Bogatell Beach

Hi!

So! Today I was a bad girl and decided that I didn't need to re-learn food in spanish (it's one thing I actually DID know going in) so I skipped out on the second class of the day and went to the beach. It was 37 degrees. Barbara and I (Ciro's gf) rode Bicing down to the beach and found a spot where the water was nice and clear and there weren't a million people and went in to cool off. It was great. What else can you really do in that heat? When it's 37 degrees OUTSIDE... my flat is ATLEAST 4 degrees hotter. There was just no chance I was going to sit around and hang out in that. Anyways, it was nice. I needed to relax a bit.

I also ordered a bunch of books off of Amazon today. Once they get here I seriously need to get going with the reading again, I was going really well for a bit tehre and then I fell of the train somehow. But I'm actually really excited to read some of them. I'm thinking more and more about what I want to do when I'm done this degree, all my research is making me feel a bit different about life. In a good way.

So! What else? Tomorrow is my last day of spanish class and on Saturday Julien gets here so I'm quite excited for both! Some shopping, beaching, dancing, eating. I think it will be fun.

Um and in other news which to most of you won't be a shock. I am moving in October. To a flat with a different roomate. It's really for the best. Also, it's not like I have that much stuff so it's not that difficult! So the hunt is on but I won't really need to start looking until like 2 weeks early. So yep, that's kind of exciting and a relief. Also I think it will be a good opportunity if I can live with spanish people where I am forced to speak spanish at home. Very important.

That's it folks. I hear gas went up.... sorry about that! Glad I don't drive hahah!

<3

Fieste Mayor de Gracia!

Hola a todos! Things have been on the busier side of life - what with trying to learn spanish this last few weeks. I'm ready to take a break and review/practice some of it now though so I'm glad I only signed up for 3 weeks.

So other than that I spent an hour in Gracia (a neighbourhood) which has one of the most exciting and famous neighbourhood fiestas in the city because they go ALL out! I put some pictures up of some of the streets I was on. They have all kinds of live music on stages set up, the bars flood out into the streets and each street has a different theme! It's amazing really, and most of the decorations are homemade from simple things like plastic cups, bubble wrap, fabric and paper mache! Very impressive!

This is all I have time for today but enjoy the pics!

Holy it's hot! And the pope is in Spain...

So apparently they are protesting in Madrid (again) about the Pope coming, and they don't think it's a very good idea to pay for this little visit of his. Understandable, isn't the church the richest entity in the world or something? Surely they can foot the bill for the old guy's hotel and meals? Doesn't make sense to me but I'm not going to go start camping in the squares in my free time.

The temperature has shot way up again this week, it's a good thing and a bad thing. Good because it may bring some rain and it makes going to the beach at any time of the day quite wonderful (if you have time for that kind of thing) and bad because I have half my class on the terrace at school and in 30degrees it's a bit hard to focus but I learned my lesson, because yesterday I went to the admin and asked to be in a class which was not outside next week so they thought they would help by turning on one of those water mister things, you know through the hose? Right, well I happened to be sitting right below it and this one didn't so much mist as it did rain - so I got nice and wet! Oh boy, what a day!

There are so many people in my house it's getting a bit tiring I'm not going to lie. One of the girlfriends has been here for 2.5 weeks, anothers mother just came and the other will be back from vacation in a few days which meaaaaans we will be a house of like 6 people. I'm just not really used to that. Especially when you are supposed to work from home.

Alright, enough with the whining here's some good news. My spanish is getting so much better and I'm very proud of myself, while I can't always say what I want I can usually understand most of what they are saying (if the accents aren't TOO strong). So I am thinking that maybe before I leave I may even write the DELE exam (like the TFSL or whatever it is for english in Canada).

I also started a painting yesterday. Not sure why, I just felt like I needed to, so there's that as well. If it turns out okay I'll show you, however there is a reason I did not major in painting hahah!

Now I'm going to look into scholarships for international study. There are not too many so it's going to be a search.

Have a great day everyone
<3

Creatures of Mass Destruction...

Well! Happy Saturday to all, it's a long weekend here and so I'm going to try and make the most of it and get as much done as possible. So far I'm halfway done a book, made perogies and cleaned my room. We're getting there! I also bought a printer/scanner last week so I've been able to scan some images and such for my thesis which has been good!

So here's a fun little story for you. Remember the invisible force that was killing all my plants? Well, one of the ones I keep in my room seemed to still be having some problems despite the soapy water solution i had been spraying it with. This morning I noticed all these little balls of dirt around the pot and I couldn't figure out how or why the dirt was getting OUTSIDE of the pot. So I'm looking at all these leaves and noticing that half of them are missing! They've been all chewed up and then on one of them I see a HUGE green caterpillar! Oh dear god, it scared the bejeezus out of me and then what? What am I supposed to do? I don't want to kill it! If I were at home, it would be simple, go throw it in the grass or something but there's no such thing here. so what? Launch it onto the patio below me? So I put the plant on the balcony and the thing seems to have disappeared, maybe Ciro got rid of it for me. I don't really know. So, the moral of the story is - if you see small balls of dirt around your plants? You have a caterpillar.

What else? Since I finally got my Bicing card I think I will go for a ride today using one of the public bikes - a service well worth 35E/year. You can ride them anywhere from station to station for 1/2 an hour at a time. It's great, it means I can now get to the beach in under 10 minutes! There are two stations within 2 blocks of my house so I'm quite excited. I also really like bike riding to see different parts of the city it's quick and fun and good exercise.

Alright, just a quick update for now.

Have a great weekend!

Intensive Spanish

Well. I have to say that I'm very impressed that first of all something in Spain starts on time. Second of all, it definitely is intense. I don't think I realized that there wouldn't be any english speaking in the classes. I have two instructors this week who are both very nice, but one talks much more slowly and clearly for us (I think she is latin american) and the other is Catalan so I do find her more difficult to understand, also she doesn't slow down at all and uses quite complex sentences. It's good though, I'm learning a lot and in 3 weeks I should be off to a very good start.

The weather has been cool (23 degrees) at least for here, and it seems like the worst of summer may be over but it's hard to say. Hopefully there's a few more months of beach days left before that becomes too chilly as well.

Anyways, don't really have very much to say but wanted to send a quick update and say hi, miss you all

<3

2 Less Canadians in Spain

Yep, today it's back to one Canadian in this household. It's been a really fun couple of weeks - busy and at some points crazy, but fun and enjoyable all around. I saw a lot of things that I had been waiting for someone to go with which is great! We went to the Picasso museum which is fantastic in Barcelona, they have an enormous collection of his work over 70 years which he and a close friend both donated. We went to Montserrat which is a Monastery about 1.5 hours from the city on the top of a mountain (I think I put up a photo) and it has amazing hiking trails all around. I'll have to go back and go for a good hike one day when the weather cools off a bit! Of course, I did a bunch of shopping as well -how could I not? Yep, it's been busy!

I signed up for intensive spanish classes starting Monday today. It cost quite a bit but when I figure that it's going to be 20 hours a week vs the 3 at UofC's extended studies - well, I figure I'm going to learn quite a bit! It'll give me that good push I need to really get out there and use Spanish more than just the basics that I use to survive on. Maybe even make friends with some of the Catalans!

Other than that I plan on spending the rest of this month laying on the beach, reading, considering my thesis and working! Lots and lots of work! I'm thinking of everyone at home, especially having a visit from home, sometimes it makes me a bit nostalgic. I miss you all dearly and can't wait to talk to you and see you soon <3

PS-Papa, I think you should get a kitten. Then when Purrdy comes for a visit she'll have company :D