Mont Collserola

Hola todos!

Today was a really neat day. I started out by meeting the group in front of the Hard Rock Cafe at Plaza Catalyuna. We traveled up to the base of Mont Collserola with the promise of a traditional Catalan meal at the end. Hiking up was a bit of a... well... hike, but when we got to the top, the views were amazing.

Then we arrived at the restaurant and ate a traditional Catalan meal, which by the way, was extremely delicious. I had some pan con tomates y garlic, and some delicious patatas, or potatoes. We then drank from the porró (with the accent, because without it means something completely different), and we all laughed and had a great time trying to get the drinks as far away as possible without spilling or choking on the drink. After that we all took the train back to our apartments and we all took siestas, which really helped for later on in the day. I then went out with some friends, got lost on the metro trying to find more friends, then wound up back to my apartment right before the metro closed. I couldn't sleep, so I decided to do some laundry and update the blog and such. Buenas noches todos!

-Nick Ford

Mi Llegada (My Arrival)

I'm now starting to hit that point where disbelief, jet lag, and waiting are catching up with me. My journey has started off fairly awesomely, but also to the point of zoning out. After transferring and arriving into the Barcelona Airport, I step off the plane and into the lobby to find out that there is newspaper littering the floor. I ignored it, because I didn't want to make it look like I was being disrespectful of some sort of cultural tradition. So I just took my bags out and exited customs into the el pais (the country). I met up with my CIS tour group, and I asked why all the paper? They said that the maintenance workers had gone on strike and refused to clean. Alright... That is pretty unique. Walking into a strike. Then air horns started going off in the lobby and a big ruckus was rising on one of the upper terminals of the airport. We were taxied out of the lobby and to our destinations. I knew from Ireland that streets in Europe were small, but the cab ride that ensued took us around some pretty tight curves and down some pretty narrow streets. And all of this while going around 40 mph. We pulled up to my apartment and I got out, and went up in the tiniest elevator imaginable. After that I began my move in, and now I am waiting on my orientation setup later on down the line. Literally. We have to take the metro, in Spanish (and Catalan) to our orientation, and back again. I'm going to sit down and do a little math to figure out what I should buy. And then I should get the cash to buy it.