Day 4: The Encounter

Let's just say the "study" part was not as much fun today. Maybe the joy of the first class in 5 months has run out. Maybe I am just tired. Thankfully, I was more awake than the 75% of the class that couldn't keep their eyes open. This could be due to the fact that we have to strain to hear what Rosella Nicolini is saying. It takes alot of work to put together every third word (the ones that I can understand) to make actual sense of the class. What she has to say is still insightful, and she is still an incredibly smart lady. The trouble comes when you have to be 110% on your "A" game to understand half of what she is saying. I spent a good portion of the class day dreaming about what topic I wanted to do my report and presentation on. But if you are going to day dream during class it should at least be ABOUT class right?

After class pretty much everyone went back to the rooms for a siesta. Yet another very spanish thing. Yet another very spanish thing that I love. I didn't take my nap though because I was busy talking to Bailey (my roommate). I don't regret missing my nap for a second. It is easy to forget that there is just as much to learn from the people you meet in your life as the places you will go. It is probably some sort of fate that we were recommened eachother as roommates. I loved just talking and youtubing and sharing about eachother's family. Bailey is a wealth of knowledge. She doesn't realize it but there were many little things that she said that were really insightful to me. It does not feel like I have just met her, but that I have known her for years and years. Who knows, maybe she was a mentor to me in a past life?

The fantastic four (bailey, nina, tara, and I) and the guys (Tyler, Kyle, Kyle 2.0, Josh) went to the beach. The beach was fairly typical (glorious) and the people were the same (interesting and with fewer articles of clothing than needed). The really shocking part of the afternoon/evening was towards the end of this sunny and hopeless nude day. (not nude for us). Tara and I decided that we wanted to go get Gelatto, no big surprise here. We walked through a couple of random streets of the beach. There was a man peeing on the wall, again, no surprise here. The surprise came when we were encountered by two men. They came up very close to us on either side stuck on their arms and seemed to corner us. They said something in Spanish, or maybe english. To tell you the truth, I felt like a dog as I was only aware of the TONE that they used when they talked to us. It didn't matter what they really said, their body language and tone screamed "HEY AMERICAN GIRLS! LETS CORNER YOU, STEAL YOUR MONEY, AND BE RUDE". Tara and I both looked at them dead in the face and said NO! quite loudly. Although they argued and turned closer to us we held hands and nearly sprinted to the "safety" of the gelatto stand. Needless to say we are both fairly shaken up until we were safely with the group. What did I learn from this? Be assertive, go in groups, and probably don't blog about it for fear of worrying the parents. Don't worry- I am fine and happy :)

Dinner was outside near the beach at a little restaraunt. Mostly everyone else had paella, again very spanish. I will post pictures of this amazing looking dinner on facebook and the blog as soon as I have uploaded from my camera (this takes a long time because the internet here is not quite DSL) I had pasta, which tasted like spaghetti-os. It was another lazy dinner (wonderful) and we met some Canadian girls that were travelling all over Europe. It seems to get late quickly in Barcelona, although that could be because dinner is at 9 and lasts two hours. We took the metro back to the university and went to bed.