Day 1 in Barcelona Complete!

I already love it here. Barcelona is my kind of city. Even though I don't speak much Spanish, I already feel right at home.

Derek and I in our taxi on the way to our hotel

Our plane landed at 8:50 and by the time we were through customs and I got my luggage, it was 9:45. Impressively, Derek packed all his belongings into a REI backpack so he had no checked luggage. To get to our hotel, Derek and I took a taxi. Our original plan was to take the train into Barcelona and then a taxi from the last stop but we couldn't find the train.The first night here, because not everyone is arriving at the same time, we are all staying in a hotel. Tomorrow we all get to move into either our apartments or home-stays.
At the hotel, we dropped off our luggage and then went to find a place to eat. We walked a block over from our hotel and found a small cafe. There we both had Margarita Pizza, which was very good.

After lunch we found a store to purchase some school supplies. From there we went back to the hotel and our rooms were ready for us.

That darn switch

When I went to my room I could not figure out how to turn on the lights. I pressed every button in the room and nothing was working. Then I saw a slot for you to stick your card and it turned on the electricity for my whole room. Then I remember the manager telling me to make sure to put my card in there to turn on the lights and I felt slightly embarrassed.

Once the light fiasco was done with, I went to get Derek from his room one floor down. In the elevator, I realized I forgot to ask him what his room number was. I remember seeing on his room card 50_ but couldn't remember the last number. So I decided to go knock on all the doors until I found his.

The first door I knocked on was 505. A girl opened the door and I knew that I had the wrong room. I apologized and she understood. We saw each other in the lobby earlier and she is with my study abroad program along with her twin sister. Their names are Jennifer and Krista. They decided to join Derek and I when we went out to explore some more. We waited for Anavi (a girl who I met at orientation) before we went exploring.

My lovely Sangria

When Anavi joined us, we took the metro to an old bull fighting stadium that is now a mall. It was humid today so it was nice to be inside the air conditioning. Derek, went back to the hotel to take a nap but the rest of us headed down to the pier. There we wandered through a group of street vendors and then had tapas and sangria for dinner. The potato tapas were delicious!

After talking and hanging out all day together, Krista, Jennifer, Anavi, and I decided that we'd all like to share an apartment. Once we got back to the hotel we put in the request with AIFS and hopefully it all works out!