Second...I forgot to say something else about my flight from Amsterdam last time. At the check in line at the airport these stupid people acted as if they had never been through airport security. Stupid people and airport security do not mix well - this is also one of my biggest pet peeves. So there is this husband and wife and then there are two security people on the other side of the walk through archway beeper thing. So the wife walks through and it beeps and the husband starts walking through before the wife had really even exited the other side of the arch. Now, these arches, as you know, are not big!! So then they each had to go back through and they repeated this same stupid thing seriously 3 times before the security had just about had enough of their shenanigans. They security arch was beeping like it was going to explode, I wanted to smack some sense into these people because they were holding up the entire line. If they wanted my opinion - these people were either #1 hiding something, or terrorists trying to get through security by going at the same time to cause confusion, OR #2, my personal favorite, JUST PLAIN FUCKING STUPID! Aaaaaannnnnnnndddd guess what folks, it was #2! They finally made it through and then it turned out that they were on my plane and acted just as stupid on the plane. Everyone clearly knows that on a plane the flight attendants are going to come up and down the aisles with their carts so if you need to use the bathroom you should plan accordingly. - The average person knows this. Well, the flight attendant is trying to move back through the aisle but this stupid lady (same lady) wants through to her seat and the flight attendant had to tell her not once, not twice, but three times and then literally move her into an empty seat in a row to get by and this stupid lady didn't even seemed phased by the fact that the whole plane was staring at her like she was mentally ill. I mean seriously? These people acted like it was their first time on an airplane and I clearly could tell that they were of Philippine or Asian decent and were not from Amsterdam because they spoke zero English. Therefore, I know that they have been on a plane before! lol
The point of all this - I'm constantly amazed by the stupidity of the "average" person. Sometimes I just can't believe how cluelessly people move through life. It just never seizes to amaze me!
Alright, now that I've got that out of my system..on to more important things. I think I left off with last monday so we will start with tuesday!
Tuesday - First day of Catalan!! Now I'm not sure if I've explained this before so I'll go ahead and go through it again just in case someone has been a "lazy reader" *cough* Julie *cough*! Spain has 9 or so Autonomous communities and Barcelona is located in Catalonia, probably the most important one. It's similar to us having states in the USA, we have federal laws and then each of our states kind of governs itself with its own laws and stuff. It's similar to that concept. So in Catalonia they speak two different languages. First they speak Catalan which is spoken by almost 7 million people most here in Catalonia, Andorra, the Balearic Islands, some parts of France, and some parts of Italy and then they speak Spanish. They are both nationally recognized languages. All of the signs, museums, even McDonald's is in Catalan here!! It's similar to Spanish in some ways but it is also similar to, and sounds like, French. A mixture between Spanish and French would be the best way to describe it. Therefore, Barcelona is not the BEST city to learn Spanish in because everything is in Catalan and sometimes when I think I'm learning a new Spanish word, I'm really learning a Catalan word! It can be very frustrating at times.
So we stated learning Catalan in class on tuesday. It's a very hard language but it sounds very pretty! I don't think that I will master this one but it's useful to my everyday life here in Barcelona! Our second class was cancelled again on tuesday. We have literally had this class I think 3 times since we've been here. It gets cancelled every week but I honestly don't mind! The less work I have to do means more time to party and relax for me! After school on tuesday I can't even remember what I did. I probably just procrastinated about doing homework and was lazy.
