Why, hello there! I just took a nap because I'm the laziest person on the planet! It was a great time. I meant for it to only be an hour buuut it was actually an hour and a half. Make no mistake, I will study for my Spanish final. Eventually. Welcome to the second to last blog. Are you sad? I hope so because that means I've done my job ;). If, on the other hand, anyone is overjoyed by the previous statement, you can leave. To be honest, most of this week was not very exciting, but you're welcome to stay and read about it anyways :).
It was the last full-ish (minus Monday) week of classes, and therefore, I had a lot of finals, hence the lack of excitement in my day-to-day activities. Monday, however, was still considered part of the Semana Santa holiday, so I stayed at the beach house again Sunday night, as I may or may not have already mentioned in my previous blog. Juan went home to Barcelona that night, so it was just me and the host parents that morning, but he showed up later. I had planned on just working on studio all day until we went back to Barcelona "early" (because it was the last day of vacation). You see, I've gotten smarter by now and realized that when my host parents said we'd head back "early", it would probably be around 9 pm when we left. However, around noon or 1-ish, there were more people visiting the beach house! I thought it was another family gathering, but this time it was another family who are very close friends with my host family. I had never met them before, so not wanting to be rude, I in fact didn't work much on studio during most of the day. We had appetizers and lunch, as is typical. Helen was obviously prepared, so the visit wasn't a surprise to everyone. Just me. We had lamb again, but this time the ribs, which I found very difficult to eat. (Like physically, I had a hard time getting much meat off of them. I don't like it when my food takes effort.) After lunch, I sat outside with everyone for awhile and then after they left, I worked on studio until we headed back to Barcelona, which was in fact at just a little past 9. I had guessed well.
Tuesday morning I had to get up early, even though I didn't have class until 4:00, because my Spanish tutor chose 9:30 for our meeting...Oh well. I figured at least that way, it would make me be in studio by about 10:30 and then I could work all day. I got to school a little early and was excited because I had gotten an email over Semana Santa saying I had mail. So I went to the front desk to pick up the package from my mom that I was expecting, with a gift for my host family and a few things for me, and instead got a letter stating that said package was in fact stuck in customs in Madrid. I was quite upset and relatively distracted during my tutoring session. I was told I could go through some lengthy process and pay like 50 euro if I wanted to get it through, but that there was almost zero chance of me getting it before the program ended and no student had been successful at it yet. So with that relatively discouraging news, we decided to just not respond and they'll therefore send it back to the States in 10 days or so. I don't really mind about my stuff because the program's almost over and I can get it when I get home, but I am sad that our host family's gift won't get here, because we put a lot of time and thought into determining what to get for them :(. That issue still hasn't been completely resolved and they may go giftless. Quite sad. For the rest of the day, I just worked on studio for my upcoming final review on Friday, then I had class at 4. We had a short lecture and then took a trip to MNAC museum, where we'd gone before for a different class, and pretty much saw the same things, just put into a slightly different context to reflect the subject of the class. After that, I went back to school to collect my things and then headed back to the apartment where I continued to work on studio until bedtime.
Wednesday I had Spanish in the morning and then nothing else all day since one of my classes had finished, until actual studio time, which didn't really change anything since I'd be working in there anyways. I didn't make it to the school to say goodbye to the kids, instead I stayed to work, but Hailey went, so hopefully she let them know we had to head back to the States soon and said goodbye for me. For most of the day I worked on the little model of my building for the review, I had all my computer work done by this point. I avoided talking to my studio professor because I didn't want her to tell me to change anything, haha. She probably wouldn't have at this point, that would just be mean, but I avoided her anyways, just to be safe. I left my model at school that night to force myself to focus on studying for my final on Thursday instead, seeing as I had completely neglected it up to this point. That's literally all there was of Wednesday, and Thursday was similar.
I got to school pretty early to work on my model and then around noon I went to a cafe for lunch with Cara, Joe, and Kate so we could have a little study party for our final later that day. I went back to studio after that and worked until final time. At 4:30, we had our final. It wasn't too bad, but then again I thought the midterm for this class had gone better than it actually did. So I guess we'll see. After the final, I wanted to print out the my booklet for studio that I would give to my professor and the guest critics to look at while I projected my project on a screen so that literally all I would have to do in the 4-ish hours before the review the next day is finish my model (I was so close to being done!) A few other people from my studio section were trying to print, too, and we had a heck of a time fighting with the printer and now I've somehow become the resident printer expert if the tech. guy has gone home for the day. Of course it's an added challenge because the error messages are in Spanish. We figured it out, though, and I got everything printed, literally as the building was closing.
