Well today was a day that I have been looking forward to for a long time--maybe even since before I even arrived in Barcelona. Mom, Dad, and Leah arrived this morning.
I went to the airport at about 9am to pick them up from the flight from New York (make sure to ask them about meeting Rupert at the Hello Deli the day before). We took the train and then the metro back to their hotel and got them all settled in. Even though we were all tired, and napping sounded like the best thing to do, in the interest of recovering from jet lag I got them to walk around with me a bit. We headed down towards the coast, and walked past the port and then had sandwiches for lunch. Then, I headed to class and the other three took naps for most of the afternoon.
This evening we had dinner at my host family's house. It was really a good time. Instead of turkey and stuffing and the works for Thanksgiving dinner, we had pan con tomate (bread with tomato and olive oil), and various different smoked meats and cheese, as well as Spanish tortilla (which is most like a quiche, with potatoes and eggs and veggies). For dessert we had fresh fruit, as well as some traditional Spanish Christmas pastries. It was really a fun time having both my real family and my adopted family around the same table, and I was really impressed with how strong Mom and Dad and Leah's Spanish still is--I only had to translate one or two things the whole night!
When I come back home to the states and people want to hear stories of my adventures in Spain and the other parts of Europe, I'm sure there are a few other stories that will make for better conversation than today, but I really don't remember the last time I went to bed at night feeling this content.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
France and Holland
Well I just got back this afternoon from our whirlwind trip to France and Holland. It was a great experience, full of irregular sleep patterns and tons of walking around beautiful places. I traveled with two other BCA students--Josh (from Mexico/Texas) and Matt (from California). We also met Josh's sister, Ericka, in Paris and stayed at her apartment in Amsterdam when we were there.
On Thursday morning we flew to Paris, where we checked into our hotel. We found a really great deal on a four-star hotel called Cozy's--two King beds, a kitchen, living room, dining room and only three stops on the metro from downtown--for only a few Euros more than we would have paid for a dormitory-style hostal. It really worked out well because we were able to cook for ourselves instead of eating at restaurants, and I think in this case the life of luxury really was cheaper than the cliche college-student hostal. Not a bad deal.
After we checked into the hotel, Josh stayed back to sleep (he was still trying to get over the flu--very bad timing) and Matt and I walked around the neighborhood around our hotel. The whole street was lined with outdoor fruit/veggie stands, flower shops, and art places. We looked around a while, and bought some grocieries for dinner. When we got back, I made pasta with a potato/veggie stir-fry and red pepper chicken for dinner. Ericka and one of her friends joined us for dinner, then we all went downtown to see the Eiffel Tower and such at night. The tower was beautiful (all of Paris was really). We took the elevator to the top of the tower and got an incredible view of Paris from the air. After the tower, we walked through the plaza inside the Louvre (where we even managed to foil an attempt to steal Matt's SLR camera) and then came back to the hotel for the only night of actual sleep we would get on the whole trip.
Friday morning we made omelets and hash browns for breakfast, then Matt and I headed back downtown. Josh was still not up for walking around, so he slept most of the day but was finally feeling good enough to join us later into the afternoon. We started at the Louvre plaza, then walked along the river up to Notre Dam. Notre Dam is a gorgeous cathedral, but I don't think I was able to enjoy it as much as I could have since I am still saturated with all the cathedrals we have been seeing in Spain. They wouldn't let us go up on top unless we sat through an hour-long tour, but we still got to see the inside of the building from the ground level. We walked back down the other side of the river, past a number of beautiful buildings but I can't remember what they all were so I won't even try to repeat them for you. Matt had 6 friends who are all studying in different places in Europe who were also in Paris at the same time, so we met up with them at the Museum Orsay. This obviously isn't as big or as impressive as the Louvre, but it does have quite a large collection of artists such as Van Gough, Rembrandt, and Picasso, so it was great to see. After the Orsay we walked around the neighborhood and found a really good crepe restaurant. After the crepes and hot cider, we walked over to the Louvre. It is free to get in for college students after 6pm on Fridays, so we took advantage of that and walked around for a couple hours. Obviously we saw the Mona Lisa, which is every bit as big of a deal (and unimpressively small) as everyone says it is. After the Louvre, we came back and made pizza which is somewhat tricky when your kitchen doesn't have an oven, but we discovered that if you put two pizzas together and put them on a frying pan it turns out to be a delicious calzone. Score one point for innovation.
