This last weekend, we all visited a smaller town on the Mediterranean south of Barcelona called L’Hospitalet de L’Infant. If you’re wondering about the name, it’s not actually Spanish. The town is in the Tarragona area which is a bigger city but still not really close to L’Hospitalet. The name is actually Catalan which is sort of a mixture between French and Spanish but not exactly. A friend of mine from the University of Zaragoza from Norway (who incidentally just tackled me while writing this line) has a house one block off the beach so we all came here for yet another four day weekend.

It’s been really nice so far even though the weather yesterday didn’t really cooperate most of the day. We decided to have dinner outside but by the time it was ready, it had begun to rain so we moved it indoors. If there’s one misconception about Spain I’d like to debunk, it’s that the weather is rarely as nice as most people think it is. The whole day was cloudy and cold though so we were cooped up inside all day watching the American Pie marathon on TV. None of the movies were censored in any way even though they were on broadcast TV and all dubbed programs on TV are available in their original language so we were able to watch it in English. This surprised me a bit but I think I’m going to save the whole “European openness vs. American conservatism” topic for another post. Even though we were inside most of the day, it was kind of nice just sitting around on the couch for a change.

Today has been much better, weather-wise. There’s a neighborhood pool just outside of her family’s condo and we spent a few hours out there in the sun. The others swam but I avoided the cold water since it rained yesterday. Elliot threatened to push me in but I told him I had my phone in my pocket (which might not have been true, my memory’s not as good as it once was). Other than sitting around the pool, walking along the beach, going to the supermarket, watching TV, and cooking, we didn’t do much else. That was the plan before we came so I’m perfectly content with having done just that.

I can’t believe I only have 3 weeks left! My classes end in one week and then I’ll still be here for two more weeks. Everything seemed to move so slowly initially and now it seems like I’ve been here just a few weeks. I hate to sound so stereotypical but it’s true!

Thanks for reading and if you’d like to follow more of my daily musings, I have a Twitter account and if you’d like to check up on my photos I also have a Picasa account that has (finally) been completely updated!