Mimosas/Ositos de Oro and the Buffet Libre

Sorry it's been so long. Here is an update!

Monday: Class and nap. Pretty uneventful day. Knocked around most of the day.

Tuesday: Another day of class. We discussed NBA Jam in class, which was pretty awesome. We came back and hung out for a bit until Jay and Kate came over to make us an amazing meal. I would rarely eat seafood, and Kate and Jay made seafood so good, I ate the whole thing. It was amazing and even though it rained, we had an amazing meal. Also, on this day I learned of the Cagador pants in Spain...literally translated....the Sh*ter pant line. It was a pretty awesome realization.

Wednesday: Another day of class, beach and then for Kate and Jay's last night in Barcelona, we went to the Ceverceria. Even though it was a 40 minute wait, it was a pretty darned good experience. We called it an early night because Jay and Kate had to head to the airport, with me, early the next day. Me to drop them off and pick up Tim! The one interesting thing that did happen today was that Kat and I went to the metro and saw a man almost try to off himself. We walked in to our side to hear screaming and yelling, followed by a man screaming "Me voy a matar" (I'm going to kill myself). He jumped on the tracks and ran the other way, almost disappearing down into the tunnel. However, I suppose either he chickened out or thought better and jumped back up onto the platform. He was promptly tackled by many security guards while his partner in the argument was held in a half-nelson and the almost-suicidal man's wife was berating a metro-worker. Needless to say, they stopped the metro for some time and when the train did arrive, it CRAWLED into the station. The whole experience left Kat and I pretty shaken up.

Thursday: Took the day off of class and went to the airport to pick up Tim! (and say goodbye to Kate and Jay). Tim and I came back, and literally passed out for hours...he was exhausted from his flight and I from having to get up pretty early. We did go for paella that day, which was amazing, but we ate so much and had another nap after. That evening we just called it a quiet, early night. Tim and I did go out that evening to a little restaurant to get some food where, when asked if they had a menu in Castellano, keeping in mind they speaking Catalan here, the woman briskly asked me what my questions were. However, the meal was great! Tim and I came back and, while Kat was finishing her first Children's book "BooBoo gets the hiccups", we waited for Kristin (a friend of Kat and I's from our first study abroad experience). We did get a little closer to the ending of the book, and to the bottom of a few more bottles of cava. Kristin arrived and we had a few more glasses before I retired to bed, for you see, I had an "exam" the next day.

Friday: I woke up early and headed to my last day of class. I took (and PWND) my exam, getting the highest grade in the class. To celebrate, we went to the Crepe place near by and shared some drinks and crepes. We continued by going to the beach and relaxing to the sounds of aguacococolafantacervezacoldbeer. We finished our tenure at the beach and came home. I did my pushups and cleaned up. It was a big night out for us. We first went to El Bixto, our favorite tapas place by school, and downed several delicious tapas. Then we headed out to meet some of my school friends at this bar called "El Born". We followed that up with a whirl-wind visit to our favorite bar, El Cangrejo. We found out several things that evening:

a.) The bartender who loved to give us a hard time, became our best friend-Fernando

b.) Pablo was not married, but still gay and still would not go out with Kat. HOWEVER, he did pour us a shot. We drank a lot that evening. We ended up stumbling home, and telling the cab driver our entire life story. We passed out promptly...but we also got a little ill, all of us except for Kristin.

Saturday: Tim and I arose very VERY late to go to the beach. However, I was not feeling well most of the day, and very nearly threw up on the train. We spent most of the day on the beach, unwinding from our late night. We ended up waiting for our German friend Felix, who, bless his heart, seems off of a schedule at times. We ended up spending many hours at the beach. However, you don't hear me complaining. We capped off our night by having an incredibly good Italian dinner a few metro stops down. It was Kristin's last night in town from Madrid, but a quiet one at that.

Sunday: We slept most of the day. Tim and I attempted to go to the Picasso museum, but being that it was a free Sunday, the line was approximately 1 mile long. We decided to go elsewhere. We wandered the city and then to the Ciutadela park. It was a nice day that was capped off by a visit back home and went out to eat. It was ok; a chain restaurant, but ok. I did try Horchata that day. I was deathly afraid it would trigger some ridiculous bathroom needs, having a lot of dairy in it, but it was fine and delicious! Tim and I also ran into a movie set in Barcelona. We weren't sure what movie was filming, but it was pretty neat nonetheless. Another amazing accomplishment was when Tim finally found out what song was played in the metro stations. You see, it had been playing since the day we got here, and Kat and I feverishly tried to find out what it was: We tried shazaming it, googling the lyrics, humming the damn song. All for naught. We, and by we, I mean Tim, finally found out what it was. "Get Happy" by some Barcelona artist. Now it's my ringtone...fer real.

