Barcelona First Impressions

Our plane landed in Barcelona 9am local time. I had tried to sleep on the plane knowing that I was losing time and had a whole day in Barcelona ahead of me. After collecting our baggage, our group had to locate our rendezvous point; all we knew was to go to terminal 2B and look for the huge statue of a horse. Well, we were in terminal 1 and had to take a shuttle to terminal 2 which was located farther away than I ever imagined. We were on the bus for about 10 maybe 15 minutes and were dropped off at terminal 2B.

We entered the terminal and in search of the estatua del caballo,  we walked what seemed like a mile through a rush of international passengers, each of us lugging one or two huge rolling suitcases plus backpacks behind us. Finally, we spotted the statue. I remember turning to the girl next to me and saying, "I've never been so happy to see a horse in my life."

We spotted our director Isidro and all gathered around him. After checking that everyone was present (with help from our GTAs Elizabeth and Jennifer), we headed to the bus loading docks. Ironically this was located on the other side of the terminal (where we had been dropped off by the shuttle). So we walked back...and we walked...and we walked. Just at the point when I thought my arms would fall off from exhaustion from my heavy suitcases, we stopped in front of the buses. However, our bus wasn't there. So Isidro called our driver, and we waited under palm trees, each of us tired and our luggage sprawled on the sidewalk. Groups of tourists from all over, considering I heard probably five different languages spoken, kept passing us to get on buses. When our bus arrived, we loaded up our luggage and climbed on board, thankful to be heading to our residencia. 

It was approximately a 20min drive from the airport to our residencia. The whole drive I was captivated by the sights of the city. I constantly looked out the window, capturing glimpses of unique shops as the bus navigated easily through the narrow streets. When we arrived at Collegi Sant Jordi, our home for the next six weeks, we unloaded and waited in the lobby as our directors sorted out room keys. After all that, we were sent to our rooms to unpack and relax. At about 1pm Barcelona time, my roommate Emilee and I ventured out to see if we could meet up with others to go find someplace to eat. We joined a group and set out into the streets of Barcelona. We found a row of cafes and quickly sat down as we were all thirsty hungry. After ordering water (thankfully we knew how to say we wanted aqua), we sat under an umbrella covered table enjoying the cool breeze. I people-watched and was fascinated by the diversity of the people in the city. Not only is Barcelona full of different types of people, but it is also home to many different languages. We were told that throughout the city you can here Spanish, English, French, and even German. The local language, Catalan is kind of a mixture of French and Spanish. 

First meal: Cocas con tomate

After getting some food, we headed back to our rooms to get some rest. I was so thankful for the much needed nap. We then had a group meeting to discuss details. 

Tomorrow we are being sent out into the city on a caza del tesoro (scavenger hunt)