Back Home

Well, it's my last post. I'm back in the United States of America. Time to give you a run down of my last few days.

I had two giant bags that were slightly embarrassing, but they actually were not that full. Plus, I only had my tiny book bag as a carry on. Sorry, I'm just rationalizto make my self better for over packing.

Anyway, after packing, I went to this bar called Chupitos which is Spanish for shots. So yes, it was a shot bar. It was pretty entertaining with all kinds of shots involving fire, fruits, and more.

Afterwards we went to Otto Zutz, the club basically next door to our homestay. We stayed until about 3:15. I finished packing and showered. My housemate and I then tried to stay awake in the kitchen until the cab came at 6:30. We were hoping to fall asleep on the plane.

My señor actually saw us off. Staying at his place was a great experience.

So I get to the airport and realize that I knew I was flying U.S. Airways, but I had no idea who I was flying with to Madrid. U.S. doesn't fly from Barcelona. I decided to talk to Lufthansa, a German airline that is a member of Star Alliance, which I think U.S. Airlines is a member of. She directed me to another terminal where I found Delta. I figured they could maybe help me out. Well, they directed me to the airport information desk that directed me to SpanAir. I got checked in and went to the gate with approximately 100 other IES kids.

I tried to stay awake on my trip from Barcelona to Madrid. My idea was that I would "save" up my tiredness for Madrid to Philadelphia. I kept nodding off and snapping back up the whole flight.

We get to Madrid and a bunch of us had no idea where we were going. The gate number wasn't printed on our tickets. For some dumb reason, we walked out of the exit, meaning we had to go back through security. Way to be, children.

We get to our gate and it is roped off. The man asked us if we were friends of the IES kids who were on the other side. I thought to myself, um, is that a security question? We said yes and they let us in and questioned us about our bags, etc.

I get to my seat and pass out. I wake up and we're on the ground. Yea! My master plan of sleeping the whole flight worked! And then we took off... Darnit.

I didn't sleep much, but I did watch Live Free or Die Hard (good movie), Next (bad movie. Don't get my started on Nicolas Cage...), and parts of Transformers. I also listened to some of the music channels. Some country and, of course, Umbrella for old time's sake.

We land in Philly and I officially switch over to English. I also go through customs. Everything went well, but took a little longer than I thought it would, so I had to jog to my gate. I get there but my ticket was a little different because it was printed by SpanAir. Confused, the lady just took the whole thing and I got on board. I had no one next to me, so I laid down across three chairs and passed out. That was nice. I also ate granola bars. Thanks Michelle. They gave me the energy that I needed.

I walk passed security and get tackled by Carrie and Christine (apparently when they first got there, they didn't know what airline I was taking so had to do a similar thing I did in BCN). It was great to see them. We get my luggage and drive home to San Jose from SF. I really wanted to go to Wendy's so we stop and I get the Baconator. Gosh, I love this country. Two burger patties, two or three slices of cheese, and 6 strips of bacon. Oh, delicious. We arrive home and Dad comes out the front door to do his version of tackling me. It was great to be home.

I went to bed around 1am and woke up around 9. I felt pretty good. I made eggs for breakfast. I then watched some football and went to Christine's basketball game. Afterwards, Carrie took me to Taco Bell. That was also delicious. For dinner, we had some steak, and that too was delicious. Oh, and milk with dinner. In Spain, when I told Spaniards we drink milk at dinner, they seriously are confounded and confused. Milk? To drink during dinner?

Church was great, too. Refreshing, and good to hear some English. Now I am here, at 7:41 PST.

I guess I don't really have some magical, cool way to wrap up my experience. I learned a lot. Experienced a lot. And all the typical things you would think that would happen. However, I think I skipped the emotional roller coaster as seen by this graph IES gave us.

Thanks everyone for the thoughts and comments. This was a lot of fun posting on this blog. I'd like to end with something epic, but I'm not really sure what to say. I guess people say or have said that this, or these times, will be the best time of my life. However, I think I walk away from Europe excited for life and to not settle for an average life, but to enjoy life. Pssh, at every stage. There's a lot to life, but part of it has to be making the most of one's time here on Earth. Goodness, that got a little sappy. Do I really want to end that way? Man, it's hard to end something like this.

I guess one last thing I have to say is I'm very grateful and thankful for all that I've been blessed with. Opportunities are meant to be seized. And while good and bad and okay things can happen, they all make up life.

Next quarter I plan on taking Spanish 3. I think that'd be a good idea. I also want to take an English grammar class because, as you've probably noticed here and there, my English skills are sub-par, and learning another language only magnifies one's deficiencies. I'll find time between my awesome accounting classes.

Merry Christmas everyone! Sorry if that isn't politically correct. I just got back from Spain and, well, heck, they ain't very politically correct there ("Are there any Jews in here?" That's my favorite classroom quote. I believe I posted that sometime in the past).

And have a happy new year.

~Chad

It Never Rains in Barcelona...

It rained this morning, kicking off my last full day in Barcelona.

Last night, my señor had a lady over. We're not sure if it's his sister or his lover. He called one of the ladies he's brought over his "woman," so I'm thinking it was his lover. The kissing noises from the kitchen help affirm that suspicion.

It's getting close to the end, and you'd think we'd have special dinners. Pssh, nope. Last night, our señor went out to eat with his lady and left us with leftovers (and only forks to eat the soup with. For some reason, all the silverware was being cleaned or something). Tonight, I think we're having pasta. Yep, he's AB, All Business. I enjoyed my time in his house.

After dinner I went out with my housemates. They were done with finals, and I guess I don't turn down a night out. We went to this weird "tree bar" that was connected to the wax museum. We then went into this odd club/bar that a street promoter gave us coupons for. I had a test in the morning, so I decided to walk home, being touched by three prostitutes along the way. I won't miss that.

This morning, I got up and headed towards the bathroom right as my señor was leaving it. He had just "done his business" in our bathroom! What the snap?! It didn't smell too good in there. Señor, use your bathroom. He kind of made up for supper and this incident, though, with a different breakfast. There were doughnuts and croissants! Mmm. Good thing too, because there were still no spoons for the cereal, haha.

I took the metro to school because I still have a couple passes leftover from when Michelle was here and we bounced around the city using it. It was nice not walking as much today. I'm a little sick and it was raining, so it worked out nicely.

