Days 2 and 3

So much has already happened that it's hard to remember what all I've even done! I really want to post pictures, but the internet connection here is still too slow since I'm stealing it from a neighbor, so you'll have to wait, although I know you're all anxious for that.

Yesterday we woke up around 8am for breakfast, got ready, and headed up to the Plaza for our bus tour of the city. We decided to take the tour in English because we wanted to actually be able to understand where everything was, lol. We saw a lot of places that we definitely want to go back and visit... Barcelona is HUGE!!

After the tour we walked around and found the IES centers, where we have our classes and such. They're just off the main plaza where the metro stop is... so its just about a 10 minute metro ride from home, and then a 5 minute walk. We had run into our RA that morning as we were getting on the metro to head to the bus tours and she recommended that we buy a metro pass that was 50 rides within 30 days until we figure out how much we'll really be using it.

After the IES centers we decided to walk down Las Ramblas, a very long street that goes from the Plaza to the beach. Its VERY touristy with lots of little vendors and restaurants. Apparently the restaurants are ridiculously overpriced there (which we DEFINITELY found out the hard way) and the woman on the bus tour also told us that we should eat lunch between 2 and 4pm or else we'll be paying about triple the price that we should. Anyways, we walked all the way down to the beach and saw Mirador de Colom (a really huge statue of Christopher Columbus), some of the ports, the IMAX theatre and the aquarium. Then we headed home, took a nap, and had dinner. We went out to the beach last night to check out some of the bars they have down there... theyre all just like little huts on the beach with tables right on the edge of the sand and stuff... very cool. Unfortunately we couldnt find the bus to take us home and had to walk all the way back to the plaza... probably AT LEAST 3 or 4 miles. Then we just went home and crashed.

We didnt have anything to do today so we didnt set alarms and we ended up sleeping in til 1pm somehow. We showered and headed to check out what they call Barrio Gottico, which is just a neighborhood with old gothic architecture i think. We didnt really know what we were looking for but it was a pretty cute little area. We grabbed a quick lunch at the plaza and came home to rest. When we got home we found out that there's a med student from Great Britain staying with us for 2 weeks to take intensive spanish courses, so that's pretty cool. We all went to el Parc Guell to see some beautiful architecture by Gaudi. We got great views of the city and such too. On the way home we accidently walked 40 mins uphill in the wrong direction, but eventually found our way home... exhausted. I think we're probably gonna stay in tonight because we have to be up early for orientation stuff tomorrow. We finish orientation stuff on Thursday around 2 and don't have classes until Tuesday, so Megan and I are thinking of trying to make a trip to Portugal since this will be our longest free weekend. We're gonna try to work on planning it this week and see how it goes!

I got to talk to my parents today.... its so great to hear familiar, english speaking(!) voices!

Guess that's it for now! Besos y abrazos para todos! (kisses and hugs for everyone!)