Use your imagination

The internet has become intolerably uncooperative at my dormitory. My computer has spent the last hour trying to upload two pictures to Picasa. So it is with my apologies that this will be yet another photo-less entry. I promise to post when I get the chance to. I don't have a ton of pictures, but I liked the ones I have.

I just returned from a true vacation. Relaxing and rejuvenating in (almost) every way. Destination? Barcelona. Cynthia and Kareem were both doing summers there, and it was awesome to go visit and see how they spend their time there. Kareem is already finished with his language program, so he gets to go to Paris and then home. *Irene is very jealous* Cynthia is also wrapping things up, so she can go tour Italy!

Anyway...my impression of Spain was ultimate relaxation. No one seems to take things too seriously. Shops open at 10am....or later if they feel like. With a gorgeous beach just a morning's jog away, Cynthia and I would get our exercise in the mornings before the heat really set in. Fruit abounded and so did shopping! Cynthia is a shopping machine...she walks into a store and walks out with at least 3 absolute steals. I've never seen anyone so efficient at buying so much stuff in my life. Eating was yummy and so wallet-friendly too. I never had a better glass of Sangria either. Since dinner time over there is close to 10pm, all the restaurants are open late. I like it when a city is alive at late hours...it's comforting.

In terms of tourism, we all ventured out of town to see Salvador Dali's self-made museum in Figueres, Costa Brava. Surreal art is definitely more interesting with friends. I saw a lot of fantasy-like architecture done by Gaudi in Barcelona. My absolute favorite was the Park Guell. (I promise pictures of this!) On an interesting medical note, Gaudi was commissioned to design the Hospital Saint Paul in Barcelona. His project was to design a hospital that didn't feel like a hospital for the patients...it is amazing! It's sort of church/castle like. It's beautiful and it's a functioning hospital! You see people in white coats walking out to get their lunches and stuff. I think I even saw a medical school building and I flipped to think people could get their schooling done in a place like this.

I have exactly three more weeks left in Europe. I can't waiiiiiiiiiiit to go home. I haven't really explored the rest of Switzerland, so I need to do that. AirFrance had reasonable tickets to London, so that's also on my itinerary. I think the English will be music to my ears~