I think the final went well. After I took it, I went to a bagel shop with some friends and then went to Sagrada Família to pick up a caca tio and a caganer. It's a nice little Christmas market. See the caca tios on the right?

Goodness, I can't believe it's been 110 days. This is my 88 post, and do not worry, my last post, number 89, will be on Saturday. That is the day after I arrive home. I'm ready for home. ESPN will be cool to watch, although I recently discovered (albeit, a tad bit late) that I can watch PTI and other ESPN programs on their website. I also have this list of people I have to email when I get back. I was looking at it, and dang, I made that so long ago. Emailing them was something I was going to do months from now. It appears that time has just about come.

I'm now going to start packing. I hope I can get under the weight limit. I should be able to. I wish I had more room to pack, though. My room is tiny! I'll make it work.

I'll end this, my last post in Spain, with two things. First, I had a request to post some more artwork, so here's Miró's Still Life with Old Shoe. Comparisons can be drawn between it and Picasso's Guernica. It captures the chaos that Spain was in during the Spanish Civil War. The civil war years was the time period in Miró's life that I wrote my art paper on.


And lastly, Michelle sent me her post via email. She was a part of my abroad experience and always wanted to do a "guest" post. She/we were too busy, and she never got around to it, until now. So, without further ado...

Hello Chad's Blog Following:

It's Michelle writing very delayed and twice jet lagged, but I wanted to write a post about Chad.

I had a great time in Spain. As my first overseas experience, I must say Chad did a great job welcoming me, planning sights to see, and we took advantage of our time together! He is a great planner & traveler. Most days our schedule was overly ambitious, and I usually was the one that broke it by wanting to nap (jet lag is not a traveler's friend!)

Chad was an excellent tour guide and showed me the best & the most of Barcelona. It was also great as well to see him in his element. From an outside perspective from someone who knows him pretty well, I would say he has matured quite a bit. Traveling with others to different regions of Spain and the world, he certainly made the most of his time abroad and has seen many famous sites that, well, not everyone has the opportunity to. He also has blown me away with his new found knowledge of art, the European and Spanish culture, but by far his appreciation for the Spanish language!! He knows a lot more words, vocabulary, and grammar structure than he leads you to believe!!!! In contrast to many of the other students in his program who act "too cool" and may "know" more Spanish, Chad certainly takes every chance he can to practice his Spanish! He has the confidence and patience to ask directions from the wrong airport terminal (that was us), to the correct one, whereas many people would first resort to English. Even his señor and his intercambio language partner have applauded Chad's attitude toward learning the language, and I was very impressed at his improvement and his willingness to talk.

And art! Chad definitely is very adept in, well, Spain in general. I am an amateur art buff, and knew basics about the great Spanish painters Dalí and Picasso. I was not ready for the surprise I would find in Spain; when Chad and I visited museums, he would talk my ear off about the Spanish Civil War, Franco's Dictatorship, and why these conditions had implications for the artists' work at the time, and what their works represented. I think Chad should put some art pictures up. (Hint!) And, Chad did get some studying done for his art final while we were in Madrid. We saw the painting that was on his final by Salvador Dalí in person!!! Also, Chad knows I love art so much, he arranged for me to tag along with his art class to the Joan Miró (Fundació Miró) Museum at Montjuïc!!! Being one of, I believe, three or so males, in the class surrounded by a bunch of ladies, it was fun to hear him name off the titles and dates of the large murals and get excited when he saw a painting that the class had studied in person. I believe that to know art, you have to look at the economics, culture, religion, politics, society, and history of the time. And Chad knows all of that about Spain now, just ask him!!!

There is a verb in Spanish, aprovechar, which means to take advantage of fully and with enjoyment. I just wanted to shed some light on how Chad has really taken advantage, to the absolute fullest, of his time abroad, and how much I can too appreciate his personal growth.

Adios!

Michelle

[Editor's Note: Wow, I should have Michelle post about me more often, haha. Thanks Michelle for your post and I'm glad you had a great experience as well.]

Second to last day

First, the last post I made, I wrote it but the Internet was being weird so I didn't get to "post" it until a lot later.

Anyway, today is Wednesday. Boy am I tired. Last night, Michelle and I partied it up one last time in Barcelona (along with a bunch of other IES students). We stayed at the club until about 4:30, and then we got home and she finished packing. At about 7am, we took the metro to the bus stop and took the airport bus to El Prat, the Barcelona airport. You gotta be proud of Michelle. She pulled a Barcelona party-all-night-and-then-catch-your-plane-in-the-morning, and with an international flight! She got checked in and we said goodbye. I'll see her next when I pick her up at the San Jose airport on January 5th. It was great seeing her and it was an awesome opportunity for her that she took full advantage of. Sheesh, she/we did a lot this past week or so.

I left the airport and then took my second to last final. It was in art and I think I did really well, although, yes, I was super tired. I got back home and crashed. I woke up, checked emails and stuff, and then went to a closing ceremony put on by IES that had lots of free food. It was sweet.

I'm now going to study a bit for my final test. It's tomorrow morning in my religion/art/history/architecture class (I'm really not sure what to call it). It's basically going to be a critical thinking class, so since I was in every class (well, I skipped one when Michelle was here. Don't tell Dad) and I feel I'm fairly smart, I think I'll do fine. On a related note, apparently we don't get our grades until February, so that should be interesting.

After that final, I plan on doing some mild shopping and packing. I only have about 25€ left and I am trying to avoid withdrawing more cash. We'll see what I end up doing.

I've been asked if I'm sad to leave and what I'll miss. Well, I'm sick for the fourth or fifth time, so I won't be sad or miss the abuse my body has gone through. For the record, Michelle was blown away by the amount of smoking here. Made me feel good because recently I've been thinking that I exaggerated it. Apparently after 4 months you get "used" to it.

I'll miss the clubs, but I'm sure there's some around where I live. Many are in downtown San Jose, but I'm not sure if they're the best places to go. Plus, no Kike's List so I'll have to pay a cover. Sad times. And basically, I think I'm going to come home with a more adventuresome and active attitude, so whatever my area has to offer, I'm sure I'll have fun.

I had a great time in Barcelona and experienced a whole lot. I don't know if I'll "miss" it though. To me, the definition of missing is when you really want to be with someone or go back to a place. I feel I have thoroughly "done" Barcelona, and while I'd like to come back some day, there's a whole lot more out there for me to see. That said, my study abroad in Barcelona was awesome.

