My luggage has arrived!

My luggage has finally made it! Yay! It was so nice to take a nap in my own pjs under my own sheets. The bed and pillow are still awful though.

So last night was my first night going out in the city. It was a blast. Well kind of. The bar we went to was having a party for all of the study abroad students in Barcelona. There was free food, beer champagne, and wine. (I steered clear of the wine and champagne for those of you who were in Australia understand this. haha) It was fun to mingle with everyone but there were so many people there that you could hardly even get to the bathrooms. It was pretty annoying actually. But I got a little dance on and had a few beers (yuck but it was better than the other choices) and had a really good time with my room mates. It wasn't like being at home with my friends but they are all really cool and as the days pass its so fun getting to know all of them.

Nothing exciting has happened yet today other than my luggage and I don't think anything exciting is going to happen. We might go walk around the city or at least our neighborhood (remember the word?) later. If my room mates every get up from their naps. We we met two American guys last night who have already been here for a semester so they know the ropes. One said he would take us on a tour if we wanted so maybe we'll take him up on it.

One thing I wanted to do for myself is list things that are culture shock or little things I've already noticed about the city, and since this blog is my journal.... you get to read them too!

Culture shock:

-Everything is in Spanish. Ok so this might sound dumb and I obviously knew it would be the case but its so annoying. I know Spanish decently well, enough to get by but its just hard to see Spanish everywhere, especially in stores but then they had to go and make it difficult and speak Catalan which has like French influence. You can usually decipher the words but when they speak it it is hard. Back to the stores, for instance, I was looking for skim milk. No idea how to say that in Spanish. So we went with soy milk.... oh well I don't mind it.
-They don't drive on the opposite side of the street. I thought everywhere in Europe drove on the opposite side.
-I don't know how to use metros or buses in the city. I attribute that to my "amazing" small town up bringing.
-Everyone drives a moped. And they are crazy drivers. Women drive them wearing skirts and high heels. It is quite a sight. Yea mujeres! (women)
-Most people are pleasant but a lot look at you like "stupid American"
- No tipping! YAY! I mean everything is expensive enough I'm so glad I don't have to tip on top of it. The only time you really tip is if your service at a restaurant is excellent or in a cab you usually round up to the nearest euro.

So those are the things that were and still are a little bit of culture shock. At least all the ones I can think of right now.

This weekend I have to go on a orientation trip to Valencia. It is just south of Barcelona and we have to ride a bus. Can't wait to get car sick! I don't know how I feel about it because I have to be at the bus at 7:45 in the morning and then do touristy things all weekend. I wish I could just stay around here and get settled. Especially since I just got my luggage. But I gotta get going though. We have an orientation welcoming thing tonight. It will probably be really lame but oh well, supposedly there will be free food. Since I will be gone this weekend this is the last post until Sunday. But I am sure that I will have plenty of things to talk about when I get back.

-Adeu-siau (goodbye in Catalan)