Hola Barca!

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Oh Barcelona you are so beautiful.

We were warned our first day to wear a coat if we went outside because it was so cold. So cold in Barcelona = MN in May...with palm trees. CIEE ( the company I am studying with) had an action packed day starting at 8am which was full of orientation/info sessions. The extremely friendly staff at CIEE is working hard to get me in a homestay, but I was told until monday I had to stay in the Melon District. The people in my program are great. They are from all from different parts of the US with the exception of a formitable representation by Georgetown, Stanford, and 4 of us from Wisconsin. The last night we went out, grabbed a few minutes in an internet cafe, and wondered around this beautiful city. Today we had a 2 hour bus tour schedule, but the professor on my bus (incredibly funny man) instead took us up to Park Guell (the most amazing park I have ever laid eyes on, and which looks over the whole city) where he gave us an entertaining and informative description of city parts, history, etc. Just fantastic.

When we returned we had lunch with our "Guardian Angels" who are students at the university which we will be studying. My guardian angel truly looks like an angel (as most spanish girls seem to) and literally I have been hanging out with and laughing histerically with ever since...very cool gal. Tomorrow is cabalgata de reyes, wikipedia it, but it translates into something like "every barcelonian is buying gifts for their kid and every store is packed. Line to get a cell phone = 2. 5 horas. luckily Mari (my g. angel) took us to another store further away, where we only waited 30 min to get the phone, 30 min to buy the phone, and 45 min to set up the phone...again with the cattle hearding thing...good times.

Afterward we ran back to return in time to leave for our housing, which brings us to the Melon Distric: my Residencia.

I am told that Melon District translates in ingles to Melon District, but I think prision is most appropritate. If you look at the attached pictures I need not say anything more. The phrase "very modern" was used over 7 hundred-thousand times in our introduction to the residencia and after the 578th usage I realized term was a synonym for "Prison like." all other residencia students are in a different building (much nicer and right next to la universitat), and only 3 of us are stuck out here, muuuuuch further away. Please hope with me that CIEE is able to move me soon. I don't see it to be a problem, but it has and will take some fighting and holding my ground.

To put the icing on the cake all my classes are in Spanish! They completely screwed it up. Again, this is fixable, but adds much to the "adventure."


Overall, people are great, and the city is amoung the most beautiful I have every seen. Hands down.

Love and miss you all,
Jon

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