152 Rocafort Our Apartment In Barcelona

At the Chick Corea concert
see all photos »

On the 5th of November we moved into 152 Calle Rocafort in the Eixample district of BCN. The feeling of finally being able to call a place home and empty our backpacks for the last time was incredible. We spent at least 2 days sleeping and getting to know our new roommates. Currently the house consists of us, Gabriel from Iceland, Jonaz from Sweden, Lucy from England, and Erik from New Jersey. For the first few weeks we also lived with a kid from the Netherlands named Robby and the owner of the apartment's daughter, Denise. Denise is from BCN, but it currently living in Santa Barbara.

Chick Corea's Piano
see all photos »

Our room is great and we love the place. It has wireless internet, a washer, and a DRYER! (most apartments in Europe do not have dryers) The reason it has taken so long for us to send this to you all is because we had to have a computer shipped over here, and after we got it, it broke, so we had it "fixed;" however, it proceeded to break again. So now we have a different one and now we can blog on a regular basis.

"Remember, Remember the 5th of November."

Lights at the concert hall
see all photos »

Anyways, in the interim of all of this, we had a few visitors from back home. Matt's old roommate, Dane, is currently studying abroad in Sweden. He and his roommates from there came down to visit. We took them to some of the sights around the city. It was great to see some familiar faces from back home.

We have since had a chance to explore more of what Barcelona has to offer. The best sights we have seen are the Sagrada Familia, Parc Guell, and our favorite, the Palau de la Musica Catalana. The Palau de la Musica is an absolutely stunning concert hall. We were able to see a Chick Corea and Bela Flick Jazz concert there. As you can see in the pictures, Matt's beard got progressively shaggier and more massive as the trip progressed. He did not have a beard trimmer until we got to BCN and then once he tried to use it, we blew a fuse and fried it. He has since shaved it, but he used not having a trimmer as an excuse to let out his inner caveman.

There was a caveman sighting in Barcelona
see all photos »

He now looks 10 years younger and the guys he plays basketball with did not recognize him for a while. It's interesting because everyone in Europe that we met knows Matt as having a beard, but everyone back home has the opposite view.

Anyhow, we started private Spanish lessons in our apartment with our roommates. It has been hard to speak Spanish with our roommates, because we all speak English, so we are hoping that this will spark some conversation in Spanish.

We made a big Thanksgiving dinner for our roommates. We think that they enjoyed the American custom of overeating.

Gabriel (Left) and Jonaz
see all photos »

Now that we have set up this blog, we will update it from time to time when new and exciting things happen. Anyways, sorry this took so long to set up, but hopefully you enjoyed reading about our adventures. Please keep in touch and we love getting emails from everyone!

Salud y Hasta Luego,

Matt and Sara