I have arrived in Spain..Barcelona is amazing!

Hey! I just wanted to let you all know that I have safely arrived in Barcelona and am having a BLAST. I absolutely love this city. It has a vibe to it that makes me already want to plan a return trip and I still have 2-3 days left here. I´ve successfully met up with 3 of my friends, and we are awaiting the arrival of the 5th to our hostal this evening (it´s currently 6pm).

I´m learning all about the hostal life which exists here in Europe. You have 7 other random roommates crammed into a tiny place, and could find all sorts of negatives about it if you wanted, but all of us are looking at all the positives. You meet people from all around the world who are also college age and are also travelling. In my room right now, the other 4 people (not including us) are fage in the world except Spanish. The people here don´t even speak spanish - the language Catalan is spoken very commonly (it´s a mix of french and spanish), and all the signs and postings here are in that language. I am loving my time here but it feels like I´m in a very international setting - not necessarily in a spanish speaking country. It has a very different vibe from Argentina where I was immersed from minute one.rom Norway, Belgium and Canada. We went out on the town last night with people from Canada, LA, Scotland, England and Germany. It´s just really fun to meet people from all over the world.

The only negative is that I´ve heard minimal spanish around here. We are in a VERY good location (when it comes to things to do), we are right in the center of the city, but really it´s quite the tourist area and you hear every language BUT spanish. Even locally, a language called Catalan is spoken, which is a mix between french and spanish. All the signs and menus are in this language, which is readable but certainly not pure spanish. This makes it have a very different vibe from Argentina, where I was immersed in the culture and language the moment I arrived. There will be more time for Spanish when we go to places less touristy, but for now I´m enjoying seeing the sights.

I´ll let you all know more about my adventures a little later. I don´t have much internet access in this hostal (and no wireless), and have to wait in a line to get on to one of the TWO functioning computers here, so I will be spotty on my posts. But I´ll do my best!

Once again, I hope all of your summers are going amazingly!

-Nate