Meeting up with the Family

So my days in Barcelona are officially over :( I took my spanish final, had a few fiestas with my friends and then bid them goodbye. well technically barca is not completely over because I am going back for one day, but essentially over. My dad and marlys came out for a few days, took the roommates out to some awesome place to eat amazing seafood, and I took them on a tour around the city. Then my mom and John and kelly came out so I took them around barca as their official tour guide showing them some of my favorite things that I have experienced over the past month. From cool sites such as Arc de Triumf and La Sagrada Familia, to good food such as doner kabobs and this place CDLC, to entertainment, sights, and plenty of cool Gaudi. I think they got a good feel for the city and hopefully they had a good time, even if I did walk them about ten miles every day.

So we took an early train to Southern France and are currently staying at a nice hotel in Sant Reme de Provence which is South of Avignon. Intial prognosis of France is the following: the food is absolutely amazing. It comes awesomely prepared and is some of the best dishes I have had. The wine is awesome and cheap, the people are really really nice (I know right! maybe its cuz we are in small cities or something) the landscape is awesome, and its unbelievable the history that is behind this place. We went and visited the castle fortress of Lea Baux which was first built in the 12th century. The ruins still show an awesome amount of history and turmoil. We also saw a monastery first built in 98 AD and also visited ancient Roman churches and arenas. And this was only in our first real day here! Its a good thing we rented a car which allows us to get from place to place much easier. Tommorrow we are going to visit some wineries as well as one of the biggest Roman acuadeucts. There is other stuff ont the agenda, but I let the parents figure it out, it is nice not having to do all the planning for the first time in a month. oh and its also awesome not to have to really pay for anything, yeah it will only last so long but ive got to take advantage of it while its here.

In two days we are going to drive over to Niece and spend a day there and then take a train to Florence. I am extremely excited for what lays in store for me. This place is as different from Barcelona as I could possibly imagine, but it has so many awesome qualities that Barca didnt. Oh, and btw, this language is impossibly hard. But everyone here sounds so cool, their language is so beautiful, they even manage to make english sound good with their accents! The only things I know how to say are hello, good-bye, good night, good day, and the check please. Yeah it makes things a little difficult but we manage haha. well this was only a short post as Im sure a lot are going to be from here on out but hope everyone is having a good summer!

David