My first trip: Barcelona -- day one

02/04 Friday

BARCELONA!!! k so I left the house this morning at 6:15AM to get to the train station at 6:30. I found the platform for my and Gab's train and then waited for her, seeing as she had our train tickets so I couldn't get on without her anyways. I called her at 6:45 and she said she was on her way... so I thought, "okay, she lives closer than me and it only takes me 5 minutes to walk here, we'll be fine".... 6:50.... 6:52.... 6:53?? AHHHHH Gab where are you?! I was on the phone calling and texting as fast as my little fingers could move. Finally at 6:53AM she came running in the door and we sprinted to the train. It left within a minute of us getting onto it; we hadn't even sat in our seats yet. Close call!! She said she had gotten lost and didn't remember where the train station was but then kept asking people and finally found it. Luckily..
The train ride was 5 hours long so guess what I did? Homework? Write post cards? blog? any of the stuff that I figured I'd do? Nope; of course not. I slept. Gab and I had some chocolate covered dinosaur sugar cookies that we demolished and then we had oranges and apples to counteract the cookies :) Or so we convinced ourselves... haha. We met some interesting people along the ride... two guys got on a one stop and completely scared the ba-jeezies out of me. I was sleeping in the seats across from the two Gab was sleeping in; the men got on and just tapped my food and for some reason I was like a rocket... jumped straight up and was actually scared at first, with no understanding of why I was scared. haha - so since the seats I was asleep in were actually the seats belonging to the men, I moved and Gab and I slept the rest of the way, pretty uncomfortably. We were woken again by some lady swearing that we were in her seats and yelling at us in Spanish for about 3 minutes. Finally we had to tell her she was on the wrong coach and she and her son left. The scenery along the ride (when I was awake) was AMAZING!!

There were mountains everywhere and castles... there were also farms and fields of orange trees and many other kinds of produce and trees.
When we arrived in Barcelona, Gab figured our hostel would be close enough to walk to. So we left the train station and started walking down the big street closest. We saw a "Dunkin' Coffee" and a Subway with TINY sandwiches... instead of 12 inch or 6 inch... they were only about 2 inches. ¡¡Qué guay!! After about 15 minutes we finally decided we had no idea where we were / where we were going etc. so we stopped and asked the cutest little lady where we were and how to get to the hostel. She said we were very far away (which we were) and that we had to get on a subway and take the tram about 5 stops away. We arrived at the Hostel Sun and Moon around 12:15PM after asking a few more people about which train to take, getting on it, getting off, feeding a homeless man with the extra bread and cookies from the train, found the hostel, checked in, changed and then went to go explore the city until Grace and Abby were supposed to arrive around 2:30.
Gabby and I walked the main street and saw some pretty neat people doing those standing still things... where they dress up as something weird and stand / sit really still so you'll give them money to take pictures with them. One guy was acting as a genie and he was actually floating in the air. He was probably the coolest one I've ever seen in my entire life. Then we went down to the port - WOW OH WOW it was so pretty! There were hundreds of sailboats with huge, colorful sails in the port where Christopher Columbus arrived back from his voyage to the Americas. YUP - that's the port where he and his big large boats landed back in Spain. HOW COOL?!?! So, significantly, there was a huge statue of him right in the center of the street parallel to the port (picture up and to the left). I'm pretty sure I could have sat down there all day and just photographed everything and everyone I came across. We walked along the pier and the street: Las Ramblas until we lost track of time. Finally realized we needed to go back when the time hit 2:40. We met up with Abby and Grace and then the four of us went out to go get lunch. We had our very first Tapas (little appetizers very popular all around Spain) along with paella, pizza and waters all around. mmmmm. We left and after getting churros and chocolate (MY FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH CHURROS AND CHOCOLATE) we walked around, down towards the port again where I got to take night-time pictures of the boats... There was a huge Chinese new year festival going on and I found a guy feeding seagulls that I took loads of pictures of. We crossed the pier and shopped in the big mall overlooking the port; Grace bought a dress and Abby found her dream leather jacket. I REALLY liked the jacket but shes less than a size 00 in the states and she wore the medium from that store... so I was out of luck. I did get a belt, earrings and two rings from a store though for 7 euro total. There were some MAJOR rebajas going on there.

