FELIZ NAVIDAD!

First of all, a hearty BONES FESTES and BON NADAL to all, the Christmas lights are on in Barcelona! I am so incredibly happy. I thought I was really wanting to be home, but considering the lighter-than-air ecstasy I am currently experiencing, I think I just wanted it to be Christmas. OH MY GOD. Barcelona looks so good! The "Christmas tree" (it's a palm. I know.) and the nativity set are still in the process of being put up, and the Christmas fair doesn't open until this weekend, but THE LIGHTS ARE ON! I was bummed this morning because I tried to listen to Christmas music on my walk to school, but since it was 55 and extremely sunny, I just couldn't get into the mood. But after my 5:30 class today, I walked out into Placa Catalunya and it was cold, windy, cloudy, and COVERED IN CHRISTMAS LIGHTS, so I knew the time had come. I spent an hour just wandering around the city, listening to Bing Crosby, Johnny Mathis, Perry Como, and of course Elvis (haha), and admiring all the wonderfully tacky and over-the-top decorations. The city is at least twice as bright now. Also! It started to rain on this walk! Barcelona was basically giving me everything I wanted - now if it could transplant my friends, family, and Rimsky's over here, I would never leave.

I had coffee with a girl from my lit class and my Spanish class today to "work" on our presentation, but we ended up just talking about Barcelona for an hour. She lives in a dorm with other Spanish students, and even she said that she can't make friends with them. She says the other students avoid them and clearly don't want to be friends, with the exception of a couple 16 year old boys from southern Spain who want to be more than just their friends. So that made me feel much better about the fact that 13 weeks have passed and I have no Catalan friends, unless you want to count Paula, Gonzalo, Pablo, and their cousins who stop by relatively often, Erik and Kirian. And of course, Carlota and Tomas, but I do prefer having toilet-trained friends.

School is stressing me out hardcore right now. Not so hardcore enough that I am studying much, but just enough to make me want to eat Nutella from the jar while hiding in my bed. Ha, this semester. Oh dear. Next semester will be ROUGH. Anyway. My grades are all riding on the events of the following two weeks, and that is very stressful. There is literally nothing else to balance them out, except in my Spanish class, where I have gotten As on everything so far (woo hoo for Spanish class). This brings up several points I have been wanting to make about school here. Actually, the points are completely unrelated to grades and finals, except that they're about school. One. Students drink beer all the time. You wouldn't think this would be so weird, but it is. Because when I leave my first class at 11 am, there are beer cans literally strewn about the quad-like thing. AT ELEVEN AM. Two. I think I've said this, but everyone speaks Catalan around me. And in my art history class, people give presentations in Catalan all the time. Bilingualism is weird. Three. Everyone smokes. I have seen groups of four or five people literally leaning against the giant (7 feet high), red no-smoking sign. Ummm there were many more, I'm sure. I can't remember right now. Oh! How about that about half the class has their motorcycle helmet on the desk next to them!

Anyway I feel bipolar because I just went from a morning of "sad, I can't even listen to Christmas music because it's so nice out... if only I was at home..." to an evening of "OH MY GOD CHRISTMAS IN BARCELONA I CAN'T EVEN BELIEVE HOW GREAT THIS IS." But since it's ending on a high note, I feel no need to question it.

Vinho? Obrigado!

Those are the two words of Portuguese I know. There are some others I know by accident, because they're the same as Spanish, but pretty much the only one I ever said was "obrigado." All the time. (It means "thank you")

So Lisbon is amazing! Seriously. There's a castle, a river, the ocean, a bridge that looks suspiciously golden and gate-like (see very small picture), a boatload of references to the age of Portuguese dominance of the seas, lots of very friendly people, literally acres of Christmas decorations, and a ton of delicious food and wine. Basically a winner in my book. The majority of buildings in Lisbon are covered in colorful ceramic tiles (azulejo), which makes wandering around even more gorgeous than it is in Barcelona. Also, the city is built on seven hills (as you might have heard), which makes it more... shall we say 'heart-healthy' to get around than Barcelona, which only has a gentle slope down to the ocean, and a ferrocarril up the hill. To add to the San Francisco parallels, Lisbon is also covered with trolley tracks, and lots of both antique and new trolleys make up a good portion of the public transportation system. Basically, there wasn't anything about Lisbon I didn't like. Even our hostel was incredible - it had a kitchen we could use to cook meals (if we wanted), delicious breakfast MADE TO ORDER, linens and towels provided, free internet 24 hours a day, and the friendliest staff I have seen in any place of business in all of Europe. Plus it was on one of the main pedestrianized roads in the middle of downtown, so it was close to everything! This hostel pretty much had it all. They even had a tv room and a DVD collection. Still, the fresh eggs in the morning were my favorite.

