Staying the weekend in Barcelona

It was SOOOO nice to not travel this past weekend and stay in Barcelona. It wasnt as eventful as the past weekend but it was nice to relax and catch up on some sleep and just be in Barca. On Wednesday I went to broadbar with sam and grace, now named "abroadbar" because thats where all the americans go on wednesdays. I saw Aaron Krug, who is visiting his friends from Michigan. It was really nice to see him and catch up, and also funny. On thursday a famous Dj Afrojack was playing at Opium. Grace, Sam and I got these crazy leggings from H&M, but before we were leaving realized it was a club, and they have dress codes, so we changed into regular going out clothes. Sam had a friend from her highschool who is studying abroad in Rome come for the weekend. His name was Conrad and he is a football player from Bodin. His two friends were also all d3 football players and were huge, haha. Coley was in Venice for the weekend and Katie was in Sevilla, so we had room for the 3 boys to stay with us. Afrojack was really fun. The boys bought a table in VIP so we got to be in vip without paying for it. I hung out with maggie a lot, and saw aaron again. One of the boys, Doug, twisted his ankle and it blew up so i went home with him cause i was tired anyways. I made bomb quesadillas. I have become a decent cook. My specialties are shrimp stir-fry and a veggie egg scramble, and avocato toast. The next day I went with the 3 boys to get food, Grace and Sam were tired but I was hungry so I was like, might as well, and the guys were nice. We went to this place called Milk, that is an american breakfast place. It was really cute and the food was sooooo good. It was filled with Americans though, def not a local spot haha, but nice to have a good meal because spanish food isnt that good. After I walked around with them for a while, we walked along the water to the bottom on La Rambla with the statue of Christopher Colmbus pointing to America. We walked up La Rambla, and  I showed them La Boqueria and we got juice. Theres a random pet stand on La ramble that sells birds, hamsters, mice and cages and stuff, and they also had baby ducks "patos" in spanish, and they were soooo cute and I kinda wanted to get one for the apartment haha. Then we went to corte ingles, the huge department store. They tried on these funny tie die polo shirts and wanted me to take pictures. Kinda gay, but hilarious. Then went home to nap. Everyone went out to dinner but I didnt feel like going out and spending money so I just made dinner at home. That night we went to a club called Oshum, but i didnt really have fun and cabbed home bymyself, which now I am never going to do again! I am veryyyyy safe and responsible when Im out, but I realize i shouldnt even cab home alone, so not going to do that anymore. Plus I have so many visitors I wont ever be alone anymore haha. Saturday we went to Bo De B, the best sandwhiches in Barcelona, near the beach. The line was soooo long which sucked, we waited for like an hour ide say. But it is really good. We sat on the steps and ate. After the boys went to parc guell and me and the gals (grace and sam) walked around a little. We went to a costume store to look for costumes for carnival, but didnt get anything. Saturday night we we all went to dinner at this place near the beach called foc. The food was realllyyyy good. Grace and I split chicken chow mein and salmon, it was a random menu with all different kinds of food and so good. We got nachos as an appatizer and a bunch of sangria. After dinner, I wasnt in the mood to go out, and they were going to this one club called catwalk thats never fun. I wanted to go someplace new, but I didnt have anyone to go with. That was what was hard about the weekend, most people I knew were out of town, so I was stuck hanging out with this particular group, which was fun, but we dont always want to do the same things. They want to go to the american places a lot, and I want to try new places. So since they were going to that club I decided not to go out and just relax. I got to skype for a while with sam, then went to sleep. On Sunday we all woke up really late. Theres a bagel place in Gracia, the neighborhood above ours, that weve been wanting to try, but then they were all so hungover and wanted a real meal, so I decided to go there by myself. Gracia looks soo much different than our area, it reminded me of where my friend Lindsay lived in Sevilla, kind of a less nice area than ours. I found the bagel place but it was closed. There was this cool square there called placa del sol, and there were a lot of locals sitting at cafes and in the square and it was cool so I wanna go back there. I want to explore gracia more. Sundays in Barca are dead, almost everything is closed. There are random places open, i ended up getting this little sandwhich and a coffee and ate it as I walked. I met maggie and her friend from home at the costume store. I bought two masks and this flower-wing thing. We were not even sure if we were going on that night or just on tuesday to Sitges. Sitges is a little beach town about a half hour from barcelona, and is also the gay capital