it's official. i'm obsessed with balsamic.

With classes in full swing I can tell it might be a little more difficult to blog daily.  Luckily on Tuesday Thursdays I have a 3+ hour break in between my classes.

Friday was an interesting night for sure.  We went out with some Spanish guys that showed us some local bars on las ramblas.  They spoke English really well but they couldn't understand what I meant when I said "I wanted to try a churro" just because I couldn't roll my r's.  Apparently that makes a huge difference. Damn tongue.  Me Maddie and Kristen then went to Shoko where there were a ton of international students there.  We met an Australian and two Brazilian guys and they were more forward than the Spaniards here.  Needless to say we dipped out of that situation. Gross.

Saturday, me Alli Rachel and Kristen went exploring in Parc Guell.  It was absolutely gorgeous.  We walked up the steepest hill I've ever seen to get there but it was definitely worth it.  The views were incredible.  We spent a lot of time at the top of the mountain taking in the scene and observing a very fat stray cat that was chillin up there.  Had to convince Alli not to steal it and bring it home with us.  We then walked around more of the park and did extremely touristy things, such as take pictures of everything, solo shots, and asking random foreigners to take pictures of us.  Needless to say it was a pretty touristy day.  On our way back from the park, we stopped in a shop with a lot of Barca jerseys, so we were seeing if we could get a good deal.  I wasn't planning on buying anything, but I was just seeing how cheap I could get a jersey for.  I have never seen such pushy salespeople in my life.  I was looking at a jersey and they were basically trying to take my money.  After awhile I got pretty angry with them and basically said to step off and I was leaving.  On our way out, they tried to tell Alli that they would sell her a jersey for 2 euro if she came over that night. Needless to say we felt we barely escaped with our lives.  On our way back, we stopped at a little cafe to get lunch.  Me and Kristen wanted to try the pizza, and we thought they were individual sizes.  Welp. We were wrong.  We both ordered Margarita pizzas and they were huge.  We were both a little upset that we paid 10 euro each for them when we coulda just split one.  Rookie mistake.  Luckily, I got to take half of it home and I made it for lunch the next day.  I then skyped about 3 people and booked the Amalfi Coast trip with Bus2alps.  It was a pretty productive day.

Saturday night was a little bit of a blur.  We started out at the apartment, and then went to a bar promoted by none other Michael Jordan right next to Catwalk.  Free wine and 2 euro drinks.  Me and Rachel talked about modern family for a good hour, and how we wanted to find our own Phil Dunphee's of the world.  Talk about the perfect husband.  Then, we went to Catwalk and met some British people in line. They were all really cool, and I remember that one of them kept saying that he wanted to lick our faces.... Kinda strange.  We enjoyed the multiple floors of Catwalk and decided to call it a night early.  Me and Rachel then took a cab home, where "Hit Me Baby One More Time" came on the radio and we high fived.  I wrapped up the night listening to the Illinois hockey game online and passed out.  These time differences are so weird.

Sunday we got up around noon and decided to go to the beach for the day.  It wasn't super warm out, but warm enough to go sit on the beach and hang out.  I ended up siesta-ing for about an hour, it was a long night before, and got a little bit of sun.  We then all went back to the apartment and siesta-ed some more.  I swear I do not get enough sleep in this country.  At 9, we then went up to the 6th floor and had dinner with our neighbors who are also in IES.  We were all super impressed with their cooking skills (and we thought we were doing well, but apparently we all suck at cooking in comparison).  They made us croquetas (a spanish tapa), patatas bravas (also a spanish tapa), garlic bread, pasta, and lots of wine.  They even tried to make us flan, which was a huge fail but they managed to kind of make a dish out of it?  Either way it was really cool to meet other guys on the program and one of them even goes to Illinois!  I'm excited to meet people that I'll be able to keep in touch with and see again after the program.  After being there way after quiet hours we all came back down to the apartment and did some homework (who knew?)

Monday was quite a long day of classes.  9 AMs here are horrible and I don't understand how I did it for the first two years of college.  I was blessed last semester with 12 pm starts everyday.  Although, during our 30 minute break during my 3 hour Spanish class me and Leah wandered around our classroom building and found a lot of really cute clothing stores. JACKPOT.  We both decided it was not in our best interest to find these shops but then we decided it was ok because all of them have huge sales until the end of January.  Needless to say, we will be doing some shopping tomorrow during our break. (bad news bears).

