Has it really been 4 months already? Seems like just yesterday I got off the plane ready to take Barcelona by storm. I know its probably cliche to say that the past few months have been liberating and life changing, but that's exactly what they were. Granted I'm not leaving Barcelona knowing exactly what I want to do with my life, but I do know one thing. I never want to permanently live in the states for part of my career. New lands, experiences and people are calling my name!
Barcelona, you have given me so many wonderful memories. I got to travel all over Europe, learn Spanish through immersion and I met people that I know I'll stay connected to for the rest of my life. If you ever have the chance to study abroad, DO IT!!! Even if it is just fort he summer or a couple weeks. It is seriously an amazing experience. 
the Sunday before I left, we had our final group get together. While we were sitting around eating our desserts I was telling Adriana how sad I was that I had to leave and she reminded me that I drank from the fountain on Ramblas which means I'll always have a part of me in Barcelona. 
As I was saying good-bye to my host family last Tuesday, Sandra told me that I'll always have a home in Barcelona. Sandra and David were definitely the icing on the cake for making this a wonderful semester.
Thank you for the love Barcelona, It's never good-bye, but always see ya later!
Until my next adventure,
Caitlin

It's December and that means my time in Spain is coming to an end. Finals were this week so that means the next 9 days I get to relax and continue to enjoy and explore. In about 12 hours, I'll be getting off a plane in PARIS!!! One last trip before heading home. This semester has been amazing! Tell ya all about the trip when I get back.

Last weekend I had the pleasure of exploring Figueres and Cadaques with my program group. Cadaques was the home of artist Salvador Dalí and his museum is in Figueres. This had to have been one of my favorite program activities because I love Dalí!! Not only was the museum and his home interesting, but the town was gorgeous! It would be a perfect place for a weekend getaway in the summer. Before we dove into Dalí, we toured the Castillo Sant Ferrán (the biggest fort in all of Spain). We even got to go on a little water raft tour underneath the fort. It was pretty awesome. After the Fort we headed to the Dalí museum and then explored the town a little bit before dinner at the hotel. The hotel was great, none of us wanted to leave the next day. The beds were so comfy and there were bath tubs!! You don;t see many of those in Europe. & The continental breakfast OMG! Let's just say we made sure to wake up extra early so we could take full advantage. After Breakfast we headed to Cadaques and explored the coast while we waited for our turn in Dalí's house. It's breathtaking and definitely on my list of places that I would like to return to. 
Pictures are posted to Flickr! 
Besos!
XXX

If you haven't noticed my blog is a little different. Sorry, I get bored easily! But it shouldn't be that hard to figure out. I’ve decided that I’m going to put all my posts about traveling outside of Barcelona and/or Spain in a different area on the blog. I’m doing this because I am writing this blog for all of you, but as well as for students interested in the Spanish Studies Abroad program. So, on the top of the main blog page you should see in the more section “more adventures” and this is where all my posts about my other travels will be. The first post is up!

Besos xxx

Tonight for my Spanish class we had a hour session with an english class at UPF. We were paired in groups of four (two english speakers and two spanish speakers) and we were given a list of questions in english and spanish to help our conversation along. I swear I learned more and spoke better spanish than ever before. Also, it was so much fun! A couple of my classmates and me were talking about how'd we love if we could do this weekly or as an actual class. Its just funny how once you're out of the classroom setting and being forced to have conservation how easily it can happen. Anyways,  thought I'd fill you all on in on my night. Hahaha

Besos xxx

Halloweekend was a success! Started off the festivities on Wednesday with the program group and our intercambios carving pumpkins. It was awesome being able to share some of our American traditions. Our intercambios and director had never carved pumpkins before and were a little apprehensive about cleaning out the "guts" of the pumpkins, but it ended up being a great time. We also got a few funny looks when we went home on the metro that night since we were on it with lit jack o laterns in hand. haha Thursday we did Zumba spanish style. I only made it to half the class because I got lost looking for the building for 45 minutes. Go me! Friday we started the night celebrating with our host family by eating sopa de calabaza (pumpkin soup), cakes, chestnuts, and sweet potatoes. We ended the night by at the club of course! We all dressed up too. I was a fairy, Brooke the queen of hearts, Holly a skeleton bride and Nick and Tayler were the 2 musketeers. Last night me and Brooke danced the night away in Opium, one of Barcelona's hottest night clubs on the beach. I'm so glad that even though I am an ocean away from the states I still got to celebrate and have a great night on Halloween. 

