Catch Up

To anyone who reads this blog, sorry for failing to post more frequently.  There have not been a ton of major occurrences, but I will quickly mention a few memorable moments.

Classes have been going well, and I was luckily able to switch one of my 9 am classes to 10:45. Having a 9 am class 4 days a week was just terrible.  The classes really are not hard, but they are just really long.  On Mondays and Wednesdays I really feel like I am back in high school because I am gone all day.  For my Int. Business Class, our teacher still has not been there because she just had a baby. We have this guy filling in temporarily and many students don't even show up anymore.

One very cool place that I recently went to a little over a week ago was a place called Pipermint. This place is really small, but unique because of the enormous drinks that they have.  Seven other guys and myself all split an enormous 6 liter glass of rum and coke and it is filled practically half way with rum.  This cost us 45 euros and they even have a 13 liter drink for 73 euros.  They also offer other flavors such as vodka and lemonade which I ended up having a few days later.  After spending some time at this place a bunch of us headed off to a club called Opium.  So far this is probably one of my favorite places that I have been.  It is a huge club with great music and is right on the beach.  They have tons of couches and fire lamps and it is just a real chill and relaxing place to spend a night.

The next day which was two Friday's ago was so far the warmest day since I have been here.  It reached about 64 degrees and a bunch of us decided to head to the beach after class.  Immediately we stuck out as tourists because of how we were dressed.  Here it is still winter and everybody was in coats and long pants, but we were all in t-shirts and some of us even wore shorts.  We just sat on the beach, talked, and listened to music and it was a great time. The next night a few of us just wanted to have a low key night and so we went over to a place called Bel-Luna jazz club and listened to live jazz.  It was a nice change of pace and something that I had never done before. After, we all walked down the main street of downtown Barcelona called Las Ramblas where we saw numerous prostitutes and just had a great time together.

Some other places that I went to last week were Mondo, Suite (again b/c of open bar), and Otto Zutz.  All cool places to hang out, but nothing special. On Saturday, I did not go out because there was a huge wind storm throughout parts of Spain and it actually made CNN news in the US.  IES made emergency phone calls to everyone and sent out numerous emails that day.  Later that night when everything settled down we started at Pipermint again but after trying to go out to a club, we were denied at every one and the night ended up being a complete bust.  Everyone eventually just decided to leave but Ben and myself found ways to entertain ourselves.  We stopped at a bar, and also had a hilarious conversation which some guy who runs the brothel on our street. 

More recently, last weekend about 7 of us went down to the area which hosted the 1992 Summer Olympics.  The views were amazing, and we got to see various stadiums included the arena where the Dream Team played.  When we went over there, we discovered that it was hosted a free Moroccan concert and so we just sat and watched it for a little bit. That night I went out to a cool bar called George Payne as a pre-birthday celebration for my friend Alex.

The last thing I want to mention, is the next night after going out to dinner for Alex's birthday we all went to a place called The Dow-Jones Bar.  This is a really cool place because it is centered around the stock market and prices of drinks fluctuate based on demand.  They have numerous computer screens and its a fun place to hang out.  Also, every half hour or so there is a crash and prices of drinks drop pretty low.  This is not the type of place that I would go often, but its definitely a place you have to check out while you are here.

So nothing too crazy has happened within the last week or two, but there are some cool memories and I definitely have been enjoying myself. 

21 Baby!!!

I cannot think of a better way to think of turning 21 than being in Barcelona.  Everyone thinks it's terrible turning 21 in a place where the drinking age is almost absent, but being in the party capital of the world was unbelievable.  For me, my birthday was a 2 day extravaganza.  It started out going to the FC Barcelona game vs. A.T. Madrid.  Almost simultaneously as the whistle sounded to award victory to Barca, it was my 21st birthday.  From there we walked home and my friends wanted to celebrate with me.  They wanted to take me to a strip club and all of a sudden we passed a street that had 4 in a row, or so we thought.  We asked how much entrance was and most of them said that they were free.  It did not quite make sense to us, but we walked in anyways.  Up entering we immediately realized that these were not strip clubs, but instead brothels.  Only one that we stumbled upon had good looking girls...and they were very good looking.  Due to the fact that none of us were drunk we made the rational decision to leave and instead ended up at a cool club called SUITE.  There we got free tequila shots and did a shot that I will never forget.  First they pour you the shot and you dip your thumb in it.  Then they light your thumb on fire and after watching it for a while your feel it get quite hot and stick your thumb in your mouth.  Finally, you take the shot.  After a few conversations, and some laughs we called it a night because I had to save up plenty of energy for the next night. Thursday was quite a day.  

