¿Porque?

hmm... so i was told before i came that a lot of the rest of the world hates america/ameriacans. that may be true...but most everyone we have come across seems to be fascinated by the fact we are from the states and ask us a lot of questions about celebrities and different things about the country and its culture. only one time..i was talking to this guy outside of school...and after i told him where i was from he asked me "is it true that all americans are more stupid than the rest of the world?" he ACTUALLY asked me that. i just looked at him like "uh.. are you serious?" he didnt see anything wrong with asking..he just wanted to know. haha...some people.

so we went out the other night to this bar that was pretty cool... it was like fairy tale themed... and i know that sounds strange...but it was really nice and pretty cool...here are some pictures.






the sweden girls! Lisa, Mel and Matilda





the roomates!! Mel (waffle), Me (brewkay), Matilda (macaroni) and Em (kuney-kune)


em, roquel, me





we went to this other bar that specialized in having "themed" shots...like over 200 different kinds....some kinds that you light on fire...some kinds that you suck out some kind of gas...we tried one that was called a "harry potter" and it was this shot of something...with an orange slice on top that had cinnamon and sugar on it...and then they lit it on fire while tossing in cinnamon causing it to go ¨whoosh...whoosh¨and get really big.. it was fun.. and then we did one called ¨the marshmellow....where they give you marshmellows on a toothpick... and light this shot on fire and then you roast your marshmellow until its roasted...then dip it in the shot and then take the shot... they were all pretty cool. here is a pic of the harry potter shot.



Friday night was mel´s last night in town....so got a group of people together (girls from brazil, turkey, sweden and then us)and went out for sushi. It was really good for us because one of the girls didnt speak any english...so we had to all communicate in spanish... it was difficult...but really cool to see how far ive come in two weeks. after sushi we all came back to our apartment for a little while to pregame a little and relax before we did the "late night" going out. Lisa was playing music and i asked if she had any justin timberlake... and she put it on and i told her how when im at home... its a known fact if i have people over... there will be some justin playing over and over... and its like a justin timberlake party. and she goes "okay. thats it! im getting a facebook (we had been telling her she needed to get on to keep in touch with us) and im coming to the USA to come to a justin timberlake partÿ!!¨she was so serious about it...it was great. To help me study... i made some flashcards of spanish phrases and verb conjucations and random vocab words...Well... somehow this stack of cards was found and everyone thought it would be funny to go around all night with a spanish phrase as a nametag..and apparently had some sort of nametag photoshoot frenzy. one girl was passed out on the couch with a blanket on top of her and we put the ¨¿Porque?¨card on her... im sure its one of those "you had to be there" moments...but it was really funny... when we get pictures back from that night i will have to post them (or maybe not..)
anyway...it was another late night of going out that night too...after the photoshoot we went out to "pacha" some club... and stayed out really late. too late for me... im only 23 and i feel like im too old to be staying out so late...yikes.

Mel moved out saturday morning...then the cleaners came to set up for a new girl to come.... the cleaner told us that we were in the wrong room...and should have been in a bigger room...so we happily moved to Mel´s old room. muuuuch better :) Me, Emily, Matilda and Lisa spent all day at the Port Olimpica Beach...it was really nice


when we got back from the beach, our new roomate was moving in! her name is claudia and she is from Austria! no pictures yet... but im sure we will have some to come! she seems really nice so im sure it will be great!

oh yes! Emily got switched the morning classes...so thats really great that we will be able to go site-seeing or go to the beach together after class everyday!

in other exciting news....im going to FRANCE this weekend to visit my friend Ellen! im flying into paris on friday and staying through sunday. Ellen is a friend of mine from school in nashville...and she is spending the semester in Frace for a study abroad program...and when she returns..shes gonna be my new roomate!! Anyway, i didnt think i was going to be able to see her until december, so putting this weekend trip together was very exciting for the both us!

today, we spent all afternoon on this tourbus that has 44 different stops all over barcelona, and you can get on and off as much as you want all day....it stopped at all the main tourist sights and landmarks and had an audio guide in whatever language you chose to go along with it... it was pretty interesting! here is one of our favorite stops...Gaudi´s La Sagrada Familia. it was stunningly beautiful. here is a pic


tuesday is a holiday here in barcelona... not sure for what (i should look that up) -- but we are off of school...so emily and i are gonna spend the day hiking up Mt. Tibidabo. we are pretty excited about that :)

again...im running out of time at the internet cafe so ive got to go for now... just know we are having so much fun and learning so much and LOVING it! and we love you too!

mac and cheese

quick story

last night, emily and i were talking to our roomate, Matilda and her friend Lisa, both from Sweden.

brooke: if you guys come to america... we can show you some really good food...
emily: oh yeah, southern food....macaroni and cheese
matilda: macaroni and cheese? ive heard of it?
lisa: yeah...i think a friend of mine got it for her birthday once and she wasnt too happy.
matilda: wait...is it a place or is it a food?


