It's officially been a month!

Friday night I went out to a bar with the students. It was one of the better decisions I've made here. You know the saying about traveling not being about the destination, but the journey to it? I’m pretty sure this night was why that quote was made. After pre-gaming a bit, we all shuffled to the metro. I’ll let you imagine the kind of noise a group of about 15-20 people of various levels of intoxication can make when in a tunnel. The upside to that: We weren't half as bad as a group of our Spanish counterparts that got on at the next stop. The best part of the night was when our two large groups came together to sing Backstreet Boys on the metro. After the hilarious metro trip we continued on foot to our destination… where they wouldn't let us in because there were too many people. Luckily we met a really nice promoter that offered us a great deal to go to his bar. After hanging out for a bit, I made my way back home to call it a night.

Saturday, I had planned on getting up early and touring various museums around Barcelona, but due to my late night Friday I ended up sleeping till almost noon. Once I finally did get moving, I joined a couple friends for lunch and then we headed off to the Pablo Picasso Museum. He had some cool stuff, but nothing really jumped out at me. My favorite part was a large room full of paintings Picasso did that were modeled after a Velazquez painting called “Las Meninas.” Each of the different versions was very weird and my friend Meredith and I tried to decide what animal the dog in the picture resembled most. When we left the Picasso museum the girls went home and I went off to find another museum. After walking in a huge circle for an hour and a half I ended up in the right place, the Born Cultural Center. El Born, also known as the Gothic quarter is one of the oldest parts of the city. The BCC used to be a giant open air market, but fell into disrepair during the 1900s. When trying to revive it with a face lift in the late 1900s, construction crews discovered the ruins of the 18^th century neighborhood underneath. They then decided to ditch the market idea and build a museum over the site, using the frame of the market for the building. The building feels like a giant warehouse inside. In the center you can look down at the 18^th century streets and building foundations. In one corner there is a café. Two more corners house exhibits with artifacts discovered in the site and a history of the War of Succession when Cataluña tried to become independent from Spain. A loss they are still sore about today, 299 years later.

Sunday morning I got up very early to take a train to the town of Girona with the students. After an hour and forty-five minute train ride north we arrived at our destination and set off exploring. In my facebook album you will see several pictures of Girona’s wall that was built in the 9^th century. Also, we visited the 12^th century Arab bath house. Unfortunately, inside the main church photography was not allowed. There were humongous stained glass windows and the baroque architecture was amazing. We walked through the medieval and Jewish quarters as well. After we felt that we had seen everything, we hopped back on the train and arrived back in Barcelona around 5.