6-20 Mountains to Beaches

Location: The balcony of my apartment
Listening to: O Sole Mio (not actually, I'm just whistling the tune)

Well, I finally broke down and bought a netbook.  If you've  never owned one, it's an interesting experience.  They're extremely portable and not too expensive, but I'm worried if I stare at it too hard it might fall apart.  You get what you pay for, I guess.

It's been an uneventful week so far, but I've realized a few things that I left out of prior posts that I think I should catch you up on.  For one, I went to a Flamenco show last Thursday.  It was brief, but definitely worth the €5.  Flamenco artists redefine stage prescence - they're able to communicate or predict changes in rhythm, volume, even harmonic structure without even an obvious glance.  They depend completely and wholly on one another, and the end result is nothing short of incredible.  There isn't really anything to compare it to in American culture, or at least in the thin slice of American culture I've had the chance to experience.  We had a good time afterwards too...that was the night where I ended up on the bench, I think.

Another strange little occurence - I seem to get along the easiest with Germans, no matter what country I happen to be in at the moment.  I've been spending a lot of time with a group of them and having a blast.  I really didn't get along well with most of the other students from the USA while they were in my program, and to be honest I'm glad to be switching classes on Monday.  This isn't to say I hate them or anything - in fact, I really like a couple of them - but on the whole I can see where a little bit of the "American" stereotype comes from in the way they act.

Speaking of Americans - I ran into a couple on vacation when I watched the USA's last match.  We gave ourselves so many chances and just couldn't finish during the first half, and unfortunately Slovania played exactly opposite.  I don't know exactly how many shots they took that game, but I doubt they had 10 and they scored twice in the first half.  Also, that was some of the worst officiating I've seen.  Even the Spanish announcers were livid about the offsides call, and apparently getting smacked in the face with a ball deserves a yellow card.  Even though we haven't actually won a game, our chances aren't looking too bad yet.  Hopefully we can turn up the heat on Wednesday.

Another intersting little piece of trivia I haven't mentioned yet is the location of my apartment.  At night, I can pretty easily see the chapel of Tibidado.  This name comes from the Latin translation of Luke 4:6 where Satan says to Jesus, "I will give to you (Tibi dabo)", in reference to the nations of the earth.  The account says that Satan has taken Jesus to an exceedingly high mountain, and by popular tradition this hill in the Northern part of Barcelona is that mountain.  The church is an incredible sight from the bottom, especially at night.  Google "Tibidabo noche" if you want to get an idea, but I promise it's much more vivid and beautiful in real life.

I've been writing this post a few lines at a time for four or five days now, so it's probably going to end up a little long.  It's Sunday, and today we went to Sitjes.  It's a small beach town about 40 minutes via train from the Gracia station, and as it turns out it's the epicenter of the gay scene around Barcelona.  The are a few things I learned (or mostly re-learned) today at the beach:

• The sun doesn't care if you can't reach that part of your back (see picture).
• There is absolutely no way to keep sand out of anything you bring to the beach.
• Playing the token gay friend isn't that bad in the right company (see other picture).
• I love tapas.
• Salt water is fun to swim in and very refreshing, but it can do horrible things to the (male) body.
• You should definitely bring a water bottle - I was dehydrated enough to go through 1.5 liters during supper alone.
• Cannons are cool (see yet another picture).
• The only things open after about 2:00 on a Spanish Sunday are restaurants and bars.
• Your Spanish host mom will understand anything you can come up with in Spanish perfectly except "I already ate" - you're eating again.

I can't believe I've been here as long as I have - over four weeks.  It doesn't feel like I arrived yesterday, but it's still gone quickly.  This last week felt like a blink.  I'm going insane without a guitar, but other than that I can't complain :)

I'm trying to figure out exactly how to deal with the picture situation since I no longer have iPhoto.  I'll keep including a few of them and hopefully they'll all be on facebook, but I'm not sure about Picaso or Flickr, etc.

I miss everybody back home.  ¡Hasta luego!

P.S. Jess, if you're reading this, I'll get you those measurements ASAP!  Sorry!