FRIDAY, JUNE 11
Today at work I basically did nothing. They must think I´m a speedy worker, or retarded one. lol So I updated my blog, checked email, facebooked... you know, the usual. After work I went back to the dorm for dinner, then chilled in the room all night.
SATURDAY, JUNE 12
This morning we all went for a tour of the city. We saw the castle, the view of the city from the mountain, Gaudi´s Sagrada Familia and more of the city. We had a pretty decent lunch in town then headed back to the rooms to get ready for the soccer game that night.
We in the lobby at 6:30pm and headed into the city to find an American bar to watch the USA soccer (futbol) game. It was a pretty good game even though we tied. We headed back to the rooms. We met some of the rest of the group in Placa de Catalunya and Tommy stole the American flag off the Statue of Liberty from the bar and tied it around his neck like a super hero and was walking the streets chanting "U.S.A.-U.S.A.-U.S.A." Very American of him... lol They headed to las Ramblas while we went back to the campus.
SUNDAY, JUNE 13
Today Me, Clair, Leandres, Abbie, Gabby & Jessica headed to the beach. We ate at a little restuarant while we were there which was pretty good. We laid out for a couple hours then headed back to the rooms. We stopped and grabbed McDonalds for dinner.
Kinda a boring post, but a pretty fun weekend :)
Monday, June 14, 2010
Friday, June 11, 2010
Day 2 of work and I´m a high roller...
THURSDAY JUNE, 10
So day 2 of work... I really didn´t want to wake up this morning! The train ride from the dorm to my work takes an hour. :/ It sucks major, but I´m used to it from driving to and from UNA the past year.
I get to work and it´s coffee time, we walk down to the little cafe with the hott spanish man and get a cup of coffee. Back to work. I finish up both the english and spanish files that Ireñe asked me to do around 1pm. She was suprised that I was finished, so I´ve been piddling around until she thinks I should be finished.
At 3 we walked back down to the cafe and ordered beer, pork & cheese baugettes and patatas bravas (brave potatos). This is by far the best meal I´ve had yet! It was delicious! The potatos are AMAZING! When we finished we walked over to pay and the hott spanish guy was taking up money. Now, he´s already laughed at me once today, because when I ordered my coffee he told me Uno y vienteycinco. He said it super fast and it didn´t register to me that it was 1€25cents... so I said "One more time" (in english) so he and Birgit laughed at me. I was ready this time! I was going to tell him what I had, in spanish, lomo con queso y una cerveza. I guess Birgit didn´t have faith in me and told him what I had. He told me cinco...something so I needed him to repeat so I said "Una vez mas", well him and Birgit started laughing again. So I handed him 5€ and said gracias, and he said thank you. Birgit got on to him and told him he´s suppose to be helping me learn my spanish and he said tomorrow he´d talk to me in Catalan. :/ I told him no. lol Back to work until 6:30.
I got ready to leave and told Birgit Hasta mañana, and she told me about a Lamp Lighting party tonight at 8pm and invited me to come. It´s super exclusive, so she had my name put on a list. I rushed back to the dorm, got a shower, changed clothes (including 5" heels that I should have reconsidered) and got directions from the staff members. I was a little nervous going becasue it would be dark by the time I got there and I had to walk down las ramblas... which is not very safe-especially wearing a short dress, heels and being american! But I made it, I spotted the hotel and started walking. I saw a group of guys that looked American and while at a cross walk I read their jackets and it said USA, so I asked where they were from and they told me they were from all over, they´re on the USA swim team, which was pretty cool. I made it to the hotel and up to the party which was pretty swanky-lots of people, music and an open bar. It was on the terrace of the hotel which overlooked the port and beach! AMAZING! I stayed a little over an hour because my phone was dying and I didn´t know which bus I needed to catch, so I called Mary Elizabeth and met up with her.
I ended up staying the night at Mary´s. We all stayed up until 4am talking then headed to bed.
Pretty good day :)
So day 2 of work... I really didn´t want to wake up this morning! The train ride from the dorm to my work takes an hour. :/ It sucks major, but I´m used to it from driving to and from UNA the past year.
