4 day weekend

My four day weekend has almost come to an end. Tomorrow I have my last Catalan class. Tuesday I have three finals, and Wednesday I have two. Then I have break for 7 weeks plus a few days (until February 4th)!

So this weekend has had a few interesting/awkward/weird/stupid moments:

Interesting: I realized I still don´t know how to study as I sat in my room trying to force myself to be a good student.

Awkward: Luisa (my host parent´s oldest daughter) shows up at the apartment Friday with her two daughters when my host parents aren´t there. I explain that they went out shopping or walking or something because I had just passed them on the street about 10 minutes earlier on my way back from Hipercor. So she and the girls leave to go find them. About an hour later, after they all come back together, they all leave to go to the park or something. I´m still sitting in my room trying to force myself to study. The apartment buzzer goes off again. I answer it and buzz Jordi in (Luisa´s husband). He comes up and I explain that I don´t know where they all went but they had been gone for a half hour or so. I suggest they might have gone to the park around the corner. So Jordi leaves to go find them. When they all come back together, we have a family lunch and noone says a word about the awkwardness from earlier in the day. Maybe this means I´m really becoming part of the family?

Weird: After dinner lastnight my host mom was talking about the customs and traditions of Christmas here. She explained that they would be going to Luisa´s house on Christmas Eve for a big family dinner. It is pretty much like all of our family meals on Christmas day. Then she said, "And you´re coming with us! Right?" It wasn´t a question, more like a statement with an added "right?" to make me feel as though I made the decision to go. So, though I am excited about really experiencing Christmas the Spanish way, it is going to be very strange to travel with my host parents and not have my room to escape to after a few hours of the whole family. It should be interesting.

Stupid: I went out lastnight with some of the girls and one of the guys from BCA as a last celebration before they all leave next Friday. The guy that was with us had 8 friends visiting who are studying in Budapest this semester. They were supposed to meet us at the bar. We´d already been there for about an hour when all of a sudden, James gets a phone call. The bouncers wouldn´t let the boys in. They were already obnoxiously drunk and were being really dumb and saying really stupid things in front of the club, so they weren´t allowed in. As the rest of us inside all got updated about what was going on outside, the whole group of guys just went down the street a little and continued their loud obnoxiousness. So the bouncers called the police. Yep, that´s right. I came out because we were just going to go somewhere else and the police were standing there telling them they needed to move and get away from the club or else... Once again I understand why so many Europeans have the stereotypes for Americans that they do.

Okay, hope you enjoyed your weekends as much as I did! Now about that studying...