[4:35 pm] I am currently soaking up the sun by the Mediterranean Sea! It is GORGEOUS (but more about that later). My alarm clock was set for 7:30am today (thanks for giving it to me, Grandmommy and Granddaddy!), and I'm beginning to figure out how to use it. However, I hit the snooze button about 6 times and got up at 8:30am. I needed that extra hour, though! The showers are nice - good pressure & temperature range. Lots of stalls, so pretty convenient! After that, I got ready for the day (representing with an Invisible Children shirt!) and talked to Allison and Patrick on Facebook for a bit. Patrick's going to meet Haley in England on Tuesday = awesome. Jillian got to the dorm at the perfect time and she, Katie, and I got breakfast together at the dorm. We had chocolate-filled croissants and bread with butter & jelly. I had peach jelly & pineapple grape juice. Delicious!
Then I went to charge my camera battery for a little while, grab a light jacket, and roam the computer. We met up in the meeting room downstairs to talk about tomorrow's schedule & any concerns/questions we have. Note to self: be on time to everything! [time warp -> 12:17am 17/05/10] I am back in the dorm now & headed to sleep soon. But anyway... after the short meeting, we took a walking tour around Tarragona. It is such a beautiful city! We walked through Las Ramblas again, but before that we went to the university where we'll be spending a lot of our time this month... La Universidad/Universitat Rovira i Virgili. At this point, it was obvious how cute & troublesome Patrick, Belky's & Kevin's 6-year-old boy, is. He's going to be quite the heartbreaker, for sure.
Belkys taught a couple of us about the bus stops before getting to the university, telling us about the best beach nearby (about a 5-minute bus ride away). We left the university & walked to Las Ramblas, where we came across a festival, of sorts. It was called Festa Dels Tres Tombs (in Catalán), and it consisted of horses pulling carriages & other random trailers containing things (gourds, sticks, logs). The ponies were adorable, of course, and accompanied by children.
Apparently the people in carriages & things of the like were politicians and more important people like that. After getting our visual fill of the caballos, we continued past the beach view on to more of Tarragona. I snapped a lot of pictures of the buildings, some including old cobblestone streets (these aren't everywhere, but in the older parts of the city it happens). We got a great sight overlooking ancient ruins (including an amphitheater) and the Mediterranean Sea. I believe we are going to go back & learn more about the ruins sometime soon as an excursion. We headed back to Las Ramblas (can you tell we're there a lot?) and got gelatos & water. Our professors paid for all of our gelatos... so kind! I got coco (coconut) & menza xiocolata (mint chocolate) gelato. So delicious!
Gelato is like ice cream, but less creamy and more delicious... especially legitimate gelato like this. We ate on the patio area and enjoyed each other's company and the environment.
Las Ramblas was buzzing with people because of the festival earlier, but it thinned out by this point (about 2pm) since it was about time for siesta. The shops started closing, to open again at 5pm. We went back to la Residencia (dorm) for lunch: ham, lasagna with white sauce & meat, potato chips, lettuce/salad, & yogurt. And bread, of course! I could eat bread all day long. Hello, carbs.
After lunch, we changed and went to the beach! Which... I don't have any pictures of, since I didn't take my camera. Crazy, right? Too risky with la arena (sand). It took us a long time to walk there since it wasn't as straight-forward as we thought, but we eventually got down to the proper level (sea level... how appropriate) and crossed the train tracks; we had to walk down past the train station to the right of Las Ramblas. It probably took us upwards of 45 minutes to get there and should have taken us like 15 minutes. Whoops. The beach itself was pretty, though! Blue water, soft sand... that side of the beach was pretty crowded, though, & we quickly learned that some Spanish women decide to sunbathe topless. Awkward, but that's part of their culture. We put our feet in the water, but not for long because it was cold! Grant went swimming though... "not enjoyable, but bearable." We laid out on the beach and soaked up some rays as we talked... mostly Jillian, Anne, and I were the only ones talking. There were about 4 really strong guys doing flips & insane things like that & handstands on each other... maybe preparing for the fiesta de Castells?! We stayed at the beach until about 5:20 (so about an hour) then made our way past the busy wine festival (Day 2) to the dorm to change. There was a Barcelona fútbol (soccer) game at 7 (big deal!), so Grant & I went to a bar in la Plaza del Font to watch that with a bunch of passionate Spaniards decked out in Barce colors. We ordered 2 tapas (appetizers): tacos de tortilla (like a potato omelette) & nachos with queso & salsa (there were green chilis too, so I obviously avoided that spice factor).
Both were good, & the experience was fun until the bar just got really smoky because of the high cigarette usage. Gross. We left to go find others in the plaza, sitting down to dinner outside of Piscolabi's Cerveseria. They ordered all kinds of interesting tapas: fries w/ dipping sauces, mini-hamburgers, fried calamari, "skewered" vegetables (aka - eggrolls-ish), & stuff like that.
Every time Barcelona scored, people threw a really loud firecracker that scared many of the girls at our table. I'm glad I'm not very jumpy! Many people were watching the game outside, ad they got so excited when Barcelona scored. Yells, hugs, chants, flags everywhere. It got pretty crazy when they won (Barcelona 4 - VLL 0).
So many people flooded the plaza & more were entering when we eventually left. Lots of yelling & Barcelona flags/jerseys/colors flying. The city came alive. There were a lot of people honking & yelling down Las Ramblas on our way back to the dorm. It was a big contrast with the pleasant setting sun. America needs to become passionate about something like that!
