El Fin de las Fiestas

Hello all!

Sorry it has been a little while since I updated everyone. My holiday season has come to an end, here in Spain. I will say it was great, but I was not used to it being as dragged out as it was here. I went to Barcelona with my host father and I have to say it is hands down the coolest city I have ever been to next to San Francisco. The only way I can really explain it is by saying it had SO much history along with TONS of life. When we arrived, on Christmas Eve, we had dinner at my aunt's house, Anna my host Father's sister. We had raw salmon, shrimp, bread, crab and chicken. After, she set up a scavenger hunt with clues to our presents hidden throughout the house. It was lot's of fun. During our stay my host father stayed at his sister's house and Nerea and I stayed at Anna's best friend's house, Nuria. On Christmas Day we woke up and the weather was sunny for a change and prepared for a big Christmas lunch at Nuria's house. Nuria's Mother made typical Chritmas food for Catalunya. We had a soup that had huge pasta shells in it for starters and then cooked garbanzos, potatoes and sausage for the main course. And then of course for dessert we had what's called Turrón which are a typical holiday sweets here in Spain. There a couple different kinds but they are usually similar to peanut brittle, but chewier. After lunch we went to the center of the city and Nuria and my host father gave me a walking tour. Keep in mind in Barcelona they speak two languages, Castilian Spanish, and Catalan. Therefore, many times I was quite confused in fact I remeber asking my sister what they were speaking and she just looked at me with a blank face and said, "Catalan." I felt stupid at first, but by the end of the trip I had picked up a couple words. It is super similar to spanish but some words are cut off for example "pan" means bread and in Catalan "pa" is bread.
These are some pictures of the things I got to see on my night tour on Christmas, some of which are on the famous street, Passeig de Grácia.

Here we have two of the famous Gaudí houses, Casa Milá and Casa Batlló



Here is a picture of the "Macy's of Spain" lit up in Plaza Catalunya.

Here is probably the prettiest Cathedral I have ever been in, in Spain. I am sorry, but I do not remember the name.





The next day I got to see more of the city along with the famous La Sangrada Familia by Gaudí and Parc Güell also designed by Gaudí. I was honestly blown away by the architecture in both places, I completely feel in love with Gaudí.





During the rest of my stay I got to see a lot of places of Barcelona that the typical tourist wouldn't see. Along with Tibidabo a church and Theme Park on the top of a moutain that overlooks Barcelona. In the following pictures: Me below the famous Christopher Columbus statue. He is said to be pointing to the Americas, but he is clearly pointing at the Mediterranean and then
view from Tibidabo.


While in Barcelona I also got to of course walk the famous Las Ramblas and go to the famous St Josep market.




After returning from Barcelona I celebrated New Years here in Madrid with my sister and host father. We had dinner at home, oven baked fish, and then at midnight we ate 12 grapes at countdown. This is a tradition for good luck in Spain and it is a lot harder than it looks. Nerea and I then went out with some friends at 3:45am, we got hot chocolate and churros for breakfast and then finally returned home at 9:00am. This is typical for Spain. I then spent the rest of my break hanging out with friends and relaxing. The weather here in Madrid has been quite chilly. We actually got a lot of snow this past weekend and Emma, Sam and I all went to Parque del Retiro and took pictures of the pretty snow covered park.


I am now back in school and my next big adventure is Paris! At the end of February.

I wish you all a happy New Year from 9,000 miles away.
Besitos!