Monday after classes got over with I siesta-ed some more, typical, and met up with Julia and Lauren (a bus2alps rep) at George Payne to try and figure out some trips for the rest of the semester.  George Payne is a huge Irish bar here in Barca that is known for having American food and American sports games (two nights ago they played both playoff games, and apparently it was packed. too bad I don't give a SHIT about either team in the Superbowl this year).  I ordered a burger and fries, and a beer.  Still haven't gotten used to the fact that they never card here, and that I'm of legal age.  So weird.  After someone's failed attempt to get me to stay out, I went home and did homework the rest of the night.  This is seriously the longest I've gone without going out while being in Barca.  I'm not used to this at home where I go out twice a week.  I need a break!

My classes today have been reallllllyyyyy cool so far.  I love my international marketing class.  It's nice too because I've learned a lot of this stuff already.  A good refresher from last semester.  However, it's supposed to deal more with global markets, which will be really cool to see.  After class I came home and made myself a caprese salad and pan con tomate for lunch (so euro).  I'm getting antsy for my Business of Sport in Europe class.  I did readings for it last night and I didn't want to stop.  It's exactly what I want to do with my life.  Hopefully it could land me a job with the Penguins after all the knowledge I've gained from the class!

Speaking of jobs, I have a Skype interview with Starcom tomorrow!  I'm extremely nervous and very excited for the opportunity.  After seeing their recruiting presentation on campus last semester I was sold.  I'm praying I get the internship because if I don't live in Chicago this summer I might lose my mind.

Wish me luck! Hasta luego!

i´ve been slacking

with classes starting in full force this week i´ve been a little busier than normal. sorry i haven´t had as much time to update!

monday, we went to a club called otto zutz. it was pretty small, and not as nice as most of the other clubs we had been to so far, but it was still pretty fun. the main floor had a HUGE dance floor on it with different stages and levels. on the second floor there was a smaller dance floor and they played all 90´s music. pretty awesome. this is where my friend julia met a millionaire spainsh bartender who basically bartends for fun and is set for life. he´s also sexy as hell, nice work girl.

tuesday was more classes. still only spanish though. nothing too eventful happened. after i came home from class i watched some friends with my roommates and cleaned my room.  it was getting a little out of hand. that night the roommates and i ventured to shoko for a bus2alps promotion night. it was free sushi and open bar for an hour and an opportunity to ask the reps about their trips.  possibly job opportunities for them keep coming up, and honestly i would NOT turn that down.  great opportunities.  that night we stayed at shoko, which is a club right on the beach. it was a really cool atmosphere, but definitely not the biggest club we´ve been to so far.  it was an early night and we were home by 2:30 or so, normal classes started the next day and i had a 9 AM!

my first class on wednesday was food as an expression of culture. there were actually a lot of chicago kids in it, which was a nice change of pace from the typical east coasters i´ve met here so far. the class seems really cool. we talk about food and it´s relation to culture, sounds about right with the title of the class. we´re going to la boceria, which is a huge market here, for a field trip, and learning how to cook tortilla. seems like a pretty interesting class. after an hour and a half of that, i had spanish for 3 hours. talk about a long morning. however, i´ve been noticing that my spanish is improving rapidly. 9 hours of spanish class every week where you learn how to think in spanish constantly, then being surrounded by it on the street every day has really made a difference.

when i got home from class i went straight back to bed. there is no way i can go out on tuesday nights before a 9 AM anymore. i still don´t get how i got up every day in high school for 8 AM class. seems pretty impossible. last night me and ali made some kind of chicken with mushroom and wine sauce, fried rice, caprese salad, and pan con tomate. this cooking thing is getting a lot easier. after living in this apartment for 4 months i´m gonna be a cooking pro! just in time to live in an apartment senior year. (don´t worry taylor, i´ve been saving the corks!)

last night we went to a small pub next to our apartment to watch the Barca and Real Madrid game. it was a really cool local bar with no americans. they could tell we were and a few people even came up and started talking to us. we met 2 young spanish criminal lawyers who were really cool. AND barca won, so that was a definite plus. we definitely need to start going to more local bars. it wasn´t crowded at all, unlike all the bars at las ramblas that our friends couldn´t even get in to. definitely a good alternative. i came home right after the game and watched some glee and passed out. a solid chill night in my book.

