We're here!!!

So after hours of travel and not so many hours of sleep we have finally arrived in Barcelona! We've only been here a couple of days, but I'll try to give you a quick idea of what life is like in Barca.

Housing
We live about a 25 minute walk/5 minute metro ride directly north of downtown Barcelona in the Gracia neighborhood. The architecture around Barcelona is beautiful and full of history. Our street Carrer D'astúries is off of a major road with lots of nightlife but our street is quite quaint with many little shops and cafes. Its located right on a plaza in Gracia so there is no street for cars to drive on, just a little cobblestone walk/plaza. Tess and I live in an apartment with a family of 3. They have an adorable apartment and gave us our own little area in the basement. There is a small family room/game room in the basement along with our bedroom and bathroom.

Family
Our host family is extremely nice and so far we have gotten along wonderfully. They've hosted students for a number of years now alternating between boys and girls each semester. Our host mother's name is Ana and she speaks very little English. Tess understands Spanish quite well so she has been acting as my personal translator though I am starting to get used to picking out pieces of conversation. We also have a 17 year old sister named Alba. She is a senior in high school and speaks fluent Spanish, Catalan, English and French. She is just starting to learn Arabic and wants to go to University to study to be a translator. Though she has been quite busy with school work she is excited to take us around to show us "her Barcelona" rather than the more tourist-y stuff. We then have a 10 year old brother named Oriole or Ori for short. He is the cutest little boy imaginable and is often playing Wii in the basement. He likes having host-brothers rather than sisters but he's managing. The kids have been in and out because they both live with their Dads sometimes so its hard to know who's coming and going. Ana is dating a guy named Paul. He had been super nice and also speaks a little bit of English as well.

School

Actual classes don't start for another week but we've been having mini orientation things and Spanish classes start tomorrow (Monday). We are about a 20-25 minute walk/5 minute metro ride from school. Yesterday we went on a field trip as a group (approx. 450 kids) to Vic and Besalu. It was pouring rain and about 35 degrees all day so it was a bit difficult to enjoy but both places were full of history and would have been quite enjoyable in different weather. Both are Medieval towns from the Gothic era in Spain. Vic had a large outdoor market (in the rain...) and we toured a beautiful church and had lunch. Besalu reminded me a little of the Tower of London and was its own little town built of brick and cobblestone. So starting tomorrow we have Spanish class everyday for an hour and a half and then more orientation things like a scavenger hunt around the city and stuff. The entrance at Besalu

Food
So both of us were a little bit apprehensive about the food situation here because Tess is a vegetarian and I'm a little bit of a picky eater but so far things have worked out well. Ana serves us breakfast and dinner everyday (though I've not been awake for breakfast yet...). Dinner is usually served around 9:30 each night though last night we went out to dinner and ate from 11pm-1am. The food has been good so far with only a few strange encounters. We've had chicken (not Tess) and broiled artichokes, spaghetti with cream sauce, and an interesting pea dish. The other night they convinced me to try melon with ham on it. Not my favorite but I'm getting quite adventurous when it comes to trying new food. Tess and I ate at a little Istanbul cafe across the street from our apartment and a Lebonese Pizza place down the road. We're quite good at making friends with the waiters too.

Nightlife
We're still trying to get adjusted to the new time zone and lifestyle differences but Tess and I have managed to go out twice to sort of get a feel for the nightlife here in Barcelona. On Friday night we went out just the two of us and just stayed within a 10 minute walk of our apartment. We went to 3 different little places to get a taste of what was around. Since we had to be up early the next day we headed home around 1:30/2 am. Last night we were a bit more adventurous and after the long fieldtrip we were ready to blow off some steam. Tess and I met up with one of my friends from Hopkins, Kelly, and her roommate Stacey. We went to dinner from 11pm-1am and met 2 Spanish guys who took us to a discothèque in downtown Barca. They told us it was a typical Spanish scene and not so tourist. It was a little pricey so us girls decided to go meet up with some other people from our program. We took a cab to another club called Elephante. It was super cool and decorated with an India/Elephant theme. There were lots of Americans there from our program and other ones too. Tess and I ran into another girl from Miami on our program as well. Finally at about 4/4:30am we decided to go home. It was definitely interesting to compare the 2 different environments. A boy I know from high school studied here for a year in high school and is back for the year this year so we are trying to meet up with him to get another different view of Barcelona nightlife.

Well that's all I've got for now. I'm going to try to take some pictures of our apartment and family and stuff and get those posted here. Hasta luego!!!

Molly & Tess