an assortment of things: 1/3/10

Saturday, January 9, 2010

A long walk

So I went on a long walk yesterday... I walked all day, until my calves hurt

A tiny latte..

even the sidewalks are beautiful!

This one is just for Robert:

this is my school:

this is right by my house, anyone recognize it?

Thursday, January 7, 2010

My apartment is nice and funky and my roommate and her boy are really sweet, she made us dinner/lunch and kind of oriented me on the map. After chatting a bit and getting to know each other I went to take a nap and they said they were going to go out to dinner so I stayed in bed, I was about turn the lights out to go to sleep when I decided to try and plug my 5 plug extension cord into the european converter thing so that I could put some christmas lights up, not thinking it was a big deal. Right when I plugged it in, it sparked and the lights in the whole flat went out!

So there I was alone with the lights out, I went to look for the fuse or something to fix it when I noticed that the door was unlocked, which wouldn't be a big deal except that my key doesn't lock the door from the inside, so I locked the door with the little chain thing and hoped that my roommate would get home soon so that I could be awake to let her in. But for now I was alone in the dark with the front door semi locked, and I couldn't go to bed until she got back... I waited and turned my computer on and realized that the internet was out with the power so I rested my eyes for a second and accidently fell asleep.

I don't know how long it had been but I woke up to lights on in the hallway and my roommate saying something about the door and I realized that I had failed my mission to stay awake. I apologized and told her what happened and she laughed and said it was no biggie and that we would fix my key tomorrow. phew...

This morning I woke up to a very dark room, naturally I thought it was probably pretty early but looked the clock and saw that it was 10:30! It was dark in the apartment and outside from the clouds and rain. But I had caught up on my sleep and felt so much better. I decided to walk around a bit maybe find my school even though I don't have to be there until 5. I took the metro and was surprised by how easy it is to understand. I made it to where I thought my school was and saw a building being remodeled... but that was the address they had given me. I had to ask someone and they told me it was just around the corner. Perfect I had found it. I walked around there a bit and realized I was definitely in an ancient city. It was amazing; the tiny streets and the alleys and how everyone was out walking even though it was rainy and cold, and the tiny cars, and the espresso bars everywhere, and how tall and open everything feels, and how everyone speaks Catalan, and how I can't seem to believe that I am actually here still.

day one part one

So that was quite a trip... LAX at 4 am was way more awake than I expected but we were there with enough time to get everything set and even got lucky when I checked my bags because one of them was definitley heavier than 50 lbs but the woman helping us was to busy talking about Spain to notice, haha she even gave my mom a security checkpoint pass so that she could wait with me at the gate!

Finally I get on the plane to Chicago and after a couple hours of napping I woke up and it was almost time to land. I bought a sandwhich at the airport even though I wasn't too hungry thinking the airplane food would probably be terrible and it would be a long flight without any food. I was about to hand my ticket over to board the plane and I hear my name called from the desk so the I go to the desk and the woman takes my ticket and says you are upgraded to business class, happy new year! haha I smiled and head over to the other entrance for first class and business! Wow I still can't believe how awesome flying business is, right as I sat down they handed me a glass of champagne! The seats were huge and super comfy, they even gave us a bag of toiletries, including a toothbrush and toothpaste and even socks and lotion. It was sweeet and to top it all off the food was awesome.

They started out with a smoked salmon salad appetizer and then gave us a choice between ravioli, chicken, and steak, I chose the ravioli, pretty tasty and then to top it all off they gave us tiramisu for dessert! I tired to sleep once they turned the lights down but I kept waking up when they would come around to refill our water glasses haha. To top it all off before landing they served a small breakfast of fruit and a croissant, it was like they had read my mind. Anyway I made it to Frankfurt at 6:30 am their time and I was definitly not in the US anymore, all I heard was people speaking German, French, or Spanish, I was almost to Spain!

The flight from Frankfurt to Barcelona felt the longest, I just wanted to get off an airplane. Finally an hour and 45 minutes later we had landed in Barcelona! It was sunny and chilly but beautiful.