If You Can't Cook, Just Bring the Wine

Real classes started this week.  Monday was the consortium course on urban studies which seemed cool, but the best part was afterwards when Antoni, our professor, offered to take a group of us up to Tibidabao, a mountain which overlooks Barcelona.  We hopped on the subway, then on a gondola, and then into this little shuttle which circled slowly up the mountain before letting us off at the peak.  Stellar timing, because we disembarked from the bus and found ourselves in the middle of this gorgeous orange and yellow sunset.  Against the sky were silhouettes of a ferris wheel, Calatrava's "needle", and an enormous church with a statue of Jesus on top with his arms outstretched.  Not to mention, of course, the spectacular panoramic view of the city.  It was freezing, but I barely noticed as I took in the view and made love to my camera.  Such a lovely day.  And it was cool to hang with the professor outside of the classroom.

Tuesday we woke up, went to La Champagneria (sp?) for lunch, got tired, and immediately returned to La Residencia to nap.  Jordyn and I tried to fall asleep, but the song "The Way You Say Goodnight" by The Magnetic Fields was playing in the background and the beautiful lyrics were keeping us awake, so I had to turn it off.  God, they're good.

That evening I had my first UB course.  Beautiful, wooden, official-looking classroom, but absolutely NO leg space.  It was pretty full, about fifty people, and I was surprised at how many of the students were older, like in their 30s and 40s.  The professor sat behind the desk and spoke in spanish for over an hour about the syllabus which, for some reason, was in catalan. I could understand about half of what he was saying when I was really focusing, which was about half of the time.  He clipped a lot of his words, and the acoustics in the room were terrible.  Overall, it was very exhausting.  

Also, the class seems like a lot of work.  There's a reading list of about ten novels.  Emma asked a spanish guy in the class when he thought we should start the books.  His response:  "If I were a foreigner, I'd start tomorrow."  Fuuuuck!

On a better note, last night we did a pot luck dinner at Andy's apartment, which was one of the most delicious meals I've had here.  Andy made beef/salmon carpaccio and shrimp/vegetable skewers, Ansell made a fluffy spanish tortilla, Claire made a salad with avocado and pomegranate seeds, and Jose Maria made rice with shrimp and calamari.  Emma brought the cheese, I brought the wine, and Kimmy brought Catalan-style sugar coated doughnuts.  After we ate we just sat around for a while talking, while Andy strummed his guitar lightly in the background.  It was really nice.

Now I have to decide if I want to go to Dublin with Jordyn and Sydney the weekend of the 22nd.