Reality

Today was a day of realizations. The realization, for example, that I have absolutely no clue what is going on in my integrated classes. I do about half the readings, and from what I read I understand maybe...60%  of it, on a good day. Lectures are fine for about a half hour, then I dose off or give up, or both. Usually both. Today the fear of failing my classes went from being a casual joke to an actual reality. When I try to sit down to work on stuff I get distracted, all of the sudden it's 1:00 am and I've done nothing. I seem to be internalizing France's inefficiency.

The realization that I have not exercised in a very, very long time, and if I keep eating the way I eat I'm going to get diabetes.

The realization that my time here is about halfway over, and I feel like there's so much I haven't been able to do, and I'm going to be incredibly sad when I have to leave this place and all these great people.

Looking at my bank account...oooh, that hurts. Perhaps I should cool it with the traveling for a while? Montpellier is nice, let's stay here.

There was also the realization that I am still a Jackson School student and I have Task Force next semester which... ugh, terror is an understatement.

More generally the realization that, unlike almost everyone here, I am a senior. I will come home, have two quarters, and graduate. I should be using this quarter to work on future stuff. Instead? I have no plan. I have filled out no applications. I have not googled anything. That one hit me hard: I'm sort of screwed in the life department. There are juniors here hard at work filling out internship applications and I'm sitting around watching YouTube and planning trips. It's stressing me out but I have no idea where to start, and no fellow Jackson School seniors to bounce ideas off of. By the time I get home it'll be too late to apply to the good internships.

So in conclusion, today was not roses and daises and unicorns and cotton candy, it was stressful. Very much so. We have a long vacation coming up after this week, and I will be traveling to England and Ireland, but after that I'm going to have to buckle down a little and focus.

That's the most annoying part of study abroad, the "study" part, it really gets in the way.

Hola Ola...BARCELONA!

Barcelona was freaking fantastic! I can't believe I almost didn't go. Except for a couple mishaps, I think it was the best trip yet. (There were a ton of pictures, I'll try to cut them down on here)

A friend and I took an early Friday train to Barcelona because we don't have class that day, whereas everyone else had tickets to come really late. The original plan was we go see one of the less-awesome things together before the rest of the group came, then we would all meet up and go out, and then see the more-awesome things Saturday. We got there around 11:00 am, and proceeded to spend the next two hours wandering around looking for her hostel and my Airbnb apartment.

I have never felt so helpless in my life. I'm nowhere near fluent in French, but I know I can at least get around, ask for directions, have a simple conversation, ask for prices, etc. Here? I was like a child. Asking for directions was me going up to someone, and just saying to street name. Each time I would have to restrain myself from asking in French, we all seemed to have this problem.

"Mallorca?" Donde esta Mallorce?"

"* insert Spanish words here, no compredo*)

"Umm...Mallorca?" Then I'd take out a map "On est ici? Umm... Donde esta nous? Gah, SPEAK FRENCH!"

It was strange for me, I've never been in a situation where I couldn't communicate at all. But I'm pretty good at charades, and eventually people just pointed a lot and we got the idea.

We finally found the hostel, an adorable place that I was bummed I couldn't stay at. I had decided to come last minute after it was already booked, so another friend and I just stayed in an apartment through airbnb. The lady at the counter was really helpful, told us where to go, what to see. Every once in a while someone else would come in, and she'd switch to Czech or Spanish or English. She even spoke some Polish so we talked a bit.

Then the apartment. I had the address. I did not have the apartment number. I was able to get in as a guy opened the door to walk out, but then we just wandered around asking people if they knew a lady named Monika. Thankfully, just as I was about to give up, we ran into a couple on their way out who was also staying there, so they showed us where to go. I had come a couple hours later than I expected, so the lady was gone. Luckily her husband was there. Unluckily, he spoke no English. No French. No Polish. It was the weirdest  thing: he walked out of the room and came back with his smart phone, google translate app on. He typed something, google translated, I typed something, google translated. Oh modern technology, you really came in handy. We finally got that handled, I dropped my stuff off, and we were finally able to leave.

