Expatiperro

It seems that I have a bit of catching up to do, not just due to the amount of time that's passed since I've blogged last, but also because of how hectic this week's been. Some highlights:

-The Festa de la Mercé, the annual week-long pyrotechnical orgy that I blogged about earlier, came to an end last Wednesday with an enormous fireworks show on Montjuic, the hilltop park a few blocks from my apartment. My ears might still be ringing from the 30+ minute series of explosions, and I didn't even leave my apartment.

-Officially registered for classes. This wasn't quite as easy as it should have been, since I had to run around town to get various forms stamped and deposit money into bank accounts, but after a two day adventure, my spot is confirmed. Registration was also made a lot more difficult because the university is insistent on using Catalan everywhere, including speaking it to people who don't understand it well. Like myself. It's actually a little bit ridiculous- even to questions asked in Spanish, they respond in Catalan. At least I didn't have it quite as bad as the exchange students in front of me, who I overheard saying to each other as they left, "Did you understand any of that? I really don't think that was Spanish." I suppose total immersion is the best way to learn a language, but when giving instructions on something as important as registering and paying for classes, you would think that they'd want to make sure you understood what they were saying.

As for my course, I'll be taking a high level beginners class, which has the slightly amusing title "Agilitació Oral." Since my Catalan pronunciation leaves a lot to be desired, the more oral agility I can get, the better off I'll be.

-Watched the Democratic Debate with 100 other Obama supporters at a Democrats Abroad meeting. This was SUCH a godsend- I had been looking around for a week trying to find Americans in Barcelona who wanted to watch the debate, when I stumbled on a Google group of the local chapter of Democrats Abroad. The debate watching party was everything you would expect it to be, in a room filled with die-hard Democrats: people shouting down McCain, cheering every Obama point, and spontaneously bursting into pro-Democratic chants. And of course, in case you were wondering, the unanimous choice for the debate winner was Obama.