Belated, but finally here! Hope the "public" enjoys!
6/2/10
Welcome to Barcelona!!!!
This whole trip was totally and completely spontaneous—I was sitting next to a girl from my program, Kim, in class on Tuesday and casually asked her what she had planned for the weekend. She told me she was going to Barcelona and so I replied, “Really? Can I come?” Haha :) Anyhow, a couple of days and a bus ticket later, I was headed to Spain!
We took an overnight bus that was really practical, but for some reason the thermostat was set sub-zero and we froooooze our little toes off! I don’t understand why they think it necessary to air condition a bus when it’s already cold outside, but aside from the need to defrost ourselves we made it to Barcelona in one piece without getting mugged or having anything stolen! Yaaay! Good Start!
Apres notre arivée on the way to the hostel I had my first taxi experience! Fun but made interesting because I learned how much REALLY don’t speak Spanish. I don’t speak French well… but I DON’T speak Spanish. Ooh.
The hostel was really great and much nicer than expected! Instead of normal key cards they gave us a “watch” to wear that you used like a proxy key. It was really clever and convenient I thought. The whole place was super clean and secure so if anyone is thinking of hitting up Barcelona any time soon, it was called HelloBCN and we booked through HostelWorld.com.
After getting settled we headed towards the main drag in town and into the Gothic District. The number of building with fantastic architecture here is unbelievable! It seemed like every corner turned warranted occasion for another gawking expression or picture snapped. We found a church with neat gargoyles along the top and we followed them around to where the entrance was and it was free to go in. Always good! What was really neat about this church was that it was open air—There were covered halls along the edges but the center was totally open to the sky and there was a natural area with all sorts of flora and fauna! There were palm trees and grass and bunnies, and ducks… and pigeons :/ lol! There were the obligatory religious sculptures in gated naves along the sides but they had some in the center too that were entirely covered in moss with sunshine pouring down on them. Mmmm :) I appreciated this church’s representation of God and His(Her) presence—very natural and available to all.
Three of the girls in our group were from places like LA and NYC and were moving really fast through the city, at least too quickly for my Midwestern sense of the word “stroll” so we decided to break into groups of 2 and 3. Elizabeth and I decided we would wonder towards Gaudi’s Casa Batllo and I must say a huge thank you to Miss Samantha Brown for educating me on the sites of Barcelona when I was sick in 8th grade. Her shows on travel channel were the best! Haha ☺ Casa Batllo is called the “House of Bones” because it’s front façade and central staircase looks like the bones of a sea creature. The whole house was modeled to look like you’re underwater and there isn’t a straight line in sight. Everything alludes to wave or some kind of sea creature and the swirls and curves and colors take your breath away! On the roof top, there is a room inside the scaled “back” of the monster who lives up there and in this room is the final tribute to the water theme. In the center of the room was a mirrored font that had a light shining over it and as the water bubbled out the center of the font, the pattern of the ripples was projected onto the walls of the cone-shaped room. Lovely ☺
All weekend the weather was beautiful but in this moment I resented the sun because the extra light coming through the door was ruining the affect. I tried multiple times to close it, but other tourist kept trickling in without enough time in between to really appreciate the whole thing… I finally got a short video of by holding the door shut, but then a guard yelled at me for disrupting traffic. :/ It was worth it!
After Casa Batllo we were famished and decided to find some lunch. What better than traditional Spanish tapas? Tapas are a small type of appetizer-like dish and you order several of them to make up your meal. It was nice because that way you got to sample a little bit of everything! To finish of our lunch we found some gelato and lounged by a fountain while basking in the glorious Spanish sun… then I saw a seagull eating a pigeon in the fountain. Moving on!
The rest of the day was spent wondering about getting lost and stumbling upon things to take pictures of. We were tentatively headed back towards the hostel, but kept being pulled towards the waterfront by fun and exciting things to see. ☺ There were tons of street performers dressed as monsters and nymphs, and fruit stands, and things as well as a street fair with craft and jewelry vendors. We ended up down at the water next to a huge Columbus memorial who’s representations of the Native Americans was questionable, but it was pretty to look at.
When we did get back to the hostel it was time for a nap before dinner and then we got ready to hit the town. We all went out in search of a traditional Spanish dinner of “paella,” which is a broth soaked rice dish with seafood and veggies, (Yum!) and some Sangria… Oh my goodness, so delicious! We found a great little place and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly before heading off in different directions. By this time I’d started having some issues with my foot (because clever old me decided to fall down the stairs before coming) and with all the heavy walking, it had gotten swollen and angry. Not ideal!
