If you ever want to know one of the most frustrating things in the world, try writing a blog post for 45 minutes and then having it get deleted by the website.Here goes round 2 attempt…

So I left off talking about how I just had a sailing lesson on Thursday and was invited to come out again on Friday with Ricardo.My description of the sailing on Thursday was as perfect as it seems, it was truly wonderful.

So Friday sailing.On Friday after my Spanish class, I decided to walk around the Born neighborhood again (surprise surprise, my new love in life) with Arik, a guy in my program.We went to Pizza del Born and I got a delicious artichoke and black olive pizza (I love artichokes now) and also went to the Santa Cristina del Mar market, a beautiful building with a wavy, rainbow colored roof.On a side note, I love how many markets Barcelona has, there are so many and all of them are beautiful!All of this was simply to waste time until 3 o'clock for sailing!

I walked to Port Olimpico again and sat down to wait.I saw another man there waiting as well, but I did not speak to him.As chatty as I am, you would be surprised how much I shut up when I have to speak Spanish.I get very nervous about speaking and just feel embarrassed.Maybe also it's humility that I've learned, being American in a foreign country really does have it's prejudice.Anyway, Ricardo finally made it he, the man that was waiting near me, and I walked to the boat.On the walk, I learned that he was actually a reporter from Barcelona TV, one of the major channels in Barcelona.He was doing a segment on "team-building" for the news the next day and was accompanying us on the sail.He told me that in January, there was a huge storm that blew away many of the boats in the port as well as destroyed an entire section of shops that were along the water.This segment was to show the restoration that was done in Port Olimpico.I was very amused by this, and so I asked him (in Spanish of course) when the clip would be on tv.I got an extremely annoyed stare back and a response that I didn't understand.I didn't realize until a couple of minutes later that I might have said "when will I be on tv."American girl wanting to be on tv is what he probably thought.Lost in translation once again…

So I arrived to the 62 foot sailboat to meet Angel, the owner of the boat and also a Spanish man who has sailed around the world.So amazing.I also met 2 Aussies, Neal and Brenna.Meeting them was actually kind of funny because we spoke in Spanish at first until Ricardo told them that I spoke English and we began to chat in English.To be honest, I was a bit relieved to have some people that could speak English.I was afraid that I would be rather quite on the sail because of my fear of embarrassing myself when I speak Spanish, and it was nice that I at least had the option to speak English.Maybe I am copping out, but it's the truth.Also on board were 2 younger guys that I think were Spanish and 2 other Spanish guys that slept beneath deck the entire time.

And so with everyone on the boat, we set off onto the sea.It was a beautiful, sunny day, just as the day before had been.I didn't actually help too much on the boat, but watching the crewing was still cool (haha, how lazy does that sound).I even got to skipper a bit!Well, I was told basically what to do and it wasn't that difficult, but they all told me I was doing rather well J.I also learned how to read the compass and to know what direction we were headed.Apparantley we were in direction of Palma Mallorca, it would have been much cooler to actually go there of course.I just relaxed on the boat and chatted a lot with Neal, the middle-aged Aussie who moved to Barcelona after a vacation in '91.Brenna also had moved to Barcelona 7 years ago after a vacation.I'm beginning to understand the reasons why so many people move to Barcelona…

It began to get darker and so we headed back.We released the spinnaker, but the wind was being very fussy, so we ended up being forced to motorboat back in.While the spinnaker was out though, it was gorgeous.I don't think the reporter minded too much about getting in a bit faster, he had been quiet during the entire trip.Ricardo told me later that he thinks he was sea-sick.Woops…

So after we got back to port around 8:30, Neal, Brenna, and Ricardo asked me if I'd like to get pizza with them and their friends.I of course said yes and so we made our way.Unfortunately, I was the only one of the bunch to not have a bike (so annoying!!) so I ended up riding on the handlebars of a bike in the streets of Barcelona!It was so much fun, I've never rode on handlebars before.To be doing this in downtown Barcelona was really a thrill!I made it to the Arc d'Triomf in one piece and we met up with about 10 of their friends.It was so interesting to meet these people!All ranges of age and ethnicity, with me being the baby of the group (20 years).

