I did not find myself very rested when I got up Tuesday. I must be getting old! I was actually too tired to do my homework last night. It required original thinking in the form of a letter to someone about where I live and it had to have three incorrect statements in it. It was just beyond me Monday night, so I got out of bed as soon as I woke up Tuesday and wrote the letter. Two of my sisters starred in it and the Foshay Tower was mentioned. Let's leave it at that! We read our letters out loud and my classmates were able to pick out the lies in my letter because they were so obvious. In the other students' letters, their lies were not so obvious. By the end of the readings, we just hollered "mentira!" after every sentence just in case it was wrong.
The school trip for the afternoon was to the Sagrada Familia Basilica. It was another walking tour and they did not plan on going inside. Since I had already visited the Basilica, I decided to skip this trip. 60 Minutes just did a story on the Basilica, so I heard from several of you back home who wondered if I had seen it. Lola and I did go but I went online and watched the story and found it very interesting. Here is a link if you did not see it. http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/11/60-minutes-gaudi-sagrada-familia-advanced-software/
Anyway, I thought it would be a good day to locate a couple of libraries that I will visit. In my opinion they are on my end of town somewhat to the north. Generally whenever I go someplace in Barcelona, I think, "wow, that was closer than I thought." Well, these libraries were not closer than I thought. I headed "northish" to one of the big main avenues of Barcelona, Avinguida Diagonal, so named because it cuts diagonally through the city. It was farther than I thought and uphill, but I consoled myself that it would be downhill on the way back. Then there was a big shopping mall along the avenue and since I was in no hurry, I wandered through it for a while. I might have bought something, but because of the "have to carry it" factor, I did not consider anything! By the time I got back on track and hiked along Avinguida Diagonal (which is very wide and very busy), I did arrive at the point where I thought my turn was, but it was late enough and far enough that I turned back. After all this walking, I might have taken the metro and been back home in a flash, but it was downhill and a beautiful day, so I just walked. (steps on the pedometer 18,314) By the time I actually do visit these libraries, I will be staying in another part of the city and walking will not be an option (not that it turned out to be an option today!) I was just trying to get a look at them ahead of time.
When I got up today (Wednesday), it was cloudy and had rained. The morning started out a bit cool, but by the time class was over, the sun was shining. A few people back home wished me happy spring. When I checked the weather app on my phone, it showed Barcelona 59 and Mankato 9. Guess which one wins?
We start each morning in class with conversation. Diego usually asks everyone what they did the previous afternoon and evening. Today he started out by describing what he does each morning when he gets up. He goes to bed and gets up at the same time each day (M-F), exercises for 10 minutes, has breakfast (cafe con leche and 4 galletas--not 5!), leaves home at exactly the same time, etc. He then asked which of us liked to have a routine. I said that I have a certain routine (not as strict as his however) but most of the other students would not admit to following any sort of routine and he wondered why. I said I thought it was because they don't have jobs. This was the first time a teacher ever 'high-fived" me! Anyway, he got them to admit that they do follow a routine of sorts--it is just that they don't follow a strict timetable. They tried to tell him that if something went wrong during his routine, he would never be able to cope. The conversations are always interesting in this class and I enjoy it very much.
By the time I hit the streets after class, the sun was out. I came home and found that the housekeeper had been here--on a Wednesday. I thought when I saw her for the first time last Friday, that her day would be Friday. Now I am not sure what to think. I would have picked up a little more before I left if I had known she was coming. Oh, well, I sat down and worked on my research project for a couple of hours and then rewarded myself with a walk.
Usually my walks have some purpose and this one was to find the metro stop I will use when I move out of this apartment. I will be moving closer to downtown and I also have to have the keys of the apartment turned in by noon of the day I move. I won't have time to be going back and forth with luggage and once I turn in the keys, I will be locked out of the apartment. The good news is that within about 3 blocks of here is a metro station to the actual line I need (I won't have to change lines lugging a suitcase and a backpack!) and it even has an elevator. Que suerte! I know I am just in the second week of my classes, but I the time is going fast.
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