No hay bastante tiempo!

Wait, should I be laughing right now?

That’s generally what goes through my head when there is communal laughing in class here, because us Americans just don’t get the jokes. What’s worse is that we are in our last class and I just cannot focus, as the profe goes from Catala to Castellan, and back to Catala. Dios mios! FYI, castellano is another way to say Spanish, as in the language. They get sensitive sometimes, especially here and in the other culturally unique autonomous regions, when you say ‘Spanish’, because they are Spanish too, even if they have their own language (i.e. catala, gallego, etc.)

It is quite a challenge to get myself to class in these last days; it feels like a crime to be in class, with everything I feel like I still have to do…like go to the beach. Ahem, I mean go to the contemporary art museum, Montjuic, Montserrat, the huge national art museum, and actually go inside the Gaudi buildings (if I can afford it when all is said and done). Uuuf…. so much to do. Also, I like the Spanish guttural noises better than ours, more dramatic, and they sound less like vomiting, no more ‘uhhg’ for me.

So, I finished my first exam, which was my biggest, and I felt great about it…. both in being done with it, and in how well I think I did. Now I have two finals left, a final paper and an exam. For my estetica de representacio (esthetics of representation) I have to write a five-page paper analyzing a movie, or one scene, by Godard, Einstein, or Resnais. This shouldn’t be too difficult, and is actually interesting. I’m positive I have learned more researching the paper than in the actual class. The charming old professor is completely incoherent—welcome to Spain. I’m writing about Battleship Potemkin, by Einstein… a quick, and apparently revolutionary, silent film. My next final is for Historia del Cine. The run of the mill exam covering the themes and movies we have covered over the trimester, we’ll see how that goes, I think I have a false sense of confidence about it. These are both for Thursday, the 25th, and then I have three full days left before my early morning trip to the airport on Monday. Yikes.

Despite the stress, I am still enjoying myself. We had our farewell dinner on Thursday at a place called Habaluc. The food is super fresh and super delicious. We got a bunch of appetizers: brown rice and spicy guacamole, Mediterranean salad, tomato/mozzarella salad, ravioli stuffed with yummy cheese and mushrooms. For dinner I got a chicken roll, and yes a roll, not a wrap, it had a ton of curry and was so delicious, but I had to save room for the tiramisu dessert....yum. The picture at the top is Jess(my neighbor) and I at dinner. Aside from the excitmenet of the farewell dinner, when we go out, we try to go to a new place every night on top of our group dinners to hang on to every last Barcelona moment we have together. Two girls have a balcony and a few times a week we have a communal dinner where a few people cook and we all chip in a few euros. Last night was Cuban food and mojitos, and the locals in the residencia didn’t even yell at us to be quiet! The time before was burgers, delicious burgers, sort-of like the ones Jen makes with the meat all-full of treats. We also had some delish pasta salads and ……… to make up for the BYOB.

Along with the new things, we still manage to frequent our favorite places. Sunday nights are always George Payne’s and Kennedy Irish Sailing club. Kennedy’s has great live music, I haven’t been that many times, but George Payne (a.k.a GPs) is our favorite. Sunday is karaoke night, and we never fail to deliver ☺ Last night we had some real crowd pleasers: “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” from our girl Whitney H., then “That Way” flashback to junior-high with the Backstreet Boys, “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” BC’s journey favorite and my duet with Molly, among others. We also were very supportive when other people sucked, as in we sang loudly over them (Eminem’s “Loose Yourself” and obviously they couldn’t handle Celine Dion’s ‘My Heart Will Go On”).

A week ago my friend Sydney and I went to Jamboree four nights in one week. We are obsessed with Jamboree, no exaggeration. This place is in a plaza near La Rambla, not too far from us. The first floor—

—WAIT… they’re clapping?? I’m writing this while I’m in class (don’t judge me) as the professor is finishing up the lecture, the last lecture, and suddenly the class bursts into applause. Whahh? And the professor keeps giving quick little bows. Catalans are so weird.

Anyway, the second floor, which is were you first enter, is a good mix of 80’s, 90’s and some good classics (classic rock, classic anything, mo-town, just not actual classical music). There is usually a bit of an older crowd up here but at least the Spaniards are actually dancing. You might think all Spanish people have incredible rhythm and just can’t resist a smooth rhythm, but it is not the case. Young people don’t dance much unless they are drunk or over-sexed 19 year-olds because they want to be mature and cool…so they do a sort of sway move. Okay, and I realize I might be a bit of an overzealous dancer, but really…swaying and two-stepping to ‘Right Round’ (Flo Rida) or ‘Thunderstruck” (ACDC) is just unacceptable. The slightly older crowds are far more relaxed, probably less concerned with the whole “impressing peers” and “attracting mates” thing. You see all kinds on the first floor, and it is a good break from the hip/hop, reggaeton, and current pop you get on the first floor. The music is awesome on the first floor too. I have destroyed two pairs of pants due to my hard-core dance moves, but that’s okay…they were old and now there is more room in my suitcase ☺

I want to apologize for the excessive use of parenthesis and quotation marks… I don’t speak or write English anymore. Sorry. I keep catching myself using ‘j’ for ‘h’ sounds, maybes because that is how Spanish is, or I am just dense. You know we would write ‘hahahaha’, well they write ‘jajajajaja’….silly. Okay, I have to write my paper, I have been far to distracted and a found a perfect source, along with a new friend in the library. My new friend is actually a class mate that I have accidentally stared at a lot since she sits in front of me and a little to the left in Art History. We had a really awkward ‘Are you in line?’ conversation when I was trying to get the book I had reserved, luckily she isn’t nearly as awkward as I am and sort-of chatted me up. Then we connected on the whole ‘Art History’ thing, I gave her some advice for the exam and we exchanged e-mails. Her family is coming to Boston this summer and one of her good friends is there for the whole summer. Yay for being a tour guide!

Okay! Love love love and I’ll see you IN A WEEK!