El empujon

I woke up early today in order to get to the IES center to sign-up for a trip! I ended up signing up for the trip to San Sebastian and Bilbao in the Basque country, which is going to be 22-24 of February. I'm excited for that. The speak a totally different language there, so I figured it would just be easier to have IES help me up there.

Afterwards Gaby, Christen and I went to this little coffee shop down the street from the center for un cafe con leche y un croissant con chocolate. Mmm. It was a fun place with tile floors a la Gaudi, and music videos on the tv screens. It's really odd, there are slot machines all over the place in Barcelona. In almost every cafe, etc. I don't know why, I'll have to do some investigating.

We had Spanish class afterwards and learned about safety in Barcelona. Due to the fact that weapons aren't sold as freely as they are in the United States, there is much much less violent crime, but lots and lots of pick-pocketing. So we learned what techniques ladrones use to steal from you, and how to be careful. We also learned which areas not to go at night and which areas we need to be alert in. It was helpful. Then we learned about classroom etiquette in Spain. It's rude to eat dinner class, to leave to go to the bathroom, etc. It's much stricter than I thought it would be. I don't really have a problem with it, but it's interesting. We have our first homework (gasp!), but it's just a few translations, and Aaron and I are going to work on it together since he's in my class. Tomorrow we are going on a Modernisme tour with our class, which will be fun.

After class we walked down Las Ramblas. We walked around the big market, La Boqueria, and got some lunch. I had a plate of patatas bravas. Yummers. Then we came back to the IES Center to sign-up for activities. Tina, Aaron, John and I signed up for a Spanish cooking class and a wine tasting class. I'm excited for both. There's suddenly so many things to look forward to!

I came home and hung out for awhile. I'm trying to organize my life and plan ahead with trips and stuff. Caitlyn came over to visit finally, and we talked for awhile. That was nice. :-) Then Holly and I made dinner with a little bit of help from John and Christen. Pasta with chicken---pretty plain, but hey, you have to start somewhere right?

Another lazy night---I guess Mondays aren't too crazy here? I don't really know. But it feels good to relax.

xoxo