la última fin de semana en Barcelona

it's a sad time. it's our last weekend here in Barcelona, and I'm really terrible at updating the blog. I remember at the beginning I was so excited to have a blog and I updated it every single day. Remember those days?
Well, Sam came and went. He arrived here late Thursday night on the 14th and left early this past Tuesday morning. Becca and I picked him up at Estacio Nord bus station and took him to his hostel, which was pretty much the nicest hostel I've seen since I've been in Europe. It looked more like a little house than a dorm, like the ones Becca and I have stayed in. It had it's own private terrace and a big kitchen you could use until 11pm, and free internet in the lobby. Pretty nice for a hostel. I think he had a good time here. We took him out to the Black Sheep, he went to Sitges with some friends from ISA (Becca & I didn't make it because we stayed out until 7:30am the night before), and he got to go see some of the sights while we were in school. He also got to come over one night for dinner and meet our host family. Papa Juan was ecstatic to have a boy in the house. I asked him and he was like, YES!! I have two daughters, and there are always two girls staying here (exchange students) and I prefer to talk with a boy sometimes! It was funny. They seemed to really like Sam. Papa even called Cristina's boyfriend the taxi driver to pick him up at 4am and take him to the airport Tuesday morning. I wonder if he would have done that for us?
We've made a lot of new foreign friends since I wrote last. Last week I met two boys from Switzerland named Diego and Dani who were vacationing here. We met them on Weds night and went out with them every night until they left on Saturday. Now we talk on Facebook and have a place to stay if we ever visit Switzerland. I also have been hanging out with Alejandro, I mentioned him earlier. He is from a place called Sant Cugat about half an hour by train outside of Barcelona. On Wednesday he came to visit us and took us to a place called Laberinto de Horta, a big labyrinth with an awesome view and a big pond with fish and turtles. It was so pretty! We got lost in the maze for a while and took a lot of pictures as usual. after that we met up with Gabby and Radhee, two girls from school and all ate dinner at a kebab place. We've eaten kebab a few times here, with the giant towers of chicken and lamb that they shave off and put veggies and yogurt sauce all over....it's delicious. I wish we had more of that in the US. I have to say though I really miss Madam Mam's and can't wait to eat some chicken pad thai when I get home. After we went to the labyrinth, the two girls went home to get ready and go out to a discoteca, Becca went home and went to bed, and Alejandro and I went to Montjuic. I hadn't been yet and it was so amazing! We climbed up all these stairs and could see out over the whole city. I could see the Sagrada Familia and the shore of the ocean and way up in the mountains, this place called Tibidabo which apparently is a big Spanish theme park. Anyway we got to talk for a while and I helped him with some English and he helped me with my Spanish. I'm glad I have a Spanish friend to help me with my language skills so I can keep practicing when I get home. He has a really hard time differentiating between "tell" and "say", like, he always says "she said me" when he means "she told me" but he is getting much better and I think it's because he has a great teacher :).

I'll try to write one more time before I come home. I'm sooo excited to be in America with my friends and my family!!!
LKP

Sardenya

Remember when we pretended like Becca was going to write in this too? Haha, that was a funny joke. Anyway, I've neglected to update here for a week so I'll catch you up on my weekend. On Friday evening I headed to the Girona airport to meet Sam in Sardinia for the weekend. He actually got to pick me up in a car!!! A car! It was so nice to have a rental car. I wish I could have driven it, but I don't know how to drive a stick. The weekend was pretty amazing. We basically just laid out on the beach and went swimming all day Saturday and all day Sunday. The beach we went to Sunday was my favorite. It was called Porto Ferro - the mountains came down to meet where the beach was and it was so pretty. The sand was smooth and the water was really clear and not too cold. And I didn't get sunburned! :) The house we were staying at was really neat - Sam said it was from the 19th century. We had a temperamental fan in our room that alternately made loud buzzing or clicking sounds until Sam would smack the crap out of it to make it stop for a few hours. Staying with us were Annalucia, Sam's family friend who's home we stayed at in Rome, and a bunch of her friends and their kids/husbands/etc. There were about 10 people, I think.
On Saturday evening after the beach we stopped at a supermercat to buy ingredients to make dinner for everyone. Unfortunately, we weren't able to cook until Sunday night, and by then a lot of the people that were staying with us had left for Rome. Needless to say there was a lot of food. We made pasta (shocking) with peas, onion, garlic, pecorino cheese, cream, and crispy pancetta. Yum.
We took a few good pictures but they are on Sam's camera so I won't be able to send any out for a week or so.
Unfortunately, we're back at school and we have a big midterm this Friday that's 20% of my final grade and covers more than 30 major pieces of art. Guess I better remember how to study.
Alsooo I have a new Spanish friend named Alejandro who is a couple of years younger than me and is helping me with my Spanish as I help him with his English. Sam comes to Barcelona Friday and I'm hoping Alejandro will come out with us a few times. He's a really nice guy.
18 more days here. I think I'm going to be sad and happy to come home. I really just miss my family and my car. Oh and Chick-fil-a. but that's all. mostly.


