Oh wait, we have papers and exams and stuff?!?

Saturday was a pretty messy day here in Sevilla.  It rained the entire day so I stayed inside and watched Christmas movies and (kind of) did some homework.  I got to skype with my parents and some of the family on Dad's side since they had they're Thanksgiving meal on Saturday afternoon.  It was nice to "feel" like I was there, even if only for a little while and only through a video.  Better than nothing. 

Sunday night several of us went out to dinner (a mixture of UNC program people, Paola and a couple of her friends from Paris, and Camilla's friend who's visiting for the weekend from Germany).  We went to Coloniales (aka the best restaurant in Sevilla) and had a tonnnn of food.  And our bill was only 68 euro (so about 6 euro a person...including drinks--water isn't free).  Not bad at all considering how much food we ate.  I hope to go there at least one more time before leaving.

Today has been yet another rainy day.  Not only rainy though, but windy and downright cold.  Not to mention the fact that we don't have heat in the house.  I sat in my room today with two shirts, a hoodie, leggings under my jeans, two pairs of socks, and two blankets.  It's colder in the house than outside....aka more reason to not sit around the house much.  This afternoon I went to a cafe to do some trip planning for ROME!!  We leave Wednesday and come back Monday!!  Absolutely thrilled to be going!  It was the one place that I really was looking forward to going to so I'm soooo excited that it's finally almost time to go. 

I'm now under 20 days from coming home...which is truly exciting.  Not to say that I'm rushing away the rest of the trip, but as Camilla and I were talking about the other day, we are ready and prepared to leave.  I've loved my time here and it's been the experience of a lifetime, but I'm also prepared to leave.  There are people on the program who've wanted to leave for the past two months and there are people who never want to leave.  For me, I've done what I wanted to do, seen what I've wanted to see, learned what I intended to learn, and now I'm content knowing that I've spent my time here wisely and my time here is drawing to a close.  I'm so glad to be leaving without regrets of not doing as much as I could have or seeing as much as I could have. 

The only downside to the last few weeks here - papers and exams.  Oh wait, we have those?!?  It's so weird to have been in school for the entire semester without work at all really and now only of a sudden we have a pile of work to do.  Again, I do not like the education system here.  It makes no sense to have students cram for one final exam or do one final paper that determines their entire final grade in a course.  If they have one bad day (on the day of the exam) they fail the class?  How can that be fair?  Not only that but it seems that with work throughout the semester students are forced to learn more instead of cramming for a final exam and then forgetting the material immediately after the exam.  But, to each his own.  I have 3 papers and 4 exams and I'll be done with the semester.  Hopefully they go well.   :)

Random picture of Camilla and me from Granada.  :)

turkeyyyyyyyy!

Thanksgiving has come and gone here in Spain.   I meant to post this yesterday, but I was incredibly busy and didn't get in until really late last night.  I did have classes yesterday (on Thanksgiving) as well as today.  It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but only because it didn't feel like Thanksgiving.  Which was a good thing I guess.  We had our program/group dinner last night which was also sort of our "good-bye" party.  We met at the restaurant that they took us to on the first night that we were in Sevilla.  It brought back memories and it was nice to reminisce with everyone about our first impressions of one another, who we sat with/talked to, and where we are now.  It's funny how things change over the course of just a few months.  Being away from our families has definitely made us close friends and brought us together more than I ever thought possible.  

Anyway, at dinner last night, we started off with a couple of appetizers.  First were slices of bread with a tomato sauce and pieces of ham.  Everyone said they were good, but since I'm not a big fan of ham, I didn't have one.  Then they brought out the turkey (shown below).  Sadly, this was not the turkey that we ate, but more for show.  It was nice to see a turkey though and it made it feel more like Thanksgiving. 

 

 Next up was a salad.  It had pasta and pieces of turkey in it, which was definitely interesting, but it was soooo good.  It didn't have dressing but they brought out olive oil (duh!) and balsamic vinegar, and I'm proud to say that I was able to duplicate the "dressing" that our senora puts on our salads at home.  I honestly don't think I'm going to like "salad dressing" anymore...from now on I'm pretty sure I'll stick to olive oil and vinegar--it's so delicious!

 After the salad we had something pretty strange - fish "nuggets."  They were like chicken nuggets except they were fish and they were very lemon-y.  They were pretty good, but definitely strange.

