School has started...

First week of school!

So Monday was my first day of school, and all I had was Spanish nivel d (which is equivalent to advanced Spanish 4). Upon entering the class, I realized that everybody in the class was basically bilingual, and most spoke Spanish at home. I was like the lone white girl with an American accent while the rest could speak really well. I was worried in class, but I talked to my teacher after class and she thought that I should stay in the class. I was worried for the next two days about that class, but I talked to my teacher 3 days in a row, asking her if she really thought I should be in that class, and each time she said that she thought I should, so I am sticking it out. It is going to be a really challenging class, but I feel that by the end, I should be almost fluent. Oh and I found out that I wasn’t just in Spanish D. There are two sections of Spanish D, a normal one, and then a D+. I am in the D+ class, which is the most advanced class offered by the school. So nervous! But my teacher has faith in me, so hopefully I will do okay.

As for my economics classes, I am taking International Economics and Understanding the European Union. Both are taught by the same teacher. He is from Haiti and has a strange accent, but it seems like the classes should be okay. The one about the EU sounds more interesting because it is less theoretical and more about current events. I have Alex and Goose in my international econ class, and Goose and Lauren in my EU class, so at least I have friends in those classes.

As for other interesting things that happened this week, on Tuesday, Lauren and I went over to the apartment of Hannah, Emily, and Briar, where we had baguettes, cheese, salami and other various meat, and wine. And they are apparently friends with some Spanish locals (David, Abdul, and Xavi), so they came over. David and Xavi work at the Copa Café (the café right next to their apartment). David brought over his guitar, so he sang songs to us, and then Emily sang some songs too. Also, we tried speaking only in Spanish to them, so it was a great way to practice. And when we reverted to English, it was good for the boys to practice their English. Overall, it was a really fun night.

On Thursday, we went to a “Pub Crawl” and most of the people in GSE went, so it was nice to get about 20 of us from the program all together. The pub crawl was supposed to take us to four different pubs and then end up at a club. We went to one really cute Irish pub, which was actually full of Irish travelers, so that was fun. Overall, the pubs were quite touristy and we ended up speaking English the whole night. Lauren, Noelle, Hannah, and I got tired before the tour finished, so we went home after about the third pub. It was great to get to see everyone in the program again, but the whole thing was a little too touristy for my taste. I would rather be meeting locals and practicing my Spanish, but altogether it was still a fun night.

Finally, on Friday, the eight of us in Nacion decided to make a trip to Montjuic (technical translation: Mountain of the Jews). It is one of the tallest places in the city, with incredible views of the Mediterranean and of Barcelona. We decided it would be really pretty to take the tram up to Montjuic at sunset, so we had ate lunch around 3:30 (normal for the Spanish) at a little place off of the Parallel Metro Stop. Lauren, Noelle, Ashley, and I decided to try paella! Paella is a famous Spanish dish that everybody says you should try when visiting Spain. I thought it was good, but I think because it was a rice dish similar to Jambalaya, I was expecting a flavor like that, and the Paella didn’t have as much zest, so I was slightly disappointed. But everybody else seemed to like it, so I think my expectations were a little too high.

After lunch, we took the tram up to Monjuic. We rode in these little cable car/gondola things, so we got a great view of the city. Once up there, we walked around and explored, and took lots of pictures. It was amazing to see out over the ocean, and get to see the entirety of Barcelona! At times like that, its unbelievable that I get to live here. During our exploration, we somehow got on a trail that led down the hill. Alex and Goose had walked ahead of us, so we thought they were walking down the hill too, so we continued down, but then we got a call from them saying that they were at the top taking a tour of the castle. We had already walked down the entire hill, so we kept walking and tried to find a metro station. We got a lot of pretty views, but on the whole, so didn’t get to see much of Monjuic and will have to go back to see the castle and the art museum. After walking for about an hour and a half around the area, trying to get down the hill and to the metro, we finally found a metro station. It was a really long walk and all of us were happy to have found the metro. We were exhausted once we got home, and Jess was sick, so we all called it a night and hung out at the apartment.

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