I was traveling with Stacey, a friend of mine from IES, and her friend from high school, who is studying in Paris. They remembered their passports, so they were there on Thursday. But on Friday, when I arrived at the hostel at 8:30 am, we set off to conquer the city. We saw the castle, the remains of which date from the 13th century, which is on top of the tallest hill in Lisbon, and took in a beautiful view of the entire city. From there we happened upon a church from the 12th century, and wandered around the neighborhood of Alfama, just a few steps behind a tour group. Actually, we only followed them for about a block and a half before seeing an adorable old man playing with some dogs and had to stop to admire the picturesque-ness of the situation. We had lunch in a big praça (another Portuguese word I know, but can't pronounce, but it means plaza) which was decked out with Christmas decorations, just like nearly every street we saw. From there we were pretty beat, myself especially, since I had left my bed in Barcelona at 4:15 that morning, so we napped in our wonderful hostel before heading out. We wandered around Chiado and the Bairro Alto, and found some delicious Italian food for dinner. I had tagliolini with mascarpone and black truffle - I nearly died, it was so epicly amazing - and we tried some Portuguese vinho verde. Although that translates to green wine, it was actually white. Also, in Lisbon, restaurants put out bread bowls, butter, olives, etc, but if you eat from them, they charge you about two euros per person. Um... not cool. It's times like these when I miss America - wonderful America, with overflowing bread bowls, free water without even having to ask for it, and prompt service. Regardless, our dinner was outstanding, and our waiter did give us some free limoncello, which Stacey's friend Lekha had some trouble drinking. It also made it so we spent an extra twenty (or thirty) minutes at the table, but that's the beauty of Europe! That table is yours, no matter how many people feel like waiting for it! We felt like we ought to hit the bars, since Bairro Alto, where we were at the time, is the area to go out in, but it was still early, and so we got ice cream instead. Then we decided we were all too tired anyway, and went back to the hostel where we watched Love Actually and dreamt of Christmas.

Saturday, we went to Belém, where there is a big monastery built by King Manuel I for himself in the 16th century. It is STUNNING, but I've been to my share of old, religious buildings. Maybe someone else's share as well. I was hoping for some pretender to the Holy Grail or perhaps the body of a king, but I was denied. From there we walked to a huge monument dedicated to Portuguese sailing prowess (Monument to Discoveries) - you can sort of see it in the first picture, and you can definitely see it in the nine others on Photobucket. It's very cool - it has 30 extremely gigantic figures of important explorers and cartographers and such, all clamoring on the sides of a comically undersized ship. I don't know - I have trouble thinking of Portuguese as a huge exploratory force (even though I know they were), because the effect of the Spanish, British, and the French is so much more prominent in the sheer volume of countries they colonized. But I guess Brazil is really huge. From there we went to the Tower of Belém, a tower that is on the river, near the confluence(?) of the river with the Atlantic ocean. It used to be used for defense, and now it is a national monument. It is a really cool building but was literally empty, so it wasn't that exciting. There was a spiral staircase to the top, but it was also the staircase to the bottom, so we had a rough time getting up and then back down through all the foot traffic. From there, I nearly died of hunger, and we had some incredible falafel and batatas fritas (see, I know TONS of Portuguese), before slowly making our way back downtown. We stopped at a covered market that had closed only an hour before, where there was a dance going on upstairs! It was filled with adorable old Portuguese couples. We made it back to town, tried the traditional Portuguese pastéis de nata (cream tart), and decided we couldn't make it to dinner without a nap. Rejuvenated, we headed up to one of the many parks in the city to see the lighting of the city's giant Christmas tree! In fact, it is not a tree at all, but a 72 meter high metal and light contraption which glows green, gold, blue, or multi-colored, and also has animations (of sorts) of doves flying, and of a dove hanging a ribbon or tinsel or something around the tree. It was GREAT. The lighting was accompanied by tons of Christmas music, which was all in English. That was sort of surprising to me, but a wonderful surprise! From there we headed back to Bairro Alto and found one of the restaurants that was suggested on wikitravel (since I now get ALL of my information from wiki sites, apparently). We asked how long the wait would be, since the twelve tables were all full, and she said a table had already paid, so probably ten minutes. We decided to wait, and enjoyed a glass of wine on the street outside as we waited a good forty five minutes, never thinking to change our plans (we had wine! What were we supposed to do, leave our glasses and run?). Dinner was delicious once we were seated though, and I had the special, which was octopus served with roasted potatoes and spinach - and it was amazing. I was nervous about it being octopus, but it was delectable. For dessert, we had chocolate pudding, and then, exhausted from the wait, the meal, and the wonderful conversation, we headed back to the hostel, fighting the crowds of bar-goers (that can't be a word) who were all in the street. Apparently the good bars are too small, so you just order and stand outside all night. Not bad in Lisbon, where it was 65, but that could be rough in other places.

