Take anyone you've ever seen/heard of/stalked on Facebook, place them accordingly throughout Barcelona and call it Abroadfest. The majority of my pledge class (including both European abroad and several State College abroaders) convened together in the city that some of our friends have called home for this semester. (To those who could not attend, you were missed!)
The trip most definitely did not start off right for the Praha Penn State girls. The night before we left, our apartment gathered together to check in for our flights, only for Stacey to realize she inconveniently never actually booked hers, #totalsmamove. She rebooked her flight and though she couldn't make it onto ours, we were just happy she was actually able to make it to the city. Fast forward to our arrival in Barce. Kristina, Eric and I got into a cab and Eric ever so kindly dropped us off first at our hostel before heading to the boys. Approaching a sketchy door, we buzzed up to what we hoped wasn't actually where we booked to stay for the weekend. The experience went as follows:
-Lady on intercom: Hola
-Two small girls with no clue what they're in for: Hola, we're staying here.
*Buzzed up.
Sketchy? We don't know yet. In we walk, approaching a set of stairs and no other human to be found. The same voice again, "Hola" all the way from upstairs. I felt like a small child playing Marco Polo, as we followed the unfamiliar Spanish voice up the stairs with our luggage. We were greeted by a small woman who spoke not one ounce of English. Being the only other person in the building besides Kristina and myself, she "checked us in." By "checked us in" I mean she asked for my name and gave me a receipt on a piece of paper that was as legitimate as a napkin with a euro amount written on it. We entered our room and within .5 seconds made a unanimous decision that we would likely end up being the stars of Taken 4 if we continued our stay here. Thankfully, Teeman had our backs and her, Stacey, Kristina and I somehow ended up in a great, cheap hotel room together.
After whispering to each other as we got ready in Swells, Tiff and Ellie's apartment due to their psycho bitch neighbors, we all headed to Becca and Emily's apartment for a giant ASA/Sammy reunion pre game before Opium. I don't know if it was the overwhelming nature of seeing everyone I've ever met in one place, but I definitely wasn't as obsessed with Opium as everyone else that night.
The next day all 20-something of us gathered together in an attempt to tour the lovely city of Barthelona together. We can't even figure out where and how to get around State College all together, so I don't know how we ever thought we'd succeed in Spain. We ate at a delicious brunch place called Picnic, not so unexpectedly getting shushed every other minute. Our apologies Picnic customers, but that's what happens when you throw us back together for the first time in months. After we left there we took a PC picture in front of the Arc de Triomf and then argued about where to go for about 20 minutes. Classic. We ultimately decided on buying bottles of wine and popsicles and sat on Becca and Emily's rooftop (side note: if we had that in Praha I'd never go to class). We definitely didn't tour as much as I would have liked that day, but it was still amazing to see everyone again.
Saturday during the day we did did as the tourists do and Swells and Ellie took us to see the La Boqueria and Las Ramblas. Naturally we took a million and one pictures of everything we saw and wanted to eat everything we could. I loved everything about La Boqueria, though I was a tad bit scarred from the abundance of half-dead fish in front of me. I'm definitely one to enjoy a nice piece of salmon, but I'd rather not watch it squirm and suffer before it lands on my plate. After that we went to an absurd day party near the water which also happened to be in a mall. Still confused about that one. We concluded our day with a pledge class meal before we went out, where many of us decided to be adventurous and eat paella. Apparently to the Spanish fish is food, not friends.
Our Barcelona excursion concluded with the best pre game I've probably ever gone to. The night before, Swells, Vikki and Dani befriended the owner of Opium's son and set up a pre game at one of his millions of fabulous clubs. We walked into a VIP section only to be flooded with bottles of free Absolut and Spanish boys lined up to meet us. Not to turn a pre game into an educational experience, but it was actually really cool to talk to the Spanish boys about the differences between our lives and compare what we knew. Apparently Wifi in Spain is "wee-fee" and it's really cool that we live in New York? After a successful pre game we happily accepted the VIP bracelets they provided for us and embraced Opium for the shit show that it is until 5 am the next morning. We slept for about 4 hours and ventured to the airport to make our way back to Praha. We were sad to say goodbye to our friends but happy to be back at our home base.
