Craziness...

Man... Things have been nuts over here! Let's see... Nathan, my older brother, got into Seville Wednesday afternoon around 2:30, and for the rest of the night, we had a grand tour of Seville and all of its awesome sights and places to hang. He got to meet lots of my TTU friends at Flaherty's, a huge Irish Pub in Seville next to the cathedral, that Wed. night. He also got to meet my international friends that night as well!

After class on Thursday, Nathan, David, and I flew out of Seville and into the wonderful city of Barcelona. After being in Spain for more than two months, and after seeing many many cities, I can safely say that Barcelona was the coolest city I have been to yet. The architecture blew our minds, and it was such a clean city! Of course, being right on the Mediterranean didn't hurt either, as the water front was beautiful. We hung out in Barcelona Thursday evening and all day Friday, and we did just about as much as possible to do in that huge city in a day and a half. The highlights of the trip included:

- meeting some Puerto Ricans, a cool girl from Arizona, this funny Chinese girl, a fellow Texan from Denton, and an older woman from Hungary in our hostal
- all you can eat buffet called La Vaca Paca. It was LEGENDARY.
- touring the FC Barcelona stadium and musuem
- La Sagrada Familia. I can't explain it. Just go there yourself. You will be blown away by the beauty of this contemporary cathedral.
- playing firey hackysack with Spanish 16 year olds in Park Guell
- being part of a rally for Colombia and seeing this very talented Spanish rap group (video below)

Saturday morning we got up early and flew from Barcelona to Madrid. The flight was super short, and we had all day to hang in Madrid on Saturday. We squeezed in a lot on Saturday (all the major sights like the Palacio Real, Catedral, Plaza Mayor, Puerta del Sol, etc.) and then had a incredible experience as we went to an English speaking church called Oasis Madrid that night. There, we met some awesome people from North Carolina, Tennessee, Barcelona, Madrid, and Minnesota. The Minnesota gang (three college students on spring break) joined us the next day on Sunday to tour the Museo de Reina Sofia and the Museo del Prado (two amazing art museums in Madrid). We got to know them very well, and we all ended up becoming good friends in that short time. The Minnesota kids may even come down and see David and I in Seville in a few days (it is their spring break from college in St. Paul).

David and I took the train back to Seville Sunday night at 9, and I was very sad to see my brother go. We had such a great time, I really wanted him to just stick around in Spain with me for the whole next week. But we knew eventually the weekend would end, and overall, it was such an amazing weekend spent with family.

This weekend will be awesome as well, because my girlfriend Abbie and my father are coming to visit me and go to Madrid with me next week for spring break! I am really being spoiled these two weeks!

I will write again soon, so for now, enjoy the pictures and video from the weekend below (I'm not even going to post any photos of La Sagrada Familia, they wouldn't do the church any justice)...

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Brothers at the Plaza de España in Seville


This is a photo of a photo that they took for us (the Arizona girl Angela, Nate, David and I) at the FC Barcelona stadium, but it cost a lot, so we just took our own photo, hahaha


The Minnesota gang (Cassie, Ashley, and Steve) and us at the roof of the Museo de Reina Sofia


Cool reflection picture of us guys in The Glace Palace in Madrid


The Americans trying to play firey hacky-sack with some 16 year old Spaniards in the awesome Park Guell (the Spaniards aren't in the photo unfortunately, haha)


This is the rap group we saw in Barcelona, they are called "Kumar y Mate" and this song is "Caravana"


Until next time...
Peace, love and God bless,
-Noel