me and emiliy: hahahahahahahahahahahhahahaha

we were laughing so hard we were crying... and even in class today i laughed to myself when i thought about it. i love our european friends. we are in the process of getting all our pictures onto a cd...so more pictures and stories to come

the adventures of brewkay and kuney-kune

hey hey!! we met a friend who has the same camera as emily...so we were able to charge up our batteries!!

we are having the BEST time here... i mean we really really LOVE it here. i could totally live here.... we are making so many friends from all over the world. new friends from Sweden, Holland, Brazil, Australia, Germany, Iceland, Russia, China....and all over really.

well...we are kinda obsessed with Barcelona...its so great. i just have to talk about the city for a little bit.

taken from my europe guide book...
"Perhaps Spain´s most un-Spanish city, stylish Barcelona is a forward-thinking place, always on the cutting edge of art, design and cuisine. Whether you explore its medieval palaces and plazas, gawk at the modernist masterpieces, shop for designer duds along its stylish boulevards, sample its exciting nightlife or just soak up the sun on the city beaches, you´ll be hard-pressed not to fall in love with this vibrant city."

AHH.. sums it up so well! some interesting facts about Barcelona. it was the home to the worlds only albino gorilla (sadly, the gorilla died before we got here). about 25% of the population are chain smokers (i feel like its even higher than that!), 90% Catholic, home of the 5,200 meter sausage (world record), official language is Catalan (not spanish...although everyone speaks both). The only english word derived from Catalan?....yacht. how random is that? home of the world famous art such as Salvidor Dali, Pablo Picasso, and Gaudi. Has the largest aquarium in all of europe. it has the Mediterranean SEA. home of Las Ramblas...one of the worlds most famous streets. home of futbol (soccer) team, El Barca, that plays in a stadium that holds 120,000 screaming fans. one of the most interesting things i think about Barcelona is how lunch is the most important meal of the day... and the entire day goes on a 3 hour siesta (nap) from around 12-3ish. literally...almost everything shuts down during those hours so people can go home and be with their families.

here are some pics of our apartment. the living room, dining room, kitchen, bedroom, hallway that leads to the bathroom and the other bedrooms.














one of our roomates left (rowena from holland) and we got a new one, Matilda, also from Sweden (our other roomate, Mel, is from Sweden too). we Loooooove our roomates!! we are making a bunch of friends and hanging out with them every day. Oh yeah...so everyone told me that everyone goes out LATE in barcelona.. and that really is true. Saturday night, we went OUT at 2 AM and didnt come home till around 6. we had a lot of fun dancing but we dont think we really need to stay out that late again.

saturday during the day we went to a real life labyrinth! it was really really cool..and in the middle of this beautiful park.


On sunday we went to Sitges..a beach about 30 min south of Barcelona...it was really nice. i could get used to all this beach on the Mediterranean man... its so beautiful!



oh yes....we have a rock star neighbor. apparently thats what he thinks. at all hours of the day and NIGHT this guy puts on headphones and sings his little heart out...its REALLY really awful. the other night it was at 2 am and it woke me up....went on for a good 30 min... i thought i was gonna go crazy. it took everything in me not to scream for him to shut up.

last night a group of us went out..our intention was to go to this champagnerria that is supposed to be really famous...but we arrived too late so we are going to go earlier tomorrow night. since we missed out on champagne and we were already down by the port..we just decided to go out there...it was really nice sitting around, eating, drinking and talking with friends from all over the world. real friends that really really like so much already.


me, Mel (one of the roomates) and Em


me,matilda (roomate),roquel (friend from Brazil), and Mel (roomate)


em,me,mel(roomate from sweden),and hannah


Jasper, Renata (another friend from brazil), Roquell(brazil), and Matilda (roomate from Sweden)



being robbed/pick-pocketted is EXTREMELY common here. its almost uncommon not to get your stuff stolen it seems. our roomate mel had her bag taken from someone on a bike riding by...just swiped it right out of her hands. on the metro the other day, right in front of us, we SAW these young GIRLS attempt to steal a wallet from an middle-age man. they got it out of his back pocket and were almost out the metro door but he grabbed it back from them and they took off. luckily...we are told that usually they arent dangerous...they wont try to hurt you to get your stuff... they will just steal what they can get. its still scary though...

sometimes, i try to speak to people in spanish outside of school... what i was attempting to say was "por favor, puedes hablar mas despacio" meaning "please can you speak more slowly" but what came out was "por favor, puedes hablar mas desperado" ....hahaha i asked if they could please speak more desperately. oops. i´m learning...


we have a lot of funny stories and little inside jokes that we are keeping up with... cant wait to share more stories when i get home! right now...im really not liking the idea of leaving :( i wish i could stay all semester and really get good at spanish. Speaking of... Classes are still going really well, learning so much!

love love love to you all!