And now for something completely different

It is currently 5:00 am CET and sleep is eluding me yet again.  Insomnia! you cry! Too much caffeine!? A siesta got out of control and you're paying for it now!? Quite the contrary, my friend! I was exhausted tonight, having barely slept the night before, and was looking forward to a decent night of rest when the most unexpected enemy bested me (cue Law and Order theme song). 

I love Skype, we are old friends, hell I might even say best friends now that I live in a country far far away, but I'm afraid to tell you I was thinking of breaking up with him tonight (yes, I said it).  Let me explain: my fantastic friend Daniela took it upon herself to show me all the wonderfully ridiculous sounds you can set to your Skype ring. Among these was a voice feature that you can make say whatever your wine buzzed mind desires.  Well let's just say it provided quite a bit of entertainment for a night. Now I should also explain that I am not a morning person, and often have difficulty waking up in the morning. To combat this issue, sometimes I have someone call me to make sure I'm up if I have somewhere particularly important to be that day.  Because all of us poor university students never have euros to buy minutes for our mobiles, I thought that tonight, since I have to wake up to take some friends to the airport, instead I would leave my laptop on and logged into Skype so someone can ring in the morning. After getting ready for bed tonight, I set my computer down next to my bed, turned up the volume as high as it would go, hit the light, and settled in for at least a couple hours of zzz's. 

Comfy, warm and nearly asleep when out of the dead silence I hear a disembodied voice announce YOU HAVE AN INCOMING CALL FROM POOP.  In my half-awakedness my head jerked up, slammed into the wooden shelf next to my bed, and my feet start running in place (which I can only guess was their lame attempt to run away...I should have a talk with them about trying something different in the future as it was highly ineffective) by the time I realized it was in fact not POOP calling but my friend Mike, who is currently residing in the U.S. and did not register the time difference.  Although I was effectively disheveled, I took the call because I hadn't talked to Mike in too long a time, and I was already thoroughly awake. 

After a nice long chat with Michael, we said goodbye, I changed my status to 'sleeping' and laid back down for a second attempt.  As my luck would have it, juuuusst after reaching that yummy dreamy happy place BAM! Nilda (as I've named her) strikes again.  Although my head managed to avoid reuniting with my shelf, I went into a bit of a rolling motion (much like you would if you were on fire) and nearly flipped right off my bed.  Luckily I was able to get my body under control before I panini-ed my computer between myself and the floor. This time it was my brother, and I also had not talked to him to forever (and hey, he's family) so I proceeded to chat with him for 40 minutes. 

I considered endeavoring another go but really who knows what kind of self-preservation technique my body will try next ( with it's track record, I'm not so sure I want to stick around to see) and I have to be up in an hour anyway.  

I was going to update you on my weekend in this post, but I'm afraid I have digressed a bit.  In a quick summary: I had some friends from Sevilla visiting this weekend, and despite a few transportation and directional induced hiccups, we had a great time! It's always wonderful to have visitors and this was no exception. Among other things done throughout the weekend, we met up with some of our swedish friends in a little bar called Manchester that just had the most wonderful music and ambiance, and also had a mini 'high tea' in a quaint, ancient and historic tea/pastry shop nestled away in Barri Gotic.  One of the girls, Winny even invited us down to Florida when we return to the states for some of her parents home-cooked authentic asian cuisine.  I nearly died and went to culinary heaven right there in my california roll.  As you can see, the weekend was a success.  

Wendy, Daniela, and I in Plaça Real

Daniela and Winnie on the beach (:

I should probably go take a shower and start getting ready so I'll just leave you with this: Go lock your preferences on Skype and if you find Daniela anywhere near your computer, have a nice long chat with your appendages on appropriate escape plans.  

To Catch a Predator

If you are mugged in Barca,

and don't know what to do,

call upon la policía,

and allow them help you.

Even at one in the morning, they

will jump to assist,

to make the mugger pay,

while you sit there both scared and pissed.

Two weeks later,

out of the blue,

policeman asks "Can you come? ear-

ly morning will do."

At the photo line up,

you immediately see the thief,

behind carrie you duck,

(she came with you to hit on the investigation chief).

The bad man goes to jail!

although, he I could not hit

justice did prevail

enjoy karma, you little shit.

Ana se fue.

Ana is in Rome this week. I don't think you heard me....ANA IS IN ROME, i.e. out of BARCELONA! Do you know what this means????!!!! All you people out there who are certainly not reading this tiny little blog have no idea what this means, BUT you people who do read this blog, and I know there is at least one of you, knows exactly what this means. RAGER!!

Just kidding. But it does mean I can cook, watch TV, eat, drink, and be merry whenever I please for four glorious days while the house mom is in Italia. Seriously, it's making my week.

