Miss Independent

It has been a while since I have written an entry. I just don't find it completely necessary to write in it until something interesting happens. Otherwise my blog would be very boring. Anyway, I would just like to announce that I finally have gone out and made friends. Most of you already know this because I have posted pictures about it. To continue, the first friends that I made were in the complex in which my flat is located: Catherine and Caitlin. Catherine is from Montreal, Quebec and will leave in about two and a half weeks unfortunately. Caitlin is from the UK and has already left Barcelona to go with her host family to Costa Brava which is North of Barcelona and is a very popular "holiday" destination (I'd like to visit it some time in the future!). Last Thursday, Catherine, Caitlin and I went out for drinks (yes, DRINKS) and dinner at a restaurant along the beach and it was wonderful. The weather was perfect and the food (although slightly overpriced) was yummy. And plus, I made my first purchase of an alcoholic beverage, but I wasn't asked to see my ID which was slightly disappointing. But, I've realized no one has asked thus far which kinda makes it seem like that as long as you look the age, you got the booze.

It was seriously such a fun time and great to finally have some girl time again. Lately, I have noticed that I have been keeping my guard up-- Not because I'm uncomfortable, but because I'm trying to maintain a level of professionalism (well, as professional as I can be as an au pair) and be a role model for the kids at all times. It was just really relieving being able to be myself 100%.

On Friday night, Catherine and I went to Placa Catalunya and Las Ramblas to eventually meet up with another au pair named Julia who is from Germany. We left earlier in order to get where we needed to be in time and to get dinner. Except here, they call "dinner" "supper." Bringin' it back to my Oklahoma roots! So Catherine and I ate at a restaurant along the Ramblas where I had to pay around 11 Euros for my meal, not too bad for the other restaurant prices in that area of Barcelona. But we ended up not getting water because in Barcelona, NO ONE SELLS TAP WATER!!! Instead, you have to buy bottled water which is bad for two reasons: it costs me 3 Euros for it, which is around $4.20 and it is totally not great for the environment for the unnecessary amounts of packaging and plastic. Regardless, the food was delicious and I had my first Spanish tapas! 

After we ate, we went out for drinks and to meet Julia, whereupon we were introduced to some lovely Norwegian boys who were traveling around Europe and ended up buying our drinks. It was great. That night I stayed the night at the flat in which Julia's host parents allow her to stay in over the weekend since she is located in a village 30 miles outside of Barcelona city. The next day we got to know the city a little better and met up with some more au pairs: Sydney and Louise. Sydney is from Eugene, Oregon and Lousie is from Denmark. We ended up going out with them that night which was also lots of fun. However, no boys offered to pay for our drinks this time ): 

All in all, this weekend was great and I am so happy I got the opportunity to go out and adventure with some really fun girls. Unfortunately, I must cut my blog short (although I could write so much more) because Hector is bugging me to go to the park with him. Let it be known that I am incredibly tired and have zero energy for this right now. But yet, I feel obligated. So here I go. 

Updates

Today, I finally stepped out of the complex on my own. I walked down a street called "Las Ramblas" which is one of the major streets in Barcelona. It also leads to the Mediterranean Sea. So, on my "day off" I decided to take a stroll. Now, Ángel told me that what I need to know in order to avoid being robbed is to steer clear of bad areas (easy, because he knows his way around Barca) and to not seem like a tourist..... not so easy. But I did as best as I could. I left the fanny pack at home, dressed classy (I referred to the internet to see how people from Barcelona dressed) and tried to seem as confident as possible. Luckily, I wasn't looking for anything in particular, so I didn't need a huge map and I didn't look lost.
So my first steps out on Las Ramblas, I was confronted by an attractive Spanish boy. He talked to me for a little bit and spoke beautifully broken English. That in itself qualifies as a successful day in my humble opinion. I continued to the beach where I people watched for probably a solid 30 minutes. The beach was absolutely beautiful, but not as beautiful as the panhandle of Florida. Not gonna lie. But I'm not complaining.

Yesterday, I made friends which was awesome. One is from Germany and the other from Czech Republic. Neither actually are staying in Barcelona city, but they both are about 30 minutes away. Next weekend, one of the girls is going to stay in her family's flat for the weekend and I'm staying with her. I'm very much so looking forward to it and to finally do some real exploring... Like the touristy stuff. Tomorrow, I go to eat lunch with extended family. I'm really looking forward to exploring more. It's so tantalizing being here and not doing much, but I keep reminding myself, I have a year. Which reminds me, I got my citizenship here. Which I didn't even know I needed. Anyway, it's late and I suppose I should get to bed considering I won't have the opportunity to sleep in tomorrow.

Ciao!

Getting there

Yesterday, I finally made it! It wasn't as awful as a journey as I thought it would have been. To begin, I thought it was going to be a lot more difficult to leave my parents. With all do respect, and remember, I'm saying with all do respect (Talladega Nights reference) , but even though I cried, there was a part of me that finally felt free. So there I was, trying to hold myself together, as I caught the last glimpse I would get of my parents for a couple months. I exhaled as they disappeared and turned forward as my new adventure began. Unfortunately, I kept bumping into people with my gigantic backpacking back pack. That was annoying. And it was super heavy. It was like carrying another person on my back. My shoulders are freaking sore right now because of it. Anyway, as I boarded my plane, I did that whole crying thing again. Luckily, no one sat next to me, so I could quietly sob to myself for like a solid 25 minutes. It also enabled me to completely sprawl out like no ones business for the 9 1/2 hour plane ride. I had my own personal screen in front of me allowing me to listen to music or watch movies or play games. It was nice. So yeah, here I am, flying over the Atlantic, crying to myself. The thing that made me stop was (brace yourselves, its about to get really cheesy) I saw a rainbow. And you better believe the plane flew OVER that rainbow. I felt pretty accomplished after that. For the rest of the time, I watched The Descendants, which is a great movie and I highly recommend it. I probably slept for a total of two hours within a 24 hour span, so that was great. But what time I didn't spend sleeping or trying to sleep, I spent playing solitare. And I beat the game eight times. EIGHT. After the eighth time of winning, I finally was able to sleep. And when I woke up, the sun was rising when we were flying over the coast of England. It was really beautiful. Then we flew into Germany, to my surprise, resembled the Mid-Western United states. It was just kinda flat and had a lot of windmills.

In Berlin, I had a 6 hour layover where I sat and did nothing. Then I got on my flight to Barcelona. The path that was taken went over the alps. And lucky for me, I had a window seat again. For a while, I thought I was just looking at clouds (keep in mind I was delirious from lack of sleep). But, no, actually, I was looking at extremely large snowcapped mountains. 

And then I came in over the Mediterranean (I'm not entirely sure which country. France, perhaps?) 

Anyway, I am now in Barcelona safe and sound. I haven't done much exploring yet because I've been busy unpacking and sleeping for 14 hours. And finally, one last picture before I conclude:

Ciao!