Anyhow, instead of going dancing I went with Elizabeth to an LOTR themed pub! Bahaha! :) There were waterfalls, and fairies, and trees, and gourd-shaped lamps. Cool! Over all it was a super chill place where the average age was 30, but neat to see nonetheless. I forgot to grab my camera that night so no pics of that. Oops!
For Day 2 our first stop was the Sagrada Familia Cathedral…. Oh. My. Goodness.
This is another one of Gaudi’s brainchildren and again the creativity and vision blew me away. The spires were topped with mosaiced piles of fruit that Chiquita Banana would have been proud of and the back facade was a dripping mishmash of detail that swirled together to create an effect unlike anything you’ve ever seen. While trying to find the entrance we saw people entering a door down below in one of the construction areas so we decided to check it out. What could it hurt? It turned out that this was a side chapel and Sunday mass was going on. Cool! I asked God to forgive me my trespass of this space during a worship time as I walked about freely with the other tourists snapping photos… I know, I know. Bad form. At least I wasn’t the only one and I had the courtesy to turn off my flash!
As we walked around, we learned that this was Gaudi’s “personal” chapel… because it is here that we found his tomb. Totally unplanned, but it was nice to be able to take a moment and pay homage to the man who left such an artistic legacy. I take my hat off to you sir.
When we emerged from the chapel we found our way to the tourist entrance and when we finally entered the sanctuary the hallelujah chorus sounded in a spray of colors! I speak figuratively of course, but as we entered we passed by a huge stained glass window that had the morning sun pouring through it and onto us! Wow. Wow. Wow.
That’s all I can say. As we’d found with most of Gaudi’s work, the detail-work extends to every last square inch of space. His designs were inspired by everything in nature so each feature from the columns to the lighting reflected the natural order of things. The columns, though they looked normal enough at their bases, branched off 1/3 of the way up and were modeled to look like tree trunks complete with the scarred junctions of fallen branches. The ceiling and walls were very angular in comparison and with the way the sun shone through, they looked like hills of blowing sand. After the sanctuary we went up one of the bell towers to see the city from up above. It was gorgeous and on our way down the clock surprisingly struck 11:00… Dear God, I thought the walls were going to come crumbling down! Seeing as we were in the bell tower, we felt the full affect of each one of the 11 chimes! Haha :)
What I didn’t realize before coming here is that Sagrada Familia is a work hardly close to being finished. Whenever I think of huge cathedrals I think a medieval efforts but this place is very much alive and growing! Come to find out, it’s not even ½ as tall as its planned to be upon completion and that is staggering to think of… it’s no small fry as is!
I feel privileged to have seen one of the world’s great works while it was still in it’s youth. It also seems fitting to me that it’s still growing… Gaudi would’ve liked to have it viewed that way I think.
Once we’d descended from cloud nine we headed towards Park Guel, the last hurrah of our Gaudi pilgrimage. We braved the subway and when we emerged we found that the signs to Park Guel as pointed up one of the biggest hills I’ve ever seen. We’re talking STEEP here people. So much so that some parts had escalators going up it. Yeah!
We started trekking and stopped half way at a delightful little café where I accidentally ordered a panini with sardines on it (wasn’t too bad!) and then continued up the hill to where we hoped to find famed Gaudi monumental area. The hike up the hill ended up being worth it because we got another bird’s eye view of the city, this time with the spires of Sagrada Familia in the mix, and we were far enough away from the city streets to appreciate some nature. Always something Ienjoy! :) As we wondered the trails and neared the monumental areas we started hearing guitars and trumpets and laughter… good signs! We emerged onto the plaza encircled by the famous curving bench to see many relaxed park goers basking in the sun being serenaded by the happy band at it’s center. The lead singer had a huge smile and literally hopped around as he sang. Cute!
