pictures of Santiago trip

I like arquitectura

me, climbing on a wall near an old cemetary (see tombs in background)

Carmen and I in Santiago

really cool stair case in a church

some yummy wine, actually. white, house wine.

this is the way-cool catedral de santiago...

capitulo 3: in which lindsy has an amazing weekend

This weekend was one huge party for the whole of Barcelona. Dia de la Merce. So friday, saturday, sunday and monday pretty much no one worked and everyone played. Except for the poor people who own restaurants, clean streets, serve beer, etc. I shall try to sum up all the things we did. ¨We¨ generally being a group of 4 or 5 of us BCA people who have found good companionship with one another and are on the whole rather frugal/cheap and don´t spend half the money that some of our fellow study-abroad students do. We are quite proud of this. Other people say things like, oh, how cute. *shrug* that is beside the point.
Friday, go: History of Art test. then a cafe for cafe con leche. Home for dinner. Off to the beach where there was a fireworks show. pretty nice. Then walk along the beach find a cumbia band playing at an outdoor bar. Turns out I really like live cumbia. Band consisted of a mexican, a chilean, paraguayan, and maybe a guy from uruguay? I hope I spelled all those right... anyway, they were really fun and quite good. After they ended we walked around some more and then went home.
Saturday: Home in the morning/afternoon. Evening went to a plaza to try to find a break-dancing performance. Found a Rumba band instead. turns out I also really like rumba. and reaaally want to learn how to dance it. (surprise, surprise, eh?) Then we walked around some more and found the break-dancers. They were quite good. I want to learn to break dance. Then walked to another plaza where there were more free concerts (I heart free concerts). Watched a sweet band from Barcelona who´s name currently escapes me. THen The Undertones came on (this was the band we went to see). From Ireland. Anyone know them? THey were pretty fun. Meanwhile we got smashed into a lot by an extreeemely drunk woman and met some Italian guys. Then we went via metro to yet another plaza to try to catch The Thrills (also Irish) but the place was SOO packed and huge and there for 4 different stages and we were tired and our feet hurt. So we found a bar and sat down and talked instead. Got home late.
Sunday: Home for the morning. Left in the afternoon to meet friends at the Sagrada Familia and go from there to still more free concerts. Couldn´t find one friend. waited. waited. called. waited. went to eat supper at a yummy greek rest. called. went to concert. found her! and other friend! amazing. Watched the end of another Barça band. Pretty good, till they stared singing in English. And then....we pushed our way up to the front. about 20 feet from the stage. and saw... TRAVIS!!! One of my favorite bands, actually. in Barcelona! free! and we were so close! and they were amazing. then to a restaurant and split a yummy pesto pasta dish. Then home.
Monday: home for the morning. Afternoon met friends at Picasso museum (free for the day). waited in line and then walked through museum. Picasso is not my favorite artist, and he still isn´t, but I like his stuff better after seeing the whole progression of his work. neat. then to another plaza to eat our packed suppers and share some sangria while we waited for the fountain/fireworks show. It was well worth the wait. we had good seats and the show was spectacular. best show ive seen, i think. combo of fountain, fireworks, and music. (tho a strange selection-opera to rock to country and pop...) And it lasted a long time. I think it made up for me missing the last three fourth-of-july´s. Afterward waited for the crowd to leave and saw two guys throwing a disc around! went and played with them. German, but living in Barcelona. Told me that people play on wednesday nights on the beach. yippee!
Wednesday night on the beach: played frisbee! have lots of sand-scrapes. had so much fun. made friends. now on the ultimate listserve, I think. que happy!!!
well, im off to study grammar for a test tomorrow. This was a long blog. It was a long weekend. =)
amor to all!