of spain. It is known for its Carnival celebration, and there are parades on sunday night and tuesday , "fat tuesday." We could have taken the train there, but the promoters, the Kikes, were setting up buses, so we did that because it is a lot safer and easier. We wore our checkard leggings and our costumes and everyone was drinking on the bus to sitges. It was sooo fun when we got there! It was me, maggie, her friend catherine who goes to miami of ohio and is HILARIOUS, and grace and sam. We walked around and went into some bars, people were everywhere partying in the street. They bough masks on the street. Then we got subway haha, and it was soo good cause I miss turkey haha. Then we went to get spots to see the parade. There were all these floats and people dressed up. It was like halloween, and also like kind of likfe lovefest in SF, but way not as cool haha. We all had to much fun, we had a champagne bottle and drank it in the street and watched the parade and talked to people standing near us. There also was a churro stand right there so I got churros which are amazing. Then went back to the bus and came home. Monday we didnt have school, but again we slept in. I wanted to go to the gym and got dressed and went, but it was closed. So i decided just to take a long walk around barca. I walked through El born area, and then to Barceloneta, and then walked to port vell, which I have never been to. Its part of the marina where all the boars are. There is an imax theater and a huge mall down there, and a lot of restaurants. It was cool discovering new parts of the city. Then I walked back through el born and back up my street through the arc de triumph. On tuesday sam and I realized our sports midterm paper was due wednesday and were going to sitges again that night so kind of panicked. I was writing mine on if the NBA will expand to Europe. When I told sam a while ago that was my topic but i didnt really know anything about it, he told me everything, and even surprised me by e-mailing me an outline of what i should write in my paper, with sources and everything. Hes so smart and also knows like everything about sports so he said it was easy....sooooooooooo amazing of him. And sooooooo helpful when I had one day to write the paper. Tuesday night we went back to sitges! it was pretty much the same, but more people. I hung out with the berkeley crew this time, like Kaite, Gaelin, Celine, Krysia, Katrina, and Annie, and we had a lot of fun. We also ate a lot of churros. We stayed pretty late and walked in the parade at the end. I took the bus with grace and sam and maggie through kike, but they all took a bus through Katrina's dorm and I went back with them and their bus gave out sandwhiches! They were sooo good I had a ham one. I beast mode finished my paper that was due that day, but my classes arent until 4:30 so i had all day. I went to the buffet thats under my school and just sat there by myself and worked on it more. The food was really good, all you can eat for 8 euros is a pretty good deal. I made a huge salad and there was veggie paella that was sooooo good. I didnt want to go out at all by Katie forced me to go to this free dinner thing at a one of the clubs, Shoko. A lot of the clubs are restaurants during the day and this one was supposedly a free sushi buffet. It wasnt sushi though it was like chinese food of fried rice and chicken, but pretty good. And we got 3 free drinks. It was cool because it was a different crowd, it was put on by one of the other promoters whos not as popular. They had people doing face painting there, and that was the best part! I got my face painted and it was all glitterly and cool. Katie and Celine got it too and Katies and mine were kinda weird looking but still cool. We came home early, and the roomies hadnt even left yet to go to abroadbar so we hung with them, then katie and I talked for a while. Thursday I made the best veggie scramble for breakfast then walk around the gothic area before class. After class I went to the gym then MET BRETT AT PLACA CATALUNYA!!!!!!!!!!! Its soooooo fun having him. Hes going to make a guest appearance on the blog!!! We went home to the apt then the two of us walked to dinner at a tapas place i heard was really good. It was an hour wait, but we snagged a spot at the bar. It is the best tapas restaurant in Barcelona. It was filled with locals. We got shrimp skewers, mini hambuguesas, patatas bravas, a cheese one, a ham and lettuce one, and a tortilla one. It was actually amazing. I want to go back and make a reservation and sit inside at a table. Maxine, from kappa, who is studying in Florence is here for the weekend with another girl from cal, Stacey. Coley also has all these friends visiting, and everyone is staying with us. It was kinda hectic, but fun. Sam and Grace left really early for belgium so we had enough beds, cause coley bought a double air mattress. We hung out at the apartment with Maxine, Stacy, Katie, Gaelin, Coley, her cousin Kelsy, and their friends from home. Then we went to this club called Sutton which was a new one! It was really fun. We danced a lot. Brett and I stayed out till 6am hahaha. Great first night.

