My group at the Picasso Museum in Barcelona

(from left to right: Stephanie, Sophia, Zaida, Abby, Cherisse, Cesar, Anna, Ramon, me, Roland, and Nikki)

(from left to right: Cesar, Ramon, Cherisse, Anna, Nikki, me.)

August 4 (day 37 - last day)

August 4th 2010. This day is significant for me for two main reasons. Number one, its my 17th birthday. Number two, today I end one of the greatest experiences of my life.

I learned about a new culture and lifestyle. I practiced and improved my spanish. I learned an extensive amount about artists, artistic styles, and art history. I now know that my true passion is art and that whatever I decide to do for the rest of my life will definitely be in the creative field.

I have made amazing friendships with wonderful people that I hope will last for a very long time. Saying goodbye to them was very hard. I was really sad, but I knew it was going to end sooner or later. I knew the end is unavoidable.

But now I realize that every end is nothing less than a new beginning. I now have a different take on life. I know that I want to travel the world. In just five weeks, this program has changed me into a more open-minded and confident woman.

As I write this, tears swell up in my eyes as I remember all the good times and the memories I created on this trip. I will never forget this summer I spent in Spain.

August 1 (day 34)

I can't believe its already August 1st. The days are now quickly counting down before we all have to go our separate ways. Everyone knows this. I think this is what is bringing us closer. During the nights that we are free to walk around, I have found myself in the middle of deep conversations with certain people where we talk about our lives, share our past or present troubles, and our thoughts about certain things. I feel that with every en-counting hour I am growing more and more fond of the group of friends I have made here. Its going to be really hard to say goodbye to them.

The day before yesterday, we walked to Dalí's house in Port Lligat. This was Dalí's fixed abode from the 1930's up until 1982 when, upon his wife Gala's death, he left everything behind and left. Most has been left untouched since then. It was a very weird but cool-looking house. He was a collector of junk. The saying "one man's trash is another man's treasure" perfectly fits him.

Yesterday we went to the Greek/Roman ruins in Ampurias. It was a very exhausting day, but very interesting to see that parts of two-thousand-year-old walls and floors still remain after all this time.

Today we went kayaking! That was a ton of fun. We kayaked all the way to a lighthouse were we spent about an hour in this beautiful secluded beach. The water was perfectly clear.

July 28 (day 30)

Girona was beutiful city with stone buildings and narrow cobbled streets. To get to the hotel the first day was a challenge. We had to drag all our suitcases up eternal, uphill, stone streets but once we were situated, Anna, Ramon, Cesar and I had an adventure through the city's ruins.

During our days in Girona, we visited its magnificent cathedral and a film museum. We would spend our free time playing soccer on the skinny streets and walking around the city.

Yesterday, on our way to Cadaqués, we took a stop at Figueres to visit Dalí's museum. We were only given about an hour to see the entire museum. Basically I was running up and down, left to right, through the musem to be able to at least get a glimpse of everything. With all the running, and the strange paintings and sculptures, I ended up being kind of dizzy. I had a really weird dream that night, no doubt influenced by my experience that day.

In the afternoon we arrived at Cadaqués, a coastal city on the Costa Brava. I was absolutely stunned. It reminded me a liitle bit of the south of France. All the buildings were white with blue doors.

We spent our afternoon at the beach, which to many of my group member's surprise, was a beach of stones rather than of sand. The water was freezing cold. After I got a little bit used to it, I started skipping stones with Cesar, Ramon, Esther, Anna, and Sofia.

The guys' room had a huge balcony. Last night we had the idea of putting their beds outside and sleep there. The stars were beautiful. I've never seen a sky with that many stars in my life. If you stayed looking at the sky, every once in a while you would see a shooting star.

Today we took a beautiful hike all the way to a house that Guille's parents own just a few kilometers away from the main part of the town. On the way I was listening to the new Mute Math CD on my ipod. I loved how well the music went with the hike.