I get to work and it´s coffee time, we walk down to the little cafe with the hott spanish man and get a cup of coffee. Back to work. I finish up both the english and spanish files that Ireñe asked me to do around 1pm. She was suprised that I was finished, so I´ve been piddling around until she thinks I should be finished.
At 3 we walked back down to the cafe and ordered beer, pork & cheese baugettes and patatas bravas (brave potatos). This is by far the best meal I´ve had yet! It was delicious! The potatos are AMAZING! When we finished we walked over to pay and the hott spanish guy was taking up money. Now, he´s already laughed at me once today, because when I ordered my coffee he told me Uno y vienteycinco. He said it super fast and it didn´t register to me that it was 1€25cents... so I said "One more time" (in english) so he and Birgit laughed at me. I was ready this time! I was going to tell him what I had, in spanish, lomo con queso y una cerveza. I guess Birgit didn´t have faith in me and told him what I had. He told me cinco...something so I needed him to repeat so I said "Una vez mas", well him and Birgit started laughing again. So I handed him 5€ and said gracias, and he said thank you. Birgit got on to him and told him he´s suppose to be helping me learn my spanish and he said tomorrow he´d talk to me in Catalan. :/ I told him no. lol Back to work until 6:30.
I got ready to leave and told Birgit Hasta mañana, and she told me about a Lamp Lighting party tonight at 8pm and invited me to come. It´s super exclusive, so she had my name put on a list. I rushed back to the dorm, got a shower, changed clothes (including 5" heels that I should have reconsidered) and got directions from the staff members. I was a little nervous going becasue it would be dark by the time I got there and I had to walk down las ramblas... which is not very safe-especially wearing a short dress, heels and being american! But I made it, I spotted the hotel and started walking. I saw a group of guys that looked American and while at a cross walk I read their jackets and it said USA, so I asked where they were from and they told me they were from all over, they´re on the USA swim team, which was pretty cool. I made it to the hotel and up to the party which was pretty swanky-lots of people, music and an open bar. It was on the terrace of the hotel which overlooked the port and beach! AMAZING! I stayed a little over an hour because my phone was dying and I didn´t know which bus I needed to catch, so I called Mary Elizabeth and met up with her.
I ended up staying the night at Mary´s. We all stayed up until 4am talking then headed to bed.
Pretty good day :)
Thursday, June 10, 2010
First day of work, day 5 in España :)
Wednesday, June 9th
FIRST DAY OF WORK! AHHHH! ok, just breath, everything will be fine! I got up early, went to the hotel and ate breakfast, got dressed and headed to the train station. Of course it´s raining, but at least I only have to walk a couple of blocks. So I know exactly where I´m going since we did our practice runs yesterday, didn´t get lost the first time! So I open the door to¨my work¨and all there is is an elevator and set of staris. Where the crap am I suppose to go!? Ok, there was a man standing outside, so I´ll just ask him.... yep, he don´t speak a lick of english. Ok, you can do this... ¨BM Lighting?¨All I hear him say is ¨blah blah blah blah blah izquierda¨all while pointing up the stairs. Ok, so I go up and turn left. Easy enough. Up one flight, turned left... no BM Lighting. Up two flights, turned left... no BM Lighting. Ok, flight 3, turn left... ah, BM Lighting! Finally, I found it, but now where the crap is the door handle, or door bell. This is going to be a long day... I knock once, no answer. Knock twice, and a sweet little lady comes to the door speaking, of course, spanish! She points to a chair so I sit and wait, and wait, and wait. It feels like an hour but it was only probably 5 minutes when I hear ¨Brittany!? How are you?¨ Thank God, it´s english! Birgit, my boss, introduces herself then asks me the dreaded question, ¨How is your spanish¨So I had to tell her the truth, it pretty much sucks! I think she was a little disappointed but hopefully my good work will make up for it.
