Let's Start At The Very Beginning

I've been in Barcelona for the past 36 hours, and it's already sweeping me off of my feet. 

Seriously! This is already so exciting! I left Dallas on Sunday around noon and arrived in the Barcelona airport at 9:00 on Monday morning (2:00 am Texas time, mind you). On the flight from Miami to Barcelona, I met a 40-something year old musician named Juan who's currently learning English. We talked for a good bit of time...and spoke of everything from sights to see in Barcelona to European history to Spanish phrases that will be useful. He definitely taught me a lot despite the rather large language barrier, but he was really just excited to practice his English. He kept thanking me for speaking with him (and kept calling me "passionate" instead of "compassionate" for helping him out). Unfortunately for jet lag, though, my speaking with him for so long also meant that I didn't get very much sleep on the plane...

Once we arrived, we waited in the airport for 2 hours meeting each other and getting our bearings. Then, the thirty of us loaded onto a tour bus and got to our flats in "L'Eixample,"a region of town. The apartment is relatively close to La Sagrada Familia, a main attraction built by the architect Gaudi, and happens to be a quick walk away from a metro stop.

The lobby of our apartment building is beautifully old, complete with an old-fashioned elevator that has two sets of doors and leads up to all five floors. Rather unfortunately for the girls I'm living with, we're staying on the bottom floor, so we don't get to travel by elevator that often. However, avoiding the stairs is pretty fantastic.

The flat itself has a common room, two individual bedrooms, two bedrooms shared by two other girls, and three bathrooms. It's extremely spacious, and definitely something I could get used to. The orange tree in the back doesn't hurt, either. ;)

My cute, tiny room!

After we had unpacked for a bit, we ate some delicious pizza, had some down time (with no naps so we could sleep normally that night), and then the thirty of us were unleashed on the city! A big group of us then went to explore the city...and ended up sticking out like a sore thumb in the city. :) After wandering for a while, we ended up at a place with various appetizers. I ordered a mini hamburger because I wasn't that hungry and was afraid of allergy things...but when they brought it out, the bun's circumference was the size of a half dollar! So I had a biiiiiiig dinner. ;)

Afterwards, we went to buy soap and a few groceries with some money we were given for equipping the flat. My favorite part of grocery shopping was getting to see the different artwork on products and then comparing it to the American artwork. But I think that's the Marketing major in me. :D We bought a few things and then headed on back to our flat.

The best Barcelonan cereal around

As soon as we got home, I took a warm shower and fell asleep. It was definitely a good way to start off my trip. I'll give you today's update later on tonight. Talk to you soon!