okay here is a long one. I have been keeping up to date on posts despite not having internet so here is what I have been up to the past four days:
Spain Journal
Day 0
Sunday June 28th: I left Indianapolis at Noon on Sunday and took plane to Atlanta. I was expecting some sort of customs transition when I got there because I was flying out of Atlanta straight to Barcelona. I walked right from one gate to the next and grabbed some Arby’s for lunch around 4pm. I then sat in the airport watching the departure time for my plane get pushed back a half hour then an hour and then an hour and a half. I ended leaving Atlanta at 6:45 when originally I was supposed to depart around 5:15. My time in Atlanta was interesting. I also ran into another student from the trip. He and I passed the time as best we could charging our computers. When I finally was able to get on the plane I found myself next to a girl from Taylor headed to Barcelona to study with Dr. Treber as well. The flight was fine. No major turbulence issues to speak of. I found myself unable to sleep for most of the flight though I did manage a couple hours of solid rest. The two meals that were served on the plane were much better than I ever remember airplane food being. The teriyaki chicken and rice for dinner was great, and for being packaged, the brownie was sill somewhat moist and rather tasty. I did forget to take a picture which is unfortunate but it was pretty standard fair at most high schools. Breakfast consisted of an egg sandwich with orange juice.
Day 1
Monday June 29th: We arrived in Barcelona and the customs agent was completely lacking interest. They made us fill out a form on the plane and the customs agent didn’t even look at it much less collect it. The three of us then found a taxi and after a minute while the cab driver put in the address into his GPS we were off. The most striking thing that I noticed was the landscape. The beach was right off the freeway and the hills that would be called mountains in Indiana were beautiful. We found were we were staying and paid the taxi. We had just about enough time to put our bags down in our rooms before we were off to the beach with the group trying to find lunch, which at noon in Spain is impossible. Most restaurants don’t serve food until 1 or 2 at least so we ended up finding a small grocery store and buying a loaf of bread and some peanut butter and jelly. About the least adventurous meal I’ve had since I was a kid. We then came back to IBSTE which is a seminary during the year, where we are staying and took a siesta. Everything in the city essentially closes from 3-5 every afternoon. We had a little bit of time before we headed into the city of Barcelona for dinner. We took a train in and found a charming Thai place that provided an absolutely wonderful meal. this was one of the few places open because once again our American stomachs were a couple of hours early. About the time we finished dinner was the time that business was picking up for them. We walked the streets of Barcelona for a while until it was obvious that at 10pm we were too early for the nightlife and too late for the shops to still be open. We found a train that should have brought us back to the station right near where we are staying but we read something wrong and it didn’t stop here and took us another twenty minutes beyond into the next little town. The only problem was we had found the last train out of Barcelona and there weren’t any more running the other direction. So we found a taxi back to the school and went to sleep.
Day 2
Tuesday June 30th: Today started around 6:00 for one, 8:30 for us that are sane and 9:20 (breakfast ends at 9:30) for the rest of the group. After breakfast the morning was spent in the classroom (I’m calling anything before lunch, at 2pm, morning). We filled out a few forms for taylor and took a test to figure out what we know. I know very little I found out. I’m going to have to study a lot if I’m going to do well here. The afternoon we had free. I tried to get my computer working and failed after which I took a siesta. We just hung out here resting and then had dinner where I found out that my professor participated in the running of the bulls twice as a student here. It sounds tempting, but I also know that it is dangerous. I know that most of the group has the intentions of going at least to watch while some want to participate. After dinner we took a short (10minute) walk to the beach where we just walked up and back for about an hour and a half to two hours. Walking along the beach with the waves gently lapping at your feet (or shooting up your leg) slows your down. I found myself several times just standing in the Mediterranean watching the waves come and go as the sun set. When we came back I read for a while and then hung out with people. I also talked to Brent and tried to figure out what is wrong with my internet. He is stumped. Hopefully this gets sorted before I get back to the states. I talked to Sarah on a borrowed computer and then went to bed.

Day 3
Wednesday July 1st: This morning I woke up around 5am. I’m not sure why this happened but I was awake. It is a little difficult to blame it on jetlag because it would have been about 11pm back home. Anyway I thought I would try and get some more sleep until it was 6am and I still was not back to sleep. I decided to get up and take a walk to the beach to see the sunrise. It was absolutely beautiful. I am one of those people who thinks that sunrises are more beautiful than sunsets. There is something a bit more pure about a sunrise. It is fresher and newer and cleaner somehow. However, I don’t get to see them very often because I don’t generally wake up in time to see them. I guess it helps here that there a beach to view them from instead of cornfields. I took nearly 200 pictures this morning trying to capture the beauty of the moment and I’m not sure than any of them did. I’m not sure what it is about early mornings when no one is up and moving yet but I love it.



