Barcelona y Escuela

Hola.

I'm writing this while eating Cheez-Its that I brought from home. YASS.

Last week we had a mandatory introduction day at our school on Monday and then the rest of the week off. A couple of my friends and I thought this would be a prime opportunity to take a trip somewhere since we had about 5 days. We booked plane tickets on Sunday, a hostel on Monday and on Tuesday, we woke up at 3am to catch our flight to... BARCELONNNAAAAAAAAA.

Finally saw the sun. Didn't think I would see it again until I was back in California.

This was my first time staying in a hostel and I have to say, it was surprisingly great! The staff was super nice and helpful. They had activities planned thoughout the day and night. It also had a large kitchen and common room. I shared a room with 7 other people. It was fun meeting people from all over the world. Even though most of them were American.

Kitchen and dinning area

We had 2 days of travel and 3 full days in Barcelona. It was so fun to be able to (semi) communicate and read in Spanish. I felt like after 4 years of Spanish all I knew was hola but it turns out I know more than I thought. I also know adios. And tequila!

We went to a couple of Barcelona's must see attractions. I am obsessed with the spanish architecture. Every corner you turned had amazing buildings. Even if it was just an apartment building, the iron fence terraces, the columns, the facade was all so beautiful. Of course, the churches and cathedrals were breathtaking too. Made me wish I had a better architecture professor in college. We barely brushed on Spanish architecture. Anyways, I posted a ton of pictures below.

Arc de Triomf 

Parc Ciutadella 

Parc Ciutadella

Parc Guell

View of Barcelona from Parc Guell

CREW

Is this where Cheetah Girls 2 was shot? YES. (see below)

CHEETAH-LICIOUS 

Basilica La Sagrada Familia

How nuts is this interior?

And then the facade! So much detail.

Random building I liked.

Cathedral. Bad lighting. Still pretty

La Casa Batllo. Same guy who did the Basilica 

Sadly, we didn't go into the Batllo house. They wanted 20 Euro. And I was like ehhhhhhhhh. Maybe another trip.

My favorite day was the last full day, when we took a tram 30 minutes up the road to the beach. It was so nice to be back at the beach and get some sun before returning to the cold and rainy Netherlands.

Super awkward that most of the females had their tops off. All ages... but hey. You do you.

My favorite thing about traveling is the food. OBVIOUSLY. I really wanted to dive in and try the local cuisine. When my best friend (shout out to Tegan) studied abroad in Madrid, I'd always ask her what kind of food she ate there. She told me tapas and paella. And she was right. On every street that's all I would see. Tapas and paella. Naturally, I tried both. And topped it off with sangria and/or a mojito.

I could eat here everyday. We actually went 3 times.

Seafood paella

SAAAANGRIAAAAAAAA

One of the best mojitos I've ever had. 

You already know.

One highlight from the trip was going out with the hostel to take salsa lessons. I thought it was really fun even though the instructor only taught like 3 basic steps. Which I already knew because sophomore year of high school I taught my PE class salsa dancing. In return I got out of running the mile for 2 weeks. Little did everyone know I had no idea how to salsa dance and I just YouTube'd it, taught myself and then taught the class. Hahahahaha. And then didn't have to run the mile. WIN WIN.

Overall it was a pretty fun trip and I was excited to practice my spanish. Now I'm back in Amsterdam and I am still staying Hola and bueno to everyone.


First Week of School:

Woke up sick.

Awesome.

Other than that... I've only been to two days of classes so far and it's not so bad. It's weird that none of my classes are design classes. I already miss all my design supplies and programs :(. But, I'll be doing all that stuff for the rest of my life so I'm not too worried. In my marketing communications class our "creative activity" was to think of a new brand and create a logo. I was done in 3.5 seconds. So I guess I can still use my design knowledge in Marketing. I would tell you my idea/ logo but it was brilliant and I don't want anyone to steal it.


My blogs will become more and more boring the further I get into school.

 Hopefully I can plan a few weekend trips soon!


That's all for now!