Barcelona and some other adventures!

Like India said, we had an awesome time shopping on Friday night. I was supposed to go to Barcelona to visit Silvia's dad, but we decided to leave in the morning instead. While India was off on other adventures on Saturday, I was in the car with Laura, my little sister who is currently on crutches with a foot injury, and Silvia who sat up front with her dad. Mariano is my host dad's name and he is so amazing! He is a hysterical and loves to try to talk to me in English even though he commonly confuses kitchen with chicken.

The ride to Barcelona was unbelievably long and although I lost track of time, we got to the city at around 4:00 in the afternoon. He drove us to the top of a huge hill and we walked to the very peak where we got to look over the entire city and at the ocean beyond! It was so pretty and so enormous! After that, we met up with his girlfriend, Loli, and I got situated in my room at their cute apartment.

It became clear that the reason we went to Barcelona was so that I could see the city. For hours later on, we walked around through all of the famous streets and looked at lots of cool buildings and old churches. I love the street performers here in Spain! People make a show and career out of dressing up with props and face paint and standing frozen in the streets. People give money to take pictures and pose with the "statues." Silvia and I were too nervous to go up to any of them to take pictures, but I got one photo of a couple who painted themselves silver and propped a bed up in the middle of the street where they pretended to sleep! It was so cool!

After much sight-seeing and a rest stop at their favorite coffee place, Starbucks, we headed back home and went right to bed. In the morning, Silvia and I woke up a little on the early side to go out into Barcelona again with her friend. He lives in Barcelona so he drove us around to see Sagrada Familia, a famous church, and then we stopped at a little cafe for cokes and to hang out. We went back home again in the afternoon to get ready for our ride home! The drive seemed even longer this time and we got home just in time for kisses from Marimar (host mom) and huevos fritos con aceite de oliva, salchichas y pan. This consists of fried eggs, olive oil, sausages and lots of bread! I thought it was delicious!

Today, I was excited for school and to see India! My first two classes were Language and Social Studies which were very hard to sit through. Then I had English class. Rosa Marie has been out for the past week with a cold, so we had class for the first time in over a week! She made me read paragraphs aloud in Spanish and then translate them on the spot into English. It was really hard and embarrassing when everyone laughed at my pronunciation, but thankfully Rosa Marie does not speak perfect English and she couldn't tell when I was making up my translations!

At recreo time, India and I talked with some friends and taught Laura to sing Tik Tok by Keisha. It was thoroughly entertaining. India and I have decided that besicos are the way to go. We have grown to LOVE greeting people with kisses on the cheeks! Although our first encounters were awkward and we couldn't stop laughing, now we give besicos whenever we get the chance! We are having a hard time remembering how weird it is to give kisses in the states, so I guess we'll have to see when we get back. At least we'll have each other in case everyone else thinks it's strange.

I have been practicing the Spanish poem for school with my family. They help me with my pronunciation so that I sound like a true Spaniard by lisping all of the words with S in them. Laura likes to laugh hysterically every time I say the author of the poem, Juana de Ibarbourou, which makes me really embarrassed, but it's so fun to get Spanish lessons!

Today at school we had two hours of library time in the afternoon today, and we listened to Chemistry podcasts and tried to ignore EVERY SINGLE freshmen who insisted on staring. We can't figure it out, but for some reason, no one cares if they get caught staring... they don't even look away! We had two girls pointing and whispering about us. Two boys talking audibly about how we were probably just listening to music and not doing any work with our headphones in, and another boy in the back of the room was staring and blowing kisses. I wonder what India will do when she is alone in the library for her last week!

We went to the gym today and saw Colorado kid. We met him the first day at the gym when he came up to us because we spoke English. We talked really awkwardly while Silvia hummed and laughed to make things worse. Turns out... his name is Nicholas and he wants to hang out this weekend at a disco or a park in town. Good thing we had an excuse... but a sad one! I'm getting ready to leave for Connecticut this weekend! How depressing!

I told Silvia that I am going to miss her so so much and she invited me to live with her.... I'm glad I have options. But at dinner tonight where we had emenadillas with salchichas, peaches and licorice rice (don't ask me), we talked about how sad we're all going to be!

I am having so much fun but I can't wait to see all my American friends and family!
besicos besicos and more besicos