A couple days and a lost week.

I'm missing a few days here, as my computer decided that it would turn off and not save my most recent entries, but thats ok. The pictures below are from The Fundació Miró, or the Joan Miró museum, which is on top of Mountjuïc, the Hospital de Santa Creu i San Pau, Also, I got the long-awaited picture of my host family, Fernando and Teresa.


Church on top of Tibidabo.
The third busiest port in the Mediterranean.
One of the old guns in the castle of Mountjuïc. They were originally pointed at the city to keep the trouble-causing Cataláns under control. Under Franco, not only was the Catalán language suppressed and the people forbidden to trade with the rest of the country, but the city was also attacked a few times by their own countrymen. Its no wonder they want independence now.

Here is the view of the city from the top of Montjuïc. You can also see Tibidabo off in the distance. (clicking on the picture will make it bigger.)
Yes, its a hospital, in the Modernist style. Actually about 24 different buildings, each with its own specialization. And all the care done here is entirely free for the patient.
The main building, built like a funnel in the direction from which comes the wind as to help circulate fresh air through the hospital and avoid the spread of disease.
Joan Miró: a famous abstract Catalán artist from the early 20th century. Contemporary of Picasso and Dalí.
He is abstract, but his symbols are always used in the same way, so once you understand one picture, you can use the same for all others. he is famous for his use of bright, primary, colors, making his paintings easily identifiable.


Day 85 – November 21st – Friday
Today I woke up refreshed after a nice long sleep. Today I had in mind to climb both of the mountains in Barcelona on my bike and thats basically what I did. There were a few other places that I had wanted to take some pictures of first. One was a Joan Miró sculpture called “Dona i Orgell” (Woman and Bird). It is flanked by some walls of legal graffiti that is supposed to be some of the best in Barcelona, so I took some pictures of that too. Afterwards, I went to see the palace which is now a museum at the bottom of the first mountain, Montjuïc. I snapped a picture and thens started the climb. It was a difficult one, but I didn't have to stop. It wasn't necessarily that steep, but I felt like I would never get up to the top. I did and even got to the castle. I had been there before, but unfortunately had forgotten my camera. Its a great view out over the city on one side and the port and sea on the other. Also, it being Friday and the last time I was there a Sunday, there was a lot of action going on which was fun to watch. There were probably about five or six cruise ships waiting there and fifteen or so freighters scattered throughout the sea waiting for their turn in port. Next was Tibidabo, which is the highest point in Barcelona. It is topped by an old convent, a large church, and an amusement park. Right away, I could tell this was going to be a much harder task. First of all, it was a lot harder to go down Montjuïc than up. Having no brakes and only one speed made me have to swerve my way down, trying to control my speed. Then I had to deal with the midday traffic through the city. By the time I started to actually climb, I could tell I was much further than I had expected. In addition, the grade was much steeper and my legs already has the fatigue of one mountain in them. One point, I was on a particularly steep section, going slow but as fast as I could. A man standing on the sidewalk saw my trouble and shouted a few words of encouragement. I waited until I was out of his sight before I stopped and took a breather. It didn't help that I didn't really know what street to take, only to keep going up and toward the mountain. I made it up to the highest road before I realized that there wasn't really any way to get there. I still felt accomplished, so I didn't feel too bad about turning around. There were a few other bikes making the climb, but they were all on nice, full suspension, mountain bikes. I'll admit, I was a little jealous of their gears and brakes. I was glad to have lunch waiting for me at home. everyone was pretty impressed when I told them what I had done. It was definitely the highest and longest hills I've ever climbed in my life. After lunch, I took a nice long nap. That night, I went out with Filip and one of his friends who was visiting. She was from California, but she had originally met Filip in Serbia and was now studying in Rome. We started at Gato Negro and then went to the Rambla to show here the real night life of Barcelona. I didn't get home until pretty late, but with nothing to do tomorrow, no problem.

