The Birds

I'm terrified of birds. As a child, Alfred Hitchcock ruined me. In the Placa Catalunya there are pigeons, and for 1.50 euro, you can buy a bag of birdseed to feed them. I don't know what possessed us to, but Tania and I decided it would be funny to feed the pigeons. It was the most terrifying experience ever. I've got a video, but it takes forever to upload. I'll put it up eventually.







Orientation was this morning for a couple hours. Then we had a two hour break for lunch and used that time to go to the puerto olympico on the beach and have lunch. It was HOT at the beach, but it was pretty. I can't wait to go back and actually enjoy the water. We ate lunch at a restaurant at the beach where you sit on beds to eat. It was pretty relaxing. I tried clara with lunch, which is beer mixed with lemon juice. It was pretty good--very refreshing since it was pretty hot outside. We also saw the Frank Gehry fish at the puerto olympico.

My roommates and had to go back to the IES center for our language house orientation. The language house is two apartments, ours, 5 girls + our RA Laura, and an apartment 3 floors above us of 3 boys + their RA, Pao. We're supposed to speak only in Spanish, and each week we have to come up with some type of cultural, linguistic activity for which IES picks up the tab. It's a pretty sweet deal since the kids living in the regular apartments don't get to cash in on that perk. Our first activity together is next week--the boys are cooking us dinner up in their apartment and we're going to have a big Spanish-style dinner.

After the language house orientation, we signed up for extracurriculars and trips. I signed up for a cooking class where we learn how to make tortilla española, paella y gaspacho, a Catalan wine tasting class, a day trip to a small town on la costa brava, and a day trip to hike Monteserrat. A little shopping was next, as well as walking down las ramblas, taking in all the street performers. We bought our monthly metro passes today, and we've pretty much mastered the metro in the little bit we've been here. So after walking down las ramblas a bit, we decided to hop the metro and go to the parque guell, which is the gaudi park. After getting off the metro we had to walk about 600 meters up a super STEEP hill, and then once we got to the park, we had to climb a little bit more, but the view was AMAZING. You could see all of Barcelona. The park is beautiful. We saw all the mosaics and statues. It's a HUGE park, so I definitely want to go back and spend some more time there. After the park, we had to walk about a mile to get back on the metro, but we finally made it back to our apartment.



Oh and we met our 5th roommate who didn't get in until today because of a canceled flight. My roommates are Saran from Baltimore, Kelly from Atlanta, Danielle from Chicago, and Tania from Texas (I share a room with Tania). Our RA is Laura--she's super cool and laidback. Once we got back from the park, we took a walk around the neighborhood with Laura and Pao and the boys from the apartment upstairs. They showed us restaurants, shops, parks, the movie theater, metro and bus stop, la zona de fiesta (bars and clubs) near our apartment, etc. I've noticed a ton of dogs here. When we were in the park near our apartment, there was a big circle of grass where everyone just let their dogs loose. They all seemed very well behaved too. They don't come running up to you, don't bark, play nice with one another. I also think that its amusing they know commands in Spanish--obviously because their owners are Spanish, but anyway, I thought it was amusing. After the barrio tour, Saran, Kelly, Danielle, and the boys upstairs (Daniel, Casey, Eric) had lunch at an Italian restaurant nearby. It was pretty good. They brought out this olive spread that was DELICIOUS. I love how meals here are long social events. They won't bring out the check until you ask, leaving lots of time to chit chat long after you've finished your food.

It was a long day, but I felt like I saw a lot for one day. I'm working on getting pictures on facebook and on shutterfly, but it might take me a while--I took 74 pictures just today!!

I absolutely love it here and can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.