Cultured even on a rainy day.

Today was a miserable, rainy day. Since I didn't have work, I woke up nice and late :) We went to the mercat (Catalan word for market) and bought some veggies, fruits and pastries. YUM! I feel like I have been very busy which causes me to blog less and less. This past week I started my Italian class, took a salsa class, and enjoyed some sangria with the only Mexican mariachi band in town lol.

Italian - Um, its gonna take me a little while to get the hang of it. I understand half of which she is saying which is bazaar, but speaking is a while other obstacle in itself. Since I am going to Italy next month, my goal is to learn the survival phrases by the time the trip comes. I really like the new interns in the class too :) I feel like we can definitely have some good times!

Salsa class - Really fun, very basic and VERY crowded! But overall it was an experience. And I think I can say this in my blog because I don't think this particular person will read this but - some one reallllllly smelled. And oh lord, that just made the experience a tad dreadful. Im also wearing my new ZARA shirt in this pic :)

Mexican Mariachi - These people should go on the X-Factor or something. They were so good!! They tried playing puerto rican songs for me but it was a fail. Apparently Mexicans aren't big fans of Marc Anthony, Ricky Martin or Selena Quintanilla (even though SHE was mexican!!)

ROOMIES :)

Yet another chocolate croissant that I ate earlier this week. YUM!!!!

A few things I picked up at the mercat today :)

I prefer "nude" as a color choice.

Some may feel liberalized while nude, but I don't. Especially at the beach. This weekend I went to Sitges, a small town filled with lots of "personality" and known for its constant beautiful weather and beach.

We didn't bring swim suits because the day started out so cold. It turned out to be a beautiful day and we ended up being fully clothed at the beach while others were wearing their swimsuits, OR nothing at all!!!

We still made the best of it and hung out at the beach and later did some shopping. Although I expected a little more from this town, I have to admit it was very cute.

I am looking forward to taking the Barcelona Bus Tour this week. I can't wait to see what Barcelona STILL has to offer!! Including un-nude beaches lol.

La Sagrada Familia.

I have never seen such a beautiful church in my life. The second I walked in, I cried. We also went on the lift and it took us to the very top of La Sagrada Familia. We were able to see all of Barcelona and the view was breathtaking (the stairs on the way back down freaked me out though).

Words aren't enough to explain the beauty of this church. Whether you define yourself as a religious person or not, this place has the capability of making you believe in a higher power. I cannot explain the feeling that went through me as I walked in and saw this massive church. This kind of energy makes you believe that anything is possible. It makes you feel safe. And you can't help but feel that you are in the presence of complete and utter greatness. This kind of energy makes you cry.

I was left in awe. Enjoy the photos and keep in mind that these photos do not depict the detail and energy that left me with goosebumps.

Outside the church.

This is the ceiling!

As we were going down the stairs.

Add these numbers from left to right, right to left, diagonally, outer four corners or inner four corners and it sums 33 - the age Jesus was sacrificed.

The main entrance door of the church - it documents the last days of Jesus' life.

Bulls Reunited.

Mr. Juan Gonzalez graced us with his presence last night. It was so great to meet up with a friend from home. Since we didn't have direct communication through phones, we used Facebook. This resulted in delayed communication which resulted in Kristine and I waiting in the lobby for half an hour.

After bumping into Juan's family in the lobby, we were on our way to find a restaurant. So we found one, then left. Kristine wanted McDonalds and I was TOTALLY okay with that! Even though Kristine got yelled at for taking pictures of the menu, we still enjoyed ourselves.

Juan is in for the time of his life and I truly wish him well. Tomorrow he leaves for Italy on a cruise. Then he will visit Paris. He told us that the trip had been in the works for two years. I am so excited for him. And I loved catching up with him. Before we departed, we took a picture with our signature bull horns. Representing USF til the end baby!!!

Sneak peek of where I work!!!

For those of you who do not know, I intern at IMS Consulting. They do public relations, sales and marketing for luxury hotels and when I say luxury, I mean LUXURY. These hotels are insanely beautiful and very expensive. They are commonly used as venues for high profile events and they accommodate celebrities, CEO's and very wealthy people (who are respectively considered VIP's).

Today, Jessica, the youngest and newest employee at IMS, showed me the route to the post office and also showed me where they commonly meet clients. We bonded and she told me that she interned for fashion PR companies in London and New York. I told her that I would be here for two months and she said that it was not enough time! That's a first!

I look forward to shadowing the other employees. There are some events in the near future that I get to help plan and hopefully I get to sit in on a meeting with journalists. They work directly with Vogue, ELLE, Glamour, Esquire, Harpers Bazaar and other popular magazines. I never thought that hotels would be promoted in fashion magazines just as much as in travel magazines. The placement of their promotions is genial.

I hope to eventually get to a point in my public relations career where I can travel to meet clients as much as these people do. It seems so fun and interesting. And I love how fast-paced it is. I definitely look forward to more days at IMS.

My Office that I share with Tesia (a fellow intern and newest friend)

Fooling around in the bathroom. It was a casual and COLD day!

Tesia, the Atlanta Sweetheart :)

Cocinando en Barcelona.

Dinner was AMAZING tonight!! I may be biased because I did help make it. CIS treated us to a Catalan cooking class and I LOVED it. I cant tell you all how much I loved this class. I can talk about this forever.

The chef was awesome! His name was Chef Ignacio and he reminded me of a cartoon character. He was so animated (no pun intended). He was sarcastic and quirky and we spoke to him in Spanish the entire time. It was good practice. I did not leave his side. I was quite the teachers pet. As soon as I put on the apron, I didn't stop. All of the information was like a drug and I wanted to keep learning more and more.

My favorites were the Paella, Potato Omlette and Tomato Bread. All of these recipes are amazingly simple. I am amazed that classes like this are offered to tourists. If we do end up going to Italy, I want to take an Italian cooking class. I think that would be so much fun!

El Menu:

Chupito de Sopa de Tomate al Aroma de Idiazabal (Cold Tomato Soup)

Tortilla de Patatas y Pan con Tomate (Potato Omlette and Tomato Bread)

Paella Valencian Style

Crema Catalana (Catalan Cream - similar to Creme Brulee)

Cooking the Paella

The Tomato Soup

Potato Omlette

Paella

Crema Catalana

My Specialty :) My little omlette came out "PERFECTO" according to Chef Ignacio!

Chef Ignacio

McDonalds in Barcelona!!!

It was chillyyyy today!! It was perfect though because I got to wear a new scarf! After work, Tesia (a fellow intern) and I decided to try out McDonald's. MAN was it different. First off, their McFlurries do not have mini M&Ms in them. They crush up peanut M&Ms and put them on top of the ice cream. It was still good, but it was strange.

They don't fall short with value either! They have a Euro menu haha! They have chicken wings and onion rings on it. They have a lot of different things are their menus including BEER, donuts, croissants and gelato in a waffle cup!

Tonight we will all be going to a Catalan cooking class. It should be fun and the photos of the food will probably be more beautiful than this American food.

Afterward, we went shopping a little. I just got a wallet that reminded me of my mom. So we'll see if she likes it. If not, I have no problem using it because its really cute.

We passed by a boutique and the sign said: "Be back in 1 minute" LOL. Usually siesta is atleast three hours, so I can deal with waiting a minute!