Hello from Barcelona!!

Only three more days until I am back in the states!
This weekend was amazing! I spent 24 hours in London trying to see all the sights! We flew in early Saturday morning and spent the day on another bus tour around the city! Our first stop was at Buckingham Palace and we got to see the changing of the guards! There were so many people outside  holding their phones up to see what was behind the gates. The guards marched in through the gates and changed guards then marched back out. It was hard for me to see anything since I'm so short but I got lucky and stood behind a buy holding up his iPad recording everything! We then got back on the bus tour and rode until we got to the London Eye. We walked around and listened to the street performers and then rode a boat tour on the River Thames to the Tower bridge. This was my favorite part! At the end of the day we had to follow a map to find our hotel. This was so much easier in London because everything was in English! Since we were only there for 24 hours we didn't have a lot of time for everything. I would have loved to see the inside of the Tower of London, gone to Abbey Road, and gone to Kings Crossing where Harry Potter was filmed! I guess ill have to do these things next time I'm in London. :) I am excited to wrap up my teaching in Barcelona. I have been teaching fourth grade about food. I taught many lessons on food groups and the essential nutrients. To finish my teaching the students were required to pick one food they want to know more about and use their ipads to find where the food is grown and what nutrients are found in the food. The students then made a mini poster as their final product. The students were very creative and have had fun doing this. I am looking forward to being back in the states to graduate and look for a job!!

Natalie and I by the Tower Bridge! 

In front of the Tower of London! 

Big Ben! I learned that the bell inside the tower is Big Ben, the tower is actually named Elizabeth Tower. 

Hello from Barcelona!

I am settling back into the swing of things in Barcelona after a four day weekend trip to Paris with two other girls student teaching at St. Paul's. We left Barcelona early Thursday morning and arrived in Paris two hours later to then get on a bus that took an hour and a half to get to Paris. Our hotel was in a town outside of Paris so after the bus ride we then had to take the metro 45 minutes to Cergy, the town we stayed in. From there we asked different people how to get to our hotel and finally wondered our way around until we found it. After all that traveling we were all exhausted. We had a great hotel with a breakfast buffet every morning, comfortable beds, and a big shower (Which spoiled us since our showers in Barcelona are tiny!)  Thursday after a nap, we traveled back into Paris to see the Eiffel  Tower and figure out the metro so we know what trains to ride for the weekend. Pulling into our platform from the metro we could see the Eiffel Tower from far away and immediately the exhausting day got better! It was amazing to actually see the Eiffel Tower, I couldn't believe it. Day Two in Paris: We woke up very early to eat breakfast before heading out to Paris for the day. We went straight to the Eiffel Tower to take some pictures then found The Big Bus Tour, which is a tour bus that took us all around Paris to all the great places to see. We bought a two day pass since we had a lot to see! We loved the bus because they had headphones and told you interesting facts about all the places we drove by. We rode the bus to The Louvre. We stood in line to get inside The Louvre for almost two hours. It was worth it because once we were inside we got in free with our student ID cards! I loved The Louvre! There was so much to see from sculptures to Michelangelo's apartment to the Mona Lisa.  The Mona Lisa was off in a corner of the museum by herself in a case. The actual painting was much smaller than I thought it would be. We had to shove through a huge crowd of people to get to the front to take a picture. It was totally worth it. The Louvre took up most of our day so we got back on the tour bus and rode it back to the Eiffel Tower to catch our train back to the hotel. Day Three was just as amazing. As soon as we got to Paris we went to the Eiffel Tower and stood in line to go to the top. This line seemed like it took forever but only took about two hours too. We rode in an elevator to the top and looked out over all of Paris, it was so beautiful. We then caught the tour bus for Notre Dame to take pictures. We did not want to go up in the towers because there are more than 300 steps and no elevators. We walked around the Latin Quarter and went in a few souvenir shops. I bought a french beret. :) Next we hopped back on the tour bus for the Arc de Triumph. There was a french flag hanging from the Arc and a ceremony going on, we could not figure out what for but it was cool to watch! By this time in the trip my allergies started to get bad and I wasn't feeling well. It was rainy the first day and we didn't realize how cold it would be in Paris. Now that I am back in Barcelona I hope that I start feeling better!