Day 86 – November 22nd – Saturday
I literally did almost nothing today. I woke up at 2:00, just in time for lunch and then went back to sleep for about five hours after that. I woke up again it was dark outside, so I figured I'd go do something. I went to school for a little while and used the internet and then went back home to watch The Sevilla-Valencia soccer game. I only saw the first half, but I guess it ended up 0-0, so I didn't miss much. I met with Filip and his friend again and another friend after dinner, but went home much earlier. As much as I slept during the day, I was still pretty tired.

Day 87 – November 23rd – Sunday – 26 days left
Today, I got up fairly early and met Nick to go to a flea market. It was basically just books, movies, and posters, but we did find a few hidden treasures. They also had a lot of soccer cards, which was kinda cool. Across the street, there was a big group of people that piqued our interest so we walked over. It turned out to be the soccer card trading central. There were little kids and old me alike and I have a feeling that the kids were hustling the men. Afterwards, we went to one of the only authentic Irish pubs in Barcelona. That is, there were actually Irish people working there. I had some delicious fish and chips and then we walked back home through the Rambla, which is a much different place during the day. There were a good number of street performers out, including an Edward Scissorhands impersonator. He was exceptionally good and very popular. It is amazing how still some of these people will stand until someone drops change in their cup. Then they move around, or bow, or something like that. I've read in the papers that some of them make quite a good living. During the summer months, they rake in up to 1000€ a day. And they're not there from 9-5pm either. Normally its only a few hours. I took another little nap, which is probably one of my favorite things to do here. I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything, rather I think it helps me take advantage of the time I am awake and enjoy it more. There was a Barcelona game on tonight, but Messi is having a little trouble with his quad, so he wasn't to play. It shouldn't have been a very tough game anyway, but it did end up causing a little stress as the team was not playing together very well at all. They did manage to scrape out the tie, so they will keep moving up above the rest of the field. Matt and I took a little walk to kill some time after dinner and then I headed to bed. Another week of school awaits.

The Capital of Europe: Zürich

Days 77 thru 81 – November 13th thru 16th – Thursday thru Sunday
I woke up today bright and early and headed over to the ISA office to print off my itinerary. I was so early, in fact, that they weren't yet open. I had about twenty minutes, so I went and had a coffee and then went back. I corrected my essay for Spanish class, which I got a nine on, and printed everything I needed. Then I headed back to my house, got my lunch and went off to catch the bus. I made it to the airport with plenty of time and then got to Zürich without any problems. Ian was waiting for me at the airport and we took the train into town. Zürich is a small, Swiss town. After being there for three days, I felt like I could find my way around. Ian's friend Tylan, also a Buckeye, was visiting as well. We went out to dinner, where I learned right away just how expensive Zürich is. They call it the capital of Europe because its where all the money is and they arn't lying. I saw a few Mazzeratti's, thousands of BMWs, a couple Bently's and a Rolls Royce. The next day, we walked around for a while while Ian was in class. Three of Tylan's friends had also come to visit, so we had a little crew. We walked down the Bahnhofstrasse, which is the main shopping street in Zürich. With stores like Gucci, Prada, and Louis Vuittan, I've never seen such expensive things in my life. Many places had prices in the window, so we knew whether or not to bother going in. Of course, everything is in Swiss Francs (Switzerland is not on the Euro, nor technically in the European Union), but its about $0.90 to every franc, so its easy to tell that the alligator gloves in the Prada window that say 2390.00 franc, are ridiculously expensive. One store we went into to look at scarfs. They were 450 franc. Some prices looked more like bar code numbers than prices. It was quite outrageous. At the end of this street is Lake Zürich. We eventually got there without spending all our money. It was a very pretty lake and we could see off into the Alps in the background. Very picturesque, though it was a little hazy. We met up with Ian after he got out of class and we did a little more shopping, this time at more affordable stores. That night, we met some other people studying at Ian's school and went to a bar that they knew of. I liked the bar because they had some retro bikes for sale there, though they were also kind of overpriced. There was also a Tour de France poster of Lance Armstrong on the wall. We stayed there the rest of the night and then took a taxi home. Even that wasn't cheap. In the morning, Tylan and his crew came over to Ian's house from their hotel and we made omelets. They were delicious. Also, I had my first Dr. Pepper in Europe. It was delicious as well. More walking through the little town followed. There were a lot of nice little shops that were only slightly expensive. For dinner, we went to a sushi place, which was quite delicious. I had my first taste of fish eggs, which I suppose you really should call “caviar.” Nothing special. After that, half of the group stayed out while we went back to Ian's house to watch the Ohio State football game through Skype video. How cool is that? After the game, in which Ohio State beat Illinois, we headed out and met back up with the rest of our crew. We went to the same place as Ian, Tylan, and I had gone to to eat my first night in town. The downstairs turns into a bar at night. We hung out there for a while, but went home fairly early. We were all a little tired, and I had to get up early to travel the next day. I woke up at nine and headed to the train station. It is definitely a pretty nice station and the trains are in extremely good shape and a smooth ride. I made it to the airport with still almost two hours before my flight. Here, you don't really have to get to the airport early. I felt like I should've tried to cut it a lot closer because the only thing worse than waiting for a plane, is waiting in the doctor's office. By this point, I think I'm pretty good at traveling and I think I could make it to almost any gate in any airport in under a half hour. I had a great flight home on Swiss airlines. They're by far the best company I've flown with. Their flight was fairly inexpensive and they still gave me snacks and a piece of chocolate and a free drink, even if I want a beer or wine. I made it home in time for lunch in Barcelona and then took a great two hour nap. After that, I headed over to school to upload pictures and update my blog. I went home in time for dinner and then went over my school work before heading to bed. It was a great trip, and my second to last. When I told Fernando that it was my last, he said, no, no it wasn't. The last trip, you always go feet first, laying down.

