¿Qué Tal todos?

Pues, I had an amazing weekend over the 4th. I am still a little sad that I missed everyone coming home over the 4th but I won´t have changed the fact that I got to spend it in Barcelona. Also it was really nice that two groups of Spainards asked us if we were Americans and wished us happy 4th of July so that was pretty cool.

So I started my weekend early by skipping school on friday and taking the late 5 hour train ride to Barcelona. I took it all by myself and I was a little worried at first that I would miss my stop or fall asleep and just keep riding the train but all turned out well. I was picked up by Esteban, the professor I know from VSR who worked with us for a year and his son. They were both so nice and I owe him and his family so much! The two bags of chocolate I gave them were not enough.

They drove an hour to Barcelona to pick me up at 12 at night and then we didnt make it home until 3 because a U2 concert was just getting out of FCBarcelona stadium and the traffic was crazy and they both had to work in the morning. I felt terrible but really grateful at the same time.

His son, Joel, is 18 and lived in the U.S. for a year so he would speak to me in English and I would answer in Spanish. His english was way better than my Spanish tho. He was very nice and it was fun talking to him and hanging out with him and his friends for the weekend.

The next day I was able to sleep in for a little bit and then go for a run around their small town before I went to the hospital to meet everyone. I ran in the country side around there house through the farm land and huge hills. It was a nice refreshing run kinda reminding me of home...and reminding me that I really need to start running hills for the bix!

I met everyone at the hospital and got a tour of everything. I got to talk to the different doctors in the rehabilitation unit and we discussed a lot about the Spanish healthcare system and problems with it. It was really interesting and I learned a lot. Then they took me out to a really nice lunch where they paid for everything and ordered me the best food on the menu. I ate a really good goat cheese salad and duck...yum!

After that I went to the pool with Joel and his friends. The problem with his friends was that they all speak Catalan, a different dialect of Spanish. So that was hard for me to understand but Joel spoke Castilliano spanish around me and translated a lot of things into English so that was really nice. I had a good time hanging out with him and his friends and we ended up going to a concert friday night. At the concert I was def the novality with all of his friends. Those who were studying english came up to me to practice their english and I´m pretty sure I gave dos besos, how they greet new ppl, to just about the whole crowd. lol but it was a lot of fun. I told everyone that back at home the whole town of bellevue was at a dance right now but I was at one in Barcelona, Spain! For some reason there was a lone firework that went off and I said feliz 4 de Julio! everyone laughed but I was def the only one celebrating....lol

Anyway the next day we woke up early and esteban drove me into barcelona even though I could have taken some sort of train he wanted to drop me off right at my hostel´s front door and he took his younger son to the aquarium. So i said goodbye to them with promises to see them again soon when they hopefully visit Iowa again and walked in the lobby to the waiting arms of maggie.

It was sooo good to see Maggie! You forget how good it is to see a familiar face from home until you´ve been abroad for 4 weeks. It was wonderful meeting maggie´s friends and catching up with each other about our travels and experience, ups and downs of our trip, whats going on back and home and site seeing around Barcelona!

Barcelona was a beautiful city. I absolutly love la sagrada familia which is what we saw first. It is a church design by guadi that has been in the process of being built since around 1830. It was soooo cool even though it wasn´t finished. I got one of those audio tours to go with it so learning about it was amazing. Each design and stone has some sort of meaning behind it and it is completly dedicated to the life of christ, the saints, and so much more. there are depictions of the birth and death of Christ as well as dedication for each tower that is being built. I can´t wait until it is done in o say another 50 years and I can go back and see it....I better be alive when it is completed.

However seeing all of the works of Gaudi was really cool as well. And the port and main walkways of barcelona were recently redone for the olympics. However, another favorite thing of mine was the magic fountain. It reminded me of the las vegas fountains with the light show at night as it dances to the music but since it was set in the middle of barcelona spain there was no fakeness or cheesiness about it. So instead of fireworks on the fourth of July Maggie and I got to experience a beautiful light show that I will never forget...I was kinda fireworked out anyway....

All in all I´ve been deciding that I love Spain so much and I´m enjoying everything...I´m already looking forward to the next time that I can come back. I wish I could have everyone of you with me to experience this as well...I´m totally up for being the tour guide through Spain for our next European adventure family. And there is still so much more in Spain that I have yet to see.

Anyway i guess it is back to the real world and the 2000 word essay I need to write as well as 2 presentations before I leave in 2 weeks. It is crazy to think that I only have two weeks left here. I think I´ve decided instead of traveling somewhere next weekend I´m going to enjoy hanging out with the friends I´ve made here from America and Spain and enjoy the beaches and everything I love about Alicante....o and do all my homework...

Nos amo y espero que tuvieramos un feliz 4 de Julio