The other day, a few friends and I were sitting next to a friend on the computer, when we stumbled upon a jewel of a website describing the experience of studying abroad. Obviously, they didn't all apply to us but we were laughing so hard that we started to get strange looks from the other people in the lobby. I thought I should share a few little gems with you. I'll try to explain their significance along the way, but I can't promise they'll all make sense if you haven't personally been in some of the situations. I'm just going to post them as I find them so they're going to be in a really random order, so please, I beg you, bear with me...
These are all hyperlinks to websites. Click on them and they'll take you to a new page...
1-
Sagrada Familia was a beautiful cathedral in Barcelona. It was started by Gaudi a long time ago and then has been under construction for decades by a different architect. The basic gist of this post is that it's massive, awesome, and, more than anything, it doesn't seem real that we've been able to see so many cool things.
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Such little cars and even smaller spaces.
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Now, I promise you that I didn't actually try to do this, but I've seen people all over the place bothering the poor royal guards. They jump around in front of them and pose next to them for pictures like they're statues. Poor guys.
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I told you it was awesome!
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The bread at the market really is amazing.
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The lights don't bother me as much as the trumpet they play after we land and it's still the crack of dawn.
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I'm not sure why people try this, it seems so dangerous. I do need to give serious props to the Dutch girls, though, because they are always riding their bikes in high heels.
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This is particularly true when the aforementioned 'nod-and-smile' technique fails me.
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Greatest feeling ever!
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This would be my mother's reaction to this senario. I drink mostly water so it hasn't really bothered me, but the other day a couple of us were talking about how great a glass of ice water sounded. None of the European kids could understand why we'd possibly want ice in our drinks. They said the fridge makes things cold enough. My friend from Canada still couldn't manage to explain to them that it's not the same. A strange difference to notice, but it's true.
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Always a pain in the butt.
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Seriously though. I mean, everybody knows and speaks Spanish, but they all talk in Catalan with each other. Unlike most of the rest of Spain, all of the people we met in the city talk primarily in Catalan. I understood so many more conversations we overheard when we were in Madrid than Barcelona for this reason.
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My mom obviously hasn't sent me any peanut butter. The point is that so many of the international students that we live with don't like peanut butter at all. They were born and raised with Nutella and do not even come close to understanding all of the crazy things that the people from the US and Canada stick peanut butter on/in.
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When I was describing some of the new foods I've tried to my mom, this is what she said I was going to end up like when I come home.
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This has never happened. However, should it ever occur (in some crazy parallel universe), it would definitely warrant this response.
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I'm telling you, there's definitely a learning curve. For somebody like me who's never really utilized public transportation before, it was a very big accomplishment when I finally felt comfortable finding my way around. On the last trip alone we used trains, airplanes, public buses, metros, trams, distance buses, and one of those things that climbs the sides of mountains.
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It's really not as big as you'd think it would be.
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Definitely my initial reaction.
And now that we're getting closer to the end...
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This seems to be the overall sentiment amongst the people I have talked to.