She told me I will be working with Ireñe. She´s really cool, young and super nice and also speaks english. It´s just them 3 in the office plus me. As soon as I got there they were on their way for coffee so I went along. We stayed at the cafe for about 30 minutes or so (they spoke spanish pretty much the whole time) then headed back. Birgit asked if I knew powerpoint. Love it! So Ireñe then explained that I would be taking information from all of the past work Birgit has done and compile them all into one file, twice. Once in english and once in spanish. (They already have the text written, so no need for me to freak! lol and for those that they missed, http://www.freetranslation.com/ is my best friend!)
We went to lunch around 3pm at the same cafe we had coffee and I had tomato soup (not my fav), meatballs and calamari (loved it) and a lemon dessert. Of course they made me taste their food. Birgit had lettuce stuff with cheese (ok) and Ireñe had peas, beans and sausage (pretty tastey). We had a bottle of wine with carbonated water. I don´t really care for wine, but this was drinkable.
We came back to work until 6:30. Birgit came out of a meeting and told Ireñe to turn the music up! haha I loved it!
I had to rush to catch the train then rush to the hotel for a seminar, which I was about 30 minutes late for, then dinner at 8. Back to the room to crash!
Hasta Mañana
FIRST DAY OF WORK! AHHHH! ok, just breath, everything will be fine! I got up early, went to the hotel and ate breakfast, got dressed and headed to the train station. Of course it´s raining, but at least I only have to walk a couple of blocks. So I know exactly where I´m going since we did our practice runs yesterday, didn´t get lost the first time! So I open the door to¨my work¨and all there is is an elevator and set of staris. Where the crap am I suppose to go!? Ok, there was a man standing outside, so I´ll just ask him.... yep, he don´t speak a lick of english. Ok, you can do this... ¨BM Lighting?¨All I hear him say is ¨blah blah blah blah blah izquierda¨all while pointing up the stairs. Ok, so I go up and turn left. Easy enough. Up one flight, turned left... no BM Lighting. Up two flights, turned left... no BM Lighting. Ok, flight 3, turn left... ah, BM Lighting! Finally, I found it, but now where the crap is the door handle, or door bell. This is going to be a long day... I knock once, no answer. Knock twice, and a sweet little lady comes to the door speaking, of course, spanish! She points to a chair so I sit and wait, and wait, and wait. It feels like an hour but it was only probably 5 minutes when I hear ¨Brittany!? How are you?¨ Thank God, it´s english! Birgit, my boss, introduces herself then asks me the dreaded question, ¨How is your spanish¨So I had to tell her the truth, it pretty much sucks! I think she was a little disappointed but hopefully my good work will make up for it.
She told me I will be working with Ireñe. She´s really cool, young and super nice and also speaks english. It´s just them 3 in the office plus me. As soon as I got there they were on their way for coffee so I went along. We stayed at the cafe for about 30 minutes or so (they spoke spanish pretty much the whole time) then headed back. Birgit asked if I knew powerpoint. Love it! So Ireñe then explained that I would be taking information from all of the past work Birgit has done and compile them all into one file, twice. Once in english and once in spanish. (They already have the text written, so no need for me to freak! lol and for those that they missed, http://www.freetranslation.com/ is my best friend!)
We went to lunch around 3pm at the same cafe we had coffee and I had tomato soup (not my fav), meatballs and calamari (loved it) and a lemon dessert. Of course they made me taste their food. Birgit had lettuce stuff with cheese (ok) and Ireñe had peas, beans and sausage (pretty tastey). We had a bottle of wine with carbonated water. I don´t really care for wine, but this was drinkable.
We came back to work until 6:30. Birgit came out of a meeting and told Ireñe to turn the music up! haha I loved it!
I had to rush to catch the train then rush to the hotel for a seminar, which I was about 30 minutes late for, then dinner at 8. Back to the room to crash!
Hasta Mañana
Days 2 & 4
Ok, so the goal was to update this daily.... as you can see already by the second day I have failed. And actually Day 1 was written on day 4. FAIL.
