Procrastination: it happens in Spain too

Hey all!

I'm taking a break from the project I'm working on to update this thing, and I thought it was time for some pictures!

The Magic Fountain - on weekend nights it has a whole show with music and lights and choreographed water - it's really neat!

The Magic Fountain again

We took a daytrip last week to Figuries, the town where Salvador Dali was born and where the museum that he designed for his artwork is located. After that we headed to Empuries, another small town near here that has some cool Greek and Roman ruins and a nice beach. Here are a few pictures from that!

Ok, so Dalis has some crazy stuff, but he's also got some REALLY cool stuff. Like this painting... what do you see when you look at it? Probably the same thing I saw - a naked woman walking through a doorway or something

now... here's what I saw when i held up my camera to take a picture of it...

Anyone else see Abe Lincoln? I was totally impressed :) And it was really cool because I definitely did a double take - I looked at my camera and saw Abe, then I looked back at the real thing and saw the lady again - I was so confused! It was a really cool effect... kudos to Dali :)

Yet another pretty beach in Spain - oh, and Greek ruins in the foreground (the Roman extension of the city is behind me)

Paddleboats with slides... need I say more?!

Brittany, Rachel, and Genevieve (roommates!) in the kitchen the night we all cooked and ate together.
Arc de Triumf (Catalan) or el Arco de Triumfo (Spanish) - either way, I walk by it every day on the way to school and it's very useful for finding our way home!

Our whole program went to San Sebastian this past weekend and it was wonderful!! It's a small beach town on the northern coast of Spain, pretty near France. We actually saw a highway sign on the way there that said "Paris 8__ km" it was cool! I really liked the town of San Sebastian, and I had an AWESOME time there - I spent 5 hours on the beach again, this time going back and forth between playing frisbee in the sand and then swimming for a bit, then frisbee some more, and then cool down in the ocean. It was GREAT! I'm a little sore from running in the sand so much, but it was totally worth it! I was in heaven. Anyways, here's some pictures from San Sebastian!

Look what we found on the beach - WHOOOOOOP!! (The aTm, I mean... not AJ.)

AJ, me and Gerry are all Aggies... WHOOOOOP!!!

Sunset in San Sebastian

Alright, that's it for now... back to my project :)

Un dia en la playa

Well today was just about as great as it gets. My roommate and a friend and I decided to go to the beach today, and ended up stayin there for over 5 hours. It was amazing!! We laid out for a bit, then got in the water (which felt GREAT!). The waves were huge, so it was really fun, jumping with them and diving under them and trying not to get a mouth full of water :) Haha. After a bit we walked down the beach a bit and got some lunch, then headed back to the sand for more laying/swimming/siesta-ing. It was incredible!


This is a map of my part of Barcelona - see my apartment, and see how close the beach is? It's like a 20, maybe 30 minute walk from my door to the water. Can you blame a girl for skipping class to experience all that this city has to offer? Haha. It is summer after all!

Oh, and to whoever it may interest, I've got some pretty ridiculous tan lines. My watch, ring, and flipflops have all left their marks, not to mention how badly my swimsuit tanlines clash with my dresses. But I'd take this over being pale!!

One funny thing about the beaches here - there are people walking up and down the whole time with little coolers trying to sell you water or beer or pop or whatever you will buy, and they just walk by advertising what they have and it turns into a song: "colaaaaa, fantaaaa, aguaaaaa, cerveza beer" at one point i was laying there and it was like a song being sung in a round in stereo - essentially the same song at different points being sung by multiple vendors in all directions - a little bit irritating, but if you're on the beach and in one of those moods where nothing can take away your smile, it's rather amusing.

Ah, this is the life.

This is not America

Hello all!!!
How are things? Things are surprisingly boring here... I'm enjoying Barcelona, even though it's SO different from Sevilla. In Sevilla I traveled every weekend and here I'm not traveling at all until I go to San Sebastian next weekend with the rest of my program. It's nice to just relax - it's the first opportunity I've had to have a relaxing summer, so I'm taking this opportunity to refresh myself for my whirlwind August and the school year that follows.
The past couple of days a strange thing has happened to me... I've been craving America! It's been 8 weeks since I first arrived here in Spain, and this is the first time that I've really been really wanting some America - unlimited free refills with ice and a nice big free glass of water to go with, menus with a language i know and food i recognize, our definition of good customer service, jeans/tshirts/flipflops/ponytails (oh how i miss tshirts!), people fully clothed at the beach, public bathrooms with toilet paper, driving my car, my money actually being worth something (no more of the 1.40 exchange rate!), people NOT having mullets, guys having nothing to do with glitter and capris, watching movies, ranch dressing, functional doorknobs... oh and SO many more things. I miss America! I've missed these things the whole time I've been here, but just the past couple of days it's been really irking me, and I've been WANTING this stuff really badly. So last night we went to Hard Rock Cafe where everyone speaks English, and I got a really really good salad and ate some of my friends' fries with unlimited ketchup. They had pop with free refills, and LIMES for the first time. It sounds small, but it was really nice. :)
I hope yall are enjoying America - know that I miss you all - my friends and family are at the top of my "things in America that I miss" list.

Barcelona, anyone?