 The Eiffel Tower, a picture I took from on top of the bus tour.

 Posing in front of Notre Dame

 A view of the city from the Eiffel Tower

A selfie with the Mona Lisa. 

Now that I am back in Barcelona I am not looking forward to this five day school week coming up. I am hoping this week will go by fast because We are traveling to London the next weekend! Only 8 more school days and 10 more days until I am back in the states! 

Today I finished my fifth day at St. Paul's! It feels like these past few days have gone by so fast. I have started to teach about food during the social studies time of the day. I am teaching about food groups and the nutrients found in food! It has been difficult to incorporate social studies into this topic because I would consider food to be more of a science topic. But the children seem to enjoy it! This week is only a three day week since there is another holiday at the end of this week. I am looking forward to flying to Paris on Thursday! This past weekend was amazing! Friday we went to the city center and walked down to the Port of Barcelona then back up Las Ramblas, the Main Street of the city center. We ate at a great Mexican restaurant, La Rosa Negra and had a great time. Saturday we took a train about 45 minutes away to a little town, Stiges. The town was beautiful and I loved being near the Mediterranean Sea.  Sunday we went to Mount Tibadabo which is the highest point in Barcelona and over looks the city. It was amazing standing up there and looking down over the small buildings. We then made our way to Parc Guell with the famous mosaic tiles designed by a famous artist, Gaudi. Today we visited the Sagrada Familia, a beautiful famous cathedral. The architecture here is unreal and I am so amazed every time we see something new!

 

Standing in front of a lion at the Port of Barcelona. 

The Mediterranean Sea

Stained glass windows in the Sagrada Familia. 

Hello everyone in the states I am here in Barcelona!

It's been a long two days since I left! Everything went smoothly while traveling but I am very jet lagged now. Today was our first day at the school! St. Paul's School is beautiful. It sits on a big hill and you can overlook the city of Barcelona. When we first learned we had to walk up the hill to school we thought it would not be a big deal because we walked wku's hill for four years. This hill is a monster and makes wku's hill look very little. It will take some time to get used to! My teacher's name is Mark and he is from England. It is great that I can communicate so well with him. He teaches two fourth grade classes, they call 4A and 4B. He teaches English, science, and Spanish history/ geography (which I know nothing about). We had the 4A class today. All the students were very talkative to each other, but seemed very shy when I tried to talk to them. Mark had the students introduce themselves to me and say their names. It is hard to pronunce some of the student's Spanish names. I then went around the room trying to remember all of the students names, it took me two times to get it correctly! Tomorrow will be a little more difficult since I will have to learn another 25 different names. Today was also St. Jordi's day which is like our Valentine's day. The men buy women roses and the women buy a book for the men. We decided to be big girls and take the train into the city center today to explore. But the streets were packed because of the holiday. There were many booths set up selling roses and books. It was interesting to see how they celebrate this day but we were all exhausted so we decided to wait to actually shop around the center when there aren't that many people!  Here are a couple pictures from today:

The View of Barcelona from my classroom

Lemon Gelato from the city center. Which was delicious!

 A beautiful street at the city center.

Thats all the Spain shenanigans I have for now!

I am less than 24 hours until I take off for España!!

If you would have asked me how I was feeling yesterday I would have screamed that I was overwhelmed. As I always do with anything major in my life, I put off packing until today. I was so nervous that I would not get everything packed away in my suitcase. Since our luggage can only weigh less than 50 pounds I was constantly standing on the scale to see how many more pounds I had to go. Now that I actually have everything packed and ready to go my emotions have definitely changed! I am now very excited! I cannot wait to fly to Barcelona. I am looking forward to meeting my mentor teaching and the fourth grade class I will be working with!

My sister and Brother-in-law are taking me to the airport tomorrow so I am spending the night at their house. When I arrived they gave me a going away/ Easter present filled with goodies for the flight there! So very thankful they are always supporting me!