Calcotes, the hospital, and Geneva!

¿Qué tal?

It's been quite a while since I've written! Here are the major things that have happened so far:


Saturday, we hiked up a mountain in Barcelona! We hiked up for about an hour and a half until we reached a restaurant called Can Marti, famous for its calcotes. Calcotes are a certain type of onion grown in the mountains. To eat them, we have to peel off the outside, dip them in a type of sauce, and then eat them! After this, they served us a lot more food, such as potatoes, meat, salad, meat, and more meat! Haha!

The hike was beautiful! We could see the entire city from the mountain! I wish I could have stayed there forever! Here's a picture of our group with the view in the back:

Going on...

The next week, poor Tanmay got sick and had to be in the hospital for a few days! :(

Sanam and I went every day to chill with him hours at a time, doing our best to entertain him, while he sat in his hospital bed pretty much making fun of us the entire time. There was one point where we had an hindi song "jam fest", where we just went song after song, singing our lungs out (or as loud as we could before the nurses had to come in and tell us to be quieter since we were in a hospital...lol). Tanmay finally got better! Yay! And was released from the hospital! It was an interesting experience...and will make for lots of funny stories when we are older...

"Hey, remember that time Tanmay was sick in Barcelona...and was in a hospital, where he could not understand a word the doctors or nurses said to him?" 

But, we're all really glad he's better now, and out of that "dress" that he had to wear in the hospital! (Sorry Tanny!)

So, next comes Geneva!!!

Well, for those of you who are going...why did you go to Geneva as your first trip...how random!!! Well, yes, it was a VERY random destination! But it was a lot of fun (despite the very very cold weather)! It was a girls trip...me, Sanam, Stacey, and Melissa (who joined us from Edinburgh!)

So Sanam, Stacey and I reached about an hour and a half before Melissa did. During that time that we were waiting in the airport for her, we did some people watching. Let me say...it was very entertaining.

 Exhibit A: a little girl...I want to say maybe between the ages of 2-4, running around the airport like a psycho baby! She was dressed ALL in purple. No exaggerations! Purple dress, with purple tights, with purple uggs, and a purple jacket. She had blonde hair, blue eyes, and rosy red cheeks! Super cute! But I've never seen anyone with more energy in my life! 

Anyways, so on Friday night, we went to a nice dinner in the hotel restaurant, and then went to a club called Java Club. We had an amazing time! The DJ was great! He played everything from house to, of course, rap! Weirdly, it seemed like the Swiss crowd loved the American music more than anything!! The club itself was really nice and had a great crowd! People watching at this club was fun as well! We looked at the cute boys, stayed away from the creeps, and just had a great girls night!

The next day, we went to lunch and then hopped on the train to go into "Old Geneva", which had most of the touristy things to do. As we were on the train, we suddenly noticed that we were heading into the suburbs of Geneva...weird! We then realized...about 15 minutes into the ride, that we were headed in the wrong direction!! That WOULD happen to us! So we got off at a stop and took the train back, and finally ended up where we wanted to be. One of the biggest problems we had was the language barrier. We no longer could get by asking "donde esta..."...these people spoke french..the fact that none of us had ever learned french made it a million times worse! But while we were on the train, we overheard some girls speaking english! It was like the light at the end of the tunnel! Sanam and I quickly asked them how to get to the flower clock. Apparently, it is supposed to be really cool and a great thing to see! So we're expecting to see like a clock tower made of flowers and blah blah blah! So we follow the directions that the girls gave us, and we're looking up to look for some sort of tower clock, when Stacey says "there it is...". We look to see that, this isn't a tower. It looked like a little flower bed with a clock in it. I'll put up pictures on facebook later for you guys to see exactly what it looks like. We took one look at it...and just laughed so hard! We went on this LONG journey to look for this flower clock, and this is what it was? Haha! So, we ended up walking around for a bit and decided to give up on the touristy stuff and found a café. We went inside to get hot chocolate (because by that time, we felt like our faces were about to fall off from the coldness and the wind!). After that, we went shopping for some Swiss Chocolate! YUM! First, we went to Laduree and got some Macaroons! Then, we went on a mission to look for more chocolate that we could buy for family, friends, ourselves, etc! After buying a TON of chocolate, we went back to the hotel, got ready and went to dinner at a very “Swiss” restaurant. By that, I mean that there was live music, of a man yodeling! Haha! It was very…interesting! Later on, we went to Java Club, again! We had a great last night in Geneva!

So I’ve learned my lesson…I need to keep up with this blog or I’m going to have to write long posts which take up a lot of time and energy! So I will be better at this and try to post every few days!

Adios Amigos! 

Las Adventuras Locas en Barcelona y El Gatito

Bon Dia! (Catalan for "Buenos Dias")

So there are a few funny things that have happened that I forgot to write about in the first post! So here they are:

So right when we got to the homestay, Sanam broke her curtains! funny experience! i walk into Sanam's room to find Sanam and Meli (our host mom) attempting to put the curtain rod back in its spot! haha!

