Costa Brava

Hey everyone!

I just had some extra time so I thought I would update my blog! It's been a very busy week...lots of stuff due for my classes, a midterm, and a tapas contest, which my team got 2nd place in! Last weekend, I went to Costa Brava on another IES-organized trip, and it was a lot of fun. Both of my roommates came with me too, so that was awesome. I have to say though that the Basque country reigns supreme as my favorite region of Spain, despite how absolutely beautiful Costa Brava was.
For those of you who don't know, the Costa Brava ("the Wild Coast") is actually a region of Spain along the Mediterranean that goes from a little north of Barcelona all the way up into France. It's an extremely popular tourist destination during the summer, which is why it was cool to go during this time when it was nice weather but not crowded, so we were able to see everything we wanted to see! Snow on our way to France!
The weekend started out with a trip to the Museu Memorial de l'Exili in a town about two hours north of Barcelona called La Jonquera. The museum is a memorial to Spaniards who were forced into exile during Franco's regime, and to the memory of the thousands that subsequently died in the concentration camps installed by the dictator in northern Spain and France. The reason the museum is so important is because up until recently, Spain has been very hush-hush about their history, and museums like this one are not common. It was interesting to learn about the region that we were visiting and what people went through during the dictatorship of Franco.

After La Jonquera, we crossed the border into France to a small town named Perpignon for lunch. My roommate Margaux, who is half-French and speaks the language fluently, was an invaluable tool for ordering lunch and getting around! It was so cool to just be in a different country in a matter of hours and explore, since I haven't left Spain yet since I got here in January.
View of Girona
We stayed in Girona, which is a city about an hour away from Barcelona that is famous for its well-preserved medieval Jewish quarter and its distinctive Roman walls. It isn't the most 'happening' city, but it was beautiful and our hotel beds were like heaven compared to the squeaky, hard mattresses we have at our homestay!

The courtyard at the Teatro-Museo Dalí
On Saturday, we went to the Teatro-Museo Dalí in Figueres. This was definitely the highlight of the trip! Basically, Dalí bought this theatre in his hometown of Figueres and converted it into a museum for his work. He designed the entire layout of the museum and placed all of the paintings and sculptures exactly where he wanted them, which was so interesting. The museum was like a trip inside Dalí's mind, which as I am sure all of you know, is very strange! My favorite was the Mae West room, which was a portrait of the famous actress, Dalí style. Here's what it looked like:
After the museum, we drove over to Cadaqués, a town on the Mediterranean not far from Figueres. It is where Dalí spent his summers as a child, and it was a huge inspiration for him as an artist. My friends and I had lunch at an amazing little restaurant near the beach overlooking the ocean and the whole town. The sun was shining, the wine was flowing, the food was delicious, and the ocean was beautiful--all around, a great afternoon.
The beach in Cadaqués
After lunch, we walked over to Port Lligat, which is an even smaller town on the beach where Dalí had his own beach house as an adult. It looked like a normal beach house--except for the huge sculptures of eggs and two faces he put on his roof! Oh, Dalí. We didn't go inside, but we spent some time just photographing the beach and exploring.
The top of Dalí's beach house in Port Lligat
On our last day, we stayed in Girona and walked around the city. We went to the Cathedral, which is famous for having the widest nave of any cathedral in the world, behind St. Peter's in Rome. It was beautiful and since it was Sunday, we got to see some of the church service that was going on. Our next stop was the Arab Baths, which were built in Roman times as a place for the people of Girona to come and relax. It didn't look too spa-like since there was still snow on the ground from the freak snowstorm we had here two weeks ago, but they were interesting nevertheless. Finally, we visited the Jewish quarter of the city (known as the call) and went to the Jewish History Museum. I thought it was so interesting that this city had such a diverse mix of religions--Judaism, Christianity, and Muslim--all existing in the same place during the Middle Ages. A street in the Jewish call of Girona
Our last stop on our trip was to the town of Besalú, which is well-known for its stellar preservation of its medieval characteristics (bridge, towers, church, etc.). We weren't there for too long, but I managed to buy my mom a present and try some yummy local cassis liqueur!
The medieval bridge and tower in Besalú
Tomorrow I am leaving to go down to Valencia for the weekend for the festival Las Fallas, which basically involves a bunch of drunk, rowdy Spaniards making huge, flammable dolls, parading them around the city, and then lighting them on fire. We're camping on the beach too so it should be quite the interesting experience! I will make sure to blog about it as soon as I come back!

Lots of love,

Kelsey

The Basque Country

Hey everyone!

