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.]