today has been filled with classes so far, and i´ve just been hanging out at the IES center doing homework and writing this blog (which has taken me forever to write).  my international marketing class looks like it´s going to be really cool. we already talked about taking a field trip to the bacardi headquarters 45 minutes outside the city and taking a tour. also possibly doing a bacardi tasting.. we´ll see how that goes over with IES!

for lunch, me and julia went to a small pizzeria next to my apartment for lunch, which ended up being PHENOMENAL. it was a little expensive but totally worth it. we both ordered skillets of egg, mushroom, and ham topped with a layer of cheese and tomato sauce with a side of bread. it was so good! definitely gonna have to treat myself to eating out every once and awhile instead of being cheap and making food for myself all the time. which i actually don´t mind because i save so much money.

well. i have class here in 20 minutes. business of sport in europe, aka a class about my dream job. hopefully i´ll have time to blog tomorrow. if not, saturday!

hasta luego!

not the best 24 hours...

first of all, catwalk on saturday was AWESOME. by far my favorite night out so far.  we started out at a bar next to the club, don't remember the name we were seriously there for 30 seconds, and took tequila shots.  here, instead of a lime, we chased with a lemon with sugar and coffee grounds on it.  sounds disgusting, but was actually fantastic. then, we went to catwalk. on the way to catwalk, there are club promoters outside the clubs handing out cards for certain clubs (this becomes relevant later in my post i swear). they were so annoying, and kept yelling at you to go to their club. i had to say "dejame en paz" multiple times (means leave me alone). we then got to catwalk and had to wait in line for 10 minutes, but it was still free, thanks michael jordan, where we ran into about 10 annoying british guys. ok well, they weren't all annoying but one wouldn't leave me alone. i think he thought that because i was being rude to him that i was actually flirting with him. don't really understand it. haha. anyway, this club was HUGE. had 3 floors all playing different music.  the first floor was house music, and the second floor was american rap and hip hop. we didn't venture much further because the music selection was PERFECT.  not very many people were on this floor which was ok with us, we had more space.  LESSON OF THE DAY: take straight shots at the clubs instead of mixed drinks. we only had to pay 3 euro for a shot of tequila. mixed drinks are still around 9.  so ridiculous.

yesterday, i felt like hell.  not because i was hungover, but because i got a stupid cold. i swear this happens to me every single time i move into a new apartment, but never at kappa. so weird. anyway, we basically laid around all day yesterday.  little did we know that everything is closed on sundays, including supermarkets. we ran into a little but of a problem here because we had no food left at the apartment. luckily we found one place that was open where we bought some cleaning supplies, our kitchen was getting a little gross. LESSON OF THE DAY: stock up on food BEFORE the weekend! for dinner, we went to this cafe down the street that's apparently known for being open on sundays,  thank god. i ordered a grilled ham, cheese and "sunny side up" egg sandwich. it was really good! comida tipica de barcelona! it's also really annoying that water isn't free here. normally that's all i drink with dinner but we were all cheap as hell and didn't get anything to drink. most of the time beer and wine is cheaper than water at most restaurants. i could have gotten a beer but i just wasn't in the mood. when we came home i was lazy as hell and did absolutely nothing but my spanish homework. #superlame

today was a little rough. i woke up feeling a little better than the day before, but things took a turn for the worse when i left the apartment.  i had only given myself 25 minutes to get to class, which is already kind of pushing it even when using the metro. when i got all the way down the stairs of my apartment i realized i didn't have my metro card. i had to go alllll the way back upstairs, then grab my metro card. i run back upstairs, grab the card that was in my going out wristlet without looking at it, and head back toward the metro stop. now, the metro stop is about a 5-10 minute walk from the apartment. by the time i reach the metro, it's about 10:30. i look in my bag to grab my metro card, and i realize all i have is a business card for Shoko, one of the big clubs by catwalk. DAMN YOU CLUB PROMOTERS. then i had to run ALL the way back to my apartment, race up the stairs, grab my metro card, and get back to the metro. i somehow managed to do all of this in 10 minutes because i was bookin it. however, i was still like 10 minutes late to class. thank god my spanish profesora Rosa is really cool and didn't get mad at all. when i walked in she was telling la clase a story about how she was at a party that got busted by the cops this weekend for playing their music too loud and now has to pay a 130 euro fine. talk about a badass.

