Montjuic

One of the first places we decided to explore was a placed called Montjuic (Mon-jew-ee). It's this huge mountain at the Southwest corner of the city which has been turned into a mix of trails, gardens, and parks, along with the Olympic grounds and the Barcelona Pavilion. In a day we managed to walk at least 6 or 7 miles on our excursion, which was lead by my daddy, and by the end of the day we realized we only covered about an eighth of the entire mountain complex.

I have to say though that all the hiking was worth it, because once on top of Montjuic, you can see the entire city of Barcelona. Everything from the coast, the Barcelona Cathedral, La Familia Sagrada, Jean Nouvell's landmark, and the rest of Barcelona's urban fabric. It was truly an amazing site to see especially at the beginning of our travels and to know that for the next four months we would be exploring almost every nook and cranny of the city we saw before us. Here are some of the views.

The First Week

The first week was filled with lots of excitment, curiosity, exploring, and a few kinks along the way. This entry along with the next few entries will describe a series of events from my first week here.

The Arrival:

After a 6 hour flight to London and another 1.5 hour flight from there, my dad and I finally landed in Barcelona, Spain on January 5, 2007. It took forever to get the taxi driver to understand where we needed to go, but finally we reached my studio so I could pick up my apartment keys and then arrived at my building. It's right on Gran Via, one of the main thoroughfares of Barcelona.

I learned that I was the last of the girls to arrive which also meant I got the smallest room. (However, it also had the biggest closet! So needless to say I was fine with the arrangement.) The apartment is small, but it has 4 bedrooms, 1 full bath, 1 powder room, a full kitchen, a living and dining space, and a very tiny laundry room. Below are a few pictures, starting with my bedroom.

So that's pretty much it! Like I said, it's simple and small, but so far it's enough space for the 5 of us. I'm living with Gisela Marquez, Victoria Wallace, Billy Bishop, and Sean Owens. All of which have been in the Architecture program at Catholic U since my freshman year.