One thing I'll miss, trash cans at every corner in the streets. I didn't realize how handy it is until I went to other cities that fail to have this same system. Barcelona smells, but it is a very clean city.

I'm excited to get back home. I'm pumped for college football. American food is going to be great, too. Michelle really wanted bacon and eggs while she was here and said she really missed it. Michelle, I've barely had cheeseburgers in 4 months. You went 10 days. She respected my American food sacrifice more after that, haha. It will also be great to get back to all English. Walking around Madrid with Michelle, I realized how much Catalan is actually in Barcelona. I understood so much more in Madrid (and she did as well, of course). I won't miss Catalan.

I'll miss Spanish, and the cool feeling I get when I understand it. I'm seriously thinking about taking a Spanish course in the spring (SCU is on a quarter system).

I'll end with my complete flight schedule. Carrie, I land at 9pm, not 9:30, although I suppose I'll have to get my luggage and stuff so 9:30 would probably be okay. Be at baggage claim, por favor!

Flight Schedule:

Barcelona to Madrid- Take off: 9:35am Land: 10:50am

Madrid to Philadelphia- Take off 12:45pm Land: 3:30pm

Philadelphia to San Francisco- Take off 5:55pm Land 8:55pm

She's gettin' ready to leave

At the moment I'm sitting on Michelle's bed as she is packing up to go home. Her flight leaves at 10:40am which gives me enough time to drop her off and then get back in time for my art final (for those of you who are curious, my flight leaves at 9:35am and I arrive in San Francisco at 8:55pm). It has been a great time with her over here in Barcelona. Last night, the two of us met up with another friend and went to the Dow Jones bar. That's the place where the drinks fluctuate with "demand" and then there's a "crash." It was fun.

Today we went to the MNAC museum with the friend of hers who is visiting Barcelona, too. I left them a little early to go take my management final. Boy, I am so happy that class is over. I loved all my other classes, but that one... Management classes are not my favorite. Too much random theory and stuff. And I can only hear, "It's the culture," or "It's a cultural difference," so many times...

After my test I met up with Michelle and a couple of her friends and then we went to this tapas type bar down by the beach. We only stayed there for a little bit and then came home. It was a lot of fun and a nice experience for Michelle.

Tonight we're having a really big/nice meal. Our RA is coming to visit and is eating with us. I'm excited to see what we'll be eating. I'm sure it will be a very long dinner. After that, Michelle and I will get ready for one last night on the town together.

Man, it's been a very busy week +. Things will calm down a bit on Wednesday after my final and Michelle leaves. Haha, but of course, then I have to get ready to come home. Goodness, this has been a great experience. Thanks everyone for tuning in. Have a good day.

What I/We have been up to

Hey everyone! This is Chad. Yeah, sorry about recent posts, or lack thereof. I've been running all over the place and the Internet hasn't been that great. Sorry the pictures didn't come up. I tried posting that one a couple times. Anyway, I've been having a great time with Michelle. Madrid was awesome.

Anyway, I just got done with my econ final. I can't lie, I probably could have studied more for it, but I only need a 6/10 on it to get an A in the class, so I think I did all right. Michelle is currently with a friend of hers who is studying abroad in France but is visiting BCN. This gives me a chance to study and write a post that my Internet audience deserves.

On Monday morning I woke up early, picked up Michelle, gave my presentations, and then met up with Michelle. We got something to eat at the sandwich shop and got some gelato. We then went to the cathedral of Barcelona. And now the moment you may have been waiting for, here's a picture of Michelle on top of the cathedral (followed by a picture of me).
We then walked around a bit but by 5:00-ish, the jet lagged Michelle needed to go back. She took a small nap and then had dinner with all of us. She knows pretty darn good Spanish. It was a great experience for her. She enjoyed talking to our señor and his son. He probably enjoyed it, too. Normally he basically talked to my one housemate who speaks Spanish. So that was good. She's experiencing a tiny study abroad experience.

That night we went to this bar and stayed out until about 2am. It was a nice warm up for the nights that were to come. She had a great time, and the next day I took the day off from school and we first went to Parc Güel, a park designed by Gaudí. Michelle really enjoyed it. Here's some pictures of it. This is also the place with the world's largest public bench (makes me wonder what is the world's largest private bench). You may remember some of this stuff from previous posts.

And the outfit I'm wearing is my Christmas gift from Michelle. Carrie, I'm sure you'll like it. So I have my sisters and a girlfriend trying to dress me up.

After that we went to La Pedrera, an apartment designed by Gaudí. Here are some pictures from the roof. It was really interesting. Inside we learned a lot about Gaudí and how he designed some of his things. You'll probably figure out by the end of this post that Michelle and I are kinda nerdy...
Sagrada Familia in the background.

Here's Michelle drinking from a fountain at the top of Las Ramblas. If you drink from there, you're suppose to return to Barcelona some day. We were going to go to Batlló, another house designed by Gaudí, but for some random reason it was close that day. We ate at Pans & Company and got down to the waterfront. It was a little cold and Michelle still has yet to get a chance to get over jet lag, so we headed back to our homestay around 6 or 7. This is my trying to figure out the most efficient way to take the metro back.

You have to admit, I look good doing it.

We took a nap, ate, and then go ready for a big night out. We went to Pippermint first, the place that Michelle can assure you that yes, there are 13L beers. Here's a 2L drink. Pssh, pansy-esque.Next we went to the club called Up & Down. It was its 2 year anniversary so it was a big party and a lot of fun. We stayed there until a little after 4am or so and headed back.

The next day Michelle met me by Farggi (coffee shop) by my school after my classes. We then met up and went to an intercambio. She really liked talking with my guy. We had lunch at a very Catalan place and had a great time talking in Spanish/English. She made the process a lot smoother because she could translate some things.

We tried to go to Sagrada Familia, but we didn't have enough time. We went to Montjuïc and walked around that place for a bit. Here's us at the Olympic Stadium and a museum there. I guess I asked a professional photographer to take the picture because he took forever and produced some sweet photos like this one (the second one. We took the first one).

We then went to the Miró museum with my art class. My teacher let her tag along. We then went home and got ready for a game between Barça and Stuttgart. That was a lot of fun.
Wow, the Internet is flying right now. Lucky you. Tons of pictures, haha.

