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!