Weekend warriors

view from my new apartment!

This past week has been quite the whirlwind so I will try to cover it as much as I can remember! My classes have been great so far and it's nice to be out of the Charleston bubble and the ability to chat with people from all over the world and US universities. Im planning on joining a student program where you're matched with a Barca native and can help them with their English and they can talk to us in Spanish. Everyone here pretty much speaks English (such a bonus sometimes) but I've been really bad about speaking Spanish and resorting to English just because its what I'm used to. So this program will make me more comfortable speaking the language.

Friday afternoon my roomies and I went to this bomb sandwich shop called Bo de B which is a total MUST DO when you visit Barca. The line was an hour long and seriously worth ever second. Their speciality is sandwiches and they have an endless array of toppings and sauces that they put on their homemade French bread.












Friday night I had the pleasure of meeting up with one of my dear friends from boarding school who was doing a backpacking trip and happen to be in Barcelona for a couple of days! I hadn't seen her since senior year graduation and it was great to see a familiar face. We went totally authentic and dined on tapas and sangria and got to discuss everything that's happened since we last saw each other. After dinner she came back to my apartment to meet all my roomies and their friends.

Sunday was our day devoted to sightseeing and exploring the city and we had the pleasure of wondering around the marina. We walked around the harbor and sprawled out on nearby benches to soak up the sun for a while! Afterwards a we sauntered to the shopping / restaurant area which felt very Malibu country Mart it was very upscale but had a relaxed feel because of it being so close to the beach. This is by far my favorite area of Barcelona!

Much love and kisses

Xoxo Ali

#latergram

collection of some instagrams

My University!

Gothic Center

Duckies!!

Sant Pau Campus

Casa Mila

cathedral

All right now

So happy that everything is figured out with my home stay situation. After much negotiation I was able to switch from a home stay to an on campus apartment that is much closer to my university and will be living with three other girls in my program. I'm looking forward to meeting another group of people and being able to walk to my other friend's apartments in the area. Since I'm not able to move in until Monday morning I am staying in the same dorm as a couple of my other friends just so I could escape from my home stay once and for all.

On Friday night I experienced my first glimpse of Barca nightlife, it was insane for all the right reasons. Since everything starts much later in Europe we didn't actually get into the club Opium Mar until 2 am. And within ten minutes of being there we somehow finagled our way into the VIP lounge for the rest of the night! Which meant free champagne, mixed drinks, and private tables and lounges. All night I only spent 2 euro and that was for my coat check not too shabby!

Yesterday afternoon my friend and I decided to get a few tasks accomplished before school starts on Monday. We traveled to this beautiful shopping center called Passeig de Grácia. My main goal was to get an international phone number and sign up for a pay as you go plan. Apparently the new iPhone is in such demand that all the stores are completely sold out of sim cards so I will just have to wait until next week. We went to this cute little restaurant, Qu Qu that reminded me of one of my favorite restaurants, Blue Plate Oysterette in Santa Monica, CA. The ambiance was so charming and its the perfect place for people watching. Another bonus is that the restaurant is pet friendly!

After spending a solid 3 hours in the Apple store and phone store my friend and I were ready to call it a night but heard of an Irish pub that was playing the Broncos Ravens game so we decided to join up with a couple of other kids in our group to view the game. It got me so excited for the Pats game tonight, it will be my first time watching my boys play in another country!!

I haven't left my room today besides to grab a quick bite to eat! It's a little dreary out and I was so excited to get back into running but I think I may have to put it off until tomorrow.

First day of feeling like a real person

Today was the first day I actually felt fully rested and acclimated to the time difference. I wasn't constantly checking my clock to see what time it was back home and am ready to get a good nights rest sans melatonin.

 Today we had a group walking tour of the Gothic District and paid a visit to the only standing cathedral in Barcelona called "La Seu." The church absolutely takes your breath away (I sound so much like my mom!) but its so hard to imagine someone building this in 1213. You really have to have such drive and passion to complete a huge project such as this. And the inside of the church is equally as ostentatious as the exterior. When you first enter the cathedral there is a stand that holds candles that were lit by previous guests to make a prayer requests which is something I noticed was very common in the churches in Italy.

