It´s like Mexico, California, and Rome had a BABY!

man, whoever though of jet lag should be shot. my thoughts will be random and somewhat influid, since that´s where I´m at mentally. Especially since half of the time i am thinking in spanish grammar. very strange.

sometimes, god is just nice to you. i was on my flight to chicago, and i was feeling very alone and nervous. and i look up, and i see steve catts. now, for those of you who don´t know, steve catts is freaking awesome. ^why don´t spanish people have parenthesis? - i was going to say he´s not famous or anything^ he´s the dad of a girl i knew in high school, and was a pastor at my old church. I freaking love steve catts. Anyway, it was very reassuring to know that someone who had my back was on that flight with me. almost like el capitan (I´ve decided that´s what i call god AND I FOUND THE PARENTHESIS, small victories!) was saying ïve got your back¨. you know? Anyway, thought that was cool.

Let´s see....i met a girl who was going to the same program as me at the airport in Chicago, so I had someone to burn my 5 hour layover with. She´s really nice and we´ve chilled a couple times now that we´re here. I need a starbucks so bad....so bad...but my last opportunity was in the london airport and i was NOT paying 8 bucks...(4 inflated airport price times two for pounds). I am going on 72 hours coffee free. (don´t worry, I bought some folgers, now i just have to figure out how to use our weird coffee machine....)

All of my flights were at least an hour late, so i was glad i had alot of flex time in between flights.
I sat next to a girl from germany on my flight to london, her name was jana and she was really cool. she went to a school of worship in wisconsin for a year. it was her first time out of europe and we talked about getting accustomed to changing culture, and things of such nature.
OK, soooo it has kind of worn off by now BUT freaking British air..............SOO COOOL!!!!
FIRST of all there is a TV in the back of your seat. bomb. second, my pilot and steward people were mostly british. DOUBLE BOMB (this means all of my announcements were done in british...oooh i was so excited). phrases like /use the wash room/ and /rubbish/ should used all the time.
AND WHO KNEW THEY MADE PLANES THAT BIG!?! I´m not kidding people this thing had two levels. (of course i am not wealthy enough to see the second one, but it was there!). And my one stewardess who wasn´t british was IRISH, bonafied red-hair-and-frecks IRISH and she said /that´s a good lad/ to the kid sitting in front of me and I about peed my pants with happiness.

We flew in over whales and i got to see some of the countryside out the window, that was really cool. when we landed we circled over london, i saw parliament, the big ferris wheel, a cool twisty building that i´ve seen in guidebooks, and i´m pretty sure the palace, though it didn´t look as big from the air as i imagined it. brits are freaking cool.

My spanish has been coming back more rapidly than I thought - i can actually eaves drop. the room is weird but liveable. our beds are in a closet....and the entire room is tile, which was leaking water from somewhere below earlier today. it´s a brand new building, so they haven´t worked out all the kinks yet.

when i got into barcelona, one of the guys who was waiting for students decided he was going to head back so he took me on the train (subway) which saved me money and meant I got to see alot of downtown. It was so beautiful. At first driving from the airport to the train he asked me if it was like home, I said no but it looked like mexico (it was a dry area with lots of advertisement and unfinished buildings) and he scoffed at that. Mental note - don´t talk about mexico in spain...hahaha. Once we got into the city I changed my mind. All of the buildings are beautiful, like the nice buildings in portland with the scaffolding (if that´s what you call it) but around every window. Lots of symmetry, sculpture, motorcycles, and views. Can´t wait to get back into the city (which is going to happen in about 3hours for dinner).

UAB (the campus where I´m staying and working) is equivalent to the west linn of barcelona, but with a little more space between things. lots of nice houses, nice university, approximately the same distance. there is a small mountain-hill range between us and the city, we can see the top of some of the tall architechture over the top of the hills.

there are alot of people who look like they should speak english but don´t. that´s weird.

i was served cold potato slices during the first course of dinner last night and i was like oh dear what did i get myself into.

had a burger for lunch that i´m pretty sure didn´t have real beef in it. but i´m rolling with it. definately taking alot of adjustment, but definately worth it.

don´t worry guys, i´m going to take lots of pictures, and i won´t get married.

con mucho amor y mi fidelidad

S