Epic Fail

wow. what a day. SO much walking my legs are throbbing. Day 1 started off with a round-about walk to the Metro station. It seems like that was the theme for the day. Barcelona streets are hard to get used to, especially for someone with a terrible sense of direction.

Our first mission of the day was to visit our new school, ESADE, and meet with our international advisor, Jura. Bought a 10-trip pass at the Metro, got on, and soon enough got off at Maria Cristina. Then, a looooong uphill walk in the heat to the school. We first found the Undergraduate office and asked where the office for Jura was. Her office was located in the MBA building, which was about a block or two away. So we walked there. The entrance to the reception desk is AMAZING. It feels surreal when you're walking through it. We met with Jura, who helped us with all of our pressing questions. Apartments, bank accounts, cellphones, neighborhoods, where to eat. You name it, she helped us. After meeting with her, we were so hungry, and SUPER thirsty since we forgot to bring water with us (never forget your bottled water when walking in Barcelona heat!) There's not a lot around the school, it's basically a residential neighborhood, so we had to walk for quite some time before we got to a bustling area. Found a random restaurant, which was not too bad. 24 euros for lunch. I had gazpacho, which i was so happy to eat =), and we ordered grilled vegetables and eric had croquettes which we weren't quite sure what we would get but they were good. I'm making eric eat vegetables, since I have to eat them with every meal!

After lunch, we walked back down to the Metro station, Palau Real. Our second mission (epic fail) was so visit the Altiro office, to see if we could take a look at some of their aparments. Since their office closed for siesta from about 2-4pm, we decided to bum around. Went to check out the Sagrada Familia, so amazing from the outside, didn't go inside YET. We're waiting for Joe before we do that stuff. Then wandered around. Sat down at a Gelateria on Avinguda de Gaudi and at lemon gelato outside on their patio. The entire day was so relaxed, as it was hot, PLUS we didn't have watches on us. While wandering around, we found a Vodafone store. Went in and tried to ask in broken Spanish about their pre-paid plans. It was difficult to understand, since I don't exactly know how they work in Canada either.

Finally we decided to find the office. Except, we forgot the address. Eric knew the general area of the office and that the street name started with an "M". So we set out, hoping we would stumble across it. We kept saying that if we actually found it, we would be absolutely AMAZING. We wandered, checked the map, found a street nearby called Carrer de Monistrol, and went with that. It turned out to be this really narrow street. We walked around, nothing. Thought about asking someone in this little bakery, but then decided they probably wouldn't know. So, we headed back home. Epic Fail. But not so epic fail. Why? Because, we got accustomed to the city, the streets, the people, the culture, the language. We are beginning to feel not-so-touristy, except for the fact that we still like to point out everytime we see an Asian person walk by.

Arrived back at our apartment. Visited Daniela at the inside-bcn office and asked her many questions. An iron and ironing board, directions to the closest market, and also, about this apartment that they have for rent. Its pretty expensive, 2000 euros, but it fits 4 people. We've got a couple other options in mind too.

Anyways, went from the office to the corner store to buy groceries, since we decided to try cooking dinner at the apartment tonight. It was so pimp. Bought a bottle of champagne (so cheap!) which we thought was white wine, spaghetti sauce, and oscar meyer sausages with cheese. Fried those babies up, cooked the spaghetti that the apartment provided in our "goodie basket" and toasted to an EPIC FAIL/SUCCESS of a day! Ended the night by sipping our champagne out on our small patio where we had moved on of our couches, and watched our fellow Barcelonians stroll by, at 11 o'clock at night. I think I can get used to this.