Prague Pics!

The beautiful buildings surrounding Old Town Square

Middle of Old Town Square

The Astronomical Clock

Me!

Katie and Haley walking across the Charles Bridge 

Kolkovna. Pilsner and Goulash

Haley and I on the bridge before the Charles

View from Prague Castle 

The Lennon Wall

Wesceslas Square

The christmas in a jar. and wine in a box. 

Berkeley Girls

Karlovy Lazne top floor

Hostel Elf

Jewish Cemetery 

best thing ever. fried cheese

MADRID!

This past weekend we went with our program to Madrid!! It was me and my roommates, minus Katie because she went to Paris with her parents. It started off on a horrible note though. We were meeting the group at the train station, and took the metro to get there, and it was 7:30am, aka the metro was packedddd with people all going to work and what not. We were literally sardines on the metro, it was awful. We had to walk a while through the metro once we got there to get to the train, and as we were going up the final escalator I noticed that Grace's bag had ripped. When I told her and we looked at it, it was a huge straight slit down her Longchamp, and we immediately knew she had been pick-pocketed. She cried and fell to the floor, it was literally the scariest and worst moment of this entire trip. Her purse was inside the bag and was gone- it had her wallet, ipod, and passport. It was so insane, that she was so unlucky and how scarey it is that these people do this, coming that close to her with a knife to cut the bag and none of us or she didnt even notice. Luckily she called her parents right away to cancel the cards, and we were meeting the cea group so the staff helped us and told her to go to the main office. Sam stayed back with her which was sooo nice, and they went to the police station and cea campus to deal with the passport. I have always been sooo careful with my bags whenevr im walking or on the metro, but now I am even more paranoid about it, which kinda sucks I never feel completely safe when Im walking around. But this was a major wake up call for all of us to be really careful, and she handled it really well. Her and Sam got on a train later that day and met up with us in Madrid. After the initial disaster, we ended up having a great time in Madrid. The train was fun, we had a little table at our seats. When we got there we walked to our hotel and it was gorgeous weather out. After putting our bags down we walked, with a random other group of girls, to find somewhere to eat. We went to the Plaza Mayor, the big and famous square in the middle of the city. There were all these street performers there, and restaurants line the whole square. We ate at a place in the square, and I got a Spanish Tortilla which is an egg and potato thing on a sandwitch. Then we went back to check into the hotel, and our room was sooo nice. Huge bed and cute little sitting area with a great view of the beautiful buildings on the street. I roomed with Coley and it was soooo much fun. The main group of us was Me, Coley, Maggie-coleys friend from wisco who lives on our street and weve all become really close with her, Alyssa-another wisco girl whos nice and from chicago and same sorority as Ali Pollan, and her roommate Kristin, whos this ginger who goes to Cornell, and literally my new favorite person shes sooo funny. So the five of us went to this huge park. Katie had gone to madrid a couple weekends ago and told us to go to the park and rent boats and to BYOB and drink on the boat, so we did. We all got champagne, and sat in the park in the sun and drank and hung out. It was such beautiful weather. The park was hugeeeee, and it was really cool. So many people were out. Then we rented the boats that rent around a little lake thing in the park in front of a really cool monument. Me, Alyssa and Kristin were on one and Coley and Maggie on the other. We drank more on the boats, and Coley ended up beeing in a bag in the boat because she had to pee so bad. It was literally the funniest thing everr!! Cause she doesnt  go out that much, it was so fun to see her hammered hahahaha. Then I wanted to go to the Prado, because it was right there, but no one else wanted to and we ended up at McDonalds hahaha. I didnt eat though! for once. Then we walked around our area a little more then went back to nap. We went to dinner with the girls and Grace and Sam, and met up with Maggie and Coleys guy friend from wisco who is studying in Madrid. Out hotel was in a great location, we could walk to all the cool, tourist areas. We met him in the Placa del Sol which is the HUGEEE square/area, said to be the actual center off all of spain. We walked aroun the area called Sol, which was packed with bars and restaurants and sooooo many people. We ate at a random place that had italian, spanish and argentinian food. Everyone ordered pizza, and I got a caprese salad and a chicken empanada and everyone was really jealous cause mine was sooo good. After din half the group went home, but I stayed out with Maggie, Kristin, Coley, and their friend. We got beers at this bar/sandwitch chain of spain called Cien Montaditos that were really cheap. Then Coley and Kristin bailed so it was only me and Maggie left as the troopers who wanted to experience Madrid. So the 3 of us went to another random bar near Plaza Mayor. We made friends with the bar tenders and it was really fun. We were the only americans, definitely a local spot, which I love. Then he took us to a club, not any of the famous ones we have heard of, but it was also mostly locals and we danced and had a lot of fun. The next day we ate breakfast at the hotel which was SOO bomb. Literally such good eggs, fruit, everything, and best croissant ive ever had. Then we went on the tour that our program provided for us. WE got on buses and had tour guides tell us about sites and things we were passing. Not gunna lie I fell asleep for most of it, oops. We got off the bus at the Palace Real- the Royal Palace of Madrid. It was huge and all white and really immaculate. It had 1800 rooms inside. I actually remember some of the history of it that the tour guide told us but am too lazy to write it in my blog. After we walked through the old town, saw this really cool market that looked like it had a lot of good food, and then ended in Placa Del Sol. There was a protest going on, people are mad that the president of Madrid, who is a woman and the airlines companies are making them private instead of public, and were dresses in mostly red and had signs and whistles in the square. It was cool to see. There are soooo many people in Madrid, that wAs one thing I didnt like was how crowded it was. Then the girls went to lunch at a cute sandwhich shop with the mini sandwhiches. I got a ham one, chicken one and turkey one and the turkey was the best. Then we walked to the main shopping street called Gran Via. Off of the main street was a really cool little street that our tour guide said is the trendy area of the city, and a big gay population. The stores were soo cute, but mostly really expensive. Then Kristin and I wanted to go to the Prado when everyone wanted to go back and nap, so the two of us went. We got there at 7 and i thought it closed at 9 but closed at 8, so we got rushed out and didnt really get to see everything. But we did see a lot of the christian art, and a lot of spanish art. We saw the famous painting the Annunciation by Fra Angelico, that I had to write a paper about in my class at cal, so that was cool. Then we saw some Goya, and Velasquez just before getting kicked out. Went back to the hotel to shower and get ready and talk to the group. We were told to go this bar called El Tigre that gives you free tapas with the drinks, so we were going to eat there for dinner, but it was packeddd so we went to a trend chinese restaurant near by to eat. It was really good, I know not very Spanish, but were kind of sick of spanish food. After we went back to the bar and fought our way in to order drinks. We got these hugeeee mojitos. The free tapas were soo good! we got this good cheese, chicken wings, sausage, and patatas bravas. It was a cool local place and the bar tenders were really nice, they kept calling us Rubios, which means blonde. Walking home Grace sam and maggie bought these sparkly top hats from a vender and I go these huge star glasses, it was soo funny and the walk home through madrid at night was really fun because it was so lively around. We went back to the hotel to get ready and meet up with more people from our program. We hung out with Lucy and Colleen and some of their friends. Then we went to the world famous club Kapital. I think Kim, Steph and Brett have all been. It is 7 stories! Each floor was different. Our group got separated, and it was impossible to ever meet up, but we still all had fun. On Sunday we went to a flea market near by. It was HUGE and there were probably a million people there. Madrid is also very hilly, so we walked around this one street with vendors and then got to many more streets. There were some cute things but it was too overwhellming to even shop. I ended up buying a green case for my blackberry for 3 euros but thats it. Then our group wanted to do differenet things, like nap, eat, or just sit, so i decided to go off on my own. It was the best decision ever. It was sooo nice to finally just do what I wanted and not have to deal with a group and everyones opinion. I walked around the flea market more and took some cool pictures. Then I went to another famous museum called Reina Sofia. It was a lot of contemporary art which was really cool. The building itself was amazing and clear elevators that take you to the top with cool views. It was so nice just going throught it at my own pace. I saw works by Miro and Dali, and it is famous for having a lot of Picasso and his gamous huge painting Guernica. After I sat in the sun and got this really good pasta, then went back to the hotel to meet up with the group and leave for the train. Although exhasuted, sunday night I met up with Sam's best friend from hs who is studying in Florence and was in Barca for the weekend, at George Paynes an, Irish restaurant/bar. It was really fun and im glad I got to see him. They had karaoke there and it was hilarious.

