My neighborhood

While living and studying in Barcelona, Spain I lived in a four bedroom, two bathroom apartment with five girls. We lived in the perfect location! Our apartment was located on Consell de Cent which is two blocks from the infamous Sagrada Familia and a block from the bull ring. Our neighborhood is called Eixample. The neighborhood of Eixample consists of a lot of elderly people and families. There are always friendly faces walking around but there is never much noise or traffic. There are tons of little restaurnats and cafes with outside eating that are always full. The street that the bull ring is on and Sagrada Familia tend to be busy during the day because of the touristsm, but the street our apartment is on is all locals. There are quite a few little fruit type stores and grocery stores all within a couple blocks. That is where my room mates and I tend to do most of our shopping, but there is a large market not to far from our apartment right near Sagrada Familia. The Eixample market has a civic center and public library above it, and right down the block there is a 24 hour farmacia. There is a school located right across the street from our apartment, and even with school being over there are a lot of people who go everyday to play soccer and basketball. There is a metro stop (L2 purple line) around the corner from our apartment so it is very convenient to travel around the city by metro. Our location is so central that a lot of times we walk to a lot of places. We are a twenty minute walk from Plaza Catalunya and a twenty minute walk to Port Olympic! Our street name, Consell de Cent, has a lot of history. Consell de Cent is Catalan for "council of the hundred" which was an institution of government in the city of Barcelona established in the XIII century, lasting until the XVIII century.

National News

There will be different measures for Primary and Secondary schools...they are taking out the sweets in the vending machines...
The Ministry for Health is to remove food and sweet vending machines from primary schools and will also ban the sale of drinks containing caffeine.
A list is being drawn up of foods which will be allowed to be sold in secondary schools, which have low fat, sugar and salt content, in the measure which comes against a backdrop of increasing child obesity in Spain.
Currently 17% of primary and 60% of secondary schools in Spain have such vending machines.
Minister for Health, Trinidad Jiménez, said it was not about banning anything, but rather not facilitating their consumption. She said the measure would not affect items which are not pre-packed – such as the typical bocadillo.
The law will be administered by the regions who all agreed it at a meeting of the Inter-territorial Council of the National Health Service.
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National News

A horrible accident happened in Spain at the end of June leaving many young dead. Twelve people were killed and 14 others were injured after a train hit a group of young revellers crossing tracks instead of using an underpass here in Spain. The accident happened as a group of about 30 people who had gotten off a commuter train at the Castelldefels Playa station, south of Barcelona, attempted to cross the tracks. The kids were taking part annual Saint John's Day celebrations which was on June 23. The accident scene has been sealed off and there is a large presence of police, firemen and rescue workers working on the case.

International News

An international headline for most magazines in early July was the wedding between Victoria and Daniel Westling of Sweeden. On 24 February 2009, Westling and the Crown Princess received official permission to become engaged from King Carl XVI Gustaf and the Government of Sweden. Permission is necessary according to the terms of the Swedish Act of Succession.The wedding took place in Stockholm Cathedral on 19 June 2010, the 34th anniversary of her parents' wedding.

After their wedding on 19 June 2010, the Duke and Duchess of Västergötland moved in to Haga Palace.

International news

Some international news that everyone in the world is aware of is that Spain won the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Spain are currently the reigning World and European champions, having won the 2010 FIFA World Cup and the 2008 UEFA European Football Championship. Spain also won the 1964 European Nations' Cup and reached the UEFA Euro 1984 Final. In July 2008 Spain rose to the top of the FIFA World Rankings for the first time in the team's history, becoming the sixth nation to top this ranking, and the first nation to top the ranking without previously having won the World Cup. Between November 2006 and June 2009 Spain went undefeated for a record tying 35 consecutive matches before their loss to the United States, a record shared with Brazil, including a record 15-game winning streak and thus earning third place in the FIFA Confederations Cup.

Field trip to Santa Maria del Mar

On our second field trip, Xavi took our history class to see Santa Maria del Mar. Much like our first field trip, Xavi walked us around old Barcelona and around the area near Santa Maria del Mar. I learned so much on the walk to Santa Maria del Mar about Barcelona and the period much after the Roman times and how Barcelona was changing and evolving. Xavi spoke about how Barcelona was begining to expand and changes were being made in the city becuase of it. The history behind Santa Maria del Mar was very fascinating, but nothing compared to actually seeing it and going inside. The sheer mass and detail BLEW MY MIND. I would be hard for me to go to mass in Sanata Maria del Mar becuase I would be looking around the whole time at the arches and the windows and statues. It was breathe taking. After our field trip was over I wondered around the area near the church for about two hours taking in the beauty and the culture.

(unfortuantly no photos...see previous note on field trip 1)

Field trip to museu historia ciutat barcelona

During the month of July I took a history of Barcelona past and present class. During this class our fabulous teacher, Xavi, took us on a couple field trips. You can only learn so much in a class room and the rest you have to see for yourself. I really like the fact that Xavi would take us on field trips and he would walk us all around the older part of Barcelona and talk about the history of the streets and the buildings. I learned a lot about what living conditions were like and that there were no inside bathrooms, so people had to throw their "waste" out the window and there were no washing machines so the women would carry loads and loads of laundry down many flights of stairs to wash it in a community area of water. It was fascinating to see how narrow the streets were and how little the doors were and many of the old stairwells in the apartments couldn't even allow for two people to walk up next to each other because they were so narrow. Xavi pointed out how the windows got smaller as the buildings got higher and how many times the people lived and worked all in one building. We were able to see the differnce in style and architecture and the huge influence the Romans had on Barcelona. Xavi would point the boundries of what Barcelona was so we could see how much has been added. It was fascinating to see the affect the Romans had on the city. Their plan, map and idea is the reason Barcelona is such a successfull city now. They were innovative and practical and left a mark on Barcelona. On our field trip Xavi took us to the museu historia ciutat barcelona where we were able to see and walk through old dug up Roman ruins. We were able to see examples of the floor plans of their home and what the public baths were like, as well as many of the toiletires that women would use. (unfortunatly my camera is broken and I am able to view my pictures on my camera, but it wont turn on and it wont allow me to update any of my pictures so none of my pictures from the past couple of weeks and either of the field trips were uploaded before it broke and pictures of things I saw while walking around are not uploaded...)