Day 75 – November 11th – Tuesday – 38 Days remaining
Not a whole lot to report today, just another day of class. I have a test tomorrow in Spanish, so we reviewed for that. We started talking about a new painter in Art class: Joan Miró. He lived through the Spanish Civil War, WWII and forty years of a military dictatorship. His generation is ofter referred to as the lost generation due to the fact that they never really had a chance to properly grow up, live and work according to their own views. Miró strongly opposed Franco and was pushed into exile in France for this. His style is very easily recognized, using bright primary colors and simple symbols with universal meanings. The sun, the earth, the sky, birds and the stars are almost always present in his works. He did survive to see the beginning of democracy in Spain before dying in Palma de Mallorca in 1983. After class, I headed home and studied. In addition to my Spanish test, I have a short exam in Catalán. We have been told by both teachers that their tests will be easy, but teachers are liars. Just kidding, but we'll see how it goes.

Day 76 – November 12th – Wednesday
Today was essentially my second and last day of school this week, after being in Holland Monday and traveling to Zürich tomorrow. I had my test in Spanish class, which was not as easy as advertised, but I think I still did pretty well. Also, we had more of a quiz in Catalán. I'm pretty sure I got at the very least an A, if not a “sobresaliente,” which is an A+. In film class, we watched a movie called “Tesis,” directed by Alejandro Amenábar. It was a thriller about a film student doing her thesis (hence the title of the movie) on violent film. In the process, she discovers a “snuff” film ring and almost becomes a star of one of these films. (A snuff film is a recording of a murder or suicide where everything is real, no special effects, no makeup.) While the content was a little macabre, it was a very well done movie and I was still trying to decide who the killer was until it was made obvious. Its a good film and not too gory or shocking, though at one point everyone in the class jumped. I recommend it if you like to be scarred just a little bit. After class, I hung out at school and Skyped a few people, as has become custom for me, and then headed home for dinner. I had hoped to meet again with my intercambio partner (language exchange), but she couldn't do it until tomorrow and I will already be off on another international adventure. Again, I will write one big entry on Zürich when I get back and hopefully have some great pictures.

The land of windmills and tulips!

