Okay, we're only supposed to be checking the e-mail, but I thought I'd say hi! Went to the beach today. . . very cold. So don't make beach plans in March.

And it's dinner time. . . Mediterranean food :-)

 
Live from Granada . . .

Barcelona finshed up with some disappointments-- Monday morning we tried to get in to the Miro Museum, only to discover that is was closed, always on Mondays. Ouch. At least we got to see the complex from the 1992 Olympics along the way.

In consolation, Katie, Mark, Libby and I walked along the beach and played in the sand. Then we spent quite a while trying to find a place where Mark could have his beard shaved. Basically, this consisted of me going in with Mark, asking ¿Puede cortar su barba? and pointing at his beard. We went in five places, being told by one hairdresser that barbers don't exist anymore, just salons. Eventually we found a place and got him cleaned up. Actually the barber cut Mark in multiple places (due to acne) and then rubbed lots of cheap aftershave all over his face. Ouch.

After the barbershop, we went to see Gaudi's unfinished cathedral. Crazy spiral modernist thing. It's been unfinished for years and recently has had lots of work done. Pretty cool, very different.

Okay, I guess the roommates are ready to go eat. Anyway, Barcelona, then Sevilla and now Granada. I love Spain. More later.

 
Hello everyone!! I'm in Barcelona. What a beautiful, beautiful city. I think I could live here.

Firday we spent the day wandering Milan. We found our way to the famous Cathedral, only to see a facade totally covered by scaffolding. Dah! We took a night train from 8 PM until 9 AM Saturday monring. Steve our professor, Angela and Erin were on the same train, and invited us for some wine. We had a nice, aren't you glad it's break chat. It was a little bumpy for sleeping, but we made it though.

We got in Saturday morning, and crashed for an afternoon nap in our hostel. We spent the night wandering the city. We saw the main strip-- Las Ramblas, with lots of stores, hotels and restaurants. We also saw the Maremagnum, which is like a mall. In Europe, they eat rather late and we had read that some places don't open for dinner until 9. When we started looking for a place to eat at 9, everything screamed fish and meat. When we finally stumbled into a middle eastern place, they said we needed reservations. So we settled on Pizza Hut, after everything else was closed. And it was the worst Pizza Hut ever. It took them 30 minutes to bring out garlic bread, they completely forgot the onion rings, and our waitress left halfway through our meal. It was all so funny to because we were starving.

Today, we say the Picasso Museum and the Park Gruell. Cool cool stuff. The Picasso musuem was under renovation, so we got to see other various works brought in from around the world. But still nice, they had scultpures, drawings, paintings, and photographs. I really enjoyed it.

The Park Gruell was amazing. We read in the guidebook that it was one of the world's best parks. I think we came in the back way, because we saw lots of beautiful views of the city, but nothing like what we were expecting. The hill we walked up to get to the park was very steep and had escalators for part of the way! We walked and wandered for a while, and finally, after about an hour and a weird experience with an automatic, put coins in bathroom, we came around to the front of the park. Very cool architecture by Gaudi. The world's longest park bench, all squiggly. The entrance, when we finally got around to it, was guarded by a mosaic lizard and two little dwarfish houses. Very neat, open park.

In the park, we ran into Mark and Kendall, who are on our program. Mark joined us for an early dinner, before heading to this internet cafe. I think it's fairly expensive, so I should go. But I will try to write again, which shouldn't be a problem because my travelling companion Katie is an e-mail addict. So, until then, adios!