On a little side note I go to London next weekend and I just bought a plane ticket for Paris in December!! I'm so excited! Check back next sunday for a new post about my London adventures!

Besos xxx

It seems like forever since I last posted, so let me fill you in on what has happened over the past few weeks.
My program group has been very busy. We went to a tap dance/ drum performance by Tap Factory (which I totally reccommend looking up on Youtube) that was awesome! The performers = muy caliente! Two saturdays ago we spent the day at las cavas de Freixenet where we toured and had a cava (champagne) tasting. I've already bought a few bottles that I plan on bringing back to the states as long as I stop shopping so I'll have room in my suitcase. The Brut Rosa is my favorite and I cannot wait to pop open a bottle on New Year's! After the tour Brooke and I went to a Barca match. Let me just tell you it was worth every penny. We wore our jerseys and sat in great seats. Also, Barca won! cannot beat that! Last weekend we went to Sitges for the day where we spent our time on the beach and exploring the small town that is outside of Barcelona. I love venturing outside the city and seeing what all Spain has to offer. 
As always there will be new photos posted to Flickr and I miss everyone like crazy! Less than two left in this amazing city and there is still so much left to do!

Hello all!

So, I’m on my third week of classes and I thought I’d fill you all in on my new academic home! First of all it is entirely different from what I’m used to at Ferrum. The Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) has multiple campuses throughout the city.  I have classes at two of them: Campus Ciutadella y Campus Poblenou. I spend the majority of time at Campus Ciutadella. This campus is made up of four buildings; I however only have classes in two of them. The campus used to be military barracks and a water distribution center. Here are now two cafeterias (which serve beer!), two libraries, a lunchroom for students who bring food from home (that’s me), a book store, auditorium, offices and tons of classrooms. The buildings are beautiful, they’re huge and open.

The professors are also different than what I’m used to in the states. They’re so much more relaxed in their dress and their teaching styles. However, they do lecture. A lot!

Back to the libraries, they have to be my favorite thing about the campus. One of the libraries is a normal library full of tables for studying and group work, computers and reference materials. The other is absolutely gorgeous. It has high ceilings, stone columns, and large windows. It is the perfect place for studying, research and paper writing.

The campus Poblenou is where I have my communication class. I don’ now much about it since I’m never there for more than an hour, but I ca tell its newer and very modern. This is the communications and media campus. My communication class has to be my favorite so far, not only is it interesting but it’s also my shortest class. There are three people in my class including me and we have two professors. (Tell me how that makes any sense. Ha-ha) One professor teaches on Tuesdays and the other in Thursdays. Since we all come from different campus for this class it starts thirty minutes late (even though it doesn’t take more than fifteen minutes to get there) and we get to leave thirty minutes early as well. Can you tell now why it’s my favorite? Plus, my professors speak English at least half the time.

Well thats UPF, my new home for the remainder of the semester.

Until next time! Besos xxx

That's right! I made it through my first week of classes at UPF. Granted it was only three days, I still made it. I cannot wait to see what this semester holds, so far I like my classes well the ones I've had so far (first day I had a professor not show up to class!!). I'm taking a communication course which is totally different than any class I have ever taken, but the second half of the semester we will be working with radio equipment and we'll be broadcasting. Talk about exciting!! All my classes are in Spanish, so that is definitely going to be my biggest challenge. Either way this semester is going to rock!!This week also happened to be Barcelona's Festival of Mercé. There were fireworks every night on the beach and concerts during the day. Tonight we went to a fire parade or correfoc in our neighborhood. A correfoc is a group of people dressed as devils that run and dance through the streets with fireworks and drums. It’s terrifying and exhilarating at the same time! I’m so glad we were in Barcelona to celebrate this festival. Today we went to Montserrat which is a monastery built into a mountain outside of Barcelona. It’s absolutely gorgeous! You have to take a train to the summit of the mountain and then a tram sort of thing to the top. To get down you have to take a cable car filled with 35 people! (Thank god I’m not afraid of heights!) there is a video clip on Flickr of the correfoc as well as new pictures from this past week. Next weekend is the International Tattoo Expo and I’m sooooo excited! (Don’t tell my mom! Haha)

That’s all for now, I’ve got to get back to my homework. I miss everyone so much! Besos besos!