Friday morning, Juan got up early with us to say goodbye before we left for class. He has an exam in Milan the day before we leave and he was flying out later that day. It was sad. It seems strange to think that he originally wasn't even supposed to be here this whole time and we barely would've seen him, but instead he literally couldn't go anywhere for months, so we all ended up seeing each other a lot and he was always there to be a sort of intermediary between us and his parents and I feel like it made the whole situation less awkward. And so began the goodbyes. Friday morning was our last Spanish class, just the final left now. We had like a competition for a box of cookies, and it was better than the average Spanish class, although my team didn't win the cookies. We held our own, though, we did pretty well, and the winning team shared the cookies, so it was all good. After Spanish, I had one final tutoring session before the final and then, as planned, I finished my model with about an hour and a half to spare. So then I ate my lunch, studied for Spanish a little, cleaned out my desk and secretly laughed at my colleagues scrambling and fighting with the printer :). Does this make me a terrible person? Possibly. Do I mind? Nope. I was just very thankful for my planning-ahead skills at that particular moment.
So then it was time, the whole semester's work came down to this, our final studio review. As I mentioned in a very early blog, I'm sure, our section's project was to design a Maggie's Cancer Center, one of which is in fact being built in Barcelona, and one of our guest reviewers was actually one of the architects working on that project. So I was pretty intimidated. Before we started the review, he actually presented his work, which was really neat. They aren't very far along in the project yet, but what he showed us was really interesting. It did put us behind in the very tight schedule my professor had planned, but I think it was worth it, and really it's not a real studio review if it's on time. That just doesn't happen. Ever. Ever. But I digress. I was put second in the lineup, which is actually exactly where I like to be, so I was happy about that. Going first is way too much pressure, but if I have to wait through everyone else's 20 minute reviews before mine, my anxiety pretty much drives me insane. So second is good because it's not first and I only have to sit through one review and then after mine, I can just chill and watch all the others. I'm not the biggest fan of guest critics, but these ones were actually both very good. The thing is, at the U, guest reviewers are often like other grad students who are friends of the teaching assistant and they're often uninformed about the project and make irrelevant comments, but this was pretty much solved by the fact that one of the reviewers was the most relevant person possible to hear our review. The other was good too. She made a few snarky comments throughout the day, but what can you do? Either way, they were both actually professionals, which is pretty cool, despite being super intimidating.
So I suppose you're all dying to know how my review went, right? Well, it went pretty well, I think. Of course, it's always hard to know. My presentation itself, like the part where I talked, was a mess. And I knew it. I should've practiced more but I just got flustered and nervous and forgot to mention a lot of things about my project, but I don't think my professor will hold it against me, because all the things I forgot are things she already knew based on my work throughout the semester. So I maybe could've gotten a more complete critique from the guests if I had presented my work better, but I don't think it'll hurt my project in the end. I think they liked my project overall, though. They said it was "powerful" and "made a statement". And the guy who's working on the actual Maggie's Center said it was a good project! (Take that, Julia Robinson!) The only negative critiques were more about technical things, like some of my drawings didn't read particularly well and things like that. Obviously, those things are important, but they liked my design! It was the first time I had ever designed a building from scratch, and it was "powerful"! I should've gotten it in writing and sent it to Julia. Obviously, there's not a general consensus about my lack of skill as a designer and she's just a mean, bitter old lady. Ha! Success. I was the only one in my group who actually had all the requirements laid out in the syllabus (hopefully my professor took note of this!), and the advanced group all kinda seemed really over it. Hopefully that's not my future. They're actually all in B. Arch programs, which is a 5-year professional degree, and it's actually made me glad I didn't take that path because they all seem pretty burned out and they still have one year to go. By that time, I doubt if they'll even still want to be architects and then their professional degree won't mean much. I'm okay with taking two extra years if I'm still happy with my choice at the end of it. Otherwise, I feel like it's really not worth it. But my future education/career choices is a whole other story, filled with lots of uncertainty, and now is not the time. Our review went until the building closed. We actually had to beg them to let us stay 15 more minutes, because we had one more presentation to do. Needless to say, we didn't have time for any sort of closing remarks (since it was the end of the class for the semester and in a studio you spend so much time on it, it's like a relationship and it's good to have closure when it ends), so we're supposed to all meet my professor for coffee after our Spanish final tomorrow and then she's going to be a guest reviewer in the other section's final review. I'm glad ours was on Friday because I had the my whole last weekend here studio free :). (And so far, Spanish free because of my lack of study ethic.) That night I packed up all my stuff to see how big of a new suitcase I'd need to buy. Luckily, I only need another carry-on for the things I've acquired these few months and won't have to check a second bag, but I'll have to be careful with the weight limit on my checked bag. However, it eased my mind a little just to know that all of my things will fit and it will all work out, somehow.
Saturday, yesterday, I had planned to go shopping for most of the day, get some final gifts and souvenirs (and a new carry-on bag) and whatnot, but our host mom invited us to come to the beach house for lunch, since they're staying there like they do every weekend. So I had to get up and do my shopping early in order to go to the beach house for lunch, gosh what a tough life I lead ;). I failed at the first few stores, because they didn't have what I was looking for, but it ended up being a good time anyways. I took the metro to around where our school is to go to a store there and then I walked down Passeig de Gracia, one of the main streets and a very good one for shopping, to Plaza Catalunya, shopping along the way. Then there were a few stores in and around Pl. Catalunya that I wanted to go to, and then I went full tourist mode and decided to walk down La Rambla. It was entertaining. I stopped into the Boqueria market for a fruit juice and some strawberries for a snack, and it was so crowded you could barely move, so I got my fruit and then walked and ate until around 1 when Cara called so we could meet up to take the train to the beach house.