Since our train on Satuday morning left at 6am, we decided not to go to bed and just sleep on the train, so we walked around Paris most of the night, but gave up and got about 2 hours of sleep before getting up to go to the train station.
We got into Amsterdam after a 6 hour train ride around noon on Saturday. We were really tired, so we went back and got some sleep at Ericka's apartment, then went out to explore some. The weather was pretty crappy in Amsterdam the whole time--I only remember an hour or two when it wasn't snowing, and it was dreadfully cold the whole time. But, we walked around downtown for a while, then went to Ericka's boyfriend's restaurant and had a really good meal. I had lamb tenderloin with mushroom sauce--quite different than our own cooking we had been doing. After dinner, we went to a bar that had live music (some British indie band) and enjoyed that for a while. Josh and I tried our hands at pool, which paid off becuase we beat the two British guys who had been running the table all night and got plenty of compliments from all the other frustrated players who had been losing to them all night.
For Saturday night we had tickets for the Awakenings festival. This is a world-known techno concert and lightshow that happens a couple times a year in Amsterdam. This one was held in what I'm pretty sure was an old water-treatment plant, so the dance flood was just a huge round cement building. There are lazers, indoor fireworks, and the music literally doesn't stop from 11pm to 7am. We got there at 2am, and stayed there until almost 7am. It was a great time, and I got exposed to a type of music I hadn't really listened to a lot before but really enjoyed in this setting. Some of the DJ's that played this year were Christian Varela & Pepo, Deetron & Doris Voorn, Elton Dee & Snoo and so on (not that that means anything to most of you).
Since we obviously didnt sleep much Satuday night, we slept most of the day Sunday (made all the more comfortable because the "weather outside was frightful"). We woke up at 4pm and went to a bagel shop and I had a bagel with bacon, nuts, and traditional Dutch gouda cheese and a cappuccino. After dinner (or breakfast, or lunch, or what-have-you) we walked around town more, including through the famous Red Light District, which has to be one of the most bizarre and depressing places I have ever been. On the way home we stopped at a waffle stand and I had a waffle covered in white chocolate and whipped cream, which has to be one of the most delicious things I have ever bought from a street vendor.
On Monday morning we had to get up fairly early for our flight back to Barcelona. Thankfully that (as well as our other flight and train ride) went perfectly smoothly without any problems.
And this is where I get to dispell any potential rumors about traveling to Amsterdam--and you thought I was going to beat around the pot-bush for this whole blog, huh? Well, marijuana isn't my cup of tea, and in all fairness that is not the only reason people visit Amsterdam (although it's definitely the cliche thing to do there). It was fascinating, though, just to be right in the middle of such an open and blatant drug-culture. People are extremely friendly, even to those not participating in the comsumption, and the fact that they speak English and there are so many other tourists around meant that we really didn't stick out like a sore thumb like we do when we travel other places. That being said, I could see myself going back to Paris much sooner than Amsterdam.
And now you can click this link to check out my photos from the trip:
On Thursday morning we flew to Paris, where we checked into our hotel. We found a really great deal on a four-star hotel called Cozy's--two King beds, a kitchen, living room, dining room and only three stops on the metro from downtown--for only a few Euros more than we would have paid for a dormitory-style hostal. It really worked out well because we were able to cook for ourselves instead of eating at restaurants, and I think in this case the life of luxury really was cheaper than the cliche college-student hostal. Not a bad deal.
After we checked into the hotel, Josh stayed back to sleep (he was still trying to get over the flu--very bad timing) and Matt and I walked around the neighborhood around our hotel. The whole street was lined with outdoor fruit/veggie stands, flower shops, and art places. We looked around a while, and bought some grocieries for dinner. When we got back, I made pasta with a potato/veggie stir-fry and red pepper chicken for dinner. Ericka and one of her friends joined us for dinner, then we all went downtown to see the Eiffel Tower and such at night. The tower was beautiful (all of Paris was really). We took the elevator to the top of the tower and got an incredible view of Paris from the air. After the tower, we walked through the plaza inside the Louvre (where we even managed to foil an attempt to steal Matt's SLR camera) and then came back to the hotel for the only night of actual sleep we would get on the whole trip.