Finally after what seemed like 300 years I have finally gotten all my pictures posted. They are all on Flickr and there is a link next to the Facebook, Twitter and email icons located under the title, about, and contact on the left side of my page. Enjoy!

Yesterday I marked two more things off my Barcelona bucket list. I saw and toured La Sagrada Familia and Park Güell. We also visited La Casa Batlló. Park Güell and La Casa Batlló were both created and designed by the famous Antoni Gaudí. La Casa Batlló is an architectural masterpiece and it was so fascinating to see. La Sagrada Familia was breathtaking. Even though it still isn’t completely finished the inside is done and it was spectacular. The stained glass and high ceilings are indescribable.

The day consisted of a ton of walking, but it was definitely worth it. Thanks to Adriana being the genius that she is, we did not have to wait in line for hours because she had preordered our tickets. Hooray! We had a picnic lunch (really just a chicken sandwich) prepared by our host moms and ate it in the park that over looked the entire city.

After we finished our “touristy” things, the usual four headed to Ryan’s. Unfortunately we get there and it’s closed!! So after walking for what seemed like 50,000 miles and rejecting every bar that did not have Wi-Fi AND decently priced Sangria, we settled for a restaurant at the end of Las Ramblas. It wasn’t cheap, but it wasn’t too terribly expensive either. Brooke and I had a glass of Sangria and then two more ha-ha. Nick had a Pina colada and Holly had a margarita (boring x2). We also ordered what we could in the states would consider home fries with a yummy sauce on them and a bikini. (A bikini is a grilled ham and cheese sandwich.)  There was also a Chinese waiter that loved us! He was hilarious! It was an awesome way to spend the afternoon.

Today is the day we have all been dreading. Its placement exam day!!! Dun dun dun…. We’re secretly hoping we do terribly so we can be in the intermediate class, but we’re still going to try our best.

Wish us luck!

Also, I’ve decided that instead of making a ton of huge albums on Facebook I’m to create an album of Flickr. I’ll post all the pictures I’ve taken so far tonight and add the button link to my site.

Love & miss everyone! Muchos Besos!

I have been told that I do not post enough and that I absolutely must post photos, so here you go mom. I guess I’ll give you a rundown of my past few days here in Barca. Since classes begin on Monday, this week has been deemed my last week of summer vacation. Which means I will be going to the beach, shopping and to as many “touristy” locations as possible.

I started the week off by exploring Las Ramblas y La Plaça de Catalunya. We went as a group and had lunch together. I’m very proud of myself because I’ve been trying to go out of my comfort zone when it comes to food. For lunch I had a salad with chicken and pineapple, hake and vegetables, and mango sorbet. First of all, if I was at home I never would have even thought about ordering this, but I actually really liked it. After lunch we went and explored Las Ramblas a little more. For those of you who do not know, Las Ramblas is a very long street that stretches from the city center all the way to the beach. It is the main place for shopping, concerts, bus tours, things like that. As we ventured down one of the many streets that branches off Las Ramblas we found Ryan’s, which is a small Irish Pub that has a pitcher of sangria for 8€ and free Wi-Fi. (What more could we ever need?) We decided to make this our Wednesday night place and can anyone guess what tomorrow is? David made dinner for our family Sunday night and it was great. We had a traditional dinner of tortilla de patata. I cannot wait to make this for you guys back home.

