ESCI (where half of our classes are) and is amazing to run in. We're also learning how to use the metro (or subway) which is hugely popular in Spain. Everyone takes it, and it is so cheap.

Although everyone has warned me 94856 times about pick-pocketing, it is a little overrated. I haven't heard or seen anyone be pick-pocketed unless they're being completely ridiculous. Also, they don't allow any kind of weapons here (including guns or knives) so they don't have the big crime like we do in the states, it is only petty crime.

Other than that, I am beyond excited to start my intensive Spanish course (so I'll feel more confident using verb tenses, etc) and the rest of my classes on Monday. Even though I surprisingly do remember a lot of my Spanish from high school and first semester college, I still feel a little like a preschooler when I try to speak it, or I rehearse what I'm going to say in my head for so long and say it perfectly, and then whoever I am speaking to thinks I'm local and starts speaking very fast Spanish to me and, once again, I revert back to only understanding every third word or so. Nonetheless, I feel like in these 3 days, I've used so much Spanish, whether it be in the taxis, the tapas bars, or learning how to flamenco in the clubs, that by the end of this, I will have no problem understanding or speaking Spanish at all.

As far as homesickness, I haven't really felt any at all (although I'm not really the homesick type of girl) although I do have times when I feel so overwhelmed and frustrated that communication is so difficult that I'll go back to the residencia and listen to "Chicken Fried" by Zac Brown Band (embarrassed) or another American song and take a nap to relax. I absolutely love that they take naps here between 6pm and 10pm. It perfectly adapts to my sleep schedule =) The clubs also play mostly American songs, which I was very surprised about. They even play old school 90s songs from our junior high dance days, which if you know me, is totally my thing.

Other than that, I would say my main takeaways from these past few days have been:

1. Spanish men are a little creepy, compared to American culture, although they don't mean to be. Being a little rude (in relation to American culture) is sometimes necessary.
2. Young people go out 5 out of 7 nights of the week...until 6am. Not exaggerating. This city is crazy.
3. If you're not acting like an obvious, oblivious foreigner, pick-pocketers won't steal from you. They're not aggressive, they just look for opportunity. 
4. Americans (especially girls) who are studying abroad in Barcelona get VIP treatment at every club through the promoters that promote all the different clubs. Although all the bars here make most people pay cover, not only have I not had to wait in a line or pay cover anywhere, I don't pay for anything once I get in, either, as with most of the girls in our program.
5. Yes, I live in a residencia, and yes, I feel completely "immersed" in the culture. Many of my friends live in homestays in the program, and although a couple of them like their families, most do not. Most of the families don't speak any English at all and aren't overly welcoming, and most of my friends in homestays are not only feeling completely overwhelmed from the language barrier, but also feel left out and isolated (as they are located all over the city). Getting home is also dangerous, since they have to take the metro home by themselves or attempt the impossible feat of explaining to a taxi cab driver where they live (literally impossible unless you're fluent AND memorized the Barcelona map). Unlike Chicago taxi drivers, you can't just tell a taxi the address of where you're going. Most of the time, they have no idea where it is, and you also have to explain to them how to get there. 

All in all, though, I love it here. I've definitely had my culture shock moments (like in Corte Ingles...which I'll explain better in the next post probably) but I'm trying and I'm loving it. 

First Night in Barcelona

We're herrrrrre! We flew from Amsterdam to Barcelona (ironically, with way bigger seats than on our 7 hour flight) and managed our spanish enough to get a couple taxis to our hotel for the night, H10 Montceda. At first they were a little sketched out that 5 people were checking into a room originally reserved for one person, but they ended up giving it to us and serving us complimentary champagne :) Our room is definitely "cozy" but I already love it here. I can say that I am VERY grateful for our intensive language course that starts in a couple days. I feel like I currently have the Spanish of a preschooler...tops. But so far everyone also is generally fine with speaking English to us as long as it seems like we're trying (and miserably failing). Tonight we're going to "Sports Bar" (they keep it straight to the point) in hopes of watching the Rose Bowl game. Then sleeping foreverr and orientation tomorrow!

In Amsterdam!

6.5 hours later, I'm finally in Amsterdam! We're here for 3 hours before our connecting flight to Barcelona and although we haven't ruled out the idea of getting champagne at the classy looking "Bubbly" bar in the airport (it may or may not be 6am here...) I'm wanted to take the time to record a few of my observations thus far:

1. The image in my head of what international flights were like (big comfy reclining seats, gourmet dinner, plenty of leg room...etc) yeahhh NOT like that at all. I felt like I was sitting on 5 people's laps all at the same time. Nonetheless, it got me here and for that I am thankful.
2. It is perfectly acceptable for young high-school-age-looking boys to carry machine guns around the Amsterdam airport and joke around with them. Huh. 
3. Besides the machine guns, this airport is amazing.