Free things to do in Barcelona:

Before everyone freaks out, it isn't that I have no money. I have all of 35 euros. No but really, I will live- I had mentioned last post that my brilliant plan for bringing money here wasn't working work out, so I am waiting now for a wire from the US into my new bank account so that I can explore the parts of the city that cost money! It should be here by Friday (fingers crossed), so I can attend some of the festivities this weekend. These past few days I have been looking for fun (and free) things to do, and it just so happens that the group I was playing volleyball with on Saturday is there a lot. So I ended up playing volleyball with them Sunday afternoon and then again under the lights on the beach last night. This was one of the best experiences I have had here so far. The weather was perfect for playing (I didn't need to worry about sun-screen) and we had a blast. One interesting thing to note-- We were set up just across the boardwalk from two of the most posh clubs in Barcelona, so while other people were all dressed up, lounging in couches, sipping on colorful drinks and being serenaded by a saxophone, my cohorts and I were 20 feet away; in bathing suits and hooting and hollering and rolling around in the sand. I think we had the better time, truth be told!

Work continues to be fascinating and fun, I started doing real experiments on Monday. My supervisor is helping me learn the ropes while we fabricate some simple structures. The lab is such a huge place here that I can't hope to learn everything in the first go around, but everyone is extremely helpful and it is quite challenging and enjoyable. So far we have made precursor solutions for three different glass compounds, so I think that tomorrow we may actually finish up the fabrication and look at the results. Cool stuff. I hope to bring my camera in and take some pictures at some point, so that I can show everyone what I'm talking about.

This weekend is the biggest festival weekend of the year in Barcelona. The festival is called 'La Merce' and features performers from all over the world, fireworks, light shows and all sorts of revelry. After I write this post I am going to look around their website and see what things I want to check out. Hopefully it will produce some great photos!

Oh hey, so for those of you who don't know, my cousin Jackson and his fabulous girlfriend Amanda have just begun their own international adventure as English teachers in Beijing, China. They also have a blog, which you can find at speakingmainedarin.wordpress.com-- his adventures, completely different from mine, will be fascinating too, so check their blog out!

Finally, this morning it rained for the first time since I've been here. I have tagged the post sunny, though, since by 4 pm there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Needless to say I don't think this will help alleviate the drought. I couldn't believe, though, when I walked into the lab all of the grumbling I heard about the weather. These people are spoiled! And I look forward to being just as bad!

Hope everyone is well back stateside, hasta luego!!