Adios Barcelona, Bonjour Paris! (Monday, June 10, 2013)

Today we woke up, had breakfast, and went to our last class at IQS.  Then we had some free time so my roommate Erica, Sara, and I took the metro to the Picasso Museum.  We heard it was a must see in Barcelona, so we figured we would take advantage of our time and hit that up.  We got there only to find out that the museum is closed on Mondays.  We were all pretty upset but my roommate was probably the most upset.  I felt bad that we didn’t make it.  Now we tell people, “Oh yeah, we went to the Picasso Museum.  You didn’t?” And no one (except you lovely readers) needs to know that we didn’t actually get to go in.  How perfect! 

Then we hit up some tacky tourist shops and a pharmacy to get some goodies to bring home to the US.  After that we took the train home.  We made the same mistake as yesterday and got on the wrong train, in fact the same exact wrong train that we had gotten on yesterday, at the same exact train station.  Someone told us we were going the wrong way and how to correct our error, so we were only lost for a few minutes instead of hours, but it still cut into our free time just enough to annoy us a little. 

Once we got back we went to the produce store and the market by our hotel so we could get food and water for the train ride to Paris.  Then we got our luggage from the hotel, loaded onto the bus, and got to the train station where we all waited in a huddle next to the tracks.  Someone dropped her wine bottle and it shattered with a splash of Cava, but otherwise that part of the day was pretty uneventful.  We just sat there trying to be sure no one got pickpocketed or stolen from. 

Then we got on the train and squeezed into these tiny little 4 person cabins with all of our luggage and backpacks.  It was crowded but honestly it was more like a cozy little Hogwarts Express, only not.  Plus once they pulled the beds down it was perfect.  All of FN had 3 full cars in the back of the train (mine was the last car) so we could be as loud and annoying as we wanted.  Obviously, with this group, we were pretty ridiculous.  We danced and ate and partied it up.  I also got to have some great conversations with the other people on the trip and blog a bit for when we had Internet again.  Then I went to sleep and woke up to the weirdest doorbell wake up call and the frigid air of the city of love: Paris!

Paris in the Rain (Tuesday, June 11, 2013)

This morning we arrived in Paris.  Ah!  It was way colder than Barcelona, and very cloudy, but everyone who knows me knows that I would always rather be cold than hot, and that this weather was perfect for me.  Then we got off the train and headed for the bathrooms to change and brush our teeth.  We had to pay to get in which really sucked.  And then they wouldn’t even let me brush my teeth because the sinks were for hand washing only (what?!), I wasn’t allowed to get my clothes out of my suitcase to change, and I forgot to go to the bathroom with all the hustle and bustle.  Oops. 

Then we grabbed our first French pastries and loaded onto the bus for a little tour of Paris!  We drove past all of the major landmarks before ending our tour at the Eiffel Tower to take pictures.  I know everyone always says that the tower is way less cool in person, but I disagree.  I still love it.  It was beautiful!  And yes, not as tall as I had imagined, but still taller than any NBA player I’ve ever seen.  We took a bunch of pictures and went right up underneath the tower.  I was sad I was still in my train clothes, but oh well.  It drizzled a bit, which was great!  Paris in the Rain was on my checklist of things to do and I got it out of the way the very first day (and every day after). 

Then we went to our first Parisian professional visit at OECD.  Everyone who went fell asleep as three speakers just kept on talking in a monotone for hours and hours.  They called us out for it too!  How rude!  We had just gotten off a train where we had hardly slept a wink and they were incredibly boring!  Give us a break!  And at least try to be a little engaging!

After that we went to our hotel.  Ty, Bowie, and I had dinner right next to the hotel and it was one of my favorite meals.  I had skirt stake, potatoes, and a crepe.  Yumm.  Also, in France we can ask for tap water, AKA we can cut out between 3 to 5 Euros off every meal! 

Then we went back to the Eiffel Tower with a bunch of people to take pictures at night with the tower all lit up.  It was beautiful!  We went up the tower, practically jumping out of our shoes with excitement.  The very top was closed because I guess they are renovating the tower, so we only went halfway up, but it was still pretty spectacular.  After a few hours up there, we took the stairs down the tower.  By the last step our legs were shaking and they couldn’t stop.  It was so strange. 

Then we went to take the metro back to the hotel.  Since the others didn’t have any crepes before they got some off the street.  My friend from Montreal asked for her crepe in French and the mean old man made fun of her for attempting to speak French.  Then my other friend tried to order her crepe and asked the one from Quebec how to say it in French.  She told the crepe man and he pretended to help her pronounce it, but instead he was actually making fun of her and calling her mentally ill for trying.  That jerk. 

