Nothing too exciting to post except some pictures of flowers I took while at the Botanical gardens this weekend. Not everything was bloomed because it's not totally spring yet, but that didn't stop me from finding some beautiful ones.
That picture is what I could have taken if I went to Madrid, but alas I did not. Why did I not go to Madrid? A lovely upper respiratory infection and Avery and I sleeping through our alarms, even though I am almost positive I shut them off in the middle of the night while I was sleeping. So instead of exploring a beautiful city I explored my beautiful apartment walls. BUT BUT BUT I did go to the cutest doctor and the most interesting doctors office ever!! His name is Dr. Saval and he is a older gentlemen who spoke remarkably well english, but slipped in some spanish so we could have some spanish convo. Practica! The office was in an apartment building and nothing about the office felt office-y. The walls were lined with book shelves filled with old, probably boring books, but nonetheless it was such a homey and cool office. He kept laughing at me because I was just looking around the room the whole time. He told me it was originally his father's apartment before the spanish civil war in the 30's. His father was also a physician and would see patients the same rooms. HOW COOL? I don't know if I'm being a dweeb or not, but I throughly enjoyed my doctor visit and felt a whole lot better after leaving. Here are some creepy pictures I took when he wasn't looking. You can't get a true feel of the office, but you get the jist.
OH! and he called me the next day to see how I was feeling! I don't know any doctors that have ever done that for me before. Might have to bring Dr. Saval back to NJ with me. No worries everyone, I am doing A-OK and am planning to do one or two day trips this weekend to make up for missing out on a weekend in Madrid. I know I have not traveled much compared to everyone else abroad, but I am genuinely enjoying my time in Barcelona and am really happy to spend my weekends here sitting at a park or walking through the streets (shopping). I will do my traveling when mi familia comes. Until the next time I have something remotely interesting to say, Mandy :):) Ten days since my last post and it feels like yesterday I was a blonde at Carnival! 😥 Time is going way too fast. If anyone knows a way to stop time please let me know. The weather is starting to get warmer (yay). So Barceloneta get ready for me! I've never lived so close to a beach and I plan on abusing the privilege. I am starting to come to the end of my Barcelona check list of things to see and do. Most everything is free and everything that costs money I'm waiting to do when my lovely, generous, amazing, cool parents come. ;) Last weekend was a pretty relaxing weekend for me. Jess and I went to the beach, ate some french fries, and soaked up some sun. Avery and Katie both had friends visiting so we all hung out and went out together. One thing that I love about meeting other kids from different universities is figuring out the mutual friends we have. It's like a game everyone plays when meeting someone new. On Tuesday I met up with an awesome spanish girl Alba, who Mike Petruccelli introduced me to, for dinner. We went to a restaurant called Meatpacking Bistro and I had delicious spaghetti that I'm just remembering I forgot to eat the left overs... is it gross if I eat it now? It's not. It's still delicious. Anyways, I spoke spanish during dinner for parts of it and she was really helpful with correcting me. I am so thankful that I have an actual spanish friend I can talk to! Speaking of spanish friends, I went to an intercambio on Friday with Clara. Clara is in my UB spanish class. An intercambio is when students who speak different languages and are learning new ones go to talk to native speakers of whatever language they want to speak and become friends well possibly. I put my name and email down on a list for a group so whoever wants to meet up can! So, I'm waiting to get news of that so I can continue my quest for true spanish friends. This weekend was beautiful. Friday I let myself sleep in and then hiked up to Bunker del Carmel with Sara, Avery, and Avery's friends. Some advice: don't wear jeans to hike. The view of Barcelona was beautiful as are the other 10 places you can see the whole city. We watched the sunset then got some empanadas for dinner. Saturday Sara and I went to the beach for the day. Sunday, Avery, her friends, and I went to Parc Ciutadella and then the beach. I've been beachin' it alot. I swear I study too. Overall this weekend was relaxing and fun. Next weekend is Madrid! Until then.. xoxo It's been ten days and I apologize (mom). I have been lucky enough to be a part of two awesome Barca traditions, a FC Barca game and Carnaval! Sunday: My friends and I went to the Barca game against Almeria that they won 4-1 in a non surprisingly keep away game. It was so fun to see the famous Camp Nou (even though it's just as big as Bryant Denny). Although the game wasn't the most exciting that Barca has to offer, it was still super cool especially seeing Messi so close! (well not that close but we were right behind the goal) Last night (Tuesday) was the final night of Carnaval and Avery, Erica and I took a 40 minute train to Sitges, a beach town that is known for their carnaval activities. We all dressed up weird well more Avery and I. Erica looked cute. Carnaval is basically halloween for Europeans. Everyone dresses up like animals or fictional characters or celebrities, and amazingly they actually care about the costume and not how much skin they show! I don't really know what I was, but I've always wanted to wear a wig/be blonde and wear fake eyelashes so check those things off the bucket list, along with my nose piercing that I haven't written about because my parents only just found out hehe. Unfortunately there was a stomach bug going around my apartment and although I thankfully did not get it I wasn't feeling well all day and lucky Avery actually had the bug so we weren't feeling 110% and decided not to spend the whole night there. Also unfortunate was the fact that we were not paying attention to the time and had to sprint to the train station before the last train came. The trains stopped for like 3 hours so it was really important to get there and it was also realllllllllllllly tiring. I need to workout. Here are some pix! Hasta Luegoooooooooooooooooooo
xoxoxoxo |