que simpatica

i got to move some of my things into my new apartment today and got the keys. how nice! i met the other girl that i didn't before and she said she was excited for me to come. again, how nice! i'm getting excited because there are so many cute little shops all around and i can't wait to check them out. there's one right outside my apartment that has all of these little homemade chocolate treats! yum yum


school:
you want to know something really cool? in my Persona, Economia, y Sociedad class where we watch movies, we watched "The Lives of Others" on Monday. It's a German movie so they have subtitles. my first thought: Why am i here?? a German movie with Spanish subtitles, what a lovely way to wake up in the morning. more like put me back to sleep! BUT! i actually understood most of it!! my reading is getting ridiculously well =) i even read something in Catalan the other day and understood it. so strange..

today i had my class that is also on Fridays and i was supposed to have a presentation Friday but i asked him if i could just present and then leave since my parents are coming. so he said, why don't you just present today and then you don't have to worry about coming Friday? how nice! so i did. but for some reason i did really bad and was stumbling with all of my words. i've given presentations in my other classes but i don't know why i was nervous this time. i just kept laughing. but hey, you can't fail me, atleast i tried!

so that means no school on Friday and i can worry about going to the airport and getting mom and dad settled.

random side note-- i've noticed they write some of their numbers different here. the ones looks like sevens and the fours look like sideways "s"s. hard to explain. but why?

play:
we went out last night to one of our favorite bars, El Gato Negro and i had so much fun because we had a table of so many different people! Italy, Germany, Czech Republic, Croatia, London it's so cool to hear everyone's stories and views of the world. also, one of my friends pulled out this green fruit out of no where and was asking everyone what it was. but nobody knew. she said she saw it on a tree and didn't know what it was so she plucked it. so we spent a good part of our time examining it, smelling it, cutting it open. nobody tasted it though? and it didn't smell. stumped. but honestly, this is why i love this place. anything goes.

then i kept catching the eyes of some people at another table so i decided to go up and say hi and it was a big group of kids. they were celebrating a birthday and had two cakes and gave me some! they asked where i was from and i said America and one of the girls goes, oh, AMERICA! sit down! and was patting the seat next to her. they were so interested. they even told me i could come out with them to a club they were going to after. again, how nice!

when my advisor was here he was asking what i thought of the kids because he said last spring there was a group of girls who told him they felt uncomfortable because the girls here were not very nice or friendly. but he also said they were a handful and could have brought it on themselves. but i kind of agree, the girls here aren't very friendly and even my advisor's wife, who is Catalan, agrees! but the boys on the other hand... all i know is the people here are so much more confident and forward with you. but it's cool.

Joana already found another person to take over the flat and i haven't heard the end of him since! i think she's in love. she keeps saying, "Que guapo! Muy guapo!" which means he is very good-looking. and he's 25. she could be his mother. but oh well, it will be funny. and i'm glad Marta will have another young roommate. she was telling me she is jealous of me but she doesn't think she could live with just students. she's lived with her mom her whole life and now Joana so she's used to order. but i just told her she can come to my new place all the time =) she also told me i better be serious about coming to Prague. you don't have to ask me twice!!

sleep? sleep is overrated

i met my advisor from UCF today. we met at a bar near his place with his wife who is also a teacher at UCF and grew up here in barcelona. i got to hear all the juicy details of what she thinks about how much it's changed! she said it's never been so bad with all the pickpockets and people coming up with plans to ask for money. the saddest thing she told me was about the Muslim women who take babies and drug them and then sit outside with them. they are unconscious and therefore quiet and look so peaceful and you want to help them because it is a poor homeless mother with her poor little child. how sick!

they also brought a boy who was once a foreign exchange student in highschool in orlando and was a student of the wife. he is from Seville and said if i ever go there i can call him up and he will show me around. i'm in luck because that is one of the places i want to visit! he said he wants to go to UCF to do a Masters degree.

this weekend i went with Rita to Tibidabo, which is a huge huge magnificent church on top of the tallest mountain in Catalunya. it is surrounded by an amusement park that was opened in 1899! how cool, a ferris wheel and roller coaster on the side of a mountain that overlooks the entire city!

you can see all the way from the beach across to more mountains on the other side

it is the biggest thing i've ever seen and the inside is so colorful!

saturday night i went out with a friend to the beach to hang out before we went to one of my other friend's apartment on la rambla and he threw a birthday party for one of the girls from New York. it was fun! there were tons of people there and it was so crowded because his flat wasn't very big of course, but we still had a good time ;) i don't know where all his roommates were but obviously not home because it was pretty loud...