Random Barcelona

Last week, during the week I hung out a lot with my friend Lucy from my photojournalism class. She is from pasadena and goes to USF so im soo excited to hang out with her next year in the city. Her apartment is in the gothic quarter, literally 2 minutes away from school, so we met there and hung out and then did our photo project on bike riding in barcelona. It wasnt that good. We walked around and took pictures and then met up with her roommate Colleen at this little restaurant. We ordered Sangria and some tapas, but then realized we only had a half hour before class, and it happened to be the strongest sangria i have everrrrr had and we had to down it, sooo it was kinda funny going straight from that to our class to present our photos. We got an A. Classes are the biggest joke. I really wish all the grades transfered back to berkeley because im getting legit A+s on everything. Got the highest grade on my Sports and Culture midterm, and an A+ on my photography and photojournalism paper. My teacher for photo and photojournalism, Fred, it the best i loveee him. He is literally the most hilarious person ever and shows us such interesting things. Another day Lucy, Colleen, and their friend from home invited me to get lunch with them at this chinese restaurant that was sooo good. I had been craving asian food, and another coincidence, their friend from usf is studying in berlin and is best friends with Charlie, Danielles
"bf", and Dylan from SAE at cal. And im going to Berlin the same weekend as Lucy and Colleen so we'll probably hang out with them. I also love that I can walk to class. Its about a 20 minute walk, but its beautiful and when its sunny and nice its so fun. Night life has been more mellow recently. Im so exhausted from traveling so its nice to relax in our apartment. Last night though I met up with Katrina, Krysia, and Celine from cal at this bar off las ramblas called Ovella Negra, there are two and this one is smaller and I really liked it.

