Living for the moment

So this post was inspired by a quote my sister posted as her facebook status the other day...

"There comes a point in your life when you realize who matters, who never did, who won't anymore, and who always will. So don't worry about people from your past, there's a reason why they didn't make it to your future."

I'm definitely guilty of spending way too much time thinking about the past and about the people in my past, but being in Spain has really helped me realize how important it is to live for the moment because before you know it the moment's gone and you can never get it back. When I first arrived here in Barcelona I was set and determined that I couldn't make it here on my own for four months and I was ready to pack up my bags and head back to Texas, but thankfully my wonderful parents made me stick it out because they knew that I would regret leaving and not giving Spain a chance in the future. Since then I have had my ups and down, but I've realized that everything I miss back in Texas, will still be there when it's time for me to come home in May, and I only have right now to experience all that Spain and Europe has to offer. I know that the people who I miss so dearly back in Texas will all be there when I get home because I know in my heart that they are people who will be in my life forever and as far as the people in my past who I won't lie I think about from time to time I've come to realize that there really isn't any use wasting my time thinking about why they aren't in my life now because if they were supposed to then they would be. Life is a constant road and there's no use looking back.

Well I realize that this is a different kind of post than the ones you have been getting from me lately, but I just thought I would share with you a quote and my thoughts behind it.

Love y'all!

xoxo

Roma!

Sorry for the delay of posts, I was sick and then super busy after my trip to Rome last weekend and am now just finding some time to sit down and write. Well let me tell you about my weekend in Rome :)

We left Barcelona on a Friday morning and arrived in Rome in the early afternoon. The first thing we did, after checking into the hotel, was take a bus tour, so that we could see a little bit of everything in Rome. During the bus tour we stopped at the Vatican and were able to walk around St. Peter's Cathedral, which just let me tell you was amazing and left me awestruck!

The Vatican

Me in front of St. Peter's Cathedral in the Vatican

Inside St. Peter's Cathedral!

We spent about an hour there and then got back on the bus for a little more touring before being dropped off at the hotel where we were free to go out and explore for the evening.

The first night we were there we went to a cute little restaurant where the waiters absolutely adored us! One of them even got in our group photo :)

After a really good dinner of pasta, pizza, chocolate moose and wine we decided to check out some of the bars and local areas, which were all a lot of fun.

The second day started out with a tour of the Coliseum, which was also amazing! It's incredible to think about how long the Coliseum has been around for and all that it has seen. Rome in general is such a historical city that it's impossible to even imagine everything that has happened there.

The Coliseum

Inside the Coliseum

After our incredible tour of the Coliseum we were once again on our own for the rest of the day, so we decided to go see some more of the amazing sights Rome has to offer. My absolute favorite destination in Rome was the Trevi Fountain! I had to make sure I went there and threw a coin into the fountain because you can't come to Rome without making that stop!

The Trevi Fountain :)

Me and some of my friends in front of the Trevi Fountatin!

We did a lot of walking around in Rome, but we were able to rest for a little bit on the Spanish Steps, which were extremely crowded.

The next night, which just so happened to be our last night, we once again went out to eat some authentic Italian food (pasta, pizza and wine) and had a fabulous time!

The group :)

On our last day in Rome we were lucky enough to get the opportunity to hear the Pope address the people of Rome, which was so incredible! Unfortunately, my camera does not zoom in very close, so the Pope is hard to see, but he was there and we saw him!

The Pope!

I had an incredible time in Rome and would love to be able to go back and spend more time there because two days really isn't enough to see everything! I unfortunately got sick as soon as we got back to Barcelona, but after a doctors visit and some medicine I am back to being healthy and on the go! I look forward to being able to share more photos of Rome with y'all when I get back :)

Love y'all always!

xoxo

Lets see, where to begin...

Well classes are going pretty well except for the part about not being able to understand most of them haha, but I think the longer I'm in them the more I am able to understand. The part that stinks the most is that all my culture classes are at night so of course by that point I am already tired and not really in the thinking/translating mood. My language classes (which of course have to be in the early morning) are going well and I'm hoping that those too will really push the knowledge into my brain so that I can remember all the basics and build upon them.

This weekend was an extremely eventful one I must say. It started out with me going to my first ever bar in Barcelona, The Queen Vic, it was an okay bar, just really crowded and not very clean, so needless to say I won't be going back there anytime soon. The next day a couple of my friends and I went to visit La Sagrada Familia, which is a huge church with the most beautiful architecture you could ever imagine seeing. It was originally designed by Antoni Gaudi in 1882, but he died before he could finish it. It is still under construction and is said to be under construction until 2021, this is because the construction is being funded by donations and tickets to enter the church. Here are a few photos of this magnificent building...

So that was my adventure at La Sagrada Familia and it was amazing! We even took a tour that took us all the way up to the top and there were some amazing views such as this one...

All together it was a really great day, and afterwards we got some really good sleep haha!

The next day we ventured out on Las Ramblas, which is just the name of a bunch of streets (in alleyways) with lots of stores and little restaurants where we ate amazing turkish food and then I had a desert that was absolutely amazing!!!!

Yes a waffle with dark chocolate and powdered sugar! Delicious! You can also get them with ice cream, gelato a lot of other things, but I was just happy with this tasty treat :)

That night we went to a club called Razmataz and it was insane, talk about a maze of dance floors haha! We had a good night though...