Monday (Today): Tim and I woke up early to catch a train to Montserrat. As always, the train was packed and we spent the better part of the entire train ride standing up (an hour standing up stinks...). However, it was entertaining to hear the older Spanish women spin yarns of Spanish tales of girls disappearing into Montserrat, only appearing years later, totally transformed. We arrived and had a quick lunch. We went into the Basilica and saw the line to see the Black Virgin. It was a huge line. Tim and I decided to walk around and view the natural awesomeness before attempting the line. After a hike and many pictures, we headed back and saw the Black Virgin. Finally I learned the story that stemmed past a "This is where Jesus created the SuperBowl story" that Kat created and I genuinely wanted to believe. After our sightseeing, Tim and I hit up the gift shop, after I purchased honey, of course. Tim and I got home, after receiving several irate texts from Kat. The electricity in our apartment was blown. It was amazing.....ly bad. We waited, had cava and waited and finally the landlord and his crew arrived to assess the situation. The electrician would have to come. While we waited, we headed over to the Buffet, the chinese buffet, and chowed down. It was amazing. After the meal we finally bought oranges to make fresh squeezed orange juice, hoping the electricity would be on to run our juicer. After a few minutes in the dark back at home, it came back on...and fresh squeezed it was! So now here I am, 11:30 and only a few days remain here in Barcelona. Tomorrow is a big in-city day and Wednesday is a Dali museum day.

Thanks for reading!

Hasta la próxima vez :)

-Scott

And here are some pictures of my week below for your enjoyment!

Scott's a Super Lady/Let the Sun Shine In the City

Bonjour my followers,

Another week gone by in Barcelona. Lots to report on so here goes!

Tuesday: Another day of class followed by a nap at home. Kat had visitors sowe took them out for dinner where we ate last year. It was fun. We had a nice walk along the ramblas and then stopped at a bar for a quick glass of tinto. We traded a lot of close-call stories in which I realized that Richard was my soul-mate in regards to gastroenterology. Kat and I went home with our guests. We realized that our couch turned into a futon...it was an exciting discovery.

Wednesday: It was a quiet day of class and such. David and Richard left. Kat and I did our thing that evening. We headed out to Rosita Negro for Mexican food (so authentic) with our friend Dan. Afterwards they went to DJ Tiesto by the beach. Kat and I decided it best we hang low mostly because I had to get up early to pick up Kate Karcz from the train station the next day!

Thursday: Kate arrived. I picked her up at the train station and we went to the Creperia, a delicious crepe place. I decided to take it easy instead of rushing back to class. I finally went back and finished up my class for the day while Kate and Jay settled in. After a few hours of this and that, we (Kat and I) met them back for dinner at Ibixto (time number 2). Kat and I went back to our apartment and polished off a bottle of wine and headed to sleep. European life rocks.

Friday: Oral Report day in class...not that I didn't prepare it the night before for 10 minutes. After class, I headed back home for lunch and quick nap, then off to the beach with Kat, Kate and Jay. Kat left an hour or so after I arrived and the rest of us left shortly after. That evening Dan, Kat and I, joined by Maxim (not the same as he who I met last year) and Felix went to Friday Club at our school (bar night) and then out for dinner at Ibixto (time 3). We followed that up with drinks at a bar on the Ramblas, Boada. The drinks were delicious and the bartenders were really nice. I caught up with Felix during that time, forcing him to practice hisSpanish, forever the teacher. We then went to Razzamatazz, a local discotheque. The cab ride over was filled with inane banter in which our cab driver talked about the beautiful women of Barcelona over and over again. We entered the club (after a side quest to an ATM followed by Felix and an unnerving encounter with a group of irritating Americans shouting "We're fromLA!"). We had a great night.Dan disappeared at one point, and after searching and subsequently realizing he went back home, Kat, Felix and I also left. Upon turning the corner, we were faced by a panicked young lady whom Felix knew and another girl, pale and doubled over on the ground. She was sick to her stomach from drinking and the friend had been robbed. A nice Spaniard had alerted the police and we waited with her until they arrived. The other girl, writhing in pain asked for an ambulance. We decided that it was then that we should leave. So, Kat, Felix and I went back to our apartment. The time was now 4:30am. We fell asleep as the sun rose around 6am.

