Day to Day

In all of this blogging about the trips and things I've been up to in Barcelona, I realized that I left out the details of all the things that I do everyday! So, here's a little run down of a typical day in Barcelona...

La Casa de Rafaela

Rafaela, our host mom, is really great. I think she's really starting to open up, and she treats us more like her family and less like strangers in her house. She loves to see the clothes that we buy when we shop and to see what we're wearing before we go out at night. She's started to correct our Spanish and won't let us go on until we've said it again the right way. She jokes and pokes fun at us - although, since I only catch every third word, I can only tell if she's joking when she winks at me.

Every morning Maggie and I have breakfast waiting for us on a little table in her kitchen. It's usually cornflakes, milk, orange juice, toast and jam.

When we come home for dinner, the three of us eat together in her dining room. She guilt trips us into eating everything she's made, and when we don't eat the whole thing she goes "what?! you don't like it!?" Thankfully her food has been delicious thus far. We've had some typical Spanish food (like spanish tortilla), a night of Mexican fajitas, and a night where she made pizza (after Maggie made it really clear on the first night that she REALLY likes pizza. Rafaela got a kick out of that!)

We share a little room with twin beds, and have our own bathroom. Here are some pictures :)

It's not glamorous, but it works! (For the most part... I can't wait to shower without having to turn the water off in between shampooing and rinsing my hair). Those signs next to the toilet are reminding us to turn off the lights and not use too much water.

La Escuela

Every day Maggie and I take a bus to our class, which starts at 10 am. It's a Spanish Language and Culture class. We spend the morning doing Spanish language work, have a break for lunch, and then spend the afternoon going over different cultural aspects of Spanish life. Our teacher is great. She has a great sense of humor and loves to hear about our lives in the United States. Even though I'd rather not be in a classroom for 5 hours of my day while I'm here, I really do like the class and the people in it (and it is nice to be in air conditioning for 5 hours a day as well!) Look at how beautiful the school building is - I feel like I'm in a museum or something.

The World Cup

As I'm sure you know, Spain is going to be in the World Cup Final game on Sunday! Obviously we've been watching all of the games here. Usually we go to a restaurant/bar where we can go early to eat dinner and then have a spot to watch the game. Everywhere in the city is PACKED for the games - so we always try to go early enough to have a seat.

I bought a Spain jersey, and finally think I have a grasp of the game of soccer and some the Spanish players (who are very cute by the way :) ). Maybe I'll even call myself a soccer (oops, I mean futbol) fan by the end of this trip!

The past few days have been great. We've explored the city some more - including a trip to to Parc Laberint. It's a beautiful park and garden with a labyrinth maze inside, as well as little waterfalls, running water, and beautiful plants and trees. It was a nice break from the pace of the city!

I think that's all for now! This weekend I'm going on an ISA excursion to the city of Girona and Figueres, and on Sunday night ... Spain vs. Holland for the final game! Can't wait!

xoxo

Lauren