Friday morning we made omelets and hash browns for breakfast, then Matt and I headed back downtown. Josh was still not up for walking around, so he slept most of the day but was finally feeling good enough to join us later into the afternoon. We started at the Louvre plaza, then walked along the river up to Notre Dam. Notre Dam is a gorgeous cathedral, but I don't think I was able to enjoy it as much as I could have since I am still saturated with all the cathedrals we have been seeing in Spain. They wouldn't let us go up on top unless we sat through an hour-long tour, but we still got to see the inside of the building from the ground level. We walked back down the other side of the river, past a number of beautiful buildings but I can't remember what they all were so I won't even try to repeat them for you. Matt had 6 friends who are all studying in different places in Europe who were also in Paris at the same time, so we met up with them at the Museum Orsay. This obviously isn't as big or as impressive as the Louvre, but it does have quite a large collection of artists such as Van Gough, Rembrandt, and Picasso, so it was great to see. After the Orsay we walked around the neighborhood and found a really good crepe restaurant. After the crepes and hot cider, we walked over to the Louvre. It is free to get in for college students after 6pm on Fridays, so we took advantage of that and walked around for a couple hours. Obviously we saw the Mona Lisa, which is every bit as big of a deal (and unimpressively small) as everyone says it is. After the Louvre, we came back and made pizza which is somewhat tricky when your kitchen doesn't have an oven, but we discovered that if you put two pizzas together and put them on a frying pan it turns out to be a delicious calzone. Score one point for innovation.
Since our train on Satuday morning left at 6am, we decided not to go to bed and just sleep on the train, so we walked around Paris most of the night, but gave up and got about 2 hours of sleep before getting up to go to the train station.
We got into Amsterdam after a 6 hour train ride around noon on Saturday. We were really tired, so we went back and got some sleep at Ericka's apartment, then went out to explore some. The weather was pretty crappy in Amsterdam the whole time--I only remember an hour or two when it wasn't snowing, and it was dreadfully cold the whole time. But, we walked around downtown for a while, then went to Ericka's boyfriend's restaurant and had a really good meal. I had lamb tenderloin with mushroom sauce--quite different than our own cooking we had been doing. After dinner, we went to a bar that had live music (some British indie band) and enjoyed that for a while. Josh and I tried our hands at pool, which paid off becuase we beat the two British guys who had been running the table all night and got plenty of compliments from all the other frustrated players who had been losing to them all night.
For Saturday night we had tickets for the Awakenings festival. This is a world-known techno concert and lightshow that happens a couple times a year in Amsterdam. This one was held in what I'm pretty sure was an old water-treatment plant, so the dance flood was just a huge round cement building. There are lazers, indoor fireworks, and the music literally doesn't stop from 11pm to 7am. We got there at 2am, and stayed there until almost 7am. It was a great time, and I got exposed to a type of music I hadn't really listened to a lot before but really enjoyed in this setting. Some of the DJ's that played this year were Christian Varela & Pepo, Deetron & Doris Voorn, Elton Dee & Snoo and so on (not that that means anything to most of you).
Since we obviously didnt sleep much Satuday night, we slept most of the day Sunday (made all the more comfortable because the "weather outside was frightful"). We woke up at 4pm and went to a bagel shop and I had a bagel with bacon, nuts, and traditional Dutch gouda cheese and a cappuccino. After dinner (or breakfast, or lunch, or what-have-you) we walked around town more, including through the famous Red Light District, which has to be one of the most bizarre and depressing places I have ever been. On the way home we stopped at a waffle stand and I had a waffle covered in white chocolate and whipped cream, which has to be one of the most delicious things I have ever bought from a street vendor.
On Monday morning we had to get up fairly early for our flight back to Barcelona. Thankfully that (as well as our other flight and train ride) went perfectly smoothly without any problems.