PRAHA, Czech Republic

Another fun and successful trip! We went to prague, in czech it is called Praha. I got a list of things to do from Dani Winston because she studied abroad there last semester. Our flight was a little later, 11:00am which was actually really nice. Katie and I flew there and we met Haley at the airport in prague. Other girls from berkeley who are in Barcelona, Gaelin and Celine told us they were going to prague the same weekend so we just booked out hostel with them so we could stay with people we knew. It was called Hostel Elf which was hilarious and it was not really close to the center of the city so I was kind of upset at first and wished we just made our own plan but i ended up being happy that we were with that group. Celine and Gaelin are in Chi O at Berk and were meeting other chi-os studying abroad in Rome and in the Netherlands, so it was like a chi-o reunion and then me, katie and haley. They were really nice and I like meeting people from Berkeley that I never knew before. I definatly wouldnt be in that house haha but they were a lot of fun. It was also Haley's first time in a hostel, and she would have much rather paid more for a hotel but i made her do it with us. It wasnt the nicest place in the world but it was totally fine. We all were in one room. After we put our stuff down the three of us went into the middle of town, called Old Town Square. We took a bus there and figuring it out was funny because the money there is not the euro, they have the Crown, which is sooo weird. 1 euro was 20 crowns so we got like 1000 crown bills and 50 crown coins. It was weird having that change. Old town square is soooo beautiful. The buildings and apartments have the most interesting designs and colors, like nothing you would ever see in America and like nothing ide seen before. Haley and I thought it kind of reminded us of disneyland because it was so cute and like a fairy-tale. There are cobble stone streets and small little roads. In old town square there is the famous Astronomical Clock which shows the rotation of the planets and the time and rings every hour and huge crowds gather to watch. We walked around and went into some shops, every souvenir shop sells fur hats and I wanted a hur headband but they only had real fur ones that were expensive. Everyone said prague was "soooooooooo cheap" and we didnt really find it that cheap. I spent the same amount as I have on my other trips. Beer was cheap, which is what they are known for, but food was regular priced like in europe, which is expensive in us dollars. We stopped in a cafe to get a snack, and I tried the famous czech beer called Pilsner. It was good and cheap. After we walked to the Charles Bridge, which is the famous bridge that crosses over the river from Old town to Lesser town. It is beautiful!! There are cool statues on the sides and street performers and people selling things along the bridge. Dani told us we had to walk across it and hold hands because its romantic, so we did. Then we crossed back over and set out to find this restaurant for dinner that Dani said had good czech food. It was called Kolovna. The czech language was so weird, but really cool, but it was hard to catch on to so I feel so ignorant not even being able to say hello of thank you, cause I kept forgetting. But most people spoke english. I am pretty good at looking at maps and finding my way around so I did that for our group because haley and katie both have zero sense of direction. Haley i already knew like doesnt know how to get around and just cabs everywhere, but Katie is legitimately retarded and I get really frustrated sometimes. I like being able to get around and I could eaily do it by myself, so its nice I feel mature and independent. We went to the restaurant and it was really cool and was like a pub. Katie and I tried the Goulash, a czech local dish. It was sooooooo good!! It is meat in an amazing sauce with potato pancakes and dumplings. It tasted exactly like brisket and was so good with the bread and potatos. We then went back to the hostel to meet up with the other girls who wanted to do a bar crawl. Dani had told us it wasnt fun but many other recommendations said you have to do the bar crawl in prague so we decided just to go. We met at the clock and they took us to a chruch looking building where there were all these people drinking and a dance floor. It was crowded near the bar and there were people playing beer pong, which was weird we were confused why we were in prague but it was exactly like a frat party haha. We ended up meeting these nice guys from Penn State so it was kind of fun. The "next" bar was literally just going up the stairs and it was more club like, and there was a cross lit up, and again we were just confused but it was funny. We went to the next bar, and walking there ran into Dani Stern who is studying in prague for the semester. It was funny because we wanted to see her, but its just a small city its easy to run into people. It was fun, but then I wanted to go to this club Dani Winston had told us to go to but everyone was tired and Haley was sick so we just went back to the hostel. The next day Haley, Katie and I went out because the other girls had been there for 2 days before us. We went to Prague Castel, across the bridge from the old town. It was beautiful but mostly just had amazing views of the city. Prague is seriously beautiful. There was a cool cathedral up there and we went into some parts of the castel. It was interesting to learn that Prague was communist until the early 90ies. After the castel we walked back across the Charles Bridge and met Dani and her friend in old town square for lunch. We went to a place called Bohemian Bagel, which was sooo good. I had an amazing salad and an onion bagel with cream cheese- definately not czech food but sooo good because its hard to find a good salad in barcelona. Then we went to the John Lennon Wall. I wish I had a guide book or travel book about prague when we were there to know a little more about the history of the places we were. But the Lennon wall is a wall covered in paint and graffitti started by John Lennon advocating for peace. There were peace signs and beatles lyrics written all over and its so colorful and cool looking. We took really cute pictures. Its just a wall off a random street so anyone is allowed to write on it, so we put our initials on it. I thought it was so cool. After that we walked from old town to new town to a place called Wesceslas Square. On the way stopped in a shop called "The New Yorker" which was like their department store. I got a cute sweater with fauz fur for 180 crown, so like 10 euro. Wesceslas sqaure was soo pretty, and has a big government building at the end of it. There are these food trucks on every block that dani winston told us about that are open all night and she would also go there after the clubs. We got "hot wine" from one of the trucks which literally tasted like hot red wine and was kind of good, expecially because it was soooo cold there! Then we went back to the hostel to rest and we were going to go to this italian place on the river that dani recommended but ended up not wanting to go to a big sit down dinner, and having to go all the way back to the center. Haley was sick so we just stayed in, but the rest of us went back to Kolovna because the others girls hadnt been and wanted to and we werent that hungry so were just going to get beer. I ended up trying the goulash soup which was good and then radler which was beer with sprite which was soo good. I know it sounds like all I do is drink but i just want to try the things people tell me are famous in that city. Then we went to a random bar and it was so funny it was a biker bar and they played classic rock. Fat girls danced on the counters. We tried this czech alcohol and it tasted like christmas. Then we went to the famous club there called Karlovy Lazne, which was right on the river and was five stories. Every story played a different type of music. It was probably my favorite club ive been to so far because it wasnt too hugeee and every floor was different and fun. The next day we went with all the girls and walked around the Jewish Quarter. There are a lot of old synagouges and there is a jewish cemetary which was really interesting to see, especially for me, haley and celine, who were the only jews of the group. We bought these little hamza bracelets to add to our jewish bracelet collection. Then we went to lunch at a place called Bakeshop that dani recommended. I got a "savory pie" which was like a tomator and goat cheese quish and it was really good, but not even cheap! Then we headed to the airport. It was sooo much fun and a lot of cool new experiences but I didnt love it as much as I loved paris. Im glad I didnt study abroad there mainly because of the cold, and because it is really smally. We walked around the same things all the time and did almost everything in that weekend. We had done more than dani stern had who is abroad there. Overall another amazing trip and soo cool to see a difference country and culture.