Sorry again for the late update...it's midterms week and I haven't had a spare minute to update the ol' blog! Last weekend I went to the Basque Country with IES on one of their optional field trips. I had an AMAZING time! The Basque region of Spain is by far my most favorite yet. The people were incredibly friendly (much more so than in Barcelona), the scenery was breathtaking, and, most importantly, the food was incredible!

San Sebastián

For those of you who don't know, the Basque country is located in the north of Spain and also in the south of France. Its main cities are Bilbao, San Sebastián, and Vitoria. The Basques are a very interesting and ancient people who have lived in these lands for centuries. What's even more interesting is their language...it bears NO resemblance whatsoever to Spanish or any European language, for that matter. Their language is classified as a "language isolate," meaning that it has no linguistic "family tree." It's considered to be the last remaining pre-Indo European language in Europe. The phrase "Hello. How are you?" in English is translated into Basque as "Kaixo. Zer moduz?" Pretty crazy, huh?

Yummy pintxos at the culinary school in San Sebastián

We had another jam-packed itinerary on this trip. On our first day, we visited the Chillida-Leku Museum outside of San Sebastián which houses the works of the sculptor Eduardo Chillida. It was a beautiful museum in the countryside, with Chillida's modern sculptures dotting the hillside. After that, we went to a culinary academy for lunch in San Sebastián. One of the professors there taught us how to make some pintxos, or appetizers, that are common in San Sebastián. One of them was a fish pudding served with cocktail sauce and another was stuffed octopus with spinach sauce. They were absolutely delicious! San Sebastián is gaining quite a reputation for being a culinary capital of the world, and it was a treat to be able to experience the cuisine firsthand. After our delicious lunch, we took a long walk around the beach and saw some of Chillida's sculptures named Peine de los Vientos ("Wind Combs") that he had installed on actual rocks in the ocean. The scenery was incredibly beautiful...it reminded me a lot of some of the beaches in Northern California.

View of the bridge designed by Arata Isozaki in Bilbao

On the second day, we toured around Bilbao, where our hotel was. Bilbao is an amazing city...it was once a capital of industry with a lot of factories, which I think is what prompted my host mom to describe it as "muy sucio" ("very dirty") when I told her I was going there for the weekend, but it has changed a LOT in recent years. As many of you probably know, the Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Museum is a major reason for all of this change. The museum itself is incredible...the exhibits were very interesting as well. I particularly enjoyed a Richard Serra installation that involved walking through labyrinthine corridors of corrugated metal. However, there are a lot of sculptures, buildings, and bridges designed by well-known modern architects throughout the city. Its almost as if the city of Bilbao is their exhibition space or something.

My friends Amy and Ellie and I in front of the Guggenheim Museum

We had free time at lunch so we did as the Basques do and went on a pintxo tour of many different restaurants throughout the old town of the city. Pintxos are the Basque version of tapas, and tapas are the Spanish version of hors d'oeuvres, basically. In short--they were delicious! Somehow they managed to pile a bunch of different flavors on top of a teeny tiny piece of baguette and do it in a beautiful way. And of course, at night, we went out Basque-style and got cups of wine and hard cider that we drank in the street while we were socializing with Bilbao's lovely citizens.

A boat in Bermeo

The final day of our trip we spent touring around other well-known cities in the area. Our first stop was Gernika (Guernica), which most of you know as the town that inspired Picasso's famous painting. The town is also famous for an oak tree that the Basque leaders met under for hundreds of years to discuss politics and the state in general. After Gernika, we went to Mundaka, a beautiful, small fishing village along the coast and had lunch. Finally, we stopped in Bermeo, another small fishing village, where we took a long walk around the city and looked at all of the boats docked at their harbor. It was a beautiful day with clear, sunny weather and somewhat warm temperatures, too!

This weekend, my old roommates Brianna and Ariana are in town so I'll be showing them around Barcelona and just having a girls' weekend of shopping and eating! Next week I am off to the Costa Brava region of Spain for a weekend trip and I can't wait!

Lots of love,

Kelsey

Madrid!

Hey everyone!