And then the main course - turkey with gravy and stuffing, mashed potatoes, and corn on the cob.  All of it was soooo good!!  Now, it definitely wasn't like grandmas' cooking or like mom's, but it was nice to have something similar.  I completely cleaned my plate - even with eating all the appetizers/salad/bread. 

 And a picture of me and pretty much the most precious girl ever!!  It was nice to enjoy our "family" Thanksgiving dinner with the people who are my family here.  I've been so blessed to have found such good friends through this program and to be able to share this experience together.  :)

 And for dessert: some kind of whipped cream/coconut pie.  It was okay, but nothing compares to pumpkin pie.  Or grandma's banana pudding.  Or grandma's apple pie. 

The next picture is of me and my Spanish grammar teacher, Angeles.  I was not a big fan of her when I first met her, but over the course of the semester I have grown to really like her.  She's super nice and she really loves what she does and is so passionate about it.  She loves teaching us and she loves just talking to us.  I'm definitely going to miss her!

After dinner, several of us took our time walking back.  We talked about life here in Sevilla and about going home.  We definitely laughed off all the calories we consumed at dinner.  We picked oranges from the trees (my senora says it's quite necessary to do so as part of living in Sevilla) and tried them.  Probably the most sour/bitter thing I've ever tasted in my life.  It was hilarious to see everyone's faces as we were all standing in the circle, counted to 3, and tried them.  Afterward, we went to a cafe near our house and sat around and talked/played cards.  A great way to spend Thanksgiving!

 MOMMMMMMM!  The next picture is just for YOU!  I know it took me long enough to take it, but here it is.  My senora randomly comes and knocks on our door today and was like...let's take that picture for your mom.  So here, at last, is my beautiful senora.  She has definitely been one of the biggest blessings this semester.  She loves us like her own children and even calls us her "daughters."  She has such a precious heart and I'm going to miss her soooo much once I'm back in the US.

 This afternoon, Camilla and I finalllllly got together to do some baking.  We were craving cinnamon rolls really bad so we went to the grocery store and got the ingredients.  Allegra, our wonderful baker, helped us out (aka did a lot of the dirty work).  :)  It was nice to sit and talk, reminisce a little about the semester, talk about going home, etc. 

Allegra and I preparing the cinnamon rolls!

 And then their senora's cat came in!  Sooooo fluffy!!

 The cinnamon rolls before baking!  Although they didn't turn out exactly as planned, they were still delicious!!

Is it really time for Thanksgiving?!?

I'm not sure if it's the weather (cold and rainy the past couple of days) or the simple fact that I'm not home with my family, but it sure doesn't feel like tomorrow is Thanksgiving.  Of course I'm sad that I'm missing Thanksgiving with my family, but I'm so thankful for the family that God has blessed me with here in Sevilla.  Not only do I get to have a Thanksgiving dinner with my program and some girls in the programs that are just like sisters to me, but today I was able to have lunch with two more awesome "sisters" - Paola and Jessica.  We went to a restaurant near the Cathedral called Casa Blanca.  We each ordered a tapa and while Paola and Jessica's was decent (according to them), I loved mine.  I ordered croquetas (I wrote about them in a previous post).  They were absolutely delicious.  They were filled with a bread, cheese, and meat mixture and came with some potato sticks (which obviously reminded me of you, Mom).  The croquetas were probably one of the top 3 best things I've eaten in Sevilla - I'll definitely be going back to get them before I leave. 

After we ate, we had a little devotion/sharing time.  We read a passage from Malachi and discussed hardships/trials and why we go through them.  We also discussed the fact that God's plan is the best for our lives.  It's so easy to get trapped into thinking that we have our own plans and we each know what is the best thing for our lives, but that's how we get in the way of what God's trying to do with our lives.  I told Paola and Jessica about our rocky flight back to Sevilla from Palma Mallorca and how the entire time I had to remind myself of the passage in Mark where Jesus calms the storm.  Not that our flight was absolutely horrible, but it was the roughest one I had experienced.  I kept thinking in my head "this is YOUR storm, this is YOUR storm."  Jessica, Paola, and I talked about how it reminded me that my life was not under my own control - I am completely dependent on God. 

