Today in between classes I decided to go shopping a little. I had planned to look for some pants and sweaters.

I came back with three pairs of shoes and a t-shirt. Gotta love hate love how that always seems to work out that way.

1)

2)

3)

But they are really pretty [right?] and seem comfortable [well, after a few minutes of wearing them in the store, anyway - I know that doesn't mean anything]. And they were not the kind of expensive that will have me feel guilty for the rest of the weekend. [In fact, I have planned another little shopping experience for tomorrow, and this time I will really look for pants and sweaters.]

I am so glad it’s the weekend. Now it’s only two weeks until spring break. I did realize last night that that also means two weeks until one of my midterms and until I have to pick out a topic for one of my papers, which is not quite as fabulous, but hopefully I will do well.

My friend Nina told me tonight that she will probably be coming to Barcelona with a friend for Easter, so we will finally be able to meet up again! We are also talking about her visiting me in Munich in July, and me visiting her in Helsinki [where she will be doing Erasmus for a semester] in September. For now I think that’s just talking. Particularly the part about me visiting Helsinki. Because where would I get the money for that, right? But maybe it will work out somehow. It would certainly be awesome. For now I’ll just daydream about it. [Just like that digital camera.]

Maybe I wanted to write about something else, but as usual, I cannot remember anything. Gosh. Have a great weekend, people.

Detail of the mosaic at the terrace in Park Güell.

These two artists made huge soap bubbles and little kids kept trying to burst them.

The dragon at the main entrance of Park Güell.

Plaza España - the picture was not supposed to look like this but it is pretty cool that it turned out this way accidentally.

Patatas bravas y calabacines. More tapas at the same bar as two weeks earlier with Anna and Deniz.

A close-up of the Sagrada Familia. I took this one with Julia’s camera, a Canon Powershot SX100 IS. It really made me want to get a new camera, something a little bigger and heavier but with good zoom. My small camera is very good, has excellent macro and I am generally very happy with it, except for the zoom. Let’s see whether I will be able to afford a new camera (as an addition to the old one, not to replace it) when I get back to Germany. [The fact that I will be working in Munich will not help unfortunately, as I will not be paid a single cent.]

Coffee beans at Starbucks.

The patio of the old university building. [Yes, that really appears to be an orange tree. I am living in a Mediterranean country after all.]

Me and Julia at the Sagrada Familia.

All in all a good weekend, even though the weather wasn’t the best and the lighting was crappy for picture-taking purposes. Julia and I had a great time, but the two days went by way too fast!

Rest of the pictures.

Fact #1: Monday afternoon I was talking to Julia about how it is weird I haven’t heard from my cousin yet: she was pregnant and I thought her due date was in January, and I mentioned how it was about time she had that baby. That same evening my other cousin [the pregnant cousin's sister] told me she had the baby that day, and that she was eight days over her due date. So weird and funny that I would talk to my friend about it and then my cousin had the baby on the same day. It’s a girl and they named her Sophie! I haven’t seen any pictures yet but I hope I will soon. Both my cousin and her daughter are doing well, though, and that is the most important thing. I hope I will get to see Sophie as soon as I get back to Munich. My cousin does live in Munich so it doesn’t seem that unlikely.

Fact #2: All of the babies born in the past few years in my families, namely my cousin’s son and daughter [Linus & Sophie] and my other cousin’s daughter [Charlotte], were born while I was living abroad. October 27th, 2004, when Linus was born, I was living in Oklahoma. And both Charlotte [* September 11th, 2007] and Sophie [* February 25th, 2008] were born after I moved to Barcelona. Great timing, cousins!

Fact #3 [unrelated to facts #1 and #2]: I will be moving back to Germany in exactly four months. My flight back to Munich is scheduled for June 27th. Okay, so technically it is already February 28th [half an hour past midnight], but let’s just assume it is still the 27th, for the sake of the argument. Four months seems so short. The 29th will also mark six months since I arrived in Barcelona. Wow! Hard to believe I have been here so long, and I have still not touched my Spanish grammar books that I bought in September, or the vocab book I brought with me from Germany. Leaves the question if that is still going to happen while I am here. My Spanish has gotten loads better - that awkwardness and insecurity to speak it is gone for the most part, but my grammar could use some work.

Anyway, I doubt that anyone is still reading this, my post kind of got a bit longer than expected - yes, it really was supposed to be a picture post originally - so I’ll end this here. One more day of classes and then two more weeks until spring break. Yeah!

I am not usually the kind of person that posts random IM snippets but I had to post this one with my friend who will remain nameless.

XY: guys dont call guys cute
XY: unless they gay
Viviane: oh ok
Viviane: is he hot then?
Viviane: or is that also taboo?
XY: what guys say is, i would pee in his butt lol i know its gross but for some reason my friends are sick and they rubbed off on me
Viviane: oh god
Viviane says: you are gross
XY: ty
XY: it was just a quote
Viviane: so would you pee in his butt?
XY: lol
XY: u just did not ask me that
Viviane: i absolutely did
XY: no comment

I swear, our conversations are not always that … classy.

