Friday morning, I woke up at 7:30 and and met up with Sarah where we get the buses to the airport around 8. I have a serious problem with my alarm. At home I have my iHome across the room, and it goes off on radio as loud as possible (obnoxiously loud), so I have no choice but to get up. Well here, my phone alarm goes off right next to me, and in a state of confusion I just press the first button I see, which usually turns it off (as opposed to snooze). So I end up setting like 4 alarms, so I never know if another one is going to go off. Very confusing. It's also rough because my phone only charges when it is turned off. That means I can't charge it at night because it needs to be on for the alarm. Just annoying. Anyways, I thankfully got up in time. Took the bus to the airport. Everything went smoothly. The flight was with RyanAir, a really cheap airline, and it was really weird since it was so cheap. There was no where to sit at the gate and there were no assigned seats, so everyone stood there and waited in line. It was a big flight but the seats were really close together and there were advertisements everywhere. The flight attendants made various announcements trying to sell things throughout the flight. Loud announcements which I mostly slept through. Just really different. The flight was about two hours. Took a bus to some plaza where Sam met us. He took us back to his apartment to put our stuff down. The place is awesome. It has two big bedrooms downstairs and a little kitchen and bathroom, an open living room with a loft and another bedroom up above. It's really modern and cool. Has a porch too. On the loft they have four extra beds just chillin there. Pretty awesome and convenient. Nice not having to sleep on a couch or floor. Sam lives with two other guys from Bentley - so while it wasn't the neatest apartment, it was still awesome. Then Sam showed us the beach- 5 mins away. So cool. It was a really nice day. Windy, but warm. The beach was man-made to attract tourists. There were some cool sculptures along it. The strip along the beach had a bunch of cafes and bars. We went to a place called Woky Wok to get some teriyaki noodle stir fry with chicken and lettuce. Then we went to a cool building that had a wall along the ocean - so you're basically standing over the ocean- with a really nice view. We then went back to Sam's and one of his roommates, Greg, came with us to show us the city. We walked around some famous street called la Rambla. It was touristy, with lots of food places and shops. We got some amazing gelado. I got a chocolate covered cone with "Bon bon" (basically nutella-flavored), galleta (short bread cookie), and cafe (coffee). Delicious. Sarah and I had told they guys we wanted to go to a market, and they had no idea where to find one. But on la Rambla, we passed a huge one, so we went in. Well it wasn't huge, but you could buy anything imaginable freshly made. You'll have to look at the pics when I put them up. It was outdoor but had a canopy over it. They had fresh everything. Meat, fish, fruit, candy, chocolate, juices, pastries, vegetables, oils. Just insane. So many colors. They had full dead bodies of pigs, creepy-looking seafood. We had just gotten gelato that was amazing so I didn't buy anything though. We continued walking and saw some cool buildings. A lot of interesting architecture here by some guy named Gaudi. The city is very modern and European-like, not so much Spanish. Also, they speak Catalan here, which, from looking at it, is a mix of French and Spanish. It's really weird it's like they took a lot of words and just combined them. Everywhere you go they speak Spanish too though. So then we came back and napped until 10, by accident, because no one set an alarm. We were all surprised when we woke up so late. We got ready and drank a little at Sam's. Then went to a bar called Chuptios, which means shots. They had a huge wall full of names of shots and they're all crazy. We got a willy wonka which was chocolate booze with whipped cream on it and a chocolate on top. A lot of them were set on fire and stuff. Then we went to a discoteca that was three stories - each floor had two rooms different types of music which was awesome. Sarah and I went off and danced and then found Sam. We danced til 430ish then took a cab home. It was SO nice to have a kitchen to go back to. I was starving, and luckily the boys had a stock pile of good food. I made three batches of nachos for Sarah and I. Used a whole thing of salsa, bag of cheese, and bag of chips. We were realllly hungry and realllly excited to be able to cook. We started watching Zoolander but Sarah and I fell asleep. Saturday Sarah and I woke up at 1 and went to see la Sagrada Familia. It's a church built by Gaudi, but he died while it was being made in the 1920s. It's been being built ever since. Therefore, it was not as cool because there was construction stuff all over it. It was still cool to see though. It was interesting because the back side was clearly the original part - you could see the clear difference in design, and that it was weathered. The newer part had some really cool designs - colorful fruit, lizards. It was interesting. Then we walked around to see more cool buildings. There is a lot of architecture by Gaudi, whose stuff is just so unique. We stopped and got sandwiches at a place called Pans &co, it's like a cross between Subway and Panera. We shared a grilled chicken sandwich with lettuce, cream cheese, and Parmesan cheese on baguette and some mozzarella sticks. We then went to that market again and I got fresh mango coconut juice. It was really thick and delicious. Ventured back to Sam's. Hung out for a bit, then took a nap. You think we would've learned the afternoon before when we were unpleasently surprised by how late we napped, but we didn't do much better Saturday - woke up at 9:15. Got ready, started drinking. Some of their friends came over - they were all really nice and a lot of fun. Some of them they've met here, but most are from Bentley. Some of the girls are studying in Milan and they were there visiting. Around 1:30 we went to a discoteca along the beach. It was a lot of fun. We went home pretty early, around 3:45. I was starrvvingggg. I had used all of the tortilla chips the night before, so tonight when I went to make nachos I made them on melba toast. And I added cream cheese this time. Not the best, but I was so hungry. Some of Sam's friends that we had split off from came back, and we watched Heavy Weights. I've seen it before, but as my memory is awful, didn't remember any of it. It seemed funny, but Sam and another of his friends were literally screaming laughing throughout the entire thing, so I missed a lot of what was going on. Went to bed around 7. Sunday was a lazy day. Sarah went to the Picaso museum, which I probably should have. But instead I hung out with Sam and his roommate Zack, and watched TV all day. Whatever, I enjoyed it. Around 8 Sarah and I went to see some cool building that we'd seen pictures of everywhere that's shaped like a bullet and lit up really pretty. We walked through one of the popular parks, saw the Arc de Triumph, and then found the building and took pictures. We did really well navigating the city, although I can't take much credit as it was mostly Sarah. All in all, awesome weekend. Barcelona is definitely more for the students who study abroad to party, and while it was really pretty and a lot of fun, I'm glad I'm in Sevilla. It seems so little now. Plus Sevilla is, what a lot of people in Barcelona kept saying, "Spain, Spain". It's the real thing - little streets, lots of history, flamenco, bull fighting, and sunny. It was also really nice to see a friend from home. So in case you all don't know.. here's my itinerary for the rest of my time here.
*Weekend of March 9th-11th: Paris
*Week of March 12th: Midterms! Already!!!! Gross.
*Weekend of March 16th-18th: Morrocco with the teaching development group. Going to observe schools and ride camels! And word is that we're staying with families there..hmm
*Weekend of March 23rd-25th: Mom and Mark coming to visit! Going to Granada and either Huelva or Malaga?
*Weekend of March 30th-April 1st: Austria with Mom and Mark
*April 1st - 3rd : London
*April 3rd - 6th : Dublin
*April 7th & 8th: End of Semana Santa / Easter
*Weekend of April 14th - 15th: Cadiz for the night
*April 20th & 21st: Venice
*April 22nd & 23rd: Rome
*April 24th & 25th: Istanbul
*April 26th & 27th: Brussels
*April 28th & 29th: Last 2 days of Feria de Abril in Sevilla
*May 10th : Finals
*May 11th : Home!
..needless to say it's going to fly! It already has and my schedule has not been this packed.. Only have one more weekend in Sevilla!
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