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 [View Full Entry]

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I don't have enough for a full album for each place but here are some pictures of what I've been up to lately :) The first ones are from Diada de Independencia which is the national holiday which rallies for Catalunya as an independent nation. The other is from the botanic gardens which sounded like a great exotic place but Barcelona is just too droughted so everything was dead except the one cactus. Otherwise it was a great lookout on the city and probably a great place during rainy season [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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I guess the photos didn't load, let me try one more time :) also I included a pic of the bazar where I buy most odds and ends, they have everything from undies to hardware to sofa but somehow all fits into the 10x10 illegal hole in the wall its operated from [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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On this Sunday I headed over to Park Guell and walked past La Sagrada Familia with Rachel and Cecilia. It is in the Barrio Gracia up on the mountain ridge, which was a lot more strenuous than we had imagined to walk. Though I feel guilty saying it, I was slightly let down by Park Guell. What was around by Gaudi was truly beautiful and amazing and worth it, but most of the park was dry dirt and giant cacti, so there was no place to really relax and sit except for the tourist center. Otherwise here are some beautiful sites [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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Hi All! I've arrived in Barcelona and am slowly getting settled in here in this country. After arriving in my residence, I headed straight to the beach to check out the restaurants and beaches. I will write more once I've set up everything, here are a few pics of the shore. [View Full Entry]

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