How has gone this morning with Mister Brown?

currently in Barthelona (notice the pronunciation)... and loving it. It was amazing going to museums today and being able to read descriptions, if not get the gist of things. I still have trouble talking, but I always have, I can read and write it like no one´s business. But glad it´s still there inside of me, despite the strong inclination to yell "Ciao!" when I leave a store or to say "Vorrei..." when ordering something.

I love Spain. I´ve loved everywhere I´ve gone though, so you dont really have any reason to listen to me, except that I love Spain. It´s soooo .....spanish. haha. I just think when ive previously thought of the language... I think of Mexico or Nicaragua or Miami (haha)...never Spain. And i think because of that, i didnt realize Spain was going to be as pretty as it is. Barcelona is extremely modern, I think that may be the result of the war from 1950 with Franco (I love taking classes where I live and go to the places we talk about in class....everything is so pertinent and relevant). Everything is sleek and beautiful...but the architecture still has this art-deco feel to it. We saw two churches today, the main cathedral La Seu (famous `pointy one) which was under restoration, because every important building we´ve seen this semester has been under restoration. Nevertheless, it had just endless chapels of ornate, gold altars, and incredible gothic ceilings. I really liked. also...apparently some saint Euralia (sp?) is buried there, i need to look that up. the other church was santa maria del mar, which yes, is a church on the foundation of where the coastline used to be, also very beautiful, had incredible stained glass windows.

we did Museu d´Historia de la Ciutat, which had the archeological ruins of the ancient roman city of Barcino. They knew exactly where clothes were washed and dyed, where fish were prepared for eating, where the church -religious center was, and where people bathed. it was really interesting. it´s also connected to the placa del rei, which had the famous steps where Ferdinand and Isabella stood to receive columbus after he returned in 1492, from that thing he did overseas. hehehe.

we when to the top of the mirador de Colon (columbus tower thing), which had great views of the city.... it´s not as pretty from the top as other cities weve seen, but it more than makes up for it from the ground. we ate at a tapas bar for lunch which was deeeeelish: i had onion soup and fried potatoes with a spicy (it wasnt really spicy) garlic sauce on them, and then catherine and i shared fried artichokes. i got Catalan Creme Brulee for dessert.... which really wasnt any different from non-catalan creme brulee, but was increeeeddiiiibbbllleeee.

tonight we went to the Centre de Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona (CCCB), and im pretty sure it was one of teh coolest places ive ever been to (have i said that before?? haha). it has like contemporary exhibits all the time. but right now theres an international independent film festival going on there. there were tons of pillows all over the floor and people were just chillin and relaxing and napping. there was a bar for drinks, and a staff doing massages. great environment. the exhibits were a contemporary photography exhibit (really neat pictures about palestinians, iraq, sports, and other current events). there was this exhibit on Labyrinths!!!! it was so cool as you went through it the walls look like tall hedges, just like in mazes. I never realized that people have so many ground plans and plans for making labyrinths and they showed some mythological stuffa nd popular culture stuff. They even had the layout model of the Hatfield House labyrinth, which is what I went through with fourteen friends two summers ago with Duke in London. :) it was definitely a unique exhibit. and finally we did the exhibit on the meaning of hispanic, which was really interesting in the context of how different spain is. they had videos of students at spanish schools around the world talking abut culture and identity, together and separate from other spanish countries. twas interesting. definitely a cool museum / exhibit area.

Saw two super cute spanish boys today... they may pass english boys...we´ll have to see how the rest of the weekend goes. :)

theres this street called Las ramblas, which is awwweessssommmme. its lined with trees and theres all these street performers and there was a vender selling birds, bunnies and hamsters (a bunny was 12 euro..... not saying how much i was considering buying one). it was a realyl neat street.

finally we ended with the worst meal i think we´ve had all semester. we followed the guide book to a restaurant but it wasnt there so we just went into the restaurant that was right there.....which was just an overall baaadddd call. bad chicken salad and bad paella. and a bug crawled onto my purse. baddddd..

didnt get pickpocketed today either! catherine and i put our purses on and then our coats on top, which i think was brilliant. then i put my wallet and my camera in the zipper part inside my purse. and put my purse in front of me against my stomach. you think someones going to get under my jacket, into my purse, into the zipper, right in front of me without me noticing? HA pickpockets, take that... you may think im not paying attention, but im smarter than you (....that was prob mean...)