Paris Pics!

Haley and I outside the Lourve

Crepe Stand in the Bastille. SOOO GOOD. 

Haley on the Ferris Wheel

Walking through the Tuilleries to the Ferris Wheel

In the Maraii (Jewish Quarter) walking to lunch

MUFFINS

Me, Delaney, and Haley at Le Cab

HALEY AND YIANNIS PAPAGORGHUI!!!!

Im fat at Las Du Falafel 

Savory Waffle at random place in Bastille. 

Louis Vuitton Exhibit 

View from the Ferris Wheel- sunset. 

Seeing the light show as we drove by

PAREE!!!

This weekend I went to Paris. Every weekend is better than the one before. Its amazing. I cant even believe I am lucky enough to have the opportunity to do this for a semester, its literally a 4 month vacation. I had a little bit later flight, 10am on friday and it was sooo nice being able to sleep in a little later. It made such a big difference not being tired the whole weekend. Grace was on my flight which was nice, and together we figured out how to take the train to the metro from the airport. I went with her to their hostel, they were staying in the Latin Quarter. It was sooo cute! There was a small outdoor market right when we got off the metro and their hostel was on the cutest street with a million cute stores, bakeries, crepe places, cheese shops, and little cafes. We met up with Sam and their other friend from IU and we had lunch. I ordered a cheese plate because it was a kind of expensive place. It was amazing with 4 different cheeses. Bad news was i realized I forgot my lactaid pills ahahaha. After lunch I got a cab to meet up with Haley and her roommate Delaney, who also goes to michigan. I met them at the Bastille at a cafe. We got crepes with nutella that were unbelievable. We ate them as we walked back to their dorm. Haley had told me her place was shitty and in the ghetto, but i thought the area was really cute, it was just kind of far from a lot of the main things so we had to metro everywhere. Her dorm is pretty small, and there are four of them in one room. Two of them were gone for the weekend but I still slept on the air mattress haley bought for me and it took up the entire floor haha. So i felt kind of bad imposing for three nights because they have such little space. But it was sooooo much fun being with haley and going around paris with her. After I dropped my stuff off we took the metro to the Lourve. I actually remembered so much from when I was there with mom and the frederich's in 9th grade, so it was fun reminisicng and remembering some of the places. I also liked that I had done all the touristy stuff so I could experience paris more like an abroad student there or even a local and do more things off the regular track. So we didnt go inside the Lourve but walked from their through the Tuilleries and to the farris wheel. It was a GORGEOUS day out! It was like 65 degrees and sunny, and Haley and them said it was the nicest day theyve seen, so I got really lucky. I expected it to be freezing there and it wasnt that bad at all, all weekend. Haley and I went on the farris wheel and the sun was setting and it was so beautiful. We could see the Eiffel Tower with the sun setting behind it, and the Champs Elysee, and the Arch de Triumph, and the Tuilleries and the Lourve. It was so beautiful. After we walked around the area right to the right of the Tuilleries and Lourve, which had really cute shopping and cafes. We went into the Channel store. Then Delaney, whos mom had lived in paris for 10 years and her sister studies abroad there for a year (she was so good at french so its so lucky/nice haley has her to get her around and say everything cause haley doesnt know any french haha) got invited by a family friend to come over for Shabbat dinner that night. She had heard the son was really attractive, and he said she could bring friends so we decided to go. We did not know what to expect but I was so excited because you can go out to dinner anywhere in the world, but this was a once in a life time experience and so cool we got the opportunity to go to a local's house for dinner. Their apartment was in the 16th arrondessment, which is one of the nicest neighborhoods in Paris. They lived in the Penthouse and their place was soo cute, and you could see the Eiffel Tower from their balconey. The mom and dad were sooo nice and the son, was veryyyy attractive, and Jewish! I wanted haley to date him. They were sooo nice to us. They spoke perfect english, and were asking us all about what we were doing abroad and it was so nice for them to invite complete strangers into their house. We had wine and olives and sat by the fire while other people arrived. Literally everyone was beautiful. Other guys and girls came and they were most around 21 or 22, which is like my age, but they seemed soooo much older. They all had jobs already. In France, you go straight to law school or grad school from high school. Some of them were already tax lawyers, and just a year older than me! It was so interesting getting to talk to them and hear about their schools and jobs and lives in Paris. They were all so trendy and chic and it was just the epitome of a beautiful Parisian night. The dinner was also AMAZING. Good meat, which I have been missing, and then veggies and cheese and then the best dessert ever, oh and challa! Everyone in paris smokes cigarettes, literally