Venezuela

So, I can´t decide what I think about Hugo Chavez... There are definitely things I like about him, and I think its good to have a strong force in the Americas opposing the U.S. but the whole constitutional changes regarding presidential terms (i.e. making it possible for him to be pres. for life) sound a bit too dictatorial for my likings. Latin America has seen too much of that already. I guess we´ll see what happens with the referendum on Sunday. And I´ll have to read more about him to see his policies and relations with other countries. (He´s quite the buddy of Daniel Ortega, pres. of Nicaragua and has promised financial and development support... which the country needs..but.. I just don´t understand these things well enough!)

more rome pictures!

And a brief note. The semester is coming to a close. One week of classes, and then finals! How can it be? I think I ask that at the end of each semester. Time goes by sooo fast. Or seems to. Porque el tiempo no cambia, as my friend recently reminded me. (Although...how do we reeeally know? A question for quantum-physicists?) Anyway. This weekend I am attempting to get some work done on a 10 page paper (1.5 spacing? what is that?) for my Union Europea class. And I´m hoping to see a flamenco presentation tonight. And go to Montserrat, this sweet monastery way up in the rocks outside of Barcelona. And go again to the menno church on Sunday. So, baaaasically, still not getting enough studying done. Hope your finals are going well, those of you who are beginning them, and I shall see many of you quite soon. =) (I mean, January... just a touch over a month...) =)

church!

or ¨turch,¨ as I used to say as a youngen´.
I went to mass once at the beginning of my time here, but other than that have been essentially without attendance to any service (though full of visits to churches and cathedrals). Partially due to travels and other such excuses. Anyway, near the beginning I found the address for the only Mennonite church in Barcelona in a city guide book. But of course, since all I had was the address, I never went, because I didn´t know what time to show up. (9:30 would be a little early in Spain??) Last week I finally searched the interenet and found mention of the service starting at 11 am. So This Sunday, along with the other Mennonite in the group, Dietrich, and the other linds(e) in the group, we made our way to the very outskirts of the city. And when we found the right place, we knew it by the peace-dove sign and wound our way down some stone stairs into a lovely silvan patio. ok, so it wasn´t a woods, but it had more trees than most of the city. Very beautiful. And Mennonite, I thought... We were late, but snuck into the teeny room with around 30 other people sitting along 2 sides. We sang several more worshipy praise songs (no four-part harmony, much to my dismay, though a very talented guitar player) and then moved into the sermon part. Oh, did I mention one of the songs was in Catalan? That was kinda fun. Anyway, the Guy spoke on something he never talks about, he said: Revelations 16 and the wrath/justice of God. Interesting. At the end he made a small comment about much of Revelations being pure gargabe. At least, thats what I understood him to say. =) Afterwards we talked to many of the people in the service and they were all exceptionally nice, as I expected (but we didn´t get asked to lunch at someone´s house...) ;) Turns out the guy who spoke, Dennis Byler, went to Goshen. Knows my parents. ohhhh, what a smalll (menno) world, it is! so, mom and dad: A big hello from Dennis!!! And we also met a girl from Switzerland who is also an exchange student here and so invited her to go with us to a park and to go up to Tibidabo, which is a monestary on the top of the mountain at the edge of Barcelona. We all had a lovely time, and I think I shall return on Sunday.
And now, I´m off to try to find the Faculty of Law so that I can get a book I need for a paper...ugh.
greetings to all, and encouragement to all you goshenites who have a full, most-likely icky 2 weeks ahead of you...

Todos los caminos conducen a Roma...

Or so they say. I took a plane. It was cold and rainy for much of our 3 day excursion (I went with 3 friends from BCA), but we had a wonderful time despite the weather, and so SO many cool things. Unfortunately, I am having many troubles getting my pictures onto my flash drive. So i only have a few. You´ll have to content yourselves with the colliseum for now... My favorite site/art I think was the Sistine chapel, though... I read an entire book about it my freshman year for JohnD.´s European History class, and unfortunately remember very little. But its incredible. So. I´ve been to Rome now. And I now want to learn Italian. I don´t think it would be too hard. Well, I bet I could learn to understand it quite quickly, and speaking wouldn´t take too much longer, methinks... We had a fun Italian <-> Spanish conversation with a man who worked in a coffee/gelato shop.
Tomorrow we a have a Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant with the other students in the program. Should be fun, and I´m excited for it, but I do miss you all, and look forward to coming back and seeing family and friends. Enjoy your thanksgivings and long weekends and whatever activities you do!

even shorter

craig won. not anymore. =)

Navidad, ¿ya?