The next morning we once again enjoyed some freshly scrambled eggs, then headed out to do some last minute shopping before heading to the airport. I was glad to be back in Barcelona, but it is much colder than it was in Lisbon, and also I have to go to class here! That dose of Christmas was wonderful though, and I can't wait for them to turn on the lights in Barcelona! All of the Christmas lights are up, but they sit there sadly, just like me, desperate for the Christmas season to be in full swing. Only 27 days until I come home - I'm so happy to be here, but I definitely miss Portland right now. Especially knowing that a lot of my friends are home for Thanksgiving! But I have much more important things to focus on - like the term paper, the presentation, the five written exams, and the oral exam that are all due or taking place between Dec 1 and 18. Oh dear Jesus.
Sorry this one was so long - Lisbon is just THAT awesome.

School: just as boring abroad

I wish I could describe to you the immense difficulty of anyone holding my attention for a full two hours, let alone an elderly, balding man telling me in a fast paced, mumbling tone about Lebanon. But it is indescribable. TWO HOURS IS SO LONG. I miss my quick little fifty minute math classes. Luckily I have to take three of them next semester (bleh). Classes are just so different here, for a number of reasons besides the epic lengths. First of all, my UPF classes have about 70-80 students in them. My art history class is half lecture, half discussion, but both Islam history and poetry are pure lecture. At least in poetry we get a break in the middle. The other, most notable difference for me is that when I am in class or walking around campus, I don't know anyone. At Whitman, it was impossible for me to cross campus (or even walk between two classes on the same floor of Olin) without seeing someone I knew and probably wanted to talk to. But here, I'm taking classes with sophomores and juniors who have all the same classes together and who have been in classes together for more than a year. They're all already friends, and not very friendly. Plus they stand around speaking Catalan to each other, so it's not even like I could awkwardly jump into their conversations. I was talking to some of the IES girls who live in residence halls, and they say they haven't even made friends in their dorms, with the exception of a few kids from southern Spain, where people are actually friendly. It doesn't really bother me that much, since I do have friends - just not at UPF, but it feels so weird to go into the cafeteria or sit in the quad and not know a single person around me. I sort of miss Whitman's tight little community, however suffocating it can be. And I'm determined to go to the south.
In other news, I finally figured out the websites for my classes, only to discover that the art history class is the only one that actually uses it. But I did find information about most of my finals, except poetry. By the way, the real professor still hasn't made it to class. I don't know what's wrong, but he probably should've just not been teaching classes at all this semester. We have a different teacher each week now, which is fine but sort of frustrating. They all seem to be pretty smart though.
Also, people take notes in very odd ways here - most people just sit there writing full sentences, and full paragraphs, of what I can only assume is verbatim from the professor's mouth. True, mine are dented by the fact that I don't always catch everything they say, but still, I prefer bullets and short points to paragraphs upon paragraphs. It seems like it would be hard to study from. AND I have noticed several people taking notes in Catalan. This bilingual world is so odd to me. We will conduct class entirely in Spanish, but someone will ask a question in Catalan, and the professor will (usually) respond in Spanish. They can take notes in an entirely different language. I mean, I could probably take notes in English, but there are still a lot of words I don't know the meaning of, and I would get caught up translating and then get way behind in listening.
