I realy should be doing homework, but I think adding another blog is sounding a little nicer at the moment...

So it's my second weekend in a row being in Barcelona and I really love it. The weather is getting so much warmer and this entire weekend was in the mid 60's and sunny. Without exaggeration, I'm falling in love with Barcelona more everyday and am so grateful for this experience...

Last week I had my midterms, so the entire week was pretty hectic for me. I didn't do much besides schoolwork until Friday afternoon. My friend Ali (not sure if I've mentioned her but she is the girl I've become closest with while I've been here) and I walked along the beach and just chatted until around 3 o'clock where we met Ricardo to sail! It was a nice day, so I was excited to sail and to bring Ali along as well. The boat was full this time! 15 of us, and almost no one on the boat that I had met from last time. Almost everyone was a new face. I think it was a little easier for Ali and I to just chichat on our own with the whole language barrier problem (frustrating!) but Angel was so nice as usual and invited us to come with them anytime. I also got to talk with Ricardo a bit and he invited me again to come on a 10 day sail from Barcelona to Gibralter, stopping in Cadiz, the Baleric Islands among other places. Of course I can't because of school, but how amazing would that be? I will probably regret never going later in life...

So after we sailed (Ali was a little happy to be on land, she got pretty seasick while we were out there), I decided to go to sleep early because we had a long day the following day. We went to a vineyard called Torres (I mentioned it once before) to see the wine makers of Catalunya. It was kind of a peculiar tour, we got into this tram thing that took us around the vineyard and this weird creepy tunnel where they told us the history of wine or something. I don' tkonw, it kind of was strange, but it was cool at least to see a vineyard, which i've never done before. i also bought a nice bottle of wine to bring back to the states so my family should be excited for that!

After we went to the vineyard, they took us to Sitges again for the beach. We grabbed a couple of bocadillos and cava (champagne) and went to sit on the beach for a couple of hours. The weather was so beautiful and sunny, and I am so happy that I have the opportunity to sit on the beach whenever I would like to. I can't really remember anything that we did very special here, except to just relax and soak up the sun.

Later that night, some friends and I decided to go to Dow Jones, an american bar. After that, we went to this club called City Hall, which was soooooo much fun, probably one of my favorite clubs here now. We met some guys from London there that were really funny and fun to dance with. Also, my friend Angela decided to call all of the guys that sell beer in the streets "guapos" and run away. I haven't mentioned this, but they have guys all over the place that have 6 packs of beer that they sell for 1 euro while you're walking to the club. I guess the point is that from a bar to a club there's a period of about 20 minutes where no drinking is involved and that doesn't fly, so instead you get harassed by sewer dudes trying to sell you beer. reaaaaaaaal cool.

anyway, on Sunday I was supposed to go see a place where they make cava, but i really didn't have time. i had a 10 page paper due the next day that i hadn't started, soooo i decided that i should make that my priority. I did get invited by Ricardo though to sit with him on the boat for awhile and chat until I had to get to the library. It was a beautiful day and I decided that I have had enough of the black winter wear and threw on a sundress. It was kind of funny though because i got about 20 spanish stinkeyes for wearing a sundress before May. All of the spaniards still had their scarves, boots and winter coats on in the 65 degree weather. one man actually did a 180 head turn just so that he could stare at me in disgust. hahahaha

so I visited with Ricardo a little bit and we just chatted and watched the boats come in and out of the port. He is so interesting and I'm really glad that I got to talk with him. It makes me a little frustrated that he too knows English way better than I know Spanish, so it becomes so easy to just fall back into speaking English with him. I think I've accepted the fact that Barcelona is not the place to be if I want to learn Spanish. I started getting a little sad about the prospect of heading to the library on a gorgeous day, but I finally had to say goodbye and make the trek to the UPF library.

I dished out the paper in a couple of hours and just called it a night. The week before my birthday is kind of a blur. I had a lot of things due and I just wanted to get everything done before my friends came into town and I had my birthday also to enjoy.

Thursday I did do something pretty awesome though. Arik and I went to play tennis! Luckily he has brough 3 tennis racquets with him to Barcelona and so we decided to check the courts out that he had researched online. This place was unreal. It was a little ways up Montjuic (one of the mountains in Barcelona) and had a view of the city from centre court. These courts were also clay courts, clay courts are famous in Spain. It was almost like we ewre playing in a little stadium, there were seats around and we even had a couple old men watch us for awhile too. It was so quiet and serene, and I had a great time (i haven't played tennis in at least 6 months!).

