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