Te Quiero, Barcelona

Dear faithful readers,

As my mother has so diligently pointed out to me (in an email), I missed posting yesterday. Believe me, it was not my intention to miss writing a day and telling all of you what a wonderful time I've been having, but it seems that the wonderful time I was having yesterday left no time for blogging. Alas. I beg forgiveness and hope that this blog will be sufficent enough to make up for yesterday's tardiness.

Yesterday started much the same as most mornings: get up, eat two peices of bread with nutella (it is rare to find peanut butter in Spain- I hunt!) and go to class. Three classes: CV writing, teaching pronunciation 1, teaching pronunciation 2. After class, it was fairly obvious that most of the class was headed to the beach. I went with a couple of my favorite ladies to help them find bathing suites. We had quite the excursion navigating La Rambla (commonly referred to as Las Ramblas) which is the pick-pocket centre of Barcelona. Luckily, none of us were targeted, but we have been thoroughly warned that it will happen, and just don't carry anything of any importance. (Don't worry mom, the pick-pockets here are not violent- they just steal your money for the most part. I keep mine in my pockets).

After trying on probably 100 bathing suites, each of the girls made a purchase and we headed for the beach. Once we got there, we found our class and set up to hang out for a few hours. Swimming was lovely, once you got in, and a game of "volleyball" was started. I have weak wrists, so I didn't play long, but it was fun while we did. We met some guys from Dublin who chatted up some of the girls for a while. They were entertaining and later told me that they "Love your bikini! I really ****ing LOVE your BIKINI!!" Thanks. (for those of you who don't know, I've titled my bikini my Hallie Barry Bikini because it's yellow). Hilarious.

After the beach, we all went home to shower and change and glam up before going out. We met at 9pm-ish at the metro closest to our school and went from there to The Magic Fountain. It is said that if you drink from this fountain, you will fall in love with the city. I have to tell you, I don't need to drink any clorinated, fountain water to fall in love with this place. It is so vibrant and colourful, I can't help falling in love. It's like this city has a heartbeat and all the people are the blood flowing in and out of the veins of streets. There is a rhythm to the city. It is slower in the early morning, gets faster later in the morning, slows down again for the afternoon and flows like water over Niagara Falls at night. The Magic Fountain was incredible. I've seen fountain shows with lights and music before, but never like this. If the city has a heartbeat, this is where it started last night. Thousands of people, both locals and tourists, gathered for hours around the fountain; drank, talked, smoked, (danced) and had a great time. I don't have any pictures of this yet because I had left my camera home for the evening.

This is what I wore:

Standard black skirt, white shirt and coral pumps (with a Coach purse)- how can you go wrong?!

David was a little camera happy....

I think he's my new paparazzi!

We went to meet up with some classmates at a bar on the other side of town. When we got there at 11:40pm, the place was like an empty cave. It was dark and gave you the feeling that the walls would move and flow with the rhythm of the music at will when when people started showing up. Eventually the place filled until it was packed, and our whole group, probably 20 of us, was in the middle of the dance floor, dancing like we didn't care who was watching. I convinced a couple of the guys to go and spice up a bachelorette party that was looking pretty lame. They went over and asked a few of the girls to dance and finally got them up out of their chairs. We livened up their night! (If it had been my bachelorette party and it was that boring, I would have left to go find something more fun, that's why I sent in our boys!) Drinks were flowing and hips were shaking. We couldn't have had a better time. Someone called me "smokin' hot" and it made my 27-year-old self feel 22 again. I think Barcelona has shaved years off my life. As Donia has said, I'm glowing here.

One of the things I've noticed about this city: people smile here. Not all the time, and not in a creepy Disney theme park "It's a small world" kind of way, but they do smile here. I think North America really has something to learn from taking your time with life and easing into your daily activities. The Mercadona Food Market beside my school opens whenever the employees get to work. It is typically right around 9am, but sometimes it is as late as 9:15. And the locals waiting outside don't seem to mind. It's like they know that people are enjoying a nice breakfast down the street before work, and they'll just wait.

Today I went to La Rambla with E. She's great. She's my new shopping buddie, adventure-seeking, totally chill bestie. We're going to go dancing tonight and study tomorrow. We shopped for things I've never owned before. I bought suede pants and pleather pants. Yes, that's right. ME. PLEATHER. We're trying something out in BCN.

We had a lovely lunch at Piscolabis. It was sooo delicious! I hate it when people post pictures of their food, butI just can't help it!

The Menu

Patatas Bravas (Tapas- potatoes with sauce. I love this food!)

Me eating my Hannah Montana Burger. Don't ask me what was Hannah Montana about it,  because I don't know.

I forgot to take a picture before I started eating, so here it is mostly eaten. The fries are so small here!

Sparkling Water with Lemon

My roommate, David, works at Fraggo. Its'a coffe shop in La Rambla. We went there to have some coffee- this is what I had. It was so sweet it was like eating cake!

I must go siesta now. I am going out this evening with David, Jonathan and some people they know. It should be alot of fun! I might even wear my pleather pants!

Bon noche mi amigos!