Then we went back to the hotel.  I had new roommates now. Then I showered and was so exhausted that going to sleep on the rickety old roll away bed felt more like sleeping on clouds and bubbles.  Perfect first day in Paris!

Learning Cities by Getting Lost (Sunday, June 9, 2013)

Before bed I left a note for my roommate telling her my plans for the day.  Then I went to sleep and woke up early so I could go with my friend back to La Sagrada Familia right when it opened so we could go inside.  We ended up leaving a little later than we wanted, but still with plenty of time for us to go, come back, eat with everyone from the group, and then go to a beach down the coast. 

We made it to the cathedral on the metro with absolutely zero problems.  Then we waited in line for a little and walked in with open mouths and wide eyes because of how beautiful everything was.  So worth waking up early.  We set a time to get out, snapped as many pictures as possible, and got out and on the metro.  This time, we used a different entrance but we still found our train back to our stop and we said those famous last words, “We just beat the subway system! We own this city!”.  So wrong.  That is almost as bad as saying, “It can’t get any worse” or, “What could possibly go wrong?”.  We got on the right line and everything, but in the wrong direction.  By the time we realized it was too late.  We were lost in Barcelona, in an area we had never even heard of before.  For an entire hour we went from subway line to subway line and stop to stop before we finally made it back to El Poutex, our final stop.  We got out of the station only to find that we had missed breakfast and to put a cherry on top of that, everyone was on their way to the beach up the coast!  We were devastated, not to mention hungry.  We told them to let us know which beach they stop at, and we would be five minutes behind. Ambitious after an hour of wandering around the Spanish undergrounds, but still a noble attempt. 

We ran back to the hotel, saw our professor, got some directions to the separate train needed to make it to the beach, changed into our suits, and ran back to the station.  We followed the directions, but as we are us, we got lost. Again. For four and a half hours!  We asked so many people for directions, but everyone told us a different answer. Even when we asked two police officers, we got different directions from both.  Finally, we decided to stop at a Subway and grab some sandwiches to eat on the train because we still hadn’t eaten and we had been walking around with our backpacks on our bellies feeling like pregnant women for hours.  We eventually made it to the airport completely bewildered and angry that the others didn’t just tell us to go to the freaking airport and make it easy for us.  By this time it was cold, cloudy, and drizzling, but we were determined to make it to the beach and have a damn good time. 

We finally got on the right train, attempted to eat the worst Subway sandwiches of our lives, and got a text saying to not bother coming, it was too cold anyways and they were leaving.  At that point we had no choice, so we just kept going.  We made it almost to our stop, thought we were there, and got off the train.  We looked around a second and realized it was actually the stop right before the beach they had supposedly left.  Quickly, we ran back to the train as the doors started beeping shut, I almost got left behind, and we plopped down ready to cry at our luck. 

We went one more stop and made it to the beach very sad and cold.  My friend and I wandered along the damp sand and decided to go back when we saw people from our trip!  We were beyond happy and ran to them as if they were the only people we had seen in years.  We decided to stay a bit longer before going back.  Then the sun came out and we saw even more people!  No one had left yet!  We all waited for the train home together and took the hour train back to the metro station, and the half hour metro back to our hotel (standing the whole time due to a lack of seating).  On the bus, we asked how their day was and although it wasn’t quite as bad as ours with the amount of getting lost, they said it was still a pretty bad day.  It wasn’t even warm enough to take off their beach cover-ups.  We were secretly happy, but we kind of felt bad about that. 

Then everyone else decided to go to the Ice Bar but my friend and I were so exhausted from our day of getting lost that we stayed in her room and ate cold pizza with a few other lazy people.  She left and got locked out, by my roommate and I were too busy talking to notice her knocking at the door and she didn’t get back from the lobby getting a key for another 30 minutes.  Oops.  Then my roommate and I went back to our room, talked for a long time, and went to sleep so we could be ready to have a typically busy day the next day.  Oh well, at least the beginning and the end were pretty good.

You! is Now the Funniest Thing Ever (June 8, 2013)

Again, sorry this is late.  I know. I suck. 

So Saturday morning June 8^th, we woke up to thunderstorms in Barcelona.  Bummer! We didn’t want to miss an entire day in the city, so we (basically everyone on the trip) decided to follow my roommate’s plan to see like everything in Barcelona in one day even with the rain (which promptly stopped about five minutes after we left to make our day nice and hot and humid as usual. I swear this place is like Michigan with all its wacky weather.).  We tried to get together in the lobby, but that took some time to get everyone there at the same time.  Then, we tried to get to the metro, but moving that many people in a strange city didn’t really work out either.  Having gotten a quick little tutorial on where the subway was and how it works, my friend and I tried to lead, but no one listened and we ended up taking quite some time to find the stop.  Then we finally got there and there were some issues getting tickets.  One girl’s credit card even got stuck in the machine, and the guy was so confused saying, “Wow, this NEVER happens”.  So reassuring. 