MOVING

i found an apartment! it's very close to school but also on a big street with lots going on around it! and it's near a good metro that can take me downtown and connect to a lot of places. AND it's with students! 2 girls and one guy and i don't think they go to my school but at least they are young! and they are from here, so i was talking to two of them and they don't really speak much english which only means i will be FORCED to speak spanish, ha! this is a good thing.

the place is way bigger than the one i have now, and it has two whole bathrooms, yeah! but my room is not any bigger, and no balcony off of it =( but i'll deal. i think it will be better. i have to tell Joana tonight when she comes home because i will move out December 1 so i don't have to pay two rents. she will probably freak out but what does she expect with no contract or anything? she better give me my deposit back!!!

but anyways the people seem really nice and laid-back, though there's one i haven't met yet. and the place is very colorful with a different color for every room. mine is like a bright royal blue.

i went to get my haircut today because i was bored and i had no idea what i wanted. i went to this place i always pass that looked cool and not too scary and i ended up getting a young guy to cut my hair, i've never had a guy do my hair! but i gave him some ideas and told him to just go for it and he said he knew what to do. and he did a really good job, i quite like it! i don't even think he used scissors, just a bunch of razors and stuff?? but i'll have to post a picture when i get one.

i've noticed some things with the language barrier:
*i have started checking myself even when i'm speaking english. since a lot of people have a hard time with it, i have to make sure i'm clear, so even when i start talking to someone who speaks it, i'm thinking about everything i'm about to say and how to say it.

*if i see people speaking english online (like facebook) i am surprised. like i forget about it in america. i don't know how to explain it, it's weird. but i see english flowing freely and easily and i'm like wow! i forgot what it's like to talk like that hahaha.

*i take my notes in spanglish. it's confusing. i don't know why i do it. some things make more sense in spanish. but some things i have to translate so i write it in english so i understand. some kid next to me was like, what language are you writing?? and i told him "both," and he laughed. but he said i am brave =)

*sometimes when i am with two people who are from germany or something, they will be speaking english, but they will be stumbling a bit and i'm like, why don't you just switch to german?? even if i'm not in the conversation. and if i am i wouldn't mind.

*lastly, it's cool when all of us international kids bond over our faulty, flawed, fallible spanish, and how hard we all try to speak it with eachother :)

and it just keeps going

today was unusually warm and i went out in a tank top and flip flops which i think was the wrong idea. people were still out in there scarves and boots even though it was easily 75 degrees out! but i was hot just from walking around so i can't imagine what those people were going through. i swear people don't go by the weather here, they go by the month. it's November so we should be bundled up, no questions! well i sure enjoyed the warmth and sun without sleeves and i'll continue to do so for as long as i can ;)

today i went to look at another flat and it was really really nice inside actually and had a lot of character. the ceiling in the living room looked like gaudi had made his mark there! it was cool. good location too, and on a street called Paris. first Praga, now Paris! but of course, the two people living there were like 30, and not that i would necessarily mind, i'd just rather live with people more my age. but the lady was super super nice so i felt bad because she really needs someone to move in soon.

the weirdest part of it all? her name is Lisa also, and she has a cat named Orlando. ha! she said it's a sign and what does it mean???

oh well, i'll keep looking. i'm kind of inbetween anyway, i don't really care either way if i move or not. we'll see!

Marta's mom came today for the week and she's so lively and friendly. she told me she couldn't wait to meet me because she'd seen so many pictures from Marta and she said she had a sense about me that i was a really good person and she's really glad i'm here with Marta. how nice! and she is obsessed with dogs and Marta made me show her pictures of ours haha. she loves them, thinks they're huge! they have two little ones.

the rest of the weekend was a hit, i went to a birthday party, but it was in a public place with a bar, i don't really know what it was. some kind of hall. and there was a live band and a buffet table and a free bar! and birthday cake of course. can it get any better? and i didn't know anyone and i went with someone i met at another friend's apartment, but i made so many friends and it was a good night. i have already started confusing the names in my phone from all the numbers i've acquired. i need to take pictures of them maybe so i can match the face with the name.

other than that, i spent way too much money but you know what? i am not going to worry. i worked really hard to come here and didn't buy anything at home just so i could spend extra here so that's what i'm going to do! and i got some good stuff so it's all good.

i'm ready for the next day!

warm front!