The happy Scholtens Family. Marijn, Janna, Robbert, and Henk.
If you think you see a bike, you see ten. the bike parking garage is on the right. Sorry for the blurry picture, but it is forever imprinted on my mind.
Hard to see, but the letters spell out I AMsterdam (I am amsterdam)
Across the street is part of our group.
Me and a canal. you can see that it is impossible not to have a bike in almost any picture.

Days 71-74 – November 7th -10th – Friday thru Monday
Here is the long awaited entry on my trip to the land of windmills and tulips. That is, of course, Holland. I headed off Friday afternoon after getting a nice rest the night before and had no transportation problems. After arriving at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, I took the train to the central station and then went outside to try and meet up with my friend Ian. Immediately upon leaving the station, I noticed the bikes. In fact, there was a bicycle parking garage three stories high right in front of me. I imagine there were easily 10,000 bikes just in there. Not exaggerating at all. Once I tried to could how many bike I saw in one minute. Just one. I lost count at around 200. I found Ian after a little bit of wandering around and we ate with the friends he was traveling with and also my friend Mike Cass, who has made a little trip to Europe for a few weeks, at a Chinese restaurant. After this, we went to a coffee shop and had a “coofie draankin,” as it is said in Dutch, and waited for our tour guide. She's not really a guide, but she is a student at OSU who is studying in Amsterdam. She asked us what we wanted to do, but we really just wanted to wander around, so she led the way. We walked along a canal for a while and up through the middle of the city, even catching a glimpse or two of the red light district. It is quite a fantastic city and like no other place I've been in my life. The mix of languages is even more so than in Barcelona. I counted at least height before I stopped counting. It seemed like each group of people we passed spoke a different language. After a long day of traveling and knowing that we had a big day ahead, we went to bed pretty early, but awoke early as well. The next day, Saturday, we checked out of the not-so-nice hotel and wandered around and got lunch before more exploration by foot. We eventually got to the Van Gogh Museum, which was our final destination. It was a nice museum with a pretty large collection of Van Gogh as well as many contemporary works and inspirational pieces. I enjoyed the time there, but I must admit that Pablo Picasso or Salvador Dalí are leaps and bounds beyond Van Gogh. Many of his paintings seem like he didn't spend very much time on them, with thick, sloppy brush strokes and uninspired content. I've never been one for still lifes. I am sure there are much better Dutch painters. We left the museum and went to get lunch. After that, we stopped at another coffee shop before the group headed out to catch their trains. I did as well. From Amsterdam to Gröningen is about two and a quarter hours in train. I slept most of the way. There, at the train station, was Henk to pick me up. Though we haven't seen each other outside of pictures for fifteen years, and I'm sure I've changed a bit more than he has, we found each other quickly on the platform. Even in Gröningen, there is a bike parking garage of over four thousand bikes. On the ride home, our conversation was bilingual. As many Europeans are, Henk is at least trilingual. I'm not sure how many languages he speaks, but we used both that I knew. Upon arrival to their nice little typical Dutch house, I again met Janna, who was elated to see me and the two boys, whom I have seen grow up through pictures. Marijn is now fourteen and Robbert is twelve. They both speak English quite well, though Marijn is a bit more shy and prefers to game on the computer. Robbert was very friendly and wanted to talk. He has only just started taking English in school this year, but he has learned quite a bit just from watching television. He is a big fan of National Geographic and the Discovery Channel. I sat and talked and had a cup of coffee for a while before my yawns made it was obvious that I needed to go to bed. Robbert has been kind enough to lend me his bed for the night and, complete with American flag comforter and pillowcase, it was quite comfortable. I was woken up in the morning by Henk who came in and set a radio on the table, playing the BBC news. Today we are taking a walking tour of the city of Gröningen. It is a nice little town of about 150,000, more when school is in session as there are a high number of students. We went to lunch at a restaurant near the town square. Apparently, it is the largest bar in Europe. At first, I was skeptical. After all, there are a lot of bars in Europe and many of them are big. But as