Anyway, we got home, and she was tired, but she still wanted to go out. We took a cab to the beach area and went to a place called Shoko. It was a great time.

We left there and went to this other place called Opium, but the place was empty so we went back to Shoko. Had some more fun then left around 2:30. There is a strip of tiny clubs along the beach so I took her to see them. She wanted to walk by them, so we did. A promoter guy urged us to go in, luring us with free drinks, so we went in and stayed for a bit. It was a fun, small place playing intense, European techno. We cabbed it home and got some rest for Thursday.

Thursday she walked me to school and she went to the Picasso Museum while I went to class. When then ate at Els 4 Gats. Great food, like I said before. When then went to Sagrada Familia. This cathedral by Gaudí is still being worked on. It is very unique and you can see the influences that nature has had on him. Gaudí was pretty much a genius from what I've seen.



We then went to Batlló, the house he designed.

That night I took her to a local bar near our homestay and then we went to Otto Zutz, a club nearby with 3 dance floors open up to everyone (as well as a VIP one). We stayed out until passed 3 and got some rest for Friday.

Friday I took my Spanish final and then the two of us got packed for Madrid. She slept late, and I think this is when she finally got over her jet lag.

For our first night in Madrid, we decided to party it up. We went to a couple bars, including one that played flamenco music. We then went to this club called Kapital. It has 7 floors and was crazy. It was a lot of fun, too. Michelle got a great taste of Spanish club entertainment there. There were buff guys dancing in place with their shirts off. Oh that's funny. We left around 5 am and tried to get a cab but it was hard for some reason. You'd think outside a huge club it'd be easier. There were so many people in the streets frantically waving down the few that passed by.

The next day we had a great lunch and then went to Reina Sofia, the museum that has Picasso's Guernica and other modern/contemporary works (Dalí, Miró, etc). We spent several hours there. It was a great time. We went back to our hostel and crashed a bit before going out to have dinner at, um, midnight. While we were leaving, people were still going in. It was nuts. This is Michelle at the museum.

The next day we woke up early and went to El Prado, the huge museum with Goya, Velásquez, El Greco, and much much more. So much that we spent 5 hours there. Whew.
Before we went in.

And after we went in.We then hopped on a plane, got back to BCN, slept, and I think you're caught up. Whew. I now need to study for my next final before Michelle gets back home. I hope you enjoyed this blog and are having a great week. Christmas is coming!

Okay, I promise next time...

Hey everyone! Actually, this is Chad. It was a hectic day, and Michelle was very tired so she slept late. Heck, the lady hadn't gotten the chance to get over her jet lag. She was quite the trooper and we've seen so many things. On Monday, she'll definitely have the chance to post and we'll share stories/pictures. Here are some of us, though. From Parc Güel, Gaudí's La Pedrera and the Barcelona cathedral.

Okay, we're off to catch a bus to the airport. Goodness, this has been crazy! Ah, and my Spanish final went fine, I do believe. So, once final down, 4 to go next week. Wish me luck, and enjoy the weekend. This is my last in Europe.

Barcelona Sight Seeing

Hey everyone. Yes, I'm sorry for the deterioration of my blog. Michelle and I have been running all over the place, eating dinner, and then bouncing to different nightlife places. It's been a blast. It's been a lot of fun seeing the different sights like Gaudí's buildings, museums, and more.

Right now Michelle and I are about to head out. Again, sorry for the lack of good posts. Take care, everyone. Michelle's guest post shall come tomorrow :)

Havin' Fun

Hey everyone! Sorry for the absence. Michelle and I are having a lot of fun (and getting little sleep). We've been seeing all kinds of sights. She's going to have a "guest post" either tomorrow or Friday.

We're about to go to a soccer game now. Should be fun. As I warned, this next week or so is going to be crazy. And wow, I come home in a little over a week!

Ah, and I'm still doing well in school! I got a 10/10 on my econ paper. I also learned that I scored a 5 on the placement test for Spanish (we took that back in June). Other people in the class scored 10s, 7s, 15s, and a 28! I was the lowest, haha. However, that means I can "improve" more than the others, and that's the basis of your grade. So that's good. Perhaps I'll pull off a decent grade in the Spanish class yet. I'll have more information on the Spanish final later.

Okay, later everyone!

Michelle's Here!

I couldn't sleep too much last night. I got up early to go pick up Michelle and it was great to see her in person. Web cams and emails can only do so much (Gets me excited to see my family, too!). She got in all right and I got her oriented a bit before I went to class. I gave my 2 presentations (went well) and then she met me after my Spanish class. We walked around the old part of town and saw some churches and some Christmas markets. Yep, I'm going to have to buy a caga tio and a caganer.

She's resting right now before dinner. We're then going to plan out tomorrow, etc, and then head out to a bar frequented by IES students. It should be fun and should serve as a nice warm up to the BCN nightlife.

Well, I'm going to try to get some homework done (just some reading) and then shower while she's sleeping. Have a great week, everyone. I'm super excited. This one's going to be a lot of fun for me. Ah, and dinner should be interesting tonight. I'll report back, um, eventually, haha.

It Must Be Windsday

80! Dang. That's a lot of posts. And I do believe this is my 99th day abroad. Wow! About 12 days left until I return home and about 15 hours until I pick Michelle up from the airport. Yea!

Today was a nice day. It got up to almost 70 degrees. It was really windy though. I don't think I've experienced this much wind since I left Montana. 25MPH with gusts up to 37. I went for a short run and it felt like an early spring track practice. It was nice. While on my run, I noted landmarks that could help Michelle guide herself from our homestay to my school. We'll probably meet up at this coffee shop when I'm done with class. I drew a pretty sweet map. Well, it's terrible, but you know.

I talk to my family in about 2.5 hours. The next two weeks are going to be so exciting and fun.

And like I've been saying, I'm loving it here, but I've started to make a mental checklist of things I'm looking forward to in the U.S. First three things on my mind: fried chicken, Doritos, and my clothes not reeking of cigarette smoke.

Hmmm... those are very odd things. Oh, and these are things not including family, etc.

Finishing up some homework

All right! I finished my presentations and my paper. I just have to go over my presentations again. I'll probably do that tomorrow.