Everyone is extremely respectful of the professors at UPF, which is an extremely notable difference from my classes at IES. Not in my Spanish class, but in my Latin American lit class - people talk through class (and this is a class of 15-20 people, not 80, so it's very obvious), and openly talk about the things we do being a waste of time. Maybe it's just because I really like that class, but it annoys me. A lot. The worst is this one girl who spends the entire class asking her friends what the professor just said, presumably because she doesn't understand? I don't know. But it kills me to hear them talk, in English, over our professor for the entire class. And they can be really immature - about half the class was groaning in disgust when we watched an interview with Onetti and he had yellow, rotting teeth. Ok, yes, his teeth were gross. Chill out and maybe shut up so we can hear the interview we're supposed to be listening to? Not that I can ever understand the interviews we watch anyway, since everyone important seems to mumble. Anyway I just miss people who respect their professors, even if the class is a waste of time or the professor isn't deserving of their respect, they still usually shut up when class is in session.
OH MAN in poetry the other week, these two girls were talking and the professor asked them to be quiet and they kept talking through her asking them to be quiet - drama. She got really mad and said that she doesn't care if they don't pay attention, she's only talking for the benefit of those who want to hear her, but when they don't listen when she is speaking directly to them it is rude and disrespectful, not because she's a professor but because she's a person. WOW it was intense. I think they were Americans, and had been asking each other about the meaning of something, and therefore didn't understand immediately that she was talking to them. But it was very intense.
Anyway, now that I have figured out the class websites, I have the list of twelve books which are listed as "recommended reading" for two of my classes. I'm assuming I should read them. My poetry class, on the other hand, doesn't have anything listed but in our dossier, at the end of each poet's section, there's a section of recommended reading that lists about ten books for each poet - that's not happening. We've already done four, and have at least four more to do - I don't think I'll be reading eighty books for this class. Maybe I'll pick one that looks good for each poet or something. I really need to start doing this immediately though, because this "no" work until the exam thing is way too easy to get into, and I have completely forgotten that I will actually need to do work for the exam. Especially since I don't learn a ton in class, since I am either a. spacing out and taking distracted notes (Islam) b. feeling like this class is in media res (art history) c. analyzing a specific poem but learning nothing about the poet. In short, I need to catch myself up outside of class a lot. Also I should be writing my midterm for Latin American lit instead of writing blog posts. But which is more fun?

David y Barca

My goodness it has been quite some time. A whole... what, three days? Well don't even worry, I have plenty to say. When last we left, David was on his way to Barcelona and I was out enjoying La Diada (which it turns out, had a PARADE that I missed! Sad! I'm always game for a parade).

After a very confusing series of events involving misleading text message "received" times, I waited at the train station for about an hour and a half, convinced I had arrived too late and David had decided to brave the city alone and find a cab to his hostel. Luckily this was not the case, and he got in right at midnight (after a mini-storm, complete with torrential rain for approximately 10 minutes and thunder and lightning for about 45). Unfortunately that's when the Metro closes, and we decided to brave it and walk. We walked what Google maps tells me is about 3 km, probably freaking David out just a little by the random streets and the fact that it was after midnight. Once he was all checked into his hostel though, the real scaring of David began.

We went to find a bar in the Barrio Gotico, but I didn't have any particular one in mind and thought it would be more fun to just wander and see what we could find. Well, we wandered around the Barrio Gotico, which is all tiny little medieval streets which aren't super well-lit, and since all the stores were closed as it was 1:30, David probably thought we were about to get stabbed or something. But there were always people around, and the chance of getting stabbed or anything more than pickpocketed in Barcelona is extremely small (just so you know, mom & dad - no worrying now). We ended up getting tired of wandering and just stopped in a random place and chatting for a while, but I think that David was pretty sketched out by his initial impression of Spain.