general news

This weekend our whole BCA group took a trip to Santiago de Compostela. Its in the northeastern part of Spain and apparently usually has Atlantic-type weather (rain), but it was sunny and nice almost the whole time we were there (friday p.m. to tuesday a.m.) The reason for our visit was to study the architecture there for our art history pre-semester course. We flew there as a group, which kind of boggles my mind still, because something like that just wouldn´t make sense in the U.S. Anyway, it was a great time, for the most part. I looooved the Cathedral there (de Santiago, you could look it up online) which is fairly famous and which constantly has pilgrims arriving on foot from all over. We saw a lot of people coming in with big back-packs and walking sticks, etc. Also, there are several old monostaries and the university is quite old as well. Its fun to be in buildings built before the Americas were, well... something. Discovered by other people? Anyway. We also had lots of free time to wander about in the narrow crooked streets of Santiago. I hadn´t realized how much Celtic infuence there is in that part of Spain. Its a completely different culture from Catalunya (Barcelona) and they also have another language that they speak there, in addition to Spanish. Quite cool. I also went dancing one night with a couple other girls and we had a good time. Though I wanted more latin music. =) The pieces of the trip I didn´t enjoy so much were walking around in a group of over 30 people and being such obvious tourists/foreigners. I´ve never liked that feeling, and its worse when I´m in a big group. Plus then you have all the annoyances of splitting off into little groups to do things and trying not to leave people out etc. But this was our last real group activity, and from now on our schedules will be more individual. I´m hoping to make Spanish friends and find some fun things to do around the city. This weekend is a holiday, so there should be plenty of opportunities to hear live music, etc. And maybe I can go dancing again.
Classes started today and this morning I had a literature class. I think I´m really going to enjoy it. Its a BCA class, so there aren´t other university students, but tomorrow I am going to a Spanish class at the university, so we shall see how it goes. =)
I guess thats it for now. I hope to put up some pictures of Santiago soon. Thanks for the comments and emails, I love hearing from you!!!

a few pictures

Why I am in love with Gaudi...(La Sagrada Familia and La Pedrera) and a blurry picture of my room

september in barcelona

i love it. or do I love Barcelona in September? I think both. Today I went to the beach--about 20 minutes walking from my house--and enjoyed the beautiful sea. I live in a big apartment building, as do the majority of the nearly 8 million people who live in Barcelona, I think. The city is pedestrian friendly, unlike some latin american cities *cough * Managua. But I miss the public transportation of Managua. I haven´t taken the bus or metro yet here, but I will tomorrow to go to the University. I´m trying to figure out the new biking system here--you can buy a card and take a bike from one rack and leave it in another. Still have to figure out how to buy a card and where the stations are, to see if it will work to go to and from the university, I hope so, that would be fantastic. Oh, about my family. Its really just an older woman. Kids all older and away from home. some married, some not. I think the youngest daughter (30 ish) Mar will be in and out. she seems really nice. Well, I hope to put pictures up soon. Maybe when I am using free interenet at the University instead of a cafe.
P.S. my mailing address is this, and you would make me extremely happy if you were to send me a lil letter!

Lindsy Glick
c/o BCA
Montealegre 6-8
Facultad de Geografia e Historia
Univerisidad de Barcelona
08001-Barcelona, SPAIN

*kiss kiss*

Estoy en Espana

Hola mis amigos! I arrived a sleepy one in Paris and met up with most of the other BCA students there and we waited for a few house before getting out flight to Barcelona. They we all got on a bus (after a bit of a detour in the airport trying to get the luggage...) and headed to a hotel south of Barcelon. Its only a few blocks from the beach, which I took advantage of during our free time today. Thus far weve had some spanish classes, orientation lectures and tasty food. Im pretty excited about chocolate croissants and fruit for breakfast. Though I shall have to get used to fish, I think. Ive met most of the other BCAers, but don´t remember everyones name yet. Most seem pretty different from the Goshen crowd, but I think we can all have a sweet time together. =) I´m also pretty excited about meeting my host family this weekend and picking out classes to take at the university. And I even found a site online about an ultimate frisbee team in Barcelona. they play on the beach once a week. I want to be friends with them. =) Well, internet time is about up. More when I get a chance and have more to tell--I harldy feel Im in Spain at this point, since were staying in a hotel. ciao.

Ok, this has nothing to do with Nicaragua or Spain. Its from Spring Break last year. The Everglades. I was testing some things on this blog, thought I'd leave it.