Barcelona

I went to Barcelona to meet up with my family last weekend..what an adventure! I had some trouble with the plane ticket on the way there, but after buying a second last minute ticket I made it to Barcelona after all. It was relieving to see my family in the hotel when I got there, knowing that I didn't have to plan or stress about traveling for a few days. We saw a Gaudi Museum, Picasso Museum, the Sagrada Familia, walked along the sea, went to Parc Guell, climbed Mount Juic, visited the 1992 Olympic Stadium, and enjoyed tapas and helado. My favorite was Parc Guell, which was a park designed by Gaudi. I'd studied the park in high school and had been wanting to visit it since. Naturally, my dad took us on educational and historical walks through the old parts of the city, thanks to Rick Steves. I don't know where American travelers in Europe would be without good old Rick.

I had initially planned on studying abroad in Barcelona instead of Granada, and I came to the conclusion that I'm glad I didn't. Barcelona is in a province of Spain called Cataluna, and that province hasn't been on good terms with Spain throughout history. They don't consider themselves Spaniards, nor do they only speak Spanish. Catalan is the native language there, and I was surprised to see how much Catalan they actually spoke. I wasn't able to read most menu's there because they were in Catalan instead of Spanish. This was not only confusing, but also very frustrating. I enjoyed my time in Barcelona, but I was glad to return to Granada at the end of the weekend.

Showing my family around Granada was a lot of fun. It was good to have visitors, and to show them everything about this city that I've fallen in love with. At the end of their time here, they came over to my apartment to have tapas with my host mom. I really enjoyed translating for them and watching them interact with each other. When my family said goodbye, it was kind of bittersweet. I told my mom that I'll be coming home in less than 2 months, and she asked if that's good or bad- I honestly had to think about that question. While there are many things I look forward to at home, I'm definitely loving my time in Spain. It will feel good to look back on this entire experience and see how much I've learned, but I'm not ready for it to be over yet. I can't even imagine how 10 weeks flew by and I only have 8 left! Luckily the next 4 weeks will be the most exciting of the trip: a week in italy, 4 days in Paris, and a weekend in Portugual! I'm excited to see more of Europe, but sad to leave Spain for so much time.

London

Two weeks ago I went to London for 3 days, and I've been too busy to update this blog until now! London was a really great time, and I'm so glad I went. After spending 8 straight weeks in a Spanish speaking country, we figured it would be super easy to travel in an English speaking country. We were actually quite wrong. There were a lot of things that just didn't make sense about traveling there and that were so inconvenient, but we were definitely grateful to be able to ask for help in English instead of Spanish. There was a point where we asked 5 different people the same question about where to catch a bus to the airport and we got 5 completely different answers, none of them actually leading us to the bus stop we needed. We also ended up looking like complete idiots when we tried to operate the metro and train systems for the first time, but in the end we figured it all out and learned a lot about traveling in Europe outside of Spain. We also had our first hostel experience, which was indeed an experience. We ended up having a 10 person room, which was 7 boys and the three of us girls. Totally unexpected.

As far as sightseeing goes, I pretty much walked around the entire city gasping at everything. Our first morning there, we walked to see the Parliament Building, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, and the Queen's Collection Museum. All of these buildings were absolutely breathtaking. I took over 30 pictures of Parliament alone. That afternoon we decided to take a trip out to Windsor to see the Windsor Castle, where the Royal Family actually lives. This was my favorite part of the weekend- what an amazing castle/town!! I wish I could've taken more pictures, but a lot of it prohibited photography. That night we took a ride on the London Eye, which was a giant ferris wheel on the river overlooking the whole city. This was beautiful and breathtaking as well.

Day 2 was also full of sightseeing. We saw the Tower Bridge, the Tower of London (complete with a tour from a real Beefeater), the HMS Belfast (a WWII ship), St Paul's Cathedral (the most beautiful church I've ever seen), Shakespeare's Globe Theater, Abbey Road, and the Tate Modern Art Museum. By the end of the day, we were so worn out from walking for two days straight that we went to bed super early.

Overall, I loved London. The people were all very friendly and all of the history was so interesting. It couldn't even imagine living around all of those monuments and castles. I realized that I cannot understand the English accent AT ALL. I felt like everyone was speaking a different language! It was so weird to see all of the sights that I've seen in pictures and movies my whole life and never thought I'd ever see close up. I'm glad I got to test the waters of traveling out of the country before my 10 day spring break trip to Italy next week. The picture above is of me in front of Big Ben!

Cultural Differences

I LOVE learning little cultural differences in everyday life, and I realized after being here for 7 weeks that I've just gotten used to the little things here. I don't want to forget the confusion I experienced my first few days here, while I learned daily things I should or should not be doing, so I figured I'd share them with you all.

1. They don't tip here. It's so weird, but I've gotten used to it and now when I go back to the States I'm sure I'm going to forget to tip. They also include taxes in the prices, so what you see on the menu is what you pay.

2. Spaniards have a fear of floors. They never touch the floor with bare feet. Ever. We have to wear shoes or slippers in the house at all times to avoid touching the evil floor. And they don't put things on the floor either. When I come home from class I always want to put my purse or backpack on the floor next to my desk, but it's not allowed. Anything that touches the floor is evil, or something. At restaurants you can't put your purse on the ground, either. Everything goes on the table.

3. They don't say "thank you" (or, to be fair, "gracias") as much as we do. They only say it when they really mean it. My host mom always seems offended and weirded out that we thank her about 10 times during each meal. Try having a meal with a senior citizen who spent all morning cooking for you, sets the table for you, serves you all the food herself, clears each plate after you're finished, passes you the water and bread multiple times, and serves you the best dessert you've ever had...all without saying thank you every two minutes.

4. We have to say goodnight (and kiss goodnight) to every individual person in the apartment before sleeping. If we just say goodnight to the general room full of family, it's rude. If we go to sleep without saying goodnight, we might as well move out.

5. Spaniards don't have any idea what personal space is. They will stand on top of you and think it's normal. When walking on the street, they don't move out of the way to make room for you to pass. You just have to bump into each other. This is especially annoying in the rain with a bunch of umbrellas...and when you think someone is stealing from you because they're standing so close.

6. They are much more blunt here. Host moms tell you if they think you're fat. Guys in bars tell you what they really think of you, and what their real intentions are if they're having a conversation with you. Professors tell you if they think you're stupid. At first this is hard to get used to, but it makes compliments mean more.

That's all for now, I'm already starting to forget some! This is a picture of my bedroom here, for those of you not on facebook who want to see what it looks like.