Hola!

I am writing from a business center in a hotel....pretty snazzy. But the keyboard is Spanish and all funky, so I am sorry for the spelling and typing errors.

Since my parents have arrived in Barcelona, time has FLOWN! Friday we just hung out and went to a great dinner at Biblioteca that night. My thai salad reminded me of the thai crunch salad at CPK and I got homesick haha. Me and food...its bad news bears. Saturday consisted of me sleeping in, taking a bus tour....which we only went 3 stops, hanging at Starbucks, showing them my apartment...which semi-frightened them. They worry way too much. That night we went to dinner at Botefumiero and had the LARGEST plate of seafood I have ever seen in my life. It was almost intimidating. It was an amazing restaurant. I´ll try to post pictures later.

Sunday morning was cozy and lazy and I wanted to take them to Sitges...a town that Peter and I had visited for the first time a week earlier and saw the most gorgeous sunset. So we are all excited to take Lou and all go hang at this cool beach town. We get off the train and it is POURING! Louis is about to kill me because he is miserable and sopping wet. We end up running into a sports bar restaurant....yes we are the ugly Americans. My mom had this genius idea of how to dry off Louis....we went to the bathroom and stuck him under the hand dryer for a good 10 minutes and he was all better. Just picture the image....because it was hilarious. After that, we came back to Barcelona and got ready for a dinner with some family friends. We went to a restaurant called 7 Portes which had a very cool ambiance. Unknown to my parents....I am not a fan of paella...and we had it for dinner...but actually it was pretty good! Better than the first time. So while I am not about to go pay for it again...I am glad I gave it another shot. After dinner was over, we said bye to our friends and went to the W Hotel, a new hotel in Barcelona that was REALLY nice. We had desert...by a fireplace. If you know me well....you know how much I love a good fireplace...something I have not had once since I have been here. Our apartment barely has heat...let alone a fireplace. So I just sat there and enjoyed it. The hotel really was cool though. Afterwards, bedtime because unforunately I had a midterm in the morning.

I wake up early Monday morning, study, then go take my final. I go back to the hotel and we all decide to go out to lunch. We went to La Ciudad Condal or something...a cool little tapas restaurant...where we split tapas and 3 deserts. Then, while we were eating lunch, it started snowing!! LEGIT SNOW! on the ground coming out of the sky....snow flakes and all. This is the SECOND time, as you may recall from my trip to Rome, where it has unpredictably started snowing. Barcelona has had a few flurries before....like maybe every 7-10 years, but they said this is the biggest snow they have had in 30 years!!! There was snow all over the ground. No people outside. No cars outside. And no salt. We stayed in all day to keep warm, except when mom and I ran to grab some gelato. Yes. Gelato as it is blizzarding outside in Barcelona. Now I don´t mean to complain about the cold when I know it is much colder in the US, but it was bizarre. And let´s just say I didn´t really come to Barcelona with snow gear or any warm weather clothes. I mean I had to buy the red coat here. I didn´t even bring a coat to begin with. My clothing is not at all meant for this type of weather.

I have a lot of work this week unforunately while my parents are here. So last night, they went out to dinner and I stayed back to do work. Good news is....they found a great pizza place for me to try! And brought me back a slice. I passed out early.

This morning....no snow on the ground. It is all gone. I still have class so I think we are going to go grab lunch and then I am off to class again. Tonight is their last night in Barcelona, they are going to Paris tomorrow. So we will go to dinner. Then after my other midterms on Thursday, I will fly to Paris also! It´s going to be a great weekend.

After my parents leave, a week later, I am so excited to see my cousin Erin!! We are going to have an amazing time, and hopefully it is a lot warmer by then and she won´t need a winter coat. Now I just need to get work done. Have a happy tuesday!

Besos!