And this is where I get to dispell any potential rumors about traveling to Amsterdam--and you thought I was going to beat around the pot-bush for this whole blog, huh? Well, marijuana isn't my cup of tea, and in all fairness that is not the only reason people visit Amsterdam (although it's definitely the cliche thing to do there). It was fascinating, though, just to be right in the middle of such an open and blatant drug-culture. People are extremely friendly, even to those not participating in the comsumption, and the fact that they speak English and there are so many other tourists around meant that we really didn't stick out like a sore thumb like we do when we travel other places. That being said, I could see myself going back to Paris much sooner than Amsterdam.
And now you can click this link to check out my photos from the trip:
 |
| France and Holland Nov. 20-24 |
Monday, November 17, 2008
Demonstrations at the University
Today I got a message on my phone from the BCA office telling me that there are demonstrations in front of the History Faculty today and that our classes have been moved to a different building. Apparently this is a fairly frequent event, and here is what I know about the situation:
In 1999 all of the leaders of education in Europe got together to talk about the university system, and they decided on a 10-year plan that would basically standardize university education among the European countries. I'm not sure what actual changes this involved, but in essence it means restructuring the schools to be more like North American universities. This change was embraced by students and faculty of the sciences, but not so much by those in the arts.
Over the past 9 years, they made little progress towards their goals for 2009, so in the last year or so the university administration has made some fairly severe and drastic changes, most of which have been contested by a number of students. Actually, recently there has been quite a bit of grafiti and propaganda around the campuses with the phrase "VAGA TOTAL CONTRA LA BOLONYA!" Bolonya is the term for the new structural organization (the place that this agreement was reached) and the propaganda calls for strikes and demonstrations and such.
The demonstration today is likely linked to the university elections that were held last week. The UB elected a new president and a number of other positions, so my best guess is that this is in some what connected to that as well.
I'll try to find a good article online that explains it all better than me and I'll post it here when I do.
In 1999 all of the leaders of education in Europe got together to talk about the university system, and they decided on a 10-year plan that would basically standardize university education among the European countries. I'm not sure what actual changes this involved, but in essence it means restructuring the schools to be more like North American universities. This change was embraced by students and faculty of the sciences, but not so much by those in the arts.
Over the past 9 years, they made little progress towards their goals for 2009, so in the last year or so the university administration has made some fairly severe and drastic changes, most of which have been contested by a number of students. Actually, recently there has been quite a bit of grafiti and propaganda around the campuses with the phrase "VAGA TOTAL CONTRA LA BOLONYA!" Bolonya is the term for the new structural organization (the place that this agreement was reached) and the propaganda calls for strikes and demonstrations and such.
The demonstration today is likely linked to the university elections that were held last week. The UB elected a new president and a number of other positions, so my best guess is that this is in some what connected to that as well.
I'll try to find a good article online that explains it all better than me and I'll post it here when I do.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Another Barca game
So I just got back from another FC Barcelona soccer game. This time we played lesser-known team, and a couple of the starters sat for Barca, but we got much closer seats this time, so it was fun. I actually got in for free, because my friend Adam's host family has season tickets and he invited me to go with him to the game.
This was a much lower scoring affair. We won 1-0, and barely at that. Messi scored our lone goal in the 41st minute of the second half on a penalty kick after he was taken down on his way to the goal. His initial kick was actually blocked, but he followed up and got the rebound and put it home. Very exciting to watch, even though it shouldn't have been so close against a team like Benidorm.
This album has the pics you already saw of the Nov. 8 game, but I added a few from tonight's game as well:
This was a much lower scoring affair. We won 1-0, and barely at that. Messi scored our lone goal in the 41st minute of the second half on a penalty kick after he was taken down on his way to the goal. His initial kick was actually blocked, but he followed up and got the rebound and put it home. Very exciting to watch, even though it shouldn't have been so close against a team like Benidorm.
This album has the pics you already saw of the Nov. 8 game, but I added a few from tonight's game as well:
 |
| Barca Games Nov 8 and 12 |
Monday, November 10, 2008
Barca Game and a trip into the heart of Cataluna
I had a pretty busy weekend. On Saturday I had planned to get a bunch of homework done, but we ended up having guests over at the house and I spent most of the day eating and talking with them.
