We will have a two-week holiday for Christmas and New Years, an decided that we will spend it traveling Italy. We will spend Christmas in Aviano visiting Nikki and Bobby Abernethy, and also hope to meet up with Lauren and Mattius somewhere on their European adventure.
As for our free time (and there's been lots of it since we finished school two weeks ago), take a look at the pictures below to see what we've been up to.
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In Barcelona, graffiti is a huge problem, but they prevent it by doing "on purpose" graffiti like this on lots of garage doors (almost all the stores cover their front doors/windows with garage doors while they're closed).
Jason loved climbing on this rope-y pyramid thing.
Oh! This boat just docked on the sand right where we were napping. It kept honking the horn to tell the people swimming in the ocean to get out of the way before they got mowed over! kinda scary. It has really made me (Naomi) appreciate all of America's rules and restrictions . I (Jason), on the other hand, like the freedom and lack of worrying about lawsuits here)...
Our favorite free-time activity: laying on the beach and reading novels on our kindles.
Oh! This boat just docked on the sand right where we were napping. It kept honking the horn to tell the people swimming in the ocean to get out of the way before they got mowed over! kinda scary. It has really made me (Naomi) appreciate all of America's rules and restrictions . I (Jason), on the other hand, like the freedom and lack of worrying about lawsuits here)...
Our favorite free-time activity: laying on the beach and reading novels on our kindles.
We were just about to leave the beach when we saw this dog in sunglasses.
The picture above is us smooshed in the tiny little elevator. Below is us with our flatmates - Jilly and Ben.
Here we are at the discotheque. I finally convinced Jason to go out dancing!!! yippee.
Here we are with Ben.
Here is another beautiful building...
Friday nights are always fun for us here in Barcelona - it's when we go out with all our friends from TEFL.
The picture above is us smooshed in the tiny little elevator. Below is us with our flatmates - Jilly and Ben.
Here we are at the discotheque. I finally convinced Jason to go out dancing!!! yippee.
Here we are with Ben.
Here is another beautiful building...
These pictures are of us at the Gracia Festival ... "Festival Mejor de Gracia". Apparently, all throughout the summer all over Spain, each part of town hosts a "Festival Mejor" (Major Festival). The Gracia Festival was near us, and it lasted for an entire week. It was like a county fair, in the streets...set up everywhere. All of the little residential streets were decorated with different themes - and each street had a competition to see who came up with the most creative theme. Bands had stages set up in the middle of the street, carnival rides, etc. The most amazing part is that each street was designed and decorated by the people living on that street - I can't even imagine how many hours they must have put into some of the themes. They have a greater sense of community here than I've ever seen before.
Here we are with a few of our TEFL classmates - Ricardo (Texas), Ben (Wales), and Katie (England).
This was my favorite theme - they hung & lit up thousands of candy wrappers from strings draped above our heads. The theme of this year's Gracia Festival was Recycling - so all of the street themes were made using recycled materials. Pretty amazing!
It was so beautiful - it looked like a wedding reception. At the bottom of the picture, you can see the people walking the streets beneath the decorations.
One of the main squares was decorated with an Under the Sea theme. These fish were made from recycled water bottles.
This street was decorated with origami birds...all handmade by the residents of that street! 
The next weekend, we went to a small beach town outside of Barcelona called Sitges. We didn't realize that they were having their Festival Mejor also! There were fireworks going off all around (although they didn't show up in the pictures) and giant Burger King style statues being bounced around the streets. 
Heading out to another Friday night with our friends...
Here I am with our flatmate Jilly from Scotland.
Here we are dancing the night away at another Disco - this time some of our students came along. It's fun hanging out with them outside of class - we help them with their English, and they help us with our Spanish.
This is our dining room - it was my turn to cook that night, so I made my mom's famous chicken...it was a hit.
A few weeks after we moved in, we hosted a housewarming party/pot luck. We invited our TEFL classmates, as well as many of our students. Everyone brought a dish of food from their home country. It turned out to be quite a fun night!
Ben decided to borrow my snuggly Stitch doll...