Second thing...on the first night, I was in my room and Sanam comes in and wants to try to see if the blowdryer works...so she plugs it in..and we hear a "poof", and we scream as the entire apartment turns pitch black! ahh! Meli comes in and is like "chiquitas chiquitas que pasa?!!?" hahah! Sanam blew up the house on the first day! HAHA!

And now...el gatito (aka, the cat). So Meli is babysitting her daughter's cat...it is a fat, black cat! Both Sanam and I hate cats! It secretly hates us too! It is always glaring at us and always follows us everywhere and doesn't leave us alone! It also just comes into our rooms if we don't shut the door. The other night, Sanam and I were chilling in my her room, so at night, when we were going to go to sleep, I went back to my room, turned on my light, and found the cat sitting on my bed! AHH!! So I called Sanam in there and that cat would not get off my bed!! So finally, we "shooed" it off and I got to sleep peacefully!

So anyways, last night, we went to dinner with our orientation group and then to a bar called Dow Jones, and then to a club called Opium. It was on the beach and the music was soo much better than Bikini two nights ago! We loved it! It was a great time! Woke up this morning around 1:30...I'm guessing that's going to be a regular thing! And then we had lunch in Sarria, which is the town we are living in. After that, we took a walk and explored our side of town. It is so nice and authentic! We actually feel like we are in Spain!

Sanam and I pretty much have the best of both worlds. We have the authentic Spanish town that we are living in, and if we want to go into the city, it is only a 10 minute train ride! It's really amazing. I'm so happy with the homestay as well! I can already see my Spanish improving! 

Adios Amigos!  

Bienvenido a Barcelona!

Hola from Barcelona! 


I'm really new at this "blogging" thing, so bear with me! I thought it would be cool keep a log of all my adventures from this semester in such an amazing city! So here I go!...


So Sanam, Kristen and I arrived in Barcelona together on Monday afternoon and went straight to the hotel for orientation. Let me tell you...dragging 2 big suitcase, a duffel bag, and my heavy purse was not an easy task! But I made it, thank god, with the help of some very nice staff members of the program we are in! Once we got to the hotel, we had an hour to rest/shower/get ready and then had to be back downstairs for orientation. Staying awake during that long and boring meeting was really hard...considering the fact that I hadn't slept since Saturday night and couldn't sleep at all on the plane! :( We then went on a "scavenger hunt" throughout Barcelona with our mentors and orientation groups. It was a lot of fun and it was nice to see the city...if only I was a little less tired! 


The next two days were filled with orientation and activities, moving into my homestay, and exploring the city. 

Here's a picture of me in my room. It's very nice and homey! It's in an area called Serria, which is about a 10-15 train ride to the city. Although I was very reluctant to live in a homestay at the beginning, I am really actually loving it. Sanam and I are in the same house with a lady named Amelia (Meli). She is super nice and really makes Sanam and I feel at home! :) She also cooks really well! YUM!! The only problem is that she only speaks Spanish...so communicating is a little difficult, since we both haven't taken Spanish since high school! But it's coming back to us! We can understand mostly everything...but speaking is a little hard! But by the end of the semester, we'll be PROS! :)


So last night, we experienced Barcelona nightlife. We reached the city at around 12:30 and met a group of friends at a bar called Chupitos. It was very crowded, so we decided to leave and go to the bar next door. Sanam's mentor (or Guardian Angel (GA) as they are called) then took all of us to a club called Bikini, which is supposed to be one of the "posh" clubs in Barcelona. Unfortunately, it did not live up to our "posh and trendy" expectations! It was WAY too crowded, and the music was wayy too ghetto for us. Although I have been getting into rap music lately [exhibit a: NO HANDS (anysha and shaistaaaaa!!!)], this was wayy too much for me. I knew about 7 songs out of the 40ish songs we heard! haha! But they DID play black and yellow and I got really excited (especially when the Taylor Gang part came on! haha). We ended up leaving and taking a taxi back to our house  at around 3:30am. 


This morning, I woke up thinking it was very early in the morning, only to find out that it was 1:30PM! So we quickly got ready, headed into the city, got lunch, and met up with the Babson crew. We all had coffee outside a little cafe in the Plaça Catalunya (one of the big plazas in the city - very beautiful, and it also happens to be our train stop! haha). It was a lot of fun to just relax and talk! We then hopped on the train and headed over to the residence halls to see Stacey, Kristen, and Tanmay's rooms. It was actually really nice! We went to the roof and it was such a beautiful view! Took some pictures!

I know...beautiful!!! <3


So after that, Sanam and I came back to our house and chilled, had a nice dinner with Meli and since then, we've been researching Europe and trying to figure out travel plans! So far, we have decided to go to Geneva on the weekend of January 21st, Amsterdam in February, France in March, and Italy in April after our program is over. We are also trying to figure out where we want to go for my 21st birthday! Right now, the choices are San Sebastian, and some other places in the south of Spain. Any suggestions? Let me know! Also, our program is taking us on a hiking trip next saturday and to Sevilla and Cordoba in the beginning of February! That should be fun! 


So this was a really long post...only because its my first and I had to write about the past 3 days! Hope you enjoyed reading! 


-Asma