Saturday night we went to the FC Barcelona soccer game against Valladolid at Camp Nou. We got fairly good tickets, about half way up behind one of the goals. The game was a blow-out, but I think that was a lot more fun to watch than a close low-scoring game. Eto'o, one of the young stars on Barcelona, scored 4 goals in the first half of the game. Then, in the second half, Henry and Gudjohnson each scored to make the final score 6-0 in favor of Barcelona. I'm glad I was able to go, since this was one of the last home games of the season and I won't have other opportunities to do this before I leave Spain.
On Sunday we took a trip to the mountains. My host-sister Ingrid, her cousin Oriol, and my friend Noe all loaded up in the car to go see some of the Catalunian countryside. We had originally talked about going mushroom hunting, but we opted for a whirlwind tour of some of the pueblos and natural sights in the region instead.
First, we drove to Besalu. This is a very old town, much of it from the 11th century. On your way into town you cross a gorgeous bridge called the "Pont Fortificat." Below the bridge there is a very still river, and the surface relected a perfect mirror image of the bridge. It was awesome to see. Inside the town we stopped in some of the bakeries, butcher shops, and stores to stock up on some sandwich meats and cookies and such.
From Besalu we drove to a very peculiar town. The town is built on top of a huge volcanic cliff. The houses were built right up to the edge of the cliff, which has a sheer drop all the way down to where the fields are. This town is called the "Cinglera Basaltica de Castellfollit de la Roca."
From the cliff town we went to the Volcanic National Park. First we left the car at one place and took a hike for about 2 hours through some gorgeous forest. It was the perfect time, as it was sunny, cool, and the leaves were all changing colors. The colors all reminded me of Colorado when the aspen's change colors, but this was different because we didn't see a single pine tree the whole time (and these weren't aspens either). We ate a lunch of sandwiches and oranges and then got back into the car to go to another trail head. There, we went on a little shorter hike that took us to the base of Volca de Santa Margarida. This is a volcanic mountain who's entire side was blown out by a volcanic eruption. You could see all the way to the core of the mountain, and see the strata layers of the terrain. Very beautiful.
From the volcano, we drove into the town of Santa Pau. We walked around the center of town for a little while, taking in the medieval plaza in the center of town, and having coffee at a cafe on the plaza. We also bought some white beans (I don't know what they are called but they are typical of the region). The aren't lima beans or anything like that--they look just like a normal black bean except they are white.
It was getting dark as we left Santa Pau, but we still wanted to make our final stop in Banyoles. This is a town built around a large lake. The thing is, nobody knows how the lake fills with water. There are streams running out of the lake, but none running into it. I suppose it is filled by underground waterways, but the rumor is that at night the mayor hooks up his garden hose to fill it up. We got there after dark, so we couldn't see much except what the moonlight showed, but we didn't see the mayor filling the lake up. We did, however, get stuck in rush hour traffic on the way home, so we didn't make it back until after 9pm.
This trip was great because all of the places we visited are only accessible by car. I would not have been able to take public transportation up there, or get there any other way. I can't even rent a car here until I'm 23. But it was great to see part of Cataluna that I wouldn't have gotten to see otherwise, and to spend some time with part of my host family in the process.
Click here to see my photos of the FC Barca soccer game:
Click here to see my pictures of our day-trip into Cataluna:
Saturday night we went to the FC Barcelona soccer game against Valladolid at Camp Nou. We got fairly good tickets, about half way up behind one of the goals. The game was a blow-out, but I think that was a lot more fun to watch than a close low-scoring game. Eto'o, one of the young stars on Barcelona, scored 4 goals in the first half of the game. Then, in the second half, Henry and Gudjohnson each scored to make the final score 6-0 in favor of Barcelona. I'm glad I was able to go, since this was one of the last home games of the season and I won't have other opportunities to do this before I leave Spain.
On Sunday we took a trip to the mountains. My host-sister Ingrid, her cousin Oriol, and my friend Noe all loaded up in the car to go see some of the Catalunian countryside. We had originally talked about going mushroom hunting, but we opted for a whirlwind tour of some of the pueblos and natural sights in the region instead.
