The UB

February 4, 2013-

Believe it or not, I did come to Barcelona to go to school. And today I finally got a tour of the University of Barcelona, my new school!

All together, about 80,000 students attend the UB, much more than what I'm used to! The school is absolutely BEAUTIFUL, it looks like Hogwarts! It honestly took my breath away, how did I get so lucky?

Culture classes began later in the day starting at 3 and language classes start on Wednesday. I didn't have any classes for the day so a few of my friends and I decided to explore the city a little more. We went to Las Ramblas, a huge street with a sidewalk down the middle with stands and shops on the side, a major tourist point. 

Then we went to La Boqueria, a huge open air market, only found if you know what you're looking for otherwise you'd pass it right by. It was kind of down a sketch alley.
Anyway, this was the biggest market I have ever seen: so much fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, etc. Any kind of food you want, they have it. It's basically like a swap meet (each vendor has a huge stand), but with food. My dream come true! Each of the stands were filled to the absolute top with as much fruit or vegetables, etc. as there could possibly be without falling off. The place was FILLED with bright colors from the tropical fruits and exotic candy.

We tried the fresh kiwi juice which was just kiwi's ground up, maybe some sugar, I'm not sure, but let me say I have never tasted something so delicious in my life. The coconut juice and mango coconut juice was amazing as well.  We got to sample some kind of almonds which were really good as well.

Next time it's time to go grocery shopping, that's where I'll be going. 
However, the meat..... I saw a cockroach crawling on one stands meat.......so I'll stick to the store for that..

Since we were somewhat close to the Gothic Quarter we headed over there. One of my friends lives there and he took us to meet his host family. His host mom owns a shop with handpainted dishes and we got to go inside and look around. Then he took us to his apartment where we went to the rooftop and got to see all of the city! What an amazing sight that was!

Overall it's been so much fun and I haven't really had a dull moment! Being busy every second of the day and not getting home until 8 p.m. after going going all day long makes it hard to really sit back and take it all in, but I wouldn't trade it for the world! I love this city and love having a new adventure every day I wake up!

Chao!