Hola! Hope everyone is doing well!  I've had a busy pasts couple of days!  We were assigned 2 huge projects in my architecture class, so that has mostly taken over my weekend!  Our whole class was put into groups of two, and each pair was assigned to a street that runs North/South.  We were in charge of finding our street and taking photographs of each East/West intersection - Barcelona is laid out in a giant grid, with each block in the shape of an 8-sided octagon (like squares with chamfered corners).  These unique corners are called Eixamples, so our pictures had to show the 4 buildings in each Eixample.  We had to go at 2 different times of day, since the sun had to be perfect in each direction.  It took Hannah (my partner) and I three trips to get the pictures we needed, and it was about a 45 minute walk each way!  We had to stop for a few snacks on the way, my favorite was my usual chocolate croissant and cafe latte that I had this morning :)

Croissant de Chocolate y un cafe latte!

A big group of us all went to the beach yesterday - it was beautiful!  The weather was about 80 degrees and breezy.  We all went swimming in the Mediterranean..a cool 67 degrees!!  But it was so refreshing, and the waves were really fun.  

 

Barceloneta Beach

 

Afterwards, we ate at our now favorite restaurant, Geni's, and got more Focaccia sandwiches.  We call Geni's the Spanish Panera!  We all love it, and it's right on the beach, a perfect location!  After the beach, Hannah and I went to Plaza Catalunya to go to H&M (a huge clothing store).  We ran into a huge protest in the plaza - there are some political elections this weekend, and there's going to be a major party change.  The protests were a bit scary!  The plaza was so crowded and there were people making speeches and signs everywhere.  But there were also lots of tents and street performers - we saw an INCREDIBLE group on our way home!  Hannah and I sat and watched for about 30 minutes before we went home to make dinner.

 The protests in la Plaza Catalunya

Street Performers!  One guy was playing a didgeridoo and one guy was playing some steel drum type instrument and making beats on a computer.  It was really unique/good!

Today, Hannah and I went back to La Sagrada Familia.  It was just as breathtaking as when I saw it the first time.  Here are a few pictures!

 

We also went into a souvenir shop near La Sagrada Familia and got Barca (the Barcelona futbol team) jerseys!  Next weekend is the Champions League Final, so we had to get them before then to show our Barca spirit!

We don't have classes on Tuesday because of a holiday, so everyone is thinking about cooking a big dinner and then going out to the beach to a discoteca on Monday night!  There is always a discoteca that is hopping any night of the week here in Barca!

More updates to come!  All my love!