For lunch we settled on this amazing restaurant that included a special pri fixe menu for 9 euro for 3 courses! We stayed there for a solid 2 hours talking to one another and getting to know each other a little better. I notice a lot of times in the states (and I can be guilty of this too) that people are obsessed with constantly trying to stay in touch with their friends, co-worker, boss, etc. that they're not 100% interested in the company they're already with. You look around a restaurant at home and each patron either has their phones out or are on them. They're screens are so close to their face that they don't take the time to look around and appreciate all that is around them. The restaurant we went to was filled with people who seemed relax and full of life! They were laughing, nursing their mid afternoon wines, and soaking it all in! Since me and my friends don't have functioning phones we did not have that as a distraction and didn't feel the urge to refresh our facebook pages or check out whats going on instagram. It has been such a luxury not having a phone with internet access I finally feel free and able to actually pay attention to whats going on. 

Later in the afternoon we visited another Gaudi masterpiece called the Sagrada Familia which is one of the most historic landmarks of Barcelona. The church reminded me and my friend of the drip castles we used to create growing up- though I don't remember mine looking this good.... 

THE BEST PART OF TODAY: going to see our first fútbol match Barcelona vs. Córdoba!!!!!! The tickets were only 9 euro and we got awesome seats! The stadium was filled with crazy awesome Barca fans and there was so much to take in!! Barca creamed Córdoba 5-0 wooohoo! It brought back so many great memories playing soccer growing up and having the opportunity to see Beckham play for Manchester United several years ago. I cannot wait to go to more games and hopefully blend in with the avid Barca fans chanting and screaming after every goal or decent play. 

Lots of love 

Ali 

First full day in Barca

One of my New Years resolutions was to learn to be on time. Unfortunately, that did not last long. We were supposed to have a meeting at 10:00 and I overshot my metro stop and showed up sweaty and frazzled 45 minutes later. The good news is I stumbled upon this darling sandwich /pastry shop that made a mean spinach omelette and I paired it with a caffe latte which made my hands shake for the rest of the day (there is NOTHING better than European coffee).

Despues lunch, I was ready for my little siesta but did not want to miss the bus tour of Barcelona. We traveled to the Estadi Olímpic de Montjuïc (where the '92 Olympics opening ceremony took place) and overlooked all of Barcelona. The view and the olympic facilities were spectacular! 

The next leg of the tour consisted of a visit to the famous Park Güell which was designed by Gaudí who was influenced by the fairytale Hansel and Gretle throughout the park's architecture. 

awkward solo shot

I mustered up the energy to go running and came across another Gaudí on my run

talk to you tomorrow xoxo 

First blog post

What a truly remarkable city Barcelona is - the food, the architecture, the people...I could go on and on. I feel truly blessed to be surrounded by such beauty and already have such a deep appreciation for my study abroad experience. From a young age, I always dreamt of studying abroad and now that its happening I can't wait for whats to come over these next couple of months. I'm so thankful to my parents for making this dream a reality. I know that being away from my close family and friends may be challenging at times but the thought of making new friends and meeting people from all over the world is VERY exciting!  This study abroad is all about EXPERIENCE and how you choose to spend your time. I hope to find a balance of studying and traveling (the latter being slightly more important) and making time to connect with my friends and fam back home (some of whom I can't wait to come visit - YIPEE!).  I hope to push myself to try new foods (shouldn't be a problem), become fluent in Spanish (working on exaggerating my Catalan lisp as we speak), travel to at LEAST 5 countries, take a salsa dance lesson, watch a Barcelona fútbol match (possibly sip sangrias with Messi afterwards?) but most of all I hope to develop a better understanding of myself and learn to appreciate every second of life!

The reason I choose to start this blog is to keep my peeps updated on my daily happenings and as a electronic journal to show my grandkids all the wonderful things I got to do my junior year of College. I hope you enjoy reading this blog I will try to keep it as entertaining as possible :)

Cheers!

Ali