So Christmas decorations--things like tinsel stars, my favorite!-- went up on the streets and such here just after Halloween. *sigh* I thought it was just the U.S.

Here´s a random thought: maybe with all the christmas shopping that will happen in the next month and a half, the U.S. economy will get a little boost and make a slight come-back on the euro... (wishful thinking, I know.) I´m getting more and more interested in economics and how so many things affect so many other things. (good sentence, eh?) I think I´d like to take an economics class to learn more. At present I know very little.

Also, on a semi-related note, my host-mom told me that because the dollar has fallen so much, people here are taking weekend trips to the U.S. to go shopping. WHAT?! yeah. Somehow its cheaper to fly across the ocean, buy a bunch of crap and fly back. (This is assuming you´re doing some serious shopping, I presume.) What a world. I don´t know what to think.

Look, a short-ish blog entry! go me!

autre week-end

hola, bonjour!
I know I´m not good at writing short blog entries, but I will try to summarize the weekend. :)
Friday we had a walkind tour of the gothic zone in barcelona for our history class. And in the evening I had an international potluck with my frisbee team. quite lovely! I kind of made a green chili quiche, but couldn´t find the right ingredients and had to improvise. also the oven didn´t have a temp gauge and was really hot, so i burnt the bottom. =( oh well. had lots of yummy food from all over.
Saturday 10 of us (frisbee people) drove to Marseilla, France (in 2 different cars) for a beach tourney. We arrived early evening and walked about a bit in the FREEZING, WINDY-ness and ate together in a restaurant. We stayed in a cheap hotel and sunday morning drove to the beach (beautiful). It wasn´t quite as cold or windy, but still pretty touch to make nice passes... The tourney was a 4X4 so we had two teams. Played with teams from France (obviosly) and Italy. How cool is that? So many different languages being used. I love the international-ness. We had a fun day and came out 6th or 7th out of 10 or 11 teams. But my team won the spirit award, which is almost as good or better than winning the tourney... ;) We finished in the dark and had a crepe in a beach-side restaurant before heading on the road again.
p.s. the glow-y tower thing is a building right near where i live. kind of a new icon ish thing for the city?

tranquilo

So this weekend was a bit more tranquilo. This was due to the fact that I had midterms this week and needed to study. I´m not sure I like the system where you don´t have any tests or homework to speak of until bam! a mid term test and then bam! a final exam, and thats your whole grade for the class! I think they all went okay, but I shall have to wait to get them back in order to know. Not too great, but not bad, either. regular. Finished. ;)
I did go out one night to hang out with a friend from Goshen who is studying in Madrid. He and 3 people from his program came to check out Barcelona, so we met up one night and had a pleasant evening. I also went to the beach outside of Barcelona on Saturday to watch part of an ultimate hat-tourney. Unfortunately I didn´t know about it until too late to sign up. Too bad. But I guess better for my studying... It was a lovely day, bright and sunny and it was nice to be outside for the day. And fun to hang out with other people on my team who went to watch. But it would have been more fun to play. ;) This weekend I´m planning to go to a one-day beach tourney in France. Its a 4X4 tournament and I think 10 people from my team are going, so we should have 2 teams. We´re planning to go on Saturday morning, spend the day(afternoon/evening) in Marselle, sleep in a hotel, play on Sunday and then drive back. I´m excited.
I have realized that my time in Spain is going by quite quickly! I´ve already been here for 2 months, and have a bit less than 2 before I fly home. And only about 5 (6?) weeks left of school. This is both happy and sad. Happy because I haven´t been home or seen the majority of my family in a year. Thats a long time. I´m excited to see them again, and be in New Mexico. It will also be nice to get back to Goshen--I like small universities, Ive decided, and I miss my friends. Sad, because I´m having a lovely time and I´m doing something that will never happen again--spending a semester studying in Europe. I think I am taking advantage of it. On that note, I think I will walk home today and enjoy the unique architecture Barcelona has to offer. =)