Adjusting to la vida cotidiana

After a responsibility-free week of roaming on the city, hanging out and not worrying about waking up to an alarm in the morning, today began the first day of class. There was something fulfilling about the way today went, because it felt like I had stopped being a tourist and started being a resident. I woke up at 8:00 and took the subway to class. I've been careful about keeping my wallet in my front pocket and my hand over it while on the metro. My neighbor on the hall got pick-pocketed his second day here and lost 4 cards, his driver's license, and 50 euros...not a good start! 

Megan and I have class together at 9 AM - Advanced Spanish Grammar and composition. Our professor is a 20 something native of Seville, and she looks like Penelope Cruz but has free-flowing, unkempt hair like this yak. Nevertheless, our small class of 9 got along well, and Megan and I could understand well enough despite her thick Spanish accent (quite different from the Spanish spoken in Latin America!). 

We found a nice local cafe to have breakfast with two of our classmates afterwards. This also felt like we were intertwining with Spanish life since we ate bocadillos and fococcias with cafe con leche rather than bacon, eggs, and hash browns (but had those been available...). 

My second class was at 5PM, and it's a financial management class taught in Spanish with about 60 Spanish students and 8 Americans. It was a bit intimidating, since all the Spanish students know each other and are loudly talking in Catalan before class starts, but it will be a nice challenge. The professor is a native of Portugal, so she speaks a clever blend of Portuguese and Spanish, picking words from each language as she chooses. Since I'm a Spanish and Portuguese major, I got by OK, but I felt bad for Megan since we expected the class to be taught in a manageable Spanish accent. 

At night, I did some Euro-shopping. That is to say that I bought enough groceries for about 2 days and carried it back to my apartment. Here in Barcelona, the supermarkets don't even have parking lots. So, don't bring your station wagon and Costco card and expect to buy groceries for the next 2 weeks. It seems that the people here by groceries on their way back home to get them through the next couple days. It also helps that a supermarket is right beside my apartment! 

In all, day number 8 in Barcelona feels like I'm becoming a little more Catalan than tourist. I can feel myself getting more comfortable speaking Spanish and functioning in public spaces. I'll leave you with this unsightly but common feature in Spanish supermarkets...enjoy your dry boar leg!