SUNDAY, JUNE 6
Ok, so day 2- what did I do? Um, well I slept until 1:30pm when Kelsey knocked on our door and wanted someone to go eat with her. We walked down to the bar and had lunch. I had a ham and cheese baugette with no fries (although, I totally ordered them-and the waiter acknowledged that I ordered them!) grr. We missed out on the tours of the campus so we chilled in the room until 5pm for the demo of how to use the public transportation. (I´m gonna wished I had paid attention to which night bus comes to our dorms :/ lol) So we went into town, bought a few groceries at the only store open today (on Sunday and during siesta time). That´s about as exciting as Sunday got.
Monday, June 7th
We had orientation from 10:30-12:30, lunch at the hotel then me and Leandres caught the train and went on an adventure to try and find Barcelona´s version of Target... we found it with no trouble! AND IT´S HUGE! They have everything; washers, driers, lawn movwers, cell phones, groceries, books, animal legs... seriously, they have everything! Oh, even a Claire´s!!! We did a little shopping (I forgot my hair dryer) then headed back and had Lukas take us to the gym to register. Seriously, that walk from the dorm to the gym is a workout in itself! It has to be like a mile and a half, or quarter of a mile, whatever. Then dinner at 7pm. We all decided to go out since we would need our rest tomorrow for work on Wednesday so we all went back to our rooms and got dressed up. I was so tired, but knew I´d regret it if I didn´t go so I got dressed and we went to Nicholas´ room to ¨pre-game¨. They don´t pregame in Spain, nor do the drink to get drunk, it´s all a social thing. However, we´re American´s and we like to do things our way, so we pre-gamed! We chilled till about 11:20 or so then started rounding people up to head to the train. All 40 of us start walking up the hill when we pass a girl that tells us, she just got off the last train of the night. FYI-the last train comes through our stop at 11:23pm. I don´t think we´ll ever miss the train again. lol So we all turned around and headed to the bus stop. We find out that the next bus leaves at 1am or 1:40am, people weren´t really sure which so we pregamed some more until about 12:45 then headed to the bus stop. At 1:15 we figured it probably runs at 1:40 so back to pregaming we went. I decided I was too sleepy and knew that everyone was staying out until at least 5am (when the trains started back) and I wouldn´t be worth anything for the next 2 days so I went on to bed.
Some people that went ended up just walking around, others got into a club and partied till around 7am, while one group decided to chill on the beach. I´m not sure if they forgot, or didn´t know, but the public transportation system went on strike today from 10am-5pm then 7pm-5am. So they ended up sleeping on the beach and didn´t return until 7pm Wednesday. One girl ended up getting her purse stolen.
Did I mention I slept really good that night?! lol
TUESDAY, JUNE 8
I woke up about 9 and got dressed for orientation. I tried waking Leandres up but she didn´t get in until 7:45am so there was really no hope. Orientation until 11 then lunch at 1pm. After lunch, Clair, Jessica (I think that´s her name) and myself went walking to see where the trail behind our dorm lead to. (It comes out right beside the soccerfields-should have guessed). The public transportation system is on strike from 10am-5pm then 7pm-5am so we can´t really go anywhere... We found a few more trails then walked across the train station to the little town on the other side. I went back to the room and changed for our practice runs. Thank goodness the train will be working for 2 hours so I can go find my job!
I´m in Stephanie´s group along with Clair. Actually, only us two came today so Stephanie walked us up a block and pointed us in the right direction. I only had two turns to make and found it quite easily. I went back to the train station where Stephanie was suppose to be waiting, but I couldn´t find her, so I grabbed the next train to Bellaterra and called her to see where she was.
Clair couldn´t find her job, so Stephanie had left to go help her. Back to campus for dinner then to the room to crash. Tomorrow´s the big day! :)
SUNDAY, JUNE 6
Ok, so day 2- what did I do? Um, well I slept until 1:30pm when Kelsey knocked on our door and wanted someone to go eat with her. We walked down to the bar and had lunch. I had a ham and cheese baugette with no fries (although, I totally ordered them-and the waiter acknowledged that I ordered them!) grr. We missed out on the tours of the campus so we chilled in the room until 5pm for the demo of how to use the public transportation. (I´m gonna wished I had paid attention to which night bus comes to our dorms :/ lol) So we went into town, bought a few groceries at the only store open today (on Sunday and during siesta time). That´s about as exciting as Sunday got.