It's been a fairly quiet weekend, as you've probably noticed due to my lack of overly exciting posts. I've gotten some rest and some homework done. In about half an hour I'm headed to my intercambio. This might be my last time meeting with him. Or, we might meet next week sometime and Michelle could come along. We'll see.

And speaking of that, yep, she comes in less than two days. On Monday I'm waking up early to go pick her up at the airport. I'll then bring her to the homestay, get her situated, and then head off for class. We've got quite a bit of things to do and see while in Barcelona. I'm very excited. My posts next week might be shorter and next weekend I'm in Madrid. I guess it's starting to wind down/wrap up. Goodness. I can't believe it has been about 14 weeks. I have less than 2 weeks to go until I'm homeward bound.

To end on an educational note, today is December 8 which is another holiday here in Spain. It's the day to celebrate the Immaculate Conception. If you ask me, it's a little odd to celebrate that just a few weeks before the birthday. I mean, shouldn't that day be in March? Anyway, so many stores are closed today. Some years, December 6 (signing of the constitution) and the 8 fall on a Wednesday/Friday. Usually that translates into a 5 day weekend. Wow!

Enjoy the weekend!

Miró Paper

Right now I'm taking a break from my art paper. I'm about a quarter of the way done with it. It's going kind of slow. I'm also having a hard time finding the paintings that I want off the Internet to include in my paper. I didn't expect that to be too difficult.

Anyway, today started off great. I woke up fairly well-rested and then went to a store to buy a couple Christmas gifts. That was fun because I got to use some of my Spanish. The past couple weeks or so, I've noticed that my Spanish is a lot, lot better. True, conversations can be tough, but I can read it pretty good and can form sentences in my head. Often, I'll be thinking of how to ask something, do it nicely, only to be unable to understand the response. Yeah, I have a ways to go, but I'm not letting that get to me. After all, I am in beginner Spanish, and when I compare myself to others (which is always fun) my Spanish is indeed very respectable. Even the other kids say this. Oh yeah, haha.

Anyway, last week my housemates had to put everything away because a maid was coming in to thoroughly clean their room. One of the housemates said that she was going to do the same thing for me today. I put everything away and then asked her when she wanted to clean my room so I could gauge when I should leave the house. She said she wasn't doing that today. Darnit, I shoved everything into drawers for nothing. Great Spanish skills, eh?

Today my goal is to finish my Spanish paper, and I got started on that by going to the Miró museum at Montjuïc. It has a very nice library there, although it was hard to find books in English. I got there around 1pm and worked for about an hour but had to leave because for some reason it closes from 2-3. I walked around Montjuïc a bit and then returned to finish my research. Montjuïc is up a steep hill, so a part of the metro to it is actually a funicular (which is a new word that I learned while out here in Europe). It leaves every 10 minutes. I remember thinking as I was headed to the museum that it would suck to get there right as it was leaving and watch the counter tick down from 10:00. While, when I was heading back to my house, the one ticket machine wasn't working so I had to go to a different turnstile. This slowed me up just enough that I just missed the funicular. I got to watch it close the doors and take off. Now that's ironic.

Okay, I'm going to get back to work on my paper. Tomorrow, when I'm all done with it, I'll give you a little information on who this Spanish painter is.

Have a great weekend everyone. Sounds like December is packed with all kinds of Dupic events back in South Dakota. Have fun with those!

Starting my productive weekend

Today's been a pretty low-key day. I've been getting some homework done, picked up something from the grocery store, and helped my housemate eat his peanut butter. He went a little crazy and now has 2 containers full of it and we only have 2 weeks left.

Last night was pretty fun. Met up with some friends and hit up this club called Duvet just about 10 minutes away walking. It had the best entertainment that I've seen at a club yet. Usually clubs have dancers, usually wearing odd things, just standing in place and dancing up on a pedestal-type thing. This place had a bunch of hip hop/freestyle dancers. It was pretty entertaining and practically the whole club stopped to watch. It was a good night, ending at around 4am. Michelle, I hope you're ready for the Spanish nightlife.

I guess that's really all for today. Tomorrow I plan on going to this library that has English books to work on my art project. So far it's been a good, productive weekend.

Oh, and I am excited to come home for the crazy bowl games. This should be a sweet post-season in college football (of course, I can think of one thing that could make it better...).

And I'm listening to some Justin Timberlake and I also look forward to hearing some American music when I get back. Well, they play a ton of American music in clubs, but it ain't the same. It's often techno-fied, etc. I suppose I'm 4 months behind. Chris, you'll have to catch me up. Is Soulja Boy still hot?

Catalans are, um, different

Barcelona and Catalunya are a little weird and different. I say this now because today I was reminded of the Catalan people's odd obsession with poop. We all remember my caganer post (back in September). For my art class, I've recently read about French artists being a little weirded out by the Catalans in their same "art group" who'd draw feces and stuff (like Dalí and even Miró a little). Today I also learned about the caca tió (uncle poop). He's this little log with a face that apparently has a blanket behind him (I tried Google searching for images, but gave that up after, um, some not so cool pictures came up...). Kids feed him at night, and the next day there will be a present under the blanket. On Christmas he's then broken open and the presents are revealed. At least, that's how I understand it. A little, um, different. Pooped out presents...

Anyway, today I cashed in my 2 for 1 coupon at Dunkin' Donuts. I had a Catalan donut called Torrón (I think). I'm not sure what the filling was, but it was tasty.

I also ate at the cheap Chinese restaurant. It was good, but I find it funny that they didn't have chopsticks.

Tomorrow is a holiday celebrating when Spain signed it's Constitution on December 6, 1978. No school! Yea! This long weekend I'm going to make some plans for when Michelle is here and get my homework done. I'm pumped.

Enjoy the end of the week. Woo woo. And yep, it's Christmas season.

Oh, IES Students...

Hello all.

I had my presentation today in management. I think it went well. I'm not really sure what he is looking for, but I shall see. In related news, I got my religion paper back and got a 90/100 on it, which is an A here. Yea! And all I basically have left to do, besides finals, is write a 12-15 page paper in art and do a presentation on it, as well as a 4-5 minute Spanish presentation. That will be on football.

