I missed Ambialet!!

Wow. What a fun filled week! I don’t even know where to start & can barely recall all that we did!

Wednesday we went to Carcassonne. It’s the oldest walled city in Europe. We visited the Church & such. We also went to an abbey. Then we were off to Narbonne for the night. On the way there I saw these cool Cathar statues (you probably have no idea what I’m talking about, but they have been what we’ve been studying for the past month). We ended up eating at a McDonalds for dinner! That was a nice change. Some good old American food! (: I really did want to get a beer & a happy meal, but I didn’t. So our hotel was rather odd in the respect that it had two beds, but they were bunk beds. So the bottom was a full sized bed & the top a twin. Well Becca & I were in the same room & neither of us wanted the top. I fell off a bunk bed & broke my leg before so I would not do it. Thankfully she took one for the team. But it was still an interesting experience. We watched Iron Man in French! (:

Thursday morning we had some extra time before heading off to Barcelona. I decided to turn on the TV & see what I could find. I found Dora the Explorer! But instead of English & teaching kids Spanish, it was in French teaching kids English! Glad to know that Dora knows what the important language is (: I’m not a tv person but I haven’t watched tv in a month so it was a nice change. We finally finished our ride to Barcelona & checked into our hostel. So on television they make hostels seem horrible, they really aren’t that bad. I enjoyed my first hostel experience, which is good because I’m staying in another on this weekend… There were all 8 of us in one room with one shower, not cool. But it all worked out well. But of course we were on the 6th floor (aka the 7th floor in America). We went to Park Güell. It was pretty unique. He doesn’t believe in 90⁰ angles; so everything is a little slanted. It has a bunch of mosaics which is what I think about when thinking of Spain. We then went off with Dr Woods to get a tour of “medieval Barcelona.” Or at least I think that’s what it was supposed to be. It came to being standing at the Columbus statue & watching a naked man just standing across the street for a good 15 mins. It was just a little random, because I wasn’t expecting that. It’s odd that it’s illegal to wear a bikini/bathing suit in the city, yet it’s legal to walk around naked. Eh, whatever works. We then searched everywhere for somewhere to eat. They finally decided on somewhere. Of course I didn’t like anything that they had, yet I still don’t consider myself a picky eater. I just don’t like choices. So Becca volunteered to go explore with me & find somewhere else to eat. We went to the Pita Hut (they don’t have Pitas). I decided to get a Catalan salad seeing as we were in Catalan. At least I can say I had it & I never have to try it again (: Then we had to attempt to find our way to the rest of the group without being swept up in the crowd/have creepy guys following us. Finally we met up with them & we all went out to the Hard Rock. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the drink that I got (Pop Princess) but it was limited edition for Pinktober and I got a nice souvenir glass (: Then I called it a night.

Friday everyone went out chopping except Gabe & I. Apparently it was good that we didn’t go because their shopping trip was a bit of a flop, but that’s okay. We went to the Gaudi museum (the same guy that made Güell Park. It was very fascinating. I really enjoyed it. After lunch we went to the cathedral he designed. It’s called the Sagrada Famíla. It’s been in the process of being built for the past 120+ years & will take another 15-20 to finish. It’s absolutely gorgeous. From there we split up. The guys & Becca went to the beach, while Melanie, Kerstin, Dr Woods, & I went shopping. We passed a few churches. San Maria del Mar was the most beautiful. Instead of having the crucifix on the altar it was Mary & a ship. Representing how Mary was watching over the merchants/sailors, since they were the ones that built the church. We did get lost getting there so Dr Woods said if we found it she would buy us drinks, and she did. We found a cute little bar & I had my first beer. I have to say that I’m not a fan. It’s a Spanish beer so I had to try it, it was called 1925 something or other (: Apparently everyone else liked it more than any other beer they have ever had, aka I shall never drink beer. We ended up meeting up with everyone for dinner & then went to a Flamenco show. It definitely wasn’t what I was expecting, but still nice. After that we were lame & went back to the hostel for much needed sleep!