XXOO
LKP

4th of July in Barcelona and other things

Hola y'all. That's great Spanish right there. I'm sorry I haven't been the most dedicated blogger the past week or so. I had a little homesickness slump this past weekend where I was feeling very sad and missing my parents and a lot of my favorite things from home. It seems silly to me to feel homesick when I'm having the summer of a lifetime and I'm in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, but sometimes I just couldn't help it. It's hard not to miss a family as great as mine and a city as amazing as Austin, Texas. Kinda gives Barcelona a run for its money/euros. Anyhow, I think I'm over it. Last night we went to a bar in Plaza Urquinaona (everyone's favorite impossible-to-pronounce name) called George Payne with about 200 other American study abroad students to celebrate the 4th of July. It was strange to be in a place where I could understand everything everyone was saying and I knew how to order a drink and people said "I'm sorry" or "excuse me" when they stepped on me! That's refreshing. Strangely, I ran into not one but two people I recognized from back home. One was a friend from A&M's little brother and another was a guy I know through Sam and other mutual friends. Small world, seriously. We also made a couple of new friends that are in a different program from Texas, too.
So on my last post I said we were going to this event called Montjuic de Nit with all the free entries...and it kind of failed. We didn't end up going because Becca misplaced 100 euros and was feeling bummed out and I was acting weird because I felt homesick, so we went next door to the TexMex place and I had queso, she had guacamole, and we went to bed like losers. Oh well. We still want to go to Montjuic and see the fountain light up, which they do every weekend, and there will be lots of other events similar to that because it's summertime. Also, Sam comes to visit us next week, and we have a couple of things planned for that. 1. We haven't been to Camp Nou, soccer stadium yet because I want to wait to see it till Sam gets here because he's a boy and boys like sports. Everyone knows that. 2. Montserrat, a big hike up into the mountains where there is a really old monastery. Looks awesome in pictures I've seen from other students who have gone, and I think Sam would enjoy it. I also really can't wait for this weekend, the beaches of Sardinia are calling my name and I don't want to lose the tan I've gotten the past couple of weeks.
We've asked Mama Fina if Becca's boyfriend Eric can come over for my birthday dinner at the house. He arrives on my birthday, so we were going to let him sleep all day (aren't we nice?) and then invite him over to meet the host parents and celebrate my bdayyyy.
I sure do miss everyone! Keep reading my silly blog and e-mailing me, it makes me happy.

Love,
Leah

6 weeks down, 4 to go

Hey everyone. So things have been relatively uneventful this week compared to previous entries. We've gone to the beach every day after class and I'm getting pretty tan. On Thursday night we met up with about 10 other girls from school to go to a bar called Pippermints that's famous here for having ridiculously large drinks for big groups. They have 1 drink for 98 euros (almost $150...wow) that's 13 liters. Like I said, ridiculous. I ended up not drinking anything because I thought the prices were a little steep, but it was still really fun. We met a group of Spanish boys that were our age and talked with them for a couple of hours. They added us on Facebook. One of them was named Oscar and he was really cute but a little too shy for me. One thing I should add is that on our walk to the bar from the metro, a car pulled up and a completely naked man got out and walked up to us. It was one of the weirdest things that's happened here so far. Completely. butt. naked. So we all just kept our eyes forward and walked like nothing was going on, and he got back in his car. Very strange. Well, tonight we have some exciting plans. Every year there is a festival called Montjuic de Nit, where there is free admission to a ton of outdoor music, museums, art shows, etc. and it's all at night. That's my kind of show. I got this off a website: "Montjuic de Nit is a free annual cultural event that invites everyone to enjoy the museums, theatres, parks, gardens and sports facilities on Montjuïc hill in Barcelona during the evening." There is a free shuttle bus that will take us there. I'm super excited about this, because I love doing things for free and this only happens once a year. I'll be sure to write again to let you all know how awesome it was. It goes from 10pm to around 4 in the morning, which is great because we don't have to wake up early tomorrow. Tomorrow we were planning on going to the Museu Picasso because it's free on the 1st Sunday of every month (see a pattern here?) so that's been on our list for a while. Also, I fly into Alghero, Sardinia next Friday night so I'll be able to improve my tan even more :) As of today we have been gone six weeks, with exactly 4 more to go! And only 26 days until I'm 22, not that I'm counting.
Love and miss you.

