1 day....

So today is the big day. I leave in an hour to start my journey home. I will be leaving on a train to Madrid...arrive in Madrid late tonight and then go straight to the airport. At the airport I will wait and wait and wait...haha...Ya I will be there for awhile and then fly out mid morning! I'm stoked. It seems so surreal though. They say while studying abroad you learn things about yourself and about the world. I would definitely say that I have changed as a person for sure. I have experiences and people I have met and memories I have made that will stay with me for a life time. I know that I will miss so much about my time here. It is weird to think that I will be going home. I have looked forward to this day and thought of all the things I have missed in America but now that I am going there I dont know how to feel.

I have had a great time and look forward to what God has in store for my future! Hopefully another big adventure soon!

2 days.....

Not much to say today...I head out tomorrow evening for Madrid and then will chill at the airport and leave Saturday Morning! CRAZY! It has been a blast though...

Here is a small taste of what my last amount of time in Barcelona is looking like....

3 Days...

So this is really the end of the third day but it was a sad one. I said goodbye to a lot of great friends and really realized that I have been away from home for 3 1/2 months and really studied abroad....the concept seems so strange. Three more days and I will be back home and life will go on as normal and how it has since I have been gone. The evening ended with shopping with Marcela and Nora and getting last minute presents for people and then meeting Calvin, Allison, her sister and Lacey for dinner. We ate at a Lebanese Restaurant and had 3 bottles of Spanish wine. We laughed about all the great times we had had together. It was the perfect way to say goodbye but so sad! At least Nora and I have one more day together!

Interesting thing for today....
These are the little mail boxes. They are all over the place and you drop your letters off in the box. Nora has an obsession with these! haha! I just thought they were neat because they look so different!

4 Days...

Today was my last day of the semester. I took an International Business final and an Architecture of Barcelona final. I think I did really well and I found out that I passed my Spanish Class so that was exciting. All of grades are pass/fail here! Now I am just super tired and about to start the second half of my week. This half will be saying goodbye to everyone and packing and then the last two days are travel travel travel.

Interesting Thing for today....


The sign above is from a bar from right down the street. Here everyone goes to bars to watch the game. They get sooo crowded when there is an FC Barcelona game. Many people go an hour or so before the game just so they can get a good seat and at the game people yell and holler and cheer for their team like crazy!

5 days.....

Today was Spanish final. It was the longest final of my life. The first hour and a half we had to write two paragraphs and do two listening exercises. We then took a break and came back for another hour and a half and did grammar exercises and reading comprehension. The final was worth 70% of my grade! YA CRAZY! After my final I printed out my flight info for going home! AHHHHH! Came home ate lunch, took a shower and a nap. When I woke up was excited to see an email that God had given me the job I wanted really bad in the Spring. I am sooooo excited! So far the Spring semester looks like it is going to go very smoothly.

Well I am down to 5 days and its already 8:15 pm here...so im study study study for my business final tomorrow. I take that and Architecture and then am done for the semester! HOORAY!

The interesting thing for today...
This is the potty at my house. It was really weird getting used to because if you notice you pull a cord from the ceiling to flush it. When i first got here I looked everywhere for where to flush and when i looked up I saw the part is usually at the back at the ceiling a a cord next to it. haha! It's funny how somethings are sooo different here!

6 days....

Today I spent most of the day just chilling. I went to meet with friends at Starbucks around 4pm and we studied for a good three hours! Then I saw Ronnie from home because his band is here playing in Barcelona! It was good to see him! We just walked around and talked for a little while! It was my last Sunday in Europe and I am bout to start a week full of lasts...last day of school...last dinner with my family...last shopping with friends...last last last...

Interesting thing for today...
All of the pharmacies in Europe I think but for sure in Spain are marked with a little green cross outside the door that is lit at night. You can see the pharmacy from far away. This is not like WalGreens at all though because they only have meds here. They barely carry anything else...maybe occasionally shampoo but you are expected to go else where to get items like that!

7 Days....

Today was another study study study day,....the big Spanish test is now only 2 days away! Ahhh...a little scary.

The interesting thing for today is...


These are pictures of the street signs. Its amazing how small they are. They are also positioned on corner of the streets and are almost impossible to see. The first couple days here I was so confused because I could not figure out where the street signs were and how to get where I was going. I do not know how a person can tell if they are driving in a car and I am sure this has caused many car accidents. If you look at the last picture, the little white square is the street sign and I am standing across the street...So imagine being at the intersection! It's CRAZY! This is one thing that I learned very quickly here. You have to memorize where you are going because its nearly impossible to follow street signs!

8 days...

Today was a pretty lazy day. This weekend is supposed to be all study study study. I ended up staying up pretty late watching a movie and slept in today. I then had to run some errands and go pick up a new mic for Skype because mine decided it didn't want to work my last week here! BOO! haha! But now I am sitting down to try and starting working on my work for finals next week. I have an extra credit project I need to write up.

