Second week

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This past week and weekend have been fairly uneventful. I had classes Tuesday through Thursday, and spent my time off eating and going online (trying to put pictures up in this blog...which is a painfully slow process). So keep checking back, because I will be adding the rest of the Barcelona ones soon, and also adding some aquarium pictures and some pictures I took of my room too. My classes are going well, they are really easy! I don't have much homework at all, only for my spanish class, and there isn't much for that anyway. I had my first art history class on Tuesday, it will be very cool, we get to go on field trips to see different museums every other week. And during our first class, we learned about different styles of architecture briefly then walked around the old part of the city and saw the different styles...so cool how we can do that! When we were on our walk, we also saw some old Roman ruins, they are in the process of being restored, but it is soo neat that this city I am living in was founded by the Romans hundreds of years ago! I also had my first spanish literature class on Wednesday afternoon, it was good too. I like spanish literature, it is interesting, and that class will be a little challenging since it is all in spanish. Oh, and I do have some homework for that too.

Everything is good at home, I still love the cooking, and Marisa is super nice. It was funny on Friday morning because the maid came to clean the apartment...Kate and I are convinced that Marisa has quite a lot of money! It is a nice apartment, and she is retired, we think she has students just as a companionship thing, rather than to make extra money. She gets massages and plays cards with her friends, and also watches her grandsons during the days. Her one grandson, Mario, is adorable and he really likes me and Kate. He is over a lot since he lives right next door and both his parents work. Well anyway, the maid came and did the most thorough cleaning! She came at 9, and didn't leave until around 2! She mopped and dusted everything, and I even saw her cleaning the cabinets under the sink...we don't know how often she comes in to do this, but I would guess once a month.

It has been cooler here this past week (like in the 50s), which Spaniards think is ridiculously cold! Hahaha But there has been snow across almost all of Spain, it is the big story on the news all week, the only places that are not getting snow are the coastal areas (like Valencia). But there is snow only an hour away! We got a big rain storm on Friday, and that was interesting, since it hardly ever rains here either, and it rained pretty hard most of the day. We were supposed to go to the Oceanographic (biggest aquarium in Europe) on Friday, but it got postponed to Saturday. It was really cool, there were tunnels where you could see fish swimming all around you. I thought it would be bigger, but it was pretty cool nonetheless.

On thursday night, everyone went out to this salsa club, and we learned how to salsa. It was really cool, and really fun to dance all night! It is amazing how the guys here don't stand against the wall and watch the girls, but actually enjoy dancing! And the American guys were getting into it too. They gave us free lessons in the beginning, then there was a mixture of salsa and American music later in the night, it was fun. On Saturday, we went out to a regular old bar, and it was fun, but crowded. Nothing too exciting.

Well, I don't have anything more to say, I am hoping Marisa gets home from playing cards with her friends soon, because I am hungry! Haha, it is like living in luxury here when things are cleaned for me, laundry is done, I never do dishes, and we get gourmet meals put on the table every day! It is really quite strange, but I could get used to being pampered...

Hasta luego!

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Photos

Oceanographic!
Biggest Aquarium in Europe...in the Arts and Sciences City!

Music Hall
Arts and Sciences City, this is on our way to the Oceanographic (aquarium).

Hemispheric
also Arts and Sciences City, but this one we will visit towards the end of the semester, they show big IMAX films here.

Science Museum
Arts and Sciences City, this is on our way to the Oceanographic (aquarium).

Sad tree
This is a sad olive tree that was just sitting outside the Science Museum, it was only in a bag, and not in a pot or planted in the ground...very odd.

Fishies!
This is in a little cubby that we could go in and sit and look at fish all around us!

Fishies!
An eel overhead...this is in one of the tunnels, very cool to see fish swimming above you!

Fishies!
well, not a fish, but a beluga whale...

Tunnel
It is hard to see, but this is the tunnel, which fish all around!

View from my little terrace
My room is attached to the small terrace (mostly used to hang laundry). And this is the view from it, a weird little park area with no grass.

Comments

[g-pa]

glad to hear you are having such a good time .

[yer sis]

i was flipping thru channels yesterday and they had a show about the aquarium! i think it was on travel channel. i didn't watch, but it is pretty cool that you went there and they made a tv show about it!!! :)