Saturday morning I looked everywhere for a post office, finally found it & it was closed. Not cool. I really wanted Spanish stamps to mail my post cards but it didn’t happen =/ We went to Picasso’s museum. It was quite interesting. He really was a pretty decent picture. He did many different renditions of Velasquez’s Les Meninas. At first I wasn’t a fan because he was cooping it, but I found out that many other artists did, including Dali, and it was interesting to see his different takes on the picture. We then went to another museum, Joan Miró. It was modern art so very odd. Becca & I found it to be rather boring so we came up with a game of making up names for the pictures. It was lots of fun, except disappointing when the pictures had completely ridiculous names like’ Painting’ or ‘Untitled.’ A lot of them were called ‘Birds, Women, Stars.’ Like really…It was interesting because there was one called ‘landscape’ & it was just a blue dot off to the top right of the canvas. Another of my favorites was ‘patience,’ it was just a black canvas with the top and one side left white. I mean it definitely would teach you patience by looking at it! Afterwards everyone split off again, Becca & I decided to take the gondola up to the top of Barcelona & look at the castle. It was definitely worth it! It was such a great view. Unfortunately, it was a little hazy. But that’s alright! Becca then wanted to go shopping for an outfit to go clubbing. So I went with her & she went into the dressing room three different times & of course ended up getting the first shirt she tried on. I on the other hand thought everything in that store was a little ‘different’ and had no intentions of buying anything/trying anything on. That’s when I just saw something so hideous that I HAD to try it on. It was a one piece dress thing. It looked like a two piece shirt & skirt combo but it was one piece. So I tried it on & actually really liked it! Of course I ended up buying it & spending too much money. It’s something that people would never wear in the US so I guess that makes it kinda cool! We then went back & got ready. Unfortunately, we missed mass because our shopping took forever. We then went to meet everyone at the Cathedral but of course we got lost, thankfully John found us. No one wanted to go to the Hard Rock, so John, Becca & I went. It was a nice experience. I got a very good drink, Blue Devil, highly recommend it! So then John told us that he wasn’t going out with us but we were forced to stay out until atleast 12:30 am. So we hopped on the subway & failed to realize what stop we were supposed to get off at. By that time we were exhausted & our feet were killing us because we both bought shoes that were too small. It wasn’t fun so we just decided to turn around and go back. I was a little disappointed that I bought the outfit & didn’t go out but I did get some whistles & compliments so it was worth it (: We got back at 1130 & of course John was ‘disappointed’ in us for not staying out. It would have been different if we could get ahold of anyone else to meet up with them. We didn’t want to go out alone. It’s okay.

Sunday morning we checked out of the hostel & finally headed back to Ambialet! We made a pit stop at Salvador Dali’s museum. It was a little too weird for me. The layout was horrible & we all got lost. But it ended up working out. I would say that I like him less now after seeing his art then before. It happens. We finally got back to Ambialet after a 6ish hour car ride, 2 hours of that listening to Ed conjugate French verbs made me want to pull my ears off! But thankfully we all made it back in one piece (: I missed Ambialet! Of course we then had to stay up all night & get all the work done that we failed to do before leaving.

Monday we tried to recouperate from our weekend. We got to present our dialogue for Inquistion & Society. Along with my other two history classes, both of which I swear I fell asleep in, which isn’t good when you are the only student! After that I just needed a break! Of course I didn’t get one & had a much needed break down, but that just makes everything so much better!

Today we had a nice little French test. I actually enjoyed it. Other than the fact that for the listening part of the test we all had completely different answers for. No big deal. It was the first time that I didn’t leave French class hating the French language. So I guess things are getting better (: I could actually understand about 92% of everything she said!! While waiting for Eric to get in from the train station I went down & played with the kitties. We then had our last religion class with him!! :( Of course, half way through I’m feeling all itchy & stuff. I look down & there’s a flea on my notebook!! I freaked out! Of course a few minutes later I ended up finding another one! Halfway through the class we got a ten minute break & I ran into the shower to scrub my hair & wash all my clothes. I washed them on 90 C, which is like 194⁰ F. So I will probably have very shrunk clothes, but I had to make sure the water was hot enough to kill them! So now I’m here, writing this & calling it a night. Off to Moissac tomorrow for our last ‘pilgrimage’ with Eric! I shall miss him!

Sorry it was so long. Haven’t had time to write! <3