But the interesting fact for today is....
So this is what I was talking about that my teacher told us about yesterday. It is a log that "appears" on the doorstep of Catalan children around this time every year before Christmas. The children are told that the log is alive and have to leave food out for it every day. Then when the children arent around the parents eat the food and leave parts to make it look like the log ate the food. Christmas morning comes and the children hit the log with a stick and sing a Christmas song. They then lift the blanket but nothing is under it. The parents have the children go in the other room and pray and put presents under the blanket to make it look like the log pooped the presents out. The child comes back and hits the log and sings the song and there are presents. They do this a few times and when all the presents are gone the behind the log is a black candy that looks like coal and it means that is everything.

My teacher explained that he thought they did this because it originated in farm lands and it taught Children about feeding the animal (leaving food for the log), killing the animal (beating it with a stick) and then eating and using the rewards that the animal produced (the candy and presents). KINDA WEIRD IF YA ASK ME! hahaha! But there is a Spanish/ Catalan tradition for you!

for more info :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ti%C3%B3_de_Nadal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dB_N7-HXTlI

9 Days....

Today I woke up and went to class. In my business class I had a review for the final and then had my last Barcelona Architecture class. It was crazy. My architecture professor, Toni, yes they make you call them by there first name told us about a Catalan Christmas tradition that i plan to talk about later. I then came home and chatted with friends, took a nap and talked to people back home!!!


Today's Spanish info is...


They have these recycling bends on every street. It is kind of crazy but residents are expected to go downstairs and sort their trash in the different bends. I think it is a good concept though and then they come...the different recycling trucks...and pick up everything in their colored been. I saw a truck picking up all the glass before...you should have heard when it all fell into the back of the truck. It was a loud crashing noise. In my house abuela is encharge of taking all of the recycled items down to the street.

10 Days Left

So today I had my first final. I had to talk about myself, a photo (which happened to be of Max)
and have a conversation with another girl IN SPANISH! It was crazy insane! I think we did pretty well though, from what I heard she was pretty nice to us. I then walked back home got here and went to sleep for three hours. Apparently im on a strange sleeping schedule that is in between Spain time and USA time. I watched some tv, read some of my book and just chilled. I have another early morning of class tomorrow.
I have decided to every day talk about something new I saw while I was here that I found a bit strange, frustrating or interesting.

TODAY'S IS....
Spain has this bicycle company that allows you to rent bikes for the year. You take them off the designated place and can have them for a total of thirty minutes at a time. This is interesting to me and pretty cool. The stands where the bikes are are all over the city. It is cool because having a bike you take the chance of it getting stolen and with this company you can always have access to a bike but not have to worry about it getting stolen!

The Coutdown Begins tomorrow!

SO tomorrow I will start my coming home countdown because i will be at 10days till I'm there. I am sooo excited. Today I had a lazy day and met friends to study! My life will basically be study study study...pack pack pack...and travel travel travel for the next 10 days! Then i will have my mom and dad, sisters, incredible boyfriend, grandma and Brooklyn all waiting at the airport for me! Wow...only 10 days...Maybe I will try to 10 things I have not done yet...something for each day left...You will just have to wait and see. But Christmas shopping is finished and I have all kinds of goodies to bring home to friends and family. And side note im ready to be back in the US of A where people dont smoke in your face the entire time you are walking down the street! That would be nice...I feel like im getting the black lung...But you think I can take some of the pretty Christmas street decorations with me???

Adios from Barcelona!

Another weekend has flown by...

This weekend seemed to fly by. It has been a weekend full of holidays so doesn't officially end until Wednesday but I have a midterm Wednesday so that means i have to study! BOO! Well Friday I chilled at my house because I had a interview at 4pm. I spoke with the woman and then Alfonso and I went grocery shopping for food so that I could cook an American meal. While walking there we saw all the Christmas lights were finally lit up and decided to walk around. It was so pretty. I then made pancakes for my family with maple syrup. They loved them. They had never had maple syrup before.
On Saturday I went with Nora and went shopping for family and friends and to a flea market. It was a cool little market and we found a ton of great gifts at great deals. We also went to the famous Christmas shops around Sagrada Famila. The shops had decorations and all kinds of candy nuts and crepes. Spain also has these little logs that people buy and put presents in. The log has a face on it and then at christmas they use the nose and the presents go out the backside of the log. Kinda weird if you ask me.
On Sunday we went wondering around again. This time we made it to a museum since it was free museum day. The museum was the best pictures in world newspapers in 2009. It was really awesome...apparently it travels the world and just happens to be in Barcelona right now. It was awesome to see since I am a journalism major and everything.
On monday, today, I went to study with my friends at this cool funky cafe. We ordered coffee and tea and tried to stay focused on Spanish. We are supposed to meet up again tomorrow. It was nice to see everyone and just chill. We all were shocked that we leave next week and bummed that the majority of our time left will be lots and lots of studying. I finished my Christmas shopping as well today. HOORAY! I got Max something pretty cool and now am completely finished. Then at night came home and made my family mashed potatoes, fried chicken and green beans. It was really yummy and tasted just like home.

This weekend has flown by and was a lot of fun. It is crazy to think that I only have a week and 3 days left. WEIRD! Well tomorrow I need to get a lot of studying done and go homework crazy! Finish strong...

Adios from Barcelona