Winter Vacation

 Cool Art work in Barcelona

 Las Ramblas- a popular street in Barcelona

 A Gaudi building. His architecture is all over Barcelona and its all amazing.

 The Cathedral.

Barcelona's Arc de Triomf!

 The Sagrada de Familia Church ---as by Gaudi. It is still not finished they have been working on it for almost 150 years.

 The Sagrada is based on nature, even I could tell that and I know nothing about architecture.

 This was one of my favorite things in Barcelona. Some people don't have a Santa Claus. So they have Caga Tio, it is a log you beat with a stick until it poops out presents! AMAZING!

 At an awesome wine bar. Super Happy!  We waited 3 hours for this place to open..=)

 Parc de Guell...this is an entire park with sculptures by Gaudi, right next to his old house. It is also a lesson in not sitting like a trucker!

 Sitges. A cool coastal town outside of Barcelona. It was 65 and sunny. People were sunbathing. The perfect day!

 Christmas ball light dancing!

I will post pictures from Paris later. It seems I have done quite a bit today.  I have so many more pictures I could post. It was really hard to limit myself. Barcelona was an amazing city and we had the best tour guides in town. I loved every minute of it. 

I don't usually make New Years resolutions, but this year after looking back on the last two weeks. I am going to work on being more appreciative. I have such amazing things going on in my life now and down the road. I want to make sure to take the time to stop and enjoy them. I think Michael will be a valuable part in this because he seems to be really good at enjoying the small things and the big things. I am so lucky to have such a great travel partner through life.

I thought I would dread coming back to Beirut because of the mixed emotions the last 4 months have brought and although I was horribly sad to leave my friends and family again ( I am not sure how many more times I can do that). I am happy and content to be back in Beirut. Which is a huge relief. This is my home for now and I am going to do what I can to make it a success.  I know I will still have some ups and downs but each day I get a little more comfortable and find more of a routine. I am not intimidated by the strange differences between here and the States anymore. Although I will not be riding in any open door white vans anytime soon. (this is beirut's answer to public transportation) They are just a part of this world.  We will see if I am still singing this happy tune in two weeks when I have to work on a Saturday!