La playa!!!

OKAYYY here's the beach!!! that's me, in the middle. the water is soooooo gorgeous. it's clear and perfect temperature :)

i'm so scared of jelly fish and stuff. i'm constantly looking down to make sure there's nothing around me, but my shadow kept freaking me out because i kept confusing it for some sort of fish. i need to calm down


This is on the street on the way to the beach. gotta love this stuff


here's more of a scenic view...pictures just don't do it justice though :\ there were no clouds today...hence my sunburn!!!

here's what i did last night. this is what my neighborhood looks like...it's called Placa de Sants. (plaza day sanz). the flags up there say love, friendship, happiness or something like that. peace too, in the back. last night was so fun....there was great music and we were dancing machines. I hung out with people from california. They are great!!! Some californians say things like "bro" and "gnarly". I just laugh

OKAY i know that was a super quick post. i will post more later. but at least it's an upd ate right??? It's good i'm getting busy. Sometimes I'm so homesick, but that happens more when I'm about to fall asleep. during the day I am really busy and have a lot on my mind, so it doesn't affect me as much.

I'm about to go back to the fiesta...tonight is the last night.

I love you all and Thanks so much for reading this. Keep emailing!!! I will post more pictures up tomorrow.

take care and write when you get a chance.
jess

mullet findings

So it's old news that mullets and rat tails are "de moda" in Europe, but i just wanted to prove it to you. The pics are pretty dark (my bad), but you get the point. Didn't get any pics of rat tails either. The other day, however, i saw a guy with a mullet AND a rat tail. i'm not making that up!!!! I will keep posting mullet pics as i get good ones.

Maybe i'll get one.

love jess!

back to school, back to school, to prove to dad i'm not a fool!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SISTER!!! AMANDA I LOOOOOOOOVE YOU!!! :) :) :)


hey folks....what movie is that title from?!?! anyone who gets it right i love. anyone who doesn't know...i guess i still love

anyways, here's my school:

pretty sweet huh?? it's gorgeous. there's a courtyard too, but they were filming a movie there today so the pictures would have been bad. that girl is stephanie, she's my friend who i met here but she also goes to U of I. that picture was taken today!!

what is interesting is that they have a lot of cats here!! they might be stray but the university might take care of them too. i've seen bowls of water left out but the cats are super cute. here's a picture of one:

When i first saw a cat on the campus, i wasn't sure what it was, because i'm used to looking at cats like this:
oh, angel. my dear, fat fat fat fat fat fat cat!!!!


anyways, sorry i haven't been updating too much!!! the truth is that there's not much to update on!!! i've been super busy with school and homework. last night i finished my homework in time to go to "fiesta de sants" which is a street festival that will be in my future barrio (town). it was super fun. the last street festival i went to was "fiesta de gracias" but that was much bigger and there were a lot more people. we went to fiesta de sants but we probably went to early, plus it was a weekday. in general, it does seem to be more kid and family-friendly.

the night was really relaxed because we just sat and talked, although they did have great bands playing. i think i even heard them playing electric slide in spanish. oh!! there was a drum corps there too!!! they were sooooo awesome. below is a picture of the group i was with...i'm not in it, and they are all acting silly, but you kind of get a picture of how the people who live in the area decorate the streets. every street is unique which is the best part.


the only problem about going out on weeknights is that i'm SOOOOOOOOo tired the next day!!! i'm such an old lady. oh well. maybe spain will change that for me. i better not hold my breath on that one.


well folks, i know it wasn't interesting but its the best i can do. i have my very first test tomorrow!!! i have to study and read a bunch for my other classes. i won't upload pictures from last night or the rest of my school pics yet but i will let you know when i do.

if you have time, please write!! i always love to hear from ya'll. jcollin5@illinois.edu (yes, my email changed, but if you still use @uiuc.edu it will work).

please take care!!
love always, jess

Estas con queso....

For any of the highly motivated who wish to learn Spanish, that's a phrase to describe someone who is HIGHLY attractive. It literally means "you're with cheese". I thought it was pretty amusing!!

This weekend was really relaxed. The only super fun thing I did was go to the beach on Saturday morning with my friend Stephanie...it was awesome!! The beach was gorgeous and the water was perfffect :) I love living by the sea!! Beaches in Spain are quite different from any beach i've been on in the states...i will let you guess why. It was awkward though!!!