First stop: La Sagrada Familia.  How amazing!  We walked around and took a bunch of pictures and then some people got in line to go inside.  I, being an idiot and listening to someone who told me the wait was going to be 2 hours and that we would only be allowed inside for 10 minutes, decided not to wait and went on with my day.  (Big mistake that I was sure to correct the next day, don’t worry.) (I keep getting incorrect information on this trip. lol)

Then, I went with a group to the beach, where we heard there was good paella.  They loved it, but I have decided, although it was fine, paella really isn’t my thing.  I just don’t like rice so I don’t know why I even bothered.  I guess I thought I had to try paella in Spain or the trip wouldn’t be complete.  To be honest, I’m ready for some new food because I was getting sick of all of the Spanish cuisine.  (Too much of the same and very pricey for all those little portions)    Parisian food should be really good and that is our next stop so yay! 

After lunch, we walked on the beach and took bunches of pictures with sailboats and the pretty view.  We went out to the pier and basked in the sun and saltwater fish smell.    We continued walking, saw a nude beach, and went to the W hotel where one girl had a membership and there was supposed to be an amazing view on their rooftop bar.  The rooftop bar wasn’t open for another half hour, so I went with one girl to Disegual (free beer, watermelon, and cheese?) while everyone else went to some bar called Salt.  We met up with them and waited until the bar opened but instead of going to the bar we went to the roof pool.  That was pretty cool because it had a really great view of the beach, but it was a bit cold and I was getting anxious to get a move on.  Then some of the kids made a friend with some guy from South America and mooched his alcohol until they decided to finally go upstairs.  Turns out, we weren’t dressed appropriately to even get in to the roof bar.  It was pretty sad so we left and some people went back to the hotel while two of my friends and I kept on touring. 

One girl had to leave so the two of us left made our way to the Gothic Quarters, not knowing what we were even looking for.  We got a little lost, so I said, “I wish Hugo was here so he could help us find our way and have fun”.  Then my friend said, “I dunno, I wish Peter was here”.  Literally, the crowd next to us cleared away and less than a minute later we looked and she shouted, “You! I know you!” right at Peter’s face.  Of all the people in Barcelona!?  Peter helped us find our way (AKA go straight and it is less than 100 feet away), and asked us how our day was.  My friend and I, being completely awkward as usual, answered with a little detail missing.  She said that we spent the whole day at the beach and the hotel, and that tomorrow we were gonna go back to the beach so we could relax.  We sounded ridiculous so she made sure to tell him the next day that we did more than that to make up for our apparent lazy tourist beach days.

So we got to the actual Gothic Quarters, took a million pictures, and moved on to the next thing on our hit list.  We walked to Las Ramblas, asked a police man where it was (he thought we were so dumb) and there just happened to be an Art Fair right near by with all local artists.  I love that!  But I didn’t find anything I wanted!  I did like the all plastic made jewelry, but I’m just gonna try to make some myself.  My friend bought a shirt too.  Then we went to the market for some essentials: chocolate, coke, and water.  On the way to the metro, we again thought we were lost (lol jk when we asked we found out the metro station was five feet away).  This boy (American?) gave us directions, because we really needed it, and then invited us to a traveler’s bar.  We told him we weren’t interested, that if we were going out we would be going to a local bar.  He tried to tell us it was local, “the bar is about 50% locals and 50% foreigners”.  We laughed to ourselves, said thanks but no thanks, and went to the metro to go home.  Of course, the ticket ran out and we had to buy more.  But hey, we got a new one and it worked out.  We even figured out the rest of the way home no problem at all!

Then we went to another market and out to dinner for some really bad pizza and pasta at some hole-in-the-wall before coming back for a much needed bedtime. 

Pretty good day, just wish I spent less time at the beach and the W.  But if you know me at all you know I am really not a lay on the beach kind of girl.  Well, for the most part.  Oh well.  Still amazing in Barcelona!  

Ain’t No Onions in a Paella (June 7, 2013)

Sorry this wasn’t posted on the actual day, but here’s what I did on Friday, June 7^th in Barcelona!! 