And to make this post even more random, I am currently totally obsessed with this song, Almost Lover, by A Fine Frenzy. It is amazing. If I was currently broken-hearted, I am sure I would find it utterly depressing, but luckily I am not, so I can just enjoy this beautiful piece of music.

I cannot go to the ocean
I cannot drive the streets at night
I cannot wake up in the morning
Without you on my mind
So you’re gone and I’m haunted
And I bet you are just fine
Did I make it that easy
To walk right in and out of my life?

Yes! Thank God it’s Thursday! More precisely, TGITN! [Thank God it's Thursday night!] Because on Thursday mornings it’s more likely that I would go, DIIT! [Damn it, it's Thursday!] Since my Thursday is like your Friday, it is now the weekend for me. And I really need it. I am so tired. Went to bed late last night, then could not sleep, then finally did sleep although it felt like I was awake the entire night [weird feeling!] so maybe I did not sleep, and then I was woken by bright bright sunshine shining into my peach & pink room, sorry, that was wishful thinking, I was woken by my alarm clock, and the bright bright sunshine shining into my peach & pink room [there we go] made me not go straight back to sleep, and I got up at 9:40am just in time for my first class [which starts at 10am, oh how I love living so close to campus]! I probably got about 5 hours of sleep. If I’m lucky.

Now, after a day of classes, four of them, spread out throughout the entire day from 10am to 9pm, I am sooo tired. And yes, I actually went to all four of them. [As opposed to last Thursday, or this past Tuesday.] But luckily I get to sleep in tomorrow. I’ll need it. I do have to clean my room and the living room tomorrow. And I’ll go running. But mostly I’ll do nothing. Because Saturday my friend Julia is coming here and I’ll play tourist for three days, which tends to be fun but exhausting!

I actually got all my grades from last semester now. I got an 8.5 in the Irish Lit class, a 10 in the Modernism class, an 8 in the Catalan class I took back in September [I just could not be bothered to find out my grade by going to their office or calling them so far], a 7.5 in the Holocaust Lit class, and a 6.7 in the Spanish Theater class. Which I am all pretty happy with. The 6.7 is not all that amazing, but then considering the amount of work I put into that class, it sounds about right.

I think there may be something else I wanted to write about but I’m too tired to think, so I will go watch a movie or something equally productive that allows me to lie in bed at the same time.

And eeeep, I am going to Madrid in four weeks! This morning it felt a bit surreal [that's what I get for booking trips at 1 or 2am] but then I remembered that I really did book this trip, and I am really looking forward to it!

Yesterday I started mulling over when exactly would be a good time to visit Madrid [the capital of Spain] for a few days. I thought of two weekends in April, but tonight I spontaneously decided to check for cheap flights for the second week of spring break and surprisingly, flights are actually cheaper than for those two weekends in April [okay, only by €10, but still, €10 are €10!]. Then I started looking for a good [i.e. cheap] hostel to stay at. After a lot of searching I finally found one that was affordable and available for that time period!

And what can I say, I just booked my trip tonight! I will be flying to Madrid on March 25th, and stay at an affordable hostel for four nights which should give me plenty of time to see Madrid. My flight back is booked for March 29th. I had first looked a the hostel I picked out through one booking site, where it said the hostel was not available anymore for that time period, but I was able to book through the Lonely Planet site. I hope my booking will be fine [though I did get a confirmation, so I don't think I would have been able to book if there weren't any beds available].

In total, I am paying €155.96 for the flight [with Vueling, a cheap Spanish airline, €85.96 for the round trip, all fees included], accommodation & breakfast [at Los Amigos (Opera), €70 for four nights in a six-bed dorm room], which is not bad at all! I will of course have more expenses, but it helps when you are not spending a fortune on flight & hostel.

I am really excited now! I had not planned to book the trip already, but seeing as the time period is during spring break I wanted to make sure I would not end up paying a lot more. And I do know myself. There is a good chance I might have ended up not going at all. Living here, I tend to put off all the touristy stuff, and sometimes fall [too much] into a daily routine without realizing how my time in Spain is passing by.

The fact that I will be traveling during spring break means that I will be able to stay a night longer for essentially the same price, will not have to skip any classes, and it will be all-around less stressful as I come back on Saturday, and my classes start on Monday. In the first week of spring break, my parents will be coming to Barcelona, so I will definitely not get bored during the holidays.

And something else I am looking forward to is my friend Julia’s coming to visit me this Saturday, in just a couple of days! She will only be able to stay until Monday, but I hope I will be able to show her most of the beautiful places in “my” city.