Our day at the Arch de Triumph and it's giant park - that's me (Naomi) standing underneath it on the left...although I pretty much look like a tiny ant.
Here we are in front of a giant crab at the Natural History Museum.
Poor Hedwig ... ;)
Yes, this is a domestic cat on display... 
And then the geology museum...I thought this Kryptonite-ish rock was pretty interesting.
Even the parrots tried to get in on the action!
Here are some photos of our flat. We are only paying 400 Euros a month for our room (quite a steel compared to what we paid for our one bedroom apartment in Costa Mesa)! The flat came furnished, dishes and everything. Water, gas, electricity, WIFI, etc. is all included! And we have air conditioning in our Living Room.
Our bedroom before...
Our bedroom after... some new bedding, a few plants, and Jason's photography really spruced the place up!
The neighborhood - the second building down the street is our building. 
Here we are with a few of our TEFL classmates - Ricardo (Texas), Ben (Wales), and Katie (England).
Here's a picture of everyone dancing in the street to one of the bands.
This was my favorite theme - they hung & lit up thousands of candy wrappers from strings draped above our heads. The theme of this year's Gracia Festival was Recycling - so all of the street themes were made using recycled materials. Pretty amazing!
It was so beautiful - it looked like a wedding reception. At the bottom of the picture, you can see the people walking the streets beneath the decorations. 
Check out the video below to see how incredible it really is...
Here's Jason standing beneath the Halloween themed street (which is kinda weird since they don't celebrate Halloween here!)
One of the main squares was decorated with an Under the Sea theme. These fish were made from recycled water bottles. 
This street was decorated with origami birds...all handmade by the residents of that street!
The next weekend, we went to a small beach town outside of Barcelona called Sitges. We didn't realize that they were having their Festival Mejor also! There were fireworks going off all around (although they didn't show up in the pictures) and giant Burger King style statues being bounced around the streets.
Heading out to another Friday night with our friends...
Here I am with our flatmate Jilly from Scotland.
Here we are dancing the night away at another Disco - this time some of our students came along. It's fun hanging out with them outside of class - we help them with their English, and they help us with our Spanish.
This is our dining room - it was my turn to cook that night, so I made my mom's famous chicken...it was a hit.
A few weeks after we moved in, we hosted a housewarming party/pot luck. We invited our TEFL classmates, as well as many of our students. Everyone brought a dish of food from their home country. It turned out to be quite a fun night!Here I am with Jilly - just about ready for our guests to arrive!
Here is Jason with two fellow TEFL teachers - (from the left...Ricardo from Texas, Jason from Ireland) and Santee - one of our students who is from Peru.
Here we are with our flatmates, and with Marian (on the left) - one of our fellow TEFL classmates. Marian is English, but has lived in Spain for the last eight years. She already has her own academy teaching English to Spanish students - so she was very helpful in our course!
Jason has been missing his Jiu-Jitsu classes...
Ben decided to borrow my snuggly Stitch doll...
Our day at the Arch de Triumph and it's giant park - that's me (Naomi) standing underneath it on the left...although I pretty much look like a tiny ant.
Here we are in front of a giant crab at the Natural History Museum.
Poor Hedwig ... ;)
Yes, this is a domestic cat on display...
And then the geology museum...I thought this Kryptonite-ish rock was pretty interesting.
After our afternoon at the museums, we had a picnic lunch and decided to share some bread with the birds - it caused quite a frenze!
Even the parrots tried to get in on the action!
Here are some photos of our flat. We are only paying 400 Euros a month for our room (quite a steel compared to what we paid for our one bedroom apartment in Costa Mesa)! The flat came furnished, dishes and everything. Water, gas, electricity, WIFI, etc. is all included! And we have air conditioning in our Living Room.
Our bedroom before...Our bedroom after... some new bedding, a few plants, and Jason's photography really spruced the place up!
The entry-way to our flat building...
The neighborhood - the second building down the street is our building. Here we are on the last day of TEFL class, celebrating over lunch with our classmates and instructors. 
And this brings to a close the third edition of the Mintzer Chronicles. Hope you enjoyed it!