this is the sun at 6:00AM


this is the sun at about 7:00AM


After breakfast, we took a trip into the city instead of having class. Dr. Treber arranged for us to have a bus tour (double decker bus with headphone jacks explaining what you are driving past) with this particular one we had the ability to get on and off at will throughout the day (and the next if we wanted). This was a great way to see part of the city as it gave us some flexibility with what we wanted more information on or a closer look. So we took the bus around the city and then found one of two local mercados (or markets) and bought some meat, cheese, bread, and some fruit for lunch. Some found the cheese too dry, but I rather enjoyed the flavor of it. It is monchego cheese from the La Mancha region of spain and is made from sheep’s milk. After lunch sitting on a bench kicking at pigeons to keep them off the food we made our way through what seemed to be narrow alleyways but were in fact the streets of the gothic quarter to the Museo de Picasso. The museum gave an interesting view of Picasso as most of the works were from before he started using cubism. My legs were quite tired so, knowing that I was coming back with my parents I spent 1 of the two hours sitting on a bench resting with some of the other group members, in the room with Picasso’s study of Diego Velasquez’s Las Meninas. After seeing Picasso’s take I’m interested to see the real thing when we travel to Madrid. After the museum we found our way to the Barcelona Cathedral. After resting our feet for a few minutes to take pictures outside the church we made our way inside. As we entered the church there was a boy’s choir from Britain singing and it filled the entire space with the sound of their voices. I had seen pictures of cathedrals before this time, but absolutely nothing compares to walking inside of one yourself. Nothing that I can say will do justice to what I experience as I walked inside. I took a seat and just sat and listened to the music for a while before I even thought about taking pictures. I’ll put some up so you know what it looked like but looking at a picture on a computer screen you don’t feel small. I felt small as I walked into that church. When we got back I had some dinner that consisted of Paella (pi-ay-a). Really the only way to describe it is rice cooked with seafood and vegetables cooked in with saffron. After dinner I took a short swim with Nate Ringenburg and then studied for a test that is coming on Saturday or Sunday(it isn’t that I don’t know, well I don’t, but it is that communication between Dr. Treber and us, the students, is not the best.) I then went to bed early due to my early wake up and three hours of sleep and walking all day long.
Day 4
Thursday July 2nd: Today was spent much the same yesterday was, except that I slept beautifully. I awoke around 8am and grabbed some breakfast. After which, we took a train into the city. Upon arrival we began to walk toward the Plaza de Catalunya (I’m pretty sure this is the Catalonian spelling). We were almost immediately sidetracked by Zara. Zara is essentially Spain’s Macy’s. three of us stood outside and people watched, all the while commenting upon different things we saw while we waited for those in our group without a Y chromosome to finish up. Eventually we gave up and moved on telling them to meet up with us later. Those that didn’t want to shop found our way to the plaza and found the FC Barcelona store. I purchased a scarf while others purchased official jerseys. I considered it and then decided that I would much rather save my almost 90 euros that it would cost me to get a jersey with a name on the back. Now I just have to make sure that it doesn’t fall out of my luggage while in Madrid (Barca‘s rival). By this point the girls had caught up and we headed toward Las Ramblas, which contains La Boqueria, which is the second of the two markets mentioned yesterday. Las Ramblas is a stretch of road that is entirely aimed at tourists and has anything and everything for sale. It reminded me of the county fair (without the animal smell) or riley days. We made our way through Las Ramblas to La Boqueria and found much the same fare as yesterday for lunch. After lunch the group split into two groups with mine heading back out of La Rambla to the bus. However, on the way we saw a couple of the shell game scams. Everyone in our group thought that it seemed really simple. I thought it did as well until I realized that they were being sloppy on purpose at points. They also had a friend with them, “stocking the pond” might be the best way to put it. The mixer would mix and then the friend would guess incorrectly. The mixer mixes again and then people walking by guess at which shell the bead is under. Every guess costs money and if you guess wrong well they keep it. After wondering why people even would guess we got on the bus and headed to the second loop of the bus tour (today was focused on Gaudi architecture. One of the first stops was next to La Sagrada Familia. Gaudi spent 40 years of his life designing the church and it wasn’t finished before he died in 1926. It is still being finished on pace with entrance fees as people come pay to go inside. The church is massive as it stands and I took as many pictures as I possibly could before my camera died (I hadn’t noticed it needing to be charged) So I only got the front and side of the church before it died. But I’ll post pictures of the church that once again made me feel tiny. We got back on the bus and headed to park Guell where the longest park bench in the world is located. The entire park was designed by Gaudi and the architecture that seems out of place in the middle of the city with its wavy lines and curving structures fits right in, in a park setting. I was a little disappointed that a place so obviously designed to be a quiet and peaceful place has turned into a tourist trap with street vendors (who are there illegally) all over the place. It was still cool to see how seamlessly the buildings were integrated into path ways and the plants around. After meeting up the Treber family we got back on the bus and finished the tour. For some reason the route changed and we couldn’t go see the barca soccer stadium which was sad but I might go back later to see it. We finished the tour and headed back to Ibste where we had another Spanish dish of something that I think is called tortilla de potato. Essentially potato and egg casserole. Luckily for me there was ketchup. It was actually pretty good without, but better with. After dinner I talked to the amazing Brent Gerig, without whom I would not be posting this right now. He helped me find my missing network connections and I was able to speak with the wonderful girl back in Kentucky. I’ve pretty much just fiddled online and written this this evening. I get to look forward to an actual day of class tomorrow morning and a free afternoon. I’m not quite sure what to do with it, but I’m sure I’ll figure something out.

I've run out of time and will post the pictures later. Enjoy the sunrise