After pizza, we headed to a bar called Can Luis.I will talk a little about this bar because it was fascinating.There was live music, but it appeared to me as though people would randomly just join in.almost as if musicians just simply knew about the bar, would come with their instrument and start playing along with the music.There was a piano, 2 acoustic guitars, a flute, clarinet, and a guy with a cymble tapped to a wooden chair playing a make-shift drum set.There was also a man who had a really great voice, and so I just sat there for a couple of hours staring at them all.It was wonderful, a small venue with all locals.How refreshing…

I was suppose to meet up with some friends at a club, and so I said my good-byes to my new friends.They told me to come back and sail with them, they sail every Friday at 3.I couldn't believe that I was invited back again, but also that I have the opportunity now to sail every Friday that I am in Barcelona. I am very lucky.

I met up with my friends at the club, but did not stay long as I had to get up early the next day.

Saturday morning I met Eva at the train station.If you remember, Eva is the Spanish girl that I am doing my intercambio with.Her and her friend, Marina, met me and we took an hour train ride to Pineda del Mar, a beach town about 10 min from Eva's home.We chatted the whole way, and I got to practice my Spanish a lot!Both girls had just finished with 3 hours of English class and were a little sick of speaking in English (luckily for me I guess!).We made it to Pineda del Mar and walked along the sea for a bit.Eva told me some really interesting things about the city.For example, a lot of American movies are filmed there such as High School Musical, Dawson's Creek, and all of the American Pie movies.Claudia Schiffer owns a home there and the famous staircase scene in Titanic (with the clock) is filmed in a hotel there.We attempted to try and sneak in the hotel to see it, but there were a lot of hotel staff in the way.Kind of cool to see!!It was actually kind of ghost town, but I didn't mind too much.You could tell it was very touristy and since it's the off season, there wasn't much to do.

After that, Eva's boyfriend picked us up and we drove the few minutes to her home in the mountains.Her house was gorgeous, set right in the mountains with a beautiful view of the sea.We sat with her mother and had merienda (Spanish midday snack).I of course ate 2 donuts and some cookies while everyone else had a nibble of a cookie…woops.It was nice to chat with all of them, they were so welcoming and kind.Stupid me forgot that I had to be back in Barcelona for a futbol game, so I said goodbye to Eva a bit early and headed back on the train.

That night, I met my friends at Camp Nou (the futbol stadium) for a big Futbol Club Barcelona game against Espanyol.Espanyol is the other futbol club in Barcleona, but the one that is not as popular or the one that has more money or good players.Basically an underdog in any way.In fact, the entire first half was Espanyol feining injuries to waste time so that the inevitable defeat would be less brutal.Funny enough, FCB actually lost this game!!Everyone was so surprised, and although I do like FCB, a Barcelona win either way is good enough for me.

I went to sleep early again that night and got up early Sunday morning to go to Sitges for a walking tour with the Voluntaire Linguistic.This was a really fun trip.I met my Finnish friend Katariina at the train stop and we headed to Sitges.Sitges is another beach town that is about an hour away on the train and this is where one of the world's biggest Carnaval festivals is held.When we got there, we met up with Gaby, Roberto and Carlotta.The tour was a Spanish woman and she took us to a beautiful home of a painter that was now turned into a museum.After the tour of the city, we went and sat on the beach and hada picnic.It was a beautiful day and the city was busy with people preparing for Carnaval.On our way out around 5pm, the children's Carnaval parade was just starting, and they were so adorable!the adult festival started later that night, but we wanted to make it home at some point so we ditched the crowds and went back to Barcelona.The perfect end to an incredible weekend J

Monday I did not do much except homework to prepare for my long weekend.Tuesday was Carnaval (aka Fat Tuesday) and all of my friends got dressed up in their costumes to head to Sitges.I was very sad that I could not go, but I knew that I would be exhausted the next day if I decided to go and I was to travel a lot on Wednesday.Also, my Spanish exam got switched to Wednesday morning, so I wanted to be coherent for that, without a recaso (good Spanish vocab word for you to look up!).

