All of October...it's going by fast!

So, i haven't blogged in a while so I've got a lot to get caught up on. First of all, my hard drive crashed last week...in the middle of midterms..such good timing. Anyways, I'm not able to upload any of my pictures until I get it back, which is supposed to be later this week. Thankfully, daniela is letting me use her ipad for email and facebook, so i can still keep in touvh with home! So basically, as of now, just text, but I'll get pictures up as soon as I can!

I did a wine tasting about a month ago through IES which was really fun! I learned a lot about wines, and now am able to really see differences in them. We started off with a cava, which is similar to champagne. It's from Spain though and made with different grapes. I learned that a tasting should always go from lightest to heaviest, and sparkling is the lightest. We studied how long it takes for the bubbles to reach the top. Next, we tried a white wine. With this one, we learned how to oscillate, and we also learned about brightness and the proper way to smell the wine. This way, you get the full flavor. This particular wine was made with peaches as well as grapes, and it was very obvious from the scent. Next we had two different red wines an old (5 years)and a young (1 year). It was incredible the difference between the two. The older was so much darker, bolder, and more dense than the other. It was also the clear favorite of the group. I plan on bringing a bottle home with me at the end!

A lot of my IES classes consist of field studies, which are basically like field trips from elementary school...except they usually have some extra work attached to them. With my food class, one of our trips was to a cooking class in the back of the boqueria. This was different than any cooking that I had ever experienced. We had been warned that we would be cooking with sardines...but just not the full extent. Basically, we ended up having to clean the fish...entirely. I don't usually touch any type of raw meat, so I'm actually kind of proud that i completed the task. Basically I had to get all of the scales off of the fish..then comes the scary part. I had to dehead the fish.....by hand. And take all of it's insides out. It was quite the experience. Although I took the longest of anyone...I had a hard time wrapping my mind around tearing somethings head off...I did finish! Afterwards, we all tried the sardines, and they were actually really good.

Another field study..with a little less fish guts..was a trip with my sports class to the RCD Espanyol stadium. This is the second, much less well known team, from Barcelona. The tour was actually very interesting. Although I know nothing about any of the players, it was interesting to see how the stadium is used. Were actually studying this in my class, but these stadiums have to generate a lot of money in order to pay for themselves. This particular stadium had just hosted a huge Black Eyed Peas concert this summer, and everyone there was super excited about that fact. They're also thinking of turning part of it into a hotel?...not too sure about that, but oh well.

I also had to do an independent field study to the FC Barcelona stadium. This one was obviously much larger, and is home to a few more well known players. I didn't know that the FC Barcelona club also has a basketball team. It's the one that Ricky Rubio plays on and they actually just beat the lakers a few weeks ago. Basically I was most excited to get my picture in the stadium here, and I'm looking forward to going to a game. I bought my ticket for the November 10 one and I can't wait!

This past week was midterm week, so the weekend before, as a study break, a group of girls and I went to Sitges, a small beach town about an hour train. Ride away from Barcelona. It's a beautiful town with lots of cute shops and restaurants. We decided to get paella and sangria from a place that my Spanish teacher had recommended called Santa Maria. The way that the restaurant works is that if more than one person orders the same type of paella, then they just increase the size of the dish. So, 4 of us end up ordering the Same type, so basically the dish was about the size of the table. It was a really pretty dish, but we were not able to eat but about half of it. However, it was a great relaxing way to spend the weekend before midterms.

Finally, midterm week was over!..I think I did alright, just ended the week, computer less but hopefully that will be resolved soon. Anyways, on Friday after giving my Spanish presentation, my last assignment of the week, I took a long nap. Daniela and I the. Went to a famous tortilla (or what we would call omlettes) restaurant called Flash Flash. It was a really cute place with every type of omlette that you can imagine. I ended up getting a tortilla espanola with jam on iberico, which is an omlette with potatoes and iberic ham. It was delicious! We then went to check out a park on the other side of town called parc del laberinto. It was a huge park, famous for it's labyrinth made of tall hedges. We failed miserably at trying to reach the center, but we did give it two valiant efforts.

Saturday was a scheduled trip with IES to Montserrat, a mountain town about 45 minutes outside of Barcelona. The mountains there were incredible. They really looked like they were from another planet or something. We ended up taking an "amateur" hike to the top of the mountain. The entire way up consisted of stairs...it was like the stair master times 10...a good workout haha. The top had incredible views where you could see for miles, so that was really nice. After a quick lunch in the cafeteria, we had a tour of the church and famous monastery of Montserrat. The church is famous throughout Spain for it's "Madonna negra" or the black Madonna. Originally, her skin was not black. She was put in a cave to be protected during the wars, and when she was removed, all of her skin had changes color. We were all able to touch her hand and request a prayer from her. It is said that the Barcelona coach came here before their match in Rome for the champions league?..not sure if that's the right tournament, but they ended up winning!