We continued wondering down the hill and under the plaza was a columned pavilion area with a ceiling as brightly colored as the rest o Gaudi’s work :) We took a break from the sunshine down here and rested fro a bit while listening to a man who was playing classical Spanish guitar. Quite a different atmosphere than 20 feet overhead! We fought our way through the other tourists to get a pic with the famed iguana fountain and then trekked back down the hill in search of sand, surf, and gelato. :)
After our stroll on the boardwalk, (or my limp down… lol) we met the other girls and we all went to dinner before heading back to the bus station for our overnight trip back to Aix. I’m so glad I got the opportunity to go and I had a wonderful time! I have the pictures, the memories, and the gimp foot, and the exhaustion to show for it but it was worth everyminute! Haha :)
It’s hard to believe but when we return we’ve only got one more week in Aix before I head to Italy for winter break… what?!?!? Lol, I love my life and more to come when I’m back from my next adventure!
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
To start, some comments on the internet:
-It’s GREAT because I can talk to all my family and friends and post pics and blogs!
-It’s HORRIBLE because I’m addicted to facebook and spend all my time stalking friends instead of writing in my journal! Oops. :P
Given the above statements, my posts covering the last week will be considerably less detailed…
Classes were supposed to start Monday but the level I placed into is a new group this semester so they were still working on our schedule. While everyone else was getting settled we were still waiting and although that may sound “lucky” we were bummed. We had gotten all dressed up and pretty for the first day of class and then it was all for nothing! Haha, we were also just kind of ready to jump in and get it all started. Anticipation, after all, is the most killer part. Anyhow, we went to the office mid afternoon to pick up our schedules and then hung out there talking with everyone until it was time to go to CEA Happy Hour at Café des Negociants. When I got there, Lydia found me with information on choir at the local music school and it worked out that we had time enough to drink a chocolat chaud and get to rehearsal! We ended up being a little bit late (of course) and had to do the awkward-stand-at-the-door-while-they-are-still-rehearsing-not-wanting-to-interrupt-but-you-still-are-because-everyone-is-gawking-at-you thing. Ooh. The awkwardness only got worse when we couldn’t exactly say what we were there and who had sent us… So we not only interrupted them, but also became the very intriguing international contingent deserving of funny comments and further interruption of rehearsal. O dear. We did eventually settle in with the soprano section and all the women were very kind and helped us catch on to the music quickly. This was kind of my first real immersion experience with native speakers and I think it went very well! We always managed some kind of Franglais definition for things and where Lydia and I lacked knowledge of the classic tunes, we made up by being the only classically trained people in the room. It is sooo nice to be able to sight-read music! Thanks to the people in my life who taught me these things, I appreciate it!
Tuesday started our first day of actual classes!!! YAY!!!
Ok, get this: my language profs name is Monsieur Pierre Tissot. Does that get any more French?!? He also looks exactly like William Shatner.He told us a story about how he used to fancy himself to resemble George Clooney but once a student piped up and corrected him and his life has been forever changed. Mr. Tissot has traveled the world and seems to know a little bit about everything. He also has a lot of experience with international students and that is comforting because for a long while we’ve been being warned that French professors could be very abrupt and brutally honest. I haven’t found Mr. Tissot to be brutal but he is definitely honest with us. After our first written homework he read mistakes made in our compositions aloud to the class and addressed the writers directly. That’s something that would never happen at home. Personal work is kept very secret secret, as are grades, so it was a bit of a shock to have individuals singled out in front of the class. Shock aside, I think it was beneficial because every mistake we made, we will be much less like to make again for fear of being called out on the same mistake. It also benefited the rest of the class to see the mistake made and corrected.
After language class (which was 4 hours long) we went to Traduction Francais-Anglais (Translation). This will be a really helpful class I think! We are learning how to say things so that all the implied meaning of phrases gets translated too… Its NOT so easy to do, but a very interesting study! It was especially fun because the first text we’ve been set to translating is an excerpt from Harry Potter ☺ LOVES it!
***Note: My roommate has started awarding me daily nerd points. I got one for being excited about HP and also later in the day for having a minor meltdown when I found out that there are flamingos in France. FRENCH flamingos. Can you belieeeve it? Haha
Here they are called “Flamants Roses.”
Between classes we had a bunch of the people in our level over to the apartment for the lunch break. Its nice that we live so close and we like having people over too, so everything works out perfectly!
Wednesday:
Had I actually written this on Wed. I would have been jumping out of my skin with excitement over being reconnected to the Borg (a.k.a getting internet at the apartment), but from where I sit now it is incredibly difficult to be SOOOO EXCIIIITED because I’ve been so busy surfing the web that I haven’t been keeping up with memories…
So, I was REALLY excited to have webs at the apartment and since I didn’t have class all day, I just sat in the apartment on the computer.