Finally Friday came, and Becky made it into Barcelona from Sevilla with her friend, Nolan. I had planned another Calcotada dinner because I had so much fun the first time. So I went to Spanish class and then right after we hopped the train to Mt. Tibidabo and started making the hike up the mountain. It was sunny and warm, and we were all pretty hungry and thirsty when we finally made it up the mountain to the restaurant. It was cool to take people who hadn't done it before to the Calcotada because it's such a fun experience and great views of the city. We ate, drank, and had a really fun time. I'm glad that that was one of my birthday celebrations :)

After the dinner, we went to the beach for a couple of hours. I went home with intentions of changing and showering and heading to a bar, but I think the entire mixture of Calcotada got the best of me and i decided to rest up for the next day, my birthday!

So I decided as a gift to myself, I would not set an alarm and just sleep. I can't remember the last time I just was able to sleep in, so it was really a treat. I woke up on my birthday to Pilar giving me a pair of earrings and a birthday cake! The cake was called, "brazo de gitano" which means "gypsy's arm" and was basically chocolate mousse wrapped in vanilla cake. It was really tastyand the earrings were beautiful. It was a really nice gesture on her part and it made me excited for the day :)

I met up with Becky, Nolan, Lisa, Katie and Angela to go to Parc Guell. Parc Guell is this amazing park that was built by Gaudi. Gaudi bought the area with the vision of making a community of the elite rich people of Barcelona to live. It is situatied in the mountain and is kind of like another world. Gaudi's idea was a little too wacky for the "elite rich" and so it didn't really work out too well. Instead, Barcelona bought the land from him and decided to preserve it because it is so beautiful. Now it is UNESCO world heritage site. The parc is basically weird buildings that are all designed with mosaic art. There are 2 big houses that look like gingerbread houses. This is kind of stupid too, but if you watch America's Next Top Model, the runway that the 2 finalists walked on in Barcelona is here. Kind of stuipd, but I watch that show so it was kind of interesting. You should realy look at pictures of it because it is gorgeous and hard to explain in words.

So after that, we decided to go to the beach again just to enjoy the wonderful day. we layed there for hours just chatting and drinking wine. After the beach, we got cleaned up and then went to this restaurant called "Paradeta" which is this really cool place in the Born neighborhood. I had never been there before but knew that i wanted to as soon as Katie and LIsa explained what it was. Basically there is a counter with raw seafood sitting on ice, some of which is still alive. You point to what you want and how much you want and they throw it in a bowl and send it to the cook. It was so amazingly delicious. I got calamari, tuna, huge shrimp, salad and bread. the tuna i had was the best tuna i've ever had in my life. it was a really good dinner, i definitely indulged on eating that weekend.

after that, we headed up to katie and lisa's apartment (convienetly right next door to the restaurant) and drank and chatted before the club. I got a nice surprise of a principe birthday "cake" when we got up to the apt. Principes are these oreo type cookies that are popular in spain. they stacked 2 principes and put a tealight candle on the top. it was really cute and i got to have happy birthday sung to me. i was so happy to be with some of my really good friends for my birthday (all of the people i am talking about go to madison and becky and katie are my roommates for next year).

anyway, we went to a club called otto zutz after and i had a great time. it is still really strange for me to think that i will be able to walk into any bar i would lke when i return to the US. i guess i can't really immagine it now because I can do that here, but it will definitely be less of a hassle now!

the next day, angela and i decided again that it was too nice to stay inside of the house and so we went to the beach again. we just sat and chatted for a long time and soaked up the sun. after the beach, i made some attemps to write my semester long paper for my class that ends tomorrow. i also have my final exam in the class tomorrow that i'm a little nervous about, but obvioulsy not too much as i am writing this post haha.

anyway, i have been freaking out a little bit about jobs so i emailed some friends and also looked on my career center. i applied for an internship in london and just sent a cover letter to them as well. i think working for that company would be amazing and i really hope that i at least get an interview for the position. i also got offered a job to work at alterra this summer by my old manager at starbucks who has an alterra store now. at least it is good to know that i have at least one job. i just really wish i could get an internship, but i am at least trying.

i am going to dublin this weekend with some friends and staying at a girls apartment who is studying there from madison. the weekend after i'm going to amsterdam and then spring break is the weekend after that. i also booked a flight to italy for the 25th of april and need to look into when i'm coming back to the states. i'll let you guys know as soon as i figure out this job business because if all goes well, by some miracle i'll actually get that internship in london and be able to stay here. but until then, i'm not sure.

miss you all a lot and love you too!

besos,

amyx, amanda, mandy