First, we drove to Besalu. This is a very old town, much of it from the 11th century. On your way into town you cross a gorgeous bridge called the "Pont Fortificat." Below the bridge there is a very still river, and the surface relected a perfect mirror image of the bridge. It was awesome to see. Inside the town we stopped in some of the bakeries, butcher shops, and stores to stock up on some sandwich meats and cookies and such.
From Besalu we drove to a very peculiar town. The town is built on top of a huge volcanic cliff. The houses were built right up to the edge of the cliff, which has a sheer drop all the way down to where the fields are. This town is called the "Cinglera Basaltica de Castellfollit de la Roca."
From the cliff town we went to the Volcanic National Park. First we left the car at one place and took a hike for about 2 hours through some gorgeous forest. It was the perfect time, as it was sunny, cool, and the leaves were all changing colors. The colors all reminded me of Colorado when the aspen's change colors, but this was different because we didn't see a single pine tree the whole time (and these weren't aspens either). We ate a lunch of sandwiches and oranges and then got back into the car to go to another trail head. There, we went on a little shorter hike that took us to the base of Volca de Santa Margarida. This is a volcanic mountain who's entire side was blown out by a volcanic eruption. You could see all the way to the core of the mountain, and see the strata layers of the terrain. Very beautiful.
From the volcano, we drove into the town of Santa Pau. We walked around the center of town for a little while, taking in the medieval plaza in the center of town, and having coffee at a cafe on the plaza. We also bought some white beans (I don't know what they are called but they are typical of the region). The aren't lima beans or anything like that--they look just like a normal black bean except they are white.
It was getting dark as we left Santa Pau, but we still wanted to make our final stop in Banyoles. This is a town built around a large lake. The thing is, nobody knows how the lake fills with water. There are streams running out of the lake, but none running into it. I suppose it is filled by underground waterways, but the rumor is that at night the mayor hooks up his garden hose to fill it up. We got there after dark, so we couldn't see much except what the moonlight showed, but we didn't see the mayor filling the lake up. We did, however, get stuck in rush hour traffic on the way home, so we didn't make it back until after 9pm.
This trip was great because all of the places we visited are only accessible by car. I would not have been able to take public transportation up there, or get there any other way. I can't even rent a car here until I'm 23. But it was great to see part of Cataluna that I wouldn't have gotten to see otherwise, and to spend some time with part of my host family in the process.
Click here to see my photos of the FC Barca soccer game:
|
| Barca Games Nov 8 and 12 |
Click here to see my pictures of our day-trip into Cataluna:
 |
| Trip to Interior of Cataluna Nov. 9 |
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Elections, new travel plans, etc.
Well last night I made a valiant effort to stay up all night and watch the election results (which came in from midnight to 5am my time) but I it failed when my responsible side took precedence (a rare occurance, I must say) and I decided to get some sleep before my 10am class this morning.
I was, however, very pleased to see this morning that not only did Obama win, but he won big. But you already knew that. After class, I came back to watch both of the speeches online. Bravo! I am interested to see who Obama appoints to his cabinet too.
Here are some of the things I have coming up:
This afternoon I made arrangements to travel to France and the Netherlands with two other students, Josh and Matt. We will fly to Paris on Thursday November 20, take a bullet train to Amsterdam on Saturday, and fly back to Barcelona on Monday November 24. I think it should be a fun time, and a chance to see two new countries I have never been to before!
This afternoon a group of us are going to buy tickets for the FC Barcelona home game on the 8th. I am also looking forward to this.
And finally, my host family is taking me along with them to go up into the mountains on Sunday and hike around and search for wild mushrooms.
I was, however, very pleased to see this morning that not only did Obama win, but he won big. But you already knew that. After class, I came back to watch both of the speeches online. Bravo! I am interested to see who Obama appoints to his cabinet too.
Here are some of the things I have coming up:
This afternoon I made arrangements to travel to France and the Netherlands with two other students, Josh and Matt. We will fly to Paris on Thursday November 20, take a bullet train to Amsterdam on Saturday, and fly back to Barcelona on Monday November 24. I think it should be a fun time, and a chance to see two new countries I have never been to before!
