Sunday, November 21, 2010

General Update

Just a general update for all you dedicated readers out there.

Classes are still going ok.  My Spanish language class has really been helping me with the finer points of Spanish that prevent me from advancing to a high level (mostly picky little grammar stuff and some vocab).  I did really well on my Spanish politics take home exam, especially considering I wrote the whole thing the night before I left for London.  I’ve learned a lot in that class and I probably know as much about the Spanish political system as I do about our system (I’ll hold off my judgment as to which one I think is better).  As for my Barcelona history class I’m learning a lot about the history of Catalunya.  In my Spanish 3 class in high school we did talk a lot about the history of Spain, but it mainly focused on the history of Castilian Spain and not the history of the crown of Argon-Catalunya.  So basically I’m getting a different perspective of Spain as a whole, from the eyes of Catalunya, which I find really interesting.  Again, it definitely reiterates that Catalunya is not Spain…

Speaking of which, Catalan has actually turned out to be my least favorite class.  I love the language and I hope to be fluent in it some day but this class has been somewhat of a disappointment.  The teacher isn’t the greatest and she really doesn’t conduct the best learning environment.  However, I think between learning it on my own and getting help from my host mom I’ll have a solid foundation to continue on with my studies when I get back to the States (there’s a good website for teach yourself Catalan, sponsored by the Generalitat, the Catalonian gov’t).

Now, although I absolutely love Barcelona I’ve been battling a spell of homesickness this past week.  This is of course normal and to be expected but I think there are two reasons for this sudden spell:
  1. 3 months: Thursday (the 18th) was my three-month anniversary of being in Spain.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Barcelona and I would love to live here for the rest of my life but you eventually come to miss the people that made up your life back in the States; this is the longest I’ve ever been away from them.  Although I talk to my family over skype and my friends over facebook it still isn’t the same as talking to them face to face.  I miss my dog, I miss my pow-wows with Kristen, I miss lunches with Aunt Jean, I miss all my friends from Maumee 18/Fallen Timbers 14/Band, I miss joking around with Erica in A-band and above all I miss bantering with my sister.  I knew I would eventually come to miss all these things but I didn’t know that it would hit me that hard.
  2. Holidays: This week starts the holiday season.  While you all have Thanksgiving this week it's just an ordinary week for me.  Although I despise turkey (cold turkey being the worst offender) I wouldn’t mind having a big Thanksgiving feast with my family right now.
Whew, I’m glad that I got that out of the way.  So what do I have planned for my last month in Barcelona so that I can go out with a bang? Well…
  •  El Clásico: The football game between FC Barcelona and their bitter rivals, Real Madrid.  The game is next Monday and let's just say that it's WAY more intense than the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry (and this is coming from an OSU student).
  •  Barça game: I tickets for the FCB v. Real Sociedad game on December 12th.  It’ll be my third and last Barça game so it should be a lot of fun.
  • Ireland: I’m taking my last weekend trip to the Emerald Isle during the first weekend of December.  I’m really excited because I’ve heard nothing but great things about Ireland although I am going when it’s probably going to be very cold.  I’m going to spend 2 days in Dublin and one day in Cork, which is near the Blarney Castle.
  • Cataloging the city: This week, I’m going to be going around the city and take a million pictures, like I was a tourist.  This is so that when I feel nostalgic I can open iPhoto and go through all my pictures and so that I can show you guys how beautiful Barcelona is.  This is why I’m holding off on posting my “Neighborhoods of Barcelona” post b/c I think it would be much better with pictures, right?
As far as blog posts here's what you have to look forward to for the next month
  • Another Spanish slang post
  • El Clásico
  • Ireland trip
  • Advice for students coming over to Spain (pay attention Brooke!)
  • Thoughts about what I'm going to miss about Catalunya/Spain/Europe
  • My favorite memories, stories from my trip
  • Probably one about Reverse Culture shock when I get back to the States (I already know I'm going to have it, there's no doubt in my mind)
Pretty ambitious eh?  

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1 comment:

  1. The reverse culture shock will mess with you a lot, IMO. You won't even be able to look at Toledo the same.

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