Who, me? Oh, I’ve been here.

What have I been up to? Well, life as usual, for the most part. I wake up, I go to school, I go to work, I get home, I eat dinner, I “do homework” (read: zone out on the Internet) and I go to sleep.

Sure, there have been some exceptions to the routine. One weekend, Katie went to the beach with her señora and I managed to end up going out to the biggest club in Madrid until 6am when the Metro opens again, at which point we went out for churros con chocolate. This is apparently a tradition, and I did it as such, and also to make sure that I wasn’t missing out on something amazing by avoiding going to the clubs. Confirmed: yep, definitely not my thing.

Then my parents came for a week, which was a Good Thing. We did a lot of touristy things together, with various guest appearances including Jenny for Toledo and Katie for various things. I decided that my parents are my favorite people to have with me when looking around a museum; they remain interested in the subject matter while also being able to make fun of silly things like St. Bernard and his “special” relationship with Mary. Their visit culminated with a dinner with Gloria where I got to try my hand at translating–it turned out pretty well: no major international incidents, and everyone seemed to like everyone else. It seemed like my parents really enjoyed Madrid and I was glad that they didn’t feel like they had to be in some uncomfortable place just to see me. They managed to get in a decent vacation, too.

The morning after they left, Katie and I hopped in a plane to Barcelona for a weekend of fun, sun, beaches, art, and being sick. Yes, there were two things we didn’t plan for when we bought the tickets and reserved the hostel: (1) that we would both be moderately sick with head colds and various other ailments, and (2) that the Monday that was announced as a no-class day would be retracted, meaning that we would have class. Despite this, thanks to Katie’s flawless planning we were able to have quite a good time in Barcelona and managed to see lots of Gaudi architecture, including Park Güell and La Sagrada Familia. I can honestly say it’s some of the most stunning and enjoyable architecture and design I have ever seen. We also got to see the Picasso museum, which follows the life of the artist, and was an educational experience. The beach and the vegetarian restaurants were fun, too. Being sick, however, was not, nor was running straight from the airport to class on Monday (thanks to the scheduling dosado [which, after several minutes of research, is apparently how that's spelled]).

That brings me to this weekend, which has involved extreme studying vs. extreme procrastination, the writing of this blog post of course being a production of the latter.

So, It’s 1am now and I should get to bed, because I have two tests tomorrow, and I’m not exactly sure if I’m ready for them. Things are moving quickly over here.

One of these days I’m going to find a decent writing style, too… I’m getting a little sick of this clause-y convoluted syntax of mine. I suppose I’ll need to do more writing to stretch that muscle out, though.