When in Rome...

Well Last Tuedsay night we lost our soccer game 5-7, Lexie and I both scored though! It was a really close game and we almost pulled out a win, but just fell short. Tonight we will get the win!!

Thursday, February 17th: Wednesday and Thursday were pretty much just normal days at school. Went to class and came back home and relaxed a little and then Thursday night, I packed for Rome!!




Friday, February 18th: Today we left for Rome early in the morning. When we got to Rome, about 3:00 PM, we took a bus tour around the whole city. We were able to get out of the bus at the Vatican and we went inside St. Peter's Basilica. It was AMAZING, wow it was the most beautiful church I have ever seen. It was unreal, I could stay in there for a whole day and just look in amazement. Then we had to get going, drove around a little more and then we arrived back at our hotel. By this time we were all sooo hungry!! So, Lexie and a group of girls from our program and I got some gelato at this really cool gelato place and then went to dinner at this cute little restaurant. (yes, we had dessert before dinner! this is only because all of the gelato places would have been closed by the time we were done eating dinner and we just had to have some!) I had pasta carbonara, it was soo good!! After dinner we were all tired from such a long day of traveling, so we just headed back to our hotel and got a good nights rest.

Saturday, February 19th: We woke up early on Saturday morning,
ate breakfast at the hotel and then went on a tour with our program to the Colesseum. It was so interesting to see everything. As terrible as all the things are that happened in the Colesseum it was a really really cool place and learning about it all was so interesting. After our tour in the Colesseum we walked to the Forum and had a tour there as well.  Everything was so beautiful, interesting, and cool to see, but we were kind of being sick of being with such a large group that we were ready to split up and go do our own thing. Lexie, Hillary, Sammy, Kellie and I all went off together. We went to see the Sistine Chapel which was unbelieveable. Wow there was just soooo much to see. It was all so beautiful, but we were all a little overwhelmed with how much there was in there. After touring the Sistine Chapel we went to lunch at this cute little restaurant right near the Vatican. We sat outside in the sun, ate pizza, bread and we got a free dessert! :) It was so delicious, all the food is just so good!! After lunch we went to this store and I bought a long champ purse! :) Then, we took a cab to see the Trevi fountain. I threw three coins in, it was such a cool place! Then we walked to see the Spanish steps, the Pantheon, and through so many different, cute little streets of Rome. We were still sort of full from lunch so we just found a little place where we sat outside with a heater and had a little something to eat. I shared pesto pasta with Sammy, and some bread with tomatoes, it was amazing. We headed back to the hotel after to prepare for our big day ahead of us on Sunday!

Sunday, February 20th: Today we woke up, went to a little cafe for a coffee and a crossaint, and then headed to the Vatican. We went to mass at St. Peter's Basilica. It was such a great experience to be there, even though it was in a different language so we couldn't really understand it, it was still so amazing. After the mass was over we went outside into the plaza where we would see the Pope talk. There were so many people there, holding signs and awaiting to hear the Pope. After waiting for about ten minutes the Pope came out of his window. Wow, this was honestly just incredible. I saw THE POPE!! I never thought I would be able to say that. And not only was seeing him cool, he spoke in about 10 different languages, it was unbelievable. I have trouble speaking two, I can't believe that one man can speak so many different languages! After seeing one of the coolest things ever, we headed to a little place for lunch. I had some pasta again, I love this place!! It sure is a good thing I am not studying in Rome though, because I would literally gain 100 lbs. !! haha. We arrived juuust in time for our bus, nearly missed it, took the bus to the airport and then got on our flight to head back to Barcelona. Man, Rome was so amazing. All of the cites we saw, all of the food we ate, all just amazing! I can't wait to go back some day -- I did throw 3 coins in the Trevi Fountain! :) :)

 Hi theree :)

Tuesday night we won our soccer game! We won 3-2, Lexie and I each scored a goal, it was a lot of fun! We have another game tonight so hopefully we pull out another win!