the tour continued, I realized just how many rooms there were. Probably fifteen different bar services and then a room or two to go with each. I'd like to see that place on a Saturday night. On our city walk, we hit all the big landmarks, including the Martini tower, which is the sign on Gröningen. We stopped at another popular café for a coffee and then finished up our self-guided tour. It was a very quite town, partly because it was Sunday, but also, we went to a few secluded parks that are surrounded by little houses. They were very nice and I would like very much to live in one, though they certainly are small. Henk tells me that there are places just like them in Amsterdam. In a city so large and full of life, a place so quite and peaceful is at a premium. We went to dinner at the pancake house, which is a very Dutch tradition. It was a good meal, but we ate at only about 6:00. After being accustomed to eating three and a half hours later, it was just too early for me and I couldn't finish mine. Upon returning home, I played a few games with Robbert and Janna before Robbert was forced into bed. Then I stayed up talking with the parents. We talked of everything basically. Politics, royal families (which they follow as religiously as many people in the states follow celebrities), the Euro vs. the dollar, Obama, socialism, bicycles, friends, and so on and so forth. I suppose I yawned enough times to be sent to bed, but really I had been yawning all day and wasn't particularly tired, but I was going to wake up early in the morning to go to Robbert's English class and be grilled by eleven- and twelve-year-olds. I woke up without the help of the BBC today and took a shower and had breakfast. Then, Janna and I rode bikes (yes! I was very excited to ride a bike in the Netherlands!) over to Henk's office. His building is very interesting and impressive. It is supposed to be a wholly organic building in design. Not in the way of materials, but in shape. There are mostly straight lines, which my knowledge of Gaudí tells me is not organic, but there are no right angles. You will have to see pictures, as I took a few, but it was a very impressive building. The stairs spiral upwards and the walls change color as you get higher and higher, making a rainbow. Henk works on the fourteenth floor, but we first went to the sixteenth to get a good view of the city. I'm pretty sure we were in the tallest building. Let me tell you, there is not a single hill in Holland. Not one. After yet another cup of coffee (I drank more coffee there than I have in my whole life, but it was very delicious), Henk rode with me over to Marijn and Robbert's school. It turned out that there were four Americans in the building today, which was quite unusual. The other three were all from the southern states but now living in Sweden. One man was there with his wife, whom was expecting their tenth child. All of their children were homeschooled. Poor kids, poor mom! They're reason for homeschooling was that the Christian schools in Sweden didn't always have a large number of Christian students nor Christian teachers. I mean, to each their own, but from what I've seen of homeschooled kids in the states, sure, they're just as smart, usually even a little more advanced in some areas, but they are often years behind socially. I imagine this is multiplied living in a foreign country. I doubt they kids are learning Swedish very well, if at all. However, the man was very adamant about how his wife, and moms in general were the best teachers for their kids. All ten of them. After this class, I went over to another class, but only for a little while as I had to catch a train to Amsterdam before my flight. Janna and I rode bikes back to the house, which was only about five minutes away, and had a little lunch before she drove me down to the station. She walked me to the correct train and waved as it pulled away. She had given me a day pass train ticket, which I no longer needed once I reached my destination, so I gave it to a grateful girl standing by the ticket machine. I then sat around for a couple hours waiting for the plane, then sat in the plane for a while, then sat on the bus to get home, and finally made it. I really like traveling, but it is a little time consuming. Especially when you're utilizing multiple forms of transport. This weekend, I used a bus, airplane, tram, metro, train, bike, car, and of course my feet. I got home and told my señores all about it and gave my señora some tulip bulbs which Janna had given me. The Scholtens were a fantastic host this weekend and I would really like to go back. I think I may see them next year, though, as they are trying to plan a trip to the states. Robbert is exceptionally excited about this. I think no one in the family would have any problems communicating.

Fianlly! Pictures of the Pyrenees!

