Mi dormitorio

Here in Barcelona I am participating in a home-stay and living with a familia. Señora Ana has a daughter who is 21 and a son who is 17. She has the cutest Maltese puppy named Pongo who reminds me a lot of my own puppy back home. Despite taking five semesters of Spanish in college, communicating is still difficult. A language barrier definitely exists. Luckily, I don't have to struggle through it alone. My roomie, Sonja, is from Minnesota and we've been able to help each other out.

Señora Ana's cooking is muy delicioso but she tries to feed us WAY too much. Even when Sonja and I say "no gracias" she still puts more food on our plates. In Spain, it is rude to leave uneaten food on your plate. I'm going to get fat.

Sonja and I share a room. The room is smaller than the dorms at MU but it works just fine.

Mi cama:

Mi escritorio:

Alphie the lion (ADPi's mascot) was waiting for me on my shelves! I also discovered my favorite book series of all time...Harry Potter (Duhhh)...in Spanish! I'm going to try and read them all while I'm here.

On Tuesday Sonja and I decided to explore the streets of Barcelona. From our house, we are a 10 minute walk to Las Ramblas - the shopping district of Barcelona. (Uh oh...sorry in advance to my bank account,)

We had to stop by H&M because they were having a rebaje! Por supuesto! (Rebaje = sale) Surprisingly, I walked out of the store empty-handed but the five-story H&M was definitely impressive.

Sonja and I walked all the way to the ocean. It was beautiful!

Meet Sonja!

This is a famous statue of Cristóbal Colón (Christopher Columbus):

After exploring the pier, Sonja and I went on a hunt for some comida. We found a tapas restaurant on our walk home. Tapas are perfect because they are cheap and delicious! Our camarero (waiter) asked us if we preferred "Inglés o español?" We opted for español and managed to order our food and drinks without any problemas. I think our camarero appreciated our effort to speak español because he brought us two shots for free.

Once we finally made it home it was siesta time! Oh how I love siestas! We didn't wake up until dinner time...which was at 10 p.m.!

Overall, it was a wonderful first day in Barcelona. :)