everyone, and they all smoked at the dinner table, which was kinda gross but made it that more Parisian. They would speak english and french and I loved just listening to them talk. After one of the guys, Martin made us go out with them, we were so confused we were just in a cab with him haha. From the cab I got to see the Eiffel tower as it was all light up and sparkling. He took us to this club off the Champs Elysee. Everyone was literally dressed soooo cute. Everyone is paris was beautiful and dressed amazingly. We were all tired and not really in the mood for a club, but we went in anyways and there were not many people inside and it seemed like a younger club. So we left Martin at the "tween club" and went home. The next day we went to the Maraii, which is the jewish quarter. I lovedddddd this area. It had the cutest streets filled with cute cafes, nice restaurants, really nice shops, and then a lot of jewish shops and fallafel places. The three of us ate at a cafe called Le Philisophe. Haley and I got salads and they were amazing! And the bread was incredible too. After we got muffins at this muffin shop that looked so good. I got a chocolate chip banana one and it was so good. The food was so amazing all weekend. Then we went to the Louise Vuttoin exhibit that was at a museum in the Maraii. It was soo cool, we saw all the trunks that was originally only what they made. Then Delaney went home and Haley and I went to Saint Germain. We walked around the main street and then off to some sides streets which were really cute, and we got big macaroons. They were good, soooo sugary. We went home and rested for a while, and were going to meet up with my roommates for dinner, but it never worked out, and we were all just hungry so we ended up going to an Italian restaurant right down the street from Haleys because they told me it was good and not expensive, but everything in Paris was pretty expensive. At least the pasta was really good. I bought haley and Delaney a bottle of champagne and we drank it in their room as we got ready to go out. We had all heard that the best club in Paris was called Le Cab so we wanted to go. It was in the coolest location, and then you went underground to get to the club. It was really cool and we were the only americans there! We might some random people from germany and Greece. Haley made out with this really cute guy from Cypress named Yiannis Papageorghui which has been a source of lasting entertainment. Mom, don’t tell Robin, although im sure haley will tell her because she thinks she now has aids because she is the biggest germaphobe ever. It was so funny and he was so cute! Now he wants to take her on a date but she wont. It was such a funny night. When we wanted to leave though it was impossible to find a cab that was available. We walked around for an hour at 4am trying to get a cab, and walked all the way to a hotel and they were rude to us about getting a cab. Those were the only downsides to Paris are that it was so hard to get a cab, and some of the people were SO RUDE. So the stereotype is true. But Delaney spoke amazing French and they were still rude to us. The next day we went back to the Maraii to go to this famous falafel place called Las Du Falafel. There was a huge line to get it to go, but we got lucky and got  table inside right away. It was literally the best thing ive ever eaten.  Haley says she goes all the time and Im sooo jealous. I also met my friend Julia from Berkeley whose in Pi Phi and studying abroad in Paris. They had been planning to get falafel too so it worked out. After we walked around the maraii and went shopping. Haley and I got matching evil eye bracelets. Then Haley and I went to the Musee D’Orsey. I had never been there and it was unbelievable. We spent a long time there but we could have spent all day. They have so many famous works in their, and I recognized a bunch from the one art history class I took sophomore year. We saw the famous Manet painting Olympia and other works by Renoir, Degas, Monet, Pissaro and others. Then we walked down the Champs Elysee which was so beautiful, and went to the famous bakery and restaurant called Laduree. They are famous for their macaroons. We got a table and the inside of this place was emacculate. It looked like an old French house. It was such a beautiful atmosphere, and we got 3 vanilla macaroons each which literally melt in your mouth they are so delicious. We shopped a little on the Champs, then walked to the Arch de Triumph. Then went back to Haleys, and decided to just go to dinner in the Bastille instead of a nice French restaurant because I didn’t want to spend money and we were tired, and she lives far some most good places. We went to this random places that looked interesting because it had a picture of a waffle with tomato and mozzarella on it. It was like a health food place, and also looked like they were known for frozen yogurt with fruit on it. Everything looked really good. We got the tomoato mozz waffle which also had cream cheese and came with a salad and it was so weird but so good. It was the best weekend. I loved being with haley and exploring the city. There is sooo much more I wanted to do, so im kind of thinking about going back after my program ends or something, and it will be nice in the spring. 