today in class, we did another scavenger hunt en el barrio (district) de Raval.  this is the district around where my class is.  apparently this district can be a little shady, but has some really cool places in it.  there are a couple of universities, including a building for the university of barcelona, and some churches.  there are a lot of skaters, gothic looking people, and hipsters in this area, which makes sense. it's a huge education center.  on our walk we saw some vintage stores. one interesting store we saw had very victorian gothic corsets and boots. was a little weird for sure. we also went in a bakery that smelled absolutely heavenly.  i don't remember the name of it but we'll definitely have to go back.  this area also has a huge contemporary art museum that i'll definitely have to go to at some point. i'll have a lot of time in between two of my classes on tuesdays and thursdays so i'll definitely have to hang out around there. oh and it started raining as soon as we left our classroom for the hunt, and got frigidly cold. i thought it was supposed to be gorgeous here all the time?

needless to say i did a lot of walking today.  excited to kick back couple of hours, gotta get rid of this cold if we're gonna have loco lunes at otto zuz tonight! gotta hit up the supermercat and put more minutes on my crappy spanish cell phone too. so much to do! pero, primero una siesta!

adios para ahora!

doing touristy things

Last night's meal was a little unexpected.  We ventured to Fontana area and went to a crepe place with our RA and some of her other students.  The place ended up being pretty good, but definitely not my favorite meal of the trip.  I had a chicken, mushroom, and onion crepe.  We also had some beer with dinner called estrella, which was pretty good.  We all also split a bunch of dessert crepes, and I had a cinnamon sugar and butter one, which was pretty decent too.  Then, me and my roommate Rachel rushed home so I could finish my application for Starcom.  She's a badass at writing and helped me write my cover letter and fix up my resume. If I get the internship I told her I'd be buying her an endless supply of alcohol.

We then started getting ready to go out.  Lesson of the day: PREGAME HARDER.  We had a little bit to drink then went straight to Duvet at 1 and drinks were 10 euro.  NO THANKS.  Lesson learned there... But Duvet was pretty awesome though. The only thing that was a little annoying, which we have been discovering lately, is that people are dumb asses at the clubs and drop their glass drinks on the floor.  We also noticed they they tend to ruin your heels.  Kinda annoying.  But other than that the club scene here is rockin.

Today we slept in til like 1 PM and got up to go to Ronda Sant Antoni for some market shopping.  They have a lot of really cute shops with clothes, scarves, bags, etc.  AKA it's perfect.  I bought a school bag and some other little things so far.  Afterward we went to a little cafe for lunch.  I had a Spanish omelette, which was egg and potatoes, and bread with olive oil and tomatoes on it.  It was fantastic.  So delicious.  All the roommates got some really delicious food as well.  We ventured back on the metro, did some grocery shopping, and passed out for a couple of hours.  We then got up around 9:30 and made dinner.  I made another successful meal of shrimp, mushrooms, red peppers, and rice.  I'm becoming so domesticated!

Tonight we're going out with the girls again, heading to a shot bar and then hitting up a club on the beach called Catwalk.  We won a bottle of champagne from the club promoter Michael Jordan.  Should be a pretty good night.

I can tell I'm starting to get sick.  FML. Poppin some airborne and ibuprofen before we head out tonight.

Ok so my roommates are yelling at me to get ready... Hasta luego, buenos noches!

Dow Jones baby

I thought that after the first night that I made everyone dinner that I'd become a pro. Well. I was wrong. Actually, I don't blame my cooking skills this time, I blame my ability to pick shitty sauce.  I made pesto pasta for dinner and the pesto wasn't that great... I blame my mother for spoiling me with delicious sauce. (thanks mom).  However, I made some DELICIOUS caprese salad. The fresh mozzarella here is awesome.

Last night we went to Dow Jones, which is a very American bar in Barca.  Almost all the bartenders were American and I only saw a couple of locals there.  It was similar to Bolso the night before but bigger.  The "market" would crash about every 15 minutes or so and people would swarm the bar.  Sometimes it was impossible to get drinks, but it worked out.  The more people bought certain drinks, the higher the price would climb.  It was pretty cool.  We met a lot of trip promoters there as well, and they'll be pretty helpful in getting us some good deals.  Two of my friends won trips last night, one to Montserrat and the other to somewhere in Italy.  We also got information about a trip to go skiing is Switzerland that seemed like a good deal.

Today was our first day of Spanish classes, and I'm doing better than I thought.  I knew it would be challenging, but I knew everything that my professor was saying, and could complete the assignments we were given.  At the end of class we had to do an assignment and write 150-200 words about our goals for the semester and what we want to do in Spain.  It was basically to show our professor if we were adequate enough to take the Advanced class.  I think I did well enough to stay in the class, but I guess I wouldn't be crushed to be taken down to intermediate if absolutely necessary.