Got back to the dorm (after a short trip in the grocery/convenience store... La Croc? [Open Cor]), & visited people at dinner to find that a lot more students are here now. We're not sure if they're moving in now, or if they just had all left for the weekend. Either way, we have more friends to make. Hopefully I'll be able to be bold enough to make that happen! I hung out with Jordin & Jillian for a bit before they went back to their apartamientos, then talked with Allison & Andrew for a while on Facebook. I am so glad that that type of communication (...free) exists. It's currently 1:14am; the alarm is set for 7:15 and I actually need to get up at that time! Fun fact: I heard "Viva la Vida" three times today (bar, plaza, dorm hall).
Then I went to charge my camera battery for a little while, grab a light jacket, and roam the computer. We met up in the meeting room downstairs to talk about tomorrow's schedule & any concerns/questions we have. Note to self: be on time to everything! [time warp -> 12:17am 17/05/10] I am back in the dorm now & headed to sleep soon. But anyway... after the short meeting, we took a walking tour around Tarragona. It is such a beautiful city! We walked through Las Ramblas again, but before that we went to the university where we'll be spending a lot of our time this month... La Universidad/Universitat Rovira i Virgili. At this point, it was obvious how cute & troublesome Patrick, Belky's & Kevin's 6-year-old boy, is. He's going to be quite the heartbreaker, for sure. 
Belkys taught a couple of us about the bus stops before getting to the university, telling us about the best beach nearby (about a 5-minute bus ride away). We left the university & walked to Las Ramblas, where we came across a festival, of sorts. It was called Festa Dels Tres Tombs (in Catalán), and it consisted of horses pulling carriages & other random trailers containing things (gourds, sticks, logs). The ponies were adorable, of course, and accompanied by children. 
Apparently the people in carriages & things of the like were politicians and more important people like that. After getting our visual fill of the caballos, we continued past the beach view on to more of Tarragona. I snapped a lot of pictures of the buildings, some including old cobblestone streets (these aren't everywhere, but in the older parts of the city it happens). We got a great sight overlooking ancient ruins (including an amphitheater) and the Mediterranean Sea. I believe we are going to go back & learn more about the ruins sometime soon as an excursion. We headed back to Las Ramblas (can you tell we're there a lot?) and got gelatos & water. Our professors paid for all of our gelatos... so kind! I got coco (coconut) & menza xiocolata (mint chocolate) gelato. So delicious! 
Gelato is like ice cream, but less creamy and more delicious... especially legitimate gelato like this. We ate on the patio area and enjoyed each other's company and the environment. 
Las Ramblas was buzzing with people because of the festival earlier, but it thinned out by this point (about 2pm) since it was about time for siesta. The shops started closing, to open again at 5pm. We went back to la Residencia (dorm) for lunch: ham, lasagna with white sauce & meat, potato chips, lettuce/salad, & yogurt. And bread, of course! I could eat bread all day long. Hello, carbs. 
After lunch, we changed and went to the beach! Which... I don't have any pictures of, since I didn't take my camera. Crazy, right? Too risky with la arena (sand). It took us a long time to walk there since it wasn't as straight-forward as we thought, but we eventually got down to the proper level (sea level... how appropriate) and crossed the train tracks; we had to walk down past the train station to the right of Las Ramblas. It probably took us upwards of 45 minutes to get there and should have taken us like 15 minutes. Whoops. The beach itself was pretty, though! Blue water, soft sand... that side of the beach was pretty crowded, though, & we quickly learned that some Spanish women decide to sunbathe topless. Awkward, but that's part of their culture. We put our feet in the water, but not for long because it was cold! Grant went swimming though... "not enjoyable, but bearable." We laid out on the beach and soaked up some rays as we talked... mostly Jillian, Anne, and I were the only ones talking. There were about 4 really strong guys doing flips & insane things like that & handstands on each other... maybe preparing for the fiesta de Castells?! We stayed at the beach until about 5:20 (so about an hour) then made our way past the busy wine festival (Day 2) to the dorm to change. There was a Barcelona fútbol (soccer) game at 7 (big deal!), so Grant & I went to a bar in la Plaza del Font to watch that with a bunch of passionate Spaniards decked out in Barce colors. We ordered 2 tapas (appetizers): tacos de tortilla (like a potato omelette) & nachos with queso & salsa (there were green chilis too, so I obviously avoided that spice factor). 
Both were good, & the experience was fun until the bar just got really smoky because of the high cigarette usage. Gross. We left to go find others in the plaza, sitting down to dinner outside of Piscolabi's Cerveseria. They ordered all kinds of interesting tapas: fries w/ dipping sauces, mini-hamburgers, fried calamari, "skewered" vegetables (aka - eggrolls-ish), & stuff like that. 
Every time Barcelona scored, people threw a really loud firecracker that scared many of the girls at our table. I'm glad I'm not very jumpy! Many people were watching the game outside, ad they got so excited when Barcelona scored. Yells, hugs, chants, flags everywhere. It got pretty crazy when they won (Barcelona 4 - VLL 0). 
So many people flooded the plaza & more were entering when we eventually left. Lots of yelling & Barcelona flags/jerseys/colors flying. The city came alive. There were a lot of people honking & yelling down Las Ramblas on our way back to the dorm. It was a big contrast with the pleasant setting sun. America needs to become passionate about something like that! 
Got back to the dorm (after a short trip in the grocery/convenience store... La Croc? [Open Cor]), & visited people at dinner to find that a lot more students are here now. We're not sure if they're moving in now, or if they just had all left for the weekend. Either way, we have more friends to make. Hopefully I'll be able to be bold enough to make that happen! I hung out with Jordin & Jillian for a bit before they went back to their apartamientos, then talked with Allison & Andrew for a while on Facebook. I am so glad that that type of communication (...free) exists. It's currently 1:14am; the alarm is set for 7:15 and I actually need to get up at that time! Fun fact: I heard "Viva la Vida" three times today (bar, plaza, dorm hall).
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