Wednesday we had, the always dreadful, event management. The class ran over and I felt like just getting up and leaving. I didn't take a single note all class I just surfed the internet on my iphone! lol I hate this class with a passion, it's just so poorly taught that I can't even bring myself to pay attention anymore! We grabbed a quick bite to eat after class and went to our research class with Katherine. We got to watch one group do their street presentations and then we voted on who was going to go on the 18th and who was going to present on the 25th. My group got the 25th, thank goodness! My group decided how we were going to split up the paper and our presentation and then class was over! After we got home from school I went to the store for a few things, Sam and I made homemade tomato soup and grilled cheese! It was okay. The soup was a little to tangy for my taste in tomato soups and the cheddar cheese that we bought for our sandwiches tasted like crap. lol It's not the same here at all! I worked diligently on homework this night for Thursday's class. I got one of the assignments done. I laid down at 10:30 to take a short nap and ended up sleeping all night until I woke up at about 7:30 the next morning!! I guess I was really tired! **
Thursday - A very busy day -My day started off pretty good, I had plenty of time to get ready and enjoy my breakfast and then it was off to school! We practiced our Catalan in class, learned our alphabet and numbers, as well as some useful phrases. After class we had a 3 1/2 hour break but I had to meet with my group members for Thursday's class at 2pm to put together our parts for our "Basque Country" presentation. So, I had to quickly do my part!! I hurried through it and when I went to meet with my group at 2 only one other girl showed up and she wasn't even at the meeting last week! I was ticked off! Our other 2 group members could have at least called or texted us to let us know that they weren't going to be coming ya know!? We worked on the project anyways since we were there and had nothing else to do! I felt like we got something accomplished and then 10 minutes before it was time to go to class our other group member shows up and says "oh hey guys! Sorry i'm late!" - Suuurreee, try 2 hours late!? Like WTF? How can you be that late? She just didn't want to come but she could have had the decency to call and let us know!. I thought this was pretty rude of her so I just ignored her. I packed up my stuff and headed to class because I didn't want to be late. We got to watch two groups present and I'm so glad that my group didn't go first because after the presentation I wanted to change everything about our project!! This class is really tough, it's probably the hardest one that we have next to Catalan! The class is mostly Spanish students and then there are the Americans, the Norwegians, and two of the Finnish girls! The class is in English and the professor, Joseph LOVES the USA and basically told us the first day of the class that we are there to help the Spanish students with their English! How lovely! So before the groups started their presentations he went around the class and handed certain people a piece of paper to "judge" one of the four people presenting in each group. I thought, ok so it's just a 1 - 10 scale and some comments BUT, at the end of the presentations he made the students stay standing while each of us "criticized" their presentation skills and many of the students where harsh and the teacher was too!! I was in shock! I couldn't belive that he was actually saying these things. I don't consider this "constructive criticism" I consider it insulting and rude!! I guess this is another one of those cultural boundary things. I'm really nervous to present anything though after the process I witnessed! We don't do things like that at my school! I mean speech class was somewhat similar but it wasn't even that harsh!
After school was out we rushed home to get everything ready for all the Erasmus students to come over. Five of the girls on our program are from a school called Maastricht in Holland and their semester system runs something similar to our trimester system at Johnson and Wales. They have 3 terms just like us and their new term was starting on Nov. 16th so they were leaving earlier than the rest of us to go back home to start their new semester. Sooo, we had a little get together at our house and we made pizza's for everyone. They supplied the ingredients, we supplied the venue, and we had a lovely party! It was great and then after the pizza party was over we all went out to club it up at this fancy discotec called Suton. It was really nice and I had a good time. Alex accidentally tripped me at the club though and I now have a massive bruise on my knee because I hit something on the way down and it's pretty painful. However, at the time I didn't really notice because we were all pretty drunk! lol It happens! We didn't get home till around 5:30ish, I had a pastry and a banana and called it a night! I was exhausted physically and emotionally. It was really sad having to say goodbye to a big chunk of our group! The Maastricht girls were sooo much fun! We called them the 'professional party-ers' because they would go out every single night to the hottest clubs, stay out till 6 am, and then come to class the next morning looking perfect like they had gotten plenty of rest! I'm really going to miss them and their partying abilities! I'm telling you these European girls are professionals, I really need to step my game up!
Friday I slept in until about 2 in the afternoon!! I had a very lazy day on Friday. After I woke up....well, let's just say I enjoyed a honeymoon type whimsical state all day! :) Dinner was good and then afterward I went for a walk around the Gothic Quarter. Late friday night we made plans to go to Tarragona the next morning. We choose between Tarragona and Montserrat. I'm obviously going to do both, it was just a matter of deciding when to do them! I called it a night around 1 am in order to get some rest for my adventure!!
Tarragona and the beginning of this week will be in a separate post...! :D
2 comments:
Ok, I am sorry if I'm a lazy reader, but I am a very busy person. So :P
I don't even have enough time to blog myself!
Anyway, don't swear, do you work and have fun.
Sounds to me like she is having PLENTY of fun, Julie, is 'don't swear' the only advice you have?
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