Tonight we are going out to dinner with the roommates, our RA, and other friends in homestays that our RA works with.  I'm excited to finally go to a restaurant and eat real Spanish food instead of make food every night (which is nice because it's cheap but not when I suck at making it haha).

Looking forward to some free time this weekend, me and the roommates are doing touristy things for once!

first night out!

holy. shit. last night was absolutely INSANE. i've never been to a club like this in my life. is this real life? we started out with some wine at the apartment, and then went to our friends' apartment across the street. IES hooked everyone up, by the way.  all the apartments are huge and pretty sick.  after that we went to hot bar, where a club promoter was getting us free drinks.  hollaaaa. we then went to a bar called bolso across the street and it was a stock market bar. basically all the drinks were up on monitors behind the bar and the rates for the drinks changed based on how many people were buying them. it was pretty sweet. we then went to this club called Sutton.  The guys we were with were throwin down some serious cash and got VIP table service. Thanks to them we got badass treatment at the club. Holy shit it was sooooo cool. I don’t even know where to begin to describe this club, but I’ll have to post pictures on facebook later.  we met a lot of people on our program there, too. We took a taxi home and were in bed by like 4:30 AM.

Class was a little rough today, but wasn’t too bad. We had to go on a scavenger hunt with our Spanish class, which was actually amazing. It took us down by the beach and the Born area.  We found some amazing tapas places, parks, the arc de triumph, and the most amazing fountain/monument I have ever seen.  It was called Cascada con el carro de l’Aurora. I was a dumbass and didn’t bring my camera, but I’m definitely going back and taking pictures. I don’t even think pictures will do it justice.

I literally just got up for another 5 hour siesta.  My cooking skills have already improved, I made chicken and vegetables for my roommates last night. I haven’t eaten out yet, so I’m excited to do that. We’ll probably do that tomorrow.

Adios para ahora!

finally here! ...and with working internet!

Wow..... The past 36 hours have been a complete blur.  Until I went to bed last night I hadn't slept in almost 24 hours.  The 2 hour nap I took on the plane definitely doesn't count.  However, today I feel great. I'm definitely adjusting to the time difference better than I thought!

First of all, I would just like to thank Scott Fiscus for being a complete BADASS and getting me business class.  I got to watch 3 movies, eat delicious food, and sip on champagne the entire flight.  I also met a guy on the plane who is in advertising, so it was really cool to talk to him about what he did.  I gotta say though, I was definitely the youngest person in business class.  I felt a little outta place.

On the flight from London to Barcelona there were about 20 kids from my program.  It was really cool to meet some people right away.  Contrary to what I thought, I feel like I'm the only person from the midwest here.  I haven't met anyone from Illinois or IU yet, but a TON of east coasters and people from Penn State.  Also, I learned that American music is HUGE over here, and they play it on the radio all the time.  Thought that was kinda funny.

My roommates are really cool and my apartment is HUGE.  Definitely didn't expect that.  I might be able to upload pictures tomorrow.  We made dinner last night and it was 12 euros between the 5 of us.  SO CHEAP.  I haven't eaten out yet but apparently it's super expensive.  We'll have to splurge every once and awhile. However going to the markets and getting really cheap food to cook looks like the way to go.

Today was orientation at Plaza de Catalunya.  We took the bus at first and looked like total tourists trying to find our way to our building.. Whoops.  Although we took the metro back and it was soooooo much easier.  We probably still looked like tourists but hey, we probably will the entire trip.

Tonight there's a huge welcome party at one of the clubs.  Should be cool to meet everyone on the program.

To all from America.... GOOD MORNING :)
hasta luego!

pre-departure

Everything about this trip makes me nervous. I think I over packed, and that there is no way I'm gonna have space for stuff I buy on the way back... We'll see how that goes.  My cousin said she threw away a ton of clothes coming back at the airport. Praying that's not me.

Tomorrow is gonna be one long day.  Thank god my dad's a badass and upgraded me to business class.  I'll be flying in style.  Honestly, I don't think leaving has hit me yet.  I feel so unprepared for this!  I don't think I'll realize what's happening until I'm on my flight to London.  Hoping I don't have a panic attack.

I know this semester is going to change my life.  Can't wait to see what happens....