After grocery shopping later that day Allison and I met a neighbor in the stair well after and we ended up being invited to his place and befriending him. His name is Momo and he is a 30 year-old Moroccan man who has lived in Paris the last 20 years. He was recently divorced and has a 6 year old son in Paris… We had a fun night discussing language and life and Momo taught us a kind of French slang that is generally used to avoid people understanding what you’re talking about. Kind of sketchy, but our “verlens” names are Sonalli and Ttanybri! Bahaha! These are our new gangster names and often we refer to ourselves this way when joking. :) Momo is also a new resident of Aix in search of friends and things to keep the mind off of being lonesome, so we decided to invite him to our dinner party on Thursday. Long story short, we were apparently too friendly too quickly and (due to cultural differences in perception of open friendliness) Momo has unfortunately fallen in love with me. Ugh. He did leave me a nice note about how he thought I had the most beautiful “ices” (eyes) and that I was very “handsem,” but instead of being charming it just kind of makes me nervous every time I hear footsteps coming down from upstairs.
1/2/10
On Thursday we had more language class and then stylistic studies. Our professor read to us and though tat sounds kind of elementary, it was one of the coolest things I’ve heard so far—He picked a selection from a political work and read it like prose or poetry.It was absolutely beautiful! THAT is how French is supposed to be spoken. Passionately and with grace! Even though it was SUPER difficult to keep up, I think I’m going to be able to do this level 4 thing… Let’s hope!
As I’d said we had a dinner party tonight with some of our fellow apartment dwellers and despite the neighbor issues, it was a lovely evening! The meal was kind of a grand experiment but it ended up being absolutely delicious. And I DO say so myself! Haha. We had garlic-mashed potatoes, fresh green beans and eggplant sautéed in lemon butter herb sauce, gorgonzola tortellini with red meat sauce, a kings cake, fruit tarts, and of course French wine! It was really tasty and also really fun to have people over. 
We just spent the night talking and enjoying each others company and all kept saying how we felt so “big” like grown ups or something… Haha! I hope there will be more of these to come; I really enjoy entertaining and having people over. It was a good day today!
Friday:
Looong day. I had 7 hours of straight class today… wow that was exhausting! I think I’m really going to like school here, but there are definitely some things to get used to. I must remember to bring nibbles with me next week and work on extending my attention span! (the requisite 50 minutes at home just isn’t gonna cut it here!) Later we had Jenny over and we’ve started discussing plans for a trip to Italy over the February break! YAY! Sometimes I’m taken aback by how surreal my life seems right now.
“Oh yeeeaah, I just had some friends over to my apartment in France to drink some wine and discuss travel plans to Italy. Just Rome and Florence… no big, right?”
“Wrong…! HUGE DEAL!!!!”
Haha! I love being here and I am so thankful to have such awesome opportunities to do things like this. I LOVE FRANCE!
Saaturday a group of us decided to go to Marseille and it ended up being an awesome day! We had planned on taking a boat out to an Island to see Chateau d’If (Same as in Count of Monte-Cristo) but the Mistral was blowing so they weren’t sending boats out. Shucks. We ended up just walking around and taking advantage of the great shopping in Marseille. (SO much cheaper that Aix!) We had lots of fun running round and taking pictures and thoroughly enjoyed being able to play tourist for the day. In Aix we try to seem like we belong and not do dumb foreigner things, but leaving town has the effect of lifting a veil. When we leave Aix we just get to be excited Americans seeing the sights of Europe. :)
After our shopping adventures we decided we’d get a crepe before heading back to the bus but for some reason we couldn’t find a crepe place ANYWHERE! This seemed strange because they are literally on every corner in Aix. Eventually we asked someone where there was a creperie and had to walk 3 blocks to get there. We didn’t get it. This is France. Don’t they know that? Hahaha ☺
Sunday Allison went to Cannes with some French friends we’ve met so I decided I would take a walk before settling in to do some studying. It seems like every week I learn a little more about the tendencies of European men and I just don’t like them so far. I haven’t had any trouble with guys my own age but the older men here must think they are gifts from God or something because they tend to be very forward… While walking around, in broad daylight, there were a couple men who tried to chat me up as I walked by, another who followed me for half the Cours trying to tell my how beautiful I was, and another old guy who ran out of a bar and grabbed my arm trying to pull me in and buy me a drink. The last one I think was a bet because when I shook him off and went away his friends laughed at him…. Ewwwwww. I don’t understand it and I don’t say this to freak anyone out its just kind of something I’m trying to figure out how to deal with and not feel like I'm constantly being preyed upon. If anyone has insight, shoot me an email please!