We decided to go to Montjuic, a hill with a castle on top where you can get some overpriced water and see a nice view of the city. (I heard some more Polish up there... Poles are taking over, they're everywhere!) According to Wikipedia it was a jail for political prisoners dating back to the 18th century.

Catalan flag, they were everywhere: in windows, balconies, shops. There is an active Catalan Separatist movement, and I can only assume that the people with the flags support succeeding and becoming their own country. 

The view from one side of Montjuic:

Castle on top:

Pigeon is having a good day, staring pensively off into the Mediterranean distance: 

Couples. Were. Everywhere! Do you see this? four of them in a row. 

Yeah..I don't know

Barcelona hosted the 1992 Olympics, we saw the stadium. This is the torch! (I'm pretty sure)

Pretty sure this is a contemporary art museum, gorgeous building. 

And a naked guy... sure.

Art museum in its entirety 

After seeing Montjuic we weighed our options. The original plan was to meet the others at 9:30 pm, but after our experience we knew there was no way they'd make it over that fast. The hostel lady had suggested a Flamenco Club in some little corner. Wait for people? Flamenco? We chose the latter. 

We got off the right metro stop... and then we were totally lost. We went up to a lady with a kid, and she was super sweet, she tried to walk us there a little ways, even warned us to be careful because it was in a not-so-great part of Barcelona, but she couldn't find it. 

So we tried our luck with a group of old ladies sitting outside discussing something in Catalan. 

"Umm... Ou est..uh, no...donde esta Jazzi? Club? Flamenco? Dance?"

They looked at my map, and started going off at us in Catalan. Smile. Nod. Maybe if we do that enough they'll just point us in the right direction?

No, better. One of the ladies actually got up and walked us all the way there. I half-expected her to take our hands and lead us, "come, poor tourists with no speaking skills, I will show you the way." My friend and I sort of stopped and stared at each other before bursting out laughing after she left. It was strange. But we made it! 

Outside of the club this lady was painting some sort of a mural 

Inside. Entry was 10 euros and included a drink, which was pretty cheap for a Flamenco club, from what I could tell. It was popular enough that we had to show up an hour early to get a spot. 

And then the guy started singing...or something. More like screaming into the microphone. So many feelings. Yes, flamenco man, sing it out, let all the feels out.

It started getting on my nerves a little, actually, until the flamenco dancer lady came on stage. Somehow when all four of them where there, the guitarist (who was amazing), and screaming man, the drummer and the stomping lady, it all worked, there was so much energy, you couldn't help but smile. 

Hopefully these work, I took a couple videos. 

The next morning we met up with the rest of the group. Good thing we didn't wait, they had gotten lost and weren't able to check into the hostel until 2 in the morning. 

We met at the Sagrada Familia, the most famous church in Barcelona which is still under construction (started in the late 19th century!), designed by Gaudi. His stuff is all over the city. It's a UNESCO world heritage site. We didn't want to wait/pay to get in, so you should google the inside. 

Adam explains the history of something once again. He knows everything!!

We found a Starbucks *sly smile*... we sat down to plan out the day

I noticed this amazing swing! Me and two others decided it was okay to be 10 again and swung on it. It was great, I would have been fine staying there. 

Arc de Triomph Spanish style. I like it better. 

They have green parrots flying around all over the place, I loved them

Emma learns to ride a bike. One step at a time Emma, you'll get there.

Another church:

Pilgrim water. I came across something similar in Saint-Guilhem le Desert. There is a christian pilgrimage to somewhere in Spain, and throughout many of the cities on the way there is potable water. I tried to ask to make sure:

"Agua, potable?" 

"Si si"

Most successful conversation I had all weekend. 

Then we had tapas for lunch. We were in Spain, we had to :) You take what you want, each thing has a toothpick in it, and at the end of your meal you pay for however many toothpicks you've accumulated.

Yet another church.

