More Than Halfway Through

We're more than halfway through the program and I am exhausted. They have us going all the time and when we finally stop, sleeping seems like such a good idea. I haven't been out since Saturday, and I am not the least bit ashamed at my lack of going out this week.

Sunday I came home and uploaded like 500 pictures to the internet. I've been working on adding captions since, for the most part, most people have no idea what they're looking at. I'm through like 100 or so. Monday we had class and then took a break to the cafe across the street before our afternoon excursion. I had some sangria (which was much stronger than Oveja Negra and gave me a little bit of afternoon buzz) and a chocolate crepe. I think I could eat crepes of various varieties for every meal and would not get tired of them. They are delicious.

For our afternoon excursion, we went to the Gaudi museum. Gaudi is a famous architect from Barcelona who designed things based on nature. For example, when he was creating the arches for his buildings he used a simple string model. He would hold the string so that it created a parabolic shape which would represent an upside down arch. He designed everything with purpose. His furniture is strange looking, but it is highly ergonomic, which is really cool since he was around in the late 19th, early 2oth century, before ergonomic was hip. We saw his La Pedrera building which has been converted to a museum, and then Casa Batllo which was also really awesome. Casa Batllo has a sort of dragon facade and is mosaicked across the front, it is one of my favorite buildings in Barcelona. Tomorrow we'll go see one of his most famous works, which is still being built, La Sagrada Familia, which is a church that will eventually be the tallest building in Barcelona. I'm not really sure why, but due to the complicated nature of the building, it is still not complete. Also, Park Guell has some more of Gaudi's works, including the long, tiled bench that is hugely famous all over the world; hopefully we'll go there this weekend.

After Gaudi, we headed home for dinner of leftover city, and not really good leftovers really. I don't know what's up with Senora lately but the food has not been awesome. I'm not too worried though, I definitely eat enough. Monday was Jessica's (the French girl who lives with Kate and Michelle) actual birthday so Sylvia and I met up with Jessica, Kate, Michelle, and Austin for coffee a couple blocks away. I had Brazilian coffee which definitely had whiskey in it and helped me sleep like a baby when we finally got home at 1A. It was nice to do something relaxing, though.

Tuesday morning I woke up in a stinker of a mood, which is strange because I've been sleeping more and drinking less. We went to class and didn't have any excursions in the afternoon. Craig, Sylvia and I headed over to Las Ramblas to try and get some shopping done, but didn't really accomplish anything. We did, however, spring for Chocolate y Churros again. And they were consistently amazing. I could go for some right now, even though I've had Chocolate today. After that we met up with some people from our group and headed over to Arc de Triomf. Its a giant park and the entrance is this awesome arch. We walked around the park, which was beautiful, for a long time, looking at stuff and taking pictures. I lusted after some beautiful, giant dogs (since I'm starting to really miss my Bartimus) and we walked down to the Harbor area. I bought some rioja wine, which Jordi says is excellent Catalan wine. I haven't opened it yet, but I can't wait to try it. Here they drink all wine chilled, even red wine, which I like. I think I'm going to chill this, but I haven't decided.

After walking, I was tired again, so I came home and napped for 3 hours. We ate dinner (noodles, hot dogs, salad, bread, etc. Basically nothing new or interesting). When we were out and about, I was totally pretending that I wanted to go out, trying to convince Craig that Tuesday was a great night for going out (pretty much every night is a great night for going out in Barcelona); however, when I got home and passed out, I woke up not pretending anymore. So we didn't go out. We played hermits and went to bed around 12:30.

At 1:30A, Analise called me because she and her room mate had gotten in a fight; they're fine now. I woke up this morning in a much better mood. We had class again and then headed straight for Sitges, which is about an hour away by train. The train ride went right along the coast and was stunning. Sitges is also beautiful. It's tiny. Not as tiny as Besalu, but much much smaller than Barcelona. It is kind of touristy, but still very pretty and cute. There are shops and restaurants, but the beaches are the main attraction. We didn't spend any time at the beach because the weather wasn't beach weather, but we saw them and they are beautiful. Sitges also tastes like the ocean, which I loved. It was like being back on the boat with Gabby and Popop. We went to several museums that had important Catalan art, modern and romantic. The art was beautiful and I got some really cool pictures, even though we were supposed to take them in the museum. Oops.

After the museums, we went with Jordi and Silvia to a cafe for a marienda (snack). We tried a variety of pastries and of course, Chocolate. I didn't really like mine, it was thick (Silvia tried it and said I must have gotten the bottom of the barrel), luckily Craig ate most of it in my honor. We walked around Sitges some, looking in shops but not really buying anything. We got home around 8P and I fell asleep until Senora, who must have been hollering at us for awhile, came and turned the light on to wake me up for dinner. Dinner, to be perfectly honest, sucked. Coming to Spain, I was hoping to eat Spanish food for every meal, and we do, but not really. Tonight's selections were pizza (in the place of noodles) which was burnt black, hot dogs, cheese, salad, bread, ice cream, and juevos rellenos. Let me tell you about juevos rellenos, or surprise eggs as I call them. It's looks like deviled eggs with a mayonnaise sauce on top. But, the surprise is: it's stuffed with fish. Suprise! It was salty and fishy and mayonnaise-y all at once. I ate one, going my philosophy to try everything, but am not really enamored. Especially when I got the surprise of being stuff with fish. And we've been eating at 10:30P. I asked Silvia about this and she said 9 is normal but 10:30 is a little late. I think we eat that late because our Senora doesn't get home until 9 from work. I'm getting used to it. I don't mind eating later than most Americans (8:30 is ideal for me), but 10:30 is pushing midnight snack time. But I love the experience of being immersed in a different culture, which definitely out weighs my hesitation to wait to have dinner until 10:30. I have learned that eating too much at 10:30 is a bad idea, unless I have definite plans to go out, because usually I go to bed like now and having a full belly is not ideal for sleeping. Tonight, though, our plans to go out fell through. Which is ironic because I spent part of the train ride home trying to convince Craig that Wednesdays are better than Saturdays in terms of going out, clearly I am a hypocrite.

I'm starting to yawn, so I'm off to bed. Hopefully next time I blog I will have more interesting stories to tell.