We are now almost half way through the second week of class, I need to finalize my elective schedule, and then I'm off to Barcelona with some of the girls for the weekend! More to come after I get back from Spain!
XOXOX ~B
-It’s GREAT because I can talk to all my family and friends and post pics and blogs!
-It’s HORRIBLE because I’m addicted to facebook and spend all my time stalking friends instead of writing in my journal! Oops. :P
Given the above statements, my posts covering the last week will be considerably less detailed…
Classes were supposed to start Monday but the level I placed into is a new group this semester so they were still working on our schedule. While everyone else was getting settled we were still waiting and although that may sound “lucky” we were bummed. We had gotten all dressed up and pretty for the first day of class and then it was all for nothing! Haha, we were also just kind of ready to jump in and get it all started. Anticipation, after all, is the most killer part. Anyhow, we went to the office mid afternoon to pick up our schedules and then hung out there talking with everyone until it was time to go to CEA Happy Hour at Café des Negociants. When I got there, Lydia found me with information on choir at the local music school and it worked out that we had time enough to drink a chocolat chaud and get to rehearsal! We ended up being a little bit late (of course) and had to do the awkward-stand-at-the-door-while-they-are-still-rehearsing-not-wanting-to-interrupt-but-you-still-are-because-everyone-is-gawking-at-you thing. Ooh. The awkwardness only got worse when we couldn’t exactly say what we were there and who had sent us… So we not only interrupted them, but also became the very intriguing international contingent deserving of funny comments and further interruption of rehearsal. O dear. We did eventually settle in with the soprano section and all the women were very kind and helped us catch on to the music quickly. This was kind of my first real immersion experience with native speakers and I think it went very well! We always managed some kind of Franglais definition for things and where Lydia and I lacked knowledge of the classic tunes, we made up by being the only classically trained people in the room. It is sooo nice to be able to sight-read music! Thanks to the people in my life who taught me these things, I appreciate it!
Tuesday started our first day of actual classes!!! YAY!!!
Ok, get this: my language profs name is Monsieur Pierre Tissot. Does that get any more French?!? He also looks exactly like William Shatner.He told us a story about how he used to fancy himself to resemble George Clooney but once a student piped up and corrected him and his life has been forever changed. Mr. Tissot has traveled the world and seems to know a little bit about everything. He also has a lot of experience with international students and that is comforting because for a long while we’ve been being warned that French professors could be very abrupt and brutally honest. I haven’t found Mr. Tissot to be brutal but he is definitely honest with us. After our first written homework he read mistakes made in our compositions aloud to the class and addressed the writers directly. That’s something that would never happen at home. Personal work is kept very secret secret, as are grades, so it was a bit of a shock to have individuals singled out in front of the class. Shock aside, I think it was beneficial because every mistake we made, we will be much less like to make again for fear of being called out on the same mistake. It also benefited the rest of the class to see the mistake made and corrected.
After language class (which was 4 hours long) we went to Traduction Francais-Anglais (Translation). This will be a really helpful class I think! We are learning how to say things so that all the implied meaning of phrases gets translated too… Its NOT so easy to do, but a very interesting study! It was especially fun because the first text we’ve been set to translating is an excerpt from Harry Potter ☺ LOVES it!
***Note: My roommate has started awarding me daily nerd points. I got one for being excited about HP and also later in the day for having a minor meltdown when I found out that there are flamingos in France. FRENCH flamingos. Can you belieeeve it? Haha
Here they are called “Flamants Roses.”
Between classes we had a bunch of the people in our level over to the apartment for the lunch break. Its nice that we live so close and we like having people over too, so everything works out perfectly!
Wednesday:
Had I actually written this on Wed. I would have been jumping out of my skin with excitement over being reconnected to the Borg (a.k.a getting internet at the apartment), but from where I sit now it is incredibly difficult to be SOOOO EXCIIIITED because I’ve been so busy surfing the web that I haven’t been keeping up with memories…
So, I was REALLY excited to have webs at the apartment and since I didn’t have class all day, I just sat in the apartment on the computer.
