on, and shirts that said "Donkey Attitude" with a picture of a donkey wearing red and yellow striped sunglasses (for their notoriously stubborn demeanor), and lots of pamphlets and petitions and books, all in Catalan. We saw a lot of the city, too, including the cathedral, the park de la Ciutadella, the Arc de Triomf (how many of these are there in the world?), the harbor and the Ramblas (which are getting less and less entertaining everytime I go). It was really fun but BLAZING hot. Ok, it was like 87, but still. That's hot. Especially when it's humid. I woke up super late today and was sneaking out of the house (not really sneaking, but making a quick exit) when Ana caught me and asked if I had showered yet? And I said No, I showered last night. But had I eaten breakfast yet? No, because I had slept in so late. So then I was dragged into the kitchen and fed a croissant she had bought especially for me that morning and then some weird juice and stuff before I made yet another excuse about not showering and ducked out to find Cara and Andrea.I slept in so late because last night I went out with Annie and Christanna and Leslie and some other random people, and when I went home early, it was 4 am. Yeah. And walking the four blocks home was like walking home at four in the afternoon - siesta time - because the stores were closed but there were still people everywhere. Leslie and I went to this random restaurant where she had met the owner/manager person a few days ago, and were served quite a bit of stuff on the house, even though they probably needed the money because it wasn't exactly crowded. Leslie's host mother has a friend who also hosts international students, and had introduced Leslie to Aubrey, her student, that night at dinner. So Aubrey and her friend Chrissie (sp?) met up with us there, and we had a total of 4 beers, a bottle of water, four shots of Apple Schnapps which the owner/manager person insisted we take, and a plate of almonds, and paid about 4 euros for the whole shebang. It was one of the weirdest experiences I have ever had. Ben (said owner/manager person) stands outside of the restaurant pretty much all day and coaxes people inside, giving them free stuff and telling them to come back with all of their friends. Business appears to be less than great. He sat with us a couple times and chatted in English, until Javier, a waiter, came over and asked why he was speaking English to us, and then we started a GREAT conversation with Javi about Spanish and Catalan and other stuff, all in Spanish. Which was sooooo much better. I kind of hate it when people speak English to me, actually. It feels demeaning that they would assume I don't speak Spanish, even though of course they would assume that! I'm blonde and clearly American and in a big, touristy city. Anyway, we met up with Annie and Christanna and Hillary after that, and we all went out to La Oveja Negra which is a really cool bar in the Gothic quarter. We met some hilarious Swedes, a bunch of really hot Mexicans, two annoying Californians, and a couple actual Barcelona residents who we hung out with for most of the night. After La Oveja Negra closed, we went to some random and AWFUL bar/club thing that didn't have a cover charge, where fun times were not to be had as the tiny space was filled with techno music but not with people.
Earlier that day I went to La Sagrada Familia with a bunch of IES people (I have the unfortunate combination of only having American friends but not wanting to hang out with Americans and speak English all day), and it was pretty cool but having been there before, I wasn't quite as impressed by the other girls, who practically swooned when we got off the Metro to have it right in front of us. W
e did go to the museum in the bottom though, where I hadn't been before, and one of the girls read to us from her guide book about how Gaudi ended up moving into it and becoming a hobo (or at least looking like one) when funding was cut. We didn't wait in the epic elevator line to see the top or the view, but it was still really cool. Pictures to come, I guess, since I haven't uploaded them from my camera yet. After that we got pizza at a random cafe and had a smoking hot Italian waiter. I signed up for a cooking class at IES, which will be in a few weeks. I'm really pumped because we learn to make paella, tortilla espanola, gazpacho, and some random dessert thing I haven't heard of. ALSO excited to learn that IES has a little tiny library, and we can check out books and movies, and they have Almodovar's entire collection! So I can see the ones we didn't watch last semester. David told me the other day that I write a lot in my blog - but just so everyone knows I have no intention of changing that because I love chronicling my life for whoever feels like reading about it. So prepare yourself, this blog is going to continue in much the same long, rambling manner until things get less interesting.
