Vic and Besalu

Hola a todos.

The last couple of days have been incredibly action packed and interesting. Ill start with tonight's events and work backwards.

Tonight I was supposed to go to a friend's apartment to hang out before going out (Sirisha- for you Stevenson people). Once I got off at her Metro (subway) stop I was going to call her so that she could tell me how to get to her apartment. I had been there once before, but it was down a couple side alleys and I didn't really remember where it was or which door was hers. When I got off of the Metro I called, but the call didnt go through. I tried texting and the text didnt go through either. Apparently I had used up all of my prepaid minutes on the phone, and therefore could not place any texts or calls, I could only receive them. I walked around the area for about 30 minutes trying to remember where her apartment was, but to no avail. Finally I decided to return home. It made for quite an adventure. I guess tomorrow I better buy some more minutes.

Today we had a day trip through IES (my abroad program). I had to get up at about 7:30 and be at a bus by 8:30- brutal. When I woke up the sun had not yet risen- I'm pretty sure the entire country of Spain is on the wrong time zone. It is directly south of the UK, but is in the same time zone as France, which doesn't make any sense. Anyway, we took about an hour bus ride to a town called Vic. when we got off the bus it was cold and raining. The town had a market in the square which sold everything- bras and underwear next to fruit next to live chickens- mildly interesting. We went in the town's main church which, if I understood the tour guide's English correctly, was built in the 9th century. I actually wish the tour guide had spoken to us in Spanish- it would probably have been easier to understand, at least for me. The church was pretty and and had some interesting history. After seeing it we had about three and a half hours of free time in the town. I grabbed a quick lunch with some newly made friends from my bus and then we sat around for a while. Unfortunatley the small, mostly unexciting town of Vic was made even less exciting by the pouring rain.


Finally, around 2:30, we returned to the bus to embark upon the second leg of our trip. After about an hour and a half we made it to our second destination: a town called Besalu. This was much more interesting than the first town for a couple of reasons. First, the historic nature of the town was much more tangible. This was a result of a couple of things. I think the tour guide in Besalu was much better than our first tour guide. Also, the town is split between the Jewish and Christian quarters, making it easy to understand who and where everything was. We saw the old Mikvah and Synagogue. It was very funny going through with students from all different backgrounds. I was surprised at the large number of Jewish people, or at least people that knew everything about Jewish culture, in the group. I think a lot of the nonJews, including the tour guide, where shocked as well. Anyway, Besalu was a much prettier town, with cool bridges and archways. I will post pictures somewhere and let you know where they are.


The other night was my first real night out experiencing the night life of Barcelona. It is all that it is hyped up to be- and some. We went to a shot bar called Chupitos at about 11:30- it was basically empty. It filled up about an hour later. The place was very cool and the bartenders put on quite a show with all of the shots. Lots of fun. If you know Shaun Abrams ask him how the Monica was. At around 1:30 we went to a club called Sutton; again the place was basically empty when we arrived. Around 2:30 it started filling up. The place was very nice and drinks were extremely expensive. Once there I met up with a bunch of people that I knew , which made it more exciting. It was very funny hanging out with friends from home and school in a place so far from and so different from home. I left around 4:30, even though people were still coming in. And yes, I did lose Blumenthal.

Other than that, I have walked around the city a lot and tried to familiarize myself with everything. I have learned my way around the main areas pretty well, but definitely look forward to truly knowing where everything in the city is. I can't even begin to describe how many people I have met and how shocked I am to find out that I have connections to a lot of them, through home friends, school friends, etc. I have been having real trouble remembering everyones name. For better or for worse, everyone on the program is American. I look forward to making many new friends with which I can keep lasting relationships.

This week I have Spanish class Monday through Friday. I have a meeting Monday to figure out my schedule, which is currently not correct.

These first couple of days have had many moments of solitude and many overwhelming experiences. Overall, I think the beginning of the trip has gone as smoothly as it could have. I have good roommates, I like the city, and I am getting to know many friendly people. Most of the people here have similar interests to myself, which makes conversation easy.

Hope all is well in the U.S. I hear there have been some snowstorms; don't freeze. As always, let me know if you want to hear more about anything. (Though if you call me now, it might not work, ha.)