After lunch, I went to Starbucks to get a little studying/homework out of the way.  They were playing Christmas music and it was nice and cozy inside...which led me to of course buy a chai tea.  It definitely made for a great afternoon.  :)

Tomorrow I have class.  Yuck.  On Thanksgiving Day.  And on Black Friday.  :(  Que triste.  Oh well, at least I have the Thanksgiving Dinner tomorrow night to look forward too.

Also, last night I was making sure my senora knew that we wouldn't be here for dinner on Thanksgiving (they don't celebrate Thanksgiving...just fyi...for those of you who don't know...think about why we celebrate Thanksgiving).  Then she goes "ya'll will be eating really good then."  I told her that we always eat really good because she's such a great cook.  And then we got into a discussion about cooking and how anyone can cook they just need to practice and take their time and put their heart into it.  Obviously, since I love to cook I was really into the conversation.  It was so nice to have a conversation with my senora about something that we both enjoy.  I'm going to miss her a tonnnnn when I go back to the US. 

Just thought I'd throw in a random picture to make it a little less boring of a post.  This is a picture of us in Granada on our trip with our program.  The guy in the picture is our professor, Fernando.  He's quite the character.  :)

Weekend island adventure!

Thursday night, Tiffany, Camilla, and I left for Palma Mallorca.  Our flight landed pretty late so we opted totake a taxi instead of the bus (which would have meant that we would have had to search for our hostel in thedark).  The taxi driver dropped us off right at the door of the hostel and we checked into our hostel.  Theowner was super nice and we had a nice 3 person room with our own bathroom.  Since it was already so late, we ate our sandwiches that our senoras had packed for us and then got ready for bed.  

Friday morning we found the nearest grocery store and bought really cheap clementines (I got 6 for $0.50) and I bought a muffin for breakfast.  Then we caught the bus to the main city center of Palma to explore the sites.  Our first stop was the Cathedral. 

 This is the outside of the Cathedral.  Even though I've seen a ton of Cathedral now, I don't ever get tired of seeing how beautiful they are.  The architecture, decoration, etc. is awe-inspiring in each one. 

 Here's a painting from the inside of the Cathedral.  It was huge and sooo gorgeous. 

 Another decoration from inside the Cathedral.  It has the cross in the center with Jesus.  The colors were beautiful and I liked how original the piece was.

 At the front of the Cathedral.  Gaudi (who did the Sagrada Familia) did the piece hanging above my head.  Another reason I love visiting the Cathedral's is because of the personal moments it allows me to have with God.  Every aspect of the Cathedral brings out some thought, praise, or prayer. 

 After the Cathedral, we used our tourist map to maneuver about the city.  We decided to head towards some of the marked "tourist" sites, even though we had no idea what they were.  This is a picture of one of the really cute streets as we were heading somewhere or other.  I love the colorful buildings and the narrowness of the street.

 One of my favorite pictures of the entire weekend.  We were in Plaza Mayor which was a very large plaza with several shops set up all the way around.  The plaza was completely blocked in by the yellow building seen in the background.  Right as I was attempting to take a picture of the plaza, these birds started flying all around.  As you can tell, it made for a really good picture. :)

Before leaving for Mallorca, I was looking up to see if there was a Subway in Sevilla.  Not finding one, I decided to check Mallorca and there was one!  Not thinking we'd find it, I really didn't think anything about it until we decided to look for lunch on Friday.  I mentioned it to Camilla and Tiffany and we looked at the map only to realize that the Subway was right where we were headed.  We stopped in for lunch and I was definitely a happy camper.  I got my favorite - turkey on wheat.  :)  It was a little pricey (4.50 euros) but so is Subway at home (unless you do the $5 footlong deal).  

 While sitting in Subway I started playing with the features on my camera.  This is one of my favorite features - color accent.  You can pick an object in the picture to stand out and then it makes everything else black-and-white.  As you can see, it makes for some really pretty pictures. 

 After lunch, we stumbled upon a couple of free museums so we definitely took advantage.  The first was an art museum that didn't hold many famous paintings but did have a couple of Joan Miro's works, a Dali painting, and a few of Picasso's works.  I'm not really an art person, but it was free and neat to see.  The second was a photography museum that had pictures from the 1930's and 1940's.  I thought they were really neat to see.  We stopped in the museum gift shop afterward and there was an atlas.  I went to NC and found this map.  You can even see SPRING HOPE (bottom right corner)!!!  I was sooooo excited.  It's a small thing, but it made me happy. 