Leah Kay

Rome & Pisa part II

Hello all! It's been a very busy past few days. We finally arrived home in Barcelona late last night after a full 12 hour day of traveling. Picking up where I left off in my last entry, that was our main touristy day. Saturday night, we went out with Fabio to Trastevere, which is a big nightlife area in Rome. I bought a t-shirt at the pub we went to that says something in Italian on the front and the back...although I don't really know what it says. I liked it anyway. The pub was kind of similar to Ginger Man or Flying Saucer as it had lots of international beers. After that we went and sat on some steps in the nearby piazza and people watched for a couple of hours. Becca bought me a rose from some guy selling them. We slept late on Sunday, and Becca and Erin went to see the Spanish steps. Sam cooked dinner for us that evening, we had pasta carbonara and salad. It was great...there was probably enough pasta to feed 12 people. After dinner, the girls got ready to go out and Sam's lacrosse coach, also named Fabio, came to pick us up. Will and Sam walked to the Trevi fountain and we got to go in a car and meet them there. The fountain was my favorite thing I saw in Rome for sure. It was so beautiful all lit up. While hanging out there we met some other traveling Americans. They said they had been to Barcelona for a couple of days and it was one of their favorite cities in all of Europe. I saved one of their names in my cell phone so we could be Facebook friends. So I have a new friend from California that I met at the Trevi fountain. Pretty cool if you ask me.
On Monday, Will, Becca, Erin and I went to grab lunch at a little cafe near the apartment because Sam had class during the afternoon. We walked around a little while, then I took a nap and they went to see a church. I like churches, but I've seen a lot of them and I was out till 5:30 in the morning the night before, so napping won that day. When I woke up, we all went to get gelato. I had 2 flavors, pesca (peach) and something that starts with an F that I can't remember, but it was just milk/cream flavored. It was soooooo yummy and very cheap -- I wish ice cream in Barcelona was that cheap. After gelato we went to the grocery store and it was my turn to cook dinner for the group. I made shell pasta with sauteed onion, garlic, and zucchini with 2 types of cheese melted in. I don't want to brag, but...you know. We sat and had some wine and digested for a while, then waited for Sam's friend Jessica to come over. When she got there, we all went up to the roof of the building and listened to music and looked at the views of the city. It was really nice and felt good outside. It was a good relaxing final night in Rome. On Tuesday, we bought slow train tickets back to Pisa, which takes 4 hours, then we had to sit at the airport for about 3. At least there was good shopping in the Pisa airport. Becca and I each bought a little bag of tricolor farfalle pasta to give to our host mom (she LOVED that, we had it for lunch & it was so good) and I also bought a wedge of parmigiano because I'm a cheese freak, obviously. Anyway, we slept on the slow train, ate pizza and shopped in the airport, then took the 1-hr bus trip from Girona airport back to Barcelona. At that point, at the bus station, we were maybe 6 or 7 blocks from our apartment, but too exhausted to walk so we got a cab.
Today was our first day of the new session of school. We are in the same classes, Art and Cinema. I already like class so much better than last time. It's so much more interesting to watch Spanish films and talk about Spanish art and architecture than it is to study verb tenses. We have a different professor for each class, and they are both very nice and patient. After school, we came home and ate delicious Italian pasta with mushrooms and ham, and then Becca went to meet some friends at the beach while I went to get my hair cut. After some intense google searching, I found somewhere that spoke English (I want to practice my Spanish as much as possible, but when it comes to my hair it's too important for mistakes!) and headed over. It was really cool inside, decorated with exposed pipes and brick and big ornate gold mirrors on the walls. Marco cut my hair and he was incredibly nice. He did a great job with my layers (because I'm sure you care about that), so although it was a little pricey, it was necessary and I'm happy with the results :)
Tonight I think we're going to L'Ovella Negra pub to meet some new people from school, and hopefully some locals or people from other countries.
I love and miss you all. 1 more month here!

