Barcelona's Nightlife & The Beauty of Getting Lost

I'll try to recall everything that happened yesterday, but no promises, everyone should know that my memory is awful and that I can't write down every story...
Last night as we (my housemate and I) went to go to a group meeting and tour of the gothic section of the city, we got very lost. So much so, that we were late and completely missed the tour. This wasn't a huge deal, so we decided to walk around the gothic section ourselves, and just explore for a few hours.

What fun would Spain be without protests?

Overall the gothic section is very beautiful, it's one of the older if not the oldest part of the city (I assume anyway) and it certainly shows. Every building is huge and majestic, the streets are tiny (there are no cars or vehicles of any sort there), and there are shops and tiny stores everywhere, dozens, if not hundreds of them in this small little district.
Afterwards we went to the waterfront and grabbed some food from some of the many "Beer and Ice Cream" Stands (I feel like these would do well in the US?) and sat in one of Barcelona's many parks. The city seems similar to Boston in that respect, there isn't immense amounts of vegetation on every corner, but there's certainly a fair amount with plenty of parks and grassy areas.

Outside of the store where Rihanna was.

Once we went back to our host's house, we then went out to try and find one of our friends, but between our technicaly difficulties with phones and the fact that there are merely more cafes and bars than anything else, we were not able to find out friend, and just ended up sitting down in a place that looked fairly decent. (Also, somewhere in here I'm fairly certain that we walked by the jewelry store that Rihanna was at, there were hundreds of people packed outside trying to look in.)

Street performers a-plenty.

It was there that we met some (VERY) inebriated Englishmen and found some other American College students. After staying for a couple hours, we then decided to set out for places unknown, which ended up in us finding a, seemingly random, concert. A few songs later we wandered around, until eventually arriving back at roughly 1AM. (The nightlife here usually doesn't end until roughly 4AM or later, the streets were still packed when we left.)

All in all, we saw quite a few very interesting things (didn't get many pictures though), met some interesting people (one man spoke 5 languages not including his native tongue, which is completely crazy in my opinion), and experienced Barcelona at night fo the first time.

Columbus wearing a Barcelona jersey, I've seen it all now.

Four Minute showers & Feeling Like a Champion

It was reaffirmed this morning that water is more expensive here.

This picture was not sideways in my phone...

Este pasta.

Anyway, I was feeling fairly adventurous  so I decided to go out and buy a random pastry. After seeing 1029839021 people in the store (6 in reality) I decided to walk around the block a few times to get my courage up. After walking by the store three times (took me roughly 15 minutes) I decided that I knew what I was going to say and that I was ready for anything. (Huge mistake, I'm never ready for anything.) As I walked in I was relieved to find that there were only 2 people in the cafe(?) or pastry shop(?). I then approached the counter and ask for "this pastry" as I pointed to it in Spanish. Feeling very proud and self-assured for a moment, I was then cut-down in my pride when she (the cashier) responded in English. It seems that I have yet again forgotten my rule number one. (See previous post.)

Getting Lost in a Foreign Land & Other Adventures

Estoy. En Barcelona.

I arrived slightly early, got fairly lost in the airport (it's daunting I swear), and have already spoken more Spanish than I have in the past six months. 

Very long story, very short. 

Outside of Spain, taken roughly at 6AM local time on the plane.

I ended up sitting next to a woman who was native to Barcelona on my flight. She "basically" informed me of some of the various cultural differences and of the many places to go and things to see. This ended up in me being awake for the entire 8 hour flight.

When we landed, I went through customs with zero problems (I literally didn't say a word to the guy, and he didn't say a thing to me). After claiming(!) my luggage, I promptly got a little lost in the massive first terminal of the Barcelona Airport (Classic Nick). After waiting around and panicking for a little while (2 hours), I ended up realizing that I was just ridiculously early and that everyone here is always late (it's a thing, trust me).

Then we were herded (in a sheep-like fashion) into several buses (which is a 3 hour process apparently) and I have since been taken by that bus, to my host family's place of residence.

After everything, I have found out a few things about Barcelona, and how my life is going to be over the next six weeks.

1.)Everyone can speak Spanish/French/German/English & any other language that you can think of, better than you or I. 

This is the only poster in "my" room.

(That includes toddlers, seriously.)

2.) Most people here are late to most things. 

(It's a way of life).

3.) We speak Spanish in my host family's house. Always. 

(Unless of course we don't know how to say something.)

4.) The graffiti in Barcelona is generally prettier and better looking than most Art in America.

(It's crazy, I have to get pictures of this.)

5.) Siestas are real. People use and love them.

(Quite possibly the greatest idea in the history of everything. Napping at 2PM, why not?)

Overall, and all joking aside, Spain's architecture is absolutely astonishing, my host mother is simply wonderful, and above all, that this trip is going to be amazing.

View from my bedroom window.

Packing and Other Tough Decisions...

Only a few hours before my flight... I'm fairly done with packing. It's surprisingly easy to fill a couple of bags, much easier than I thought, but I still managed to leave SOME room for clothes and the other miscellanea that I plan on purchasing (hoarding) while in Spain.

I could only bring the "essentials", which means I had to leave out some things that I may consider crucial. 

Airport security doesn't exactly LOVE cats.

Packing Time

Well, I'm leaving tomorrow, so I should probably START packing soon.

** This is also a test to see if the blog is working.