Sunday was a day of relaxation and homework and now it's back to going to classes and figuring out what to do next, which will be visiting Rome next weekend! I can't wait for that trip and I will definitely have tons of pictures to share with you all!

Love y'all always!

Muchas cosas!

Okay so this blog entry might be extremely long, but it's just because so much has happened in just the past few days.

I'll start off with my weekend trip to Calcotada and Poblet. We started the day off by visiting a monastery in which I was freezing the entire time because of course there is no heating in any of the buildings! It was an interesting tour, but I think I had the most fun being outside in the courtyard with some friends petting the stray cats walking around and taking pictures.

Here's part of our group :)

After we toured the monastery we headed over to a small town where we learned how to make and eat colcots, which are pretty much onions that are placed on a fire and then you peel the burned coating off and dip it into a special sauce and eat it. Here are some pictures of the process...

Roma getting ready to eat one right off the fire.

Part of the group waiting to eat, this was before we put our bibs on haha!

And this is how you eat the onion, I know very attractive :P

So after our little lunch adventure we had the opportunity to explore the town and visit the ruins of a castle that had been there years ago. To tell you the truth it wasn't much of a castle, but the views from the top were absolutely incredible.

There are a lot of other pictures from my trip on my facebook, but it would just be way to difficult to upload even part of them on here, so feel free to look at my albums on facebook :)

So the next part of my weekend was finally experiencing the night life. As I said at the beginning when I arrived I was sick and wasn't up for going out at all during the night, but I am finally feeling 100% better so I had my first night out in Barcelona and it was a little crazy to say the least haha! I won't go into to much detail, but nightlife in Barcelona is definitely different than in the US, not sure if it's a good difference or not, but I guess I'll have to determine that when I back to the states. Here are a few photos I took of some of my friends that I went out with...

Peter and I

Moe and I

There were also others, but of course I took them one at a time and that would get tedious! I ended up having a good time though and learning a lot about night life here haha!

The rest of my weekend consisted of me sleeping and then doing my first homework in Spanish. Thankfully it isn't too difficult, but it definitely is way harder than in the United States. I would have to say that my History class is by far the worst and probably will be since all he does is spend the hour and a half talking (oh ya and the class doesn't end till 9 pm) so pretty much I have no idea what is going on in that class :P My other classes are interesting and I think I will get a lot out of them, but it's going to take time getting used to understand the language at such a rapid pace!

Besides homework, hanging out with friends, spending time with my amazing host mom and taking lots of pictures, I haven't done anything too too exciting, but I will be visiting Rome in about two weeks so I am super stoked about that :) I also need to get to planning my other trips around Europe if I'm ever going to actually do them!

Here are some parting pictures from my University, which I think I mentioned is like Hogwarts straight out of Harry Potter :) My friend Sarah and I decided to have a little photo shoot so here are a few of our photos!

Sarah and I

The traditional lamppost shot haha!

Well for now that is all I have to say (I think haha) and I'll try to post more frequently so that these posts aren't so long.

Love and miss you all so very much!

Escuela

This week didn't exactly start out on a good note for me. I was pretty much ready to pack my bags and come home because I was just not settling in well, but thankfully API (the program I am doing my study abroad through) has some amazing staff members and they were quick to help me. Since that episode things have been going a little more smoothly and I am doing my best to get out and get to know the other students in my program as well as those in my classes, but we'll get to classes in a little bit.

On Tuesday, a group of us from my program decided to walk to the Parc Guell, which is a famous park here in Barcelona designed by Gaudi. The boys in our group told us that it wasn't a long walk and that we would be there in no time... guess again haha. We spent a good half hour walking around the city trying to find the actual park itself and then once we got to the park this is what we saw...

...the never ending stairs. No kidding it went on for what seemed forever. Chase, Mo and I barely made it, but the view from the top was absolutely worth it.

The park itself was very nice and we chose a perfect day to visit because the weather was gorgeous, but we were all extremely tired and sore after that excursion.

Wednesday we started out culture classes. Now pretty much what that means is regular classes, but all taught in spanish, so in other words I hardly understood a word haha! And for those of you who know how much I despise history, well guess what, it's even worse in another language lol! The cultural classes that I am taking are Business in Spanish, the Origin and Evolution of Spain and Europe and General History of Spain, so yes all extremely boring and hard to understand, but hopefully the longer I'm here the more I will understand :)

Today we began our language classes, sadly I had to begin mine at 8:30 am this morning, but it was worth it because I have an awesome teacher and I feel like I might actually learn something this semester unlike last semester hehe! I'm lucky that on tuesdays and thursdays I only have my language classes so I am done by 11:30 am, but my mondays and wednesdays make up for that since I have class until 9 p.m. One thing I have to say though is that my campus is gorgeous! It's like being in Hogwarts except there are no moving staircases and the portraits don't talk to you. I only have a few photos as of now, but you can be sure there will be many more posted on my facebook over the semester!

This weekend should be fun, we are taking a day trip to Calcotada, a city about an hour away from Barcelona where we will be eating a lot of different foods that are typical to Spain, I'll let you know how that goes :) Other than that I will probably continue to explore the city and figure out what exactly was said to be our homework for the weekend hehe!

Love and miss you all!