Day 69 – November 5th – Wednesday
I woke up this morning and went to ask my house father who won. He answered, “1-1. Messi entered in the second half and scored the tying goal.” No, who won the election? “Oh don't worry, they won before so they will still move on to the next round of selections.” No, Fernando, the president of the United States. “Oh, oh, oh, I don't know.” So we went and turned on the TV to see the news. I was pretty excited as is everyone in Spain. I had a pretty normal day at school, after Spanish, I had Catalán and we finally learned how to conjugate verbs. In film class, we watched a movie called “My Life Without Me,” directed by Isabel Coixet. It was about a 25-year-old mother of two who find out she has advanced ovarian cancer and three months to live. Definitely the single most depressing two hours of my life. Almost every scene makes you just want to cry. I don't really recommend watching it unless you want to have a horrible day. After class, I went home and studied for my exam in art class. It is probably going to be pretty hard, so I am studying as much as I can. I've re-read all the reading for the class and tomorrow I will read my notes and some more information that the teacher has posted online. Hopefully I will be prepared. I really just want it to be over because I am going to Holland this weekend and I'm pretty excited. I will be visiting my mom's penpal that she has had since high school. I remember meeting them once, but that was at least ten years ago if not more. I am probably going to stay in Amsterdam for the first night, as my friend Ian is going to be there, ans then head off to Grönigen in the morning. I made it to bed pretty early tonight even though I was studying a lot. I'm fighting a stress-induced cold, so the more sleep the better, especially with such a big weekend ahead.

Day 70 – November 6th – Thursday – 44 Days left
Today was a day full of studying until about 5pm when my test started. It really wasn't as bad as it could've been and I felt like I was definitely prepared. We had to talk about two works by Gaudí and two by Picasso and then answer two questions about the texts that we had read. I wrote a lot, so hopefully that will transfer to points. After class I got a beer from the cafeteria to reward myself and then made a few Skype calls. I'm definitely going to go out tonight, as my flight isn't until the afternoon tomorrow. A lot of my friends are travelling today, but there will be a few of us to go out and have a good time. I'm excited to hang out with my Serbian friend, Filip, as I haven't seen him in quite some time. He goes to Autonomous University of Barcelona, so I don't get to see him unless we hang out outside of class. I will add some pictures with this entry and write a big long entry about my trip to Holland. Buen viaje!

I know i'm slacking on the pictures, but i'll get to it eventually.

Day 62 – October 29th – Wednesday
Yet another day of school. The most interesting thing of the day is the movie I watched in film class. It is the movie I will be presenting on, so surely I payed good attention. It was called “Vacas,” (cows) and was directed by Julio Médem in 1992. It is about the feud between two families in Basque Country, which is a very independent-minded province in the north of Spain. They are families of ax men, which is a cultural sport that really only is practiced in Basque Country. It takes place during the Carlist and Civil wars in Spain during the 1930s. It was quite a strange movie, but it was pretty interesting. After school, I met with my group for our presentation for a few minutes and then headed home for an early dinner and off to the Built to Spill concert. I had been pretty excited all day to see them. I had seen them about four years ago, almost on the same day actually, and it was a great show. They are one of my favorite bands, so I was nice to know every song they played. The concert was at the Sala Apolo, which is a rather small place, but that just means you can get closer to the band. We were off the the right, just two rows back. The rocked the house for sure. It was fun to yell things to them in our best American English, which they may have been surprised to hear. They would say short things to the crowd, but I'm not sure how much they Spaniards understood. It was great show and I was very satisfied. We even got out in time to take the metro home. This concert may have been the best money I've spent on the whole trip. It was really nice just to get away from everything for a few hours. I wasn't in Spain, I wasn't in America, I was in Sala Apolo. I wasn't thinking about school, or politics, or much else. It was a good escape.