I'm sorry I haven't updated in so long--it's been a hectic couple of weeks! I went to Madrid last weekend with Margaux and stayed with some relatives of hers there and we had an amazing time, although our trip had a bumpy start with us almost missing our plane and Sarah, our other roommate who was supposed to come with us, missing her plane completely because she accidentally booked her tickets for 9 AM instead of 9 PM (or 21:00 as it is here in Spain).
So, needless to say, we were excited when Margaux's relative, Diana, picked us up at the airport in Madrid after an evening at the airport that was comparable to a finale episode of The Amazing Race. Diana and her husband live about half an hour outside of Madrid in a suburb that kind of reminded me of a Spanish version of the Palisades. They have six kids--six!--two of whom live at home. One of their children, Madalena, is close to Margaux's and I's age so she told us she would take us out that weekend.
The following day, we explored the city a bit, getting completely lost trying to make our way to the Atocha, which is Madrid's railway station. Why were we so eager to get to a train station after our hectic day of travel? you might ask. The reason is this:
Those crazy Spaniards have put an entire tropical garden inside the train station! We weren't able to walk through it when we were there, but it was still really cool to look at.
After the Atocha, we made our way to the infamous Prado Museum to get our fill of the classics for our trip. For those of you who don't know, the Prado is pretty much like the Louvre or the Met of Spain. It contains thousands of artworks, such as Hieronymous Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights, Diego Velázquez's Las Meninas, and tons of Goya, including The Third of May, 1808, his famous anti-war painting. I took a class about Spanish and Portuguese art at GW two semesters ago, and it was amazing to get to see all the works I studied up close and personal!
That night, Madalena and her friends took us to a Mexican restaurant, a bar, and an underground club...needless to say, after a night out "Madrid style," it was difficult for us to get up in the morning!
However, we managed to drag ourselves to the Reina Sofía, the modern art equivalent of the Prado, and the museum that houses Picasso's Guernica. We had a great time just meandering around the exhibits and taking everything in. We weren't allowed to photograph Guernica, but I managed to get a shot of one of the paintings he did in preparation, which was my favorite:
After the museum, we gave Madrid nightlife round two a shot, but it was tragically cut short when we were in line at a club, only to be informed that the entry fee was 20 euros! I'm sorry, but no club, no matter how amazing it might be, is worth almost 40 dollars--just to get in the door!
The next day was our last day, so we packed it full of activities. We started out at the Thyssen-Bornemisza art museum, which is the private collection of a wealthy elevator magnate who is married to a Spanish ex-beauty queen. I highly recommend this museum for anyone who goes to Madrid. It is not as overwhelming as the Prado and the Reina Sofía, and it has a wonderful mix of all kinds of art, from Renaissance to Impressionist to contemporary. We both loved it, and it was conveniently raining during the time we were in the museum, and then stopped as soon as we came out.We then made our way to the Palacio Real, or the Royal Palace of Spain (see above). It was absolutely beautiful. We were going to take a tour of it, but it was not open :( We walked up a ways to the Templo de Debod, which is an Egyptian temple, discovered in the Valley of the Kings, that the Egyptian government had moved to Madrid, brick by brick, as a gift of appreciation to the Spanish government. Pretty cool! The Communications Palace along Paseo de Castellana
Our next stop was the Basilica de San Francisco El Grande. Although we couldn't go inside, we stood on the steps and marveled at the huge dome of the church, which is bigger than St. Paul's in London! After that, we wandered around the medieval part of Madrid for a while, stopping in a little plaza called Plaza de la Paja for a quick cup of tea.
Due to our 7:30 AM flight, we didn't get the chance to go out again that night, but instead stayed in and talked with the family we were staying with. They were so sweet to us and a kind of reminder of home since we were able to speak English with them all weekend.



I'm off to film class right now, and I am leaving for the Basque Country (San Sebastián and Bilbao) tomorrow morning for a weekend trip! I promise a quicker blog post next week.

Lots of love,
Kelsey

Montserrat & Montjuïc

Hey everyone!

