April 13

I woke up to Joe saying, “Dude, it’s 8:45 we have fifteen minutes until class starts.” I hoped out of bed and scrambled to get ready. My alarm clock broke a few weeks back and I have resorted to using an alarm clock that I downloaded for my computer. It actually works nice but a lot of the time my computer doesn’t turn on like it is programmed to do. Joe’s alarm didn’t work as well. We scrambled downstairs, skipped breakfast and caught a taxi to class. We were only about 7 minutes late and I was happy to be in a taxi because it was raining and cold. We had a funny conversation with the taxi driver in which we talked about all of the breaks that students here have from class. He was saying how unfair it was.

Celia didn’t mind us being a few minutes late. We started answering questions on narratives. We read an excerpt from a work called “Las Medidas Rojas” (the red stockings). It was pretty thick and difficult to understand at parts but it discussed the roles of the working class and showed a more vulgar view of a girls father that beat her because she wore red stockings (normally a sign of higher class). She ends up losing vision in an eye and some of her teeth and can never obtain her dream of going to America because those with physical disabilities we not allowed to make the trip.

In Culture class we started our last unit on art. It was great having just gone to the Prado because I had seen most of the works that we discussed. We talked about neoclassical architecture and looked also at some examples of architecture from Antoni Gaudi, the architect for Sagrada Familia and many other famous buildings in Barcelona. The cool thing that Gaudi did when he designed a building is he would also design the interior as well such as rooms and furniture.

After class, the walk back was rainy and I got drenched. When I got back, I changed into some warm sweatpants and felt much better. I updated my blog before lunch. At 1:30 we rushed down to eat. The lunch ladies weren’t done eating and needed time so we waited until they finally went back to the kitchen, when we tried to open the door it was locked. The ladies purposely walked by the locked door to get to the kitchen I think just to spite us. We had to walk all the way around the building to the other entrance. It was pretty unnerving.

After lunch, I spent most of the afternoon doing some small tasks I needed to get done. I changed my pin number for my debit card (now I finally can withdraw cash), ordered a new license (got stolen with my wallet) and did laundry. Dinner was a cheese plate and some croquetas that I made a sandwich out of. The rest of the night I didn’t do too much. I went to bed shortly after 12:00. It was a great day.

**The pictures are from the Royal Botanical gardens in Madrid.