On Thursday, February 10th, we gave oral presenations in my Spanish class. We each had to pick an article on any topic and talk about it. Mine was about a baby who was found in the water of a toilet in South Carolina, how sad :( Aside for the depressing article, the class was really fun because everyone had really interesting articles to present and then we discussed them. Personally, I think that this is such a great way to learn the language, just by discussing interesting topics with others. After class I met Lexie and her parents at Plaça Catalunya!!! It was so exciting to see them! We showed them around and took them to one of our favorite places to eat lunch. Unfortuantely after exploring I had to go to class again, but it wasn´t too bad. After class I met Lexie and Suzi back at our apartment and then we headed back to their apartment that they had for the weekend for dinner. Chris made a fantastic dinner for us! He made us some salad, chicken, and mashed potatoes, it was very very good! They were very nice and let me spend the night there :)

Friday, February 11th: Today we woke up and had some cereal, coffee, and toast and then headed out to explore some more! We walked by the port and ate lunch at a place right on the water. Lexie and I split some paella, chicken, calamari  and a salad. It was delicious! After lunch we walked by my school and Park Ciutadella (a park behind my school) and then headed back to their apartment. I ended up just going back to my apartment to go to bed early because I didn´t feel very well. I got a great night sleep though and felt much, much better the next day!

Saturday, February 12th: We went to Park Guell, a really beautiful park where Gaudi´s used to live. There was so much going on there, and there was so much to see. It was very, very fun!! After exploring the park for a little while we sat down and had some Sangria. In the plaza of the park there are a ton of people selling jewlery, scarves, souvenirs, etc. There are also people dancing for money, blowing huge bubbles, and all sorts of other stuff. It was very interesting! After this, we took the metro to the market by the Bales´ apartment, but it closed at 3, and it was 3:07, we juust missed it!! They wouldn´t even let us go to the bathroom, they are really serious about their siestas I guess! We made our way to Corte Ingles, which seems to never close, and we got a ton of food to make for dinner. Alex, Parker, and Danny (our roommates) came over to the Bales´ apartment for dinner. Chris made us some chicken wings!We also had some pico de gayo, guacamole, and some other tasty food. We ate on the roof of their apartment, it was such a great view, but it got chilly after a while, so we went back downstairs and just talked and had a great time! I ended up heading back to our apartment later that night, because I did not have any of my stuff to sleep over there.

Sunday, February13th:  Today there was a big festival going on in Plaça de Santa Jaume, so my roommates and I went to that. There was a parade with all of this huge statues, and then their was a competition where groups of people made human towers. It was sooo cool to see! They got up to 6 people high, it was amazing! Later that night we went back to Plaça de Santa Jaume to see another parade. At this parade, kids and adults would run around in costumes holding sticks with firecrackers on them that would spin around! It was soo cool, they looked like fireworks! In between each group of people, there were people playing the drums. It was quite the sight to see, even though I probably lost some of my hearing in my right ear from all of the firecrackers exploding! After the festival we headed back to our apartment and Mati had some pizza waiting for us :)

Monday, February 14th: HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTINA LEE :) :) VALENTINES DAY <3 <3 Today was really nice, because I didn´t have class in the morning, because we had intercambio (where we would talk in spanish to spanish students studying English) later on at night. Even though I did not have class, I woke up early and made my way to the gym for a good work out. After my workout I went back to my apartment, sat in the kitchen and ate some breakfast and did some vacation planning for my next few weeks!! I booked a flight for Granada for the last week in February to visit Jen, my friend for La Crosse!!! I am so excited to see her, Lexie, my friend from class (Jocie) and I are going to stay with Jen for a few days- it is going to be a blast!! I also booked a flight for the Canary Islands the first weekend in March. This is our long weekend, because we do not have class the next Monday, so we are going from Thursday until Tuesday. I am going with two girls named Sammy and Kellie from my program. I am very excited, can´t wait to be laying on the beach soaking up some sun! Along with those two excursions, we are going to Rome this weekend with our program! I can´t wait to eat lots and lots of pasta and pizza :) yuummmm!!!! So after all of this planning, I had class which went pretty well. Somehow I always get extremely tired everytime I have class! haha. After managing to stay awake throughout my entire class, I made my way to the Bales´ apartment for an early dinner. They invited me over for a nice Valentine´s day dinner! :) (they are too good to me!) We had some delicious pasta with chicken, a salad, garlic bread and some lemon drop soup! It was soo good! I then had to leave to go to intercambio. As bummed as I was to leave them, intercambio ended up being really really fun! I met two really nice, fun Spanish students, and we had some great conversations! After intercambio I headed back to my apartment and just relaxed for the rest of the night. It was a really great day :)

adios, te amo!! xoxo :)

GO PACK GOOO!!! :)

Man what an exciting week!!