After grocery shopping later that day Allison and I met a neighbor in the stair well after and we ended up being invited to his place and befriending him. His name is Momo and he is a 30 year-old Moroccan man who has lived in Paris the last 20 years. He was recently divorced and has a 6 year old son in Paris… We had a fun night discussing language and life and Momo taught us a kind of French slang that is generally used to avoid people understanding what you’re talking about. Kind of sketchy, but our “verlens” names are Sonalli and Ttanybri! Bahaha! These are our new gangster names and often we refer to ourselves this way when joking. :) Momo is also a new resident of Aix in search of friends and things to keep the mind off of being lonesome, so we decided to invite him to our dinner party on Thursday. Long story short, we were apparently too friendly too quickly and (due to cultural differences in perception of open friendliness) Momo has unfortunately fallen in love with me. Ugh. He did leave me a nice note about how he thought I had the most beautiful “ices” (eyes) and that I was very “handsem,” but instead of being charming it just kind of makes me nervous every time I hear footsteps coming down from upstairs.
1/2/10
On Thursday we had more language class and then stylistic studies. Our professor read to us and though tat sounds kind of elementary, it was one of the coolest things I’ve heard so far—He picked a selection from a political work and read it like prose or poetry.It was absolutely beautiful! THAT is how French is supposed to be spoken. Passionately and with grace! Even though it was SUPER difficult to keep up, I think I’m going to be able to do this level 4 thing… Let’s hope!
As I’d said we had a dinner party tonight with some of our fellow apartment dwellers and despite the neighbor issues, it was a lovely evening! The meal was kind of a grand experiment but it ended up being absolutely delicious. And I DO say so myself! Haha. We had garlic-mashed potatoes, fresh green beans and eggplant sautéed in lemon butter herb sauce, gorgonzola tortellini with red meat sauce, a kings cake, fruit tarts, and of course French wine! It was really tasty and also really fun to have people over. 
We just spent the night talking and enjoying each others company and all kept saying how we felt so “big” like grown ups or something… Haha! I hope there will be more of these to come; I really enjoy entertaining and having people over. It was a good day today!Friday:
Looong day. I had 7 hours of straight class today… wow that was exhausting! I think I’m really going to like school here, but there are definitely some things to get used to. I must remember to bring nibbles with me next week and work on extending my attention span! (the requisite 50 minutes at home just isn’t gonna cut it here!) Later we had Jenny over and we’ve started discussing plans for a trip to Italy over the February break! YAY! Sometimes I’m taken aback by how surreal my life seems right now.
Haha! I love being here and I am so thankful to have such awesome opportunities to do things like this. I LOVE FRANCE!
Saaturday a group of us decided to go to Marseille and it ended up being an awesome day! We had planned on taking a boat out to an Island to see Chateau d’If (Same as in Count of Monte-Cristo) but the Mistral was blowing so they weren’t sending boats out. Shucks. We ended up just walking around and taking advantage of the great shopping in Marseille. (SO much cheaper that Aix!) We had lots of fun running round and taking pictures and thoroughly enjoyed being able to play tourist for the day. In Aix we try to seem like we belong and not do dumb foreigner things, but leaving town has the effect of lifting a veil. When we leave Aix we just get to be excited Americans seeing the sights of Europe. :)
After our shopping adventures we decided we’d get a crepe before heading back to the bus but for some reason we couldn’t find a crepe place ANYWHERE! This seemed strange because they are literally on every corner in Aix. Eventually we asked someone where there was a creperie and had to walk 3 blocks to get there. We didn’t get it. This is France. Don’t they know that? Hahaha ☺Sunday Allison went to Cannes with some French friends we’ve met so I decided I would take a walk before settling in to do some studying. It seems like every week I learn a little more about the tendencies of European men and I just don’t like them so far. I haven’t had any trouble with guys my own age but the older men here must think they are gifts from God or something because they tend to be very forward… While walking around, in broad daylight, there were a couple men who tried to chat me up as I walked by, another who followed me for half the Cours trying to tell my how beautiful I was, and another old guy who ran out of a bar and grabbed my arm trying to pull me in and buy me a drink. The last one I think was a bet because when I shook him off and went away his friends laughed at him…. Ewwwwww. I don’t understand it and I don’t say this to freak anyone out its just kind of something I’m trying to figure out how to deal with and not feel like I'm constantly being preyed upon. If anyone has insight, shoot me an email please!
We are now almost half way through the second week of class, I need to finalize my elective schedule, and then I'm off to Barcelona with some of the girls for the weekend! More to come after I get back from Spain!
XOXOX ~B
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