why are all of the coolest places named after black animals? we went to La Ovella Negra last night, the black sheep, and it was so much fun! i wasn't really looking forward to this weekend because Marta went to Prague for a concert and i figured i'd be lonely, but last night  i met up with some of the other international kids and it was really fun. it's crazy how many languages are going on at once! and everyone mixes them up so it turns into part Spanish part English part German part French, etc.... Spenglermanch? exactly. i've found that all the best places here, whether they are bars, restaurants, clothing stores, etc. are the ones hidden three streets away from the main street, in a little alley or something. but you think with such a bad location it would be hard to attract customers, but they're always the busiest places!

this week i had a presentation in my advertising class and i actually did well! i was almost laughing while i was talking because it's just funny how hard i try. we did our presentation on comparative advertising and how it's legal in the states but not here in most of Europe. and we showed some examples from youtube of commercials on tv. call me a dork but it was actually really interesting.

i'm really mad because i was planning on skipping most of my classes when Mom and Dad came because there's two that aren't really necessary to be in, but now i'm getting all these deadlines and things due exactly when they are here!!! and next week i don't have one of my classes on which is on Monday and Friday and i just thought, couldn't it be the next week? oh well, i'll figure something out, i always do ;)

hakuna matata

do you want to hear something really ridiculous-- i completely overthought this whole visa thing.

i was talking to this girl in class today and said if i'm really worried about it, just leave the country something and come back as a tourist. she knew people who got a six-month visa and decided to stay an the whole year and never did anything about it. i just have to make sure i never tell anyone i'm studying here if i get caught.

and you know what, DUH. nobody has ever ever ever even looked at my visa. i've never left my room with it! if i get caught, i just can't tell the cops i'm a student. it's easy.

man oh man. what was the point of getting it in the fist place?

obama mania

i love hearing what others think about America, Obama, our society, culture, etc.etc... i am always asking what people think to see how we are portrayed.

lately i've been hearing a lot about Obama! it's funny because i've seen a whole range of reactions to his name. first, my roommate Marta, was talking about the Czech Republic and how their government is not so good, but then as she was talking she turned to me, laughed, and said, "well, it's not as bad as Obama.."
i was surprised! i was also talking to someone from India that had a lot to say about him, and he was just saying how he thinks he's all talk and will never amount to anything he's promised.
i'm curious to know how our government is portrayed on the TV here or newspapers because that is where these kids are getting all of their information, right? so their first impression could be different from ours.

a funny thing is that i made friends with some French kids and they asked what i thought of Obama, and i said, what do YOU think of him?? and they said he's great! they think he'll accomplish a lot, and i thought that was funny coming from the French.

but the one thing that everyone i've asked had in common is that they all said Obama is definitely better than Bush, and Bush was just a "wreck." haha interesting... i wonder what the older people here think.

another thing is that everyone i meet here asks me why would i come to Spain when i live in AMERICA!!! and i tell them some of the differences and how i think the people are more friendly here and it's more laid-back and they are in shock. nobody believes me and all the Spaniards say they want to go to the states, especially New York, because of the movies. they think it's so glamorous and rich and just amazing. but i tell them New York and California are definitely different. but people here have a skewed image i think of our country.

it's a never-ending process

i really like my new class. the one thing that isn't so great though? watching a movie in a dark theater early in the morning. stay focused!!!
we watched "The Inheritance" yesterday and it was actually kind of boring but the class was cool. we get a 25 minute break in between so it's not just four hours of class thank goodness! after watching the movie the group that chose it went up infront of the class and started some topics of discussion. we get a couple from the teacher so we know what we're supposed to discuss. then we just debate for like an hour about it and talk about all the issues. it was really hard and the teacher was asking us foreigners if we were lost and yes, we were. but i understood some and monday is our day to present but i think it will be okay.

it's so weird because this is the first weekend i have some homework! i finally feel like i have a point of being in class, ha. it's so weird.

my advisor from UCF is coming here in a couple weeks and said he wants to see me and see how i'm doing so i will tell him about my visa and maybe get some sympathy. if it really all goes down the drain and doesn't work out, i'm coming back next year.

some things i love about this place? 

i haven't been watching tv and surprisingly i don't miss it. okay, okay, i miss the occasional office and chelsea lately, but i'm too busy doing other exciting things to worry about tv!

people-watching. i am a huge fan of people-watching =) and this place is ideal. even if you're just sitting on the subway, there is always someone interesting to see.

the fact that people set up shop anywhere they want. whether it's on the side of the road, in a park, or in the middle of a walkway underground, people show off their hand-made goods hoping to catch someone's eye. and the best part is, they're usually pretty cheap.

