Hello from Barcelona! It seems so strange to finally be saying this, but I am here at last! It has been definitely been a busy and interesting couple of days.

From the moment I took off at O'Hare my hands were shaking. The flight was fine, I slept for probably around 5 hours which is surprising considering my neck was aching in pain. When we arrived in Rome, the view from the plane was incredible...I would love to explore Rome but when we arrived it was raining and the 8 hours layover was now around 6 1/2 and I ended up sleeping in the Rome airport for around 4 hours. The flight to Barcelona was smooth, I got my baggage and made an embarrasing chase after a taxi cab, my first encounter with a Spanaird who spoke no English.

I made it to my hostel and lugged my bags up 6 flights of stairs (the elevator was broken). Thankfully I met up with another girl, Laura, from my group and we headed down one of the main streets of Barcelona to have dinner at a tapas bar. We ate some delicious food (patas bravas and tortilla) and wine and talked for awhile before getting to bed. I fell into a very easy sleep surprsingly although I had been sleeping almost the entire way here.

In the morning Laura and I ate breakfast and headed to our hotel to meet people from our group. We checked in and I ran into Mike, another friend, where he and I decidced to walk around Barcelona before orientation. It was really an amazing day, 55 degrees and sunny, the city was bustling. I can already tell that I will love living here, although it is enormous, probably twice the size of Chicago.

Everyone was out shopping because in Spain, their Christmas presents are given on January 6th (the 3 Kings day). Mike and I didn't get to many stores, we mostly wanted to visit the city. We wandered some of the narrow streets and walked all the way to the Sea. We only got to the very edge of the water, but from what I saw, it was completely gorgeous. Too many boats to count and the view of the city was unreal. The architecture of the gothic city is so detailed and old.

We walked back and had lunch followed by an orientation where we are assigned "guardian angels," spanish students that help us and also attend our univeristy. After orientation we had dinner and got to talk to sit with one of the guardian angels (not mine), that answered a bunch of our questions and was very helpful.

Some of us headed up to Mike's hotel room after dinner to chat for awhile before bed. It was nice to get to know some of the people in the group and just relax for a little while after the long day.

Tomorrow is very busy. We have more orientation, some placement testing for our Spanish class, walking tours of the city, celebration for the 3 kings day and I actually meet my host family tomorrow. I am a little nervous because my Spanish is still so poor, but I hope that I get the courage to try even if I am horrible.

I will try to update more, but I hope this is enough for now. I love and miss you all! I hope you are well

Love,

Amyx, Amanda, Mandy