Punctuality

Today we had to get up early (we usually don’t have class until 1) to get a briefing on the field trip to the Basque country next week. We were told to be there at 9:30am! We showed up on time and the meeting didn’t start until close to 10. It was scheduled early for the Monterrey group or something and they didn’t even show up on time! There were about half of them there at 10. I told Alba about that afterward and she said that if we are scheduled for a meeting that far ahead, she will bring up what happened today. I don’t know what it is (it must be cultural or something), but it even happened on our trip to Madrid. We were told to be in the lobby at a certain time each morning and the Americans were always on time and the Mexicans just showed up whenever they felt like it (as bad as it sounds to classify by country, but that’s exactly how it was). So, by the end of that trip, the tour guides told them to show up 30 minutes before the time that they told us…it was that bad.

The meeting was like 15 minutes long, so we had a lot of time to kill (time that could have been better used sleeping in). I helped one of the girls in our group get her computer fixed (it had spyware, adware, and a virus…) and then we had class. For some reason, I was VERY tired in class. I was struggling to stay awake. It didn’t help that the lights were off, we were looking at slides, and our prof was kind of monotonous.

When I got back to the apartment, I took a long nap. When I woke up, it was dark. I then made some food and hung out with Mike, Scott S., Ryan, and Dave for a little bit. Now, I’m working on some stuff for our project because we are going to “present” what we have so far to Miguel Roldan tomorrow morning. That’s my night.

Weird Weather and Fútbol Game

I forgot to put in yesterday that it snowed! We asked our profs and they said that it snows like once every 10 years! It’s crazy. It wasn’t cold enough for it to collect on the ground, but it was snowing pretty hard at times. Some of the flakes were really big too! It was nice to finally see snow falling from the sky. I’ve seen patches on the ground and even flurries, but never really falling as flakes. I was born in Nebraska and it would snow, but I was too young to remember any of it.

Today we had a work day because our studio prof had to go to Mexico…his mom passed away over the weekend. She had suffered a stroke last week and was doing a little bit better, but took a turn for the worst. It’s very sad because he had debated going back last week, but wasn’t sure. Our prayers go out to him and his family…

After class, we had a meeting with Michael Neuman and he wanted to have a kind of “mid-semester talk” about how things are going and what kind of suggestions we might have for the program. He gave us some advice as far as finding travelling information and stuff. He also invited us over to his place to watch the Barcelona/Espanyol fútbol game.

The afternoon was filled with “boredom” (which means some napping and hanging out). Later on in the evening I made another batch of Macaroni and Cheese (4 left now…) and put some sausage in it. It was awesome! We then called Michael Neuman and went over to watch the game. It was nice and we got to talk and stuff during the game. The end score was 0 to 0, but it was still a good game.

Weird Weather and Fútbol Game

I forgot to put in yesterday that it snowed! We asked our profs and they said that it snows like once every 10 years! It’s crazy. It wasn’t cold enough for it to collect on the ground, but it was snowing pretty hard at times. Some of the flakes were really big too! It was nice to finally see snow falling from the sky. I’ve seen patches on the ground and even flurries, but never really falling as flakes. I was born in Nebraska and it would snow, but I was too young to remember any of it.

Today we had a work day because our studio prof had to go to Mexico…his mom passed away over the weekend. She had suffered a stroke last week and was doing a little bit better, but took a turn for the worst. It’s very sad because he had debated going back last week, but wasn’t sure. Our prayers go out to him and his family…

After class, we had a meeting with Michael Neuman and he wanted to have a kind of “mid-semester talk” about how things are going and what kind of suggestions we might have for the program. He gave us some advice as far as finding travelling information and stuff. He also invited us over to his place to watch the Barcelona/Espanyol fútbol game.

The afternoon was filled with “boredom” (which means some napping and hanging out). Later on in the evening I made another batch of Macaroni and Cheese (4 left now…) and put some sausage in it. It was awesome! We then called Michael Neuman and went over to watch the game. It was nice and we got to talk and stuff during the game. The end score was 0 to 0, babarão também por se sentir frustrado

Octavio Mestre's Office

As usual, I had class from 9-2:30. After that, there was some down time and then around 5:30, most of the group went to Octavio’s (on of our professors) office. It was awesome. He has a tremendous amount of books. He said that between his office and his flat, he has around 18,000 books. I don’t doubt it! It was an awesome facilitiy and he showed us some of his works that had been published in various magazines, etc. It was actually my first time in an architectural firm, and it was a great one to be in. I can’t even really describe it. Pretty much everything was designed by him…right down to the furniture. It was just great. He’s really funny and he had a lot of good advice and information to give us. He said that we are always welcome to come in and read or ask questions and stuff and I know that I am going to take full advantage of that. He even let Dave and I take one of 3 old monitors that he wanted to get rid of. Now, when we work on our projects, we’ll have dual monitors (which is what I’m used to at home), hehe.