Behind the church was a market, with more tapas. I wish we would have eaten there instead. I got a smoothie instead.

The guy in our group wanted to go to the Picasso museum. After being dragged into stores to look at earrings and hair clips, we figured he deserved it.

Some light entertainment before going in.

There were a few paintings I thought were okay, but none of his popular stuff was there. I was a little underwhelmed. He lived in Barcelona, you would think they would have more of his famous paintings, eh.

BUT! Redeeming quality: there was a goat. 

Then we walked to Les Ramblas (Las Ramblas?), the really famous outdoor market there. 

P.S. if you're queezy/vegetarian/don't like seeing skinless animal heads with eyes you might be offended by one of these photos, proceed with caution.  

What is this??

Lots of these fruit cups and smoothies all over the place

Ostrich and Emu eggs. 

Ewewewewewewewewewewewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww..

Meat meat, go meat meat, go meat meat, go meat meat, this salad rocks the best, make it easy at your desk it's second to none just add lettuce and you're done   (...please tell me you remember that commercial) 

I have no idea what this is... Well, okay, it's obvious, I know what it is, I don't know why it is. 

So after this we wanted to go down and see the statue of Columbus pointing to America. We went the wrong way. We walked for quite a while the wrong way. Oops.

Men against violence against women. Go Spain :)

We finally got to the statue as it started getting dark. 

And then Barcelona became magical. Sorry, corny, I know, but we were by the water, and it was just beautiful. We sat there for a long time, two of the girls singing random songs.

We were ready for dinner, but no one wanted to move.

"Adam, I think you should go get our food and bring it here"

That didn't work. "We should get up" That failed as well. No one wanted to.

After a while one of the girls asked "Should I sing one more song?"

Sure. So we listened to Under the Sea for a bit, joked around a little, and finally got off our butts to find some Paella.

Bridge. We walked across it, on the other side there is a mall and a dock.

So. Beautiful. And I don't say that about a lot of things.  

Separatist demonstration

We finally found a restaurant. This was the sangria. That is Emma's head. No, the Sangria is not closer to the camera than Emma's head.

Paella

So...interesting story about the restaurant. We had a lovely meal, and at the end we got the check....

It was a lot more than we expected, to say the very least. The Sangrias were over 11 euros each. That's almost three full lunches at the resto U here. Thank God I decided not to get one, but the water I got was almost four Euros which made me mad. There was lots of tension, lots of anger, lots of sitting around the table doing math trying to figure out who owes what. 

The service was creepy as well. The chef, some creepy old guy, had told the waiter to tell one of the girls in our group he thought she was beautiful and wanted her to come back to the kitchen and talk to him. 

It was sketchy and we were not happy. 

But it was okay. We were then going to go to our respective "homes" and meet up later to go to the Ice Bar, a bar made out of ice, as the name would suggest. It's pretty cool, but 15 euros just to get in. After our dinner we weren't exactly in a spending mood. We ended up not going out while the hostel people did. 

That night I accidentally flooded the bathroom though. The shower didn't drain very well and...yeah. It wasn't fun. 

Next day was reserved for the Gaudi Park. Same guy who designed that church. It was a lot smaller than I expected, and we were done earlier than we had planned. It was still cool though. 

Inexpensive earrings and scarves all over. 

Our day ended with Subway. I. Was. So. Happy. I have been taunted by Subway ever since I got to France, but I've resisted. But the French do not know how to stuff a sandwich, and we wanted something cheap and fast. 

I regret nothing. 

We ate in a park while talking about how sororities work and other random tuff, and then we split up and left. 

I had stupidly/accidentally gotten the wrong train ticket, so my train left a half hour after everyone else's, and I guess the route was different because it took almost two hours more to get back. Eh, tant pis. 

Overall the trip was fantastic. There was lots of sightseeing, lots of laughing, it was a good time. 

Coming back though, I felt homesick for Montpellier. For the first time I came back and I felt like I was home. When the train announcements finally switched from Spanish to French I was so happy! Great time, but I'm glad to be back.