This afternoon a group of us are going to buy tickets for the FC Barcelona home game on the 8th. I am also looking forward to this.
And finally, my host family is taking me along with them to go up into the mountains on Sunday and hike around and search for wild mushrooms.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Pictures!
And now the moment you have all been waiting for (or not). I have embedded links within most of my blog posts (even the old ones) that should take you to an online album of other pictures from that event.
This is mostly for all of you who are not facebook-affluent. Those of you who do have facebook, these pictures are basically the same as what I have been posting on there. But, for everyone else, now you can see actual pictures of my adventures rather than just the tiny (and un-enlargeable) ones along the side of the blog.
And for starters...here's an album of a few random pictures from around Barcelona:
Enjoy!
This is mostly for all of you who are not facebook-affluent. Those of you who do have facebook, these pictures are basically the same as what I have been posting on there. But, for everyone else, now you can see actual pictures of my adventures rather than just the tiny (and un-enlargeable) ones along the side of the blog.
And for starters...here's an album of a few random pictures from around Barcelona:
 |
| Random pictures around Barcelona |
Enjoy!
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Weekend update
So I don't mean to give everyone reading my blog the idea that I don't ever go to class or do real homework or anything. Frankly, my trips and other adventures just make for more interesting blog posts. But here's an update on the scholarly life in Spain:
This coming week is midterms week. So, I spent most of yesterday evening, and all of today studying for those. I have two midterms on Monday, in European Union and Morfosintaxis (my Spanish grammar class). The European Union class has more stuff to study and remember, but I am optimistic about both tests. Tuesday is my scheduled Political Psychology midterm, but I have opted out of taking the midterm/final in favor of writing a 15-20 page paper. Another student and I are working together to write this paper on Thomas Moore's book Utopia. It should be an interesting topic to write about, as it will allow plenty of opportunities to discuss and compare Europe's semi-socialist economic construction and the US economic system etc. My World Economics class does not have a midterm, which is nice because I have less to study for now, but a little intimidating because I will have little or no feedback on how I am doing in that class until I take the final and it is too late to make adjustments.
And now a number game...
2 - this is the number of months I have now been in Spain
5 - this is the total number of months I will be in Europe before returning on Jan. 27
40 - this is the percentage of my stay in Europe that I have completed so far
3 - this is the number of weeks until Leah and Mom and Dad come to visit
3 - this is also the number of weeks I have left of actual classes (after midterms, before finals)
5 - this is the number of days I have free this coming weekend after midterms are done. any ideas where I should travel with all that time??
Well that's all for now. I'll probably be studying the rest of the evening. Oh, and I will also be monitoring the Broncos game, although I have completely given up hope in Shanahan's ability to assemble anything remotely resembling a defense. Go donkeys!
This coming week is midterms week. So, I spent most of yesterday evening, and all of today studying for those. I have two midterms on Monday, in European Union and Morfosintaxis (my Spanish grammar class). The European Union class has more stuff to study and remember, but I am optimistic about both tests. Tuesday is my scheduled Political Psychology midterm, but I have opted out of taking the midterm/final in favor of writing a 15-20 page paper. Another student and I are working together to write this paper on Thomas Moore's book Utopia. It should be an interesting topic to write about, as it will allow plenty of opportunities to discuss and compare Europe's semi-socialist economic construction and the US economic system etc. My World Economics class does not have a midterm, which is nice because I have less to study for now, but a little intimidating because I will have little or no feedback on how I am doing in that class until I take the final and it is too late to make adjustments.
And now a number game...
2 - this is the number of months I have now been in Spain
5 - this is the total number of months I will be in Europe before returning on Jan. 27
40 - this is the percentage of my stay in Europe that I have completed so far
3 - this is the number of weeks until Leah and Mom and Dad come to visit
3 - this is also the number of weeks I have left of actual classes (after midterms, before finals)
5 - this is the number of days I have free this coming weekend after midterms are done. any ideas where I should travel with all that time??
Well that's all for now. I'll probably be studying the rest of the evening. Oh, and I will also be monitoring the Broncos game, although I have completely given up hope in Shanahan's ability to assemble anything remotely resembling a defense. Go donkeys!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)