Post for Thursday July 12th

I am definitely enjoying myself more than I could have imagined. I love it so much here! My host family has been amazing. And Barcelona is just winning my heart more and more each day that I’m here. This week I have done so much during school and outside of school that I wish I could live like this always. On Sunday, I went out to see the ancient underground ruins of a Roman market. There are parts where it is said people traded salts/spices, wine, and fish. It was pretty cool to see such tangible historical artifacts.

Then on Monday after school I accidentally got off at the Plaza España metro stop and decided to get out of the station to look around. I am so glad I made that random choice and that I had gotten off at that station because the Harley Davidson festival was going on in front of the Palau de Montjuic. There were so many bikes! And bikers! There were fair rides, food, music, and people just seemed to be in such a great and friendly mood. I enjoyed just walking around and taking pictures of stuff. Eventually I went home though because I was still tired from the long day at school.

On Tuesday night we were invited to a movie by our program directors. It was such a cool experience because the movie took place on top of Montjuic beside the castle. I guess they only show movies there in the summers. We got to watch True Grit which at first I thought was going to be in Catalan because that’s what most people speak here but it was actually shown in English with Catalan subtitles so that made it easy for us to enjoy at least. The ambiance was so delightful. Before the music there was a small band playing music. People were laying in the grass or settling in with their lawn chairs and getting their snacks out. It felt so stress free and informal. I LOVED IT! Afterwards, the walk back to the shuttle buses was nice because it was dark and you could see the cities lights shining in the night.

Yesterday I finally got to go visit Parc Guell! It was the most intricate and amazing park I have seen so far. The only downside was that it was such a hot day and there were so many people there that it was hard to get good pictures of some of the things I wanted to photograph. The park had so much to see. It was so artistically designed that it made walking through its long routes bearable, especially the uphill parts. The top peak of Parc Guell also has a great view of most of Barcelona. I also got to take a picture of the iconic lizard/iguana at the entrance of the park that is featured in so many Barcelona tourist pamphlets.

Today has been an exhausting day but it too was full of wonderful new sights. During my International Marketing class we took a field trip to the Creu Coberta Commerce Association office where we got to listen to a member talk about how the association works and the benefits it provides to the community. We were treated like business men and women. At one point they almost gave us champagne but our professor discouraged them to do so because we are not supposed to drink alcoholic beverages during program activities. After our visit to Creu Coberta, our professor gave us an optional tour to “Arenas de Barcelona”. Arenas is Barcelona’s newest shopping mall which is less than a year old and was built from the old bull fighting ring that used to be there before Barcelona’s ban on bull fighting. It is round 5 story shopping center with very cool and trendy shops. But it’s also quite pricey.

Later I’m finally going to get to see the famous Barcelona Magic Fountain at the Palau de Montjuic. I’ve been anticipating this, but the fountains are only on for the music and color shows on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights, and I missed them last week so I’m making sure I get to see them at least once this weekend.

Jose