Más Más Más

I´m sitting in a student computer area at my new university, Universitat Pompeu Fabra. I have an ID card! I have a username on the computer! Don´t believe me?

€€€¿?¿?¿?¿?ñññ

¿?¿Could you see that on my regular old laptop¿?¿

This place is crowded. Everyone hangs around in all the common areas, in a way that reminds me of the Mount. The students plop themselves on the ground right outside the classroom doors. Though, they seem to always be rolling cigarettes which only happened at the mount on fridays (jk!!!!) The guy on the computer next to me just shouted: joder!

I made it to Montjuic this weekend. Not really ¨made¨ it because it could be considered my backyard. Though I would definitely classify walking to the castle at the very top of Montjuic as ¨making it.¨ It was far and steep. BUT the views from up there were incredible. We stopped into the olympic stadium... it was really just a stadium. But it was cool to know some of the greats had walked there before me: Michael Johnson, Bob and Becky O´Shea....

On Sunday, believe it or not, I went to church in the Barcelona Cathedral. It took me some time to find a mass in ¨castellano¨rather than ¨catalan¨but it was well worth it! I sat in the old women section. I think thats the unofficial name. I sat next to 3 best friends. They looked at me and smiled periodically throughout the mass. I was blowing my nose fairly frequently, so I was certain they weren´t friendly smiles. But in the end, I won them over. I think it happened when I stood beside the pew and waited for them to seat themselves after communion. I´ve noticed very few forgo seats on the metro for the elderly, and this small gesture was greeted with many ¨thank you child.¨ At the end of mass, when I was still pouring over the hymnal, one tapped me on the shoulder and said Adios!!!! I think that was my invitation to sit with them. La cuatro amigas.

I now have my set schedule. I switched out of my 1.5 hour Spanish class into the longer class, which allowed me to drop a class. But! I lost my ¨fsem¨ group. That´s okay, cuanto más mejor.

On MWF I only have spanish from 10:45-12:15 at which point we take a half an hour break. I like to go to the cafe next door. (SIDE NOTE: My friend Tracy and I saw the singer from the Flamenco show!!! We were ecstatic and tried to tell him we were fans-- the spanglish was difficult --- and we were KICKING ourselves that neither of us had a camera. I don´t think he even knew he was famous before that moment). Anyway, we report back to spanish for one hour, 12:45-1:45 and then I am free!

After having attended three different spanish classes, with three local senoritas, I like my current senorita the best. Great! Interestingly, when I went to switch spanish classes, the woman who runs the registrar said: okay, SPAN 350, 3rd floor at 10:45. Wouldn´t you know there are two SPAN 350s on the 3rd floor at 10:45? I was attending the one in the room next door! I recieved an email saying I needed to meet with the Dean because I had so far attended 0 Spanish classes, and missing one more would warrant a fail! When I replied saying I had so far attended each session, we had a good laugh together. They took the blame so I can´t complain!

On Tues/Thurs I start bright and early with Mediterranean Environment at 9:00 am. At UPF, my real live spanish university with real live spanish students, I have class back to back from 1:00-5:00. At 1:00: Barcelona/Madrid: La ciudad frente la cinema y literatura. A class solamente en español. translation: Contemporary Barcelona/Madrid compared to literature and cinema. At 3:00, Barcelona: A City and its History. This is my only americano profesor. He graduated from Tufts, and wants to let the class know this is not a typical ¨abroad class with no work.¨pshhh. I read the syllabus. His bark is way worse than his bite.

Unfortunately, I do have a midterm and a paper due the week my parents are visiting. It´s not all bad, though, because they will assume I have been working that hard throughout the semester.

After classes yesterday I went to Tracy and Maria´s homestay for a delicious home cooked meal. Their señora does not speak a word of english, and boy can she talk! We had a 3 course meal, anything less in Spain would be rude. AND she made the best pan con tomaste in the world - only found in Catalan, a simple pre-appetizer of bread with oil and tomato paste. And though we kept inching towards the door at 11:30 since we had been dining together since 9:15, I had a great time! The señora was so nice and she said if she got her hands on me for the whole semester she´d force me to be fluent! I don´t know about that.... but she really loves hosting students and Tracy and Maria are very lucky!!! They have a bidet, I have a double bed.... we´re even.

This weekend: a study trip to Tarragona with all of IES! 460 Students!