Since Ana se fue on Monday, Daniela, Becs, and Jordan have been over every night watching movies, the olympics, and cooking amazing dinners. Homemade butter, onion, and tomato sauce with fideos, big yummy salads, lots and lots of bread, and of course the love of my life, red wine! Tonight we ate on my balcony around 10, the sky was a beautiful purple, midnight blue, and the neighborhood was pretty quiet. It's times like these where it feels so surreal that I'm living in Spain, having the time of my life with people I just met five months ago.

Dani and Becs hung out all afternoon baking cookies. Which, in Ana's kitchen, is no small task. Not only does she not own a single measuring device, but the only working apparatus in which to bake is a 12" x 6" toaster oven. Luckily I am a Top Chef devotee and I am accustomed to working with such challenges (well watching other people working with them anyway).

The baked good of tonight was homemade chocolate chunk cookies. With not a recipe in sight, Daniela and I got to it, eying up all measurements, adding an egg when we added to much flour, singing so loudly and obnoxiously to Cake, I'm surprised none of my neighbors called to complain. Much to our delight, the cookies came out beautifully! Since we over did it with the flour, and didn't add enough sugar to compensate, they were a bit like a breakfast cookie, but with those big gooey dark chocolate chunks they were still delicious - especially with a cup of tea.

Tomorrow is my last day of complete freedom, Ana returns sometime Thursday, but we're going to do it up big with a good old fashioned kickback (even though we're kind of having a mini one tonight since Dani missed the last metro train by accident) and lots and lots of wine...and probably cheese because Becs is addicted.

I have fallen back in love with Bloc Party - Check out "This Modern Love" from their very first album.

The british are coming, the british are coming!

So kids really do get up early?

No, I do not have kids but my neighbors children really enjoy giving me a preview of what it will be like when I do - i.e. getting up at ungodly hours and screaming (that's the children not me, though I've felt like screaming bit myself since they woke me). Since I'm up, I thought I'd update you all on the goings on in blahdy barceloner, as Sofie likes to call it.

Yes that's right, Ginny and Sofie, the lovely people who's christmas I crashed are in town for a couple days. Unfortunately poor Sofie had been dragged around all day with the 'grownups' to see every tourist attraction in Barcelona and so I met up with the girls to give her a little taste of one of the greatest parts of Barcelona, the nightlife! We first headed over to Shamrock, the little irish pub we hate to love, to have a few pints. Daniela and Anaise, her friend visiting from France came over to say hello, almost at the same time we ran into one of our spanish friends, Fabiano and his friend (who I've been introduced to more than twice and still can't remember his name). All in all we had a great time, speaking a little french, a lot of english, and a peppering of Sof's horrific spanish.

We lost a couple of good men at this point (La Yenni, Fabs and his friend were 'tired' - pansies.) but we trekked on to try Grouchos (a quite dirty little place, but great chupitos) that had a line halfway down the street, Oddlander (by far one of my favorite little spanish bars), and Betty Ford only to end up at Mojito Rock when everything else we tried was full. Another round of Estrella Damm for everyone and we were having a great time. All having things to do in the morning, we ended early around 2 and schlepped (or Anaise's case, half skipped, half danced, half sung) our way to the metro where we headed home.

Hearing Sofie doing an american accent, hanging out with the girls, and actually just going out (i've been holed up the economics building for about three weeks) made it a great night. I even got to see Angry Scottish Man, one of the bartenders at Shamrock who pretends to hate us.

The kids have quieted down now, but lucky for me my upstairs neighbor Trani McTranTran decided this morning would be a fantastic time to move furniture. I think I might give up trying to go back to sleep, it's time for some café con leche.

P.S. I wish I had a legitimate picture to post but alas another camera has been stolen, so here is one from London.



Us outside of what happened to be Robert Pattinson's local pub (no we didn't mean to go there, honest, we just stumbled across it...) Not the greatest photo but it'll do the trick - (From left to right) La Yenni, yours truly, Sofie, and Angela-er.

La Primera

Hello all! I actually created this blog quite some time ago, however, not surprisingly, never got around to posting anything. Although I'm not sure who will actually read this, I've decided to maybe start posting semi-regularly so that when I return home to the U.S. after this crazy year in Spain, I have some reminders of my time here.  

The lovely british family that Angela, La Yenni, and I stayed with while in London for the holidays are here visiting Barcelona and I can't wait to see them! Unfortunately Barrio Sants is in the middle of a thunderboomer and trekking downtown tonight seems unlikely. So jump for joy, Jordan and I are going to stay in and try to tackle translating our university syllabi from Catalan to Castellano instead. That is if she feels adventurous enough to venture over to my apartment. And, ojála, she does because though sitting with Ana, trying to hear the TV above the sound of the trani stomp around her heels in the apartment above us all night sounds enjoyable, it would be nice to have some company. AHH THE LIGHTS JUST WENT OFF! CIAO!