Merci, no, Thank you, no GRACIAS!

Hello again! Now to continue with the story of my weekend to Barcelona....which by the way, maybe it is my naive/illeducated American self again, but I did not know there was a King of Spain still....

After getting situated in our hostel, we met up with the rest of the girls and wandered around for a bit. We walked down La Rambla through shops and street vendors. We watched the street performers and saw things we wanted to do later on. A couple of the girls that were with us decided to go out with their hostel so we decided to join them. Since our hostel wasn't really a "hostel" it sounded like a good way to meet people. It was 18e to do all sorts of things so we rendez-vous'd around 8:30 at their hostel Gothic Point. 2 British guys and 2 Australian girls joined us. We eventually met up with a large group of Irish guys and British med students who were being hazed into their program. All together there were quite a few of us and we had an awesome night.

We started out with "tapas." I put the quotes because they were not REAL tapas, but they were fine nonetheless. We met several Irish and British people and then walked with the large group to a flamenco show. That was incredible. Taylor, you would have loved it! The Spanish guitar players were amazing and the flamenco dancing was fun. After that we went to a bar called Citadines and had champagne and danced a wee bit and then continued our dancing at Catwalk, a club down on the beach. Considering cover to Catwalk alone was 20e, we did pretty darn good for a night of fun!

The things to keep in mind while in Barcelona is that they go out and STAY out. We got home around 4am. We had also been awake since 7am because of classes and there were still people walking into the club!

Saturday was quite fun as well. We got a bus tour ticket and wandered around the city with that. Saw a lot of great sites and managed to go to places we had gone to the night before. We had a late lunch of Paella (pictured below) and seafood ravioli, which was incredible! After a quick nap, some shopping on La Boqueria, an incredible market full of colors, foods, and all sorts of goodies, we got ready to meet up with my friend David who was visiting Barcelona that weekend as well. His hostel was also going to a club called The Roxy and we joined them. We had a blast! Needless to say, we did not get much sleep all weekend but it was so much fun.

I love the hostel experience (via friends) because you do meet certain people and if you go out with your hostel, you can do a lot of stuff for free! The cover charge to Roxy was about 15-20e and we got in for free! Very economically friendly.

Sunday we got up early...believe it or not, and managed the other half of the bus tour that led us all over the city. This included Gaudi architecture, gothic cathedrals, olympic areas, sports arenas, the palace, the MAC, and many others.

Olympic stadium for 1992....
Christopher Columbus
Flamenco dancing....hopefully video to be posted soon...
La Rambla
Plaza Catalunya
Gaudi architecture
Gaudi's cathedral, which even after 100 years is still not finished. You really have to see it to believe it...it is incredible.
and the MAC --> Museum of Contemporary Art.
The thing a lot of us didn't realize was how hard it is to get around a city you have no idea what the language is. We were all pretty prepared for France and that seems quite easy, but having taken spanish in 3rd grade and knowing two or three phrases is very difficult! It didn't help thatI said "Merci" after everything rather than "gracias." I'm going to come home to Oregon and say "Merci" all the time!!

Overall the trip was a success and going "home" to Cannes, France was a thought beyond comprehension for most of us. Still hasn't clicked that this is my "home" for four months. It is incredible and just waking up and looking out my window has made me greatful for every moment of it.