Barcelona

I went to Barcelona this past Thursday thru Monday. It was quite the trip. It was fun and touristy and exhausting. I pretended to be healthy and now I'm dealing with my fake healthy state. It's okay though. I enjoyed myself thoroughly.

We stayed at a hostel right off Las Ramblas, the major and busiest street EVER. We went to Plaza Espanya where there was a beautiful art museum, took pictures of the city, and just walked around more. I don't remember what we did the entire weekend...um, basically took pictures of the city, went to Sagrada Familia, designed by Gaudi who is a GENIUS, and the Picasso museum, Parc Guell, the Olympic Stadium, and ate a lot of food (and drank a little too). I finally had spicy food. YUMMY.

Anyways, enough babbling, I'll save that for post-pictures. Here are some from my stay in Barcelona. Enjoy!!


I saw Stefan!!!


What an absolutely gorgeous building.


The view of the city.


Inside the Sagrada Familia.


Another shot. Gaudi is sick.


La Perdrera. Gaudi is awesome.


View from Parc Guell


Another Gaudi creation AND it was a part of ANTM. Yay.


The Olympic Stadium.


Placa Catalunya. Hugest Corte Ingles ever. Corte Ingles is Spain's hugest superstore..kind of like Target but way more pricier.

Now I promised to put up pictures of food, so that is what I'll be doing. Sonia is an amazing cook and I can't wait to get recipes. I think her love and patience for it is definitely reminding me that maybe I should give it a shot. Plus, it's somewhat mathematical, no? Haha.


This was so freaking good. It was some kind of stew with potatoes, onions, green pepper, garlic, and ribs. I had to control myself not to devour everything at once. BUT it helped that the dish was steaming hot. So yummy.


It may look weird, but it's so flipping good as well. Lentejas, or lentils, soup and croquetas. So good. Croquetas are little fried goodies filled with some kind of creamy batter and either ham, chicken, or pork. So good.


There's a churro stand right by the bridge I walk on to go to/from Triana to/from the centro. I had chocolate dipped churros but was too tired and lazy and hungry to take pictures of them. But this is a cream filled churro with chocolate sprinkles. Heaven.


This is called uchero. It's this broth with tiny noodles, carrots, and garbanzo beans. Mmmm so good. I ate it up. The tiny plate has meat that was cooked in the soup and you eat that with bread. It was so delicious.


This was supposed to be spicy. It wasn't. But it's rice with red beans and other awesome veggies. So delicious.


This may have been the best burger I've ever eaten. The bread was so good. And she put on all these awesome veggies, including sauteed mushrooms with onion and garlic. Wow.

I think Sonia thinks I'm insane because I haven't had a problem with any of the meals she's provided. Then again I love eating and love a lot of food so yes I have no idea. And she loves veggies as much as I do so that's sweet too. In the upcoming weeks she's taking me to an oriental market where I will be able to pick out some food and I will be cooking it for her. I was thinking mandu gook or daenjjang chiigae. We'll see. I feel like if Jessica or Mary Ann is reading this, they'll know what I'm talking about haha. I love Korean food. And I miss it.

The rest of my life is pretty awesome. I missed my nephew's dol. He is so cute. I was really sad not to be there. I don't really feel homesick anymore but seeing pictures of my family and my nephew on facebook brought the tears. I know that I'm so lucky to be here, but I'm missing out on a lot of new things back at home. Aww but at least it's only a few months, right?

All other parts of my life are going well. I'm really lucky, in more ways than one. And I'm looking forward to new things back at home. This is the first time that things are going my way and are actually turning out better than I had ever imagined. It's great and I haven't been so happy in a while. I guess Family Video did provide me with some positive things after all. Haha.

Okay, well take care and enjoy this post. Love and miss you!

And leave me comments damn it!

