I love Barcelona!!

I just got the code to use my internet at the colegio. I will be here for 20 days until the semester starts.  It's now almost 1:30 am and we are just back in the dorms. I LOVE BARCELONA!!! It is seriously unlike any city I have ever seen in my life. My flights were really easy, I was on American and slept most of the way. When I finally woke up as we were descending into Barcelona I spoke to a man next to me who is from there and he told me of all the great places to visit. I got my luggage easily, thanks goodness and grabbed a taxi right away. As soon as I got to the Colegio, 3 other taxis had just pulled up and I met lots of the other students right away. I met a really nice girl named Claire in the lobby and we chose to be roommates, so now we share a room! We are on the 4th floor, and have a beautiful view of the neighborhood. We immediately got settled in, checked out the building, took a little walk around (there are 3 or 4 public parks around us that are so pretty) and got lunch at a little outdoor cafe (we both got sandwiches with mozzarella, tomato, basil and olives) and then came back to our room for a much needed nap. The rooms (thank god) have air-conditioning because it is SO hot! At 5pm we went downstairs for the meeting and met the coordinators, and other students. Everyone is really really nice and equally excited! After that we went back to sleep and then to dinner (the don't start serving it at the cafeteria until 8:30!) The food was typical cafeteria food, but I had pasta with red sauce and bread with oil and vinegar. Then we joined a group of University of  Illinois students and got ready and walked about 3 miles through town to the district of La Gracia, because today was the last night of the week-long Fiesta de Gracia. IT WAS SO COOL!!! Hundreds, probably thousands of people crowded every inch of every little street. It was a maze of people of all ages celebrating and having a great time. There were concerts every block, giant dragon costumes shooting flames, and little booths of people selling everything from jewelry to sangria! It is such an amazing city and instantly enchanting! Tomorrow we have orientation at 11am for a few hours, then more sightseeing. On Monday we start classes for the ILP which are taught at the University of Barcelona, so we will take the metro every morning into the city central and class if from 9 am-1pm Monday through Friday, and Wednesday we go on organized excursions. I am definitely on stimulation overload, but loving every second of it!!

The first picture is inside my room. Then at the outdoor cafe, then the view from our room. I didn't take my camera out to the festival because I was kind of worried about losing it or someone taking it, but I will definitely take lots more pictures this week to post!