i've been in barcelona for two weeks now, and i'm getting much more familiar with the city. this past weekend was the biggest festival of the year here-- la mercè. there were tons of events going on. my friend john came here to visit. he's studying in the south of france right now, so he took the train to come for the weekend.

thursday night:
we went to the beach at barceloneta.


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friday:
we went to the picasso museum.

(no, you are not allowed to take photographs in the museum.)

it was sunny and rainy at the same time, which seems to happen a lot here...



we hung out with cate and deb & larry in barceloneta. there were streets decorated in their neighborhood for block parties.

(lots of handmade kites)

(frilly pink stuff and flowers)

(there was a carnival going on in la barceloneta)


on sunday night, these streets were lit up and full of families and fun music. cate and i danced in the street with the grandmas and grandpas. i think it was the most "spanish" experience i've had yet.

saturday:
we went to la sagrada familia-- an amazing unfinished masterpiece by antoni gaudí. they are still working on it, and he's been dead for over 80 years. photographs don't do it justice at all, but these might give you an idea of what it looks like.

(part of the inside)

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(the front doors are made of words)

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we went to the correfoc. it is called the "fire run," but it's really a huge parade of dragons and devils and drumming and utter chaos!!! this would never happen in the states, because everyone would get sued! it was CRAZY, but a lot of fun.

(people dressed up as devils)


(john running into the middle of the street)



monday night was the end of la mercè 2006. it's a catalan holiday, so we had no classes and pretty much nothing was open. there was a big fireworks-water fountain-light-music show at montjuic. the theme was "history of jazz," which made the whole thing feel pretty american. (fireworks always remind me of the fourth of july anyway.) but it was a great show, and the fireworks were possibly better than the macy's fireworks in new york!

this whole weekend has been like a vacation, so it was a little strange to go back to classes today. however, i am enjoying my classes. i am looking forward to doing more with the ágape art studio and getting connected with people through that. i went to a meeting last week so, i got to see lisa and jonás and meet some other cool people.

it's been a great weekend! i hope to hear from y'all who are reading this, so please e-mail me or leave me a comment on here. if you don't have an account, you can choose "anonymous" and still leave a comment. ¡hasta luego!

¡hola!

i have arrived safely in barcelona, and we have gone through orientation during our first few days in the city.

landing in barcelona

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lauren (one of my apartment-mates) and me as we're about to land

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in 4Cats, the bar/café that is famous because Picasso used to go there

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the building in which i now reside

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i am blessed with having my own room!

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our kitchen

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lauren's room (she gets a double room to herself because one of our other girls couldn't come). her room and the other room have beautiful balcony windows!

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kassie and becca (my other apt-mates) weren't home when i took the pictures, so i don't have one of their room.

things are going well so far, we start our classes tomorrow. we took a placement test today for our spanish language classes...i think i'm probably going to be in the beginner class! i'm excited for my classes to start so i can learn more! i'm also taking creative writing, photography, and survey of spanish art.

i don't have internet in my apartment, so i will only be on from time to time. my skype username is "joanlie" if you would like to try to talk sometime. if you want to see more pictures, you can see my picture sites (www.dropshots.com/joanlie and www.dropshots.com/thescarlettruth). ¡hasta luego!