The next day was probably the busiest day I have had in Barcelona. We got some breakfast (coffee and pastries is a big difference from the British breakfasts David was getting) and then wandered down Las Ramblas, towards the ocean. We saw all of the funky street performers, and the pet shops, and went in La Boqueria, which is a big covered market. David got to see some whole skinned animals, and bought some weird pink juice that was coconut and something. Next we wandered around more of the Barrio Gotico, and slowly made our way down to the harbor, then to the beach. We walked down the beach (it turned out to be a gorgeous day, even though it began kind of cloudy), which wasn't busy or dirty or anything - so apparently Paula has been lying to me. Or she has very high standards for beaches. There are tons of little cafes and restaurants right there on the sand and on the street, and we wandered down to the Port Olimpic, and then around la Barceloneta. It was all so pretty and we had the perfect day to do it, with sun and a breeze and no plans! We had some sandwiches and sangria on the sand, then wandered back up through El Born. I think (or hope) that David really liked seeing all of the tiny medieval streets and the little plazas that pop out from nowhere. After that, we took the bus up to Parc Guell (where I could probably go everyday), and saw all of Gaudi's weird ass stone bridges and mosaic benches. We stopped for tapas in the Barrio Gotico (it's just too cool to not keep exploring) and then went to Danielle's apartment for dinner - we had 11 people (David being the lone man) for dinner, and it was FANTASTIC. Danielle made a bunch of tapas that were amazing, and then we had pasta with cheese and cinnamon! Sounds crazy, and it is, but it's delicious. After that we went out to a couple bars, and in general tried to show David a good Barcelona night.

The next day, we went to La Sagrada Familia and wandered around some more, and then spent the better part of the afternoon trying to get David's phone fixed or buy him an alarm clock so that he could get up and make his flight in the morning. It was a much less exciting day, but we ended it with dinner with my host family, which was really cool. David followed the Spanish as best as he could (and it seemed he did very well!) and Paula and Ana and I talked more than we usually do, which was great. The twins were at their dad's this weekend, so it was really nice to have a relaxed dinner, without any sibling craziness going on between the three. Also they talk really fast, so it was easier to follow conversation between just Paula and Ana.

Today classes started, but only IES classes - I have to wait another week for my UPF and UB classes to begin. So I had one class at 9 am and that's all - it was good though. It's for my Spanish class, and I like the teacher and it seems like it will be really helpful in ironing out the stupid mistakes I make on a day-to-day basis. After that, Cara and I planned our trip to Scotland over fall break(!!!) which was fun but a little stressful when I tried to figure out transportation from Berlin to Glasgow and then back to Barcelona. Speaking of which, I am SO SO excited to go to Berlin with my parents when they come. It will be so cool! I hope. Cara had been craving a bagel, so we found a bagel shop online and went to find it. It was good, but really weird to be eating bagels. It's weird that I have absolutely no desire to find the things I love from home here - other than nectarines. There's a Chicago-style pizza place, and this bagel shop, and other places that serve food atypical of the region, but I really don't want to go to them. I doubt I'll go back to the bagel place, unless I'm really craving it, but I guess it was cool to go once. I planned to go to the beach, as it was an absolutely gorgeous sunny day, about 75 with a nice breeze and not a cloud in the sky - but no one else could go with me at the time so instead I went to La Pedrera, another Gaudi building, and then wandered down Diagonal (a main street) until I found a cool-looking neighborhood, which I explored for a few hours. I found a park, out of nowhere, and sat and enjoyed the shade for a while, then went out to get tapas with Leslie. We wandered around El Raval after that, which was really cool, and now I'm just resting my feet after a solid 6 hours of walking. I mean, there was some intermittent sitting, but still. I came home to find out that Ana fell in the street today and maybe broke her knee! It's very stressful and I hate seeing her like this. Also I have no idea what we will do, as she is the backbone and the brain and the ruler and anything else which gives structure in the house.

Next post will actually be interesting, I plan on making some real observations about Barcelona rather than just cataloging the events of the day, but for now - this is what you get. I also took lots more pictures, so get excited!

Valencia!

So this weekend we were in Valencia for orientation, but before I detail that I have to include an anecdote just for my mother: on Thursday afternoon I went out to get tapas and found a bar that was showing the US Open! So I got to watch Murray and Del Potro play! I missed the downfall of Rafa, though. Too bad.