Monday started off extremely boring due to the fact that we spent all day at the university for orientation. This is going to be a very challenging semester, but it won’t be my first. So we’ll see how it goes. The highlight of the day was finding out that the Wi-Fi at our house was not messed up it just doesn’t work past the bedrooms. However, it does work on the terrace, which is where Brooke and I have decided to spend every evening.

Today I finally got to go to the beach and it was definitely worth the wait. After getting off to a late start we finally made it to the beach. It was a gorgeous day. The sun was out, the water was warm and we found a perfect spot for all five of us. It will take some getting to use to the whole women going topless thing (don’t worry dad, I will not be taking part in that). We spent the rest of the day shopping and guess what! I bought a flat iron. Hallelujah!

Tomorrow we are visiting La Sagrada Familia and some other places as well. Make sure you check back because I’ll be posting tomorrow too!

Well folks, I made it! I am officially in Barcelona. My flights were great other than not sleeping at all. Just a little tip, do not watch a sappy chick flick while on a crowded airplane. I chose to watch The Fault in Our Stars and I was blubbering like a little with baby with the woman sitting next to me thinking I was crazy. Anyways, I did however get lost in the Munich airport, but being the girl I am I figured it out and still had time to get in a little reading before my flight started boarding. Also my host family is great! They made me and flat mate feel right at home. They also have the cutest pug puppy who is just as loveable as can be.

I also had my first experience with the metro this evening. Thank goodness I wasn’t alone though.  Sandra and David helped me and Brooke figure out which line we will need to take to school and they helped us get our metro passes.

First night in Barcelona and I had Italian for dinner. But let me tell you it was amazing pizza. Thin crust with the best cheese I’ve ever had and large slices of pepperoni. Muy delicioso! The five of us in the program went out with our director to the city center and we had a great time. Sobremesa, when you sit around the table for lunch and dinner and converse, is an amazing concept and I wish we did more in the states. I can already tell that these four people are going to have such a large impact on my semester.

Although I’ve only been in Barcelona for about 12 hours, I’m loving it. I do have my reservations though. My Spanish is very rusty and I just know I’m going to get lost because all the streets look the same. If you know me then you’ll know I’m normally always prepared for any situation which is why I tend to over pack. Well I definitely over packed for this trip (I have two very large suitcases stuffed to the gills), but I still don’t think I’m prepared. I packed for fall and it is quite far from feeling like fall weather here. It’s hot and humid and all I have are jeans and mostly sweaters. It’s alright though, it just gives me a reason to go shopping.

With the thoughts of my new Spanish wardrobe forming in my head, I’ll end this post. We’re off to orientation and a city tour tomorrow and hopefully a little beach time. :)

Buenas Noches

There is less than two months left before I begin my life changing journey to Barcelona, Spain! I've gotten all my paperwork completed for the trip, received my visa and bought my plane ticket. All that's left now is shopping and waiting.

I've always wanted to spend my life outside of the United States and this study abroad trip is just the first stepping stone to making that happen. This trip will help me face my fears, make some of my dreams come true and make me decide if a life abroad is right for me.

Of course there are a million things going through my mind as I think about my trip. Will I be able to make it through the airport? Will my host family like me? Will I understand the professors? Is my Spanish going to be okay? the list goes on and on. I've been out of the country before, but that was only three weeks, this is THREE MONTHS! However, it is my mission to make sure this is the best semester I will ever have.

My one main fear is that I will not make friends. I have never been the most outgoing person and this could be a problem for me in the upcoming months. I am optimistic that this Spanish program will make it impossible for me to make connections and find friends.

I cannot wait to start classes and begin to learn about the history and culture of Barcelona. The opportunity to study Spanish in a Spain is awesome! Hopefully I won't offend to many people in the beginning with my broken Spanish and misuse of words. (I apologize in advance.)

So with this all said, I'm off to buy luggage and clothing that won't make me stand out as an "American tourist". Wish me luck and keep reading! Look for more posts and pictures to come that document my airport adventure.  

This blog is so my family, friends, and anyone else can read and follow my Spanish adventures for the next three months. My posts will include everything from my homesickness to my new favorite restaurants. I'm ready for this exciting adventure to finally begin.