Day 63 – October 30th – Thursday
Last day of school for the week, as usual. I had Spanish class and then we had a field trip for Catalán. We went to the Mercat Boqueria, which is a Catalán market located on the Rambla, the main plaza walkway in Barcelona. It was very interesting and reminded me of the North Market, but a little more intense. They had some types of seafood and food in general that I had never seen before. Much of the seafood was definitely still alive. The crabs kicked their feet and the muscles opened and closed. One lobster seemed to be making a run for it, but the lady running the stand grabbed it back to fate at the last second. There were whole flounder, called platija in Spanish, and angler fish, called rape in Spanish (don't worry, you pronounce the “e” on that) and the olive stand had about twenty different varieties. I've never seen avocados that big either. The only thing I bought was a fresh smoothie. They had just about every combination you could imagine (papaya, coconut, kiwi, raspberry, and of course all the standards like banana, orange, and strawberry) and they were delicious. I think I got mango-pineapple. After that, we went to another very Catalán place called the Castanyeria. It is a seasonal thing, during the winter months. They sell chestnuts roasted over an open fire as well as yams cooked the same way. The yams were delicious, especially with butter and sugar, but the chestnuts needed salt. This is traditionally part of the festivities associated with la Festa de Tots Sants (All-Saints Day), which also happens to be my birthday. I headed back to school after that to do some work before class and then we watched a movie in film class called “Vacas” (Cows), directed by Julio Médem. It is the movie that I will be presenting on, so I payed attention as much as I could. It took place in Basque Country, in the north of Spain in a rural town. It was basically about the rivalry between two families of aizkolari. This is a rural ax sport practiced in Basque Country where two men go head to head and see who can chop through the set number of logs first. I've seen the same type of competition on the Outdoor Games in America, but I'm pretty sure this was where it originated and they took it quite seriously. It was a good movie, but pretty complicated. I still don't really fully understand the “lighted pit” as they called it that is in the forest. Go ahead and watch the movie and see if you can enlighten me. Nothing else really to report from today, but tomorrow we leave for the Pyrenees where I will be spending my birthday, so thats pretty exciting. They're expecting snow, as one would hope in the mountains, so I'll be excited for that too.

Days 64 and 65 – October 31st and November 1st – Friday and Saturday
Today we set off for our Pynenean adventure, that is to say we left for the area known as Vall de Boí. It is high up in the Pyrenees mountains, just about five miles from France. It was a four hour bus ride, but it really wasn't that bad. Once there, we stopped to see some Roman churches from the eleventh century that were kind of cool. Its crazy to think about masses going on there over 800 years ago. I also learned that it was widely believed that the world was going to end in the year 1000 and many Christians were basically scared into going to church because of this. When the world didn't end, many people left the faith and the church had to find a new way to recruit. Once we got to our hotel, I settled in and changed my clothes and we went out on the small town to find some dinner. We ended up at a Mexican restaurant, which was pretty good. They also had the best service that I've ever received in Spain. After dinner, as it was going to be my birthday at midnight, everyone wanted me to go out with them. We walked around, through the rain, until we found a kind of mall that had four or five bars inside. One of them was having a Halloween party that night and was all decorated with spider webs and orange and black streamers. It seemed a lot like something that would happen in the US. We went to a few of the places there and then walked back, through the rain, to our hotel. After getting home around 3am, our 8am wake up call was pretty early. I felt like I had slept for twenty minutes. Luckily, I was able to get a little breakfast and then we had an hour long bus ride to the park, so i got a nap. We went to the Pyrenees National Park and had a guided tour for about two hours. I really enjoyed myself, rolling huge snow balls, throwing snowballs at people, I even made a snowman, though it was not very good at all. One of our program directors was telling me about how this was the fifth time she had seen snow in her life. Its something she only sees on post cards. She was pretty impressed with my snowball rolling skills as well. She said, “This isn't the first time you've done this, is it.” She'd obviously never had this kind of experience. I enjoyed walking around and taking some beautiful pictures, a few of which I have posted, but my feet were quite wet and cold by the time we headed back. Everyone went back to the bus and changed their socks then we ate lunch. After that, it was another four hour bus ride back to Barcelona. That night, we went to Gato Negro, as I hadn't really been in a while. It was all decorated for Halloween as well, which I guess is fitting as it is the Black Cat. There, we ran into a guy we had met there a few weeks before who had come with his cousin and another friend this time. We talked to them for a while and it turns out that they were Gaiego. Galicia is the province in the northwest corner of Spain, just above Portugal. They have their own language, just as the Cataluñans do. Just as Catalán is a mix of Spanish and French, Gaiego is influenced heavily by Portuguese. Apparently, just as the Cataluñan accent is very recognizable, the Gaiego accent is as well. All my friend's cousin had to do was order a drink and the Catalán girl next to him turned and said, “Oh, you're Gaiego.” The same thing probably happens with me being American. We I eventually headed home, bed was a welcome place. I hadn't really slept a lot over the weekend and had done a lot of walking, running, and jumping around. It was a good weekend, especially because it was my birthday and it was lots of fun to spend it in the mountains.

