I had a dream last night that I had to leave Barcelona and go home for no reason and I was hysterical (not because I was home... duh, I miss everyone so much!) saying that there was still so much more to see and I didn't know if I would ever see it again. It was really sad... but I think the meaning behind that (mom, I'm sure you have your own interpretation of it) is that I feel like there is so much to see and do here, and I only have a limited amount of time. Besides sleeping in pretty late we are really trying to take advantage of every minute here. 'Carpe Diem' right?
I just wrote an entry on Friday, but it's 11:00 a.m. and everyone is still sleeping so I thought I would write cause I'm bored...
Saturday morning, we woke up and had to go to the Modernism Tour that our group was having. We were all really looking forward to it. I was feeling a little better, no fever, but still really really out of it. We got our cafe con leches and our favorite guy, Ramon, at our cafe gave me medicine because I told him, "Estoy muy enferma!" It was so cute. We literally have to speak Spanish wherever we go. I thought that more people would speak English, but that is definitely not the case. Its good though because if I was studying abroad anywhere else, I probably would not try as hard to learn the language as I am now.
When we met our group, which was right by our apartment, we were at the Hospital De Sant Pau. (P.s. we learned that the place we went to the day before, Montjuic, was an old Jewish cemetery and its real name is 'Mountain of the Jews'... I thought that was really cool... I'm actually learning that this city had a huge Jewish culture and influence) The hospital is attached to our school and is absolutely stunning. It is NOTHING like hospitals in the states and the architecture, artwork and reasoning behind it is absolutely genius! The hospital was built in 1905 and there are ten different buildings, that were and still somewhat are, each used for different kinds of sicknesses. Their reasoning behind this was a result of the main hospital in the middle of the city, where everyone with any sickness were kept in the same area or building, and everyone (including people outside the hospital) was getting sick and dying. They decided to build a new hospital (and even move some current buildings, brick by brick) to the outskirts of town where it resides today. So each building is for a different group of people, but something really interesting is that each separate building had an underground tunnel that lead to the surgery & ICU part of the hospital... so that if someone needed to be rushed to surgery, they wouldn't have to be rolled outside, up stairs and so on. The design is incredible and since it is so close to school, I can't wait to just go and explore it even more.
After the hospital, we walked over to Sagrada Familia. Now for some reason I felt like the only ignorant one who didn't know what this famous thing was, but I'm pretty sure I stopped breathing for a second when I first saw it, on like the 3rd day we were here.
It is the most breathtaking, intricate and fascinating thing I have ever seen (ok, I know I say that a lot, but honestly this thing is out of control.) It is the cathedral that Gaudi began working on in the late 1800's. He quit all of his other projects (which were many at that time) and dedicated his life to this cathedral. He even lived at the very bottom of it and stopped sleeping and showering... some say that even though he was a complete genius, he was very wierd and not all there. When he died (he got hit by a train car... ouch!) they buried him at the bottom of Sagrada Familia where you can see his tomb today!!! Well you really have to see this thing to even get somewhat of an idea of how incredible it is, but pretty much, every little detail has an explanation (which Jordan, our adviser and tour guide, knew absolutely everything of course) and they have been building it since the late 1800's and will not be finished for another 20 years. It is currently under construction so it kind of kills the mood with all of the cranes and work sites, but it is still a HUGE tourist attraction. We got to go inside and you can go up into the towers. When it is finished, it will be 170 meters tall and the tallest thing in the city. All of this is within walking distance of our apartment.... amazing!
Whew!!! So after that some of us girls went to this souplantation-like restaurant and it was ok... not exactly souplantation but whatev! Then we took the metro to Plaza Catalunya and some of the girls wanted to shop so we did that for a while... but Saturdays are the worst days to do anything because the city is soooo packed! Then we went home and rested up for like four hours. I was feeling much better but knew I should take it easy for the night. I made brown rice and broccoli with teryaki sauce for dinner (I was soo happy they had brown rice!) and we invited a bunch of people over to hang out from our program.
It was really fun and we had all planned on going out together and meeting up with more friends at this bar called Dow Jones. Its a really cool concept, the drinks are all on screens around the bar and they are constantly changing prices... exactly like the stock market. So every time a drink goes down, everyone runs up to the bar and buys it. When we finally made it there (it was such a joke trying to find it with 20 people trailing behind me and lisa cause we were the only ones who knew where to go) it was cool for like the first 15 minutes until i thought I was going to pass out from second hand smoke inhalation so I was over it. We walked with everyone to this other club, really far away, and it was actually a beautiful walk through the city so we really didn't mind. But by the time we got there we were over it and just came home.
Now I am sitting in the living room, waiting for everyone to wake up. We were supposed to go to the Bocarilla today, which is the open air market, but I don't know if we'll make it. We are also planning our trips today so that will be fun. I miss my mom and dad a lot and really wish they were coming sooner. I want to show them everything now because telling them just doesn't do it justice. I am falling in love with this city more and more everyday and I am so lucky (thanks mom and dad) to have this unbelievable experience!!! Until next time...
- Don't cry cause it's over, smile cause it happened
- Switzerland & more... BEST TIME EVER!!!
- :.:Schnitzel and Streudel:.:
- Valencia, kind of like a home away from home...
- Eat ~ Pray ~ Love