I did have class in the late afternoon, but after that it was go time.  We chilled at our apartment and then headed downtown to a chill mexican place which is something that I had been craving since I arrived.  We all had a delicious dinner and sipped on some frozen margaritas that were ridiculously strong.  After finishing dinner, we returned to our apartment and began the fiesta.  My RA Nicko surprised me with a cheesecake that he made himself and it was delicious.  The pre-game consisted of myself, my roommates, Feiger, Kogan, and four new friends Alex, Aron, Jess, and Katherine.  We played many games and had a great time.  At about 1:30 AM, we headed to a small little bar to get cheap drinks.  We chilled there for about a half hour or so and then moved on to a club called SUTTON where the party officially started.  We arrived at about two and due to some connections that I had arranged we skipped the entire line.  We talked and relaxed for about a half hour until my buddy who also got us in had arranged a table for us in the VIP section, which is actually a bigger deal than it sounds. In order to be  in this section, you must rent a table and request bottle service which begins at about 150 euros or over 200 american dollars, but for me it was FREE.  It was very frustrating because I could only bring up 5 people with me, and I already invited 3 girls that I knew(Abbey, Jossie, and Kate).  I figured I would take 2 guys up and then rotate them out, but I eventually realized that doing that was not an option.  In order to get up to the VIP section they give you a stamp, and because of that once you get stamped you are allowed in all night.  I felt terrible for the guys that were not let in, but I soon had to suck it up and enjoy my 21st birthday.  So we were say at our table in the VIP section and a waiter soon arrived with a full handle of Absolute Vodka and about 10 bottles of different chasers.  From here the party was an absolute blast and we just relaxed and had an unbelievable time.  The alcohol was gone very quickly, but it was a birthday that I will never forget, and I thank all of the people who helped me celebrate it.

The Last Couple of Days

Wow, what a couple of days it has been here...

The last couple of days in Barcelona have been quite exciting although without class yet it still feels like I am on a vacation and not going to be here for 4 months.  I will recap the last couple of days for you guys.

The day after arriving my roommates and myself all decided to explore the town.  We took the Metro over to find where our classes will be and walked around the downtown area.  The Metro is quite crucial around here especially to get to classes and to bars which aren't close by. We did some shopping and got a Spanish phone, walked around the streets, and ate a two interesting restaurants one serving fish and the other pizza.  Things have been quite expensive around here, but alcohol has certainly not been.  Except for high end clubs which could cost over 10 euros (or more in dollars), the markets have dirt cheap prices.  We have been getting 6 packs of beer and bottles of wine for as low as .99 euros.  At around 1:30am we all decided to head over to a high end club called Sutton.  We all got in free to the club and after a while things started to pick and get more and more crowded.  After a little while we decided to go next door to a local bar to get cheaper drinks and had a real fun time interacting with the bartender and she ended up giving us free shots.  We soon headed back to the club, watched a very interesting show of girls dancing on stage, and called it a night around 4:30am. On the walk back one of my roommates decided to hop in a cab and go downtown, and I learned the next day that he ended up getting a knife pulled on him for various reasons.

On Friday we had a bit more to get done.  I spend the morning at my orientation session, however I ended up at the wrong one.  It was cool though cause I met some amazing people and made many friends so I guess it turned our for the best. The weather that night was pretty lousy and while we tried going out, we only stayed at this bar called Fira for about an hour and then headed home quite early but not before stopping at near by gas station for some food.  It turns out that we actually ended up meeting three real cool American guys who live pretty close by. Later that night before bed, I ended up blowing out all the electricity in my apartment, and I had to wake up my RA who luckily was able to fix it. 