The trip most definitely did not start off right for the Praha Penn State girls. The night before we left, our apartment gathered together to check in for our flights, only for Stacey to realize she inconveniently never actually booked hers, #totalsmamove. She rebooked her flight and though she couldn't make it onto ours, we were just happy she was actually able to make it to the city. Fast forward to our arrival in Barce. Kristina, Eric and I got into a cab and Eric ever so kindly dropped us off first at our hostel before heading to the boys. Approaching a sketchy door, we buzzed up to what we hoped wasn't actually where we booked to stay for the weekend. The experience went as follows:
-Lady on intercom: Hola
-Two small girls with no clue what they're in for: Hola, we're staying here.
*Buzzed up.
Sketchy? We don't know yet. In we walk, approaching a set of stairs and no other human to be found. The same voice again, "Hola" all the way from upstairs. I felt like a small child playing Marco Polo, as we followed the unfamiliar Spanish voice up the stairs with our luggage. We were greeted by a small woman who spoke not one ounce of English. Being the only other person in the building besides Kristina and myself, she "checked us in." By "checked us in" I mean she asked for my name and gave me a receipt on a piece of paper that was as legitimate as a napkin with a euro amount written on it. We entered our room and within .5 seconds made a unanimous decision that we would likely end up being the stars of Taken 4 if we continued our stay here. Thankfully, Teeman had our backs and her, Stacey, Kristina and I somehow ended up in a great, cheap hotel room together.
After whispering to each other as we got ready in Swells, Tiff and Ellie's apartment due to their psycho bitch neighbors, we all headed to Becca and Emily's apartment for a giant ASA/Sammy reunion pre game before Opium. I don't know if it was the overwhelming nature of seeing everyone I've ever met in one place, but I definitely wasn't as obsessed with Opium as everyone else that night.
The next day all 20-something of us gathered together in an attempt to tour the lovely city of Barthelona together. We can't even figure out where and how to get around State College all together, so I don't know how we ever thought we'd succeed in Spain. We ate at a delicious brunch place called Picnic, not so unexpectedly getting shushed every other minute. Our apologies Picnic customers, but that's what happens when you throw us back together for the first time in months. After we left there we took a PC picture in front of the Arc de Triomf and then argued about where to go for about 20 minutes. Classic. We ultimately decided on buying bottles of wine and popsicles and sat on Becca and Emily's rooftop (side note: if we had that in Praha I'd never go to class). We definitely didn't tour as much as I would have liked that day, but it was still amazing to see everyone again.
Saturday during the day we did did as the tourists do and Swells and Ellie took us to see the La Boqueria and Las Ramblas. Naturally we took a million and one pictures of everything we saw and wanted to eat everything we could. I loved everything about La Boqueria, though I was a tad bit scarred from the abundance of half-dead fish in front of me. I'm definitely one to enjoy a nice piece of salmon, but I'd rather not watch it squirm and suffer before it lands on my plate. After that we went to an absurd day party near the water which also happened to be in a mall. Still confused about that one. We concluded our day with a pledge class meal before we went out, where many of us decided to be adventurous and eat paella. Apparently to the Spanish fish is food, not friends.
Our Barcelona excursion concluded with the best pre game I've probably ever gone to. The night before, Swells, Vikki and Dani befriended the owner of Opium's son and set up a pre game at one of his millions of fabulous clubs. We walked into a VIP section only to be flooded with bottles of free Absolut and Spanish boys lined up to meet us. Not to turn a pre game into an educational experience, but it was actually really cool to talk to the Spanish boys about the differences between our lives and compare what we knew. Apparently Wifi in Spain is "wee-fee" and it's really cool that we live in New York? After a successful pre game we happily accepted the VIP bracelets they provided for us and embraced Opium for the shit show that it is until 5 am the next morning. We slept for about 4 hours and ventured to the airport to make our way back to Praha. We were sad to say goodbye to our friends but happy to be back at our home base.
Visitors on Visitors on Visitors
After being called a "blog delinquent" by my mother, who along with my father gave me the privilege of even coming abroad in the first place, I figured it was time to get back on my blog grind. Way too much has happened since Interlaken and we moved apartments I don't even know where to begin. So, here I go. The weekend after Interlaken we decided to lay low in Praha; and by lay low I mean have half of the abroad population of Barcelona girls + 2 abroad University of Michigan girls stay with us in our apartment. Just imagine the combination of 6 Penn State, 5 Maryland, and 2 Michigan girls all sharing 5 beds, 1 couch, and 1 bathroom. The result: an abundance of stories that I wouldn't dare publicize in order to save my friends' good names. I could bore you with the details of each Prague site we saw and when, but instead I'll just say the beauty of Prague is even better when you get to show it off to your friends.