Good News!!! I found an apartment. I'll be living with a lady named Mary (pronounced Mah-ree). She's older and from Columbia but super sweet and SOOOO patient with my Spanish. I can tell we'll get along great. I will be living in a wonderful neighborhood that's also near the art museum which i'm super excited for!!! :D :D :D

I will take pictures next week of the beach and I know I still have to put pictures up of my school!!! I'll get on it I'm sorry!!!!

Thanks to all of you for the emails!! It means the world to me :)

Love,
Jess

History Lesson (not boring!!!)

85---That's how many pics I took today!!!!!!!!! I went a little wild with the dig camera but that's what they're for. I can't decide which ones to put up on the PICTURE site though!!! Oh well. PS i forgot to show you guys where I live...so check out that picture above!!! It's called "Col-legi Major Sant Jordi". (Ko-lay-hee Ma-jor San Jor-dee) That's an example of Catalan, the official language of "catalunya", which is where Barcelona is located. Everyone in Catalunya is bilingual, they speak both Catalan and Castellano (Spanish). The locals are very impressed and especially warm hearted if you attempt to speak Catalan to them because they are very proud of their language as well as their culture. Catalan came to be when the Romans entered Spain and were speaking latin, making Catalan a latin-based (and i suppose a romance?) language.

ANYWAYS, Today was super exciting and interesting. We went to several places, including building and parks created by Antoni Gaudi, a modernist architect who was born in Barcelona. (making him a huge part of the culture here). Gaudi was heavily influenced by nature and included several arches in his work. These arches are supposed to have mimicked the way men and women stand upright (when we are standing, there is an arch between our legs).

Here's an example of the arches:



I know this isn't really as exciting as I'm making it seem, but this arch is located on the roof of "La Pedrera" which means the rock in Spanish or quarry in Catalan. This really isn't the best example of an "arch" used in his works, but this arch is a gateway to a great view of the city as well as an amazing view to Gaudi's first, last, unfinished, and probably his most famous work, "La Sagrada Familia":

Gaudi's main objective for "La Sagrada Familia" was to create the bible out of rock. He was a "die-hard" catholic and is actually buried in the crypt of la sagrada. He put prayers on this building, including "Hosana en Excelsis" (God in Heaven, I think) so when anyone read it (religious or not), they would be praying. (watch out mike!!!) Like I said before, the point of this amazing building is to have the bible in rock, so there are several bible stories on it. In the front is the angel telling mary that she will have God's child, as well as the birth of Jesus. On the back are the stations of the cross (see PICS for more little tidbits!!). The birth of Jesus (the front of SF) faces the East, the side that the sun rises (start of the day/start of jesus' life). The back of SF faces the west, where the sun sets (death of the day/death of his life). There are so many little details that I forget but I can't wait to go back and go inside (we didn't go in).

His intention was to have 18 towers, and there are only 8. The other 10 are supposed to be taller than those you see in this picture. (can you imagine that??!) I have a ton of pics of La Sagrada, as well as little stories/tidbits so go to the PICS SITE.

Next we went to Park Guell. Guell is the name of one of Gaudi's main patrons and he was loooooooooaddddeddddd. Anyway, Guell wanted the park to be called park guell because it was influenced by english projects (and i think considered very sophisticated).

Here are some pictures of Park Guell:



Unfortunately, I don't know too much history except that the second picture you see is part of a road that Gaudi had included in this Park. Also, it is a small part of where TYRA and her models of AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL (cycle 7) did a "crazy bride" runway. It was toooo cool!! When I watched this episode, I knew I was going to Barcelona, so it was VERY exciting for me to watch!!! :D To see the episode, go HERE and go to 2:10. (if you don't know what's going on, you might not understand, but it's just a model competition). I tried to do the same thing (sans the wedding dress), it came out like this:


I realize I wasn't walking down the same runway, but it was in the same place. My friend has a picture of when I was actually walking ON the runway, but I don't have it yet. That's the best I could do with my photos...do you think I resemble the models??? Don't answer that.


Anways, I'm wiped out!! I hope you enjoyed this entry. It was a long day, but now I'm going to put the captions on all of the photos. Again, the site is HERE. There are many, many pictures in the album to go with it, but hopefully you can enjoy them with the captions!


Miss you all, Please write!! jcollin5@illinois.edu or jcollins7788@gmail.com. If you have a microphone or webcam, you can always SKYPE me. (it's a quick download and we can talk for free) My name on it is jcollin5. Actually, let me talk about skype for a second: it's amazing!! I can call anyone really cheap or I can talk for free with people who have it....it's like my best friend.

