Excursion #2

This morning, I walked to class with the normal crew, Mary and Sam, who both live on my street, Calle de Rocafort. Today was the first day it hasn't been sunny, but it was still nice and warm. First, I had literature class where we discussed a short story that we had read for homework. This class has consistently been the hardest of my four to understand and follow along because the stories are a little bit hard to understand (all of my classes are entirely in Spanish). Then I had a break for an hour, so I ventured around the block to a great cafe with 4 other girls in my classes. We had croissants and tea and watched lots of people go by on their way to work. It was very relaxing. Next, I had grammar class where we talked about uses of the subjunctive. You would think it would be hard to understand these concepts when they are taught entirely in Spanish, but surprisingly, it made a lot of sense!

After that, we went on our "excursion" for the week. Usually our excursions are going to be on Fridays, but this week, Friday is a holiday for Easter weekend. So after classes, we all (17 Dartmouth students, plus our Dartmouth professor and his wife, and our University of Barcelona program coordinator named Elisenda) took the red line of the metro to the Plaza de Espanya, which is pretty close to where I live! Then we hiked up a  million stairs to the national palace and the Museo Nacional de Arte de Catalunya.

We took a guided tour through the museum and saw a lot of religious art, including some amazing and enormous stonework that was moved here from the northern part of Spain. I could understand the majority of what the tour guide said and most of the art was pretty cool. Here is the museum from a distance and photos of a couple pieces of art I found particularly interesting.

Tonight, I went out to dinner with some friends on my trip because it's one girl's birthday today and another boy's birthday tomorrow. We were eating in a restaurant near Plaza de Catalunya which was particularly lively tonight while the F.C. Barcelona game was going on. Everyone was wearing jerseys and I saw lots of people with painted faces. The cheering was intense. Good thing Barca won tonight :)

Tomorrow after classes, I'm heading to the airport to go to Ibiza with my friend Eve for the long weekend. We don't have classes on Thursday, Friday, and the following Monday for the Easter break (and school kids here have the whole week off for semana santa!). Three other Dartmouth kids are flying over later on Wednesday to meet us. We're staying in an apartment that advertises WiFi, but you never know if it will work. I hope to update the blog during my trip, but if not, be sure to check back on Sunday for lots of photos!