We left for Valencia on Friday morning, stopping first in Peñíscola, which is a little coastal town where the anti-Pope Benedict XIII lived. We had some lunch, enjoyed the beach (a little), and had a tour of the castle and the old city. Look! It's me in the Mediterranean!
The group was divided into 3 groups with different schedules and hotels according to language level and each group had 2 buses. We went on tours with our bus group, which meant it was a group of about 50. It was really cool, the old part is very small and... old. Obviously. We saw where Benedict locked himself away and read the Bible (or something), and saw lots of cool things around the city, including a sign saying not to bring your horse and cart down one particular street. Our tour was supposed to be in Spanish, since we're the advanced group, but it ended up being mostly in English for some reason. The weather was really nice, although when there wasn't a breeze it was really hot. Luckily it was pretty windy. We also saw where their running of the bulls happens. If I understood the woman right, it goes on for 12 days. And... that was Peñíscola. We loaded back up onto the bus and drove to Valencia.

My roommate in Valencia, Rachel, is a math major too! We couldn't figure out how to work the lights in our room, so we talked in increasing darkness until it was time for dinner, and then figured out that you had to put your card in a little slot. Dinner was good, lots of courses again, followed by weiiiiird tiramisu. I went out to grab some drinks with a couple people and had a lot of fun, even though it was a totally random group. We ended up quoting Mitch Hedberg back and forth and talking about the Clintons various gestures - so random. And fantastic. The next day we had a guided tour of Valencia, where we saw the lonja, an old market; a fresh market that is the largest covered market in Spain; a couple important buildings (obviously the tour really stuck with me); and the AQUARIUM! The aquarium is in a part of town with a lot of architecture by Santiago Calatrava, and it is designed by him as well. The picture is of the Hemisfero, which is an Imax theatre/planetarium, and behind it you can see the Opera house. In the other direction is the science museum, a park of sorts with lots of palm trees, and the aquarium. The aquarium was really cool - my favorite part was the belugas, seals, and walruses, especially the walruses, because they were just so big and snorty. Also, it taught me that Finding Nemo is SO REAL. Whatever fish Dory is - there were a lot of those. And eels that legitimately look evil. We also saw these giant spider crabs that were humongous and would lurk in the dark in the back... so creepy. And in one of the underwater tunnels there were tons of sharks going back and forth above and around me! Anyway, the point is, I was a big fan. I went back later with Annie to look at the other parts of the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, and took some pictures of the architecture before my camera crapped out on me. So all of the events of Sunday missed photo documentation. For dinner, we had paella, which was - mass prepared for 100 people. But still good. I want to get some REAL paella though. The next day we did more touring, and went inside the cathedral in the city, where I saw the HOLY GRAIL. Or so they say. Still, a pretender to the grail is just about as important to me as the real cup could be, so it was pretty cool. More touring, and a brief glimpse down into the ruins of the Roman level of the city. They have a part which is preserved and you can look down at it from the street through a big glass window(?) in a square in the city. Unfortunately, it had rained the night before, and the glass was dirty, so we looked through little areas we cleaned of grime. It was weird.

After that we went down to the beach and had a mini tour of the place where the America's cup is held. Apparently it's some sort of sailing competition? And apparently I should know about it. We also saw (and walked on) a Formula 1 track, before ending our tour of Valencia and breaking for lunch. I got a big sunburn at lunch, which we ate at an Italian restaurant, and then we went down to the beach. The water is so nice - it's really shallow and has next to no waves at all, but the temperature! My god! We bussed back to Barcelona, and my host mother asked at dinner if I had been speaking a lot of English that weekend, because she noticed my Spanish was worse. Um, sí? Thanks. So I need to not hang out with Americans and speak English is basically the moral of that story. But I don't really foresee that happening anytime soon.

Today I had my first day of Spanish class, with my kind of weird yet also awesome teacher Ari. We analyzed our personalities by the words we could make from our names. I had "sed" and "ley" - thirst and law. Ok... And that's all I have for you for now. I'm sure it's plenty.

orientation etc.

