Simply, life.: Barcelona: Day 21 : Beginning to Mesh .

Today we decided to kick off the morning with a beach trip, which turned out to be an excellent decision. The waves were virtually nonexistent, which meant that the water was crystal clear as far as you could see! It was unbelievable seeing water that clear. It was definitely cold, but after laying out for awhile and getting really hot, the water felt extremely refreshing. There was also virtually no wind, which meant that we could finally throw the disc around a bit. It was just the three of us; Ian, Ryan and I, but it definitely was a great kickstart to the morning. There was also no one at the beach, and for a long time there were no illegal vendors bothering you about massages or 'mojito, mojitos' or 'fanta cerveza beers.'

Here's a few pics from the morning:

So today we went to the second biggest university in Barcelona, which is called Pompeu Fabra Universidad. Well, there was this big water deposit area that looks like a building, but originally was vacant inside. They turned it into a library eventually, but for years the inside sat vacant and empty with no purpose. I suppose in some ways I guess it is comparable to a water tower.

The library extends underground, just like Cooper (for those of you who go to Clemson) but it's absolutely gorgeous. Inside there is some really neat designs because of the way the 'roof' of the inside is designed.

The ceiling outside would normally hold water, there wasn't any up there. This was unfortunate, because Kathrin said that the one time that she saw it with water, it was absolutely gorgeous. Regardless, we got to see the city around us, and I took a really nice panoramic around that area.

One of the temporary buildings that was down next to this water deposit area was actually designed in part by one of our studio teachers, which was neat to see. It's always interesting to see a studio teacher's work outside of teaching.

One of my favorite parts about the university campus was the cafeteria area. It was designed to almost look like an outside space -- yet it was enclosed by an entirely glass roof, making it technically indoors. Dave Lee would have had an orgasm with the number of tectonic specialties that were there. In this area, the cafeteria was on the ground floor, with lecture rooms that had walls of glass as well, and what I would imagine were dorm rooms or apartments. These last sets of rooms had sunshades on the sides of the windows too, definitely a good idea when the ceiling is entirely glass.

Now, I could say more, but I figure I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves, since this was the only place that we went to today during this travel class. Enjoy!