We headed back to the hostel to take much needed naps and then get ready to go out for the night. Gab and I met our two Chinese roommates named Mitu (Me-too) and Yoshi. They were way cool but barely spoke any English (or Spanish for that matter)! She and I ended up sleeping for quite a while until Abby and Grace came up to wake us up around midnight. We met our other roommates then: two French girls who were really sweet! Really liked them. So Abby and Grace left to meet their friends who were studying in Barcelona; Gabrielle and I got dressed and then found our way to the same bar to meet up with all of them. The bar was called Chupitos and it had over 100 shots for only 1 euro each. The girls tried a few and I took some pretty funny pictures. I also found a few names on the shot board of people I know... so I took a picture of the names of shots. We didn't stay there long... but we did stay long enough for Grace to persuade some English men to say, "Not me, not Hermione, you!" Why? No idea... Grace is her own special self, that girl. HA. We all left - us 4 plus their friends, got cabs and went to another place, a discoteca (not sure of it's name). It was really cool inside! There were about 4 different rooms with big colored balls of light randomly placed around hanging from the ceiling. It was overlooking the ocean and the bathrooms looked like something out of a medieval castle. Gab and I didn't stay long; we left shortly and walked what we thought would be a short way back home... 30 minutes later after having passed all of the beach, a few sketchy buildings, and a large hotel, we hop in a cab to find out that we were a good 15 minutes by car, probably another hours walk. OOPS!! The cab driver was really social and talked to us about the states. He has family in New Jersey and he himself is from Iraq. So he knew a good bit of English and was one of the nicest cab drivers I've ever met, anywhere. It looks like Gab and I need to pay attention to where we really are from now on and stop trying to walk everywhere, though. Oh well, we got to see the beach and catch some fresh air. We arrived back at the hostel around 3:30AM and met the reason for switching our room the next day: some guy coming in at 4:00AM turning on all of the lights and then proceeding to strip in front of everyone. He gets down to his little whitey-tighties with all of us basically shoving our pillows on our faces, and then decides to turn off the light. Next thing, we all smell this aroma of something basically dead... I wanted to vomit. It was one of the worst smells I've ever experienced in my entire life. Gab opened the window but it didn't do anything. Some people really need to learn about hygiene and learn how to take care of themselves for the sake of other people's well being (aka: their nostrils well being). We did manage to fall asleep though... and slept straight through until 8:30 the next morning when we got up for our complimentary breakfast from the hostel downstairs....

The view of the beach at 3:00 in the morning.

Gab and I walked to the hotel at the end on the left
before we decided to get a cab

Written by my friend Anna Kowalczky

... information I thought you might want to read written by my friend Anna Kowalczky who is also in the program... and is a Sigma Kappa I might add :)

This is me and Anna at the top of the castle at sunset... we're in the pose of a "Kappa"
to represent our Sigma Kappa backgrounds :)
photo cred: Jesse Von Fange

After a month here, the initial culture shock has faded, and Alicante has truly become home. With the loss of my rose-colored glasses, I’ve identified lots that Spain can teach America..as well as what America can teach Spain. Some local insight:

Querido America,

• Be conscious of what you use. Don’t waste food, energy, water, etc.
• Family is important. Enjoy meals and outings with extended family; spontaneous visits should be welcomed, not a cause for stress.
• Food is for enjoyment. Eat slowly and with good company. Buy food fresh and daily.
• You don’t need to be the best to be happy. Working with others to achieve success is just as valuable as success alone..and far more enjoyable.
• Express yourself. Love generously. Don’t sidestep the topic; say exactly what you feel.
• Be confident and proud in who you are. Spanish women are some of the sexiest.
• Getting old does not mean your life needs to come to a halt. Your age should not define your pastimes, fashion nor friends.

Con amor,

Espana

Dear Spain,

• Taking up the entire sidewalk is never okay. Taking up the sidewalk while walking one kilometer/hour should be illegal. Further, if you see and hear someone behind you trying to get by, moving a little bit to one side or the other would be quite courteous.
• We no longer live in the dark ages. While water is expensive, hygiene is a top priority in most of the world, and it should be in Spain as well. Using a bidet does not equal a shower. I should not be able to smell you before spin class has even begun.
• While I admire your ability to chat with pure strangers, it is not adequate to assume that the ten people in line behind your new friend have no future destination. It’s amazing how working at work renders far higher profits.
• Clean up your dog poo. That is one surprise no one wants to find on the sidewalk.
• Personal space does exist. While Americans may value it a little too much, bumping into/pushing people is crossing the line. A “pardon” never hurt a soul.
• Sometimes, people get hot when they exercise. Therefore, shorts are a practical decision..not a financial decision due to my desire to find prostitution clients at the gym. Don’t stare, por favor?
• Spicy food is God’s gift to man.

