Delicious food and gorgeous views.

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've updated, it's midterms next week for me and I had a huge project due last week that consumed all my time.

But anyways, onto the actual update.  Last Wednesday our program leader, Rich, took us all out to eat at a traditional Galician restaurant. Galicia is the region of Spain just north of Portugal with a very distinct culture.  The food was absolutely delicious and we had a great time.  We ordered about five appetizers to share between us and were brought so much food that I almost didn't have room for my main entree!  In my opinion the best appetizer we got was the octopus.  Galicia is located right on the coast and seafood is very common there.  The octopus was just pan-fried and served in small pieces over some potatoes.  I love any kind of seafood and this was just delicious!  For my main course I got calamari, one of my absolute favorites!  It was a huge pile and I did my best to devour most of it!  The boy sitting across from me, Max, ordered what was just described as an assortment of meat. The amount of food he got could have fed an entire family of six quite easily.  There was pork, chicken, ribs, lamb, beef, and who knows what else!  For dessert we ordered some flan (my first actual flan in Spain!), an almond tort, and miel y mató (honey and cheese).  The miel y mató was my favorite. The cheese was almost the consistency of ricotta and (according to my research) is made out of sheep or goat's milk and eaten fresh on the day it's made.  I don't know if I'll be able to find it in America, but I'm definitely going to try!

Last Saturday some of my friends and I decided to take a little day trip to Montserrat.  Montserrat is a mountain about an hour away from here and a popular pilgrimage spot for the locals.  You take a train out of the city and then a cable-car up the side of the mountain to get to a little tourist area that has a museum, a cafeteria, some little shops, and a monastery.  According to legend, the Virgin Mary visited this monastery and there's a statue in her honor there.  You can go and touch the statue and say a prayer if you want, which Teresa (my roommate) and I did.  Everything on top of the mountain was absolutely breathtaking. I actually teared up a little bit when we first walked into the monastery.  I know I said this before in reference to La Sagrada Familia, but it really is just amazing for me to be in a country so deeply rooted in Catholicism.  I went to Catholic school for nine years and learned all about the history of the church but you really don't get a true sense of how old and important this faith is until you're in some of these places where the people have been worshipping for hundreds and hundreds of years.  After we went into the monastery we hiked around the mountain for a couple hours enjoying the view.

The cable-car we took up the mountain.

The view from the town area.

The town/tourist area.

Inside the monastery.

The statue of the Virgin Mary you could touch.

There were rows and rows of these prayer candles along stone walls. It was absolutely beautiful.

Some views from our hike around the mountain.

The weather was nothing short of perfect.

Me!

The town area as seen from the other side of the mountain.

The cross of San Miguel, you could see if from all over the mountain.

My friends Teresa, Brianna, Brenda, and me.

Pictures cannot even begin to capture how beautiful it really was.  I love being in Barcelona because of the close proximity to both the Mediterranean Sea and the mountains.  It's the best of both worlds!