Sophia Wagner Serrano

Dad and I went to see La Pedrera/Casa Mila, one of Gaudi's most famous buildings. I highly recommend going in person, as there is something truly magical about experiencing such fantastic architectural spaces. The roof is the most famous, but the apartment downstairs was wonderful as well. Mont Serrat is a wonderful church town up in the mountains about an hour outside of Barcelona. The church is famous for having a black Mother and Child idol, which hundreds of people line up to see every day. The town is nestled up in one of the peaks and many people travel from all over to pay homage to this beautiful and spiritual place. Overall these were two of the most beautiful sites I've ever seen in my life and was so glad to share it with my ... read more

I was really lucky to have my dad come visit this week. His visit also coincides with la Merce, Barcelona's most famous festival. According to legend (and if I'm translating Catalan correctly), the virgin appeared to Jaume I, Sant Pere Nolasc, i Sant Ramon de Penyafort asking them to create an order of monks to save imprisoned Christians by Sarraïns. Then later in 1687, Barcelona had a terrible locust plague and was on the verge of overall collapse and decay when they put their hope and salvation to la Mare de Déu de la Mercè (the virgin). When the plague cleared they declared her the copatron saint of Barcelona. The tradition of festival that is used today was first started in 1902, but as civil war and then Franco opression of Catalunya culture took hold, it ... read more

and lastly here is the parliment. This is about two blocks from the Residencia and next to the very famous Arc di Triomf (more pictures of that will be up soon) Apparently Spain votes by party and not delegate, once the party wins a delegate is selected. However I found it interesting how the relations between gobierno autonoma (state) and nacional are different from the structure of the states. Because the Spanish government is so fresh, there is still a lot of debate on how much power should be given to the states versus nationally. Also our guide said that there are some very important bills to be going through the government in the next few years that will be deciding just how much the autonoma's can do. otherwise I really enjoyed the tour, but preferred ... read more

Today we toured the Universitat de Barcelona today and it was a really beautiful campus. It was originally 1450 and has over 62,000 students right now. I should be taking a film or politics class there but haven't picked them out. Cecilia is also going to take classes there and I made her stand next to the beautiful Japanese fish pond :) we then went up into the library where we couldn't take pictures, but the wall were lined with giant old handwritten books in cases from 1450's and early religious texts. On the other sides there are all old iron spiral staircases leading into book stacks. Afterwards we went around to the more modern buildings, which were also impressive, there is one glass structure that goes out like an curve so the side is concave ... read more