Classes and Figuring out the CIty

June 10-11

Thursday and Friday were our first few days of classes. We are all taking a spanish class and a history type class. Bryce and I were placed into the intermediate spanish class, but quickly found out that this was not for us. We were told that this class would be taught with some english, but this obviously wasn't the case. By the time we got through the class, we looked at each other and said we have to move down. There's no point in sitting through a class in which we won't learn anything because we don't understand a single thing being said. On Friday, we went to one of the beginner classes, which turned out to be a joke. There was a huge difference between beginner and intermediate, and Bryce and I were definitely right in the middle. We just decided to stay because we thought that it might get a little bit more challenging.

My other class is awesome. I absolutely love it. Its called Past and Present in Barcelona. So far we have learned about the history of the city and who occupied this region and such. Also, I really enjoy it because our teacher takes us on field trips where we walk around the city and learn the significance of different places. If I were just here to visit, I feel like I would just see all of the touristy places and just say oooohhh ahhhhhh. This way, I get to learn some of the real history and reasons behind things you wouldn't typically get to see because they aren't in travel books.

I don't remember exactly which day I did what but we went grocery shopping and did laundry and went to the beach. We just started getting a feel for where we were, where everything else was, and how to get around. I'm not sure if I already mentioned this but my residencia is only 10 blocks from the beach. We also found this small little sports bar thats like a block away that everyone from our program likes to go to for watching the U.S. and Spain World Cup games. We're only like 2 blocks away from a metro station which is what we take everywhere. We usually take the metro in the mornings to class but then we found out how to get home by walking so we started doing that.