We woke up early to go to the Damm Brewery (emphasize the Damm), the largest brewery in all of Europe.  It smelled disgusting but either it got better, or unfortunately, we all got used to it.  I like to think it got better.  We were given a presentation about the marketing techniques and all of that good stuff all about the Damm Brewing Company.  They are famous for Estrella Beer and they own a bunch of different companies that make all types of beer: beer for celiacs, flavored beer, low calorie beer, everything. They do so much advertising (unlike Cordoníu) that they told us that their new commercials are released every summer, and now in the winter too, and people literally wait for them to come out so they can watch and download the music used in the commercial.  The presenter showed us the most recent commercial, three days old, that already had like a million views or something.  Ridiculous.  He also showed us a lot of other commercials from the past few years with famous chefs and cute little stories.  They were all surprisingly good commercials with all that happiness selling.  The ones we watched were all like watching little RomComs and stuff like that.  Apparently there was one they called the Lesbian Kiss or something (there was one scene where two girls kissed so I guess that made sense in the 4 minute full commercial) but there was this BIG controversy all throughout Spain about it.  Bet you can’t guess why.  You think it was the lesbian kiss don’t you? Nope.  Well?  Give up? It was because they made the paella in the commercial with onions, and there are no onions in paella!  How crazy and awesome is that?!  Then they took us on a tour of the brewery where there are hardly any workers but there are these super cool robots that use chips and GPSs to do all the work.  It’s insane!  Then, like the winery, we had a beer tasting where you could taste any of the beers they had.  People went nuts.  I tried the Damm Limon.  It was really good.  Like a weird, I mean interesting, lemonade.  (We can’t say anything is weird on this trip so even when it is, it is actually just interesting.  Weird is no longer in my vocabulary.)  Then we took a group picture and went to go back to the bus.  But before we left, they gave us a nice little present: a free bottle of beer.  Not that I enjoyed that type, but hey it was free?! 

Then we went back on the bus to go back to IQS.  Since I only have International IQ and Cultural Intelligence, I had a free block of time.  So I squished into a cab with some friends and went back to the Parc Guell with the other kids that didn’t have class at that time.  We walked all around the park and looked at and took pictures of all of Guadi’s beautiful work!  I had no idea it was such a big park, but it is seriously huge and amazing and wonderful.  Then we had the most ridiculously expensive lunch (cheese melted on baguette) and got a few souvenirs.  On the way out a living statue dressed completely in brown stopped my friend saying, “Oh look at you, you chocolate man!”  When asked if he was supposed to be a chocolate man, he told us no, he was a living statue, my friend is the chocolate man.  My friend was offended but he just laughed.  I truly think the living statue just didn’t realize how he sounded.  Oh well.  We won’t see him again.  Then we took a cab back to school.  The jerky driver tried to make us pay 4 extra Euros for using the back seat of his cab.  We said no, gave him the money we actually did owe, and got out as quickly as possible without looking back. (I gave an extra Euro just to be sure he didn’t drive off with my friend in trying to get out of the backseat.)  Taxi driving in Barcelona is supposed to be a noble and honest profession, but this guy clearly didn’t get the message.  You are driving a van!  The back seat is supposed to be used! 

Then we had International IQ class with the awesome Hugo and all 47 of us from the trip.  Then Cultural Intelligence with Peter.  I seriously love the classes.  They are really great and the teachers know so much. 

Then we took the autobus back to the Hotel Catolonia 505 (room 218) where we met in the lobby to go to dinner with a few other people at a fish place Peter suggested.  We got there and it didn’t have anything I wanted to eat, so I went next door with half the group and had the best food I probably had in all of Barcelona.  I got this really yummy fish in this red creamy sauce, and delicious chocolate mousse.  The people who went to Peter’s place hated their food, so that sucked for them, but at least I was pretty happy.  I know selfish, get over it.   

After that we took the metro downtown to go see the Majestic Fountain.  We got out a little early so we could see some of Guadi’s buildings (Casa Batlló and La Pedrera)  and downtown Barcelona.  One girl’s girlfriend came and met us.  She was a really nice art history major and she told us all about the different buildings and the area we were in with so much detail I felt like I was getting a real tour.  It was so great and so much fun.  Then we got to the Majestic Fountain where we took tons of pictures and enjoyed the view. 

When the fountain was over, we went to a restaurant near the bull-fighting stadium converted into a mall called Tapas, Tapas.  I didn’t get anything but everyone else who did didn’t seem too happy with his or her decision so it was okay. 

After that we headed back to the hotel and took a shower and went to sleep at around 3am.  The night was amazing and it was so perfect!  Plus, it was Friday so we didn’t have class the next day!  Even better!