XXOO
Leah

Pisa and Rome

Buongiorno. I think that's how you spell that. I am so exhausted right now but Italy is amazing! We flew to Pisa late the night of our final exam (Thurs) and met Sam at the airport. Our hostel was a 10 minute cab ride, and we shared a room with 2 guys from Germany and a girl from Australia. It was very cheap but I had a pretty crappy night's sleep since it was really hot and we had the window open so it became very noisy outside around 6am. We all woke up and got ready around 10 so we could check out by 11. The only thing on our agenda was to see the leaning tower of Pisa, so we went to buy our train ticket to Rome and headed that direction. The tower was really cool to see. We took lots of pictures, as always, and did a little souvenir shopping along the side streets. Our train didn't leave until 3:45, and at this point it was only 1 or so, so we went to get our luggage from the hostel and go somewhere to eat. Everything Italian was mostly closed at that point, like things are during Spanish siesta, but we found a really good kebob place to eat at. I had a chicken sandwich that was kind of like a chicken gyro with yogurt sauce and it was tasty. Then we found a minimart and bought some wine for the 4-hour train ride to Rome. We opted for the slow train, which takes 4 hours instead of the fast 1-hour because it saves you about 30 euros. Plus, it's not like it's a drag to take a train through the Italian countryside. The train car was air conditioned and had nice seats, so I have no complaints. After arriving in Rome, we met up with Erin who had arrived in Rome a few hours before, and checked her and Becca into the hostel. Sam and I went to the apartment we are staying at and took showers and hung around. We didn't feel much like going out because the day of traveling kind of took the energy out of us. The next morning (today) we woke up around 10 and showered and got ready, then waited for Will to arrive from England. He showed up around 1, and we went to the metro to go to the Colosseum. We purchased a ticket that allowed entry to the Roman Forum, the Palatine hill, and the Colosseum. It was crazy hot outside, but I've heard it's been over 100 in Texas almost every day this month...not quite THAT bad. After walking around and seeing the ruins and the Colosseum, I was dying because we hadn't eaten anything and it was around 4. We then took another bus to the Pantheon and ate pizza at a small restaurant next to it. The waiter was very taken with Becca and kissed her hand when we left. When he gave us the bill he also brought a bottle of Italian "sexy wine" for us and said it was free. It was pretty good, strawberry flavored wine, normally 15 euro so I guess we got lucky. Or it was because he liked Becca. Anyway, now I'm just at the apartment resting, the girls are at the hostel, and Sam, Will, and Fabio (the son of Sam's family friends) are at the market buying things to make pasta carbonara for dinner. Not a bad little vacation at all. I hope everything is great at home! Good times here and many more to come.

LKP

D.O.N.E.

Session 1 of school is officially over. I just took my final exam and it was actually really hard...but I didn't study that much. Probably not what my family wants to hear, but I only need a 50 to pass and it transfers back to A&M as pass only, not a grade. The grading scale is very different here, and the whole exam is out of 10 points. I got a 7,10 out of 10 on the midterm, whatever that means. On my grade conversion chart it says I got a B, so that's cool. Anyway, I liked my class but I can't honestly say I'll miss it. I'm ready for new people to come for session 2 and have new classes. I'm taking Art and Cinema next time, which is a whole lot more interesting to me than grammar and language. Plus, we found out classes are a lot shorter. This time was 9am-2pm M-F, and next time it's only 10:45-2:15 M-F. And Becca and I are in the same classes this time, too.
Well, our flight leaves tonight at 10:30 but it's out of Girona airport, 1 hr 15 min away. We plan to leave our apartment at around 6:15, grab the bus to Estacio Nord bus station to the airport, where we should arrive around 8. Our flight boards at 10:05pm and we get to Pisa, Italy at almost midnight. Sam is going to meet us there and then we have a hostel for the night. Tomorrow we will go see the leaning tower, have lunch, and get on a train to Rome. Erin is flying from Bcn to meet us in Rome on Friday, and my other friend Will is flying in from London on Saturday. We are hoping to go to the beach at Sorrento on Sunday, but we'll see what we feel like doing. Yesterday morning I booked another flight (definitely the last trip I can afford) to go to Sardinia with Sam. It's a beach on the Italian coast and it looks pretty incredible from what I can tell on Google images. The family he is staying with have a house there and they are letting us stay there. I'm flying in Friday night, July 8, and staying until Monday July 11th. He'll be staying there and flying into Barcelona July 14th so we can show him around the city. :)
Anyway, done with session 1 of school and it feels good! Only 1 month and one week left of my summer in Spain. And so much left to do!
Mom--talked to Marla Tonsi a little bit on Facebook and told her about my trip. She told me to tell you and Dad hi for her.

XXOO
Leah