Hola a todos!!  Well I have now been here for a week and a half and I’m starting to get used to life in Barcelona.  From day one, I already knew that this was probably going to be the best summer I’ve ever had (and it’s still looking that way!).  I have already seen and experienced so much in the little time I’ve been here.  The siesta (yes, they still actually do it), eating dinner at 10pm, the topless beaches and no nudity laws (yep, we just saw a bare-naked man walking in the metro today), the extreme PDA, and being constantly aware of the professional pick-pocketers who are EVERYWHERE.  I’m still also trying to get used to the lisp that’s normal here with z’s and c’s, but not the s’s.  There are so many things that I love about Barcelona though.  First of all, I have never been in a city that is so proud of its culture.  The feeling that you get from a city in the States is usually that of individualism, privacy, and everything going at a fast pace.  It’s so opposite here.  The culture is just so open and the privacy thing is definitely overlooked.  People get SO extremely close to you and it’s so normal to them!  Anywhere in public that’s busy, people are bumping into you from all angles and never, ever say “excuse me”.  I don’t think it’s because they are rude, but just that they don’t see why it would bother anybody.  When you talk to a local, they are literally inches from your face.  I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that.

Our apartment is great in so many ways.  Not literally, but the things that aren’t great, we just laugh about.  First of all, we have 3 different keys to get in our building and apartment and they’re all old-school skeleton keys that you see in the movies.  Didn’t even know they still used those anymore!  Our washer sounds like it’s about to blast off when you’re washing clothes and it takes 2 hours to do a full cycle.  Our oven has no temperature settings, just the numbers 1-10 and you have to just guess what to put it on.  Our shower head is one of those detachable ones, which sounds really nice.  But it doesn’t actually fit into the holder on the wall, so we have to hold it, then turn off the water to lather up.  We have 12 channels on our TV that are all in Spanish and Catalan (the native language of the region) and some are the same channel.  We light our stove with a match.  Whenever we use our A/C, it drips water down a little tube into a big gallon water bottle on our porch.  Our director, Rich forgot to tell us this detail and we let it overflow and therefore drip down onto our neighbor’s porch below.  Our neighbor wasn’t too happy.  Our apartment is really in a dead part of town.  Literally.  We live directly across the street from the funeral home.  There are at least 6 shops on the way to the metro of funeral flowers, headstones, and urns.  It was creepy at first, but now we’re used to it.

The first night we were here, we met all of the other interns and students.  Everybody is really cool and we all get along so well!  Especially my roommates, Chelsea and Nicole- I’m so glad I was put with them!  For the first week, we went to Spanish classes from 9:30-2:30 (well, most of them…:D).  I actually enjoyed going because I loved my teacher and we got a 10 minute break every hour, so it wasn’t too terrible.  I went to meet my internship supervisors, Maria and Cote on Monday (you can check out their website!- dcebarcelona.com).  Cote wasn’t there, but I met Maria.  She is so pretty and tall and has the perfect bod.  That should give me some inspiration to work out this summer!  The only downside is that she speaks practically NO English and she goes about 100 miles a minute in Spanish.  Really overwhelming and frustrating the first day, but I’m starting to get used to it now.  After my first day of my actual internship on Wednesday, all of the interns and students came for a Salsa class with my supervisor.  It was so much fun!  We are planning on taking 4 classes, so I should pretty much be a pro by the time I come home :D.

This past weekend, we just hopped on over to Rome, Italy for a little weekend trip….no big deal (ha, ha!).  It was SO incredible!!  We saw the coliseum, the forum, all of Vatican City, the Trevi fountain, the Spanish stairs, and the Church of Jerusalem which holds pieces of Jesus’ cross, thorns from his crown, and a nail from his cross (among other things).  We also did a Pub Crawl!  So much fun!!  For only 20 euros, we went to a bar with a group of people, had open bar for an hour, free pizza, an awesome t-shirt, and they took us to 3 more bars after that.  It was definitely 20 euros well-spent!  We also had our first hostel experience.  It was actually really nice!  There were 5 of us in one room and 4 in the other and each room had their own bathroom.  They brought breakfast to our door in the morning, too!  It was just like a hotel, really.  My favorite thing about everything we did was probably St. Peter’s Basilica.  I walked in and honestly cried.  Everything was so, so beautiful.  And just thinking about all of the history that’s in that place…it was overwhelming.  I loved Italy and I’m really considering going there to study abroad next spring instead of Spain again! 

We haven’t really seen any touristy things in Barcelona yet, but we are planning to this weekend.  Friday, Rich is taking all of us to Tarragona, a couple of hours away, to see some Roman ruins and I’m not sure what else…Saturday, we are going to go around to some of the sights in Barcelona: Segrada Familia (Gaudi’s century-old, unfinished cathedral) and the gothic quarter of the city with a lot of Gaudi’s work in it.  We haven’t had the chance to actually be tourists yet!

Today was the Festival of San Juan.  It’s not really celebrating Saint John, but the summer solstice.  Last night was the longest night of the year, and therefore, the biggest celebration.  I have never seen anything like it.  It was like the 4th of July, but bigger and crazier.  Everyone went down to the beach and drank and danced alllllllllllll night.  The fireworks were the only thing that was out of hand.  There were 4 year olds lighting fireworks in their hands and actually throwing them at people.  The scary thing was that there were no policemen anywhere to be seen, and the parents acted like there was nothing wrong with it!  It was so chaotic, but so much fun.  It was something that I was glad to experience, but I’m pretty sure I won’t make a trip back for the Festival of San Juan, ha ha!

Well guys, I know I haven’t exactly kept it short, but I’ve had a lot to catch up on!  I’ll try to update as often as I can!  Hasta luego!  Un beso muy fuerte!  (Until later and a big strong kiss :D).