B-B-B-Barcelona!

Saturday night I went out with Mireia's niece Mar and a dozen of her friends. They were a bit younger than me, like 17, but I got to practice my castellano and I had a lot of fun. We took the train about halfway to Barcelona and we went to a park. The competition was sort of a Battle of the Bands thing if you will. I met three foreign exchange students, two from Berlin and one from Seattle. We spoke in Spanish since the Germans didn't know English and the American said that she doesn't think in English any more and speaking English is a bit difficult! Wow! They were 17 too and had been there since February. The girl from Seattle said she wanted to go to UBC so we exchanged email addresses. It's a small world after all.

Sunday we went into Barcelona! We left around 11 and were back by three and we were exhausted. We drove by La Sagrada Família so I have now at least seen the exterior of the beast. There were cranes all around it and it at the top of the list of things to do for this next weekend.

We drove around for a bit and it was overwhelming. We stopped at the top of Las Ramblas, the big touristy street with vendors that goes down to the pier. We walked down and to the Barri Gótic (the Gothic Neighborhood). You walk through these alleys that smell like pee and there are really old churches and cathedrals. Complete overstimulation!

Then we walked down to the harbor, very lovely. Then we walked back up to Plaça Reial and had tapas and then drove back to Terrassa and had a big Catalan lunch.

Since it would take me less than an hour to get from this apartment to Las Ramblas my plan for Barcelona is to do one or two things at a time for 3 hours once or twice a week. Next on my list is Sagrada Família.

Today was a typical week day, I had an appointment with an school to see if I can take Spanish classes. It turns out I can't because they start in September and January so they're almost done so instead I am going to put up signs for a language exchange. Should be interesting.

Mireia is going to be gone for a couple of days for school and Miquel went to take pictures Monday evening so it was just me and the kids. Luckily I have someSimpson episodes downloaded on my computer, we've already seen them twice and the kids love them.

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