Estoy Aqui!

I am here! Currently running on roughly two and a half hours of sleep since 9:30 am on Tuesday (New York time) I have already been out and about in the city and have officially decided I am going to like it here. At least a little bit. Okay a lot a lot.

The eight hour plane ride consisted of roughly six hours of European history and the development of languages occasionally broken up by personal stories of Miguel, the I would say 70-something year-old man in seat next to me. Little did I know that I would learn such valuable lessons, hear such touching stories, and learn interesting tid-bits like the fact that Andora is the only country in which Catalan is the official language, during my flight. He is quite the proud Catalonian even after living in several countries, currently in Queens, New York, and affirmed all that I had heard about how proud those of Catalonia are of their language and heritage. Also, after visiting Spain every year for over 40 years, Miguel pointed out with a blatant sense of pride that this was the first time there had been Catalan translations, as well as English and Spanish, of everything announced over the loud speaker of the plane. I understood little to none of the Catalan. Anyways, in any gap of silence when Miguel was preparing his next lesson or story I tried to sneak in a quick nap, obviously not too successful as I am rambling on quite out of it.

Nonetheless this lack of shut-eye has not slowed me down since we got off the plane. After we arrived to our hotel, Catalonia Plaza, we had a brief scare during check in as we heard shouts and turned around to see several men sprinting out of the lobby. All twenty of us had absentmindedly piled our luggage on the floor behind us while at the check in desk which proved to be tempting bait for pick-pocketers who must have seen a large group of obvious Americans walk into the hotel. They didn't get away with anything this time but it instantly increased our awareness. Lesson learned.

Of course there was no desire in the air to go to our rooms and rest so of course we set out for the city. From Las Ramblas, to the Port the Barcelona, to countless picturesque alleyways, to the metro system we have explored and tasted a bit of what life to come in Barcelona will be like. Over three hundred pictures later, which will hopefully be posted soon, we made our way back to the hotel. We have a welcome banquet in a couple of hours and then all are eager to get back out on the the town once again. More updates to come!