Wednesday after my classes, I headed on the bus to Reus, to go for my 4 day trip to Edinburgh, Scotland and London!Reus is one of the stupid airports that is about an hour out of Barcelona, but one of the only hubs for Ryanair (aka the most unreliable airline that ever existed).But what can you expect from an airline company that sometimes has flights for a penny?They can have flights so cheap because they fly into the most bizarre places where you must take a bus to get anywhere.I left Barcelona around 1:30 and didn't not make it into Edinburgh until about 9:30 that night.

I have to point out that my travels to Edinburgh and London were done completely by myself.As soon as I stepped off the plane and heard everyone around me speaking English, I grinned from ear to ear.What a relief!!I got to hear English as a native language!And also get the accent too!I made it to the city centre of Edinburgh without any clue where I was going, so I popped in one of the famous red telephone booths (I am a cheesy tourist) and called Ian.Ian is the boyfriend of Georgia, my friend from sailing at UW.I had never met him before, but we had messaged one another and he said he would be more than happy to host me while I was in Scotland.I was so happy that he agreed, otherwise I probably would not have made it to Scotland at all. Unfortunatley, it was at a bad time for Ian, he was at dinner for his friend's birthday and couldn't meet me at his flat.I told him it was more than alright for me to wait for him, and so I caught a cabbie toward the direction of his flat and walked around the high street nearby.His flatmate was going to come back in about an hour to let me in.So I got to explore right away!

I was starving, so I went into a restaurant that looked pretty cheap.On a side note, it's amazing how much people take advantage of eating out with people to join you.Eating out alone is something that I've really never done, but you have to really be comfortable with yourself I think to do so.Funnily enough, I was thinking of how stupid I must look eating alone, but ended up getting some unexpected "company."Within about a second of me saying "Cajun pizza please" to the cashier, I was being hit on.Being hit on by a guy with a Scottish accent isn't too bad though if you're wondering.He asked right away which part of the states I was from and how I was doing.After I responded "fine, you," he answered "a hundred times better since you walked in."So I was amused by him and the cook for the rest of my dinner, and also got recommended the Scottish drink of choice (besides any form of cider or beer) called Irn Br'd, a disgusting orange drink that is actually banned in the US because of the horrible things it does for your health.I ate my pizza and laughed at their ridiculousness before saying goodbye.They requested I come back before I leave and I lied saying I would.Memorable first Scottish encounter at least…

So I sat on the steps of Ian's flat and waited about 10 minutes until his flatmate, Gregor, and Gregor's cousin, Andrew came along.We introduced ourselves and went inside to their amazing flat.I'm not exaggerating when I say that this place was amazing.It was about a 10 miniute walk from downtown Edinburgh and was an antique apartment.High ceilings and bedrooms about the size of my apartment last year on State Street.When I asked to stay with Ian, I was expecting to sleep in the corner of a tiny apartment, but his 2 scandanavian flatmates were gone for the week and so I got to sleep in one of their huge beds.About 100 times better than any hostel.

Gregor and Andrew entertained me while we waited for Ian.We had really good conversation, I really enjoyed talking with them.Gregor is studying law at the University of Edinburgh and has lived in Edinburgh his whole life.Andrew was visiting from Manchester (his hometown) because he was getting a passport for Australia (he is moving there in April).I also was told that Andrew hadn't really visited Edinburgh properly before and that he would come with me while I wandered the city the next day.I had company for my site-seeing!They both were so sweet.I also gave them my thank you present, a tiny borron (the wine thing I was talking about from Calcotada).It was kind of funny watching them do it, they had never seen one before and it was kind of scary (very likely to spill everywhere!).Haha, it turned out to be a good idea on my part anyway.Gregor had class the next day (a bummer since most of his classmates had the week off, called 'reading week') so he had to get to bed a little early.Ian got back and I finally met him!Then he and I went to a club in Edinburgh called Opal.Gregor told me that Opal is a pretty posh club and that when Prince William goes there when he visits Edinburgh.I can only wish that he was actually there (sadly not).I got to meet a bunch of Ian's friends though who were really fun.We didn't stay too long though, I had a cider (magner's) and we left early.It was cool to see another club though in a different country.Scottish girls dress a lot nicer than Spanish girls.In Edinburgh, the whole "hardcore tortured rebel with a rat mullet" isn't too popular.Haha, maybe I'm being too harsh, but girls in Spain dress a lot tougher and badass, which I love, but not the hair so much.Mullets aren't for me, thanks.

