Study Abroad
Day 71
March 29th, 2006
10:46PM

The countdown has begun! 10 days until the family comes!

Tomorrow we leave for Barcelona, which I’m glad we decided to save for last. I saw Barcelona briefly the last time I saw here, and I’m looking forward to seeing it again. I want to see six years’ worth of progress on the Sagrada Familia cathedral, see some more ocean, and visit the Picasso Museum for the first time (we just finished Picasso in art history class this week!) I’d like to learn a couple more words in Catalan (right now I only know adeu, which is goodbye). Hopefully I’ll get a chance to meet up with cousin Owen, who I haven’t seen since…I can’t remember when.

Last weekend we didn’t have a big trip planned, which was perfect because everyone was still getting over their various illnesses. Friday was the group excursion to Segovia (home of the aquaduct and the “fairytale castle”), which was fun and no-stress. Pictures to come.

Saturday night we went over to the mall in Toledo and saw the new Pedro Almodovar movie, Volver. It’s very colloquial Spanish so it was hard to follow at first, but I got into it and I thought it was fantastic. You all should see it when it comes out in the U.S. I won’t give any of it away. After the movie we got some Mexican food at a restaurant in the mall, and which spiced up my life.

The rest of the weekend was spent kind of catching up on homework, mostly watching the DVDs Andrew sent me of the Armstrong High School Film Festival and the 3rd season of Arrested Development. And the disc has definitely gotten passed around here at the Fund—Kara, Robin and J.J. are now eternally grateful to my brother.

I’m pretty much over whatever sickness I had last week, except for a cough which always seems to linger for awhile after I’m sick. It’s a good thing I haven’t been sick this week, because it’s been pretty busy. As we’re nearing Semana Santa and our spring break, teachers are squeezing in everything they can. For example, the 10-page art history paper due next week. Gah.

Nevertheless, I’ve made time to enjoy the beautiful weather we’ve been having. The window in our room is now constantly open, and Danielle and I have made two trips out to Enebro during siesta to enjoy the sunshine. I sat out a table drawing, trying to ignore the crazy man who growls his own special song entitled “Hijo de puta..” (Megan has a video of it, I think) and watching the tiny children play hide-and-seek. Fantastic.