Hannah's Adventures in Barcelona: BARCA!!

I have arrived and I am loving it. It got to Barcelona on Sunday afternoon after and extremely long day of traveling! I got to spend some time with Rob's mom Belinda and her friend which was nice and Rob and I did a little preliminary exploring of our own. The next day I moved into my new apartment. I am living in an apartment building right on Gran Via de les Corts Catalan which is a main road in Barcelona. The location is absolutely amazing! Its a 3 minute walk to the metro and only a 20 minute walk or a 8 minute metro ride to the IES center (where most of my classes are). I have four roommates who are all IES students and an RA living with me in the apartment. The roommate i share a room with is Christina and she is from Westport CT. Its such a small world, our parents know each other from back in Rowayton. The other two girls I live with are from Philadelphia and New Jersey and they are also really nice. The apartment is really wonderful and its huge but its not decorated the best...i wish we were allowed to Feng Shui a little bit. Its strange having an RA living in an apartment with me because its sorta like we are at camp...she keeps scolding us for talking past 11pm. But she is an excellent resource and works all day so we hardly ever see her.

I have had IES orientation these past few days at 9am so i've been really exhausted. I'm too excited and ready to explore which doesn't leave much time for a "siesta," and then I'm exhausted at 9:30 which is dinner time here. The timing of everything is going to take a lot of getting used to. Orientation was somewhat helpful but its not much I did not already know. Today for an activity we had to go on a scavenger hunt around a certain neighborhood of Barcelona. My group was assigned to the waterfront area which was really pretty to walk around and look at the boats and the beach. I keep going places and being more and more surprised, the city seems to be getting prettier by the hour.

Today Rob and I visited La Sagrada Familia today and all i have to say is WOW. For those who dont know, (first look it up on google images) Gaudi was head of the construction of the church however when we died the church was only 15% complete. Today it is still under construction and it is now esimated it will be totally complete in 2020. The outside may look a little strange to some (that Gaudi for ya) however the inside is so incredibly beautiful and unique. I never thought it was that pretty looking in the pictures but in real life it is AMAZING! Rob and I decided we'd pay the extra money and take the elevator ride to the top of one of the towers...if you visit its a must! The view of Barcelona from the top is amazing and you get a real birds eye view of the construction and the other towers. La Sagrada Familia exceeded Rob and my expectations and it truly is a masterpiece.

Barcelona is an awesome city so far and I cannot wait to do more exploring! I feel like i have so much to see in so little time so I want to get it all done. Oh and as for the food i've been eating, well thats has to be another blog post in it self so maybe next time.

ENJOY THE PICS