Guille's place was beautiful. It had a lot of windows so you can see the beautiful view from all parts of the second floor and it is right next to a cliff and a kind of lagoon where I spent my time climbing, exploring, and snorkeling.

July 25 (day 27)

Barcelona has been my favorite city so far. I loved everything about it. The food, the people, the modernity, the feel of it all, the colors. Everything.

In Madrid, I felt like we saw almost everything we needed to see, but with Barcelona I feel like we only scratched its surface.

July 22nd we went to La Pedrera. This building was designed by the Catalán architect Gaudí and is situated on the Passeig de Gracia. Gaudí would draw his inspiration from objects in nature like ocean waves, tree branches, acorns, etc. The limestone building seemed sculptural with curves, concavities, and voids of pale stone contrasting with dark iron.

We then visited the Tápies museum.

That night, Esther and a few of us (Anna, Roland, Ramon, Cesar, Nicole and I) went to see a movie that was being played on a huge projector screen outside in a plaza. The movie was called "Paris, Je t'Aime".

On July 23 we took a ride on the Teleférico up to the Castell de Montjuic. From there we went to a contemporary arts museum and then enjoyed the late afternoon to ourselves.

Yesterday we visited Parc Guell, which is a famous park with structures designed by Gaudí. We saw well-known structures like the dragon fountain adorned with beautiful, colorful tiling, twisting rock pillars that seem to be growing out of the ground like tree trunks, and the beautiful terrace with a twisting bench decorated with colorful mosaic and from which you see a breathtaking view of Barcelona. Esther, Anna, Ramon, Cesar, and I got lost on our way back to meeting with the rest of the group. It was an adventure.

That night the group went out to the nearby bars playing pool, foozeball, and dancing.

Today is the 25th of June. We are saying goodbye to our beloved Barcelona and on our way Girona.

July 21 (day 23)

Barcelona is Spain's second-largest city and a major industrial and commercial centre. On my arrival to this beautiful city yesterday, I was pleased to see its familiar streets and modern buildings. Its hard to explain, but Barcelona has this special charm that the other cities lack. It has a more artsy and modern feeling.

Soon after we dropped off our stuff at the apartment were going to be staying at located on Carrer de Sarria, just a few blocks away from La Sagrada Familia. We then went to the Picasso Museum. Last time I came to Barcelona six years ago, the Picasso Museum was closed. I was so excited to finally get to see it. It is located on Carrer Montcada, a street known for its elegant medieval structures. Two buildings were converted into the Picasso Museum, home to one of the most complete collections of works from his youth and formative years as an artist. It includes a number of childhood portraits and paintings, as well as engravings, drawings, and art from his Blue and Rose Periods.

The walk back home I remember being dead tired due to lack of sleep. The previous nights I had barely slept for my host brothers and sister wanted to hang out as much as they could with me before I left. I had my eyes closed through the whole walk while Ramon and Cesar directed me back to the apartment.

This morning we visited the Barcelona Pavillion designed by Mies Van der Rohe. The building was done for the Universal Exhibition in 1929 that took place in Barcelona and was used for the official opening of the German section of the exhibition. It was supposed to be a representation of the most modern side of German architecture. The building is the best example of Rationalism in architecture. In opposition to the natural forms of Gaudí and the old styles like gothic and neoclassical, Van der Rohe wanted to design something based on a mathematical style (against the organic),based on the approach "less is more". I liked how the eight metallic supporting pillars not hidden but rather formed an exterior skeleton.

After we visited the MNAC (Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya). It is situated on the side of the hill called Montjuic, where we all took great pictures of the city. Then we explored the museum's massive collection of roman, gothic, renaissance, baroque, and modern art.

From there we wen to the Fundació Joan Miró, which is the museum of Miró. I had previously visited this museum, but I had forgotten big chunks of it. It was a nice refresher. I really enjoy Miró's work. His use of simple and abstract shapes are very pleasing to the eye.