Church and The Fifth Element

This morning I went to church and got to talk to Guillermo and some new people after the service. I even got to do the two-side-kiss thing with one of the ladies that I met last time. I felt like a Spaniard, haha. Talking with Guillermo was nice because as he said (in Spanish) “it forces me to listen and learn.”

The afternoon was filled with laundry, napping, and relaxation. At around 9, some of the guys got together in Mike and Scott S.’s room and watched The Fifth Element…such a great movie!

Cold Beach, and Aman's Birthday

Today Mike, Clay and I headed down to the beach to throw the frisbee around and what not. We wore shorts because at the time it seemed like a good idea. Little did we know that down at the beach it was a lot colder and windier than back at the apartment. And, then the sun went behind clouds and that was that…freezing cold. My parents called and I got to talk to them for a while and that was nice as usual. I told my dad that I was going to start making plans for my independent travel time…

Clay and Mike decided to do the unthinkable. They went into the ocean. It was really cold just standing on the beach, let alone in the cold water! I didn’t go in, but instead documented their stupidity with my camera. When they got out, we started back to the apartment…shiverring.

Later that evening, we went to the Hard Rock Café again, but this time to celebrate Aman’s birthday. He was turning 25 and he wanted another dose of American food on his birthday. None of us objected.

After eating, we got together at the girls’ apartment for the birthday party and that was a lot of fun. I was very tired for some reason, and I fell asleep at one point. When I woke up (I wasn’t sleeping long), I walked back to my apartment with Dave. Then it was bedtime.

Macaroni and Cheese, and God Bless America

I forgot to say yesterday that I received care packages from home! I got Macaroni and Cheese (6 boxes!), peanut butter, candy, gum, a pair of shorts (I forgot them), some cookies, more Zest, Office for Mac, and they got me the DVD Shark Tale. That definitely made my week!

Tonight I made the Mac ‘n Cheese and it was delicious! It’s crazy how much I missed that taste. We went out to some bars to hang out and meet people…of course, I didn’t drink. At one of the places we went to an English guy by the name of Paul talked to some of us about his travels to America and stuff and we told him the usual (we’re going to school in Barcelona, etc). Before he had to go, he said that he wanted to share one important thing with us. He said “God Bless America.” He then told us how his girlfriend was suffering from a brain anuerism and he took her to a hospital in California and they were able to make her all better again. He told us that “no matter what we think other people think about us (Americans), there are still a lot of people that love and support America.” That was awesome to hear…definitely made my night.

Colónial Güell and Keeping in Touch

I haven’t written all week, but there hasn’t been anything to really write about. It has just been class and working on my group research project poster. Actually, I take that back. On Monday, we had a field trip with our professor Suzanne Strum to Colónial Güell which is located about 20 minutes outside of the heart of Barcelona. We took the FGC train to it and it wasn’t too bad.

It was a nice place that was made of masonry buildings. It was basically a small town. One piece of architecture that we spent time looking at was a church designed by Antonio Gaudí. The church was never finished (and never will be), but what exists is the crypt. It was very pretty inside with butterfly-like stained glass cross windows. Very colorful. I, of course, took pictures. It was a nice field trip, but it made us late to our next class. The funny thing was that our prof was late too, so we didn’t miss anything at all.

But like I said before, nothing (outside of the small field trip) really has happened this week except working on the research poster. The group I’m in has done an awesome professional job and our professor likes it a lot. I’ve gotten to learn and use the program Adobe Illustrator, so that’s a plus for me. I’ve always attempted to work with the program, but I usually just ended up using Photoshop or something else. But, Illustrator is a good program and I know that from now on, I am going to be using it for a lot of things…especially since I now know how to.

This afternoon, I spent some time trying to catch up with people through email, etc. I’ve really gotten behind and I’ve “neglected” a lot of friends from back home. There are some emails that I haven’t replied to since I’ve been here. The bad part is that there really isn’t a lot of time for me to sit down and write to everyone. That’s one of the main reasons why I put this journal online is so that it saves time (even though writing this takes time). The bad thing is that I always feel guilty for saying that I don’t have any time when I’m writing about going out and doing things, but I didn’t come all the way over here to sit and write emails all day to people back home (as bad as that sounds). If I didn’t go do stuff, I’d have nothing to write about, so it’s a Catch 22. Anyway, I’m trying hard to make time to do personal emails when I can. I just didn’t realize how hard it was going to be to keep in touch while I am here. You would think that email, etc would make it so easy, but it’s not the case. It costs a lot to call overseas and it takes a lot of time to write…

I’m getting redundant. Anyway, the point is that I’m realizing another part of being so far away from home. There are days here when I think “you know what? I could live and work in another country for a while after I graduate or something” but when I really think about it, I don’t think that I have the ability to leave my awesome friends and family for that long. If I could bring everyone with me, sure. But I am too attached to everyone in my life to just relocate. And if it’s hard to keep up with my friends and family after only a little over a month…my goodness.

I feel like I’m going in circles and that might be due to the little amount of sleep I’ve had this week and the fact that it’s late, so I’m going to hit the sack. Tomorrow is the beginning of the weekend, so I’m sure working on the project will take a much needed break.