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.