Saturday: Up at 2pm and time for shopping! Kat and I went to a bunch of shops, hungry for some deals, (and me for some bathing suits, and white underwear so I could wear my linen pants...I'm so manly) but stopped for lunch first. Successful on all accounts (plus a new pair of red jeans) we headed back for nap and such. We met Kate and Jay later for dinner and then went out to El Cangrejo...my favorite place from last year. We quickly, and happily discovered that Pablo, our favorite bartender, was still behind the bar. We passed the night to the tunes of Madonna and Ace of Bass and delicious vodka limón. We went home shortly before the metro stopped at 2am. We quickly passed out, eager for our beach day.

Sunday (today): Kat and I awoke early...1pm this time....to head to Ocata. Really spent most of the day on the beach. I was creepily approached by a Spanish child, commenting on my "pretty" Nook e-Reader...creepy. We left around 5:30. On the train back, a group of children approached us with their caretaker and quickly struck up a conversation. We met José and Raquel. They were frankly very adorable. Kat offered the 4-year old José her iPhone who knew what to do with it in seconds. They demonstrated their English skills (Holy Shit being in their cannon of vocabulary). We stepped off the train and then went home. We wolfed down a snack-meal and took siesta. Here I am, now at 11pm, ready for another day of school tomorrow.

Until Next Time,

Scott

Vale...depende

Hello there from Barca!

It's day 4 here in Barcelona and the past few days have been a blast!

The weekend: On Saturday Kat and I woke up at the ripe hour of 2pm and headed out to the beach to get some sol in. It was excellent, really felt like old times. We sat on the b

each and I dove in the water. You had your usual sights of chest-bare ladies and tight speedo-gentleman, reminding me just how out of shape I am. That evening we (Kat, her cousin and husband and I) went to Ibitxo, a delicious tapas restaurant that, thought only 2 minutes from school, took 25 minutes to find due to my

lack of direction. We had awesome tapas and cava. We then went out to the creperia to have crepes and unwind a bit, finally ending up in Las Ramblas for a HUGE glass of Sangria. Kat's cousin Sara went up to one of the street "Performers" and imitated him. She ended up getting change in her hand from a passerby! It was hysterical. All in all, a really nice night.

On Sunday Kat and I woke up, again, at 2pm and headed to Badalona to hang out on the beach before class. I proceeded to see two young Spaniards have casi-intercourse next to me. It was really uncomfortable. We later regrouped at home. My friend Kate and her boyfriend Scott came to visit as part of their Europe-wide tour. We went out to tapas and more cava (feeling like this may be a theme). It was a mad dash to the metro as it was about to close (and I had to use the bathroom....normal). We ended the night with crashing, not necessarily looking forward to class the next day.

Today/Monday: Class, class class. Woke up at 7:30 and got ready to go in to class. We had to take a test to get placed. Kat and I ended up giggling at one point due to some strange "noise" in the testing room. We parted ways and went to our classes. I had a lot of neat activities in my class and a lot of really interesting people. After class, we went to the mercado to get some food and headed home, as it was about to rain. We made it home for a snack and a siesta. God, how I wish Siesta existed in America. Of course, the construction noise made it hard to fall asleep at first. Kat went for her afternoon run, and I polished off a bag of salt and vinegar potato chips, followed by a rigorous..."rigorous" terrace workout and yoga session. We then read a bit and departed for dinner and wine. So here I am. Nothing tooo exciting to report, but great days all in all.

Hasta la próxima vez,

Scott

Back in the Motherland...Barthhhheeellloonnnaaa

I sit here writing this as my aire condicionado is leaking water. Drip...drip....drip. It's enough to make a man who hasn't slept in 30+hours go insane. And insane I am going. Let's just say this day ended with me making flatulent noises and giggling in front of Kat. This of course came after lugging a case of water up 8 flights of stairs because the scary Adam's family-esque elevator no funciona!

Well, the day started at JFK where we, Kat and I, were to start

our long...LONG journey to the

promised land...Barcelona. Our flight to Zurich, the first leg, was not bad. The food was decent, we met a nice woman from Barcelona and I didn't sleep a single moment.

The layover was a little tougher, once again bringing back the argument to Kat and I..."Next

time, we are flying direct". Getting to the airport was easy and then it was time to take out money to pay for our apartment. However, I never authorized for the bank to allow me to

take out large sums of money. After several frustrating phone calls with both Bank of America and Peoples Bank, we finally called our rentee who said that a credit card was fine. ::FACEPALM::.

So we were off, into a taxi and down a road to Barcelona. We got to our apartment, which is gorgeous (and on the 8th floor) and settled in.

