La Primer Día

So I've officially been in Barcelona for a full day! It honestly feels like weeks already!!! But I LOVE it!!!!!!!! So exciting I still cannot believe it!

So yesterday we had a Welcome Meeting and I met the other thirteen people in my program! We all go to school at Universidad Pompeu Fabra (UPF) and our group is so small, I love it!  I pretty much know everyone now which is really cool. We went to dinner at a really nice restaurant after the meeting and thank goodness, my program covered the costs! :) It was SO much food! We had four tapas (appetizers ish)-- patas bravas which were potatoes with a spicy tomato sauce on them... those were the best.  We also had these pieces of toast with a tomato and olive oil and garlic paste on them, have no idea what they were called. Also, there was a salad of tuna and pita and olives and then fried calamari.  I didn't try those because I'm still being a baby and hopefully I'll get over my seafood thing :) Then we had a choice of two meals, chicken or fish, and I chose chicken.  It was like a kabob basically, with chicken, onions, peppers and then vegetables on the side and more potatoes. It was very yummy! As for dessert, we had la creme catalan or something like that... basically a creme brulee.  Very rich... it was SO much food!  Also, we had a choice of soda and I tried the Sprite.  It tasted a little different but still good.  The bottles are so heavy! One thing that's going to take some getting used to is the service... they're so slow! I kept drinking my water so fast and it took forever to get more.  And our dinner lasted two hours! That was cool, I definitely got to talk to everyone!!

After dinner a group of eight of us decided we had to celebrate our first night a little bit :) First, we ended up going to a British African bar named Obama. How funny is that?!?! We walk in and the first thing is I see is Obama sitting on a bench at a table with his American flag pin on.  There was a band playing and everything was in English!!! They even sang Sweet Home Alabama!! It was so weird.  I felt like I was in the US! It was so packed we ended up getting a table downstairs by ourselves because it was so busy but it was fun! Our server was nice and she was wearing an American flag necklace and bracelet! It was so funny.  After that, we went to some other places that were recommended and strolled around.  We got offered a can of beer at least 20 times, it was very interesting! Guys just hang around with a six-pack of beers and keep offering it to everyone who walks by! We went to another place and it was completely empty so we took over.  I never realized how true it was that no one ever starts going out till 2 in the morning! Very weird!! It was a good experience for the first night! Definitely got lost a few times but our group stuck together and it was nice!

Today, we walked around the city a little but with our advisors and got a tour of some of the plazas and we took the metro!  We learned a few things and we stopped in at a cathedral which was really neat! Everything was so detailed, it was unbelievable!  We were starving so a few of us stopped in at Burger King because it was quick and cheap.  It was soooooo nice! I didn't believe it when I walked in but the place was so neat and clean and each fast food place has a bodyguard at the front door! The food tasted a little bit different but was still good ole' BK.  It's so weird, but these Spaniards must love some BK.  We passed four different ones when walking three blocks last night. They are EVERYWHERE.  Then we hungout for a bit and then met up again for our bus tour!  We got a bus rented and our advisors showed us all around the city and we got to take some cool pictures.  We just got back to the hotel now and are resting up before our Housing Meeting. How exciting!! We move in tomorrow! EEEEEEEEK.