 We sat in a small park waiting for it to get dark so we could see the Cathedral at night.  We munched on some of the clementines we bought and Camilla showed us how to make an elephant mask out of the skin.  She's such a nerddd! 

 Here's me at the Cathedral at night.

 And the three of us at the Cathedral.  It's sooooo gorgeous.  It doesn't even look real.  Wish you could've seen it Mom!

 The following pictures will be your favorites, Mom. 

We spent the day on Saturday exploring the coastline around our hostel.  Not sure exactly how far we walked but I'd say at least 2 miles.  The weather was perfect and the scenery was gorgeous.  Again, one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. 

 I love this picture!!  The water was a perfect shade of blue and I loved the rocky coastline. 

 And this picture is probably my favorite ever!!  It took a little skill to climb over to this little spot, but this picture was worth it!

 Check out that water!!  Absolutely breath-taking!!

 Again, the water was phenomenally beautiful.  I wish you could've been there Mom.

 And me and my obsession with clouds!  They were just soooo pretty! 

Again, pretty clouds with the ships!!  

All in all, it was a really nice weekend.  It was good to relax and to see the beautiful sites.  I'm soooo glad that we were able to go!! 

Memories...

For those that know me, you know that I have the worst memory in the world.  Well, short-term memory that is.  Most of the time I start to say something and quickly forget what I was going to say.  Or run downstairs to get something and lose all track of what I meant to do and start on a completely different task.  But since being in Spain I have been able to remember a lot...I guess being away from home can make that happen, huh?  I actually became really interested in the topic of memories when my anthropology mentioned it one day in class and now I will be writing my final paper on the topic of memories. 

Anyway, back on track.  Being in Spain makes me constantly remember small stuff about home.  Most of the time the things that I remember are actually things really small stuff that I don't normally take the time to appreciate when I'm able to experience them at home.  Take for instance memories of smells.  To me, seasons each have a different smell.  There is a particular smell for fall and due to the fact that Sevilla does not feel like it's anywhere close to fall, I have missed the smell of North Carolina's fall.  Of course, the trees are gorgeous during the fall, but there's something about going out of your way to step on a crunchy leaf.  There's something about the smell of crisp and cool fall mornings.  Amanda, what about those pumpkin-flavored coffees that we always enjoy at B&N?  I miss the smell of sweet potato pie and warm muffins fresh out of the oven. 

The other day I went to the library (after going to my 8:30am class only to have someone come and tell us the professor wouldn't be coming to lecture) with Ashley.  As an avid reader, the library is a very exciting place.  And there is nothing like the smell of a library and the smell of books.  What can I say?  I am my mother's daughter.  I spent most of the morning looking at different books and immersing myself in the feeling of being in the library.  Yes, it's quite nerdy, but it reminded me of home and I thoroughly enjoyed every second of it. 

Foods.  Obviously one of the things that we think about the most in terms of smell is food.  Granted, there are a lot of things that my senora cooks that are nothing like what I would eat if I were at home.  But there are a lot of things that are similar enough that the smell of them brings back memories of home.  For instance, this morning my senora was making chickpeas with chicken.  It's similar to chicken soup and reminded me so much of mom's famous "chicken and noodles" that she loves to cook so much.  The smell of it is also very similar to chicken pastry.  :)  Last night we had croquetas (aka see here).  The easiest way to describe them is that they are similar to hushpuppies but instead of bread on the inside there can be a variety of things (like veggies, meats, sauces, etc.).  The ones that we had last night had bechamel on the inside.  They were delicious but I think the thing that made them even more so for me was the fact that the smell of them cooking reminded me of cornbread. 

So enough rambling about memories.  Jessica sent me the link to my (now) favorite song.  Here's the link in case you're interested: Lead Me.  Here are the lyrics:

I look around and see my wonderful life
Almost perfect from the outside
In picture frames I see my beautiful wife
Always smiling
But on the inside, I can hear her saying...

“Lead me with strong hands
Stand up when I can't
Don't leave me hungry for love
Chasing dreams, what about us?

