1/9- 1/12

Hello everybody! hope all is well back in the states!

woo wooo! Packers won!!! :)

On Sunday 1/9 we had to meet back at our hotel at 9:30 for an academic meeting. After the meeting there was a free salsa lesson. Lexie and I couldn't resist so we participated in this lesson! Of course I had to be the guy though because Ms. Bales is much shorter than me! haha. Here is a short video clip of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAaIEKrjrR0It. was a lot of fun, and we told them we were interested in possibly taking a class once or twice a week while we are here. After the lesson Lexie and I went shopping! Right now in Barcelona there are suuuch great shopping deals, it is almost like black Friday back home. They have what they call  'rebajas' going on right now. Basically, everything is like 30-50% off. We went into some really cool stores, some way out of our price range unfortunately lol. At this one store called Zara, I found some success, I bought 2 shirts and a belt. After shopping for quite some time, we grabbed some lunch at this pizzeria. The lunch deal they had was bread, salad, pizza, dessert and wine for 9 euro, it was a great deal and was really good! It was a ton of food though, Lexie and I had wanted to share a meal but they wouldn't let us, so we had a lot of left over food. After lunch we made our way back to our apartment and went to Corte Ingles, a huge department store to buy a pillow. On our walk back to our apartment from Corte Ingles (5 min walk) we wandered into a shoe store where I ended up buying a pair of boots. These rebajas need to end or I'm going to be broke! When we got back to our apartment we relaxed for a while until dinner. After dinner we got ready and made our way to the Irish pub we were at the other night to watch my Packer boys! There Lexie and I met a few new friends. I made a bet with this one guy that the Packers would win and since they did he had to buy me a drink :). It was so cool to be able to watch the game in a different country, although my favorite place to watch them is at home with my mom dad and sister- and max of course! So the packers won and it ended up being a really fun night! :)

On Monday, January 10th, I had to wake up at about 7:45 because I had orientation at my school, University of Pompeu Fabra. My school is about a 25 minute metro ride. This was my first metro ride along and it was successful, I made it to my school on time! The metro system is very cool and very easy to use! You have to be very careful  on the metro though, because that is where the most pick-pocketing occurs because it is a very crowded area. Don't worry though, I have been very aware of this and hold my bag in front of me so I can see it and feel it at all times. My orientation was really boring, but my school is really cool! After the orientation my friend Lily, a girl that is in the same program as me, walked all around the area of our school. Lily lives very close to the school so she showed me some pretty cool stuff! We walked through this absolutly beautiful park that had a huge castle surrounded by fountains, it was amazing. Then she took me to see this gym that she is probably joining, it was really cool- there was a pool on the room, pool inside with a hot tub, weight room, various exercise rooms, etc. I am still figuring out which gym would make most sense for me to join, living 25 min away from UPF. Enrique, our host dad told me about this one that is really close to our house (15 minutes walking distance). Then Lily and I, as we were searching for a metro to get on, saw this beautiful arch called Arc de Triomf. I didn't bring my camera that day, but Lily and I took some fun pictures on her camerea of the things we saw. We had to meet at the University of Autonoma, Lexie's school here, for yet another meeting. As the others were, this one was not very fun as well, but I guess the staff has to tell us this stuff and it is useful. We just want to explore though, not sit inside! After the meeting, Lexie and I were beat so we made our way back to our apartment. When we got back we took like a 3 hour nap and then woke up for dinner. Our new roomies had just gotten here for dinner time. They are very nice, they are from Chicago though :-/  (BOO BEARS! GO PACK GO!) haha. Their names are Alex, Danny, and Parker. We didn't end up going out because I had class at 8:00am the next morning. So we just hung out at our apartment and got a good nights rest.

beach with mountains in the backround, so beautiful

stickin our feet in the mediteranean, it was a little chilly!

1/11- Today I had to wake up at 6:45am to make it to class on time. Lexie came with me, not to class but to the area so we could hang out later. Class was terrible. It was Financial Economics II, which is odd that I am enrolled in that since I haven't taken I. The guy said if we took finance and an economics class before we would be fine, but I had no idea what was going on. By the way, this class was in English. I think I am dropping it though because I hate it and it will not count towards my Finance major anyways- this way I can just focus on my Spanish classes. After this class we had to take a Spanish placement test that I think went really well, so lets hope it did! After this placement test I met up with Lexie and we explored the area around my school. We walked to the beach (5 minute walk from my school) and stuck our feet in the water, it was sooo much fun! We walked all over Barcelona and saw some really amazing things. We made our way to Las Ramblas, where we had lunch. After lunch we did a little more shopping. We found some success at the gigantic H&M they have here, and we each bought a FC Barcelona Jersey-Messi #10. My shopping is now officially done for a while, I need to same some money!!! We came back home, relaxed, showered, ate dinner - spaghetti with Mati's homemade sauce :) Then we got ready and went out with our new roomies. We met some of their friends at this bar called Club Primer. When we got there Lex and I were just talking to this older guy, just to be friendly and meet some locals and we told him we were from Canada haha. After a couple minutes of talking we went buy our friends and then about 10 minutes later a bartender brought us a bottle of champagne and said it was from the man we were talking to! It was so cool!! haha. We then went to this disco called club Opium. It was a really cool place where there were a ton of people. We took a cab home with our new roomies and called it a night.

me, lexie, parker, danny, alex, and their friend at club primer

1/12- Today I woke up at about noon, because my school doesn't have classes today or tomorrow or friday this week, those classes start this upcoming Monday. Lexie went to class and I went to the cafe underneath our apartment to journal and got a fresh squeezed orange juice and a chocolate crossaint. I think that I am getting sick, and didnt feel well at all- I was going to take a walk to the gym to sign up for a membership and go for a run, but I came back and slept because I did not feel well at all. I have pretty much been resting all day, I am feeling a little bit better now, just have a little cough and am a little achey.