Monday, June 7th
We had orientation from 10:30-12:30, lunch at the hotel then me and Leandres caught the train and went on an adventure to try and find Barcelona´s version of Target... we found it with no trouble! AND IT´S HUGE! They have everything; washers, driers, lawn movwers, cell phones, groceries, books, animal legs... seriously, they have everything! Oh, even a Claire´s!!! We did a little shopping (I forgot my hair dryer) then headed back and had Lukas take us to the gym to register. Seriously, that walk from the dorm to the gym is a workout in itself! It has to be like a mile and a half, or quarter of a mile, whatever. Then dinner at 7pm. We all decided to go out since we would need our rest tomorrow for work on Wednesday so we all went back to our rooms and got dressed up. I was so tired, but knew I´d regret it if I didn´t go so I got dressed and we went to Nicholas´ room to ¨pre-game¨. They don´t pregame in Spain, nor do the drink to get drunk, it´s all a social thing. However, we´re American´s and we like to do things our way, so we pre-gamed! We chilled till about 11:20 or so then started rounding people up to head to the train. All 40 of us start walking up the hill when we pass a girl that tells us, she just got off the last train of the night. FYI-the last train comes through our stop at 11:23pm. I don´t think we´ll ever miss the train again. lol So we all turned around and headed to the bus stop. We find out that the next bus leaves at 1am or 1:40am, people weren´t really sure which so we pregamed some more until about 12:45 then headed to the bus stop. At 1:15 we figured it probably runs at 1:40 so back to pregaming we went. I decided I was too sleepy and knew that everyone was staying out until at least 5am (when the trains started back) and I wouldn´t be worth anything for the next 2 days so I went on to bed.
Some people that went ended up just walking around, others got into a club and partied till around 7am, while one group decided to chill on the beach. I´m not sure if they forgot, or didn´t know, but the public transportation system went on strike today from 10am-5pm then 7pm-5am. So they ended up sleeping on the beach and didn´t return until 7pm Wednesday. One girl ended up getting her purse stolen.
Did I mention I slept really good that night?! lol
TUESDAY, JUNE 8
I woke up about 9 and got dressed for orientation. I tried waking Leandres up but she didn´t get in until 7:45am so there was really no hope. Orientation until 11 then lunch at 1pm. After lunch, Clair, Jessica (I think that´s her name) and myself went walking to see where the trail behind our dorm lead to. (It comes out right beside the soccerfields-should have guessed). The public transportation system is on strike from 10am-5pm then 7pm-5am so we can´t really go anywhere... We found a few more trails then walked across the train station to the little town on the other side. I went back to the room and changed for our practice runs. Thank goodness the train will be working for 2 hours so I can go find my job!
I´m in Stephanie´s group along with Clair. Actually, only us two came today so Stephanie walked us up a block and pointed us in the right direction. I only had two turns to make and found it quite easily. I went back to the train station where Stephanie was suppose to be waiting, but I couldn´t find her, so I grabbed the next train to Bellaterra and called her to see where she was.
Clair couldn´t find her job, so Stephanie had left to go help her. Back to campus for dinner then to the room to crash. Tomorrow´s the big day! :)
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Here we go... Day Numero Uno
Today is the day I leave for Spain! To get to this point has been crazy!!! I know I've skipped a couple (or 5 months) so I'll fill you in on what has happened... So Spring semester was pure craziness! Projects were super hard and big and no time to do them! I started working at Village again so any spare time to work on Spanish or Photoshop has now been occupied with a job. Two Wednesdays before leaving Granny Kelley (my great-grandmother, mom's mom's mom) started going downhill and the family was called and she was given 12-48 hours. She held on until Saturday May 28th and finally passed. I know she's much better off now.