Show me you're willing to fight
That I'm still the love of your life
I know we call this our home
But I still feel alone”

I see their faces, look in their innocent eyes
They're just children from the outside
I'm working hard, I tell myself they'll be fine
They're independent
But on the inside, I can hear them saying...

“Lead me with strong hands
Stand up when I can't
Don't leave me hungry for love
Chasing dreams, but what about us?

Show me you're willing to fight
That I'm still the love of your life
I know we call this our home
But I still feel alone”

So Father, give me the strength
To be everything I'm called to be
Oh, Father, show me the way
To lead them
Won't You lead me?

To lead them with strong hands
To stand up when they can't
Don't want to leave them hungry for love,
Chasing things that I could give up

I'll show them I'm willing to fight
And give them the best of my life
So we can call this our home
Lead me, 'cause I can't do this alone

Father, lead me, 'cause I can't do this alone

Let me know what you think!

Awesome way to spend a Saturday!!

Nothing too exciting has happened this week.  I lost my immune system on Wednesday and was attacked by a vicious cold that made me spend most of the afternoon and evening in bed.  Thursday was not much better, but I did stop by the pharmacy to get some throat drops to ease the irritation of my throat.  I´m pretty sure that I was so out of it that the pharmacist felt really bad for me.  He was trying to speak English with me but I couldn´t understand his English so I had to ask him to speak Spanish.  But I got the throat drops with no problem and they worked wonders!  They were honey and lemon flavored and absolutely perfect for my scratchy and irritated throat.  

Then on Friday afternoon I wound up at Camilla´s house.  We decided to watch a movie and good gracious she picked the strangest movie in the world.  It was called "The Ramen Girl," and I know, I know, we should have known by the title.  But it had Brittany Murphy in it and we are both big fans, so we thought it would be okay.  Turns out the story line was pretty much the same as "The Karate Kid" except Abby (Brittany Murphy) is trained by a Ramen chef and has to present her work (aka a bowl of Ramen) to the "Grand Master" of Ramen.  So strange...but we couldn´t stop watching it.  Either way, it was a great way to spend an afternoon with my favorite chica.  :)  We destroyed a bag of my (and now her) favorite chips: Receta Campesina as well as a Coke.  

Today we decided to go to a market that one of the girls in the program told me about.  It's in Triana which is located just across the Guadilquivir River (aka about a 45 minute walk from our house).  It was a gorgeous day out, about 65 degrees with sunshine and a few pretty clouds, so we took our time walking down to the market.  The river was beautiful and there were lots of people out and about.  

This is a view of the river on our way down to the market.

 Trying to be artsy while on the bridge.  :)

I took a couple of pictures of the market.  The one below is, obviously, the sign for the market.

This was one of a stand that was selling dried fruit...aka my favorite.  I did restrain myself from buying any, but I'm pretty sure that I'll go back and get some at some point.  They had tons of different kinds of fruit: pineapple, coconut, apple, melon, banana, pears, kiwi, raisins, papaya, strawberry, etc.  I did get some candied fruit-type gummy things from another stand (the kind that me and mom both love) for a realllly good price.

A picture of all the spices at one of the stands.

Yummmmm.  How appetizing!  Two reallllly huge fish at one of the fish stands.  This was right before we watched the guy chop them up.  Anyone hungry?  ;)

 

After going to the market we sat by the river and talked for a while and then headed back towards home.  We decided to stop by the University to have a little impromptu picnic and eat the bocadillos (aka sandwiches) that our senora made us.  (They were tuna, lettuce, and tomato...and completely delicious).  Then Camilla discovered some cool functions on my camera and went into a picture-taking-frenzyyyy.  I did take the above picture though of the pretty "fence" surrounding the University.

Self-timer pictures.  I loveeee this one of us.  It's completely candid and superrrrr cute!  I had an awesome day with these girls!! 

I came up with this pose!  And we just all look super cute!  Again, love it!  :D

One of me by myself...just for you mom and dad.

Another really cute pose of us.  :)


All in all, a fantastic day spent with fantastic people.  Excited to come home in about 5 weeks...sad to leave the awesome people here.

BARCELONA!!

