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.