Last week I started all of my other classes-Literatura Española Contemporánea, and Sociedad y Política en la España Contemporánea. For the most part I really like them so far, although I wish I didn´t have to go to school at all and I could just travel and explore :) lol. I feel like these classes will really help me to learn the language. Although classes started last week, we just kind of went of the syllabus and talked about the expectations and schedule of each class.

Friday, February 4th: Lexie, Parker, Danny, Alex (all of my roommates) and I took a train to Monserrat. Monserrat is a beautiful beautiful mountain about an hour away by train from Barcelona. We had soo much fun. Hiking up the mountain was quite the workout but was soo worth it. Once we got to the top of the mountain we were in the warm sun and overlooking a breathtaking view. It was suuuch a beautiful day!! After spending some time at the top of the mountain we made our way back down (which was wayy easier than going up! haha) we went and explored the Cathedral located on the mountain. That was also very very pretty. Lexie and I lit a candle for all of our family and friends- you all are in our thoughts and prayers :) After exploring a lot, we made our way back to Barcelona. We were very tired from such a long, fun day! After the train ride then metro ride back home we went to get a kebab from a place right by our apartment. Kebabs are SOOO good!! Finally we got home and just relaxed because we were all so tired and we had a day trip the next day with our program.

Saturday, February 5th: Today Lexie and I had to wake up early to meet with our group to go on our day trip to Calçotada. This is another mountain located about 2 hours away from Barcelona. We toured this monestary. It was really pretty and interesting at first, but it was sooo cold in the building that we all just wanted to get out in the warm sun! It got pretty boring after a while, so we were pretty excited when that was over! haha. We took a bus for about another half hour and arrived to this little town where we learned how to cook calçots and how to eat them. Calçots are an onion that grow on the mountain. They cooked the calçots right in front of us, it was really cool! We sat outside on the patio in the sun, it was an absolutley perfect day! To start our lunch off, we had some chips and other little snacks out on our table, then we got the calçots (which I did try, and surprisingly they were not that bad, I sort of liked them!-- you guys would all be so proud with all of the different foods I´m trying!!) After the calçots we were served some huuuuge pieces of bread with tomatoe (a typical catalan dish) and then a huge platter of different types of meat- I had what I would say was similar to an italian sausage, it was pretty good! After the meal we were given some oranges and some really yummy cream puffs for dessert! :) After our meal we took a walk up to this castle at the top of the mountain. It was very very modern and not too exciting, but it had a great view!








Sunday, February 6th: SUPER BOWL SUNDAY! (actually ended up being Monday our time by the time the game was on! haha.) Well Sunday morning Lex and I woke up early and went to church. Everyone at the church is so welcoming! There was a family from the US sitting in front of us who just moved to Spain. Their little girl was sooo cute, she was dancing to all of the music and was so smiley :) After church we headed toward the beach to get some lunch and to walk around. We saw so many cute little restaurants right by the water. We ended up eating at a chinese restaurant. We got the lunch special which included: a chinese salad, spring rolls, beef with mushrooms, almond chicken, and fried rice. Everything was reallly good but there was soo much food that we were able to talk almost half of it home to have for dinner! After walking along the beach and the piers we headed back home to get ready to go watch the super bowl! We went to a bar called Fahrenheit to watch the game. There were waaayyyy  more packer fans than steelers fans, it was very  very exciting! The game didn´t start until 12:45 our time though, so I was sooo tired towards the second half and could barely stay awake! buuuuut, it was SOO EXCITING THE PACKERS WON THE SUPER BOWL!! :) and not to mention, Aaron Rodgers got mvp, what a great outcome!! So proud to be from Wisconsin! :) Although it was cool to watch the game here, I wish I could have been back in Wisconsin watching it with all the real packer fans! It was still a lot of fun though, and a really cool experience to be a part of.

Monday, February 7th: All day I was soooooooooo tired, seeings how I didn´t get to bed until almost 5am, because that´s when the game ended. Class was pretty boring as well today. I came back home and napped until it was time for dinner, and then after dinner just relaxed and went to bed.

Tuesday, February 8th: Today Lexie and I woke up early and went to the gym and got in a good workout before class. I am just sitting in the library right now, got my homework done for tomorrow, and just found out that my second class for the day is cancelled :) Tonight we have our first intermural soccer game, I´m soooo excited to play! :)

Suzi and Chris Bales are coming to visit this week!! Soooo excited to see them, hope they have a safe flight here and can´t wait to show them around! :) :)

love you all! :)
xoxo