Semana Nueve

Hola!

We have exactly one month left of the program here, and I cannot believe it! Here's a summary of this week.

Sunday: I got back on Sunday afternoon and met up with some friends. We walked from Camp Nou (FC Barcelona Stadium) to the Palau Reial de Pedralbes (a park you can walk through) and the Güell Estate Gatehouses. We grabbed a quick snack/late lunch at a nearby coffee shop before heading back to our respective apartments for the afternoon! I also passed through a really beautiful park right by my apartment called the Jardins de la Maternitat.

Monday: I had my normal classes on Monday where we talked about the Spanish Civil War and the Second Spanish Republic. For me, this was very eye-opening and taught me a lot about why Spain had 40 years under a dictator. I went to the FC Barcelona Museum after class, and got to walk through an exhibit about the club's history, then tour the stadium itself - stopping into the press box, onto the turf, seeing the visiting team's locker room, and peeking into the chapel near the entry. I went to the library right by the stadium after to get a little work done.

Tuesday: On Tuesday, I went to EatMyTrip for lunch and ordered... French Toast? It came out as a cotton candy cloud covering my french toast with mangoes but was delicious! I had a couple of presentations in my afternoon classes in Spanish that I spent some time preparing for as well.

Wednesday: I had my normal classes on Wednesday. We talked about the intervention of different international powers in the Spanish Civil War in my history class, then about the early 2000s in Spain in my other class. I was also hanging out at the closest library to CIEE right after I ate lunch at Txpela with my friend Emily... but they started playing '80s music to signal to everyone that the library was closing between 2 and 4 for lunch. Later, I went for a run with a local student and my friend Mariya - we ran up the Avenida Diagonal and I branched off to head back to my apartment. It was gameday here, so I walked by a bunch of excited fans and a couple of (admittedly unexpected) fireworks! Barca ended up winning 5-1 against Lyon

Thursday: Thursday was a beautiful and very sunny day in Barcelona! I'm really enjoying the warmer weather during the winter, as I'm accustomed to snow around this time of year (also this is happening in my home state)!

Coming Soon: I'm heading to Nice, France this weekend with my friends Kaitlyn and Allie!

Hasta luego,

Amy