Day 1

hola everybody! i have safely arrived in barcelona and the only mishap was my backpack being left behind in stockholm :( oh well, i would have liked to have spent more time there as well so i guess i cant really blame my bag. and the good news is that i should have it within the next 48 hours. other than that, everything went really well. my flights were pretty much on time and flying SAS to stockholm was awesome. i got to pick what i watched and the time went by pretty quickly. i have had some interesting encounters already though. while sitting at the airport in chicago, this girl came up to me that is working on her masters. she is from belarus and we got to talking and she told me how all american students look alike because we all dress alike and have the same haircut. i found thi sinteresting since some friends and i were discussing the other day how we think other groups of people look the same, but how different we all look. she also inquired about what is is american college students love about flip-flops (i was wearing a pair from Old Navy). i had no real answer. then, the taxi driver i had was really nice, but did not speak any english. he did however speak catalan, spanish and french. so we tried talking in french but i gave up because i started speaking something i would like to call franish (french and spanish) it wasnt pretty. but i must say, even though i havent seen most of the city, what i did say was quite spectacular. my roommate ibithal is pretty awesome. she is form bangladesh but goes to lafayette college and is an econ. and math major. she is very nice and personable though considering her majors. tomorrow we go to the IES center together (we have to be there at 9) which is good since she already knows where it is. my apartment i am in is very nice. my mom, felicidad, is super nice and she used to be a professor so she is very patient with my lack of spanish speaking skills. however, i am happy because i am able to understand most of what she says, i just cant quite figure out how to respond. but again, she has been quite helpful thus far and is patient with me. she has three kids, but only the youngest livest at home. his name is alejandro, and i dunno how old he is, i would say like mid-20s. then there is the dog, leyeno i think and this dog is adorable! i will def be putting up some photos of the dog because he is 7 months old and appears to be a german shephard mix. he is very sweet. the only other real thing i have to say about today is the meal i had for dinner. it was delicious! i had ensalada, carne (it was a mix of beef and pork and was like real thin patties) and some arroz (rice with veggies) and honeydew for desset. i must say, i feel quite comfortable here so i guess we can count this first day as a success!