the fact that you can get away with wearing anything here. i've seen some very interesting outfits... also that the guys here dress very nice

it amazes me how much bread people eat here. i cannot get over it. some just walk along the street while downing an entire loaf

even though it's starting to get cold, it's still gorgeous and sunny out and makes me want to go out and see things! so that's exactly what i'm going to do.

some things i hate about this place?

the grocery store. that's it

daymare

so i was just thinking about how i´m coming home for christmas and then i was thinking about my visa and then i was daydreaming about how i would still be waiting for them to send me my new extended visa, meanwhile i´m traveling back home and would not be able to get back in spain because of my visa and then i would be stuck at home and would have a whole semester to sit and do nothing all because OF MY VISA. which, by the way, i went to get fixed during the first 3 or 4 weeks i got here, which was scary enough not knowing anything about this place or the people or barely speaking the language. but of course i never have the right things and they take so long to get everything processed. so if all that happens, i´m done with the government...

just la la la

i´m just sitting in the library passing the time because i have an appointment in an hour to go look at an apartment and there is no use going home first.


i just got out of my class a little while ago and it´s still so frustrating because the teacher talks way way way too fast. and she flies through the slides so i don´t know why i bother going! but the stuff is really interesting so i actually want to be there. it just sucks when i want to participate but don´t because i don´t know how to say it.

i´ve been so sleepy and i think the weather might have something to do with it. it keeps changing. yesterday was super warm and today it´s pretty cold. and this getting dark early thing doesn´t help!

i have no plans for the weekend but i don´t care because something will come up. it´s not hard to find something to do around here, as i´m sure i´ve made obvious =)

i´ve been talking to the foreigners and they´re all depressed because they are leaving in less than two months and it just makes me smile because i am so so lucky to be here for a year! i will forever be grateful.

i´m looking outside at the mountain right now and i see houses! i haven´t seen any houses here, so weird. and there´s a stream of lights going down the hill and it´s really pretty. i was talking to someone who´s from here and i told him to tell me some places i have to visit outside of barcelona and one of the places was Costa Brava, and he said i just have to go to see the houses because they are so beautiful. not to mention it´s a huge beautiful beach. i´ve heard a little about it so maybe i´ll get there one day.

i was also talking to this girl who went to Madrid recently and i told her i was super jealous because i have heard so many different things about it and i want to see for myself how it really is. she said it was cool but not really that different, and she prefers Barcelona by far. hmmmm. i think i still need to see for myself. i´ve heard it´s more ¨"cultural" and a little quieter than here. i want to see what "more cultural" is like! i mean i know there are a lot of tourists here but it´s not all tourists. there are plenty of places to go where the locals hang out or eat or whatever.

i was wondering about my school and how the rest of it looks but now that i´m sitting up high looking out the window i don´t think there is much more to it. i remember when i first came and asked my advisor how i would find the classrooms and she said they were all in this one building. i thought, wow that´s nice, they must make it like that for all the foreigners, haha. but really i don´t think there´s more than 3 buildings! there´s no "campus." no subway or oriental fast food on the grounds. just one little cafeteria. i haven´t seen any sporting fields or courtyards or any place to just hang out. the only place i´ve been is on top of the building where they have a fountain and benches and stuff. but maybe i´m just not seeing the whole thing.

my birthday weekend!

was amazing!! friday night we went out and i met up with a whole bunch of people from school and it was so much fun. we started out at one bar just for a drink and then we all headed over to this club on the beach and danced the night away! it was a blast, i'm so grateful for my friends.
i even met some cute spanish boys who sang me happy birthday =)

then on saturday my roommates surprised me with a cake and they got me makeup as a present. i started crying when they came out with the cake! that was so sweet they have no idea.

so now i'm 21 and i can't believe it. this is how i really feel:

so today i had my first class of Persona, Economia, y  Sociedad. i am actually kind of excited about it. there are other foreign exchange kids that i know so we kind of all stick together. that can be a good and bad thing... but we got put into groups and i'm with a german, belgian, frenchy, and spaniard. so we're all different. and every group has to pick a movie from the list he gave out and watch it together and analyze it. i don't really know what we're supposed to be looking for, but we aren't the first group to present so hopefully we'll learn from them!

my movie is Erin Brockovich so it's good because i sort of know it. it's the only one i knew off the list. i've never seen it but they said we can watch it in english! the class only meets twice a week and every day a new group brings in their movie and presents it to the class and then we watch it and we talk about our views and ask the class questions to debate. sounds easy enough!

too bad we have the 23rd off and i was thinking, why couldn't it be the next week when mom and dad are here!!!