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