After which, we trudged out and signed up for classes and bought the essential groceries. We trudged those back...of course after having DELICIOUS tapas (tortilla y queso manchego)

and then started out again for the food for breakfast. This is when we were brought into awareness of our elevator not fucntioning, when we live on the 7th floor. But of course, in Spain "No pasa nada", so Kat and I rolled with it thinking....well, it'll be ok when we get back.

It wasn't. We lugged our groceries up 7 flights plus 1 to the top.

To celebrate the end of our day, Kat posed with some Jamón chips, and I took a cool down shower in our outdoor shower (not literally). Now it's time to sleep!

Hasta que la próxima vez,

Scott

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Hello Blog followers!

In less than a week, I will be back in Barcelona. Stay posted!

Take Care,

-Scott

Let's Get Physical

So here is a continuation of the past days events, hopefully it will help to battle my depression of leaving Spain.

Wednesday: Up early again to pick up Tim for the airport. This time, however, all went according to plan. The train was on time, the process was painless and we were back in no time. It was great to have the last addition to my expedition team here in Spain! I went to class (late again) and then returned after to FINALLY take a tour of the Sagrada Familia. It only took 4 weeks to get there, despite the fact that it is a.) the biggest attraction in Barcelona and b.) I live 5 minutes from the damn thing. It was awesome, considering that so much has been done to the church since I last visited.

The walk was exhausting, but it was a great time nonetheless. Later, Tim, Kat and I went to have lunch and then we chilled out for the rest of the afternoon. It was Valentina's last night, so we all met up to celebrate. As always, laughs were shared, food was enjoyed and memories were replayed. We ate so much food, and had so much drink, it was just phenomenal. We ran in to a bunch of miscreant Spanish girls in the streets, and it was the funniest thing watching Kat deal with them. At one point, after this kid asked the girls to show him their butts, Kat was driven

to finally scream at the children, "WOAH WOAH WOAH WOAH! DÓNDE ESTÁN LAS MADRES?!" It was hysterical. Kat was in pure middle school teacher form...until the girls made her and Tim "kiss" and when the girls started talking about f******. We had finally had our fill. The girls went back home and the boys and I went to a bar. Sadly, as big as this city is...Wednesday is not a busy night, so we went back home to sleep.

Thursday: Not only did I show up to class late, but I left early. Valentina was leaving so I had to say goodbye, which was incredibly hard since I legit love this girl. Afterwards, we all hit up the beach just to relax. We swam in the water and took in some sun. However, when the ominous clouds started to roll in, Tim and I decided to hit up the Joan Miró museum. We got there (after getting off a few stops prematurely) and walked through the museum. Now, let me say this: I love Joan Miró, but he is the closest to modern art that I care to see. Overall, it was a neat museum, and basically wrapped up everything I wanted to do in Barcelona. After Tim and I returned, I went back to my host family for dinner, and then went out with the boys to hit the town. It was a little more lively, but still kinda dead. At one point, after bar hopping a little, I decided that I had hit a wall, and Tim and I headed back. Getting old is tough...hahaha!

Friday: Last day of class. Bittersweet moments really. We talked about Che Guevara in class and it really brought things full circle. No matter how many times I complained about that school, or the hours I had to pass whilst the beautiful day continued on, I felt a pang of sadness when walking away from International House. After class, my teacher and I exchanged emails. She was really awesome and I do hope to keep in touch. The class really helped me a lot with improving my Spanish. After class, I went back to have lunch with the boys and later Kat ran into us (which wasn't too hard as we were at her apartment) and had a beer. We parted ways after lunch so that I could pack. We went to the Aquarium (Kat, Tim and I) and it was a lot of fun! Granted, it was 18 Euro...for which to see things not valued as such, but whatever. I showed Tim Las Ramblas, and then we headed back home. I just finished dinner with my host family, and it's a sad, reflective time for me now. I gave them my gift from America and told them that I was really going to miss them....they really were a phenomenal host family.

Now we are headed out to the W Hotel for drinks and view of the ocean to close our time here in Barcelona. Now, don't think I'm leaving this country that quietly. There WILL be kicking and screaming...but the bags are packed, the tickets are printed and the train will be waiting. We will be spending 3 days in Madrid, and then it's back to the States. I do miss my friends and it will be great to see them once again!

That's all for now!

Until Next Time

~Scott

I am going to kill you with THIS meat

Valentina is gone and our time here is coming to a close. However, Tim, Matt and Joel are here, and it's been a jam-packed week! I am going to split this one into a couple of different parts. I'll start with the weekend.