The next morning, Andrew and I ate some breakfast and then headed out to see the city.Edinburgh is very small, so it was no problem walking everywhere.Thankfully my visit was during the off season and during the week, so it was pleasant and not very busy in the city.I must have talked Andrew's ear off and I feel a little bad for my antics.But I was so excited that I actually had someone with me and wouldn't be alone in my tour of Edinburgh and he was so easy to talk to.We both had a really good time though, and there was never a lull in conversation.

We first went to the Edinburgh castle.This castle is one of the only one's in the world that has never been breached and it was so cool to see how old everything was.There was a prisoners of war museum, a war museum, a war memorial, a church build in about 900, a cannon from 1024, a lot of artifacts, crown jewels, and a lot more.It was cool to walk around there and think that people once lived and walked there hundreds and hundreds of years ago.It was extremely cool and really historical.

After that, our plan was to just walk around and see if anything seemed interested to go inside.The wonderful thing about Edinburgh is that all of the buildings are old and impressive, and a lot of visiting the city is just simply walking around and taking it all in.We stopped inside of St. Giles Cathedral on the way.We also walked the Royal Mile and then attempted to find the Mosque Kitchen, a place to eat that Ian recommended and was also in my Let's Go travel guide.After wandering around, we finally found it, and I am forever grateful that we did!I swear this was the best meal I've had in about a month.The mosque is run by volunteers and all of the profits go to the mosque.It was around 4 quid (quid is slang for pounds, I'm really British now) for a whole bowl of rice and various curries.Ethnic food doesn't exist in Spain, so I got a bowl and some nan bread.Andrew and I were both impressed and happy to be spending not a lot of money!

After lunch, we walked a little more around the city and saw the University and St. George's school, a really cool grade school with beautiful gardens.I only wish that I saw Edinburgh when it was greener and the gardens were pretty.I heard though that it's rainy, and I didn't get any rain, so I can't ask for much more than that. We stoped on the way back at The Elephant House, a coffee shop in Edinburgh that claims to be the "birthplace of harry potter," because J.K. Rowling would write on scraps of paper in this coffee shop.So I can now say that I had a coffee where Harry Potter was born.We then headed back to the flat because Andrew was leaving in a couple of hours and I wanted to get a haircut, badly.I was not about to explain in Spanish how I wanted my hair to be cut and end up with a rat mullet or purple hair.So I said goodbye to Andrew (sad!) and went to find a salon.I found a nice looking one and got an appointment right away with the most interesting woman.She had also been everyone in the world, just picking up and leaving when she had enough money to get to the next place she was going.She was a hair-dresser in Dubai when she was 20 and even lived in Barcelona for 6 months scrapping barnacles from the bottom of the boats in the ports.I really enjoyed listening to her because she had interesting stories.I really admire people who live their life like that, just making enough money to get by and then moving to a new place to experience something different.She cut my hair beautifully and exactly the way I would have wanted, and so now I have bangs and less nappy hair J

That night, Ian and I went to the grocery store to make dinner.Both Ian and Gregor told me that I had to try haggis, a very Scottish food.I really won't tell you what haggis is because I do'tn want to think about it and it's kind of disgusting, but I decided I had to try it while I was there.So we got the haggis and some other food and headed back.An entire pint of Ben and Jerry's Half Baked ice cream (ok, I had to buy it, it was 3.5 quid as compared to 8 euros in Barcelona) and the haggis was ready!So we had chips (fries) and I tried my first bite of haggis.And it was actually really good!I think you would all like it, I only wish that it was sold other parts besides Scotland, but maybe that's all the more reason to go back to beautiful Edinburgh.