Saturday was quite a day.  We spent the entire day on buses traveling to two cities Besalu and Vic.  They were pretty cool, but we spent too long doing nothing.  The day went from about 9am to 7pm.  We chilled at the apartment when we got back and got ready for what we didn't realize would be a crazy night.  All four guys that I live with and myself met many people earlier that day and decided to throw a huge party at our apartment.  Most people that we have met live with host families so they were happy to have a place to come and drink before going out. Around 11pm people started showing up.  The party consisted of myself, Ben, the three guys we live with, about 13 girls, and the 3 guys that we met the night before. However, because of the rules with our program we aren't alound to have parties in apartment that last too long, so after a while our RA had us head out.  We took the Metro over to a local bar called the Black Sheep which was amazing.  The only way that I can describe would be to compare it to a very large cafeteria with tons of people.  On the way over I had about a 10 minute conversation with a group of 4 from Barcelona, all about 21 years of age.  They were real cool and it was nice to use my Spanish for really the first time since I have been here.  When we got to the bar I met this gorgeous Spanish girl and she loved that I was American.  She spent some time in New York and fairly good English but I tried to communicate in Spanish.  We talked for a while, and will hopefully meet up at some point again.  I then rejoined my friends and we all drank pitchers at the bar for a while and then headed over to this club called Razzmatazz.  This was probably the biggest club I have ever been to and consisted of multiple levels.  It was 15 euros to enter and they give you one free drink, and after failing to sneak in we paid and danced the night away.  We ended up losing some people from our group because they left and went home, though no one is exactly sure how.  We  ended up leaving the club at around 6am and Blumenthal was quite entertaining.  Although he did not top some of the nights in Champaign, he had some funny moments.  We got back home at around 7am, passed out, and woke up today at around 4pm.

So far my time here in Barcelona has been great.  It has taken some time to adjust to some differences between Spain and America, but I am learning new things everyday, and have made many great friends.  My roommates are all awesome guys and we have been getting along great. This is only the beginning of hopefully an amazing semester.

Day #1: Arrival

And So The Journey Begins...

So I have finally arrived in Barcelona.  I left late Tuesday night with Blumenthal and Feiger and am now in love with British Airways. Big seats, two meals plus snacks, free wine, and a personal TV with on demand TV, music, and movies.  After about an 8 hour flight we all jumped on a connecting flight in London and shortly after landed in Barcelona.  I was extremely excited even though I failed to collect $1000 if I would have been able to join the mile high club by the time we arrived.  It finally hit me that I am here and I could not believe it.  When we collected our luggage, we had to wait to get our keys and check in with IES and this took quite a while because there was very little organization.  While waiting, I actually met one of my roommate Brian and could get the sense that he was a real good guy.   Finally, after we finished checkking in, we grabbed a cab and headed to our apartment.

The ride from the airport was cool cause I got to see a little bit of the city, but when the driver tried speaking with us I was lost, and had Feiger handle it.  I got to my apartment, and while it is not what I imagined, it is very nice.  I now live with 3 other guys from Colgate, Penn State, and Davidson, as well as Ben who I share a room with.  We also have an RA, Nicholas, who lives with us and seems pretty chill.  He soon informed us that we have a strip club next to our apartment and possibly a couple brothels in the near area.  Good to know for when I have some free time.  We also learned a few more key tips about Barcelona, especially how to avoid letting prostitutes steal your wallet.  After getting settled and talking with each other, we decided to go grab dinner and pick up some alcohol.

We enjoyed a relaxing and very cultural meal at a place called Pipers Tavern, and then headed back to the apartment and just chilled there for the night.  I also received a text from Glusker(finally), but could not talk to him because I need to get a new phone over here.  Everything seems to be off to a good start and I cannot wait for this semester.  Stay tuned for pictures, videos, and ridiculous stories.