sight seeing

ok, so we don't really have much organized activity these first two weeks. orientation is more like and hour a day (if that), and the free time to see the city and goodness like that. so the first day emma and i mostly just walked around the city. i had no idea where we were going. but let me say that even the post office here is pretty. seriously, here's a picture. we also went to lunch with some girls from the program, but they were annoying and not really worth talking about.



and then the next day we went super sight seeing. in the morning we went to parc del laberint. but, of course, we managed to walk in the wrong direction for a good 30 minutes before we noticed and turned around. but its ok because we found this ridiculous rope jungle gym. it was so huge, and wobly cause it was rope, and scary as hell. i can't believe parents would ever let their kids near this thing. it was definelty at least a story tall.

so we finally make it to the laberynth. and it was amazing! seriously, i think every town should have a labrynth. it would definetly make life happier.



and then we went back to placa catalunya, which is kind of like the downtown area here, for churros y chocolate. and hung out on "las ramblas" (super touristy), where and i drank from la fuentes de canateles. supposedly drinking from those fountains means you "will surely return to barcelona". and we went for some cafe at els quatre gats, this little coffee/restaurant where picasso used to chill back in the day. its pretty expensive now, but it was still pretty cute and had really good coffee.

umm, also...realizing that my body hates caffeine right before going to barcelona for an extended amount of time was horrible timing. it is impossible to avoid coffee here. impossible. they drink it at all times of the day.

anyway, thursday emma and i went to port olimpic, aka the ocean! and, i mean, there isn't much to say. its the ocean, it's awesome, i am in love. there was some pretty cool artwork around too. oh, and palm trees! there are palm trees all over the place here and it makes me so happy. i think i am meant to live somewhere with palm trees. none of this winter stuff for me. my senora is always saying how its so cold, and asking if i have a warmer coat. i just laugh at her now.


on friday the program gave us the option to take a day trip to montserrat, which is this monastary on top of a mountain just a bit outside of the city. the bus ride there was possible the scariest thing i have ever experienced in my life. the roads were like insane narrow, winding streets with a huge drop straight down on one side. there were guard rails as if anyone believes those tiny things will keep you from falling to your doom in case of emergency. and the bus driver was a maniac. i really thought my life was over a couple of times. and it just kept going. when we finally got there we were literally above the clouds. it was beautiful. and the basilica was beautiful. and the mountain was beautiful. everything was beautiful.
we saw the boys choir perform a couple of songs. they were maybe 9 years old, and live in the monastery, and are going to be munks. seriously! i didnt think that happened anymore. what are you going to be when you grow up? oh, well my parents gave me to the church, so i'm a munk. say what?

yesterday emma and i met up with a group of people at montjuic, and walked around the park and saw the castle. and saw this fountain, light, music, show thing. there is no way to explain it. it was like a dance performance, except with water that was lit up to be different colors. i dont even know. it was this event that shouldn't even be possible. apparently it is.

ok, so thats the sight seeing so far. i'll save people night life for after dinner. cause i'm starving and people don't eat here until so unhappily late.