That night was pretty calm, Ian and I went over to his friend's house across the street for bit to hang out.Ian and his friend Robin are actually raising money for a charity called War Child by walking 500 miles from Edinburgh to London.Crazy!They had both already walked about 60 miles in 29 hours a couple of weeks before, so they were thinking they would be ready to do this as well.Definitley a cause I was happy to donate to!

So I went to bed early that night and got up early in the morning, left a note goodbye to the guys and decided to see a couple more sites around Edinburgh before I left.I ended up wandering to Mary King's Close, a really cool tour underneath the city.After the plague hit hard in Europe, Edinburgh was filled with the ill and dying.In the 1700's, they decided to literally build over the old city and practically bury the dead underground.It was so cool to go under there and see that there are distinct streets and apartments underneath.We had a tour guide who was dressed as a woman from that time and tried to speak as though she lived in that era.She described how all of the city sloped down, with the loch at the bottom.Twice a day people would empty their "toilet" into the streets by throwing it out of the window and having it drain into the loch at the bottom.Poorer people lived at the bottom near the loch.They also burned fish and animal fat for light.I guess it was said that most people smelled Edinburgh before they saw it.It's also said that some of the places down there are haunted, like the ghost of a child, Annie, who is said to be living in the room where her parents left her to die after she caught the plague and the rest of the family wanted to save themselves.It was so interesting to hear all the medival history and the stories also.It was kind of scary though because when I was in one of the rooms, I started to feel really faint and I actually started to sway.I must have been obviously not well, and the tour guide asked me if I was ok.I said I wasn't and I sat down for a bit and drank a bunch of water.It was so strange because I felt really dizzy like I was going to pass out.After I sat down for a minute, I felt fine though.I don't really believe it was ghosts or anything because I was feeling kind of exhausted, but it would be kind of cool to think that may have been the cause.Haha, I am a nerd.

Then it was time for me to leave.It was really sad to leave Edinburgh, it's so beautiful.I got on the bus and went to the airport to get to London again.From the far-away airport of Luton, I got another bus to downtown London, right to Victoria train station where I was met with chaos.Some of the Underground tube lines were closed and so it was really busy.But I somehow was still in a chipper mood and was happy that I was actually at the tube station!Kind of amazing how London has managed to make an icon out of a metro.The underground signs really are symbolic of London and it was cool to see them.I followed my directions to Annie's house, a girl that I met off of the couchsurfing website.If you don't know what couchsurfing is, I'm not going to tell you because you can look for yourself and I don't really want to explain myself.It's a really cool concept and it shrinks the world.It also gives me faith in humanity and makes me believe that there are more good people in this world than bad.

When I made it to Annie's flat on Clapham street ( a cool high street with a lot of shops and restaurants), I met my lovely host.Annie is an Australian girl on a working holiday in London.She was extremely sweet and we spent a little bit of time chatting before going to the grocery store to buy ingredients for enchiladas!We made our enchiladas and got to know one another.I also gave her a borron, and I think she found it funny as well.Shortly after dinner, we went with her boyfriend, and some friends of hers, one from Canada and a couple she knew.We tried to go to a cool cave bar, but the line was ridicluosly long so we walked along the Thames river to a cool bar beside it and near London Bridge.We sat and chatted for hours at this bar, and I really enjoyed myself.Annie was one of the sweetest people I have ever met and her friends were so nice also.

Annie and I just went to bed right away as I wanted to get up and explore and she wanted to go to a fitness class.She helped me so much by writing down an iternary and suggestions of what I should do in my short day in London.So we said goodbye for the day, and I started off with going to the Borough markets with myself for company.This is off the beaten path and it was a very cool market.I had one of the best coffee's I've ever tasted, fresh ground beans that were filtered straight into the cup in front of me.I walked around with my delicious brew and saw some pretty cool things.A 3 foot high mound of brownies, yummy smelling soup, tortes, olives, etc.This market was quite old and bustling as markets usually are.