Love,

America

So... that's a bit of insight that Anna talks about with me a lot while we're walking around the city... haha these are her words and I laughed - so I figured you all would too. PLUS it gives you something to read while I work on my blog that i'm 23 days behind on. OOPS!

LOVE,
Me :)

New address

I am going to blog tonight !!!! (or... well.... maybe?) Get excited and start exercising your eyes for some extensive reading.

The USAC office moved locations on campus so if you want to send me mail, my address has changed a little bit:

Anna Lauren Meeks / USAC
Edificio Germán Bernácer
Universidad de Alicante
03690, San Vicente del Raspeigh
Alicante, Spain

Write more later!!!!!!

Remember me?

It's the night of the 15th... Tuesday.... and I am procrastinating homework. TODAY WAS SOOO long, so the last thing I want to do is to sit down and do more work! Therefore, I'm going to catch up on more of my blogging! Where did we leave off? Oh yeah... January 29th when Emma, roomies and I had all gone to the market, shopped with Abby and Grace and then had the wonderfully delicious BBQ dinner at the apartment of Alex Cherry - our local friend....

01/30 Sunday

Since last night ended a bit early for me, I actually woke up early today, stayed in - for the most part - to get homework and some research concerning possible future trips accomplished, and went out for a late evening run. Remember the vegetables that I bought yesterday? I ATTEMPTED cooking them but WHO KNEW cooking vegetables would be so difficult! They just got mushy and soggy.... gross but I ate them anyways. On another thought, whatever these green things are - which I believe are lima beans that haven't been shucked yet.... can someone please inform me of their name and how in the world to cook / eat them? :) much appreciated.

01/31 Monday

Today... the usual morning. Class! I wasn't feeling too hot, though... I think the jet-lag has finally gotten to me! We're reading Cinderella in my track class... and having to go through and write about what is wrong in the story provided-- LITTLE do they know that they are working with a Cinderella genius over here ;) watch out! After school, got home at 4:30PM and went to run a few errands; Alec Trainer - one of the guys in the program that has become pretty close to all of us at the apartment, walked with me because it was getting dark outside. First we attempted at getting a "tarjeta jóven" so we could get the discount bus tickets, but, the building was closed AGAIN so we ran on to our next destination: Holiday Gym. My friend, Anna, the Sigma Kappa from Maryland goes to this gym and she's been begging me to go with her, so Alec and I ran by there to see what we could do about getting me a membership for the few months I'm here in Spain. I got through all of the paperwork and then at the end, the guy said I had to have a bank account to link it with... why? I don't know... but I didn't know my transaction numbers for my good ol' Bank of America account, so oops - there goes a whole 20 minutes for nothing.
Alec and I passed by a home-style store on the way home with REALLY cheap blankets - so of course I stopped in and bought... um... two? *innocent smile* Do you really blame me though ?? I wake up with purple fingers, knees and toes (despite wearing socks and sweatpants), and they were only 4•euro each. I got a teal one and an orange one.... and they're very soft, very big PLUSH blankets! yay!

Today I also introduced Alec to a good Spanish chocolate cookie... mmmm... there goes HIS waistline!

02/01 Tuesday

((view from the top of the hill where cooking classes take place))