 The past three days (Saturday, Sunday, and Monday) were spent in Barcelona with an awesome group of girls.  There were eight of us total and we had a blast traveling and exploring Barcelona together.  I think for most of us it was our first flight with Ryanair (a company that has very strict luggage/carry-on requirements, but offers extremely good deals on European flights).  All of us packed in backpacks or small duffel bags so we didn't have any problems with our carry-ons.  From the moment that we landed in Barcelona we knew that we were out of Andalucia (aka where Sevilla is located and the accent is ridiculously difficult to understand).  I was a little worried that it would be difficult to get around Barcelona since their main language is not castellano (the Spanish that we speak/know how to understand) but instead is catalan. However, most everyone spoke castellano and a lot of people spoke English so we had no trouble at all.  The main difference was that we were finally able to understand the clear, beautiful Spanish spoken by the people of Barcelona (without the accent of sevillanos).  On the taxi ride from the airport to our hostal, we made small talk with the taxi driver who was really nice and pointed out landmarks, sites to see, things to do, etc.  We arrived at our hostel which was extremely nice.  We shared a room with 2 girls from Japan who were veryyy nice and courteous.  The light in the bathroom was motion operated and pretty annoying when it went off when I was in the shower.  The water in the shower was controlled by continually (every 15 seconds or so) pushing the button (like the annoying sinks in some public bathrooms where you have to keep pushing the top of the faucet to get the water).  It wasn't horrible and I was happy to have tons of hot water. :)

After dropping our luggage off at the hostel, we headed to the Sagrada Familia.  If you don't know what I'm referring to, here's a quick run-down of the site: Sagrada Familia.  The pope was scheduled to visit on Sunday so only parts of the Sagrada Familia were open on Saturday due to the police installing security measures.  We took lots of pictures of the outside (I only included one, above) and planned to come back on Monday when the entire site would be available. 

 Then we ventured down to the metro system.  We bought 10 pass cards which made trips on the metro only cost $0.70.  The metro was pretty much a lifesaver for the weekend saving us time and energy.  Our first stop on the metro: the Arc de Triumf.  It was in a perfect location, a park, and the trees were gorgeous lining the sides of the park in all their colorful-fall-leaf-glory.  Camilla and I used our awesome map skillzzz to navigate our way to our next stop: La Rambla.  On the way, we stopped at a great Italian restaurant where we had a tropical pizza that was great as well as cheap! :)

 This is a picture of one of the many street performers in La Rambla.  He was probably my favorite because not only was he great at looking just like a statue, but if anyone put money in his jar, he did some kind of awesome little "mini-performance."

 Ahhhhhh.  One of my absolute favorite parts of the weekend was this market.  La Boqueria.  Not only did it include any type of food item that you could possibly want, but it had an awesome atmosphere.  Before coming to Spain, I had DVR'ed an episode of some show on the travel channel that was about Barcelona.  They spent a good amount of time talking about this market, and I knew that when I came to Spain I had to make a stop at this market. 

 Here is one of the many pictures that I have of the market.  This one shows the wide variety of fruits that one vendor was selling.  I discovered this weekend that I absolutely love figs!  I'm not sure that I had ever had a fresh one before, but I bought a small container of fruit (for ONE euro) and there was a couple in the package.  It also contained pineapple, kiwi, strawberries, and grapes.  Delicious!!

 Here's a picture of all the chocolate at one of the stands.  Mom, you would have loved it!  I did wind up caving in and buying some chocolate when we went back to the market on Monday.  It was a little expensive, but Camilla and I decided that since we would probably only be there once in our lives we should get some.  I got about 10 pieces.  Most of it was white chocolate (aka the only kind of chocolate that I really like) but I got one piece that looked like a peanut butter cup.  Turns out it was definitely not a peanut butter cup but was certainly the best piece of chocolate I had ever had (and just because Amanda and Jessica won't believe that, Camilla agreed with me :P).  It had a hard shell on the outside and the inside was filled with a rich, creamy chocolate.  It was insanely delicious!

 After the market we headed to Montjuic.  It's a large hill that overlooks the city and provides stunning views of Barcelona.  This is a picture from the pedestrian bridge that we used to cross the street over to Montjuic.

 Here's a picture of me with the MNAC (Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya) in the background.  I think it used to be a palace; it was beautiful.  :)

 Although this picture is a little dark, this little section reminded me a little of home with all the leaves and fall colors in the background.

