The Best Homework Is The Homework You Assign Yourself

Today, for homework, I decided to watch a Dandy Warhols' documentary in Spanish.

But it turned out to be rubbish, and the spanish translations left out all the naughty words.

So instead, I shut it off and read Pablo Neruda's poetry (in spanish, vale?). And promptly collapsed into a happy puddle of romantic literary bliss. A great joy of being able to read another language is reading things which don't quite translate. You can't quite portray the elegance of spanish in english, bringing together the wonderfully hung sentences in a way which lights them up quite the way their original form does.

I now have library passes in three cities, and cannot say how wonderful they are. My only complaint is a tiny one with the biblioteca on Carrers Urgell y Provença. The floor squeaks with my shoes (hiking boots... don't ask why), and this makes me feel self-concious when I snoop. And self-concious bookworms are not happy ones, particularly when they get lectured in Catalan (why bilingualism, WHY?) about wearing shoes at all times while indoors.

Seriously, I was trying to make less noise, not air out my feet.

Things I've Learned Recently

-Wear shoes EN TODO MOMENTO in public libraries, irregardless of how squeaky your shoes are.

-Bring a scarf along in the emergency kit, as things like to go from nice and sunny to sleeting in very quick intervals. Include in this kit two (2) oranges, a book in french, a book in spanish, a doodlebook, less than five (5) euros, a metro pass and a bag of napkins. And a map.

-Also socks make very good mittens for people who are too lazy to go buy some.

-Whoever put the idea in your head that Barcelona is warm in February was LYING. It is the coldest month of the year. Rage.

-Some Spanish Vocab:

Amigos con derecho: friends with benefits.
Mi lechuza doméstica: My domesticated owl.
Perdone: Excuse me (polite)
Perdona: Excuse me (el metro style)
Dejame en paz: Leave me alone.
Qué locura!: What craziness!
Viejos verdes: Creepy old men.
Enamorarse: To fall in love.
Emborracharse: To get drunk.
A causa de las zarzas: Because of the brambles.
Tontéria: Nonsense.
Bollicao: Toy boy.
Braguetazo: Gold digger.
Tableta de chocolat: Six pack (the muscley kind).
Campo de nabos: Sausage fest (if you don't know what this is, ask your teenage son).
Tia qué fuerte!: Something teenage girls say all the time on the metro. I don't understand it, but I appreciate the drama they say it with.
Sonrisa gamberra: Mischievous smile.

You could say I've learned a lot (check me out past tense!) but I'd also like to mention in my defense that I learned almost all of those words from my teachers. Except for the bit about the domesticated owl, I read that in a book. I've been following in a french poet's footsteps, and making artistic word lists about n'importe quoi, which are excellent ways to see what you've learned that day (A LOT).

-I also attended a vocabulary course on "primeros auxilos", or first aid. For example, I now know the correct order to give information when dialing 1-1-2 here. (1) Is the victim conscious? (2) Are they breathing? (3) Do they have a pulse? (4) Are you calling for a good reason? (jokes...)

And so forth. So if the worst strikes, I can whip out my handy dandy notebook and slowly read my way through the steps, hopefully not messing up any of the vocab.

-The general assumption that spanish people are nutso about food is correct. 100%. I eat so well here, probably in preparation for my host family's plot to cook and eat me. The food is so good, I don't really mind.

-Probably more, but I want to go back to my romantic poetry. Ciao!