Birthday, Cavas, Sitges, and Palau de la Música Catalana

Hi Everyone!

Last Wednesday was my birthday, and it was so fun to be able to celebrate in Barcelona. A few of my friends surprised me with cupcakes at lunch, and we sat outside on the lawn at the UB and had a little picnic. Then I went to dinner that night with some other friends, and we went and celebrated with Gelatto afterwards. I also got lots of cyber birthday well-wishings, so thanks for those!

This weekend we had our last planned CIEE events. On Saturday we went on a tour of Codorníu, a Cavas company near Sitges. Cavas is the same as Champagne, but they can't legally call it that because it doesn't come from a certain region of France. Apparently Codorníu is one of the oldest family businesses in Spain, and also in Europe. The facility was beautiful, and we had studied some of the buildings and art work in my Masterworks of Catalan Art class. We got to go into their underground stores, and take a rollercoaster-like train ride through part of it. After the tour, we went into Sitges, and had some time to walk around and lay out on the beach. Here are some pictures:

The Cathedral in Sitges

The beach in Sitges

I went to church on Sunday, and I absolutely loved it. After missing it last Sunday, I was really glad to be back. Sunday night, we had a CIEE trip to El Palau de la Música Catalana (palau=palace), which is another place that we studied in my Masterworks class. I'm so glad I got to go inside! It might be my favorite of all the architecture here. We saw a flamenco performance, which was cool, but I couldn't see very well, and I'm probably never going to like a flamenco performance more than the one I saw in Sevilla. Here's a picture of the Palau:

Now I'm getting ready for Spring Break! woo hoo!!! I leave for Dublin, Edinburgh, and London on Thursday, and I get back with another full week of break. I can't wait to tell you all about it:)

Much love,
Kori