Hi Everyone!
Sorry for the delay on posting this, we’ve just been so busy lately. Its been an eventful two weeks filled with another hospital trip and more exploring. Somehow my tonsillitis came back with a vengeance and we were forced to spend Valentines Day in the ER. I’m hoping its gone for good now, because I have no desire to add to my 300 euro hospital bill.
We have done some pretty awesome things including spending a day at the Barcelona Zoo and visiting the Aquarium. Chrissy and I agreed the zoo was our favorite due to the sheer size of the place. It was one of the best zoos I have ever been to, and plan to take my parents there when they come to visit. They had so many pathways through out the park that we often felt like we were the only ones in the entire place. A lot of the exhibits were out in the open, so it was easy to get a close up view of all the animals. Even though we liked the zoo better, the aquarium had one of those underwater tunnels you can walk through. I’d never seen anything like it before, and it was definitely a cool experience. We got some awesome pictures of stingrays and sharks swimming overhead.
We also got to spend a day shopping on Las Ramblas. This is one of the most famous streets in Barcelona and its filled with unique shops and amazing restaurants. There are also a ton of street performers including this group of men who do crazy acrobatics. Chrissy got to participate, and had them doing flips over her head. The shopping here is fantastic, and we’ve been able to get some really nice gifts for people back home.
Time is flying by and we have already been here for a month! It feels like we got here just yesterday. We are beginning to plan trips to other places in Europe, including Vienna, Austria and the gorgeous island of Ibiza.
We will keep you updated on our plans for traveling and our continued exploration of Barcelona!
So it’s the second week here in Barcelona and things are going great! It’s definitely much different, but we’re adjusting well for such a short amount of time. Getting pictures up here isn’t easy, because it only allows a certain amount of space and we want everyone to see the whole photo, so we’ll be starting a photobucket and getting the link up here for everyone to see. The second week of classes are coming to an end and their going really well. We meet for 13 classes total (per class) and that includes finals, so it’s definitely different from Nichols.
Another thing that’s hard to adjust to is the change in euro. It’s SO much more expensive than back home. We also have to pay for laundry here, 2.50 for washing and 3.00 for drying, it’s so much! But we’ve managed to at least get the hang of local markets, and don’t eat out often. We’ve limited ourselves to eating out only once a week and cooking the rest of the time! Groceries are really cheap, and we can get more than one meal each each time we cook usually. We also ventured out to one of Barcelona’s biggest clubs the other night called RazzMatazz. People here start VERY late, so we didn’t get there until about 12:30. It’s about 6 levels, and has more than 5 rooms. We even got lost at one point looking for coat check! We’ve met a lot of people while being out, which is great. And we plan on visiting them while we’re here, because most people we meet are from all around Europe.
This weekend we’ll definitely be out exploring, so keep an eye out for a new post 
. Oh and we hope you all enjoyed the snow day!
Hello everyone! Today is the end of our first week of classes (Chrissy and I both have Fridays free). Two of my classes were cancelled for the week so it wasn’t as busy as it should have been. I took the metro in today for my only class, sat there for 10 minutes and then found it out was cancelled. Waste of a train ticket, but oh well. Classes here are similar to the ones back at Nichols, they are small and focus heavily on group work. The professors are great, many of them have jobs other than teaching, which leads to the class cancellations. One of my favorite professors so far does stand up comedy on the side, and her class is entertaining and enjoyable (even though its 3 hours). The classes are once a week and the length of time depends on the credits, so my 2 credit classes are 2 hours. Chrissy and I are both taking five classes which is a shortened course load compared to the other students. One kid we talked to is taking 9!
One big difference about the classes here is the diversity of the students. In my first class alone there were kids from Nigeria, Pakistan, France, Russia and Bulgaria, just to name a few. I was one of two Americans. The other American was coincidentally from Worcester, so he knew all about Nichols. Most of the students speak at least 3 languages, so I felt a little embarrassed to admit I only spoke English. Thankfully all the classes are in English, and it is very easy to communicate with professors and most other students.
