Where are we exactly?

In an effort to figure that out, we have begun exploring our surroundings. Last night, without much direction, a group of us set off to figure out what the nightlife is like in L'Eixample. We walked — for a long while — before sitting down at a cafe briefly. Walking in the direction of our Residencia, we stumbled upon a fish-themed bar (the bartender had a plastic fish attached to his hand and the bar was lined with shells), where we hung out for a while.

For some reason, the entire group had been following Paige and I, assuming we knew where we were going. In fact, we just walk really fast and so wound up at the front. Nevertheless, confident in our new sense of direction, we left the bar and immediately found c/ Sardenya, the street our building is on. We weren't entirely sure which way to turn, but both Paige and I had an "intuition" that left was the way to go. So left we went. And went. We were getting suspicious of our route when all of the sudden we looked up and found ourselves dwarfed by La Sagrada Familia.

In the dark, Gaudi's church looked even more imposing — and amazing. And we were truthfully quite surprised to have found it, making the moment all the more unbelievable. After staring at the structure in awe for a bit, we decided it was time to go home.

Today the whole group met up for an organized lunch. The midday meal is a marathon in Spain — especially on Sunday, when there is effectively nothing else to do but eat and nap. We sat down around 1:45 and didn't finish until 4. After appetizers we were all full, but the food just kept coming. Water was hard to come by — service is not Spain's specialty — but as we have now learned, wine is a non-stop all-day affair.

The view from the restaurant:

Unlike the locals, we did not follow lunch with a siesta (a 3-hour meal is actually exhausting), and instead took a walking tour of the old part of the city. We had our first real lesson in the design of Barcelona. More to come on that (we start a class on Tuesday all about the city as part of our orientation), but below are a couple pictures from the tour. Once I accumulate more, I'll start putting them up on Facebook too.



Barcelona has its own Arc de Triomf! (Home to the nearest Metro stop and park)

Plaça Reial, one of the many city centers, and a gateway to Las Ramblas, one of Barcelona's more bustling streets.

Moving in and becoming Movistars

This morning we made the great trek from the hotel to our dorm. Ok, so trek might be an exaggeration — it was about five blocks. But my baggage is now adorned with bright yellow "HEAVY" stickers, so it took two trips and a lot of heaving.

We checked into our rooms, which look exactly like the website tour promised. (I'll post my own pictures once we're totally settled) Our rooms came well-equipped with everything from lamps and bulletin boards to pots and a bottle opener. In our very spacious double, Paige and I have our own bathroom and kitchen.

The Residencia is in l'Eixample (pronounced le-SHAMP-ull), a chic residential neighborhood of the city. Surrounding the building is the smaller neighborhood of Fort Pienc, which seems to be the pseudo Chinatown of the city. We visited a number of stores all conveniently named "Orient Bazaar" and bought essentials for the apartment. We also stopped by the supermercat, conveniently located next door to our building.

After a few hours of unpacking, six of us set off the find cell phones. Yesterday we had tried to do the same at a Vodafone store, but had a few issues to contend with. I had tried to acquire a SIM card for my phone, but was told that all of the SIM cards in the entire city were sold out, and they didn't know when any more would come in. The cell phones that Paige, Matt and Jeremy (Matt's roommate) had purchased, could not be activated. We headed to the nearest Vodafone store to sort out the predicament, but found it closed. We had already made it to Plaça Catalunya, one of the central squares of the city, so we decided to walk around and investigated the main branch of El Corte Ingles, Spain's catch-all department store. Luckily for us, the seventh floor turned out to be an electronics department complete with representatives from all the local phone companies.

Much to our surprise, we were informed that the entire Vodafone system had been hacked into, and was not working anywhere in the entire country — a fact the first Vodafone salesperson had neglected to mention. Nearly two hours later, we emerged with six functioning Movistar cell phones and new nine-digit Spanish numbers.

The entire operation exhausted us, and we were quite hungry. (We haven't adjusted to the truly unique meal schedule of the country) Around the corner from the Residencia, we found a small cafe with outdoor seating and had our first tapas experience of the semester. Sitting around the table, leisurely eating our food and enjoying the early evening breeze, we all decided this is a lifestyle we can definitely adjust to.

¡Hola Barcelona!

I landed this morning in sunny Barcelona after a not-too-painful-but-fairly-cramped flight. I knew I was flying over with two of my friends from Brown — Matt and Paige — but we found five other CASB students waiting to board the plane, and spotted at least four or five others we suspected to be CASBers during the flight. (Basically we looked for bewildered college-aged Americans with manilla envelopes of information and excessive amounts of checked baggage)

The descent into Barcelona is spectacular — the plane flies right over the city and its waterfront before swooping into the airport just beyond the port. Below is a picture of what it looks like:



After passing through immigration and squeezing our belongings into the one van-sized taxi that would take the three of us, we arrived at the hotel where we will be spending our first night. (None of us are entirely clear on why we are not directly checking into our residencia, but as the locals would probably say, que sera)

Along with the boy assigned to be Matt's roommate, who had already arrived, we trekked out to explore our surroundings. In Barcelona, the language of choice is not Spanish, but Catalan — a related romance language that looks like a combination of French and Spanish, with a hint of Italian. A region with intense nationalism and pride, Catalonia — of which Barcelona is the capital — has embraced Spanish with some reluctance. All signs in the airport had Spanish and English translations, but most city buildings and signs were adorned with just Catalan. Matt already has some experience in the language, so we deferred to him for pronunciation lessons and minor translating. The rest of us will begin learning it as part of our orientation program on Monday.

After a long walk and a late breakfast of bocadillos (sandwiches on mini baguettes) and café, we retired to our rooms for early siestas in an attempt to be like the Spaniards, and also to start overcoming jet lag. The city was pretty quiet anyway — the entire country effectively goes on vacation for the entire month of August.

In a few hours, we have a welcome dinner where we will meet the rest of the kids on the program, hear a little more about what the next few days entail, and kick off a fantastic semester!

Ready, set...

In just a few short hours, I will begin my semester-long journey to Barcelona, Spain. I've been planning for months and packing for days, but it is still hard to believe that it's finally here. Regardless, I can't wait!

As I navigate my way through Spain — and beyond — I will do my very best to keep a record of my time abroad here.

I will be studying in Barcelona through CASB, a partnership between seven American and three Spanish universities. Along with 50 or so other students, I will be living in a dorm and taking my classes (fully en español — eek!) at the local schools.

But for now, I'm off! While I'm away, the best way to stay in touch is via email —and stay tuned for updates here. Wish me luck!