Friday September 17th

class

After class I had my first grammar test. It wasn't near as hard as I expected it to be, but I was a little confused in some sections what the professor was looking for. The test was all free response/essay questions where we were supposed to use sentence structures/verb forms we'd been learning in class. The problem was, the directions weren't super explicit for the final part, and instead of putting the verbs in future tense (meaning that I was hypothesizing the situation), I put the verbs in past tense (meaning that I knew what happened in the situation.) Confusing? I know right?! So long story short, later on in the week I had to re-write my answers for that question. I was glad that they gave me a second chance. My professor said that my essays were excellent for the way I interrupted the question, it just didn't allow her to evaluate whether or not I understood future tense. Oh well! I ended up passing the test, so it all works out in the end :)

our hostel bedroom that
we shared with 7 other people

After my test I hurried to meet my cousins at the train station. I actually ended up speed running with my suitcase so I found then on the street instead of all the way at the station like we'd planned. The train was just under 3 hours to Barcelona, so we had plenty of time to talk about plans and what we wanted to do in the city. The train also played a movie, Nanny McPhee, in Spanish. I'd never seen it, so I watched it. It was pretty funny, although I had a little language barrier. In the movie, the talk about cutting out the guys "los riñones" for a punishment. Let's just say I didn't realize that those were kidneys. (google translate "cojones" if you must). Between the movie and the amazing sandwich my Senora fixed me (my favorite: eggs and tomato on french bread... don't judge it until you've tried it!!), I was pretty much in heaven.

cousins :)

When we got to Barcelona, Nathan and Luke (my cousins from Germany) had to book their train ride home. While they tried to deal with the train business (which was comical because Luke took a few years of Spanish in high school and Nathan knows nothing), I went to find a Movistar station to "recharge" my phone. Phone plans are different over here. I put so much money on my phone at a time and it tells me when I've almost used it all up. (Kind of like a Pay As You Go plan I suppose). The problem is, they send you text messages in Spanish and the last time I totally misinterpreted the text messages as telling me my rates were cheaper not that I didn't have any money left. Needless to say I was a little big freaked out when my phone all the sudden didn't work. You live and you learn.

notice we are soaked. BOO!

So after The Train Station Fiasco, we attempted to find out hostel. A rather large feat.. Metro=no problem (although it was 1,80 euros instead of 1 euro in Madrid). Then we followed the directions the hostel gave us and ended up fairly lost. Basically we just didn't walk down far enough on a street, but whatever. We made it there eventually.

The hostel was actually really nice. I was surprised for how cheap it was house nice and clean the whole facility was. The people at the front desk were also really nice and helpful! If anyone is planning on staying in a youth hostel in Barcelona, Valencia, or Sevilla, I would totally recommend checking out Feetup Hostels.

dinner! YUM!

After we got cleaned up a little in the hostel, we were all starving and ready to get some grub. The only problem was it was raining. And when I say raining I mean like POURING!!! So we used my umbrella and hoped on the metro and headed toward the river. The umbrella failed miserably, and Luke and I ended up getting DRENCHED! The rain was literally coming through the top of the umbrella. NOT OKAY!!!

We stopped at a nearby restaurant, soaking wet, and ordered some tapas and sangria. There were like 5 different options of tapas platers. We got the one with chicken wings, peppers, potato chunks, meat balls, and some other unidentified meats. It was all delicious!

river side restaurant :)

After dinner we walked further towards the lake. By this point the rain had let up some, but the ground was still wet. Me being my clumsy self, totally bit it while walking across the boardwalk. So not only was my bum SOAKED now, but it really hurt! :( Poor me! haha!

We stopped at another river side restaurant and ordered another pitcher of sangria to split. It was a lot of fun just talking and catching up with my cousins! :)

walking through the town center

After the river side restaurant, we walked a ways farther trying to find another cheap place to have a drink. We got invited into this really sweet club, but drinks were 15 euros and there was no one there, even though it was after midnight (the nightlife in Europe doesn't pick up until 2 or 3 am.. when the American bars are closing!)

So instead we ended up taking the metro back to our hostel and resting up for our following day of sightseeing! :)