The original plan was to leave Athens Sunday night and head to Gulfport and stay a week with Nanny and PawPaw and all the family was coming up and getting together to see me and my cousin Chris for the last time for a while. Well, since Granny passed all our plans had to change. Instead I worked Monday until 2, left for Indiana-visitation Tuesday 3-9pm then Funeal Wednesday at 11. We left Indiana around 7pm and went straight to Gulfport, MS getting there about 6am.
My flight left New Orleans to Houston at 8:15 am. Mom, Hannah and Aunt Lori took me to the airport. I wasn't really nervous, not until my second flight and then my flight here to Barcelona. Which is odd, because the past two weeks I've been ready to throw up thinking about it and now that the time is here, it isn't bothering me.
From Houston I flew to Montreal, Canada then to Barcelona, which unknowingly we were the first flight, I REPEAT-THE FIIIIRSSSTT FREAKING FLIGHT EVERRRR, that Air Canada has taken to Spain! Like seriously?!?! As we're landing all I see is water! So obviously this pilot can't find the runway... j/k He found it fine, but for real I was freaking out, and the water below didn't help! My roommate was on the flight with me so when we landed we got together and found baggage claim and decided to take a bus to the metro station and spend 7 euros instead of 60 to get to the University. Well, we made the bus trip fine but once in Plaza de Catalunya it was hopeless! We couldn't find the Metro station (which we later discovered was right in front of us the whole time) So we ended up splurging 20 euros each for a cab.
We got to campus around 10am and unpacked and took a nap until dinner at 7. I didn't think I would get homesick until month 2, but it hit me as I was unpacking that I wouldn't get to see any of my family or friends for two whole months! I guess it was just a first day nervousness thing, but I'm totally glad I made this journey! It feels so liberating to travel half way around the world alone, not to know a single person, and basically start over!
We met quite a few people and all walked down to the bar on campus, had a couple of drinks and got to know one another. Once the bar closed we came back to the dorms and chilled on the decks and was able to socialize a bit more. We had a lot of fun!
The original plan was to leave Athens Sunday night and head to Gulfport and stay a week with Nanny and PawPaw and all the family was coming up and getting together to see me and my cousin Chris for the last time for a while. Well, since Granny passed all our plans had to change. Instead I worked Monday until 2, left for Indiana-visitation Tuesday 3-9pm then Funeal Wednesday at 11. We left Indiana around 7pm and went straight to Gulfport, MS getting there about 6am.
My flight left New Orleans to Houston at 8:15 am. Mom, Hannah and Aunt Lori took me to the airport. I wasn't really nervous, not until my second flight and then my flight here to Barcelona. Which is odd, because the past two weeks I've been ready to throw up thinking about it and now that the time is here, it isn't bothering me.
From Houston I flew to Montreal, Canada then to Barcelona, which unknowingly we were the first flight, I REPEAT-THE FIIIIRSSSTT FREAKING FLIGHT EVERRRR, that Air Canada has taken to Spain! Like seriously?!?! As we're landing all I see is water! So obviously this pilot can't find the runway... j/k He found it fine, but for real I was freaking out, and the water below didn't help! My roommate was on the flight with me so when we landed we got together and found baggage claim and decided to take a bus to the metro station and spend 7 euros instead of 60 to get to the University. Well, we made the bus trip fine but once in Plaza de Catalunya it was hopeless! We couldn't find the Metro station (which we later discovered was right in front of us the whole time) So we ended up splurging 20 euros each for a cab.
We got to campus around 10am and unpacked and took a nap until dinner at 7. I didn't think I would get homesick until month 2, but it hit me as I was unpacking that I wouldn't get to see any of my family or friends for two whole months! I guess it was just a first day nervousness thing, but I'm totally glad I made this journey! It feels so liberating to travel half way around the world alone, not to know a single person, and basically start over!
We met quite a few people and all walked down to the bar on campus, had a couple of drinks and got to know one another. Once the bar closed we came back to the dorms and chilled on the decks and was able to socialize a bit more. We had a lot of fun!
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