La Playa

Sorry for the absence! Kelli and I have been so busy living the cultured life! But I haven't forgotten that I need to catch up on my blog posts. Last Thursday, Kelli had orientation again in the afternoon, so I went and hung out at the IES center, enjoying my peanut butter sandwich on their cool terrace. IES is a great program. It is so well run and the faculty is incredible. Not to mention the facility is one of a kind! After Kelli's orientation ended, we walked down the fun and busy Las Ramblas to visit a few stores. H&M is a clothing store that unfortunately is not as prevalent in the United States. Lucky for us, they are all over Spain! We also visitied El Corte Inglés, a nine story department store filled with everything from designer purses to a grocery store to microwaves! At six in the evening, we were scheduled to meet up with other IES students and two faculty members for a jog to the beach and back. I cannot even express how wonderful it was! We ran close to 6 miles, and although have not run that far in a while, it felt great! Spain is a very active country, and there are always people out running in Barcelona. It was fun to run in a group (there were 12 of us in all), and since the faculty led the way, we got to see some awesome Barcelona sites that Kelli and I agreed we will have to visit when we aren't sweating :). I think the highlight of the jog was the portion along the boardwalk by the Mediterranean Sea. The water was so blue! And while I am still loyal to my South Padre Island because of the perfect waves, water, and sand, the color of the Mediterranean cannot be beat! Needless to say, my Thursday was great!