I think I've talked about the students here a little bit, but I think I should share a bit more. Overall, there's a great deal of hatred towards IES, the program that we're all in over here. People just really hate IES for all kinds of reasons. Me? I don't hate IES. I like this program, except for the fact that the computer lab is kinda terrible. The Internet is down so often and the printers don't work very well. Annoying, but not really a reasons to hate IES, which some people do. Part of me blame this on the fact that IES Barcelona seems to attract the rich (white) kids. It seems to me that most kids view this as a 4 month vacation, rather than a chance to study, experience, and learn (well, and have fun too, of course).

I could give many examples, but my favorite is this girl in my Spanish class who makes me laugh quite often. She, like many students here, doesn't have her grades transfer, so her effort is, um... how do I say this? Lacking. We're suppose to always talk in Spanish, but she constantly asks questions in English. Her favorite question (she's asked it at least 3 different times) is how many days we can skip class before it affects our grade. My favorite moment happened yesterday. We had to turn in a draft of what our Spanish presentation will be. She wrote it in English. When I informed her that, um, I am pretty sure it is suppose to be in Spanish, she was astonished. Haha. Oh goodness.

Ah, and there are also some bad feelings towards those of us who go to SCU. You see, about 1/5 of the 350 students here is from Santa Clara, so we're everywhere. We didn't send the cream of the crop to Barcelona, either.

Hmm... I hope this post doesn't have a negative tone to it. Merely pointing out some curious, sometimes funny (and yes, sometimes annoying) observations. I'm very happy that I came to Barcelona (which, to remind my audience, was basically my only option to study abroad in beginner Spanish, especially for how late I looked into study abroad). The city and culture has been very interesting to learn about. My classes are great (I'm a nerd) and the nightlife here is apparently second only to Madrid (although we have Kike, the club promoter that gets us into places for free. Hmm... that's probably because the rich IES kids buy those expensive club drinks). I've also had some great opportunities to see other places in Europe. I'm really lucky and fortunate, and this has just been great. I'll be a little sad to go, but happy to be home.

P.S. I realize that would probably be a great way to end this post, but I gotta say, I'm happy with Nebraska's choice for a new head coach. I think Bo Pelini will be great. Go Big Red!

Tasty burger and Spanish Hours

First of all, rumor has it that some people do not believe me when I say this one bar serves 13L beers. I'm well aware that is over 3 gallons. I shall take pictures next time I go as proof. Hmph!

Last night I had this amazing burger. As I've said before, we're kinda on our own for food on the weekends. Usually my señor will leave frozen pizzas or leftovers. However, a lot of times he doesn't leave enough. There wasn't any food in the fridge, so I was eating cereal. He then came home around 9:15pm and gave me this burger from some local joint. It was about the closest thing to a real cheeseburger that I've seen here outside BK. It was very good.

I got a great night's rest again and woke up and changed my contacts today. Boy, I needed it. I wear monthly ones and the last pair were abused pretty good.

One thing all of us students have picked up on is they love the song Umbrella here. Oh my goodness. If I don't hear it at least once when I'm out, then something is wrong. Apparently that song took Europe by storm. I'm reminded of this because today on the metro there was a 30 year old man who had it as his ring tone. I thought that was funny.

Ah, and today I purchased tickets for another FC Barça game. It's next Wednesday when Michelle is here ( < week!). That should be fun, and she'll get to see the biggest stadium in Europe.

Getting the tickets was harder than it should have been. You have to purchase them at the stadium, and it's a ways away from my homestay and school. I went during lunch, but of course, at 1:30pm it makes too much sense to be open. They were closed for the lunch hour. I forgot about that. They didn't open back up until 3:30pm. Many, many places in Spain close for about 2 hours in the middle of the day. I had to buy them after school. As my management teacher would say, "It's a cultural difference."

Have a great week, everyone!

Resting up and stories

Happy December!

It is Sunday morning and I got a sold 9 hours or so of sleep. It felt great. After this post, I'm going to get organized for the rest of the week. Ah, and I talk to my family on webcab tonight, so that is exciting.

Let's see... Ah, I guess I'll start off with Friday night and move onwards in a nice, chronological order.

There are these girls who are celebrating the one's birthday all weekend and they had never been to this one bar called Pippermint. I should probably take my camera next time, but basically, this place in known for its giant drinks. You can order a 13L glass of beer. You can imagine that is a popular one with the frat boys.

Anyway (which, on a side note, is a tough word to explain to a Spaniard. When I get back to the States, I should really take an English grammar class. I like my language, and would like to know more about it), I met them there and a few other people. We were then going to go to this club. I was a little tired, but figured, what the heck, I'll go. The metro closes at 2am, so at around 1:15, we left for the station. It was about a 15min walk from there. We get on the metro and go to the station where we have to make a switch. We were in a slight hurry, so I jumped off the metro train, jogged to the stairs and turned around. They were still on the train. They finally jumped out, doors closing, and informed me that some of them wanted to go home. They did, so I was stuck in a station by myself. The metro didn't open for another 3 hours. Kinda wish I had gone home when I was so close (we walked by my place on the way to the metro station, haha).

I decided to go ahead and go to the club. I didn't really know anyone there, so I decided to bounce (nice usage of some slang). I wasn't about to pay for a lone taxi ride back (gosh, I'm cheap), so I walked, passing prostitutes who were surprisingly in a rather open, well lit area. They make a kissing noise as you pass, even if you walk by 30 yards away. Yeah... nasty.

I go to bed and wake up kinda early because I have to do this interview for Spanish class. Someone who works at an alternative medicine store. It's due Monday, and shops close early on Saturdays and aren't open on Sunday. I got that done, went home, and took a 3 hour nap. I'm telling you, I've just been really tired lately. Sheesh. I need some good nights' rest, and that's what I plan to do. Can't be tired when Michelle gets here (a week and a day!).

So Saturday was just a resting day and doing some light homework. I also watched Bee Movie online. First movie I've seen in 4 months. Well, wait a minute... I guess I've watched a couple movies in my classes here. Okay, so that was a lie.

I checked my email and IES warned us of a protest in Plaça Catalunya. They told us to avoid that area (but it's kind of a main area of town). So naturally, I wanted to go see it. They said the protest was set for 5pm. I had an intercambio meeting at 6pm near there, so I just left for that early. As I was walking, I got to see this. Christmas lights are finally being lit up.
Bones Festes is Merry Christmas in Catalan.

