How many blondes does it take to...

...figure out the wireless internet in the Hotel Gran Ducat-Barcelona? Apparently three. So now I can update you all on our first two days of living in Barcelona!

All of us made it in one piece, although Kelsey's luggage is still MIA. The hotel is very nice, minus the receptionist speaking about as much English as Brian speaks Spanish and the odd earthquake sensation that occurs about every half hour. To celebrate our first night, we treated ourselves to a pizza and a bottle of cava (Catalunyan champagne) in a restaurant over looking Las Rambles (the central pedestrian street of old Barcelona).

Today, the first full day, was full of educational opportunities. After I checked in, we bought our metro tickets and went exploring. Our plan was to check out everyone's apartment as a way of learning the metro. Mine, being the furthest from the city center, was first. We thought we found it, but my key wouldn't work. With neither cell phones or a working pay phone (it just ate my two euros), we decided to move on to Kelsey's. (Don't worry, after meeting up with my RA I figured out that we were looking at Plaza St. Joaquim instead of Plaza Joaquim Folguera. Oops!). Kelsey's apartment is within walking distance and one metro stop away from mine and borders a beautiful park. Hayley's is in Eixample, the more centralized barrio, where we had our first menu del día (three courses for a fixed priced, muy barato y delicioso!)

After dinner, we headed to our first class, international strategic management. The course is a regular course at the Universidad Pompeu Fabra's business school, ESCI, so it started today, but the rest of the classes don't start for a few weeks. The course is offically taught in english, but the professor and about half of the students are Spanish. Let's just say there should be some interesting stories.

Well, we are off to get something to eat for dinner. Yes, it is 11pm, but we are trying to get in the swing of la vida Español. Adios for now!