Drawing up a blank for a good title

Suddenly realized it´s about time for a substantial post (we have to write a certain amount per week for the journal requirement at NU, and I like to keep everyone in the know anyway), but I think I might come up a little bit short as I don´t have all that much to reflect on this week. That´s to say I´m really just chillin´ trying to find a routine here and really get comfortable, so not a whole lot new has been happening in the very recent past.

Off to Barcelona tomorrow right after my final exam for my 3-week intensive Spanish course (a final exam tomorrow that´s worth 30 percent of my grade). It´s gotten pretty tough in the last week as we´ve been trying to learn when to use which of the 3 past tenses at which times - a huge headache. Turns out every single person in class did terrible on the exam last Friday and it had to be scaled (otherwise my teacher would probably get in trouble methinks). I ended up with an 80 which seemed to be the best grade out of the 8 of us in my class. That´s something I guess. Even though I´m not at all the strongest conversationally in class, I get the grammar thing better than most - probably because I´ve always been good with it in English - so it makes me look good on paper. Unfortunately, I´m still stammering a lot when trying to talk to people face-to-face. Talking to my intercambio and my family a lot is helping though, and I ask them to correct me when I speak incorrectly.

So yeah, Barcelona tomorrow. I´m psyched to see a real Spanish city. Alicante is awesome, but it´s smaller than Boston and seems to take on the atmosphere of Old People Farm at times - probably because of the generally mild climate it has year-round. Seeing a big city like Barcelona will be a good chance to get a better grip on Spanish urban life. I shall report back on that with pictures and all that good stuff.

Speaking of pictures, I´m really gonna try to get off my ass and take some for you folks to see. A virtual tour of Alicante if you will. It was nicer weather out the last couple days, so maybe next week I´ll get a chance to snap some off.

When I get back from BCN, I´ll be starting regular classes on Monday which I´m half excited, half anxious about (I just needed to use a thesaurus to find the word anxious, an example of how screwy my language centers are getting). I think it´ll be a great challenge taking classes that are entirely in Spanish, but I´m hoping it won´t hurt my grades too much. I wish NU would take these classes as pass/fail, but then I wouldn´t get credit for my Spanish minor. I guess I´ll just need to work that much harder, but no complaints there.

And on the topic of language and all that, I´ve been reading books lately at breakneck speed. Basically when I have downtime at home, I really don´t generally feel like watching TV much because, frankly, it gets old really fast - even if it is good comprehension practice. Los Simpsons loses it´s novelty as you realize how important the original voices are to the humor (absolutely everything is dubbed in this country, but I won´t write about why in this post. It´s actually a rather interesting story). As a result, I end up reading a lot of books. I ordered a few from Amazon and am tearing through those along with some that my friend is letting me borrow. I´m wondering if reading all that well-versed English will hold me back from wrapping my head around español. Tough to say at this point. As a consolation, I´m taking a Spanish Literature class for the semester, so maybe reading well versed Spanish will counteract my English readings. Time will tell...

We got some info today about cheap classes and activities we can partake in during the semester. They have both cooking and dancing lessons, which both excite me great deal. It´d be cool to learn Spanish Salsa or Flamenco, but I also would like to learn how to cook Spanish salsa - kind of a stew/soup thing that can have all sorts of stuff in it - quite unlike salsa we´re used to. I suppose it´s possible to do both, but I don´t wanna do that at the same time. Both lessons are incredibly cheap so I´d be stupid not to take advantage. It´d be cool to come back to the States a cooking and dancing machine, although that´s obviously not a very likely outcome. Gotta shoot for the stars though, no?

Small note about Spanish food. I think mi madre fries crap a bit too much. Not that it doesn´t taste great, but it´s gotten to the point now where I´m eating less healthy here than back at home. She either pan or deep fries something at least 4 times a week. Not everybody else in the program I´ve talked to has been having the same experience as me, but a handful have. I´ve been balancing it off with a lot of fruits and veggies and I walk a ton, but my olive oil intake has increased 400% since I got here. I know olive oil is supposedly good for you, but I gotta figure there is a cut-off point somewhere before the gallon a week she uses in her cooking (not nearly as much of an exaggeration as you´d like to think, if it is one at all). I´m thinking of asking her to grill me more stuff, which she does for herself. I guess she assumes all guys like to eat fried meat all the time... then again, most guys do. Well, it´s only for 4 more months, so no big deal I suppose - just going to enjoy it while I´m here, it all tastes so good.

I´m running a bit low on things to talk about, and I really should get down to studying as I have so much of it to do tonight. No time left on the meter here to proofread, so you guys get the unpolished version. Hope it ain´t too rough around the edges. Brushing over though, it looks like this turned in to a decent entry, anyway. Good show!

Much love