Here are some pictures of the protest and the poor cars that couldn't' move. Apparently they are protesting because public transportation around Catalunya (the area of Spain where they speak Catalan. Barcelona is the capital) doesn't run very well, unlike the rest of Spain. They feel like they're getting gypped out of tax money (by the way, apparently the word gypped comes from gypsy. Hmm... probably not the most politically correct word then). There's a little historical bad blood mixed in too, I believe.
I then had my 4 hour intercambio session. Yeah, that's a long time to talk in broken English and Spanish. I basically got home, ate a small dinner, and crashed. And here I am! Whew.

And as for the weather here, it gets into the low 60s during the day and low 40s at night. Chilly, but not too shabby.

Dalí Museum

Don't you just love my creative titles?

Anyway, yes, today I went to Figueres (Figueras in English), the hometown of Salvador Dalí, the um, interesting surrealist painter. It was a field trip for my art class. It was just under 2 hours away by bus. We left at 10am and got back around 5:30.

He designed and built this museum (the self-proclaimed "largest surrealist object in the world") and it is very unique indeed. I'm really not sure how to go about describing it. The museum is called Teatre-Museu Dalí. It's an old theater transformed to house some of his works. I guess I'll just show you some pictures and maybe you'll get a feel for it. Basically he, well, he painted a lot of things, but as a surrealist, he focused on dreams and weird stuff. A lot of his stuff has sexual connotations, too. The more you learn about him, the more you realize that he's weird in pretty much every single way.

A crowd favorite was Gala Contemplating the Mediterranean Sea Which at 20 Meters Becomes a Portrait of Abraham Lincoln. It's a painting of his wife Gala, but when you look at it from, well, 20 meters away, it becomes a painting of our 16th president. Try squinting if you can't see it at first. If you enlarge the picture, it becomes Gala.
Here's a painting called Poetry of America. Apparently it's the first representation of a Coke bottle in art history. The Coke bottle is just to the left of the guy's red pants. Wow, the Internet is being really slow. Only a few more.

Here's his tomb. He was a very egotistic man.There's also a Mae West room. It's a real-life remake of one of his paintings. Here you can see a room with a couch, fireplace thing, and 2 pictures.
Through the lenses provided (sorry it is blurry. Very low light) you can see that it takes on the face of Mae West (and to be honest, I don't know who that is...)

And Dalí was obsessed with Millet's painting called The Angelus Hour. The Angelus Hour is at noon, I believe, and I think it's because that's when the angel came to Mary, or something. Anyway, I guess Catholics used to stop what they were doing at noon and say a prayer. Millet did a painting of this but Dalí believed there was some big conspiracy about the painting. That it was actually something else. He wrote a book about it and did many paintings of it, or paintings with it in it.

Well, that's a look into Dalí and his odd museum. I'm going to get some homework done and then probably a frozen pizza! Yea! My señor usually doesn't cook on weekends.

Enjoy the weekend, everyone!

Lighter work load and field trips

Yea! I'm done with those three papers! That feels pretty good. After I post this I think I might try to take a nap. Then I'll shower and eat some dinner. Oh, and our RA is suppose to get here today, although I'm not sure what time. Then it's time to go back out to the Barcelona nightlife. I'm excited for that and to get started on some of my work that is due the next week or so.

Which reminds me, I have a Spanish presentation I have to do. It is 4-5 minutes on anything. My hometown (probably not going with that one), a tradition, famous person, etc. Anything. Any ideas? Something funny/entertaining is always a plus.

My religion/architecture/art class was canceled today because the professor was sick. It gave me a chance to sleep in which was very nice. After Spanish class, I went to the market near my school. I picked up some figs, raisins, and more peanuts. Yum. It should last me a few lunches. I gotta pack a lunch for tomorrow. My art class is taking a field trip to a Dalí museum about an hour and a half away. More on that tomorrow.

Today in my management class we went to another business and had a man speak to us (this is the fourth such visit). The idea of this class is to learn about different cultures, and it is kinda interesting, but can get dry and repetitive at times. Our teacher translated and apparently this man worked for a company called Beter. It used to be called Better, but dictator Franco outlawed English company names back in the day. My professor, Dr. Duch (Duke, although you can probably guess what most students call him), kept saying "blazer rades." Apparently the company makes razor blades for men and women.

Also, just before we left the business, he asked me to make an attendance sheet to pass around. That way he knows who actually showed up. I misspelled attendance at first, spelling it attendence. Sheesh, I'm such an awful speller.

Michelle arrives in Barcelona in about 10 days! It's going to be pretty cool showing her around. I'll also finally see some of the more touristy things in Barcelona that I've been holding off on. Pssh, I'm not paying 16,50€ twice to see a building by Gaudí! Shoot, that'd be over $45.

Yummy Dinner

Today is my 70th blog post. Whew!

I'm still basically exhausted, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. In 24 hours, my workload will lighten up a lot. Plus I will have weekends here in Barcelona. That will be very nice.

Dinner last night was amazing. My other housemates were at a concert and working on a group presentation, so they missed out. My señor made these red sausage type things which were delicious. However, the best part was the eggs. Yes, eggs. I had three fried eggs on top of potatoes and onions. It was amazing. Apparently it is a very traditional winter or wartime meal. It has lots of calories. Oh I loved it.

That's really it for now. I gotta finish this last paper.

Ah, and I hope the Huskers hire the right coach. Oh these last few years have been painful...

Toro Pasado

Hello everybody!

I'm still feeling slightly under the weather, but I have to keep chugging away at these papers. After this post I'm going to shower and then try to finish my econ paper.

Last night at dinner I asked my señor about the saying my economics professor said in class on Monday. After a lot of exchanges, and help from my one housemate who knows Spanish, we figured out that "toro pasado," which literally translates into something like "last bull," means it is too late now. For example, at the dinner table, his son didn't know if he wanted to eat his orange, but once he peeled it: Toro pasado. There's no turning back. Once you peel an orange, you gotta eat it. I thought that was interesting.

Anyway, yes, I do kinda need a haircut, but I'm holding out for the States. And speaking of that, I return in 25 days. My flight leaves on December 21 at 9:35am and I land in San Francisco at 8:55pm.

I came up with a great analogy to describe how I feel about returning home. Let's say it is December 10. Christmas is coming up and you're super excited. You can't wait until Christmas. However, that said, December 10 and the weeks following are not bad. You like them. In fact, they are some of the best days of the year. I think that is kind of how I feel about coming home. I'm having a great time in Barcelona and I'm excited for everything I have left to do (including showing Michelle around town), but I'm also excited to return home.