Nuestra Casa (our house)- updated!

Today we moved into our apartment, it is sooo cute! We are living with a housewife named Matilde, but we call her Mati, and her husband Enrique, and two other students from the US will be moving in on monday. We have a cure room, small with yellow comforters (it is clear that I over-packed- oops!! )
There is a very nice kitchen, living room and 2 bathrooms. Also, our apartment is on the corner so we have a terrace that raps around our apartment- its amazing! Our apartment is above a bakery/ coffee shop and a market. This part of town seems a little bit more safe than where we were staying at our hotel. Our hotel we stayed at was by a very popular street called 'las ramblas'- it is where everyone who is traveling goes to see and this means there are a lot of pickpocketers because they target tourists- especially americans. I am being careful though and watching my purse at all times- they say thats about the only crime that happens here though. For lunch today Mati made Lexie and I spaghetti. She made her own sauce ('salsa' en español) and a salad- it was delicious! We just got done unpacking. It is about 5:30 here and now I am going to lay down and enjoy my 'siesta' :)

Lexie and I unpacked, and luckily everything fit! phew! We showered, napped and then woke up and had a nice dinner from Mati. We had this fried thing with cheese and ham, some french fries and chorizo (looks like a sausage, but it is harder and harder to chew). Lexie and I didn't particularly like the chorizo so we told Mati 'No le gusta'. She told us to tell her if we don't like something because otherwise she will continue making it- she was not offended at all, she understood. We then just sat and talked with Enrique and Mati for a while and the showed us on the computer where the metro is and what not. We decided not to go out tonight, we are just too tired and want to rest up for our first week of school and want to be able to enjoy our day tomorrow. Tomorrow we have an academic meeting at the hotel we stayed at, then we will probably do some shopping because there are a lot of sales- 'rebajas'- going on right now, like 30-50% off (sort of like black friday but it lasts like 2 weeks, its really cool!) Then we want to go watch the packer game at the Irish bar we were at on Thursday night. They will have the games on tv and after there is karaoke! Que divertido eh?! Well now lexie and I are going to watch a show on our computer and get a good nights sleep. Buenas noches todos!

te amo much.. if you would like to skype, I'd love that and I can show you the place!

we went out tonight to and walked very far to a place called chupitos (shots - in english). It was a cool bar, met a lot of locals there. At first when I met the locals I told them I was from USA and then I told them I was kidding and told them I was from Canada and they started clapping and bought me a drink hahah. They however did tell me that I spoke spanish very well, quite the compliment! Tomorrow Lexie and I will be picked up by our housewife- Matilde Jimenz (Mati for short) and will move into our apartment. Hopefully this will be a great fit for Lexie and I, we are both very excited to meet her. Buenas noches amigos!

First few days in Barcelona!

It is about 8 o'clock pm here right now- 1:33 pm your time. We just got done with a housing meeting. We are having a ton of fun here, today we had a tour around the area and then a tour of all of barcelona! It was amaaazing! We went to this food market today and it was unbelievabley cool, some really wierd stuff but it was really cool to see. How are you doing? I miss you guys a lot. The first day was kinda hard for me because I was sooooo tired from not sleeping on the flight and the time change.  Our program bought us dinner last night, it was like 6 courses! it was crazy, I was full before my main meal came. First we had a caprase salad (cheese with tomatoes) and then we had these things with cheese in them, called croquettes, and then we had rizotto with parmasan and mushroom, and then we had this hummus thing with goat cheese, and then our main meal was a choice of either salmon and rice or chicken with fries (i obviously had the chicken haha-- but i tried the salmon, it was gross!). Everything was really good except for the hummus thing and the salmon, it was a lot of food but keep in mind its 'tapas' so its smaller portions shared with the table. Oh and for dessert we had creme brulee! 

after dinner a group of us went to this irish pub, it was a lot of fun. We are meeting a lot of people and being safe so don't worry momma! I used the purse you got me today mom, works great! Its perfect for Spain. The sales for the winter clothes started today so the city was packed! The tour around here we took, we saw the market, a really gorgeous cathedral! and some really cool stores/places. On our bus tour we saw a lot of Gaudi's architecture (famous architect from Barcelona). Some of the places he made are soooo pretty and really interesting. This church he was building (sagrada familia-- google that and see some pictures!) is still in the process of being built and will maybe be done in 2026 but it is quite the site to see- gorgeous!! We then got to go to the olympic soccer stadium that was used when Barcelona held the olympics in 1992- amazing. We then went to the FC Barcelona stadium today- not the inside but the gift shop and what not- I want to buy everything from that store, SOOOOOO coool!!!! Also, we drove past my university and it is about a 5 minute walk away from the Meditteranean Sea-- so beautiful... ohh and a casino haha! We have had a lot of meetings but we are having a lot of fun as well-- very tired though! Please keep in touch everyone, miss you and id love to skype you if you want to :)