Life in Barcelona

Greetings to all!

I am now safely in Barcelona, Spain.  First impression - a very good one!  Coming out of Madrid was another exhausting journey.  We had to take the metro to our train with ALL of our luggage.  After these two weeks, I think my arms will either have fallen off completely or will look like man arms.  I think one of the most challenging parts about this two weeks is having so much luggage to carry everywhere we stay.  But the nice thing is, once we get to our destinations, it is so worth it.  We made it to our train plenty early, and boarded around lunch time.  Let me tell you, these trains were fantastic!  Very smooth ride, plenty of luggage space, and way more leg room than you get on a plane.  After a three hour ride, we found ourselves in Barcelona!  Thankfully, our apartment was just a short walk from the station.  This apartment is also pretty nice.  It gets a little hot at times, but has plenty of space and a kitchen.  We got our groceries and before eating dinner, we had a really nice talk as a group.  It is so fun getting to know new people better.  Our group gets along so well, and I can already tell I'm learning so much from them.  Thank God for differences - they teach us SO much.

After having an exquisite dinner of frozen pizza and carrots, we decided to go see this giant fountain in Barcelona that has a show where they have music go along with the water.  It was called the Barcelona Magic Fountain and let me tell you...it was magical!  We took the metro there, and Barcelona is very pretty at night.  It is big, but wasn't near as overwhelming as Madrid.  We found a great spot and sat and watched the fountain light up and play music.  It was HUGE and amazing - full of color.  They could make the water look like smoke...it was cool!

Today, we had some breakfast in the apartment and then took the metro to this church called "La Sagrada Familia."  The building for this church started in the late 1800s and is still going on today!  If you saw it, you would understand why.  Seriously, the most beautiful church I have ever seen.  On the outside of the church, there are three facades displayed on the walls.  Two are finished at this point in time.  One represents the birth of Jesus, containing the scene at Bethlehem as well as some other events of Jesus' life as a child.  The other finished one is the passion of Jesus (my favorite).  A tour guide told us that this part was designed by the artist with a lot of sharp lines to make it look mellow and solemn.  This one started with the Last Supper and pushed all the way through to Jesus being laid in the tomb.  There was also a cryptogram on this facade that I recognized immediately.  At home, my mom has these coasters that have numbers in four rows going up and down.  If you add the numbers up in any direction, they add up to 33 - the age of Jesus when He died.  I got really excited when I saw that cryptogram - something in Spain is also at home!  The last facade will contain the Glory of Jesus.  The church was huge and breathtakingly beautiful.  I would love to show pictures now, but believe it or not, I forgot my camera.  My mom asked me multiple times if I had it and I intended to check right before I left.  I got so caught up in getting ready to leave and say goodbye that it slipped my mind.  Sorry mom :-/...but luckily for me, I have some friends who are excellent at photography and are kind enough to share with me :).  They can take way better, creative pictures than I can anyway.  So eventually, I will put some pictures on here for all of you to see, so stay tuned please!  Anyway, this church is supposed to get done sometime in the 2020s I believe, so I would LOVE to go back here and see the completed project.

After that, we walked to a park that climbed up high with stairs and paths.  They had perfect spots for you to view the whole city of Barcelona.  Soooo pretty.  You can see all of the city, plus the ocean in the background.  It made me realize how small we really are.  From this view, Barcelona looked huge and seemed to stretch out on the earth forever.  But in reality, Barcelona fills up such a tiny section of the entire earth.  Wow.

We are about to eat some sandwiches for dinner, and then I'm not sure what the rest of tonight holds!  Looking forward to tomorrow - we are going to the beach :).  Continuing to learn and grow everyday.  They say you should learn at least one new thing everyday...I'd say right now I'm averaging about 20 ;) later gators!