Saturday, Sunday, and Everything Between Now and Then

I have been kind of busy. But with just enough free time so sometimes I'm bored, but don't quite know what to do with myself. So I'll start where I left off.

Saturday I woke up at 12:45P. It was blissful. I went and looked at an apartment in the Gothic neighborhood, hated it, and walked around Las Ramblas before heading back to the dorms for dinner and more rest. Nothing really exciting about Saturday.

Sunday was even less exciting, I pretty much did homework all day. I did eat 2 lunches, one of them a really fantastic cous cous salad that was tasty but not really heavy and another a couple hours later of a sandwich with roast beef. I did homework all night and woke up the next morning early for class. The weekend wasn't really a proper start to living in Spain. But shit, I was so exhausted that it was exactly what I needed.

Monday consisted of class, and then a tapas lunch. Finally something interesting. A few of us went to a restaurant not too far from the University. It was decent, and I got to try something I had never had before: escargot. I was really impressed. I thought it would be kind of rubbery, but those little snails were so tasty. We also had bacalao (salt cod), eggplant and mozzarella salad that was delicious, marinated mushrooms, a bruscetta with blood sausage, onions, and cheese, and potatoes stuffed with prawns and hollandaise. I also had crema catalana for dessert, more on that later. Eating tapas with Americans who have never had them before is always interesting. In America you order what you want in a portion for just you, for the most part not sharing with people, except in family style situations. Tapas is little plates that everyone shares. But, being the Americans we are (they haven't beaten it out of us quite yet), we hoarded the plates that we ordered and just tried a taste of other people's, it was not the full on sharing session that tapas requires. After lunch I did more homework for the rest of the night. Homework during ILP will be the end of me.

Tuesday, I was tired again. I had managed to stay up late and negate all the good sleep I had gotten on the weekend. After class, I just wanted a sandwich and a nap. I got the sandwich, tuna with lettuce and tomato and mayo, and some french fries, but ended up getting back to the dorms at like 5P because we sat around talking, so no nap. But the conversation was good, so I'm not unhappy. More homework, but tonight I was feeling restless. I wanted to do something besides homework. So after dinner, Nick and I headed to the gas station for some more of my good friend, Don Simon vino tinto (1.38euro wine). Nick and I played cards and finished our tetra packs and then I sat out in the park talking to Tom until almost 3A. I definitely woke up with a little bit of the wine flu, not to be confused with the swine flu, because wine flu goes away eventually with the aid of food and hydration.

Wednesday was pretty dull, classes, sat around the dorm afterwards, pretty much the usual. Except for lunch. Eunice and I went to Flauta, which is a restaurant close to the University that is super popular and very tasty; it's the same restaurant we had our welcome dinner at last summer, and I have some really delicious memories of that so I decided that trying it for lunch would not hurt me. First of all, the place was packed, we actually had to wait for a table and it was a decent sized place, for Spain. I asked the man in front of me if he was waiting for a table and we started talking, he's been going there for years and suggested some things to look for. He was such a regular the manager came over and shook his hand, which is kind of a big deal in a place like Flauta that sees thousands of tourists and businessmen every week. Eunice and I decided on the Menu del Dia, a personal favorite, and I had the ensalad verdura for my first plate and conejo as my second. And crema catalana, something I've been craving for months, as dessert.

My salad came out and I knew from looking at it that it was going to be good. It was pretty, and was loaded with lettuces and ham and a sliced up fresh fig. Now, I had never eaten fresh figs, dried yes but never fresh. I have not been living properly without fresh figs, they are amazing. I could go on for hours about them, but I will tell you that I had one and have been searching for some ever since. Damn. The salad was perfect. Fig, lettuce, pine nuts, a cracker with goat cheese and dried figs mixed in, it was one of the best salads I've had in awhile. My second course was something else I've never eaten: conejo or rabbit in English. It came stewed with artichokes and carrots, and even though there were lots of little bones, it was tender and juice and definitely something I'll try again. Crema catalana is a lot like creme brulee, but a little bit creamier. I could eat it at every meal. In fact, I'm attempting a tour de crema catalana of Barcelona's restaurants. So far, Flauta has been my favorite.

Another highlight of the day, that evening my roommate's friend arrived from Nice. He's been traveling around Europe and is spending his last 8 days here. They were hanging out so late that he managed to miss the metro back to his hostel and ended up spending the night here. But for the first time in awhile I managed to go to bed before 2A.

I woke up on Thursday feeling great. Amanda, Nick and I made plans to meet up after class for paella, and I was once again feeling the itch to do something besides homework at night. After classes, Amanda and I took the metro and met up with Nick and sat down at a cute little restaurant with lots of people and had first courses of melon and jam for me and Amanda and shrimp in a garlicky tomato sauce for Nick. They then brought us the massive pan of paella mariscos (shrimp, crawfish, scallops, mussels, and clams), but we couldn't finish it there was way too much. We had dessert (crema catalana for me of course) and made our way back to the dorms. I stopped at El Corte Ingles to buy a beach towel and ended up purchasing the Sims 3 as well. I haven't really played it yet, but I will soon.

Thursday night I wanted to go out, meet people, drink too much, something I haven't really done since I've been here. So Nick and I went, to La Oveja Negra, a bar I frequented last summer. They have damn good sangria and we got a pitcher and we found a table where some guys were playing a game. Turns out, they were Spanish, they were really nice and fun, and they were playing a rendition of quarters. I spent most of the evening talking to Elias, who spoke English, and he spoke English while I spoke Spanish and we corrected each other, it was awesome. Elias and I exchanged numbers and hopefully will hang out soon. He'll be really good for my Spanish and I might be good for his English. I drank entirely way too much sangria and Nick and I took a cab back to the dorm where I passed out, finally in clean sheets. However, one small problem. I had managed to lose my metro pass and my room key card at the bar. I know they were in my pocket and must have fallen out when I went to the bathroom. Being inebriated, I was naturally pissed, but now I'm over it because I'm never going to find them and they were replaceable, it just sucks. Class all day today, but today was good because Mireia (easily my favorite) gave us a list of colloquialisms, so now I know how to say all kinds of things to tell people to fuck off or whatnot. I did miss the first 2 hours because I was exhausted and straight up not in the mood, but I got it together for the last 2. The language program is intense in a way that I appreciate because it will help me a lot later on, but monotonous and I feel like a second grader. After class we found some cheap sandwiches and then I headed back to the dorms for a nap. At 6:30P I trekked over to an apartment that I thought would be okay. It was tiny, and I'm not talking tiny American standards, I'm talking tiny Spanish standards. Veto.

Tonight I didn't go out, since I'm still kind of recovering from last night, and tomorrow I'm seeing two apartments. Hopefully I find one I like soon, searching and the mere thought of having to settle somewhere else again really makes me stabby. Until next time, try something new everyday, you never know what will change your life.