The Abuelos...

So I haven't updated in a few days, but I guess since my grandparents are here, I should. They arrived on Wednesday morning. I was super excited to see them, because it's been a month since I've seen family, which is kind of depressing. I went to see them in between classes at their hotel. We had a quick lunch and then I showed them to El Corte Ingles, which is a place they've wanted to see since they always see commercials for it on the Spanish channel they watch back home. It's like this huge superstore, that has everything you could ever think of. Each of them is about the size of a small mall. Anyway, that day I had class until 7pm, so I didn't get to see them again, but what can you do.

Thursday, I had classes again. Afterwards, I went to see the grandparents and I showed them La Rambla. We were basically just wasting time before dinner. We ended up walking for like an hour though. We walked down the center where they sell animals and paintings, and there are the live statues and stuff. They said parts reminded them of Cuba. Then I showed them the big outdoor market, where they sell fruits, nuts, meat, fish, and a bunch of other food. We got gelato and just explored for a while. Then we kept walking down the Rambla, which ends at the port. I asked them if they wanted to see it, and they said yes, so we walked across the big bridge on the port. Once on the other side, we walked through the mall that is there, and then kind of around. At that point, I was lost, but I didn't exactly wanna freak them out, so I just kept walking like I had a purpose. Once it turned 8, I said that we could go into a restaurant, but I didn't have anything in particular in mind. Everything I thought looked like fun, they thought looked kinda creepy. I dunno. Around that area, all the buildings look like that, and then the inside is the nice part, but whatever. We finally found a place and sat down to eat. The food was pretty good. Then we kept walking until I saw a sign for the Rambla. When we got there, I asked them if they wanted to take the metro back to the hotel, but I think Abuela was scared of it, so they told me they'd rather walk. Then I wanted to take them to a Jazz club, but they didn't really seem interested, so they told me they were tired. I hung out with them in their room for a while and then my friends met me at Plaza Catalunya, which is a few blocks from there.

We met up and decided to go back to the Oveja Negra and have Sangria. After 3 pitchers between 3 people, we were all a bit tipsy. It was pretty entertaining to walk to the club. We were all excited because the club where we had found the good Spanish music was having a college night, so we headed over. However, when we got there, we found out that the Spanish floor was closed for the night. Therefore, we decided to leave after a little bit and head back to the Rambla. We didn't find anything good and it being a week day, the metro was already closed. Since we didn't have a place in mind, we decided to go home. Michelle hadn't come out that night and no one thought it was a good idea for me to walk home at 3am, so I took a taxi, still drunk, back home. Hanna and Katie decided to take the night bus, and had quite an adventure with that. They apparently tried to push the button for the bus to stop, but it was actually an alarm, and yeah..they caused a bit of chaos. Then they thought the bus had stopped but really the bus driver had just stopped to say hi to another bus stop. Hanna jumped off and then Katie got stuck on the bus. It was a mess.

Friday, I went with my grandparents on the Tourist bus to see La Sagrada Familia. That was an interesting experience. We waited on line for half an hour to take the elevator up to the top. They told us it was worth the trip to walk down. However, the elevator definately didn't give away how much exactly we were going to have to walk. If you look at the pictures, you'll understand, but I think we walked down stairs for at least a half hour, no joke. Abuelo's knees gave out at the end, and it was kinda scary. Plus, the bottom part is very dark and he couldn't see where he was going. I felt horrible, but they were good sports about it. Now I know never to recommend that to anyone who has really bad knees. Anyway, we went to lunch aftwards, and then took the tourist bus around the rest of the route, but didn't get off anywhere. They went back to their hotel room and I went off to meet my Intercambio partner.

My partner's name is Gemma. She's a 26 year old teacher from Barcelona. She's really nice, and a lot of fun to talk to. We spoke in Spanish for about an hour, and then English for another, and then walked to a bookstore speaking both. It was really interesting, and I think it should be really helpful in the long run. We won't always be able to meet because we have very conflicting schedules, but the plan is at least once every other week for about the same amount of time. I love it.

Girona and Figueres

Ok so Saturday, we went to Girona and Figueres. Girona is supposed to be like one of the prettiest cities in Spain, but it was raining, so it kinda sucked. We did the tour and then stayed in an Italian restaurant for all of our free time. Then we went to Figueres, which is where the Dali museum is. I didn't think I'd like it, but it was pretty awesome. There was some great work in the museum. I took tons of pictures. On Saturday night, I had a migrane so I didn't go out, but Michelle and Hannah did and found boys. O well.