My first Spanish meal! Last week a group of us americans went to cook our first Spanish meal at a cute little kitchen on La Rambla. It was a beautiful kitchen that overlooked one of the busiest streets here in Barcelona. We made all the traditional Spanish dishes. To start, we made a cold tomato soup with fresh tomatoes, peeled and pureed. Topped with parsley, pine nuts, cheese, and aoli sauce. Next we had "pan con tomate" which is served at every meal and at every restaurant here in Barcelona! It´s basically slightly toasted bread with a fresh clove of garlic [View Full Entry]

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This weekend we hopped on a train and went south down to a city named Penedes for the day. The Freixenet Winery is there, which is the worlds largest supplier of cava. Cava is champagne, however apparently nothing can be called champagne unless is it from a specific region in France. Hence why it´s often called sparkling wine, and here, cava. We took a guided tour of the cellars, vinyard, barrels, bottles, and all else involved. Although, the tour was in Spanish so I wasn´t quite able to catch all the details. I´ve been to my fair share of wine tastings, [View Full Entry]

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take a look at this from time to time if your interested in seeing pictures of Barcelona. I realized I have tons of pictures from all my travels and not very much of Barca, so I´ll add it every now and then... [View Full Entry]

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My first futbol game! It was the first game of the playoffs for the 08´ cup. Barca won 1-0!! the stadium is enormous, and they will be renovating it, so next year it will be the second largest stadium in the world! I´ve never seen a sport so relished, it was quite the experience! [View Full Entry]

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I visited Madrid last weekend and found it surprisingly different than Barcelona! The history, people, buildings, metro...todos! Some better, some worse. I went to a couple museums that were extremely captivating (mostly because my guide was fantastic!). Learned endless amounts of history and ancient tales, as well as saw works from artists such as, Goya, Velazquez, and Greco. Oh! I also saw the original "Las Melinas" painting at Museo Prado that we´ve been discussing in every art lesson since I´ve been here! I also visited Palacio Real, where the royal families of Spain have been living up un [View Full Entry]

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I have no photos to do this experience justice. Being such a crazy night, I didnt bring my camera for the high chance of it getting pick-pocketed. However I was able to get a few before the night begun! In spain, they have this week long celebration called Carnaval. The weekends and last day are the best nights to celebrate and although Barcelona enjoys the festivities, no one does it like the town of Sitges (probably because the towns population is something like 45% gays, and we all know gays know how to have a good time!) So, some friends and [View Full Entry]

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This is the park that´s right by my house (about a three minute walk). Mom, you were asking about it so I thought I´d put up some pictures. The whole park was designed by Gaudi. If you look at the pictures of las casas, you will see what the typical style of Gaudi was like. He has much influence all throughout Barcelona and his work is incredible! [View Full Entry]

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My first weekend here, and I was off to Andorra! I was having snowboarding withdrawls already because I just couldn´t turn down the offer even though I hadn´t even settled in yet. I´m very glad I went though, it was beautiful in Andorra and so much fun to get on a board again! There are many old medieval castles to look at in town and the Pryenees are beautiful (thought I still don´t think nearly as great as the Rockies, but I´m probably just being bias!) We went on a greyhound type bus with about 20 american students and 20 local [View Full Entry]

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This is my home here in Barcelona. It´s in a great location that´s very close to the city, yet it´s nestled right at the bottom of the mountains, so it´s a bit quieter which i love! Park Guell, which is a beautifully unique park with odd little houses, pathways and common areas (designed by Gaudi), is only a 3 minute walk from my house. My house, or rather apartment, is also quite the hike to get up to, which i really enjoy (95%) of the time, becuase it´s a really good workout at the end of the day! My favorite part [View Full Entry]

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