Un Rapido Aggiornamento

Mmkay- here’s the abridged version of my past week.

Barcelona- Got there, found my hostel- it had a very excited staff; it was fun. I bought a T-10 (the metro pass which gives you 10 rides and isn’t very cheap), and I lost it after 1 use and bought another (at least I made the day of whoever found it on the ground). At this point I was very grumpy because I had low blood sugar and was very hungry.. I finally made it back to the main square and started walking down Las Ramblas (a street that begonia told me to be sure to see- it was very cool- there were lots of performers and great flowers and art and local foods, etc.), and at the end was heaven to my complaining stomach- La Boqueria. La boqueria is a huge market with tons of fresh fruits, vegetables, seafoods, meats, breads, etc. etc. I got a stomach ache almost immediately because I bought everything I saw and scarffed it down way too fast. Next, I hurried to the metro to Plaza Espanya, where I got a little lost but saw some cool things. I didn’t get to see everything that I wanted to see there because I lost my paper saying what was where, and the clouds had started rolling in and I wanted to be sure to see some Gaudi… so I hopped back onto the metro (which is no so efficient and actually wasted quite a bit of the little time I had in BCN) and by the time I got off it, it was pouring. Even in the rain, the Sagrada Familia was incredible. I tried to get some pictures despite the rain, but they did not really turn out. It would be worth buying a plane ticket back to Barcelona just to get a better look at the Sagrada Familia- it broke my heart to give in and get out of the rain to take cover. It was sort of late by then, and it was raining anyway, so I headed back to the hostel. I dropped off my things and grabbed my book and went to Hyde Park pub near my hostel, where I sat for a couple hours reading my book, drinking a Spanish beer, and eating a Spanish burger…it was magical. After that, I headed back to hostel, asked staff how I was supposed to get to the airport by 5 am despite the public transport not beginning to run until 5, which started a big hubbub of brainstorming from everyone in the lobby who was hanging out trying to help me- it was really cool. Hostels can have a pretty amazing atmosphere. We figured out that a night bus runs all night, and I could take 2 of them to get to the airport, it would just take 2 hours, where as the train would have only taken half an hour. I went to bed for a couple of hours, wearing all my clothes so that I could hop up at 3:20am and head out the door. I woke up according to plan, ran out the door, and hopped on my first bus by 3:40. After some difficulty finding out the right stop at the main plaza, I found my next bus (there are at least 30 bus stops around the square). I found it just in time, and finally got to the airport right when I needed to, with time to sit and relax once I got to my gate. But I couldn’t fully relax because Jenn didn’t show up, and I thought that I would have to spend my vaca in Palma alone, just like I did Barcelona and Rome. I had fully prepared myself for this and got in the back of the line to get on the plane, and just as the gate was closing and I was stepping on the plane, I turned around and Jenn had made in just in time!

Palma- On the flight I watched the sun rise over the ocean- which turns the whole sky and ocean the same color pink, and you can’t even distinguish the line between the two..it looks like you’re flying through a pink vacuum. We found our shuttle to the hostel, where I was able to add myself to their triple room, no problem! Actually, the room we got was for 6 people, but we got to pay the 4 person price. Our 6-person room smelled like pesticides and wasn’t the nicest of rooms, but the man working the desk was very nice and helpful. We went straight to the beach to explore. We spent that whole morning laying on the beach, even though it was actually very cold when the sun was behind one of the many clouds, but it was still nice with the sound of the ocean and the soft sand- there was also a family of Italians with about 12 kids playing near us to keep us entertained. Later that day, Jenn’s twin sister and their friend from HS who is also studying in Barcelona showed up- they had classes that day that they couldn’t miss. Following this was a lot more beach-laying, eating, looking through shops, celebrating Carolyn’s 21st birthday, etc. The weather on Sat was much sunnier and warmer, and on Sun, even more so. Jenn headed out early Sun to end her month of travelling, the other 2 headed out Sunday evening and I was left on my own for the last night. I didn’t explore more because I was pretty tired of being assaulted by shops’, restaurants’, and clubs’ reps that stand in the streets and trying to pull you into their respective establishments (it was not peak tourist season and they were all pretty desperate. They also start hollering at you in German, because if you aren’t Spanish-looking, they assume you’re German, since about 90% of the people in Palma Mallorca are German. It’s weird…), so I just hung out in the icky room, repacking everything into the tiny, Ryanair-approved suitcase, and reading my book. The next morning’s travel was very adventurous since the bus that I took to the airport took 3 times longer than expected because of the clans of nomads with all of their possessions that kept piling onto the bus at every stop- so once I got to the airport, I only had a half hour to check in at the Ryanair customs, get through security, and find my gate (but I arrived at the airport with some very nice Brazilians who were also trying to catch my plane, so I had some people to run through the airport with, which is always better than running by yourself). I only had 40 min at the next airport to get from my gate in terminal 2 where I arrived to terminal 1 where I was leaving from, and again, check into the counter, make it through security, and find my gate. It all worked out. I made it back to the Villalta just in time for lunch (which I had to beg for since I was famished, but I hadn’t signed up for the meal in advance…they took pity on me and the lunch was excellent). I opted to eat lunch and be an hour late to class, which was worth it in my opinion. Again, I didn’t learn any new Italian in class, but I had fun because at least that day, no one else was understanding either, and I’ve met more of the people in class, which makes it more pleasant when you have someone to look at when the topic is going over your head and they look back at you with the same dumbfounded expression. However, due to circumstances (Dan coming to Naples in a few days), I will not be attending any more of the Italian classes, so you don’t have to hear me complain about not understanding anymore! I’m not even officially signed up for the class, so there no way for me to get credit for it, so there is no point in me going to the last 2 classes and taking the final exam, which I would fail. Please don’t be disappointed in me- family, grandparent, etc. I have been getting many compliments on my Italian- the girls are very impressed at how much I can understand now. It’s much easier for me to have the girls speak to me in Italian now that I know more, because I can’t understand their pronunciation of English words anyway. The ability to speak is coming more slowly, but at least it’s coming!