 We went to the Olympic Stadium as the sun was setting.  The view couldn't have been any more perfect.  The sunset was amazing and as the pink, oranges, and purples slowly took over the sky, we all enjoyed amazing views of Barcelona below us.  It was chilly and growing dark (even though it was only a little after 6) so we headed back to the hostel.  On the way, we stopped at a grocery store to get pasta, sauce, meat, and Coke (of course!) to cook for dinner.  We wound up each paying a euro a piece for an amazing dinner.  We all cooked and ate together and then wound down by playing spades! :)

On Sunday we headed to the Cathedral, but didn't get to go inside because it was closed due to the Pope being in town (not sure why since he was at Sagrada Familia).  We did get to see the outside and then went to the nearby Museum of History.  We only went because it was free, but it turned out being a lot cooler than we expected.  We got to go down to the basement where there were ruins from when the Romans occupied Spain.  It was presented in such a way that we were able to walk through them just like we were walking through the actually Roman city.  I suggest anyone who is visiting Barcelona to stop by.  We then ventured to the nearby Picasso Museum, but due to it being free on Sundays, the line was ridiculously long.  We decided to go get lunch (Camilla and I bought sandwiches from a deli, cokes and 1 euro twix bars - with 30% more free - from a grocery store) and go back to the museum later.  When we did return the line was still long, but after a 45 minute wait, we got to see the museum.  I'm not an art person, but it was still really cool to see.  After lunch we headed to Parc Guell - another Gaudi work.  The above picture is a view from the way up to the park (which was up a hugeeee hill).

 This structure was pretty scary to be on top of due to the wind and the absence of any sort of railings, etc.  But it offered great views of the city.

 Me on top of the "cliff."

 Paola and I on the benches in Parc Guell.  :)

 Me on the benches!  They were sooooo pretty!

 One of my favorite pictures of the day: bench at the bottom with awesome ceramic tile work and pretty arches in the background.

 On the way back to the Picasso museum we stopped for snacks.  I got this delicious piece of bread thinking that it was like a soft pretzel.  It turned out being sweet and topped with sugar, but it was delicious nonetheless.  Mom, you would have loveddd it!

 After the museum, Camilla, Paola, and I went back to Sagrada Familia to see it at night.  It's amazing to see at any time of day, but I think I liked the nighttime views the best.

 Here's a close up of a very moving scene.  I couldn't help but be overwhelmed with emotion at just about every turn at the Sagrada Familia.  It was so breath taking. 

We then had the longest walk home with our feet screaming at us the entire way.  We made pasta for dinner again and enjoyed another "family" dinner. 

 Monday morning we were up early to head to Sagrada Familia.  We wanted to leave earlier than we did, but weren't exactly able to.  So we had to wait in a pretty long line, about 40 minutes, to get in.  But it was definitely worth it.  I have to say that Sagrada Familia was the most awe-inspiring thing I've ever seen.  This picture was taken from right outside the main door of the basilica.  It stopped me right in my tracks and made me completely aware of how awesome it was to be hear and to see the place that Gaudi had created to show God's glory.

 Inside Sagrada Familia.  The altar is in the background and the lit up portion right above my head is a representation of Jesus on the cross. 

 The most amazing stained glass windows that I've ever seen.  They covered most of the back of the church and I think I took a picture of each one of them (or maybe several pictures of each one...). 

 Ahhh...probably my favorite thing in the Sagrada Familia.  The organ pipes were situated right in front of the stained glass windows.  The light coming in the windows was reflected off the pipes and provided an awe-inspiring view.  I think I took at least 50 pictures of these, but this is one of my favorites.

 On the top of the stained glass windows there were different names for Jesus.  This one said "O Emmanuel" but there were several other ones that said different names. 

 We went downstairs to the museum for the Sagrada Familia.  It was really interesting and helped describe the background, work, and progress of the basilica - that's expected to be completed in the year 2026.  Here's a picture of a couple of the workers working on models for the basilica.

After 2 hours in Sagrada Familia, we ventured to the block of discord, where several houses created by Gaudi were located.  This is Casa Mila, one of his most famous.

This is another, Casa Batllo.

All in all, it was a successful weekend spent with amazing friends and full of fun, laughter, and amazing sites.  I can't wait for our reunion visit around 2030!! :)