Ah, and one last note. Just in case some of you out there are thinking about filling my rather empty mailbox with something, I would say this would be the last week to send something. I'm just saying. Don't want IES to get my mail once I'm gone.

Granada: An Andalucían Adventure

Before my adventure began, I went out on Thanksgiving night with two lady friends. We then decided to meet up with some other lady friends and ended up at a club near my place. It's called Otto Zutz. I don't know if I've shared the name of that place yet. Anyway, it turned out to be one of the funnest nights I've had in Barcelona for a while. It was great.

I then discovered Barcelona's best kept secret. Bus N17: the night bus to the airport. You see, my flight left at 6:35, but the regular airport buses do not leave until 5:30, getting me to the airport at 6. That's cutting it close. I knew there was a NitBus (its name in Catalan), I just could not find it and no one knows about it. Well, long story short, I found it. It was great and cheap.

Anyway, I have homework to do, so let's see if I can cut to the chase without leaving out interesting details.

So, I get to Granada. It is located in the area of Spain called Andalucía. Sevilla is also located there but on the other end, kind of. This is in southern Spain and has a lot of Moorish/Islamic influence (as you'll soon see) because this was the area that the Moors controlled the longest. This is also the "birthplace" of the tapas. They are yummy, tiny treats that you get with a drink, at least in Granada. More on that later.

Anyway, so I get there. I decide that I will first go to this small town called Gaudix (by the way, Carrie, again, I must say, that guidebook you made me get is amazing!). I walk to the bus station and on the way I saw this. I just thought it was funny.
It says McAuto, in case you can't make it out (also, a reminder, you can click on the photos to make them full screen).

Anyway, I get on the hour long bus ride and walk around this town. I suppose I should tell you why I went there. There are tons of casa cuevas, or cave houses. They are homes built into the side of the mountains and hills. It was kinda cool to see. Here are some photos.

It's me!
And look Dad, it's not just people in Washington who don't keep their roofs clean!
And apparently bad fashion is international...
Anyway, I get back to Granada, exhausted. I think I'm getting sick and the lack of sleep probably isn't helping the cause. I take a nap and then meet up with two friends to go tapas hopping. It is great. You order a drink, you get food. Granada is about the only place left in Spain that still does that.

I then went to sleep and woke up early for the Alhambra. I went there about 3 years ago with my family. It was cool to go back. Reminded me of them a lot. Plus, with my new knowledge of the place, it was very interesting. Ah, I suppose, before I carry on, I should give a quick lesson of what it is. It may or may not be one of the seven wonders of the world. Not sure. But there is a saying in Spain: "Si mueres sin ver la Alhambra, no has vivido." If you die without seeing the Alhambra, you have not lived. And it is impressive. It is an old Islamic Palace that sat above the city of Granada. While the outside is quite plain, the inside is spectacular, and you're about to embark on a journey where a 20 year old junior will try to sound impressive by sharing his knowledge.

To warm up here's a picture of me in one of the several palaces. It is widely believed that the Sultan would stand in front of the windows. The light from the sun behind him would blind the people he was speaking to.


Now for some more pictures of the interior. Basically all the blank spaces on the walls were covered. Some may call this horror vacui, which is apparently a Latin phrase about the fear of empty space.However, there's a reason for all the geometric designs and calligraphy. First off, The Qur'an kinda says the iconography is bad. Therefore, you don't see many paintings of things in Islamic art, especially of Allah or the Prophet Muhammad (hence the huge Danish cartoon scandal). Instead of living things, calligraphy and geometry is used. Calligraphy often describes the building or says something about Allah. In a few of these pictures, if you can make out the Arabic writing, they say, "There is no victor but God." Also, Muslims have this belief in the cosmos, order and structure of everything. While the artwork may be random, they are actually all repeated patterns. And circles especially have a deep meaning. The power of Allah, infinity, order, etc. The star, as seen in this dome, stands for the expansion and spreading of Islam.
And it was widely believed that only Allah could build something that could last forever, so Muslims built the Alhambra out of not so sturdy materials (thus making restoration and upkeep of this thing important).
In this pool of water, the building appears fragile, a reminder that nothing last forever.

Okay, moving on, there is also a palace built by Charles V here. It kinda stands out due to its different style of structure.

And there is also an area called El Generalife, which is a summer palace.

And here's an ablution type fontain, only much grander than usual. The ablution fountain is where Muslims wash before they pray.

And that's about it for the Alhambra. I met up with some friends again that night and just had dinner and went to bed early. We tried to go tapas hopping again, but everything was eerily closed on a Saturday night. It was odd...

So, I wake up early at 6am (after throwing up at 3am... Yeah, my body isn't happy) to go to Córdoba. It's a little over 2 hours away by bus. It has a Cathedral that used to be a mosque. This trip was going to be tricky because I had to get there, see the sight, get back, get on the airport bus, and onto my flight.

Córdoba is a nice city with gardens everywhere. I go the the Catedral de Córdoba (Antigua Mezquita) (Cathedral of Córdoba that used to be a mosque) but on Sundays in November it doesn't open until 2pm. Crap, that throws off my timing plans. Well, to kill time, I go see the Alcázar de los Reys Christianos, which I think translates into the palace of the Christian kings. It was cool to see. Here's a photo of me in the gardens.


I get to the Mosque of Córdoba and it is cool inside. Disorienting too. The way it is built you just get a strange feeling.

Here's the Mirab that indicates the direction of Mecca. It also has the 99 names of Allah all around it.The history of this place. One Moorish king built it and then 3 others added on. You can see where and how it was expanded. Then when the Christians took over the city, they eventually built a church right in the middle of it (and other things around inside). Kinda ruins the feel of the place, but makes it very unique.

Well, I rushed to the bus stop, got back to Granada, got on the wrong bus and had to pay twice, got to my hostel and grabbed my bag, and rushed to the airport bus stop. Got home just before 1am and got some Zs.

Today I finished my Spanish and management paper. Just two left: econ and religion. Ah, and I got my econ midterm back today. Oh yeah, aced it. 10. I'm pumped about that.

Okay, now I have to go get some work done. Whew, these posts are a lot of work!