Rain

!Hola!

Sorry I haven't posted in the last couple of days, nothing really exciting has been happening. It has been rainy and gloomy since Saturday, which is extremely RARE for here. Everyone is in complete shock by the weather, but hopefully it will begin to clear up as the week continues.

I got a pretty good night of sleep, but was still tired this morning...it had to have been the weather. I got down to class right on time, and enjoyed talking about our Tarragona trip. There were probably 10 students who missed the trip due to other travel plans, or oversleeping. They will probably have a difficult time with our field study report, I couldn't imagine having to do that on my own time.

I got out of class around 12ish and had almost four hours to kill before my 3:45 Oceanography class. I went to il Caffe di Roma to have a cappuccino and a croissant. I studied there for almost 2 hours and actually got a lot done, which was nice. I decided to go to the IES II center to print some PowerPoint slides and check my email. Of course the computers there were terrible today, and I couldn't access my online account through IES. Thankfully I ran into a couple students from my class, and copied the questions down from them, which was convenient.

I went to class which was boring as usual. I think that my Oceanography class is very interesting, but my professor literally lectures for the entire hour and a half, every class period. I took about 8 pages of notes today, and am debating about bringing my laptop from now on!

So after class I had some time to kill before my Intercambio Linguistic meeting which was tonight at 7. I decided that I would go find where I could buy my semester student metro pass, which is a 3 month pass, unlimited for buses and the metro. It costs 112 Euros, which will literally save me around 50 or 60 Euros in the long run. After walking to two different metro stops, I finally found the office, and purchased my ticket. They are these little flimsy cards, so if it breaks I can get a new one. The only catch is that if I lose it, I am out of luck. So I will be guarding this card with my life. I found CitiBank Espana which was nice, so I finally got some cash..without the ATM fee.

I'm in the process of receiving my loan, which will be helpful once it finally comes. There is some sort of glitch in NIU's computer system, so for some reason I am receiving my loan in pieces? Interesting.

I ran into all 4 of the guys from my Spanish class, and about 10 other people that I knew who were all interested in participating in the Intercambio Linguistic. I heard from the man who is in charge that there are usually many more Americans than Spanish. Wow, was he right. There were probably over 50 Americans, and maybe 15-20 Spanish....if that. Apparently there were more but they were unable to make it, and the Fabricio told some Americans that they could leave if they wanted to and email him and he would set them up with another program. (He told me he would say this, because usually half of the Americans that sign up, don't follow through on it)

So many of the Americans left, but we were still matched up about 2-3 Americans for every Spainard. Axle Gonzalez is the person I was assigned and he is 23 years old, and works as a mechanic. There were two other American girls in our group, and they are both really cool. So us four have planned to meet every Tuesday night as of right now, but hopefully we will begin to meet twice or three times a week as the semester progresses. Axle speaks English well, and has been studying the language since he was about 10 or so. He took the last couple of years off, so claims he has lost some of it, but I was pretty impressed with his speaking. I definitely have the strongest Spanish skills in my group, and I might try to see if I can meet with Axle by myself, or see if I can somehow get another intercambio. But if not, I'm definitely excited to meet with my group every week, it will definitely be a great experience. He also taught me some slang Spanish words which is cool, and kind of gave us some insight on some "local" places to go in Barcelona...to avoid the excessive amount of tourists that are here.

I got home around 9ish and ate an amazing dinner. Soup, salad, lomo, championes (mushrooms), flan con nata, and of course some tea. Another delicious meal...just like every evening. I definitely feel like our family is getting much closer, they really are amazing people. I am certain that I lucked out with my home stay, and feel bad for the students who are living in apartments with other American students. Anna met my mom and brothers the other day on skype which was pretty cool. Although my internet has been terrible lately, it has been somewhat decent today.

Well, I have a ton of studying to do tonight! I planned a trip to Madrid this weekend, which I am very excited about. I will be departing from Barcelona on Thursday night, and returning on Sunday. The flight was an excellent price, and the hostel I booked was about 15 Euros/night which will be interesting to see the quality of it. I'm not sure if I will post tomorrow or Thursday before I leave because I am going to be getting all of my studying and homework done so I don't need to worry this weekend when I get home from Madrid. I will definitely have tons of pictures after this weekend, and am looking forward to experiencing MADRID!!

Ciao!