Wow, almost like real school!

Thinking that after spending two weeks in the city, we ought to actually take a tour, last Monday we jumped on the FatTire bike tour. Although marketed as a 4-hour tour, it is really a 2-hour tour followed by an hour and a half spent at a beach bar (where the goodies are not free). So while maybe not the best value for the money, it was still good to get a little insight and history on the city. One interesting tidbit is that the only original part of the cathedral from the 15th century is a set of steps, on which Columbus was received by Ferdinand and Isabel after not falling off the edge and being eaten by monsters. Another is that while bull fights were outlawed about 4 years ago, they continue to be held every Sunday in a fairly large stadium.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday meant class days, and gosh, it almost feels like I'm going to school. Tuesday at 10am (we're talking early) was our first meeting of International Economics. A three-student, two-professor class, I expected it to be fairly interactive and seminar-like, but in reality we sat in Fernando's office while he lectured at us for two hours. It was an interesting lecture on the origins of cooperation between European nations after World War II, that will eventually lead to the European Union and the euro. Basically what happened, was that Western Europe wanted to strengthen (with the help of the US) so that it wouldn't become communist, and no one was quite sure how much to let Germany handle its own growth. So France and Germany created a joint Coal and Steel Community that would be governed by a semi-autonomous "high authority", thus assuring both strength and oversight. Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg and Italy jumped on the bandwagon as well, so as not to be stomped on for lack of resources, and boom, you've got European cooperation. Hopefully things will get a little more conversational as we get more comfortable in the class, but for now, I'll just keep taking notes.

Spanish class was later that afternoon, and is my only twice-weekly class. I'm in the advanced class with two other kids from my program (again, three students), and we meet from 4-7pm. Our teacher, Julia, is a sprightly late 20-something who speaks a whole slew of languages, but to us, only Spanish. She speaks fast, but she's used to American students, so for the most part I've been able to understand what she's been saying. She is assuming that we've already learned all of the verb tenses, so our lessons have been at a high level and are very practical. We learned how to use the conditional tense to be polite, or give advice, as in "you could do something" is "podrías hacerlo", which isn't quite intuitive because it literally translates to "you would be able to do something". Anyway, you get the idea.

I think I've already posted about Art and Architecture, but it turns out I'm going to have to write a 10-page paper on Joan Miró. Not ideal in the least, but at least the class is graded pass/fail. The good news is that when I present my paper, I get to do it inside the actual Miró museum right here in Barcelona, pointing at the painting that I'm discussing. Kinda cool.