Long Overdue....its basically a rant

Today is the seventeenth of october and a rainy day turned sunny! Barcelona has proven to be a beautiful city filled with gorgeous buildings and a multitude of places to go. I have to be honest and admit that the people here are not all too friendly. What I love about Barcelona is that there are so many tiny shops and places to eat. Its very intimate and a great time when you find a place that is small and comfy.
My homestay story is one of those nightmarish ones. The woman lives alone with her cat. She is not very friendly and quite cold. A negative woman indeed. Everything I ask her about is "tonta" stupid and all people are bad...blah blah blah....She makes us a sandwich everyday for lunch. It consists of a baguette and some meat. Although not too terrible, they are bland and I cant go without eating until 9 pm for dinner. I honestly feel like a business transaction to this woman. She keeps other borders in her house. The first one was an older German woman who she spoke ill of on the first day that my roommate and I met her. Im sure she has glorious things to say about us too. The last border was an 18 year old swedish girl who we were told was a friend of a friend. This tells me that she lies to our ISA program. Shhhaaadddyyy! I dont like her and I dont like this homestay. Other people I know like it though.
On a positive note, I went to Portugal a couple of weekends ago and it was FANTASTIC! The people were nicer, the food tastier and less expensive. The city itself is a little dumpy and dilapidated...but all the other aspects ranks it on my top list of places to visit. We stayed in Lisbon at a great hostel and took day trips to the surrounding areas. The first day was spent exploring Lisboa and taking pics. The next day we took the train to a castle town, Sintas, which was gorgeous! The bus takes you to the top of the mountain where there are two historic castle sites. One intact, the other just remains of what once stood there. The next day was spent at the beach, a place by the name of Cascais. It was beautiful and the weather was perfect. I was so glad that I got the opportunity to travel there! Traveling around Europe is easy and affordable, and I love it!

¡Merce!

This past weekend was Merces. Merce is a city-wide festival in which activities abound througout the plazas, parks and beachside. There are fireworks every night, a parade with giant dolls, concerts and people EVERYWHERE! the metros were soo bogged down that they couldn´t leave without people getting off....clearly no one wanted to volunteer to get off, and a lot of people were drunk. Walking was the clear alternative to the humid, greasy metro. There was no school on Monday and
now I´m getting back into the routine this lovely Tuesday. My day would not be complete without a late start! The cat who lives in our house was pawing and meowing at our door periodically through the night...not such a great thing when you want to sleep. Im not particularly feeling this whole homestay situation, but hopefully I will come around. In any case, I have to get to class.

Recomendation of the day: Sitges, a beach 45 minutes out of Barcelona...Gorgeous!

Day 10. Barcelona

As I sit here in Barcelona I have a lot to reflect on and update. I have already seen and done a lot in this marvelous country and there is much to be told. I arrived in Madrid on the fourth of September to a city just waking up. I was a tad tired, but more than eager to start traveling around and begin classes, well not really begin class. As I waited for my hotel room to be cleaned, I ventured for a cup of coffee...7 euros...I´m pretty sure the lady ripped me off. I quickly learned that they mean business about their coffee, and it´s basically espresso and some milk. After meeting with my isa group; taking city tours; visiting El Prado; El Palacio; and Corte Ingles (the ubiquitous shopping center) it was time to leave Madrid. Next we visited El Escorial, burial palace to the Spainish royalty; Franco´s final resting place; and Toledo. All worth visiting! Finally I had arrived in Barcelona and met my Señora, Pilar Pareta. A nice woman who speaks no english. The food she made my roommate and I was good...but I have to admit that I miss Chipotle and could go for a slurpee. As of now, I have the bulk of my classes on Tuesday. They are in Spanish, and so I need to pay attention well, a daunting task. I will make sure to update you on that soon! And when i remember my camera cord, I will upload some pictures!
Hasta Luego