Helen picked us up at the train station and we drove around checking different markets to see if they were open so she could buy ingredients for lunch. Luckily, we caught one just as it was closing, and then we headed to the beach house and most of the family was already there. By this point, I expected a family gathering, it seems like they must just gather for lunch every Saturday. Lunch was really good, and then we just sat in the living room for awhile because it was actually a little chilly outside, although it hadn't been in Barcelona that morning. As we sat there, the family got into a rather large, heated argument and it was quite awkward. They're not some dysfunctional family, by any means, but there was some sort of drama with their (host dad and his siblings') youngest sibling and their poor mother had to sit and listen to them gang up on her youngest. I think she was quite upset, which was sad because she is literally one of the sweetest little old ladies I've ever met. Instead of listening to the argument, I watched the Spanish news and learned that the king of Spain was in Botswana hunting elephants, where he fell and broke his hip. I kid you not, I could not make this up. And I know my Spanish isn't great, but I swear, this is not a translation mistake.
To escape the argument, Helen eventually took Cara and I for a walk down to the harbor and the beach (it was a very long argument, it had been going on for probably an hour by this point). It was still pretty chilly, so we walked fast, but once we got to the harbor, we were more sheltered from the wind and it was nice. We walked along the harbor and then along the beach, where there were some people sailing and wind-surfing. It was neat :). I'm sad I didn't get a chance to swim in the sea while I was here, but it just didn't quite get warm enough. I thought it would. On the way back, Helen called one of her neighbors, who we had met the first time we visited the beach house, and asked if they'd mind showing us around their house. Her neighbor is the great-granddaughter of the Spanish painter Santiago Rusinol, who, funnily enough, had just been on our final that Thursday! She and her husband live in an old Spanish home from the 1700s, and I am so glad we got to see it, it was beautiful. Things like that just don't exist in the States. They're the nicest old couple and they showed us around and it was all furnished from like the 1930's; it was such a neat house, and it has a beautiful garden too, with an orange tree and everything. I would live there. After our tour, it looked like rain so we hurried back to the beach house and got there just as all the family was leaving. We said goodbye since we won't be seeing them again while we're here, and it was a little sad. It seems crazy that we're actually leaving soon. A semester sounded like such a long time and now it seems like it went so quickly. Shortly after the family left, around 7:30, the gardener came to pick up our host dad's mom and drive her back to Barcelona and we went with them. Like I said, she's just the cutest, sweetest little old lady. She doesn't speak much English, but she tries, for us, and she always calls us "guapas", like pretty girls, it's a very common expression in Spain. It started to rain on the way back and I think Cara and I both fell asleep in the car at one point, haha. Finals are exhausting! Last night, I pretty much did nothing and on my last Saturday night in Barcelona, I went to bed at 11. Haha. But that's okay, it was a nice, calm, relaxing Saturday.
Today I got to sleep in and then Cara and I headed into town to see the castellers. I've mentioned them before, when I tried to see them one other time and failed, but we saw them this time! There had been some kind of race/marathon/running event in the city this morning and there were tons of people and also a casteller competition, so we navigated the crowds until we found them. I am so glad we got to see them, it was so cool. They build these giant human towers and then a little kid, literally probably like a 5 year old, if not younger, climbs up and over the top. It was super impressive, they go so high! I don't know how those kids are so brave. What a funny hobby, "Oh, yeah, I build human towers on the weekends. No big deal." We did actually see one tower fall, and it was terrifying. It was almost done, the little kids were almost to the top, and then the entire thing collapsed. Luckily, they have giant bases of tons of people who can catch everyone who falls, and the little ones wear helmets, but still! They fell a long way! It seems super dangerous. They start with just one person wide towers, and then move to two, and so on, the biggest we saw was 5. Afterwards, we walked around a little to find a place for lunch. We found a tapas restaurant and it was really good. We shared fried green peppers and fried artichokes, because we like to eat healthy ;), and then each got one other tapa. Then, we went and got gelato :). It was a good day. Very Spanish, with castellers and tapas, and very leisurely. By this time, however, it yet again looked like rain, and by the time we got off the metro to walk back to the apartment, it was raining, despite the cloudless, sunny morning. Luckily, it wasn't raining hard, so it wasn't a big deal. After we got back, that's when I took my nap, and now here we are!
Now that I'm done with this, I do in fact have to study for my Spanish final, unfortunately. That's the last thing I have to do for my classes. After that we have a few farewell events and then Cara and I fly out Thursday morning at 10:45 (Barcelona time) and I'll be back in Minneapolis by 5:30 pm (Minneapolis time). Pretty unbelievable. My last blog post will be next Sunday, after I've been home for a few days, and then maybe I'll use these in the scrapbook I plan to make this summer. Thanks for making it this far ;), just one more to go.
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