Classes ended at 1:ooPM today... and instead of waiting around for 2 hours for soccer to start, I went home and did a bit of homework because I was planning on giving my time to something else in the evening... guess what that is?!?! COOKING CLASS!!! :) yayyyy!!
We're only supposed to be allowed to take 18 hours worth of credit while we're here... and yes, I'm at 18 with all of my classes that I'm in. Cooking class is one hour credit so I begged and pleaded for them to let me in and they finally, today, said that I could be a part of the class. I was so excited that I debated buying a totally cool, totally unnecessary cooking apron so I could be on top of my cooking skill and on top of the cooking fashion... but then I thought about the unnecessary part and decided against it :)
After school, Caitlin and I both took naps and then we got up to go running. Mistake? Maybe... we found some more of that really cool beach workout equipment located in a park right near our apartment... but we also found a really fat, ugly woman squatting half naked in the middle of the street... clearly visible... peeing beside of a trash can. I mean, I know dogs can do it, but woman, SERIOUSLY?! There was a man behind her holding up her dress and laughing so hard he probably developed abs but he was probably only laughing at the disgusted face I made. He should have been choking on vomit from the sight of that nastiness. bleh. Later when talking about it with dad, he asked if I had taken a picture for my blog? Can I take a poll and ask who honestly would have wanted to see that?! Because I know I didn't and it was forced upon me... SPEAKING of vomiting, que yo aprendé es la palabra (which I learned is the word) "duelvo". The woman who lives above me and decides to move her furniture around EVERY NIGHT at 2:30am just happened to grace me with her loud vomiting sounds last night around 5am.... at first i thought it was a dog with short howls but then it kept going and after a few minutes of silence, I heard footsteps going back to her room. bleh. hahahahahahaha Oh Spain!
I met up with my friend, Sara, at 6:30 at La Plaza de Los Luceros and we walked to class with Hannah and Torin. The class is up on top of this LONG steep hill that takes about 15 minutes of speed walking to get up: QUITE the workout... but hopefully this food is worth it ;) Guess what? IT WAS!! Today was the first day and I was already addicted. To begin, my professor who's name is Nuño (like "nun-yo bizness"), is quite fabulous and reminds me A LOT of Mr. Bean... :) tee hee. I took a video of him and if you watch, you'll notice he says the word "Vale" which means "okay" about a MILLION times. He's way toooo precious, though and everyone in the class loves him.

Cooking Video #1
Cooking Video #2
Cooking Video #3

Today we cooked Paella!! It's a Spanish (VERY popular) dish.... well, on second thought, we cooked what is called Fideuá. The only difference between these two dishes is that a Paella is made with rice and a Fideuá, with noodles. They are both made with either meat, vegetables, or seafood (or all three if you like), and cooked in a very large, flat skillet-like pan.

Fideuá ingredients:

• Macaroni noodles - thick and small
• Fish stock / broth
• Cuttlefish
• White shrimp (small)
• Clams
• Crawfish
• Mussels
• Red bell pepper
• Green bell pepper
• Onion
• Garlic
• Crushed red tomato
• Sun-dried red bell pepper
  
• Olive oil

If you want the recipe - just message me and I'll give it to you, but it's late and I don't feel like translating and then typing the entire thing at the moment :)

We also made tortillas Españolas -- thick tortillas made from eggs, milk, potatoes and a few other things ... MINE WAS THE BEST LOOKING! ... and for dessert: Torrijas which are basically just deep-fried french toast rolled in sugar. Healthy? Nope.
Class ended around 8:30... walked home full and fat... homework and bedtime! Oh yeah, the girls and I have started watching a show called Pretty Little Liars. Pretty sure we watched an episode of this before bed :)

02/02 Wednesday

Today was a good day, as well... We had class as usual - ending at 4pm since today was business class day. After classes, Matt (our friend who lives right around the corner) said that his host mom invited us around for dinner. Another awesome meal in sequence with the one from last night? Yes, please! We went over right after getting off of the bus and were greeted by an 18 year old cat that looked like it wanted to murder the world. It's gray hair was sticking out like it had been electricuted, and when you pet it, you could feel how it's hair was actually matted so terribly that it had dreads underneath all of the fluff. AHHH gross? But it was the sweetest cat ever and poor thing couldn't meow even though it was trying with all of it's might. I think one of the claws was messed up as well because it got caught on everything it touched: my sweater, the table cloth... OR MAYBE it was just trying to do the table cloth trick where if you pull it from the table really fast, everything on the table just magically stays in place and doesn't go crashing to the floor. Could be.
Matt's host mom was incredibly social and sweet and she made us so much food. We had Fideuá - again for me, first time for the other girls - but it was with only little white shrimp and tuna.... In my personal opinion, it was way better than last night's fideuá. We also had salad and Spanish ham and bread. mmmmm :)
TOMORROW is our first exam in our Track classes... so Alec came over and studied with the girls and I for a few hours. We all finally went to bed sometime really late that night.