One thing I was not used to is the style here. Most of us are used to going to class wearing sweatpants, or a comfortable hoodie. It was easy to roll out of bed and walk to class in 5 minutes. Here however, it is normal for girls to wear heels and a skirt. I almost felt under-dressed wearing jeans and a nice shirt. We also have to take the metro from our building, switch trains and then get to school. This takes about 45 minutes, and for our morning classes the metro gets PACKED. Packed as in some one else’s face less than a foot away from your own. And we noticed that people don’t really say “excuse me” here, they kind of just shove their way through. Definitely something to get used to.
All in all it was a good week. We have a welcome party tonight through our housing, which starts at 11 pm with an after party starting at 3 am. Good thing we don’t have classes tomorrow!
We will be blogging again soon! Hope all is well at Nichols.
Hello everyone
Sorry about not having any pictures up yet, we’re having some trouble uploading them. But we’re figuring it out so just bear with us!
It’s been quite a weekend. Friday was registration day for classes, and we met some great people. We also got to meet Sandra Moro, who’s helped us a lot since we had decided to study in Barcelona. After registration, our first big adventure unfortunately involved a trip to the hospital. Amy has tonsillitis 
. But after a couple days of much needed rest and medication she’s almost back to being 100% so we’ll have more exciting stories soon enough. We also had a chance to do some walking around (after the hospital) and found an English Pub with karaoke.
Yesterday (Saturday) we spent the day at La Placa de Catalunya, which is a HUGE tourist area. It was absolutely beautiful, and lucky for us there is a large building called Corte Inglais, which has tons of American based products. And we were able to find a place to get cell phones! Also, just in case anyone reading this plans on coming to Barcelona, DO NOT but American body wash. I bought Dove and ended up paying 18.50 in Euros! But, lesson learned. We got to take a walk around and see some of the street shows, which included a Michael Jackson impersonator and magic show. Amy needed to rest up, so we just bought ourselves a bottle of wine and finally went up to the pool on the roof! It has an unbelievable view. We can’t wait until the weather is a bit warmer so we can stay up there longer. Today we revisited Placa de Catalunya, but I guess a lot of places close Sundays because we weren’t able to do much there.
Classes start tomorrow, and it’s 11 PM here, so I’ll be back to blog again soon, and so will Amy! Hopefully we’ll have the picture situation figured out so we can share them with you all.
Hola!
We’ve arrived safe in Barcelona! We’ve been here two days now, and already have so much to get done! Our plane landed in Barcelona airport yesterday at 10:50 AM (Barcelona is 6 hours ahead). The weather is great, it’s about 55 today, which alot of people say is chilly but for us it’s just fine compared to the cold weather and snow back home!
Yesterday consisted of unpacking, and scoping out the scene around Melon District. The building is brand new, and everthing is so nice. We have our own bathrooms, which is great! And every room comes with a TV. On each floor there is a lounge area with two TV’s and a kitchen. There’s also a pool on the roof, but we’ve been too busy to have a chance to check it out. We spent alot of the day yesterday just walking around checking out the shops, and having our first meal together at a little cafe on the street near the Melon District.
Today was a busy day too! The fire alarm went off at 8 this morning, and when we went to go outside it was turned off, so we got to go back to bed for a couple more hours (which was great considering we’re still pretty jet-lagged). We went down to Caixa Catalunya, which is a bank that everyone here at the Melon District uses, and opened up our own bank accounts. Then we stopped for lunch and headed to the metro to figure out our route to school. The metro is pretty easy to use, and we only needed to change trains once. It’s definitely more expensive here than the subway back home, but alot cleaner too! There were mini stores and jewlery stands in the metro station, which is also different. The trop to European University is only about a half hour away, so it was quick and easy.
We made an attempt to get phone, but can’t find a store that sells them anywhere! But we’re determined to get them so we’ll find them and make calls home to family and friends soon. Until then, add us on skype so we can keep in touch because we miss everyone a ton!
We’ll be putting picture up tomorrow, and will be blogging again soon!
Adios!
