Summary of the Weekend

Dear fans, so i'm going to try to get this thing up to date. that previous entry was on friday. its now monday, so i have two days to tell you about.

Saturday, in the park.... think it must have been the fourth of july...

just kidding, that's oldies music, for those avid music 100.3 fans. Saturday, we slept in i think? then all the students got together and we went and checked out the third apartment. we have collectively decided that it would be in the best interest of all members to drop that third appartment, as there are enough beds between the two appartments for all of us. So we did. This would make rent cheaper, once we are able to get ourselves out of the contract for the third apartment, (which means, we pay until it gets rented out.... we hope it will be in less than a month, hopefully sooner....) So cheaper rent, better community aspect, and also, last but certainly not least, the third appartment feels and is in a shadier part of town, which would not be conducive to studio architecture life. And as it is the furthest apartment away, a long walk home into a shady neighborhood is not ideal for any student, regardless.

As it is, i am in the spacious six man apartment, in which we have Meg in single, Brian in a single, Bob and Tom doubling, and Rob and i doubling. In my opinion, this apartment is alot better than the Gran Via apartment because ours feels alot bigger and our common area is really far away from the sleeping rooms. we ran into problems on sat night because a bunch of us stayed up drinking and talking, till the wee hours of the morning, as the culture prescribes, but we are bit loud and there is no acoustic protection, so we may have kept up some kids who wanted to sleep. but our place is better for that. boo yah gran via.

so saturday, went over checked out the third apartment, then we headed towards the shore, and in the process, emptied out near montijunc, the beginning of hte more mountainous parts to the west of the city. we explored, played on kiddie jungle gyms and got to the summit of the first part of the mountain, only to look at the map and realize we had only covered about 1/16 of the whole mountain, there being so many more buildings and places to go. we were in the part near the beautiful and modern mirimar hotel, which was very cool, there being this big english garden and such there too. it was just an awesome place.

we then went down to the sea, and near the statue of Columbus looked at some little tiendas that were selling all legitimate, at least 50 year old vintage european items, or really cool stuff. it was amazing. you almost wanted to come back here and buy it all up right after you bought a house some where and then ship all the old signs, helmets, badges, books, paintings back and make a crazy place. anyway.....

then we walked back home i think, using la rambla as our way of getting back.... la rambla,as my explanation, is close to the typical picturesesque european street, but in barcelona and on crack. in the stereotypical, ideal and romanticized european street, there's these beautiful buildings, lots of people, many different tiendas, street performers, and crowds of people. that's how la rambla is, with about 4-8 different robot.statue people peforming, plus some very talented drawing artists, and then other stores that sell rabbits, mice and chinchillas as pets, etc... and there are lots and lost of people.

so we went to gran via, figured out the room arrangements, split up and went to aldano apt. we showered, reorganized the furniture, then went back to gran via for dinner. BILL, our FOUR STAR CHEF, didnt realize that the sausage he had bought at the market was actually pig hands, as it translates from spanish, and so we didn't eat those. dinner was just a bit weird, but it's all good. then we busted out the sangria, wine and, no lie, absynth, and we played chirades. it was alot of fun.

AS A WORD OF WARNING: all though i am only speculating on behalf of my friends, making a generalization on their behalf based on my judgement of their character, we here in barcelona, the ones of us who actually drink a fair amount when we intend to drink, do not get more than tipsy at best. i would say a good almost half of the people here do not have alot to drink when we have our social gatherings and so this is not your typical american college kids in a group setting with hard alcohol in a different country. We are responsible and safe, and know our limits. i guess it's better to realize that we are in barcelona, where alot of time is spent SOCIALIZING and CASUALLY DRINKING, and that's what we've been doing in our own student group. so please, to all my american readers, family and friends, we are not belligerent drunkards, please drop the american stereotype/assumption that we are. thanks again.

sunday, we went woke up and went to this beautiful, gorgeous old church a block away from where our studio is. it was wonderful. we then met back as a group with christie, our director, who also got her atm card stolen, and we as a student group decided to go exploring by walking around. Bill gave us another scare when,after we had stopped to look at the map and decide where to go and then proceeded to go in the next direction, he was nowhere to be found. he literally disappeared. there was about 8 of us, and we split into twos and went in diffferent directions. not being able to do much more, we went over towards this magnificient arch that led the the grand park plaza area in the south east part of town. gorgeous. everywhere i walk feels like a part of a movie. i have yet to walk around with my camera, i'm waiting to get everything situated with myself, but will probably do that today, as we are going on a tour later this afternoon.

anyways, i have to go. hasta luego