02/03 Thursday

Did I just get murdered? Seriously.... because I feel like that exam paper took out a knife and stabbed me in the brain. I'm pretty sure no one was expecting it to be as difficult as it ended up being... oh well - only time holds our fate in our hands now. The rest of the day was pretty good, though. In Conversation and Oral, the professor made fun of me because I looked dumbfounded when the seat I normally sat in got taken, so he sarcastically pulled his chair out at the front of the class and told me to sit there and teach the class. He then proceeded to sit in the rear of the classroom and grin at me while I stood there thinking about what to do. ... so i wrote the agenda on the board: tomarámos una siesta por 30 minutos.... meaning let's all take naps for 30 minutes. :) buttttt he didn't exactly agree to that SO, instead, I explained in spanish two american games that he'd never heard of before: telephone and head's up 7 up. CAN'T believe he'd never heard of TELEPHONE! seriously? We played them for about 10 minutes.... then he took over class and we had a worksheet on anúncios de contactos ---- basically dating ads for the newspaper. Although he took over teaching he made me call on whoever was to read the next anúncio and once I made Alec read a girls announcement in a girl voice; we all cracked up... he should not go into voiceovers as a living. ;) After, we had to write our own anúncios, anonymously, which he collected and then redistributed randomly for each of us to read aloud. Alec and a girl named Chantelle had a "phone conversation" about Alec's ad.... Chantelle decided to describe herself as a 90 year old woman who lived in a box but was pretty and fun. She proceeded to begin to ask if he wanted to go somewhere that week and as she paused to think of a place i just said "al hospital?" For some reason our professor thought that was just the funniest thing he'd ever heard.... covered his mouth laughing and all. haha :) I GUESS I'm on my way to being the next class clown, eh? Move over dad.. takin' yo spot! They agreed to meet for their first date at the hospital for a heart checkup :) how cute.
After school I had a few things to get ready because BARCELONA with Gabrielle, Grace and Abby comes veryyyy early in the morning. So I ran a few errands:
1. Went to the central market with a group from school.... saw the funniest, grossest fish I've ever seen. It's name in spanish: Rape... and it looks as such.
2. got a phone - finally:

+34674650935 if you want to call me, of course :)

3. booked a hostel and my train tickets to actually get to Barcelona.
4. I got some cheap and useful things for the apartment: bath mats for the bathroom since the floor feels like ice, brown fruit baskets for the counters in the kitchen, silverware since we only had 4 forks and spoons, and a shower caddy so my soap and such didn't have to sit on tiles that I didn't know the history of :) call me paranoid... but I feel more clean and at home now.
5. Packed and cleaned my room in preparation for the 6:55 AM departure time with Gab. *sigh*

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A continuation will occur later... starting with the crazy morning before leaving for Madrid. Write more when it's not 2:30 in the morning. LONG day tomorrow.

Sincerely,
Still behind in this, aren't I?

Before Barcelona

There has been so much going on I have had absolutely no time to write! It seems that I am never home anymore and when I am, I'm either cooking, doing homework or sleeping as often as possible! Life in Spain is busy, exciting, adventurous and at times, a bit crazy. Here are some of the things that have happened up until I left for Barcelona last Friday morning (January 25 - February 4th)......

01/25 Tuesday

The school is offering a trip to Valencia the weekend of St. Patrick's Day for a festival called Las Fallas (click that link to go to a wikipedia page about what all happens in the festival) -- So about 30 of us from the USAC program signed up to go on this one day trip to Valencia... I'm thinking it should be pretty fun :) Since St. Patrick's in Dublin didn't work out, it was the best second option.
Today we also had our first USAC soccer game! There were about 20 kids that came out to play a big game of soccer with Lúis (the program director) and Sylvian (one of the employees at the school). I think the score ended up being 4-3? It was great fun and I got quite a few pictures... hilarious pictures.


Soccer Pictures HERE

Later that day Caitlin, my lovely dinosaur loving roommate, and I went to the Corte Ingles (which is like a big department store... or upper class walmart - it literally sells EVERYTHING) to buy some shampoo / conditioner. When we were shopping around we found a section in the junk food aisle that was selling dinosaur cookies.... perfect day for Caitlin since she had on her I LOVE DINOSAURS shirt.... hahahaha. I'm sure the people around us were thinking, "Crazy Americans."

01/26 Wednesday

K so remember the HUGE burger I snuck a picture of last week - the last time I blogged? Well... one of the girls in our group ordered a burger in the cafeteria not knowing how large her bacon burger was going to turn out. Caitlin and I decided to take a funny picture of her with it since she's a vegetarian... and just because the burger itself is hilarious to look at.
Nutrisystem was delivered today... I think I'm stocked up for a while! It was hilarious to see me trying to carry this however-many pound box on the 30 minute bus ride with everyone staring at the box that read LOWE'S in huge blue bold letters... Can I scream foreigner any louder this trip?! :) and... mom, I think I'm stocked for quite a while.