First of all... HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, I suppose it's about time I let yall know what's up with Barcelona, eh? :)

I got here last Friday and met my roommates - they're really neat! Our program took us on a bus tour of the city (but I forgot my camera, so no pictures yet... oops!) and it was a great way to start off the month here. We went on a bike tour of the city last night, too, so I've pretty much gotten to see the whole thing! Architecturally, Barcelona is incredible. Gaudi's masterpieces are all here, not to mention amazing designs by other people - it provides for a really cool-lookin city, and awesome things to see around every corner. Also, the city has changed a lot in my lifetime because SO much was done to get it ready for the Olympics here in 1992. Areas that were previously totally undesirable are now major real estate areas, and thanks to the cleaning up of the beaches, Barcelona is a beach town! Overall, the city is MUCH different and much nicer than it was 20 or 30 years ago.

We got our apartment on Sunday, and it is INCREDIBLE! It's really nice, with its hardwood floors, huge balcony, washing machine & dishwasher (!!!) etc. We like it! It's in a good location, too - we're about a 15 or 20 minute walk from Port Olympia & the beach in one direction and the big shopping/restaurant area in the other direction. I'm still trying to adjust to Barcelona being such a big city - I'm not used to living in anything bigger than Lenexa or College Station - it's weird. But I'm a whiz at the metro now which helps a lot, because you can get anywhere in the city pretty quickly. Yay for metro!

I suppose that's it for now. Spain has sales in the stores once per year, and it's from July 1st to August 31st, so I plan to take advantage of that later on today, and maybe hit up the beach for a bit. You're welcome to join me! :)

Sevilla in review - pictures!

They're terribly out of order. Do forgive me.

Janine and I in Lagos

Roomies, on the bike thing. I can't remember what it's called! Oh well it was awesome. It even had a bell.

Ruchi and I in Nerja

Emily and Rachel at the park in our apartment complex

Avenida de Kansas City!

Carmen! And me, Rachel, and Emily

My Spanish class! Brooke, Kelly, Jesus, me, and Lisa. Aka Jesus y sus chicas americanas feas (Jesus and his ugly American girls!)

Aggies! Do you see the A&M pennant on the cieling behind us? Yeah, we were excited.

Emily and I trying to be as cool as the dancing statue. (At the Real Alcazar, a very old Moorish-style palace in Sevilla, where the King and Queen actually stay when they come to town)

Cadiz

Katie and Emily at the little cafe down the street from our school. This is where my Spanish class went every day for cafe con leche, and the bakery in the background kept us all full of spanish pastries and fresh bread.

Granada, with some of the band members from the Corpus Cristi procession

ROOMIES! With our oh-so-appreciated bus passes!

Carmen Cookin: Paella, salad, and bread!

Spanish dryer :)

Our friends! (except the guy in front on the left. We don't actually know him, we just couldn't get him out of our picture.) They're actually from Morocco, but have lived in Sevilla for a few years. They taught us how to salsa and such - it was awesome!

The Guadalquivir River, the oldest bridge in Sevilla: el Puente de Triana (also the one that leads to my apartment!), as well as the Torre del Oro. Isn't my city lovely?! Oh, and notice the timestamp says 10:23, and the sun is just setting.

The Plaza de Espana

Emily, Janine, and Roni standing on the "sidewalk" so a car could go by in Carmona.



That's it. I miss Sevilla! But Barcelona is great so far (as I knew it would be!). Can you believe I'm now over halfway done with my summer abroad? Wow! It seems like so much has happened, but it's gone so fast. I can't believe it!!

Love yall.

What, already?!

**I wrote this post on Friday, the 29th, but couldn't post it... so pretend that's when i actually did**

Well it's been ages since I’ve written on here – SO sorry! It’s been busy though. So much has happened!!! Our whole program went to Lagos, Portugal – it was incredible!! I have never seen a more beautiful beach in my life – cliffs and rocks everywhere, as well as beautifully clear blue water – truly amazing! We had a blast!!A lagoon in Lagos that we both swam in and then took a boat to.
The beach we were on in Lagos

When we got back, it was time for our last week in Sevilla, hence why I haven’t written – I was too busy trying to soak in every little bit of Sevilla and Andalucia before it was time to head north to Barcelona! The last week was great – we went to Isla Mágica, the amusement park in town, which was really cute. Finals were good, and it was the first time since probably elementary school when I was legitimately sad to say goodbye to my teachers! However, I have their email addresses, and I intend to stay in touch with both of them. My culture teacher will be an INCREDIBLE resource for me this fall as I’m researching for and writing my senior thesis, and she’s ready to help me out in any way she can! Jesús, my spanish teacher, I will keep in touch with, too. He is such an awesome teacher and I learned SO much from him this month. Plus, talk about connections!! Last night was our farewell dinner which was definitely bittersweet. We had a great time, but it was our last time. Afterwards we all went out, Jesús included! We had a blast. Things are so different here than in the states! We ran into one of Jesús’s other students at the bar we were all at, except this guy was a Spanish-speaker learning English. I was explaining to him the major boundaries observed between students and teachers in the states, and to him it just seemed ridiculous that it would be so taboo for a teacher to hang out with their students like that. The culture certainly is very different here.

I have to brag just for a minute, but only because I’m so proud of myself! My Spanish has come SO far!! Last night at dinner I was sitting next to Stephen the program director, his father in law (no english), one of the Spanish teachers, and then a couple of girls from the program. I was switching back and forth between Spanish and English like it was no problem!! Also, I talked on the phone yesterday with three different Spanish-speakers, which is very difficult because you can’t see their mouth or gestures or anything, but I have gotten to the point where I can do that. It’s so exciting! I LOVE IT!!

So, after a great last week, I packed up my bags today to head to Barcelona. I said an admittedly slightly tearful goodbye to Rachel and Emily, Carmen (my senora), my apartment, and finally Sevilla. It was sad! But here I am in Barcelona, ready to dive into this program and do it all over again.

That's it. More on Barcelona later!