Day 2/First day of school/Tour of the city/Sagrada Família

Today was probably one of the longest days of my life. Last night, we went out to dinner and a member of the group had to run back to the room and get something, only she couldn't find us when she came back downstairs. So, I went up to the room (or so I thought) and unlocked the door hoping to find her. Only, it wasn't my room, but my key unlocked the door. Without noticing at first, I called out her name and walked halfway into the apartment because I heard music, and then I realized that I was in somebody else's room! And it was a citizen of Barcelona, not a member of the program. So, I ran back out the door and shut it, only to run back to the restaurant and be told by my peers that I went to the floor below ours. After dinner, my roommates and some of  our new friends came back to our room, and began to kill time by watching the Disney Channel español and also poking fun at how none of us know what to do with a bidet. But back to how long of a day today was. I went to bed at about 12:30am Spain time, so 6:30pm for you East coasters. I thought I would sleep like a baby, but I guess my 2 hour nap earlier in the day really messed me up. I woke up at about 3:30am and didn't go back to bed until 5:30am, only to wake up again at 7am. Then my roommates and I took the metro for the first time with orientation starting in 45 minutes. And you can bet your butt we got off at the right stop, but then walked far away from where we needed to go and confused the heck out of ourselves. Luckily though, we arrived sharply on time at 8:30 when the whole sha-bang was scheduled to begin. And luckily for us, many people showed up late throughout the whole thing so that made us feel a little bit better. And we saw a KFC, McDonald's, Subway, multiple Starbucks (even though I don't drink coffee), so that made us feel somewhat at home. But, I will try my best not to eat at these places unless I get uber homesick. My class schedule got messed up too, so I had to go to 3 2 and a half hour classes today instead of the normal 2. And now I will have to take Spanish my senior year instead of being done with my language requirements by the end of junior year, but oh well. I'm not letting it ruin my trip, it's just another bump in the road. And it will allow me to stay in my sport class where we get to go on field trips to FC Barcelona stadium, a bullfight stadium, and I think the 1992 Olympic fields. And I found out today that starting next year, Barcelona (or maybe the region of Cataluña) is banning bullfighting, but this season is still live and well and started in the end of April and goes to October. There are 2 bullfighting arenas in Barcelona, and our hotel reception after out city tour today was right next to one. Back to the long day though, so we woke up officially at 7am and the program day officially ended at 9pm or so. The last 2 hours were awesome though, as we went on a guided bus tour around the city and got to check out the Sagrada Família (which is one of the coolest structures/buildings that I have ever seen and I recommend ANYBODY AND EVERYBODY that if you ever get the chance to check it out, then DO IT without hesitation. The guide told us that they began to build in 1882 (I think) and it should be completed by 2026. A neat thing about it though, is that it is completely funded by church donations. Hopefully I will be able to check out the inside of it soon and see the city from that vantage point. We also got to go to one of the ports where there looked like hundreds and hundreds of sailboats, and was right next to one of Barcelona's famous beaches, situated near their self-proclaimed "Twin Towers". After that, we got back on the bus and went to our next destination which I forgot the name of, but consisted of Roman architecture and bases to the buildings, which were later added on to by more modern materials. However, underneath the mini Roman-inspired town, consisted of Roman ruins and other historical landmarks. Our second-to-last stop was at the Hotel Miramar, which means "Look Sea" and was absolutely beautiful. We were able to see almost the ENTIRE city and it is by far the largest city that I have ever seen personally and possibly visited. I tried to get a few panoramic photos and by this time in the day, my camera battery was getting low. In all, I took almost 175 photos I believe. The view from the hotel was so beautiful, not only allowing you to see the city and the nearby mountains, but also the port and the Mediterranean sea. A fun fact for yous guys that our tour guide told us is that Spain is the second most mountainous country in Europe. After leaving this destination, we journeyed further up the hill to where many of the Olympic stadiums were built and still remain open to the public, with concerts even being held in the main stadium. Speaking of concerts, Enrique Iglesias is actually performing a concert tomorrow night (Wednesday) in Barcelona, and I think Janet Jackson is making her way through before long as well. The hosting of the Olympics really boosted a turnaround for Barcelona and allowed the city to build new attractions for the visitors and athletes, which still remain today and are considered one of the main reasons that Barcelona has become such a big tourist destination and shifted away from its previous bad reputation. The tour ended in what seemed like a more upscale part of town, with one of the bullfighting arenas and a huge museum with beautiful architecture and pillars and statues nearby. Finally, we finished with a rooftop snack/finger-food extravaganza that most people treated as dinner because it was gratis. It was really cool to have everybody in the program all together at once outside of school. Some of us decided to bypass the elevator line, so a group of about 10-15 of us roughed it and hiked up 8 or so flights of stairs. I met a lot of new people, and I even met another Hokie! This Hokie nation is something special, and if you are not a part of it then you are missing out, my friends!  So that makes 3 Hokies, including me, on this trip so far, but that pales in comparison to the probably 20+ students from Cal Poly. They are rollin' deep on this trip! The amount of people from West coast schools vastly outweighs the number of East coast ones. I also managed to meet someone on the trip from Canada, which was very interesting. Really nice guy, and we threw a few Canadian expressions at each other (thanks gramps). We also took some really cool pictures from the top of the hotel as the sun was setting so that was awesome. And then the roomies and I decided to head back to the apartment, but not without a few stops. I finally was able to find an ATM and withdraw some Euros, so that was good because I had no money for the past 2 days. All I ate today before the hotel thing was 4 doughnuts, 1 for breakfast and 3 before the tour. They served us Dunkin' Donuts, but they were cold! How weird is that?! Now all I have to do is learn how to navigate in this monstrous city and stay true to the buddy system and I think I should be all right (I hope). Multiple people have already gotten their backpacks, money, etc. stolen, so I am being very cautious whenever I go out, especially because I am not blending in just yet! I also need to find where to cash in traveler's checks, so once I take care of that then I should be moving along nicely (or getting there, at least). It just doesn't seem like anywhere cashes them anymore, including some banks! I still don't have sheets, etc. yet because everytime I have passed a linen store, they are either closed or I didn't have any Euros. Well, this is probably the longest blog that I will ever write, and sorry to those who read it, but today was just a very eventful day. And thank God for my awesome roommates! We seem to be getting along great and growing a little bit closer every day. I am still nervous for this trip, but things are getting better every day and I am trying my best to be open-minded and not pass up any opportunities. More opportunities seem to open up every day and it is just crazy to think of all the things that we can do. One more thing, all of the students live in different apartments all across town, so that is a bummer. But it allows us to check everything out see different parts of this beast called Barcelona.

view outside of the apartment

Sagrada Familia

Sagrada Familia

pond outside of Sagrada Familia

the other side of Sagrada Familia

close-up on other side of Sagrada Familia

one of the marinas in Barcelona

some of the Barcelona beach

Twin Towers of Barcelona

overlooking the Barcelona beach

Cathedral of Santa Eulalia

outside of the Cathedral

cont'd

cont'd

"The Face of Barcelona"

One of the views from Hotel Miramar

Another view from Hotel Miramar

Some of the Barcelona port; another view from Hotel Miramar

Some of the garden at Hotel Miramar

Olympic stadium

Montjuic

view from the top of the hotel after the bus tour

Montjuic from the top of the hotel

cont'd

former bullfighting arena which is now a shopping mall