"It's raining in the metro."

I have risen from the dead, ladies and gentlemen. After spending a good 80 hours in bed, I have more or less recovered from my bad flu and am back on my feet. I'm not 100% yet, but everyday is better than the last, so hopefully this weekend I will be up and running.

I magically woke up with morning at the exact right time, despite not having an alarm clock and the fact that Holly was supposed to be that but overslept! So good job internal clock. I got ready and made my way, maybe a little slower than normal, to the bus stop. The bus didn't come. A bunch of other IES kids realized this as well and we all made the metro journey to school. I ran into Hana and Fubi and that was nice. When we got to the Diagonal station, there was water pouring out of the roof over the subway platform. And sand all over the ground to dry it up. This led to wet sand--good plan. They had the metro pull up a little farther so we didn't get wet.

I made it to Gypsies, and even though I felt really out of it during class, I knew that I made the right decision to come back to school today. I was close to staying in bed, but I needed to get up at some point, and today was the day. Afterwards I went to coffee/croissant with John. It felt good to have some real food (aka not really bland or Honey Nut Cheerios). Then I went to IES II, wrote a Spanish composition, and made my way to Spanish. We are learning vocab about movies this week. Tomorrow we are going to watch one. I love abroad classes.

After class I went and got a new cell phone, hurray! My old one wasn't even turning on when it was plugged in to the charger, so they hooked me up with a new one and I'm good to go. I wasn't about to go all the way home, and I was craving one thing: french fries. And where do you go when you NEED french fries?

McDonalds. OK OK, this is the first time I have been to McDonalds in Barcelona, and I have been really sick and it sounded good OK?? Anyway, I walked down Las Ramblas to the three story one, and decided to make this a sociological experiment. I observed how people acted in McDonalds in Spain in comparison to the US. Now I don't go to McDonalds in the US, but from what I remember from being a little kid.

First, a British/Scot/Irish/unclear man was yelling "McFEEEEASSSTTT" in this woman's face. Well, she asked if he said "McFish?" because in Spanish the "i" sounds like "ee." He yelled again then spelled it out. She waved her finger at him and said, "No. Not here." So, a person who is angry because they can't get the specific type of fattening food they want? Check. Patient restaurant employee who deals with yelling tourists? Check. After I got my french fries and vanilla soft serve treat (I was on a roll), and was spoken to in English despite speaking in Spanish, I walked upstairs. Most people there were---adults! And not adults with little kids! Is this normal? Unknown, have to do further research. The teenage/young adult contingent was represented, and the girls were eating burgers too, unlike in the US where I feel like they eat french fries and a shake, maybe some chicken fingers. The best was the tourist I saw. She had rolled her khaki pants into capris, was wearing a type of Teva strapped sandal, a t-shirt, a mini-backpack AND a fannypack. Let's get a round of applause for Americans, shall we?

Sorry for that tangent, but I was alone for awhile and it intrigued me. I was meeting my Catalan class at the Boqueria today, and had some time to kill, so I walked over and found this beautiful little park area behind it. That's what I love about this city---everywhere you turn there is something new and beautiful waiting to be discovered. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, there were little kids playing in the playground, and I did some homework. Love it.

I met my class, and my group broke off to to go buy food to make a dessert called "Music" and some cheese. Music is a dessert made up of mixed nuts and figs, all drizzled with honey. We had to order in Catalan, which was quite the experience. All the shopkeepers got a real kick out of it, and helped us out as we went. The woman at the nut shop was so nice, walked us through each type of nut she was giving us, and everything. It was so fun! :-) Then we came back to IES and made a little Catalan feast. I only had a piece of pa amb tomaquet due to the tummy, but it was yummy. It was a nice break from day to day class.

I came home after class, did some work, took a shower, and made some pasta. I am pretty tired after so much activity today, so I'll probably go to bed soon. I am getting more and more excited for home---I'm still having a wonderful time here, but it's just about that time when I'm starting to miss American things, not to mention just sleeping in my own bed. I can't believe I only have 3 1/2 weeks until I'm done with being abroad. Where did it all go??

Besos