Sunday: Hungover and working on about 3 hours of sleep, I set out to go pick Matt B up from the airport. Not really sure of the process, as Kat and I had sped through it when we came in due to delirium and such, I left rather early....6:40am. It was pretty brutal. I remember going into the metro station when I peaked over at the clientele just coming back from their night out. A perfect example is the gentleman stumbling his way to and through the turn styles. Not only did he stumble, but his pants kept falling down, and he had no underwear. No worries though, he quickly went to sleep on a bench in the station. Spain. Anywho, got the metro to the train station, where I rushed to the airport train, which was leaving in 3 minutes. "Yes! I made the train with time to spare," I thought. However, I must have forgotten that I was in Spain, as the clock ticked by and soon it was 7:15 (10 minutes past the arrival time). The board then changed to 7:40, leaving a bunch of pissed off passengers and me, freaking out about not getting to pick Matt up on time. I did have the fortune of Matt's flight being late. So I got him in to his hotel, after getting lost in a city I've only lived in for a month, and then we had breakfast, chatted, and got ready to go to the Dalí museum in Figueras (Matt was a trooper to agree to this).

We made it to the train station and met Valentina and Jon. However, we had 0 clue as to where to get the tickets. So we rushed around and finally bought them at the booth with 3 minutes to spare. We ran to the platform and finally made our way into the train as the door were just about to close. This left us in poor shape and allowed us to nap. We made it to Figueras and toured through the town and the museum. The museum, as a fan of Dalí, was an amazing experience and really was spectacular. If we had more time, I would have stayed, but it was a quick shot. There was even a solid gold hear that beat! Anyways, we packed ourselves in and headed back on quite possibly the most UNCOMFORTABLE train there was. We got lost in town, again, and finally got Jon back to his bus, Matt back to his hotel and wrapped up our night, after Matt and I had dinner.

Monday: On Monday I went off to class where we were joined with Bernard (a guy from Austria), Christopher (from Germany) and I really can't remember the last girl's name...but she is from Switzerland...or Sweden...I think Sweden. Hannah, the other American, was also there. After class Matt and I caught up with Kat for lunch and then headed out to El Laberinto del Jardín Horta. It was awesome, but the best part may have come in the beginning. We were all aimlessly walking about, no clue where the bathrooms where, or what to see...when I remember...I HAD BEEN THERE BEFORE. "You asshole!" Kat replied in disbelief, while Matt just chuckled. It was a gorgeous garden, but Kat and I have this small issue. We tend to show up to these cultural things without a single clue as to what the importance is. Well, we tackled the maze that was famous and we knew was there, and enjoyed the sights. We had a wonderful afternoon. That night, well all went out near the Sagrada Familia (Kat, Matt, Valentina and I) and had Sangria, which we swear was unusually strong, so much so that we ended up stumbling to an OpenCor, where I bought (and later consumed) an entire can of pringles and Kat bought microwave popcorn, while telling the woman at the counter that she wanted to "shit" her phone, instead of "add more money". WOOPS. She later lit her host mom's microwave on fire.

Tuesday: Time to pick up Joel! I departed early and met Matt at the metro station to head over to the train station. When we got there, we actually encountered the European "Olympics" and their running competition, which prompted Matt to ask "Is this the special olympics?" with regard to how the gentlemen were running. Joel's train was running late so we ended up having some breakfast in a small café near the station. As someone who isn't a breakfast person, the light breakfasts do not bother me, but it has taken some getting used to for poor Matt who is. We ended up picking up Joel and I had a bit of a misstep in the train station (if you'd like to know what, you need to ask me later, haha!). I brought them back to metro where we parted ways so I could go to class. After, we met up and ran some errands, getting Matt back to the original hotel (which messed up his reservation) and then we went toward the beach for lunch. After lunch we walked along the shore, and I made the two Mediterranean virgins dip their feet in the waters. They liked it so much, we stayed and chatted for a while. After a bit, I advised them that we should be heading back due to our tapas date for the evening with Stefano, Valentina, and Kat.

The tapas were delicious, and we had some really great laughs. I even ate some octopus, and not even fried! It was an excellent night. We wandered for a bit and headed to a bar near Universitat where the waiter was Sicilian (or maybe Northern Italian) and joked around and enjoyed ourselves. Afterwards, we all headed back. Wednesday I had to get up early to pick up Tim from the airport!

I will talk about everything else later, but for now, it's time to hit the town!

Until Next Time

~Scott

Also...this is an old video, but I finally got my hands on it!