¿No soy guiri?

I am in the midst of writing a paper about "El Avión de la Bella Durmiente" by Gabriel García Márquez. I'll be glad to take a break from literature in Spanish, but I'll have to start up again as soon as the spring semester starts. This story isn't as unappealing as a lot of the other stuff I've read. The vocabulary isn't too bad, the story is from modern times (not 500 years ago) and it's a simple plot. This man sees a pretty young woman while waiting for his flight from Paris to New York. He describes her and seems obsessed with her beauty. Meanwhile there is a snowstorm that prevents them from leaving. Finally they board the plane and he sits by her expecting...I don't really know...to talk to her and propose marriage (well maybe not that). She immediately falls asleep before he can even say anything to her. And she sleeps the WHOLE way to New York. He's looking at her the whole time and thinking of her beauty. Then they land and she gets up and leaves and he never knows anything of her. In some of the analysis I read, they describe the girl as cold and only concerned about herself. I think they give her a hard time. Why is it such a big deal if you get on a plane, fall asleep and then get off without saying "bye" to the creepy older man sitting next to you? Maybe I lost something in translation, but it seems unfair to me.

The narrator also describes something that he had read about previously. Apparently the upper-class men of Kyoto would pay enormous sums to pass the night with the most beautiful girls of the city. The young women were naked and on drugs, while the men were agonizing of love in the same bed. The men couldn't touch or anything because the essence of pleasure was to see them sleeping.

¡Que raro! Is he talking about geishas, or were geishas something different?

Last night I cried a little before I fell asleep because I was listening to music. First a song came on that I heard a lot over the summer, then another song came on that I've only listened to since I've been here. Both songs represent a specific time of my life so well and they both sounded so good. The moral of the story is that I don't want to leave, while at the same time kind of wanting to go home. I feel so confused.

This past weekend was pretty fun. It made me regret not spending more weekends in Barcelona...though seeing Europe is also pretty important. Saturday morning I went to the Penedès Region with API to do a cava tour thing. I almost missed the bus because I overslept, which I NEVER do! Luckily I live close to our meeting spot, so I made it just in time. The tour was kind of boring actually. It reminded me of when I was a little girl and my family used to tour breweries in Wisconsin because my dad liked learning about beer. Then he started home-brewing and our whole house would smell like a brewery with my dad as the mad scientist working the controls, haha. Tasting cava was the best part, but mostly because I was so hungry and thirsty. It's a bit funny that the last thing I'd had to drink the night before was strawberry margarita and then I wake up and drink cava at 11AM. We were able to see Montserrat in the distance from the windowed tasting room.

Later that night Megumi and I went out to celebrate our weekend in Barcelona. We visited what we claim is our favorite bar "Q-Bar" and then went to another place to have Claras. I don't know if Claras exist in the US, but they should. It's beer mixed with tonic of lemon or lemon soda. It's girly for sure, but good. Finally we made it to Apolo, where we had to pay 13 euros to get in. The entrance fees to clubs here are ridiculous. Most are usually around 10 euros, the really popular ones can be more. Usually a drink is included. Some clubs offer free entrance with fliers, but those clubs usually suck or are meant for tourists. It's not as bad as Paris/London where they can be the equivalent of 25-40USD for entrance. Apolo was fun. It's seemed the least touristy of the places I've been, the music was decent (electronic/house), and the dance floor was giant. We went up to the balcony around the floor and looked down...there were so many people! It's what I imagined a European club to be like. From the balcony we spotted a girl in the very front with a bright blue wig, so we made it our mission to go dance with her. We got close and then her friend with a crazy spiky black wig and white hipster sunglasses offered me some of his drink. I was terrified that it probably had 500 types of drugs in it so I declined and told him I liked his hair instead. We left some time around 5:30AM. Things were still going strong. We wanted to go watch the sunrise at the beach (as we'd wanted to do about 15 times before) but as soon as I sat down on my bed I was out for the night.

Sunday I got up and ate lunch, then Megumi and I went out for tea at the cafe down the street since it's so cold in our house. Later I went for stroll around Born with my friend to practice my Spanish and his English. I think it's best to learn with someone who knows about as much of your language as you do of theirs. It's also good to learn with someone who's firm enough to force you to speak in Spanish. I've met many people with whom I can practice my Spanish, but it's always hard if the person knows English well enough because then the conversation always turns into English anyway. Right now I'm feeling irritated because I know I'm at a crucial point in my acquisition of fluency and I have to go home. If I were to continue living here for another 3-4 months, I think I'd be mostly fluent. Things are starting to "click" in terms of speaking, the way they once "clicked" in terms of writing. I'm so worried that I'm going to leave and lose my ability to speak at all. I have to find more people to practice with when I get back home.

Brrrr....I was definitely given the coldest room in our house.