I finally decided to take a walk about 4:15 and Shari went with me. We walked down to the water and along the beach, but it was an overcast day and the beach isn't very nice here. It had rained again overnight and it rained on and off during the day, but we picked the best 2 hours to walk - no rain. We got back to the residence about 6:30 and it started raining quite heavily shortly after we got back.
Antonella came to visit us about 7PM and stayed for 45 minutes and then went down to do her laundry. I gave her my MP3 player to listen to for the evening because she likes Billie Holliday, and I told her she might also like Dinah Washington and Ella Fitzgerald. We are going to the music store this week so I can recommend a Dinah Washington CD to her.
Iwent down to cook dinner about 8:30 - pork chops, carrots and baked potato (I'm getting very spoiled with food here) and then up to my room to read. I made a few phone calls (Peter, Chuck, Susan, and Gail Piatkowski) but it was only 4PM at home so everyone was out but Gail. It was really nice to talk with her (I think the last time was New Zealand). I want to take advantage of having a phone in my room to use, but the 6 hour time difference makes it difficult to reach anyone at home. I'll try Chuck and Susan at work tomorrow.
10/20: After class today all of us went out to lunch with our teacher Agnes. Agnes wanted us to try Patatas Bravas and they were delicious. They are potatoes which are cut like a big french fry but they are softer than french fries. They are served with a hot oil and garlic mayonnaise. We also had a few appetizer dishes - olives and pickles, croquettes, anchovies, sardines, tuna and peppers.
We had taken the metro over to the restaurant from school, but Shari and I decided to walk back. It was about an hour's walk and we stopped at a post office along the way so I could mail my notes. Of course that took forever (20 minutes), because there are always lots of people at the post office. You take a number, but the line moves very slowly because none of the postal workers do anything very quickly. We also did a few other errands on the way back and didn't get back to the school until 6PM.
At 7PM, we went to another one of the cultural classes - this one was supposed to be on Dali, but it was changed to being on Argentina - the politics, the geography and the culture. I barely understood a word and it was quite boring. Antonelle said she understood a lot of it and she was bored too. After the lecture I just cooked dinner and then read for a while. I called Peter about 10:45 and talked to him for a bit which was very nice.
10/21: Both classes went pretty quickly today. We are learning about locations (e.g., right, left, above, below, near) and some different verb tenses. After class, Shari, Mattis (from Norway) Antonella and I walked up to see one of the buildings that Gaudi designed and built -Casa Mila "La Pedrera." Antonella decided not to go inside because she had seen it before, but Mattis, Shari and I went in and rented headsets so we could listen to the narrative as we walked around. Gaudi built Casa Mila in the early 1900s, partly as a residence for the Mila family, and partly as apartments they they could lease out.
What a wonderful building, and the exhibit and narrative were great. I really got an appreciation of Gaudi's genius and learned alot about his architectural techniques and how he used shapes, colors and the geometry of nature in his work. We walked around there for about 2.5 hours and I wish I could have stayed longer, but we had to meet Antonella back at the school at 4:45 PM.
We had made plans to meet so we could go get our refund for the tour we missed on Saturday. We met her, went over to get our refund, and then Antonella and I went to the grocery store and then to the music store so she could buy a CD. Then I went back to use the internet, and went back to school about 6:30. I studied for a while and then went to cook dinner about 8:15.
We have a test tomorrow after class. It is an optional test to see how we are doing, so Shari and I both thought it would be worth taking it. At the end of the classes, we will get a certificate saying we attended 2 weeks of classes, but no test grade is recorded on the certificate.
10/22: Today in class we did more work with verbs, and then we studied how to get directions to places (e.g., go straight on a street, turn left, take the second right). After class we took the test from 1-2 PM. It didn't seem too bad, but I don't have any idea how I did because just a subtle difference in a word will make the difference between a right or wrong answer.
After the test, Shari and I went over to check out a few shops in the Cortes Inglais building and then just went back to school to lay down and read. There was a walk at 7:15, led by one of the teachers from the school (the one that did the talk on Antoni Gaudi last Tuesday evening). The walk was going to visit the Barrio del Borne and I didn't think I would enjoy it because I figurerd I would never underatand anything the teacher said. Well, there was only 4 of us plus the teacher on the walk, and it was really nice. The Barrio del Borne is a lovely part of Barcelona, filled with nice shops and restaurants, and we got to see the Santa Maria del Mar Church, and an interesting memorial dedicated to those who died during the seige of Cataluyna during the 1700s.
We got back from the walk about 8:30 and I just cooked dinner and went to bed about 10:30.
10/23: Today we learned all the Spanish words for various members of a family and for various articles of clothing and colors. It was fun. We each had to describe our families (sort of a family tree) and then pretend we were going to a fiesta and describe what we would wear to the fiesta. Tomorrow we will find out how we did on the test.
After class Shari and I went for a nice afternoon outing up to Tibado. We took the metro 5 stops and then we walked a fairly long way uphill to Tibado. At the top of Tibado there is a small amusement park with a ferris wheel, a roller coaster, and a merry-go-round, and a lovely church with a big statue of Christ overlooking the city. You get a great view of Barcelona from up there, and after we walked around a bit and enjoyed the view, we sat on the steps of the church and ate our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
We had a little hiking adventure on our walk down from Tibado because we took a path through the woods part way down. It ended up being quite steep and slippery, and we weren't sure where it would come out. Eventually it ended at a road we walked down to get us to the metro. It was a fun little trip and made me remember how much I like walking in the woods.
We went to the intenet on the way back to school and then I went back to do my homework before I went to the wine cultural class at 7PM. Tonight's lecture was on red wine, and while I didnt understand much of what the teacher said, I got to taste 5 red wines. Neither Antonella nor I liked any of the wines. Tomorrow there is a lecture and tasting on white wine that I might go to.
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