-abc

Granada and then some

This past Saturday-Sunday the ALA group drove to Granada for an overnight trip. It's about 3.5 hours away by bus and we went to visit the Alhambra, Granada's catedral, and we went to a barrio called Albaicin. It was a really fun trip and there was a lot to see. I took over 200 pictures. Perhaps it's the asian in me. Haha.

Once we got there, we settled into the hotel. It was a beautiful hotel and about a 5 minute walk away from the Alhambra.

The walk was definitely strenuous because Granada is all mountains and the walk was either uphill or downhill. I felt like I was going to fall everywhere I was going. But all in all it was fun.

Our first stop was the Alhambra. The Alhambra is made up of 3 parts: The Alhambra, a part I don't remember because I'm a poor listener, and The Generalife (Hen-e-ra-lee-fay). Generalife was probably my most favorite part because I love looking at flowers and all that fun stuff. They even had pomegranate trees! It made me happy. And made me crave pomegranates. I was tempted to pull them off the trees, but I figured that would be sort of rude.

Here are some pictures of our visit to the Alhambra.




This was part of the second part of the Alhambra. If you stand in the center, where that small circle is located, and you say something, it echoes.

A view of Granada.


One of my friends and me in front of part of the Alhambra. It was such a gorgeous day.


Note the pretty reflection.


Pomegranates!

Later on we just did some more walking around. We went back to the hotel for a descansito (little break and rest time) and dinner. The dinner, like lunch, was buffet style. I ate more than I should have but that's okay. You only live once. I seriously love Spanish food. It's delicious. It was my friend's birthday and since we all enjoy the nightlife, our group went out to a couple of bars for drinks and tapas.





My roommates and I went back around 3 to get some sleep so we could get up to start our day at 8:45. We went to a barrio called Albaicin, where we got to stop at a couple of places to take some more pictures. Our guide took us to the catedral and we got to see the tombs of the kings and we also were able to see the marble statues of the king and queen on their death beds. It was interesting.


The view from Albaicin


So nice.

After that, we went out and did some more shopping. I went and bought a falafel pita. It was so delicious. Soooo good. Here's a picture of the food, and then me devouring it.


We went back and had lunch at the hotel and drove back home. All in all it was a good way to spend the weekend. However, the climate changes affected me more than I had ever anticipated. Now I'm sick and last night I had to leave class early because I just wasn't feeling well.

This is our second week of classes. Math is getting really tough because I just don't understand his examples, because they all relate to Sevillian life. He's not very kind and unapproachable so it makes it tough for me, but I'm getting a tutor so hopefully that will help. I finally found the classroom for my Pedagogia Intercultural class. It's going to be a lot of work but I'm excited. The professor is sooo nice and interested in my perspective about education and immersment because I'm an American, but I'm also a minority. I talked to three Spanish students in that class and then I made friends with a girl from Germany. That was pretty exciting. My last class is from 7 to 9. I wasn't feeling well so I left at 8. I'm getting used to the buses and the fact that the universidad is not on a closed campus.

My homestay is incredible. I love my senorita. She's a lot of fun and so easy to talk to. She told me she has a Chinese friend living in Sevilla and that he can cook for us. And the Chinese friend has a Korean friend so that will be exciting.

I think I'm definitely putting on weight because my srta makes me so much food. She's an incredible cook. I've been taking pictures of the food I've been eating for lunch and/or dinner on a daily basis. I was going to post up some pictures but my internet is messing up a lot and it's taking a lot longer than I thought. I'll update tomorrow probably with pictures of my meals, haha. Mostly for Val. But yeah.

Okay, that's all for an update I suppose. I can't believe it's already October. I'm missing my mom's birthday and I'm missing Xander's first birthday. It's tough but I'm finally getting accustomed to living here. It's interesting, fun, and extremely expensive. Especially with such good wine and beer and ice cream and tapas.

I'm going to Barcelona on Thursday until Monday. Expect a really photo filled update on Monday. And yay for absolutely no classes on Monday! That's my worst day.

I miss you guys tons. Keep in touch. And have a great week!

-abc.