Titulo General

Tomorrow I'm going to Sitges for the day. It's a little beach town south of Barca. Though the weather is getting colder. I am now greeted by an autumn crispness when I step outside. It's this particular feel the air gets...I've written about it before. I think I love it so much because it reminds me of my childhood in Chicago. In Texas I usually don't feel the crispness before we're well into October. But here! I felt it today when I woke up! It's the morning coldness when it's difficult to get out of bed because the air around you is cooler than the nest of sheets you've created. I also felt it when I stepped out of the UB building at 9PM after my last class. My hair begins to settle when the temperature drops. Today sections of it became straight on its own accord. Amazing.

I plan to return from Sitges tomorrow night and leave for Tarragona and Monserrat the next morning, two towns north of Barcelona. Tarragona is known for its Roman ruins. (And a club inside a cave Megumi told me about! Awesome!) Monserrat is known for a monastery and jutting cliffs. I haven't really traveled since I've been in Barcelona and I'm really excited to start the excursions.

Today I went to the grocery store with Viktoriya to buy sweet things and other indulgences. Grocery stores are so much more interesting in other countries! There was half of an aisle full of spreads like Nutella, a whole aisle of olive oil, wine that's sold in cartons, puddings for 18 euro cents. Frozen churros, OMG. A whole display of different types of Garbanzo beans. OoOoOoO! The brands...and the prices...and the selections. So many cheeses! Legs of animals hung with other types of cured meats. I want to transport a Carrefour to Austin.

People eat differently here, obviously. Which explains our need to go to the store and buy candy. Dessert at my house, and many others, is a piece of fruit or maybe some yogurt or cookies. It always sounded so lame to me when I read about people not having dessert in other countries, but now I don't mind it. I still need my daily intake of sugar, I manage, but I think I'm eating less sweet stuff. The sweet meal of the day is breakfast when we drink coffee, tea or juice. We eat yogurt, cookies, a pastry, croissant or magdalenas (sweet muffins). The big meal of the day is comida, at lunch. Though sometimes when we have classes we just take a bocadillo. Then at about 6-7PM most people eat a snack. Maybe go for a café with some tapas or a pastry. Then dinner is late, around 10PM. We normally eat a big-ish meal, depending on who was home for comida. Afterwards we sit around and maybe eat fruit or a small dessert or some café or tea. We have a joke in our house about the bread...because Ana lets it get really stale. She calls them "galletas" (cookies) when the bread goes stale, maybe to entice us to keep eating it, haha. I decided to go along with it, so now we sometimes spread Nutella on stale bread and eat it for dessert. I don't know...maybe it's not a joke. I was hoping to eat healthier here and slim myself a bit. In reality, I do think I'm eating healthier, more balanced meals, but I'm not slimming. Oh well. Ana's an excellent cook.

I feel like I'm finally starting to improve my speaking skills. Megumi is often gone at meals, so it's just Ana and I. We talk through most of the meal and Ana doesn't speak any English, so I must know how to communicate to some extent. I've noticed things flowing out of my mouth a little bit more seamlessly lately. Though Ana still takes a lot of time to correct all of my mistakes. Conjugating verbs slows me down a lot when I talk. I feel more confident and hopeful when I realize that everything Ana knows of me are things I've communicated to her in another language. I don't think she understands me on the same level she would if I spoke perfect Spanish, but I've told her about so many things and we generally understand each other. And now instead of being shy to speak, I bring up topics at dinner just so I can talk. Tonight the subject was art.

I was actually asking her about the El Prado, the art museum in Madrid. I'm planning to go in a couple of weeks. I'm excited to see another part of Spain. More recently I've become interested in the modern history of Spain, like 20th century. I never learned much about Franco or the industrialization of the country in my Spanish Civ class. I bought a book yesterday called "The New Spaniards" about cultural/societal/economic/political issues in Spain in the past 100 years or so. So far I love it. I didn't realize how closed off and repressed the country was during Franco's dictatorship. I still have a lot more to read and to learn, but it's fascinating to read about such a subject while I'm living in the midst of it.