Another busy week in Barcelona has gone by! It is finally starting to get nice here--today I wore a dress! The city is absolutely beautiful and full of life when it is sunny outside...something about that breeze blowing in off the Mediterranean, I guess! Yesterday, I went to Montserrat with some kids from my program and my Spanish class. It was free for my class because we won a scavenger hunt around Barcelona during the first week of school, so that was awesome.
Montserrat ("Serrated Mountain" in Catalán) is a mountain range about an hour outside of Barcelona that is home to a Benedictine monastery that houses the world-famous sculpture of La Moreneta ("Black Madonna"), the patron saint of Catalonia since the 1800s. When we arrived at the mountain, we embarked on a MASSIVE hike that was almost all uphill. Of course, you all know that I'm used to hiking in Yosemite, but Yosemite had nothing on this hike. We basically scaled a mountain in a little under 2 hours. Despite the difficulty of the hike, the scenery around us was beautiful, and it was such a perfectly clear day that we had a great view of the Pyrenees Mountains in the distance, as well as Barcelona and the Mediterranean Sea.
When we finally reached the top of the summit we were climbing, we were greeted with views of some of the shrines the monks of Montserrat had created in the side of the mountains, as well as the hermitage of Sant Joan where monks would live alone for years at a time. The hike was amazing, despite the physical toll it took on me, and needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed the plate of pasta I had when we descended!
After lunch, we went to the Museum of Montserrat which, for being located on the side of a mountain, actually had quite the collection. In addition to having an Egyptian mummy, the museum also has beautiful paintings by Caravaggio, Monet, Degas, Picasso, and Dalí, who were just some of the artists inspired by the natural beauty of Montserrat. One of Picasso's paintings of an old sailor that he painted when he was fourteen was absolutely incredible. I fully support Spain's obsession with Picasso as he is possibly one of the most talented artists in the world.
Just before we left, we had the opportunity to go to the 16th century basilica of Montserrat which is located next to the museum. After standing in line for some time, I was able to see La Moreneta, and touch the globe that she holds in her hand. The sculpture of La Moreneta dates to the 12th century, and was created to commemorate a vision of the Virgin at Montserrat. It is considered a very important statue because it is the world's first "black" Madonna. However, in 2002, it was discovered that the statue isn't really black, but got its dark color from centuries of candle smoke slowly "tanning" it.The visit to Montserrat was a great experience--despite my sore muscles today, I had a wonderful time exploring the mountain, and it was really nice to be out in nature for once, and not in the crowded city.
Expounding on those feelings, my roommates and I decided to go to Montjuïc today because the weather was so nice. Montjuïc is a hill overlooking Barcelona that is filled with art museums and parks, and is a beautiful place to escape the busy city for a few hours. We started out by going to the Botanical Gardens, which were small but still very nice to just sit in and soak up the sun. Afterwords, we walked around and looked at the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, which houses mainly Catalan art from the 12th century up until the early 20th century. We didn't go inside, because the museum is free, and we decided to enjoy the day rather than being inside.
All in all, I had a wonderful, nature-filled, and peaceful weekend. I am off to an Irish pub to watch the Super Bowl tonight (on at midnight my time and ending somewhere around 6 AM), and next weekend, I will be heading down to the beach town of Sitges for Carnivale, which is spearheaded by the gay and lesbian community there and should be a blast!

Lots of love,
Kelsey

Weekend Trip to Tarragona

Hey everyone!

It has been a super busy week this week! I started classes at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, where I'm taking an art history class and a film class. Both of my professors are young guys who are very interested in their fields--my film professor talked SO much the first class! The classes are going to be very interesting, though. We have a couple of field trips planned to art galleries around Barcelona in my art history class that I'm really excited about so I'm definitely looking forward to this semester!
This past weekend, my entire program went to Tarragona, a city about two hours south of Barcelona, for a weekend "study tour." Tarragona is famous because it was the capital of the Roman empire in Spain (Hisperia Citerior) during the time of the first emperor Augustus. Due to the extensive amount of Roman ruins in and surrounding Tarragona, it's been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, so you can only imagine the amount of history we were about to encounter!
Day One
The first day, my group went to Torres Vineyards, which is about half an hour away from Barcelona. The Torres family is world-renowned throughout the world for their wine, and I'm sure some of you have tasted either their wines or their brandy, which they are also famous for. The tour of the vineyards was basically like Disneyland for adults. We watched an introductory film about the family and their history in the wine business, and then got on a tram and took a tour of the cellars and surrounding countryside. Inside the cellars, they had animated, hologram-esque figures of monks pouring wine, touting their long history of wine-making, etc. It was a little weird, but definitely very interesting. After, we sampled some of their white and red wine...considering it was 10:30 in the morning, I was a little buzzed.
Wine being stored in the underground cellar at Torres
However, that proved to be a good thing when we got to our next destination, Els Munts. Els Munts is a Roman villa outside of Tarragona that was the home of the Roman governor of the province. They were into the whole historical re-creation thing at Els Munts, too, which was fun but a little over the top when the tour guide, who was dressed head to toe in Roman gear and referred to herself as Faustina said we "looked like slaves" and then forced all of us to wear togas. It was a beautiful destination right next to the beach, though, and remarkably well preserved. Ruins of a Roman aqueduct at Els Munts
Our last stop for the day, before reaching Tarragona, was a Roman quarry called El Médol. It was located in kind of a strange place--behind a gas station--but nevertheless was very interesting. The Romans basically created a massive crater in the ground in order to supply their cities in Spain with all the stone that they needed, but then left a huge spire in the ground that was apparently a natural occurrence. It was cool though because it showed how deep the Romans excavated the area, which is pretty deep. We only stayed at El Médol for a little bit, though, because it was freezing and even our tour guides wanted to go home.
Naturally occurring spire at El Médol
Day Two
Our second day was definitely my favorite. We started out the day by going to Montblanc, a medieval walled town close to Tarragona. It was freezing, but we went to two churches in town, the Church of Saint Michael and another cathedral which houses the second oldest organ in all of Europe! We then toured around the city with our guide and went to the Museu Comarcal de la Conca de Barbera, which shows the local crafts of Montblanc, such as making espadrilles and farming, and ended our tour at the top of a small hill overlooking the town, where we all snapped a bunch of pictures, despite the freezing wind.