one other thing: Catalan is insane and should die. it looks like spanish and french and italian all at the same time, and i dont like it. it must be so annoying to live in a place where everything is constantly in two languages (add in english). anyway, i dont like it. plus i would never try to learn a language that is only in like one part of spain.

other things going on in life:

Last Tuesday morning I had breakfast with former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. It took me a couple days to realize what an honor it truly was. First, I found out that only 20 students were recommended by professors (i thnk like fifteen came). so boom, im a good student. then i realized, how many people actually get a private audience with a prime minister?? probably not that many.

Gordon Brown

-politically left, but supported the war at first (under Bush). Supports education like whoa and thinks that the financial crisis is a "gobal problem" and needs to be handled on a "global level" but didnt really offer anything in terms of how to do that.

-is blind in his left eye because of a rugby accident, which apparently made him decide he wanted to go into politics, even though he became a teacher and a journalist after that...

-was born in scotland in a mining area

- has young kids

-took all of tony blairs problems when the Labour party in cotnrol was worried about losing control with the next elections and then when they lost popular support, brown got blamed for everything and kicked out of the position of prime minister. he was apparently really good as Chancellor of the Exchequer though, which he served as for ten years, the longest in british history, i think.

-i dont really know what hes doing as of late, but i know he was heading off to india after his speech.

-both my professors, prof gallo (money and banking) and Dr travis were not thrilled with his speech. apparently he didnt answer the questions he was being asked. i dont think anyone has answers to whats going on in the world, so why should he? (esp since hes not prime minister or head of the labour party so is pretty much just a MP). People can talk about healthcare and illegal immigration (david frum) and people can talk about the housing crisis and unemployment... but i dont think anyone has a clue about how to fix this. Im working on it, though. I´ll let everyone know when i figure it out. ;)

Anyway, i had a great time that tuesday. It opened my eyes about politics and really made me aware of how important my generation is... since we´re graduating from college to inherit this world when we get jobs. I also had a great time with Gordy. he´s very funny (he´s a politician after all) and i got to sit to his immediate left at the huge table of students. He cracked all his jokes to me. and told me that I will be very successful when I grow up. So i was pretty excited. he also said something: "People say ´politics is doing the possible.´well i say we need to make ´the desirable possible´" or something like that that I thought was very inspiring but then i realized that someone else probably told him to say that. i feel bad for him. i wouldnt want to be a puppet.

Anyway, it was an amazing experience that I will never forget (much like the majority of this semester) and i hope nyu gives us pics of it eventually.

We had an amazing talk on thursday in Fascism. It was going off of Kosetler´s Darkness at Noon (a book similar to 1984 about communist russia under stalin, during the stalinist purges) and regarded the idea of history (itself) and sort of the logic of dictatorships. it was mind blowing. I wanted to fall out of my seat. Fortunately, im writing my "special" paper on it, so ill go more into detaila bout it later. Although Im annoyed about more work, I cant say im not excited. Dr. Travisisnt letting me use any sources except the book, lecture notes, and an article he gave me about koestler... and said i should use "I" in it. Ive realized as of late (pretty much because of Dr. Travis) that as a history major, its so easy (at least for me) to spit out sources back out directed at a particular point. sometimes, i feel like ive never actualyl made a completely original point (my pessimistic side always says, well how could you? somone has already thought of this before, researched it, and written it down) but dr. travis challenge for me is to really make me think on my own....historically. its a little scary. to be honest, its just sort of a response paper, in that way, but im more of a "see??? this is what the sources say so this is why its true!). more on that later, i suppose though.

i had the worst italian class ever this past week. but i talked to mom about it, so im okay now. :)

well, now that ive updated you on everything im doing currently...im still behind in thngs i have done, haha. but its 11:30 so i may have to call it a night. more barthelona tomorrow!

ive been thinking a lot lately..... its still developing though... give me a few days maybe.

in other news: ill be home in less than a month, which sucks. im so excited to see everyone and share everything, but the idea of me not being in europe is weird.

buenas noches (so great to say that)

con amor,

becca

ps the title is from an email my fam and gender prof sent me. she is so sweet! : )