Yesterday, orientation officially started. I was in the group that started at 11, not at 9, so that was great. I had told Ana (mistakenly, obviously) that I had class at 9:30, so at 10 Paula timidly knocked on my door to see if I had overslept. Showering is a bit of a fiasco, since I can never remember which way is hot, I'm constantly worrying about taking too long or too much water or too much energy, and I'm usually really out of it. Anyway. I had my extremely Spanish breakfast of Corn Flakes and then went to orientation. We just talked about Barcelona, classes, and adjusting to living abroad. Pretty uneventful. Then I had about 45 minutes before I had to meet with the academic adviser about my UPF classes, so I ran out and ate the greasiest chocolate croissant I have ever seen, and a cup of coffee which I awkwardly drank alone at the bar in a cafe. There were some other old men at the bar, but they were chatting with the server, so I mostly just admired their vast wine collection that was all over the wall. Also, they serve FERNET(!) which I didn't think existed outside Argentina.

It turns out my classes aren't really cancelled, they're just sort of renamed, and might have different schedules, but we don't know yet. But I can continue to take both Islam History and Spanish Lit, so that's fantastic. Jane gave me a new list of the available UPF courses, and they have a Latin Am. Lit class too, so maybe I won't take classes at UB, just at UPF, since the UB classes are Estudios Hispanicos, meaning they are designed for study abroad students. There would probably be students from a lot of different countries, not just America, but I don't know if I would prefer taking more regular UPF courses or Estudios Hispanicos at UB.

That afternoon we had an opening ceremony, which was beyond scary because half of the program is from Santa Clara, and the other half is from Wake Forest. So it was just crowds of people (literally crowds, since there are 300 students in the program) hanging out with their friends from home, and me wandering trying to find someone else who didn't know anyone. The problem is, most people have roommates, so they know at least one other person, whereas I am all alone. I found a couple cool people, including one who is in my language class AND on the same bus to Valencia, which was beyond reassuring, and we hung out for a while before leaving early to roam the streets. They were shocked to hear I had been wandering the city alone and going out to tapas on my own, and told me how dangerous it was (but Ana has told me that I can go pretty much everywhere in the city without trouble, I just have to hold on to my purse). During the course of the event, I turned off my phone because it was frozen, only to discover I needed a PIN to turn it back on - and only vaguely remembered the saleswoman showing me the PIN. So I had to go home and find my PIN, so that I could turn my phone back on and find my RA for our neighborhood visit. Once I got ahold of Alicia, they were at La Sagrada Familia, so I booked it over there and the 9 of us had tapas. Mind you, 5 of these students were friends from Santa Clara, 2 were roommates, and then there was me and Alicia. Thank god for the other girls, because I ended up having a nice time, until they left and I got to spend the rest of the night listening to stories about parties at Santa Clara, the drunken mishaps they have already found themselves in since arriving the day before, and their plans for the night. They invited me to go out to a club with them; apparently most of our program was going, because all of the Santa Clara kids were going, but instead I ate dinner with my host family, iced my foot, and went to bed early (really living it up here in Spain) because this morning I had my placement exam at UPF.

UPF has some really cool buildings (and by some I mean two) - it's only 18 years old, so everything is really new. The test was relatively manageable, 80 mulitple choice questions ("Madrid ____ en el centro del país. A: es B: está C: esta D: ese), a short essay, and a 5 minute oral examination, in which the woman and I talked about Pedro Almodóvar and learning catalan. I felt bad though, because some of the people from IES are only taking classes at UPF in English, didn't speak more than a few words of Spanish, and were handed an 80-question test. Except I didn't feel all that bad, because there are so many people who it seems are only here because Barcelona is a great party city, and don't seem to care much about immersing themselves in the culture. I mean, I'm being a big snob, but... I call it like I see it. I met another girl who is in my language class and on my bus to Valencia, which means I now know TWO other people in my class. Great news. I'm the only IES student taking either of my UPF courses though, so I guess I'll be on my own there. Also, the guy who gave us our orientation talk said, "If you go to a class that was listed to be in Spanish and it is taught in Catalan, please talk to the teacher and let us know as soon as possible." Does that mean there is a chance that I will show up and the professor will have decided to teach in another language? That scares me a little.

Well, tomorrow we're off to Valencia, and in the mean time I am going to go find myself some food, since I looked up from my book to find I had taken another siesta this afternooon, and now I'm starving.