Buenas Dias!

Yesterday was yet another wonderful day in Barcelona. Seems to be a common theme. I began the morning by going on a little adventure by myself. I walked to a park, very near my house, Parc de la Ciutadella. It will be a great place to run, once I figure out a good time to go running. There were many people at the park, running and walking, many times with their dogs. So many people have pets here, I am surprised. They are mostly all small dogs though. (Tessa and Nelson would be beasts here! )

This city has many parks, something I'm not used to coming from a small town with one, rather lacking park. The Parc de la Ciutadella is Barcelona's most central park. The park includes a zoo, a lake, a large fountain and several museums. The Catalan Parliament is seated at a building in the center of the park.

After exploring the park and the areas surrounding it, I ventured home, stopping by a neat yarn store and a market to buy some toothpaste and soap.

Our orientation session was very interesting, and we made goals for the semester, which was a very good idea. Hopefully I can meet my goals of becoming conversational in Spanish and mastering Barcelona and various parts of Europe. In addition to writing down and discussing our goals, we also discussed different things we'd all been experiencing. After talking to most of my class, it seems that I have REALLY lucked out in regards to my host family (especially in regards to their cooking). Jose is like a gourmet cook, and Ana is just as good (even though she doesn't think so). Last night she made us a spectacular meal. Other kids said that they had very odd meals (such as cereal with coffee on top), and their families did not refrigerate their milk or eggs. I guess it's all just a matter of getting used to a different way of doing things.

After class, my class went on our scavenger hunt. Pretty sure we lost (their were 39 teams and only 2 prizes). At any rate, we had fun (making many pit stops at random shops and cafes) We also got the change to explore a really neat area of the city, The Barrio Gotic(The Gothic Quarters). Here the city Barcino was founded by the Romans in 15 A.D. This part of town contains many ancient buildings, rich with history.

The area has very narrow streets that wind around (what I picture Venice being like) The shops were very neat, and had MUCH better prices then Las Ramblas. I definitely want to go explore there again. Very cool. After that I came back home, ate, and later on went out to a bar that was called the Dow Jones. The prices of drinks reflected the demand of drink at that time. The bartender was very cool and from Belgium. I ordered a white Russian, and he had NO clue how to make it, so I explained it to him (with my HUGE knowledge of bars and drinks) and then another waiter made it. Later he made himself one, and absolutely loved it. He kept thanking me for introducing it to him (because I guess in Belgium they would "never think of such a combination")