I'm all caught up now! This weekend I'm going to Paris for my 4 day weekend and I can't wait!
I'll hopefully have pictures on here before I leave!

When in Rome......

This past weekend was my first trip outside of IES.  Daniela and I left Thursday night for Rome for a 3 day weekend!  It was really exciting to be going somewhere on our own.
On Thursday, I rushed home from class to pick up my bags.  We then took the metro to a different train that takes us straight to the airport.  We went through security with no problems and then sat down at a cafe to eat our tortilla espanola bocadillos and apple that Angeles had packed for us.  Soon after, we were on the plane on the way to Rome!!  We arrived around 10:30 that night and took a cab to our hostel.  The hostel was not exactly like the pictures online..which wasn't too surprising.  However, we were shocked to find out that we didn't get locks for our luggage closet.  Luckily, nothing was taken all weekend, but it was kind of unsettling.  Daniela's boyfriend, Ben, who's studying in Rome, came to meet us in order to take us to meet up with some other IES students at an apartment.  We learned the hard way that night that public transportation in Rome in nothing compared to Barcelona.  We walked forever and none of the buses or trams that we needed came our way.  We finally ended up taking a cab back because we were so tired.  When we got to the hostel, we were surprised to find that when we lay down in our beds that it just about sank to the ground...hmmm, so comfy!! haha
We woke up really early on Friday so that we would be able to beat the crowd to the Vatican Museum.  After a cappuccino and croissant, we headed to the Vatican, which was very close to where our hostel was located. 
The museum was really impressive, and a lot of it was familiar from when I went to Rome with my family 3 years ago.  The views of St. Peter's basilica are very impressive.  After the museum, we went inside the basilica, which was amazing.  A lot of my pictures don't do it justice because they are too dark, but everything inside is beautiful.  We also took lots of pictures in St. Peter's square, which was one of my favorite places in Rome.




After this tour, we went to a great pasta restaurant.  I had linguine with pesto sauce and it was perfect.  We then went to see the Pantheon, the oldest church in Rome.  It is known for its architectural structure and hole in the ceiling. 


We then took a break, sitting and relaxing in front of the Piazza Venezia, or what is more commonly known as the "wedding cake" building. 
After this, we walked to see Trevi fountain.  This was also one of my favorites.  The sculptures are incredible.  We were also lucky to be there while they were promoting the Broadway version of Beauty and the Beast.  All of the girls got roses and Beauty and the Beast were in a horse drawn carriage!
We then took another break getting a gelato and sitting on the Spanish steps.  Rome is a lot harder to walk than Barcelona due to the cobblestone streets.  Our feet were pretty worn out at the end of the day.
After this, we went back to the hostel to rest and get ready for the night.  We had pizza at a great restaurant called "Dar Poeta."  Everything was delicious and we sat beside probably the most well-traveled couple that I have ever met.  They were Irish and had been to more states then I have.
We got to sleep in a little longer on Saturday, and on the way to the bus, Daniela and I stopped to have a cappuccino.  We then took the bus to the Roman Forum and Collusuim area.  My favorite site of the whole trip was probably the Roman Forum.  The ruins there were amazing and it was fun to be able to walk through what used to be the center of Rome.

The Collusium was also amazing and I got some great photos there!
After this, we got some pasta at a nearby restaurant, and then walked around the area.  We then headed back to the hostel to rest and change for the night.  Ben's host mom had invited us over for drinks, so we got to see a different area of the city and meet some really fun people.  Patrizia served us red wine and snacks, and we had some really funny conversations.  The best part of this visit was when we tried to get a picture with everyone...including their dog.  It was really funny to see Patrizia's reactions to when the dog wouldn't behave.
After this, we got some dinner at a nearby restaurant.  We had spaghetti and tiramisu..it was delicious!  After dinner, we tried to go to a Roman nightclub.  When we went to the area, we were the only people that didn't speak Italian, and we learned that the entrance fee was much more than we were used to paying in Barcelona.  So, we opted to go to different bars in the city.  The night ended up being pretty fun!!
On Sunday morning, we had to check out of our hostel.  We then went to drop our bags off at Ben's homestay so we wouldn't have to carry them all day.  We got some lunch at the same place that we went on Friday...the pasta was great again!!  After this, we took a bus to a really pretty lookout and park area and relaxed for a while before returning to the airport. 

The plane ride home was pretty interesting.  I'm convinced that the Ryanair staff forgot about our flight because there was not a single employee in the terminal until 30 minutes after when we were supposed to board the plane.  However, we got home safely, just a little later than what we were expecting.  Overall, the weekend was a success!!