Day 66 – November 2nd – Sunday
Today, Fernando woke me up around 1:30 because it was paella day and we wanted to watch Teresa make it and take notes. I wrote down pretty much everything that they did, including different variants that they said were good. It was a delicious paella, so I'm hoping I can replicate it. The only problem might be the freshness of the seafood. The muscles and cuttlefish were actually still alive at the time of purchase and some of them were still opening and then snapping shut when we dumped them in the stew. It might seem a little cruel, but they do taste delicious. After lunch, I went over to school and met with my group for our presentation tomorrow on the movie, “Vacas.” After that, I called a few people through Skype, with is an amazing invention and may one day replace your phone. It's free to call anyone else's Skype account, worldwide, and its $10 a month for worldwide calling to all cell phones in the US and Canada and any land line anywhere. Pretty good deal if you ask me. I hopped on my bike and headed home for dinner. Today, on my bike, round trip to school, took me twenty-one minutes, which is less than one way in the metro. Plus its free and healthy. The bike really has been a blessing here and has allowed me to feel like my life hasn't really changed that much living here. A dinner of spaghettis replaced any calories I might have lost, then I studied a little bit, as I have a big week this week and went to bed.

Day 67 – November 3rd – Monday – 47 days left
As you can see, I've started the countdown and the days left are much fewer that the days here. I really feel like I've gotten a feel for the city though and I'm enjoying myself. I can ride my bike to pretty much anywhere I want now, though I have yet to climb the mountains. It takes me about twenty-five minutes, round trip, to school, which is about the time it takes my roommate to go one way in the metro. Today in Spanish class, we got loaded up with homework. We have a paper due on Wednesday, which I was on top of it enough to do today, and have a ten page story complete with six pages of exercises for Thursday. But after my 93% on the midterm of last week, I still feel like I have a good hold on the class. I also had my presentation on the film “Vacas” (Cows) in my Spanish Theater class. It went well enough and it feels good to be over with. Now I can enjoy the rest of the movies until I decide to write our final paper. After school, I met up with my friend Xavi at the Arc de Triumf and we rode around for a little while with some other biker kids. This time, I made it home just in time for dinner. On the news, which we habitually watch while eating, they spoke, as they do every night, of the election in America. Fernando was telling me that he cannot remember a time when there was as much coverage of an American election as there has been this year. It interesting how much attention the rest of the world is paying to this election. I won't get into it very deeply, but the people over here seem to agree with the poles in the States. Tomorrow, should be a nice day. I have Spanish in the morning, then I get to go home for lunch and then lay around until a field trip with my art class to the Picasso Museum. Look how cultured I'm getting here!

Day 68 – November 4th – Tuesday
After Spanish class I headed over to the ISA office to print off my paper, which I was on top of and completed early, and then went home for lunch. Its amazing how the Spanish news never stops to talk about the election! I took a nice little nap after lunch and then headed off to the Picasso Museum. It was my second time visiting it and I have to say it was better the first time. My favorite painting from before is off at an exhibition along with a few other paintings. But it was better than sitting in class, thats for sure. After dinner, I was time to study. I have a big midterm in art class on Thursday and a lot of reading to do to prepare for it. I did make it to bed pretty early. I decided not to stay up until 6am to see who wins the election. Its in the hands of the gods now, I've done all I can.