“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.”

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Wednesday 9 March 2011

Barcelona Part 1 of Spring Break extraordinaire!

READY...SET...GO!!!!
And this is where the story begins, Barcelona!!
Thursday: our first signts and sounds of Barcelona, aside from the airport, were the beach situated RIGHT NEXT to our hostel!
We arrived early that morning to beautiful weather and to this perfect site!
Good omen for our spring to begin with! Julia and I set out to explore the town, so after a walk on the beach, we got a snack of Greek food, then took a LONG walk to La Sagrada Familia. On the way, we passed the Arch de Triumf spain style and a stadium where there used to be the "torro, torro" events! Le Sagrade Familia in my favorite church...only second to St. Peter's basilica in the Vatican. Gaudi's Greatest work is still underway, since he never finished it himself, and it's definitely made HUGE progress since I was there 3 years ago! These pictures don't do it justice!

After Sagrada Familia, We caught a bus into the center of town to see a few more things, shop, and head back to the hostel to rest before going out. We got a little dolled up and met our fellow Spanish tracker (Rasa, Ashley, Morgan, Travis, and Liz) for a yummy dinner of Paella!

Friday: We started our Conference (the real reason we can to Barcelona; however, definitely not the only reason).

It was hosted at the Harvard of Spain, which was an absolutely Gorgeous school on top of a hill in Barcelona. The conference was called "Doing good, Doing well" Concerning the subject of sustainable development. It was a very nice conference, but exhausting. The evening we has a HUGE wonderful dinner at a restaurant named citrus, right across from Gaudi's house. We dined with our Spanish Trackers once again, then headed home for a much needed good night's rest.
Saturday: Day 2 of the conference. Heard some great lectures and watched several business competitions. Definitely inspiring for my future, and I was a little jealous that I couldn't compete. That Afternoon, we left a little early to get in a little bit of siteseeing as well as conferencing.
We found the Boqueria Market where I went picture crazy. Everything had vivid colours and Brilliant vitality! Irresistable to anyone with a camera.
Can Anyone find Waldo??

Anyways, after this, I witnessed maybe my favorite part of Spain. So wonderful I was actually crying with joy (maybe I shouldn't admit this, but I'll pass it off as my "soft side"). We came upon a group of older people doing a tradition dance of Spain. The most adorable and beautiful thing I've ever seen! I added two short videos, and I apologize that they are sideways...

After this Travis Julia and I took a rest at a local cafe, walked around a bit more, and then headed to join the others. Meet Travis and Julia!
The final eventful part of our day was when Travis Julia and I joined the rest of our compadres in Spain for dinner at a tapas restaurant. The food was incredible, so after a couple rounds, we ordered squid...shown below. While they were quite tasty, they should have put a warning label, that it's possible for them still to "ink" on you. So all of the sudden, my friends burst into raucous laughter...I tried to smile along with them even, thought I didn't get the joke. It wasn't until a few minutes later when I realized that my Whole mouth was black! EW! I didn't eat much after that, but it made for a great story...
The evening ended well with lots of laughter and sad farewells! Until next year!!

Barcelona=success! Now onto Italy!

Tuesday 8 March 2011

Is this Real life?

So some days, I'm quite convinced that I'm still dreaming. The past week was well, a week of that feeling exactly.

We had Winter Break this past week, so Julia, Lisa and I went on an adventure.

Here's the Brief summer of the week:
Thursday-Sunday: conference in Barcelona
Sunday: Milan
Monday: Cinque Terre
Tuesday-Thursday: Florence
Friday-Sunday: Strasbourg
I'm going to send out updates on each city soon, but I thought I'd start with my thoughts for the day.

Today I saw a man, who could barely walk. Every step was painstakingly slow and deliberate. It made me think of how quickly I can walk, just how easy it is for me, and how if I were that guy, I don't know if I would want to walk, take the effort. But he does, slowly and deliberately, because there are so many great things to see and opportunities to take advantage of us.

If Life get's better than this (which the optimist believes it will) than I think my overenthusiastic heart just might explode with joy. Here's to hoping...

Look for my Spring Break updates soon!!