Otherwise, email is JUST fine!!

I hope to hear from all of you soon!

Take care!
Love Jess

wowwza

wow!! i'm so tired from my first week of classes. Whoever named this month "intensive language program" knew exactly what they wer talking about. we are taking 5 different courses every day for an hour. I know it doesn't sound like much but it's all in Spanish or Catalan and it requres a LOT of thinking to be able to keep up with classes that are in a language other htan english. The program itself is very helpful and I'm glad I'm in it. The professors are very nice and fun to converse with.

Yesterday I ran into a little bit of a culture shock. I was reprimanded in front of everyone for stretching during class. It is considered very rude and offensive to the teacher if any side of boredom or being tired is shown during class....so no slouching, yawning, stretching, or any of the sort. My teacher told me that if I had done that during a regular class at the Universitat (which i will enter after the ILP), the professor would have kicked me out after seeing me stretch! I was embarrassed at first but I realized that that kind of stuff will happen when you're in a new culture!

Today I went with my friends Jimmy and Stephanie to a highlight near my school called "Las Ramblas". It's pretty touristy, but what las ramblas is a network of super longggggggg streets all connected together with street vendors (you can buy anything from postcards to ferrets!), street performers (a popular act is people in make up standing still for an eerily long amount of time...see pics), as well as restaurants and shops anywhere you turn. I struck up a conversation with a street vendor who was from Peru, he was selling gorgeous paintings that he does himself. He told me to be careful because I almost touched a wet painting, but i'm glad I did because we began to talk. He had been here for 3 years already and was excited for me and my friends that we were here to study for a year. He said that we'll love it. I don't know if I keep telling people or not...but my favorite part of being here is talking to the locals. Before I came, I had a horrible idea that everyone in Europe hated americans for one reason or another, but I have found that as long as I take a **genuine** interest in what each person I meet has to offer, they like me a lot!!! (Same in america!!) If I ask someone why they came here/how long they've been here, they are happy to share as well as talk for a long time. Plus it's always a very interesting story....


okay well i just woke up from a nap and i have undoubtedly rambled for far too long. i'm SO excited for dinner. we eat at 7 30 am and then again at 8 30 pm so i'm always really really really really really hungry.

os echo a vosotros TANTO mucho! (I miss all of you SO much). PLEASE keep the emails rolling in. Literally emails of one or two lines brighten my day so much when I need a pick-me-up. I save them all in a folder and look at them when i'm bored :)

Please take care and let me know how you're doing!
love,
jess

hola todos...

alright, today was my first day of classes and they went really well. For those of you that don't know, I started my ILP...which is short for intensive language program. I'm taking 4 Spanish classes and 1 Catalan class that start and end within a month...so it IS pretty intense. I'm with a great group of people though and the professors I have so far are very interesting and easy to listen to. One bad side is that I was unable to sleep last night. I have always had trouble sleeping the night before school starts...since like kindergarten. I think the jet lag/weird sleeping schedule is starting to kick in. I HATE not getting any sleep...but i will live that's for sure!!!

Oh I forgot to tell you how BEAUTIFUL my school is. the inside/outside is gorgeous and it's in the middle of the city. There are always people around so it's fun to people watch. I will bring my camera tomorrow to show and tell! I'm so lucky to be here!!

take care!
love,
jess

estoy aqui...

well my dream has FINALLY come true!!! I'm surrounded by people who are interested in different cultures and languages...as well as locals who are happy to help with anything you need! I've been here only for 12 hours and can already feel how genuinely nice the folks around here are. It was really hard to leave home for the first time, and truthfully I don't think my mind has fully grasped that I won't be home for the holidays, but I already love it. I'm with a great group of students who I'll be in class with and I have a month in the dorm before I need to find a new place to live. My thoughts on this so far are to just live with a family so i would be fully immersed plus have the "family" aspect that I will miss so much, but of course my feelings could change...stay tuned!!!

Barcelona is absolutely gorgeous...the weather today was sunny and warm but not too hot. I walked around today to the supermarket...i know this might sound stupid but it's really a shock when people start to speak spanish to you and just assume you know what they're saying. Thankfully I understood most everything as was able to get by just fine. It's SOOO fun talking to locals :)

Well i'm going to log off for now...I'm going to a huge festival tonight somewhere in town and I need to meet up with some friends! Please email me or comment!!

Miss you all! Please take care!

Love jess