Sensual Drawings and Artichokes

I woke up early today (again...) for classes but this time I at least wanted to. I'm so excited to be taking an art class. I get really nervous when the crazy professor walks around behind me to check how I'm doing but it seems that he likes me. He thinks I draw "sensually"... lol whatever that means. He wants me to look up an artist "Rousseau" before next class because he thinks that I'd really like him. I guess he was a customs officer with no training in art at all but his paintings are supposed to be amazing. He then went on to say that I am "more than a pretty face". At least he'd rather make comments to make my face turn red rather than yelling at me like he does some of the other kids. I'm attaching the drawing that I was working on today so you can tell me if you think that it's "sensual" too. lol. Our homework for next Monday is to pick two objects and to draw them. For one, I'm considering this old fashioned alarm clock I have in my room but the reflections in the silver are more difficult than I thought they'd be. We'll see how I feel about it when it's done... I have all week to draw something else if I decide to do so.

After class, I went to talk to an academic advisor about changing some class about politics to one that I am actually interested in. She helped me out and I ended up getting my first choice. Now I'm in a class entitled "Cinema and the City: Barcelona through the Camera Lens". It sounds really interesting! It'll be all in spanish so I can get credit for my spanish major and I may be able to get credit towards my art minor too. We'll learn about filming and the general process, watch lots of movies/documentaries about Barcelona, and for the final project, we have to go out and make our own movie. How cool does that sound!?! I'm so excited to be taking classes that I want to take and not ones that someone else tells me I need to take. It makes getting up for class a lot easier at the very least. It also made my schedule so that when we have fridays off because of trips that IES plans (that's at least 5 times throughout the semester), I'll have 4 day weekends! That means lots of traveling and cheaper flights for leaving during the week :)

After getting my schedule finalized, I walked to the bookstore to pick up all my books for classes and walked home from there. It's like a 45 minute walk but it seems to go by fast because there is so much to see. Everything is beautiful! I love people watching here too... there are a lot of similarities but differences too. I came back to an empty house :), made myself a sandwich and popcorn, and started drawing and doing some homework for awhile. It was a relaxing afternoon.

The presidential inauguration was on here at around 6pm here so I sat down with Alex and Lola to watch that... my biggest complaint is that they kept dubbing in spanish and catalan over what they were saying in english. It was interesting to watch from outside the states but I can't really tell you if it were any different from watching it there. I doubt that I watched Bush's inauguration and if I did I don't remember it. You'll have to tell me what it was like there... I'm sure it was on every channel with coverage all day. Chicago must have been crazy...

Afterwards, Lola, Enrique, and I talked in the kitchen for a little bit while she was fixing dinner... some funky looking biscuit things with beef and cheese in the middle, rice, and a big batch of baked artichokes! I love the artichokes she makes but the whole meal was delicious! For dessert we had fruit again but everyone was especially excited about having kiwis. They were perfectly ripe which I guess is rare to find in Spain.

After dinner, I finished all my homework, hung out with the kids, and am now getting ready for classes tomorrow. It won't be too bad (2 classes in the morning 9-1:30 and a class in the afternoon 3:45-5:30) but I think I want to make myself a lunch so I don't have to spend more money on food. It gets expensive really fast (lunch is the one meal we have to fend for ourselves). We have some food in our room though so I can make a sandwich or something and grab a coffee or something rather than having to buy a full lunch.

Something that I keep forgetting to mention is that since being here, I dream every single night and remember all the details. Before I left, I hardly ever dreamed and if I did, I was lucky to remember anything that I dreamed of. I think that it's because I'm experiencing so many new things that it's got my mind going all the time. I think it's also because this is what I've dreamed of doing since I was little. I'm starting to try to do things for me now and not for anyone else and I think that's a big part of it. I've met a lot of people who say you could never do that or you shouldn't bother trying... I'm doing what I want to do no matter what anybody tells me. It's the most amazing feeling in the world to be doing something that I set out to do all by myself. I came to Barcelona because I wanted to come here not because my friends were doing it or because somebody told me I should. I was scared to death to come here by myself but I didn't and I couldn't have done it better. From now on, I'll do things for myself and not for anybody else.

I hope you appreciate the photos of food... my family here makes fun of me for taking pictures of everything. Anyways... I miss you guys :) besitos