Hola a tothom,
It's been almost a week, and, in that strange way time has of distorting itself, it feels like I've been here both longer and shorter than that. My room in the Residència is already starting to feel like home. It's small and can be kind of noisy, being right next to the front desk, main entrance, and elevator, but it's cosy. My roommate, Rachel, and I have been enjoying some cooking adventures in our kitchen as we discover both what it is (corkscrew, nameless wooden spatula-ish things, microwave with a "grill" function that doubles as a bread box) and is not (oven, normal spatula, lids to any of the pots and pans) equipped with. We made some butifarres, traditional Catalan sausages, the other night that turned out very well. We've also been slowly acquiring all the random items that we never would have thought of to bring but quickly discovered that we needed. My most recent purchase included saran wrap, tupperware that, upon closer inspection, doesn't seal, ice cube trays, and a bucket/trash can for the bathroom. The Residència Onix certainly isn't perfect, but things are going well here and I'm grateful to have a place to live in such a convenient location.

We're well into the proseminar by now, which means that all of our mornings - and my definition of "morning" has now expanded until about 2:30 or 3:00, since that's when we stop for lunch - are taken up by class. We have three classes, one at each of the universities we can attend. Spanish is at the UAB, Catalan at the UB, and History and Culture is at the UPF. The class sessions are kind of intense, since they go for about 4 hours at a time with a short coffee/croissant break in the middle, but they're not too bad. History and Culture is the most stressful, because the professor is really hard to understand and has a very tangential style of lecturing. The hardest part is that, half of the time, I have to stop to think about each statement he makes and concentrate on writing in down in an intelligible form in my notebook, by which time I've missed his next statement. Also, in our last session of that class, we watched a movie called "Bienvenido, Mr. Marshall," about when the U.S. sent aid to Spain through the Marshall Plan, that gave me a terrible headache because the entire time all the characters were running around chaotically and shouting at each other. I never quite knew what was going on.

My other two classes are much more relaxed. We had our first Catalan class today, which I was excited about but which ended up being pretty boring because I had to sit through all the most basic things, like how to pronounce the alphabet, when I really could have used a review of the subjunctive. I talked to Libby about it, though, and I think I might work independently from here on out, possibly reading a novel by Mercè Rodoreda and writing about it. I've read several of her books in English, so I would really enjoy that. Spanish class is good as well - tomorrow I'm giving a short, formal oral presentation on the history of Moon Pies. Should be interesting.

Although I'm starting to settle into a routine here, I am looking forward to having some free time this weekend. We also have next Thursday off, as it is the Diada, or National Day of Catalunya. I'm really curious to see what happens on the Diada. I've heard that it's more of a solemn type of holiday than, for example, the 4th of July. After all, Catalunya isn't independent. We visited the Parlament de Catalunya yesterday, which I found really interesting. The building was originally built to be the arsenal for the Spanish army occupying Barcelona in the 1700s. It briefly served as a parliament for the first time from 1932-1939, before Franco's victory in the Spanish Civil War destroyed all Catalan autonomy, and it was converted into an art museum. Finally, in 1980, five years after Franco's death, the Parlament was reinstituted and the building regained its civic function. Of course, Catalunya, though an autonomous community, is still under control of Madrid - the representatives in favor of independence are in the minority, for now. Who knows what will happen eventually - but it's certainly interesting to learn about.

Besides our classes and excursions, I've basically just been adjusting to everyday life. I really like buying fresh fruit at a fruit stand near the Residència and keeping a fresh baguette in our microwave along with queso manchego and jamón serrano to make bocadillos for lunch. We've been given a ton of little guides, maps, and phrasebooks to help us find our way around the city, some of which are hilarious. There's a Catalan conversation guide from the UB with a section called "Chatting Up," which includes such choice phrases as "I like it when you tell me things" ("M'agrada quan m'expliques coses"). Hopefully I'll be able to get a bike soon, as I discovered a website called bicicampus that promotes biking to universities in Barcelona and lends bikes for free to students for the whole school year (see the banners on this blog). Also, I've seen flyers for several plays I'd love to go see, including one by Tom Stoppard (although I think Tom Stoppard in Catalan would just about do me in) and one that's an adaptation of a book I read in English called Mirall Trencat (Broken Mirror).

Thanks for the comments - I'll do my best to keep you updated! I should know about what classes I'm going to take this semester soon.
Fins desprès!