The rest of Monday- not a lot happened, I was pretty worn out and I had a lot of homework to catch up on. So that, and dinner and tertulia, completed my Monday.

Tues- Pretty normal day- I don’t remember anyting particular from this day other than at the tertulia after dinner, we were talking about Bin Laden and one of the girls said Obama Bin Laden, w/o realizing what she said, I started dying laughing, then everyone else started laughing at me.

Wed- up, breakfast, met Anna (a German girl from my Italian course who used to ride horses and misses is a lot, so I invited her to come ride with me) at metro, went to Pozzuoli for riding. On trail, Ziggy was great; he was a little ornery at first because he hadn’t been ridden in a couple of days, so I had to take him to the ring before we went out to wear him out a bit. He’s such an excellent trail horse- at one point there was a giant tree that had slid down the Cliffside and into our path...I was trying to figure out how to get back- I decided we had to turn around because there was no way to go around the tree due to the cliffs on each side of the trail, but going back up the path we came down who have been too difficult, so I decided I had to get off and walk him through- but he wouldn’t stand for me getting off, he knew he could make it through, and he did! You could sort of weave through the branches and go underneath the trunk as long as I laid down on top of his neck… After the ride, I made it back to the Villalta and took a much-needed shower, went to tertulia where the girls asked about where I was and what it was like in America when Sept 11 happened (they had been discussing Osama again), I ate a late lunch since I missed the first one, then got to talk to Dan again- first time in a long time. Next-bank, homework, etc. Dinner was great- I had to leave as the movie was starting though because it looked like one that I really wanted to see and I didn’t want to ruin it by watching it in Italian and not understanding everything. Instead, I wrote up the abstract of my involvement here since Rolla has asked what I'm up to, and if you care to read it, I can send it your way.

Thurs-
This morning I met with one of the grad students to go over my abstract to make sure I didn’t mess up the description of the research they are doing here, and I went to my Metallic Structures class, which was actually pretty hilarious. In civil engineering, you can tell who’s a “steels” guy and who’s a “concrete” guy, because both are extremely biased towards structures of their respective material. These are direct quotes from my Professor in class today- “Why build with reinforced concrete? To destroy our towns!” And after looking at a picture of a huge, hunky, (ugly, but don’t tell), metallic building, smack-dab in the middle of historic London, he said- “See? No disturbance on the surrounding designs! Are a continuation!,” because a beautiful church next to the hunky, metal building was being reflected off it’s façade. Pretty great stuff. And he finally gave us our first assignment, which is to write a report to provide an illustration of what the world and our cities would look like if reinforced concrete had never been discovered. I’ve never met a person who hates concrete more. I’m looking forward to writing this paper… I know that as long as I come to the conclusion in my report that the world would be a much more beautiful place without concrete, I’ll get an A :)

Mmkay, that’s about all. Ciao!