School???

So it finally hit us yesterday (Monday) that the "Study" part of Study Abroad is real life. We had our first day of school on Monday. We all woke up early and made it to school early! However the doors to the University were locked. Apparently they don’t let us into the building until a little bit before 9:30 which is ironic since they are so strict about their late policy. Gaby and I had our International Marketing Strategies class first. Our teacher is funny, quirky, and doesn't speak very clear English but it is a very cool class. Olivia and Kelly had their first period class together as well which they blogged about below. What are the chances that the professor at orientation was their professor! Kelly had her second class 30 mins after the first and Olivia, Gaby, and I had a 3 hour break. Naturally we practically sprinted to the beach. We got so much sun it was amazing! (Until later when I discovered I looked like a Lobster and was burnt to a crisp). We made it back to the school with plenty of time to spare. We all have Spanish in the afternoon. Now we all know Olivia is crazy good at Spanish and Gaby is just crazy good at languages in general! So obviously both of these baller Spanish speaking girls were going to be in advanced classes. Now I on the other hand can't speak a different language to save my life. My last year of French in high school my teacher felt so bad for me that she told me if I kept working as hard as I was that she would give me a B as long as I promised to never take a language course again... true story. I naturally signed up for the first level entry class but somehow ended up in Olivia's class...aka the most advanced class. Well it took about 5 seconds of talking to her professor for him to realize this was a big mistake. I've never seen a professor fill out paperwork so fast in my life...let's just say he was happy to pass me along to a different professor. Anyways it all worked out and we all love our three different Spanish teachers! So we made it through the first day of classes.

Last night only Olivia, Kelly, and I made it out. Even though we were three short and they were greatly missed we still had a blast. We ended up at this "secret" bar that was really at the top room of a hotel that seemed to be placed in the mall. Regardless we had the funniest bartenders we have had since we have been here. The one that was serving us was from Italy and he loved wearing Kelly's glasses. We hung out there for a while and then headed to Club Boulevard. On the walk there we got about a hundred flyers for Boulevard, they didn't understand that we were already going and they didn't need to give us more. Once there we met up with a friend who got us past the line and into the bar for free. We had such a fun, low key, night dancing like crazy! On the way back home Olivia had a full conversation with the taxi driver. (and she says she's not fluent...psshh). All i understood was SHAKIRA. He told her that it wouldn't be too hard to find her so we are on a mission!

Tuesday: This morning we woke up a little tired but still made it to class early. Kelly got into her business class and loves it! Olivia was very tired and claimed that her body was not functioning. Just in case her professor didn't already love her...she explained that her participation in class today consisted of several head bobs and somehow her gum fell out of her mouth without her consent. Oh and by the way she sits in the first row. When we walked out of school we were greeted by a torrential downpour. Of course none of us brought our rain gear so we attempted to sprint to the metro. We failed miserably as we got drenched by the rain, puddles, and our flip flops continued to fall off the entire time we ran. The other thing about rain that really stinks in Barelona is there are no dryers. Olivia's clothes were freshly hung when we left for class this morning. As I'm writing this blog right now my clothes are waiting to be hung in the washer...I don't think that will be happening anytime soon.

All in all I think we will survive the "Study" aspect of this trip! Gaby and I have our Case Study on The Real Madrid football team on Thursday! Wish us luck!

All for now
Paige