Cathedral of Montblanc
After Montblanc, we headed to Poblet, a Cistercian monastery founded in 1151 by French monks. It is still a working monastery, and about 32 monks live there currently. Before our tour of the monastery, we went on a short hike in the wilderness surrounding Poblet. It was beautiful, and our tour guide told us all about the national parks in Spain while we were on our hike. After the hike, we went on a guided tour of the monastery and saw the kitchen, reading rooms, library, various chapels, main cathedral, and wine-making room of the monks, some of which are still in use today. The architecture of Poblet was absolutely breathtaking and the main altar was beautiful as well. Many royals of Spain were buried at Poblet, and their tombs had marble effigies of them carved on top, looking extremely peaceful in their eternal slumber. I managed to see one monk while we were at Poblet, but he didn't respond to my friendly "¡Hola!" due to that whole vow of silence thing.

Wine-making room at Poblet
Day Three
On our third day, we stayed in Tarragona and went on an extensive tour of the city. Because it was the capital, it is one of the few Roman cities that had an amphitheater, circus, and theater. The remains of the amphitheater, which I put a photo of at the beginning of the post, are still pretty well-preserved, but the circus and theater are a little less well-preserved. The city is beautiful as it is right on the ocean, and the sun was shining all day for our tour, which was great. We went to several museums to see some Roman artifacts found throughout the city during excavations, but it was really cool just walking down a street and seeing a marble Roman inscription right next to a telephone booth. We had a great day, but I was definitely exhausted on the bus ride back to Barcelona and took a looooong nap! Me on top of the Forum of Tarragona

Next weekend, I'm going to Montserrat and a FC Barcelona game, so I will have lots more to write!

Lots of love,
Kelsey

Wine Tasting & Miscellaneous

Hey everyone!
Another week has gone by in Barcelona and it has definitely been an interesting one. Last weekend, my roommate Margaux and I went to the Picasso Museum because it was rainy and gross out and there's nothing better than a museum on those kinds of days! They have an exhibit going on right now called Secret Images which is a collection of erotic Japanese prints that Picasso collected, as well as some of his art inspired by these prints. While the subject matter was somewhat graphic/strange, it was actually a very beautiful show that also highlighted the printmaking process in Japan, something I found very interesting. We also went to the rest of the museum and saw a lot of Picasso's work, from his early oil paintings in Malagá to his later works such as Las Meninas. It was a great way to spend a rainy day and I will definitely be returning.
My classes also started this week at IES, the program I'm doing my study abroad through. I am taking "Food as an Expression of Culture" and "The City as a Place to Live: the Barcelona Experience." So far, they have been very interesting...I actually look forward to doing the reading assigned to us every night because it is something that fascinates me. My food class has many exciting aspects, such as an in-class wine tasting (score!), field trips to markets and restaurants around Barcelona, and in-class samplings of local cuisine. Needless to say, this might turn out to be my favorite class of the semester! My city class is very interesting as well. It is basically about city planning and what constitutes a "good" city as opposed to a badly laid out one, as well as the difference between European cities and American cities, with a focus on Barcelona, of course. We have some fun field trips planned in that class to different public spaces within Barcelona. My classes at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, one of the local universities in Barcelona, don't start until Monday, and I'm taking "Contemporary Spanish Art" and "Images of Spain in Film" there.
Also this week, I went to the movies to see The White Ribbon (or in Spanish, La Cinta Blanca) because I have heard a lot of buzz surrounding it and admire the director greatly. However...the movie is in German, with Spanish subtitles. Although my brain was working overtime for two and a half hours translating Spanish into English and absorbing the images of what was occurring, I can confidently say that I understood about 98% of the film! I was pretty proud of myself, not going to lie.
Yesterday, Margaux and I went to a wine tasting that our school set up through a local wine shop near the Picasso Museum in the La Ribera district. There were probably fifteen kids from IES there as well, and our instructor was a young man who knew a LOT about wine! We started out with a cava (champagne) that was absolutely delicious. In Spain, cava is kept in a cave (which is where it gets its name) for nine months, or sometimes longer. This creates a pressure in the bottles that is almost three times that of French and American sparkling wines. Our instructor taught us what to look for in a cava, as well as how to hold the glass so that we didn't warm it with our hands. Next up was a white wine called Muscat which was by far my favorite wine of the night. It had notes of lychee and pear that were amazing. Finally, we finished with two red wines, one from 2004, and a more recent one. I loved the 2004 one, and it was really cool learning to distinguish between an older wine and a newer one, as well as finding out exactly what to look for. However, the best part of the tasting came at the end, when our instructor told us that all of the wine we tasted could be purchased for a mere 4 or 5 euros!!! In Spain, because wine is so local and does not have to be imported, it is extremely cheap while retaining extremely good quality. He told us that the same wine would be around 20 to 25 euros in France, so I am definitely grateful that we have this available to us here.
Nursing my (small) headache from last night's tasting (our instructor didn't want us to waste any wine!!), I have to head to Spanish class now. Next weekend, I'm going to Tarragona with everyone in the IES program for a three-day study tour, so I will try to get some pictures from that up as well as a little bit about how my first week of university classes goes!

