Long time coming!

Sorry for the delay, folks. It's been crazy, busy! So let's get to it. Barcelona.

Wow, it's beautiful. Allison, Ashley, Caitlin, Morgan and I found our apartment for the weekend upon our arrival. It was in a very cute, safe part of town next to a fresh fruit shop, 2 pastry shops and the metro! How convenient? Friday night we found this nice restaurant by the water and ran into some friends there for a little photo shoot. Then, we went to the steps by the water and indulged in some delicious crepes! Banana and dark chocolate, anyone? YUM! That was the rest of that night, we were so tired! We went to bed... little did we know how eventful our Saturday would be!

We slept in a little and got up for our 3 hour bike tour of the city! On our way we made a little detour by our fruit stand and stocked up for today. We may or may not have gotten a pastry...

The bike tour was WONDERFUL. It was beautiful, and a little frightening riding next to the bus on the road, dodging cars a little, but it was worth it. We went on a sailboat ride on the Mediterranean sea, no big deal. Just the most beautiful thing, ever. Blue skies, blue water--fantastic. Then we chilled on the beach :) After a quick lunch at Bocatta (Spain's version of McDonalds) we visited a beautiful park. Let me tell you what we found at the top of this park: European Regge Festival. Yes. It's not like blended already.... too funny.

We ventured back to our apartment and had a late dinner at a local restaurant. We had ample amounts of tapas for the 5 of us. It was so nice to get to try such a variety of food! Then... we had gelato. I know that's not unusual for me BUT this was some of the best gelato I've had! They made it into a flower on my cone!

Sunday... we got up and went to Olympic Hill. Yes, hello 1992 olympics: Barcelona! We got to see INSIDE the stadium. I had chills the entire time. That was a priceless experience. It was a great way to end a wonderful quick weekend to Barcelona.

Well, it's officially my last week in Madrid! We will leave for Andalucia a week from today, which seems crazy! Yesterday (Monday) I met our new housemate from Switzerland, Adrian. He immediately started picking on me, and we joke around together, he fits in well with us! After class, Emily and I had lunch with Adrian and his new classmates from Germany, Bulgaria, and Italy! Yes, I'm very international now. Later on we went to tour the futbol stadium in Madrid (where the Real Madrid team plays.) Again with the chills. I got to see all their trophies, walk on the field, sit in their seats on the field.. yes, incredible!

Karin, Caitlin, me, Mortiz (Germany) and Jackie

Then we went with our classmates and our new international friends to a Chocoleteria and had a great time!

TODAY, right after class we went to tour the Royal Palace... WOAH. Immaculate, beautiful, incredible, stunning! Then we went to this restaurant to try this famous dessert... now we know why it's famous. It's basically vanilla ice cream with cinnamon, but oh, it's so much more than that! Afterwards we took a long siesta and had dinner. Now we are about to start studying! We have our oral exams on Thursday and our finals on Friday! the first term is coming to an end!

Ice cream :)

Palace!

That's all for now :)