¡Mis clases han empezado!

La Universitat de Barcelona

Hola a todos,

My classes have started! So far so good—everything is great! I’ll get to my classes in a little bit…

As for now, I’m just gonna blab. There are twelve Dartmouth students in my program and we all get along well! Everyone is really nice and we all like hanging out together! Like tonight, we are all going out because tomorrow is La Mercé, it’s a Catalonia holiday with a huge celebration. The official holiday is tomorrow, September 24, but the partying starts tonight and lasts through Sunday evening. I’m so very excited for this. Plus, like four of us have other friends who are here in Barcelona who have their own apartments so we can visit lots of people!

OMG, ok, so right now I’m listening to my Barcelona Playlist. It’s really international electro/house music, but I love it and it’s played 24/7 on my fav Spanish radio station. It’s way cool and I was able to download most of the songs right to my iTunes, so I’m just preppin for las fiestas tonight because we are going to do it big. Really big.

Some of the gang is at the beach right now, but I’ve already been twice this week, so I felt like coming back to my casa and taking a siesta. My bed is really loud though so it sucks. Well, the frame is like an old wooden one and it creaks literally every time I move. I feel badly for Francois, my brother here en la casa. His bed is right next to my wall and I’m sure he can hear my bed at night. Ay de mi!

Speaking of Francois, have I told you about him? I don’t remember everything I’ve already said… haha. Anyway, Francois is from Lyon, France and is a super chill guy. He’s awesome! He is here studying, too, but not a la misma Universidad. I’m not sure where he is studying. It’s funny because every time my host mother, Margarita, talks about him ella dice, “Francois es muy muy simpático”,,, y lo es la verdad. Quisiera ir a la playa y jugar volibol con él porque ambos nos gusta jugar volibol. We have a running joke in our little group because all the girls here want to meet Francois so they always stalk him through me. Not really, but it’s way funny! But really, he’s a cool guy.

We also have two girls from Switzerland living in the apartment with us. I don’t remember both of their names, but one is Jasmine. When Margarita told me they were going to come I thought she said girls who were “sucios” were going to come… so I was like, what? Are they like homeless dirty girls? But it turns out she said “Suizas” and I didn’t know that was the word for Swiss. Lol. So dinners are great because we have Margarita who only speaks Spanish, Francois who speaks French, and the Swiss girls who speak every friggin language of the world. It’s a very diverse house! (Margarita’s son, Miguel, also lives here and her other son Roberto has been here often, but he has his own apartment, so I don’t know why he is always here…)

So I live in a really upscale barrio. The street I walk down everyday has stores like Rolex, Giorgio Armani, etc. and they are super awesome! Today I went into a few and was surprised at the “low” prices. I mean they are still pretty expensive tiendas, pero not as expensive as, say, the Cherry Creek Mall. I went into the Armani store because I wanted to check out some cologne (Agua di Gio… which is on my wish list beeteedub if you wanna buy me some…☺) and was proud of myself because I talked to the sales clerk and was able to hold a conversation with fluency! She told me that this particular store doesn’t sell cologne but there was an Armani store near by that sells only colognes and perfumes. So that was cool. Then I went into another store that is awesome. I don’t remember the name of it, but I didn’t think the prices were too bad considering the posh-ness, chic-ness, and quality of the clothes. I’m definitely gonna do some major shopping soon! (And by major, I mean, buy like one item. Lol).

OMG, the littler girl outside my window who screams all the time is screaming again. She really needs to shut up. Like, now.

I’m supposed to be siesta-ing right now so I can charge up my energy for las discotheques esta noche, but I’m writing. So I’ll wrap this up soon. Speaking of clubs, omg, I’ll never be able to enjoy the Denver nightlife again. I don’t know why they call Miami the world’s playground when clearly Barcelona (sans Ibiza) is the place to be for nightlife. Ay dios mio, es una lastima! Even raves have nothing on the typical club in Barcelona. They’re great!

Ok, so I guess I can talk about my classes now. Well, the university is GORGEOUS. And by gorgeous, I mean, I’ve never seen a prettier place to study. The part of the building que es antigua is very beautiful and I will def take some pics soon. The part that is moderno is alright, but nothing special. Pretty boring, actually, but there are gardens in the old building that are just beautiful! And LOTS of stray cats. Hay muchos gatos alla. They all just roam the gardens, play around, and beg for food. I like ‘em.

I’m taking four classes; la historia y cultura de España, conversación, gramática y literatura. All the profs are pretty cool! The hardest prof for me to understand is the one from Dartmouth! My conversation prof is awesome! His name is Joan, which is the Catalan version of Juan, but pronounced differently. He doesn’t use vosotros and is a pretty chill guy, too. I am very pleased at how much I can understand in the classes. Granted today was just a lecturing day and we don’t have a lot of work yet, but I understand a lot more than I thought I would! The Spanish history is so amazing. It’s really great and interesting. I think I’ll enjoy that class. It’s fun taking classes in a completely different language—and yes, the classes are taught entirely in Spanish. In fact, some of my profs don’t even know English, so it’s impossible for them to communicate with us otherwise. I hope the term goes well.

Well, I really do need to tomar una siesta ahora porque I don’t want to be tired tonight. We are heading out as a group around 10:30 (but I don’t know why because that is so early) and we plan to shut down the clubs a las seis de la mañana. Pues, que tengas un buen día!

Hasta la próxima vez,

David.