So, I'm in the middle of another round of tests.  I had a history presentation on Tuesday, tests in Grammar and History today, and have tests in Art and Short Story tomorrow.  The good news is that after I finish those tests, I'm done until after Easter.  During my week of vacation I will be heading to Dublin, London, back to Dublin and then to Paris.  It's going to be crazy and absolutely incredible.  I expect that I will end up taking way too many pictures, but, hey, I'd rather have too many than not enough.  I love living in the age of digital photography.  It makes my life so much more fun.

Anyway, a couple of weekends ago, my friends and I headed to Granada to see La Alhambra, the last Muslim stronghold in Spain.  It was here, after kicking out the Muslims, that Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand commissioned the first voyage of Christopher Columbus.  Now, those who know me well know that I'm not a huge fan of Columbus (I mean, really, he got lost, renamed an entire people group, and died trying to convince people that he'd gone to the Indies when it'd already been proven that he hadn't).  I have to admit though, it was kind of cool to be in a place where that kind of history was made.  La Alhambra is also where the Catholic Royalty signed the edict for the expulsion of the Jews from Spain.  Nevertheless, it's absolutely gorgeous, and, as can be expected of me in gorgeous places, I took a bunch of pictures (as in over 100).  Putting them all up would take forever and result in an overly long post, so, instead I'm putting up some of my favorites.  No worries, there are still quite a few of those y 

STRESS!  Let me just give you a little insight on what this week looks like for me.

Monday: Presentation in History (went alright, definitely could have been better on my part)
Tuesday: Study for tests
Wednesday: Test in Grammar, test in History, study for other tests
Thursday: Test in Art, test in Short Story, prepare for Grammar presentation
Friday: Grammar presentation.

So, when I don't update again until sometime next week (I promise to make it a long one with bunches of pictures), I don't want to hear any complaints.  Got it?  Good.

Look Pam!  An update!  (Just for you, since apparently you were asking my mom about it.)

Really though, sorry it's been so long.  Last week was insane!  I had four exams in two days (Tuesday and Wednesday) and started feeling sick on Monday.  I actually ended up missing school this Friday after going to bed on Thursday with a temperature of 100.4.  (Yeah, Pam, I bet you feel bad now, don't you?  Just kidding!)  Anyway, I think the exams went pretty well despite the stuffed-up head and the achy body that made even holding my pen painful.  I pulled a 93% on my grammar test and am waiting for the results of the others to come back.  I should get them tomorrow, which is a little nerve-racking.

So, on to the main highlight of this post: my weekend trip to Barcelona!  We got up bright and early on Friday morning for our 6:30 a.m. flight out of the airport in Sevilla.  Actually, I never went to bed, but that's another story.  Anyway, so we got up and arrived at the airport at 4:25 like good little travelers who get to the airport two hours before their flight.  Well, I guarantee that our taxi drivers were laughing at us as they drove away because the Sevilla airport apparently doesn't open until 5 a.m.  Our group waited around outside for the thirty minutes along with a few other tourists who were oblivious to the airport hours as well.  To pass the time, we took pictures and sang "Happy Birthday" to Adrienne (one of the girls in our group) as it was, in fact, her birthday.

When we got to Barcelona, we had a little time to pass before we could check-in to our hostel, so we found a cute cafe nearby and had some coffee and a little something to eat.  We then proceded to the hostel, dropped off our stuff in the luggage room since they were still cleaning the room in which we were going to be staying, and set off to explore for about an hour.  Very near to our hostel was the Barcelona Cathedral and a very pretty little courtyard, so we passed our hour here.

After returning to the hostel to get into our room and officially check-in, we set off to explore some more.  This exploring turned into a shopping adventure as soon as we hit a street called Princesa where there were a good number of cute (though over-priced) boutiques.  All I ended up buying on this venture was a new watch for which I paid only five euro.  While shopping, we encountered a museum of chocolate in which there were many intricate sculptures made entirely out of, you guessed it, chocolate.  Had it not cost to get in, we definitely would have spent some time here.  Once tired of shopping, we headed for the very nearby Picasso museum where we saw an enormous amount of original Picassos (and where I very happily found a major typo on one of the exhibit signs explaining the works).

A few of us girls who were the most tired, decided to head back to the hostel for a much needed nap after the museum.  When we woke up (around 8 p.m.) we started getting ready to go out to dinner.  Keep in mind, this is quite a chore when there are eight girls getting ready at the same time, but it was lots of fun.  Dinner ended up not being eaten until around midnight since we got a little lost when trying to find the place we wanted to go.  We ended up at an Indian restaurant where I got some amazing seafood in garlic and ginger along with some peach juice.  It was very yummy, but rather spicy and definitely pricey.  After dinner, which ended around 1 a.m., bed was a must, and we all pretty much collapsed once we got back to the hostel.

Saturday was Valentine's Day, so we all gave each other hugs that morning before heading off on a bus tour of the city.  Through this hop-on/hop-off bus tour we found a relatively stress-free way to explore Barcelona and see a fair number of the major landmarks.  Our first stop was the Sagrada Familia, a church started by Gaudi in the 1800s, which is still under construction.  Apparently the projected finishing date for the project in 2028.  When someone asked Gaudi when his church would be complete, he answered, "My clout can wait.  God has all the time in the world."

After Sagrada Familia we rode to Park Guell, another one of Gaudi's works.  This park was originally meant to be a housing development with Hansel and Gretel style houses.  When there weren't enough interested buyers, the project shut down and, upon Gaudi's death, his family gave the park to the city.  The architecture and landscaping here were absolutely gorgeous, and we passed at good two hours at least in this park.

The next stop on our tour was the 1992 Olympic Stadium.  It was, of course, huge, and, oddly enough, it was also the home of quite a few cats.  We took a few pictures here, but as it was starting to get chilly, we decided to pretty quickly head back to the bus stop to try to catch the next bus.  We then took the bus to La Rambla (a major/famous street) where we walked to the open-air market.  Here, we bought fruit to eat for breakfast the next day and also encountered some rather interesting finds including skinned sheep's heads (ick!).

Dinner was at an Italian restaurant near the market.  Mind you, what we ate (which was the special offer for 6.95 Euro) was not so much Italian.  My dinner consisted bread, a salad with oil and vinegar, a piece of "steak," fries, and a dish of homemade custard.  For the price, we didn't complain.  As we hadn't really gotten anything for Adrienne for her birthday, we decided to order her a piece of chocolate cake while she was in the restroom and then sang "Happy Birthday" to her again when the waiter brought it.

I was very happy to call Jonathan that night (since it was Valentine's Day, afterall).  I was even more happy when he actually answered the phone.  We had a short, but very sweet, conversation and I was off to bed so that I'd be rested enough the next day to study for the tests that I had coming up a few days later.

So, you are now updated on Barcelona.  Hopefully later this week I can update you on my weekend that I just finished here in Sevilla, but I figure that this post is already long enough (if not too long).  So, I shall leave you with some pictures (as in a lot of pictures).

Waiting at the Airport



Courtyard and Cathedral


From the Shopping Adventure



Sagrada Familia

 

Park Guell

 

Olympic Stadium



From the Top of the Bus