01/27 Thursday
(the Clemson girls - Chelsea, Gab, MaryAnn, Krista, Anna Lauren, Anna, Megan)

Today was another day of just waking up, going to school, coming home, going on a walk / run around the town, going shopping and then coming home to do homework... but then! It all changed because this NIGHT was a great night! :) I was surprised with two of my friends from Clemson showing up at my door with Gabrielle (a girl from Clemson that is here in Alicante studying with me). I had no idea that Chelsea Lappin and Megan Stockhausen were in town; and I got to meet Anna Finke - their friend from Clemson. They are all studying in Brussels right now and decided to make a trip to Alicante for the week (since they actually hadn't started classes yet). This was their last night in town - so I was super excited to get to see them! We went to GOA (the usual bar) where MaryAnn actually got to work behind the bar for the entire night, and then headed to Swing to dance for a few hours... I left with Chelsea, Gab, Megan and Anna around 3:30 or 4am to go home -- they had a plane to catch in a few hours. It was a fun, sociable night :)

01/28 Friday

Woke up late today and the roommates and I decided to make a lazy day of this day. I believe the only thing we did was go out and try the frozen yogurt place on the corner... VERY delicious if I might say so :) There is only one type of yogurt - the regular plain kind - but then there are many different types of toppings to choose from (sauces, to fruits, to candy, etc.) which make the yogurt soo much tastier. Caitlin, MaryAnn, Krista, and I went along with our neighbor Alina from across the hall. We stopped by two stores on the way home - a sports store where I saw a lot of horse riding materials (which reminded me of my cousin, Carly Grace) and a store that sells those little 100 dollar plastic fisheye cameras that make funky colored pictures. Kinda neat. Then we went to a store called Mango - a clothing store with really good rebajas (sales). I found the most perfect, amazing gift for my sister.... and she had better love it and wear it when I bring it home for her :) BUT I have no doubt that she will.
That's all for today folks!

01/29 Saturday

Today was the first day that we went to the central market - aka: Marcado Central! It is where you can buy fresh produce, fish, meats, nuts, breads, clothing, etc. It smelled TERRIBLE (but the products - especially fish - were quite interesting to look at) and was very fast paced. I just stood near a stand one time and watched the man running the stand quickly go through customer after customer... yelling at them to tell him what they wanted and then quickly wrapping the fruits in bags and collecting their money. I was ready to get into the swarm of it, despite being nervous that I was going to make some marketer angry with my slow spanish, but it's okay... in the end, I didn't do so bad!

After leaving the market, we went home and unloaded all of our fresh produce: I bought potatos, tomatoes, beans (of some sort), grapes, apples, oranges and carrots.
Abby and Grace came in after a few minutes to ask if I wanted to go shopping with them -- my first thought - YES! I need to stop this because all of this window shopping is making me realize how non-european I really am. haha. We went to a few shoe stores and then to a few home stores... I got a candle and some boots for 10 euros! :) they're gray and with a little wide heel... very comfortable! AND -- I got to wear them to the BBQ this night...
Alex Cherry (on the left in the picture) - one of the promoters for the bar GOA where we've been attending since arriving in Alicante - invited all of us over for a BBQ at his place on Saturday night for the Barcelona vs. Alicante soccer (fútbol) game. The girls and I arrived and we toured his apartment - SO MUCH NICER compared to ours!! It was decorated very vibrantly with different colored walls in every room and collages of pictures hung up everywhere. Now, that's my kind of place, don't ya think? :) He cooked chicken and a special kind of salsa and french bread. ¡Muy sabróso! Sergio (the owner / DJ at GOA) came to join the dinner, but Jose (our favorite bar tender) didn't make it. Since it was such a busy night due to the game, there wasn't any way he had time to come over for dinner. I put up a video of some of the conversation from dinner... :) Listen and see if you can understand it!

Dinner video!

Alex walked us home after dinner and the continued on to the bar to begin work... Mmmmm I can't wait to have more dinners at his house over the next few months. He really knows how to BBQ some chicken, that's for sure!

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AND this is where I am going to end for tonight.... tomorrow (Feb. 8), I will write the update of Sunday, January 29 through Thursday night, February 3. Then I will do a whole new blog for the Barcelona trip - February 4 - February 6. :)



Sincerely,
Slowly catching up