Karen's Visit

Karen came to visit at the end of January, but for the sake of making it more relevant, let's just pretend it was more recently. The pictures of us shivering on the beach might make that difficult though...


























































Fun with the 10 second timer:



































We cleaned up a little for dinner:



Monday in between my classes we trekked up Mont Juic (one of the two mountains on either side of the city) in order to get to Poble Espanyol and the Olympic Stadium (which will from this point forward be known as the Estadi). We had a little trouble along the way, namely the steep mountainside and getting caught in the brush:
















































































Tuesday morning, we went to the market and Gaudi's Casa Battló before my first afternoon class.




















Of course the one with my name on it can't be the stand with strawberries or rose petals... it has to be fish.





Casa Battló











































































One night when we were walking home we ran into these guys who had found a sign protesting for education in Ecuador. I think they were Slovakian. So, we protested for education in Ecuador and got a pretty good crown started before they grew bored and abandoned the cause.






We made it to Sagrada Familia, and even came close to stealing a piece for a souvenir:




For my birthday we met for lunch after my class, then later on met with Michelle to go to a Mexican restaurant in her neighborhood, Gracia:
















































Acting natural in the metro station:





And some random ones:




And then, after Carnaval (see below), she left me. Left me to fight for Ecuador's education alone, pausing only to watch episodes of R. Kelly's epic "Trapped in the Closet," my treasured birthday present. All good things must come to an end...