Barcelona!

Hey all! I'm sorry it's been so long since I've written! I hope everything at home is great, I'm really starting to miss everyone back home!

So a lot of things have happened since I last wrote (my fault, sorry) but I will try and hit the high points.

First of all, I changed my flight back to June 15! I get an extra month here without classes, which will be a welcome change. Classes are over May 12, and I'm not entirely sure yet what I want to do with the first two weeks of freedom. If I get a job in Paris, I may just stay here for 2 weeks -- either with Ian's mom or possibly my host family. If not, I'm thinking about going to work on an organic farm for a couple weeks, that would be an experience! It all depends more or less if I get a job. I'm applying for a job this week at Breakfast in America, the American restaurant I mentioned before that I LOVE. It would be nice to have a little extra spending money, and I would also feel much more productive (something I've missed since being here).

But anywho, the fun stuff! I just got back Monday from a 4 day trip to Barcelona. My friend Mitch from school is studying in Salamanca, Spain and we met up on Thursday night for the weekend together. It seems like just yesterday that Mitch and I were in Westover talking about how cool it would be to see a Barcelona game, and we actually did it! We had the most perfect weather all weekend, blue skies and 65.

Besides finding Mitch at the airport, my travels went very smoothly. The first night we walked around a little bit to see the city, but it was raining and I was tired from travel so we decided to sleep (at 2 am...). We woke up the next morning and walked form 11am to 6 pm. We bought a tourist map and just walked to all the sites within a reasonable distance. The sea was beautiful, if only 20 degrees warmer! It was so nice being back at the beach; I find there's always a different attitude in beach towns. But we saw a lot of the sites before we decided it was siesta time. We took quick naps, grabbed dinner, then hit the town.

Adjusting to the Spanish lifestyle was not easy for me-- especially not over a weekend. Spaniards always eat a huge, late lunch around 2 or 3 pm. They then nap for an hour or two and go back to work. They don't have dinner until around 10:30, restaurants were deserted until about 10pm. Then they go to bars, then clubs (which don't open until at least midnight) and stay out until the sun rises... It was not easy to adjust to.

So Saturday was the soccer game that we had been waiting for. We had both gotten some really nice gear the day before so we were all decked out and ready to go. We spent the entire day at Camp Nou (the stadium) walking around and seeing what was up there. The game was crazy!!! I thought Lane Stadium was big-- this stadium holds over 100, 000 people. And Barcelona is currently the best soccer team in the world, with an obsessive following. It was a crazy experience and I'm so glad I did it.

Sunday we did more tourism. We saw a lot of things, but the most impressive was the Sagrada Familia. It's a church that was started in 1900, and is still under construction. Just when I thought I had seen 100 churches and none could be different, I was proven wrong. It's hard to put into words how magnificent it was. We also saw the Torre Agbar, a giant skyscraper that lights up at night.

To see pics of the trip, go to http://gallery.me.com/mp3superman (mitch's site) and click on either of the albums that say Barclona.

Monday morning, EARLY, I headed home. My travels went perfectly smoothly and I was exhausted when I got home. I spent most of this week recovering from my travels and doing homework. I have a free weekend this weekend so Kelsey and Kelly and I are trying to plan lots of fun things since the next few weekends are for Loire Valley and Normandie.

I'll try to update more often! Miss you all!

Catching up...

Hey Guys! I wanted to make a post (sorry if it's short) to let you all know about my trip in the South of France last week. Unfortunately, not much to talk about this week as I've been under the weather and loaded down with hw. But today, I'm leaving for barcelona!! I will have to tell you all about that too when I return.

The south of France was beautiful! We went to several cities including Arles, Avignon, Nice and Beaux de Provence. It was cold there still, but at least it was sunny!

Arles was a tiny little city -- smaller than Lynchburg-- but contains the best preserved Roman theatre remains in the world. It was really neat to be able to walk around there, knowing I was standing where there was once gladiator fights. Since the town was so small and almost everything was closed, we had a picnic in the hotel with friends and it was really fun. The hotel in Arles was also really nice, we got lucky.

Then we were off to Avignon. In Avignon we went to a small winery and got to do a tasting there. It was really interesting, but I'm certainly no expert... We then hopped back on the bus and headed to Nice. We got to do an olive oil tasting there which was certainly a different experience! We got to walk along the beaches and in flower markets and in the beautiful old town. It was really a charming town, and there were a lot of things there that I saw that I remembered from my first time there. Also, once a year Nice has a huge carnival, and we showed up right in the middle. So the town was covered with crazy statues and floats and posters-- it was certainly interesting to see.

Among other things, we got to see a really neat Picasso exhibit that I enjoyed a lot. We saw plenty more churches, they're all starting to blend together! We also got to visit some cute little mountain top villages with gorgeous views.

The trip was a really nice escape from city life, but coming back to Paris felt a lot like coming back home!

I'll update you all after Barcelona, I can't wait!