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