Lots of love,
Kelsey

First Week!

I know this post is somewhat delayed, and I apologize for that! It's taken me pretty much until now to adjust to the time difference and not be alternately sleepy and craving Tylenol PM. I've been in Barcelona for almost a week now, and I'm all settled in!

View from the plane of the sunrise over Portugal

I'm not gonna lie, the plane journey was brutal. Taking a plane from LA to New Jersey, having a layover, and then flying to Barcelona amounted to roughly 28 hours of no sleep and a lot of back pain. However, when I got to Spain, all my ornery feelings ceased when I looked out my window and saw the city of Barcelona slowly unfolding before the Mediterranean Ocean. Yes, we flew in on a foggy, freezing day, but it was beautiful! After arriving, we had to do a bunch of bullshit with my program at the airport...check in and the like. Cursing the weight of my luggage, I somehow managed to shove all of it into a tiny European taxi and make my way to my homestay.
The street that I live on is extremely close to everything in Barcelona. For those of you familiar with the city, Las Ramblas is one of the most well-known tourist areas of Barcelona...it's basically like the Third Street Promenade on steroids with a heavy smattering of pickpocketers, and it's about 10 minutes away from where I live! Lucky me! I live in a wealthier neighborhood of Barcelona known as L'Eixample, and there are a lot of cute (albeit expensive) restaurants scattered amongst imposing apartment buildings and luxury stores.
My host mom is an older psychologist who lives alone and has taken me and two other girls from my program, Margaux and Sarah, in for the semester. She does not speak a word of English, but is fluent in Catalan and Spanish, as well as some French. Margaux does not speak Spanish, but is fluent in French, and Sarah is learning Spanish, so I serve as the translator between our host mom and them quite often! As you can imagine, we have quite the multi-lingual household. Our host mom mainly keeps to herself, which is something I was not expecting, and lets us come and go as we please for the most part. Apparently, she has had many exchange students stay with her in the past, so she is somewhat familiar with the whole process. Margaux and I's room

















My bed! And desk!

On the first day here, I was so jetlagged that I slept most of the day and sadly, did not go out to experience Barcelona's famous nightlife. The next day, I explored a little bit with my roommate Sarah, and we went to Parc Guell, which was absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera so I didn't take any photos, but I will the next time I go there. It was designed by Gaudí, who is basically Barcelona's most-loved citizen as he has designed many of the buildings here and all of them are absolutely beautiful. Here is Casa Botlló, which is down the street from where I live:















This first week has been a whirlwind of activity what with getting everything together for school and sightseeing. I've been to La Boquería, the famous market of Barcelona, the Picasso Museum, walked down Las Ramblas countless times, and explored the campus of my new school, Universitat Pompeu Fabra. I'm just going to post this now and shorten my posts for the future, because this has been way long! And I feel like I'm rambling. Which I know I am. Sooooo, expect a post next week about my first week of classes!
Lots of love,
Kelsey