En España ...

I arrived in Barcelona on the 6th and stayed in the Hotel Rialto with the rest of the members of the program. The Hotel Rialto is pretty much in the center of the city in a very old, very touristy area. There are some Roman (!) buildings around and some really fantastic cathedrals. The roman buildings date back to around the year 0 AD, which is kind of cool, pienso.
This is a view from my hotel (sorry, no Roman buildings here):





Jealous, eh?

This morning, however, I left that hotel and the 23 students studying in the program with me to move in with my host family ... and they have wi-fi. I was feeling very awkward about the whole thing, since my Spanish is not the best, especially under pressure, but los dos Manueles (father y son) made me feel right at home. La Señora is not feeling very well, so she has been in bed all day. We'll meet later, I'm sure.
Barcelona is crazy. People all over the streets at all times. The city certainly does not sleep ... well, except for during siesta (which is right now). It's certainly a party town, but people do not get drunk. The Irish get drunk and the Americans get drunk, but to most other people here, being borracho is not attractive. I guess that makes sense. I went to a crazy sangría bar last night where we could hardly stand, let alone sit. Not really my thing to be that crammed, but it was an intersting experience.
We also went to the beach, which was very dirty, but a good time. Beaches are not really my thing, but it was fun. Some people got stung by jellyfish, but I got out unscathed. And I didn't see any stingrays, which is good luck for them (poor Steve).
I have some left-over photos from the London trip here (again from Tony's camera) so I will just throw these at the end of the rant.

(Left to right) Olivia, yo, Tony and Hana in front of Tower Bridge.



And this is me, Hana and Olivia in the London underground.



¡Adios!