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