I can’t believe that it’s already been a week since I left Pittsburgh and arrived in Barcelona!  My journey was long and tiring, but I arrived here safely and am getting accustomed to life in Barcelona pretty well.

When I stepped off the plane, I was greeted with beautiful rays of sunshine and warm, fresh air.  I instantly smiled and felt so excited, especially since when I left Pittsburgh it was almost below 0 degrees and was covered in snow.  I was also very excited to start putting my Spanish skills to use again.  When I went through customs, the officer and I had a complete interaction all in Spanish.  I was very proud of myself especially not having spoken Spanish since the summer.  I also think that this positive interaction in the beginning of this trip has given me a lot more confidence to use Spanish in any situation I can.  Even though it’s only been a week, I’ve been able to talk to workers in a store, at the post office, understand a complete tour in Spanish, and converse with my new roommates.

Speaking of my roommates, the website I booked my housing through, Housinganywhere.com, only told me that I would have 3 roommates, and that’s all.   Therefore, I didn’t know any of them before moving in or anything about them, but I just decided to go for it and hope for the best.  So far, it’s working out great!  Everyone is very friendly and nice, and also around the same age as me.  What’s also cool is that each of them is from a different place.  Dani is here from Barcelona, Jema is from Málaga in the south of Spain (which is where I did a beach weekend over the summer), and Valeria is from a town near Milan, Italy.  Jema and Valeria can both speak English, but we all mostly converse in Spanish together, which I like since I really want to improve.

The apartment we live in is really nice.  We share a bathroom, kitchen, and living room/dining room, which all get cleaned by someone who works here (no chores yay!).  We each have our own bedrooms.  My room is nice and cozy.  I have a pretty large dresser, a desk, end table, bed, and even a floor mat that is perfect for doing yoga (I’m not sure if that’s the true intent for it or not, but that’s what I’ll be using it for).  My bed has a cute little pillow that says, “Hoy va a ser a un gran dia” which means, “today is going to be a great day,” and how could I not believe that waking up every day in Barcelona?

Hasta la vista!