Counting down the days...

My school. the cafeteria is on the right, in the glass room and this is one of the big courtyards.
Hotel across the street all lit up for Nadal. (thats catalán for Christmas)
Plaça de los Voluntarios. cool statue.

Day 97 – December 3rd – Wednesday
Well, my essay went well today. We had an hour to write twenty-five lines on what it would have been like if we had been born Spanish instead of American. I think I wrote about fourty lines in 45 minutes. There were four or five things that I said that I'm pretty sure she will like, so I'm pretty confident about how I did. In Catalán class, we learned something pretty interesting. We were talking about Nativity scenes. They have them here in Spain, of course, as it is a Catholic country, but they have an extra character that I have never seen before: the Caganer. It is a little boy, wearing a traditional Catalunyan cap, called a barretina, taking a poop. It may seem a little strange, or even vulger, but it has a connotation of equality. No matter who you are, king or pesant, president or homeless, you poop. Also, the “caca” is a form of fertilization of the world. There is also a character that they have associated with Christmas, similar to the practice of stuffing stocking, Caga Tió poops out small presents for children, but only after they sing a song, and they must sing it well and correctly. It may seem strange, but there are plenty of traditions, such as Thanksgiving for example, that are neither practiced nor really understood here. So I hope to see a Caganer on everyone's nativity scene from now on. In Film class, we watched a movie called “Las Horas del Día,” directed by Jaime Rosales. Before we even watched it, the teacher told us that it was an “inaction” movie. He was right, not a lot happened. It basically followed the life of a man named Abel as he went about his daily life. I liked it though, because there were a few aspects that were not truly explained, but were very thought provocing. It did very well at the Cannes Festival in France and I can see why. I would recommend it. After class, I headed home to study before dinner and then studied more after dinner. I feel like thats all I do now, but it is the end of the term, so I guess I should be doing that. I have a long weekend starting tomorrow, so I will have time to get a lot of studying in. Unfortunately, the ISA office is closed for the holiday on Monday, so it will probably be hard to find internet anywhere. I imagine that the school library will be closed as well and many of the internet cafés in addition to that. Oh well, we'll se how it goes.

Day 98 – December 4th – Thursday – 15 Days left
Last day of the week for school! In Spanish class, we had a review for our final, which went pretty well. Now I know how much I need to study. I went home for lunch and then took a little nap. By now, Paquita, thats Fernando's sister who always eats lunch with us, tells me goodnight when I get up from the table after lunch. She knows exactly where I'm going. After a nice hour and a half nap, Matt and I walked down to the Museo de Arte Contemporaria de Barcelona (MACBA) to meet our art class for a tour. There, we were introduced to the art of Antoni Tàpies, who is a Catalán artist who is actually still alive, though he is over ninety years old. His art is definitely modern. One work was about five feet by three feet of a metal base with sand on top, hanging on the wall. It had some places where you could see where he had pushed with his hands, but it was still just sand on the wall to me. Another one was called, “Four Grey Squares on a Black Background.” Thats pretty much all it was. The last one was a three-part work. First, there was another sand painting, this time with a wooden base and the word “Dissabte” (Catalán for Saturday) in the bottom corner. Next there were a bunch of chairs set up outside with little crosses pinned to the back of some of them. He liked chairs because when you are sitting, your body is inactive and only your mind is engaged. The third part was a bed frame with a couple blankets and drawers, hanging precariously from the wall. I forget what the exact title of the word was, as it was a Japanese word, but it basically means “to wake up suddenly” or “to realize.” It is an anti-war work and the word has the sense of waking up to the sound of bombs dropping or realizing how unjust something is. I like a lot of his concepts, for example, all of his works are three dimensional, so that digital media (cameras, video, etc.) cannot fully grasp the essence of the work, one must see it in person. Also, he believed physical contact with the art was very important, so many times you can see his hand prints or footprints in the sand. He also utilized a lot of natural elements like sand and wood because he recognized the natural beauty created by nature. His art is good, its just not something I would hang in my house. Maybe in the garage. I headed back home after that and had dinner. We had Spanish tortilla with zucchini and a soup that supposedly had eight different vegetables in it. We ate healthy tonight. Afterwards, Matt and I met up with Ana, Nick, and Vanessa at a bar called El Petit Apolo. It was a cool place with beer taps on each table so you didn't need to go up to the bar to order another. Instead, it was sold by the liter. After that, we walked over to Gato Negro to say hello and finished the night there. I have friends coming in tomorrow to visit Barcelona and it looks like they are going to have beautiful weather, as usual. It should be up in the 60s tomorrow, yes, in December, almost warm enough for the beach.

Day 99 – December 5th – Friday
I slept in late today, until about an hour before lunch. We had spaghettis again, which makes four days of either tortilla or spaghettis. Fernando joked that it was like war time, but I would like the quality of food to go up just a little. After all, we only have two more weeks here. After lunch, I went on a little bike ride to enjoy the great 65 degree weather we're having here, in December. The weather really is amazing. I took some nice pictures because not only was it warm, but there was not a cloud in the sky either. The sea was especially beautiful today. After my ride, I did a little Christmas shopping and then took a little nap before dinner. After eating, I went with Matt to Plaza Catalunya to meet with Ana, her roommate, and a few other people. I got to hang out with Tom, whom I hadn't seen since Vall de Boí. We started at el Gato Negro, but then headed over to the Catwalk club, or discoteca as they call them here in Barcelona. It was a good time at a pretty cool club. The first floor was House music, which is basically techno, but if you said that to a Catalán, they would say they're completely different. Upstairs was the hip-hop floor where we stayed most of the time. We had to stay out until the metro opened back up, but it wasn't too hard and we had a great time dancing. A good start to the weekend.

Day 100 – December 6th – Saturday
Today, I had a few visitors. My friend Channing who is studying in Amsterdam and her friend Susie coming from Germany were making a trip to Barcelona after stopping in Toulouse, France, and picked up their French friend Christof, who also had a friend studying here. While he was hanging out skating with his friend, we did a little modernism tour. Starting at the Sagrada Família, we walked up to the Hospital de San Pau and then took the metro over to Passeig de Gràcia and saw Casa Milà and Casa Batlló as we walked over the Gaudí paving stones that cover the sidewalk. After that, as it was dark, but not time for dinner yet, we grabbed a coffee and walked around a little more. Barcelona is beginning to fill with Christmas light, lining the streets and adorning some hotels and businesses. The Rambla is also covered in Lights. We made our way down to Plaza Reial for some paella at a restaurant down there. It was pretty good, but nothing compared to the ones we make from scratch. After eating, we headed over to an Irish pub where they were showing the soccer match and met up with the Frenchmen. Barcelona was playing fantastically and to the delight of the French, their contryman, Tierry Henry, scored a hat trick (three goals) and Barça won 4-0. I was so proud of them. There is nothing like blowing out the second place team to show your power. Next is Real Madrid and with so much momentum, its hard to imagine that we can lose. After the match, we headed over to the jazz club that I had gone to last week. Just walking down the street, I saw three or four random people that I knew. It was kind of crazy and really made me miss home, where I get to see all of my favorite people every day. We danced until the club closed and then I headed home. I'm supposed to go to the velodrome tomorrow, but I don't think I can do it. After two nights in a row dancing and being out until the wee hours of the morning, my legs and my mind need a break. I plan on sleeping in late and then getting up for lunch and to study.