I then caught the tube to Wellington Arch to meet for a New Europe tour.New Europe is an organization that has tours in major European cities for free.The guides work for tips only.So I went there and actually met 3 American girls that were studying abroad in Florence, Italy and were in London for their spring break.They also were really nice.Our tour guide on the other hand, was not.She was very annoying and sounded rehearsed.But she did have a lot of information to tell us and the tour covered basically everything.We went to Buckingham Palace and I saw the changing of the guards.We saw prince Charles, prince William and Prince Harry's home and heard some crazy stories about Buckingham.We walked to Trafalgar Square, saw the outside of the National Gallery, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament and Westminister Abbey.All of which were so impressive and can only really be expressed with words.

The tour ended and I was invited by the American girls to go on the London Eye with them, the world's largest ferris wheel (aka the Millenium Wheel).It was really cool, you could see all of London and it was fun to be up so high.After that, Annie called me and we decided to meet at the Tate Modern, a really famous modern art museum.I said goodbye to the girls and made my way.I got extremely lost though because 2 of the tube lines were closed, so I wandered around, stumbling into Covenant Gardens on the way.I actually really wish that I had more time there because it was not only beautiful, but the streets around that area were gorgeous.I think it was actually my favorite part of time, and I only basically sprinted through them to get to the museum.

Finally I made it there and Annie and I rushed through about 30 min of modern art before catching the tube back to her flat.Another couchsurfer was meeting up at her flat and she had to get there in time.So I went and picked up some thai food and met up with them.The other girl's name was Nicky, a girl, ironically, from Edinburgh.Nicky was in London for a linguistic conference.She wrote her thesis on endangered languages and this conference was about this.Nicky was so sweet, I felt close to her and Annie right when I met them both.The gave me so much advice and I could not have asked for better company.

That night, Annie had 2 birthday parties that she invited us to come along with.The first was at a bar nearby and we said hello to her Aussie friends that were also on working holiday in London.We got a big pitcher of delicious mojitos and enjoyed our time at the bar.We then said goodbye and headed to a club with some of her friends for the other birthday.This club was really cool and we stayed up late dancing.It was such a fun night out, I'm really glad Annie took us out.We hopped my first double-decker bus back to her flat and headed to bed.

We all woke up early because Nicky's train was early in the morning and had breakfast together.Annie let us try "tim-tam's" which are Australian chocolate wafer things that you drink with hot beverages and they melt in your mouth.Yum!I wouldn't touch the vegemite though…

We said goodbye to Nicky which was sad, I wish I had gotten to spend more time with her.And then I had to say goodbye to Annie which was sad as well.We talked about her maybe visiting me in the US if she ends up ever visiting, which I would be so happy to do.

So I got the tube to Victoria and bummed around outside for a bit before my bus took me to Luton airport again, back to Barcelona.I was happy to be back in Barcelona, but I actually was feeling quite sad on the bus and kind of teary too.London was so unbelievable.I really love it there and would love to live there sometime in my life as well.When I think about it, I think I am determined to live there.Barcelona warmth was missed, and Spanish was back again.

And that long post has been my last 2 weeks.It was a whirlwind of things, but it's been great.Monday marks the 2 month mark, halfway done, half left.It's scary to think that it's half gone, but I guess exciting to think that I still have half left.I've experienced so many great things so far and I'm excited for every day.I've made it a goal of mine to see one new thing in Barcelona a week, and I've been doing pretty well.This weekend I'm staying in Barcelona (yay!) and sailing again on Friday, going wine tasting with my program on Saturday and visiting the cellars of a town a little north of Barcelona with the Voluntaire Linguistic.I even think I might be playing tennis on Friday as well!

But I really have to get some sleep, this blog is far too long anyway.Love and miss you!

Besos,

Amyx, Amanda, Mandy