this week in barcaaaa.

Another week went by soooo fast. Its crazy how quick this is going by because there is so much to do and im having so much fun. On Monday I walked around before class and found this adorable crepe place on our street. I got a salad/crepe drink combo and it was so good. It was all locals and I sat there and people watched and also looked at a spanish news paper which was cool. At night we stayed in which was a nice break and very relaxing. Tuesday Katie and I went to this famous sandwhich place that everyone who comes abroad here loves called Bo De B. It was like a medetaranian sandwhich that you make yourself, and it was really good. Katie had to go to class but I walked to the beach and laid on the sand for a while. It was sunny out but still kind of cold. It was really nice laying there but got too windy and cold after a while. There were a good amount of people out, so im excited for when its actually hot out! Then I walked back through Barceloneta and the El Born which is a cute, trendy area with a lot of cool little cafes and shops. I went to corte ingle and finally found a cute pair of running shoes! Grace and Sam cooked chicken cutlets for dinner, which is their specialty in long island appartmently, its like breaded chicken, and it was sooo good. I also know how to make rice, pasta, stir fry, shrimp, and salads! Im such a chef. Wednesday I went to the gym before class-- im using this card a girl gave to grace that she was going to pay her for but then ended up getting a membership at a different gym and now I just have this card haha. So i used it for the week but going to give it back to her now. Its a really nice gym though. I did an ab work out and it was al in spanish and I was the only girl haha. Wednesday night we went out to Chupitos then Broadbar. It was fun, we got invited randomly into vip and got free champagne, but I came home early. Today I walked around Eixample trying to take pictures for my photo class but kinda failed. For dinner Katie and I made bomb stir fry with brown rice, brocoli, mushroom and shrimp. Im going to Paris tomorrow!!!! Im sooo excited but also overwhellmed going to such a big city, and wanting to do so much in just a weekend.

Sevilla Pictures

El Catedral

Grace eating

pretty sevilla. outdoor bar where everyone stands. this is like 2pm

crux campo

Coley, their friend studying in sevilla, Alyssa, Maggie, Grace, Sam near the fountain

Alcazar

Triana Bridge

cafe near the river

Me, Katie, Lindsay, Nina at the river

Me and Lindsay at Plaza de Espana

Barcelona!

Me and Lindsay at her hosue

Lindsay, Eli, Katie. funny

Prentice, Eli, Lara, Me, Lindsay and Emily