Barcelona

Here's the beach where I was for the past week. I got swimming three times, but not for long; wasn't really swimming weather exactly, although sunny the whole time. My hostel was about 15 minutes walking from here, and right near Las Ramblas which is the coolest section of the city. Lots of narrow little alleyways too small for cars with loads of little stores and bars and restaurants. I spent most of my time either on the beach or wandering around Las Ramblas.
I was there on my own, because most of the other people from my group in Berlin went direct home after the program ended, so it was a little different, but good, and I met a couple of guys in the hostel to do stuff with; mostly a Hollander.
Here's a picture of Barcelona from the Parc Montjiuc, which was cool. A big park on a mountain that went up over the city. Went up there a couple of times.
And this is a sweet building on the side of Montjiuc, home to the museum of art which I didn't visit, but I thought this picture was good.
I did check out the maritime museum though and the aquarium and the Bodies Exhibit, which I think has been traveling around the world for a year or so. That was real cool, but a little weird. Lots of preserved bodies all over the place just hanging around for you to look at. And all the different layers and parts. It was something else.
Ok, Sunday I'm heading home, so I'm going to head out and get my remaining Berlin time in.
Liebe Grüße überall. Tschüss!

Done with classes and now...

Well, I'm finished with school here. I've been pretty bad with this blog, so for any of you still reading, my apologies for only four posts.

But I think that's a sign of what a good time I've had here. And made some real good friends, in addition to THE girl.
I'm about to head out for my last Sunday evening dinner with the whole family, minus my host-sister. Advent has started, and I've got my own advent calendar here. Chocolate every day.
Yup, finished with classes on Friday. And now almost everyone is already gone or leaving tomorrow. I'm not though.

I've got a flight Thursday to Barcelona - figured I'd see a little bit more of Europe since I'm already over here and who knows when I'll be able to get back. It's a little bit hard seeing everyone else going back to the states and home though, because you know I'm looking forward to seeing the fam again too, but Barcelona! Unfortunately it's not really summer there either, although it is a bit warmer than here. I'm determined to get into the Mediterranean though, regardless of temperature.

And Thanksgiving too. Us Dartmouth students put on a dinner for our host-families and cooked 6 turkeys and did a skit. I tried to cook, but I'm not quite as good as mom and pops. Half of my stuffing that wasn't in the turkey was burning in a pot on the stove so I dumped a bunch of water on it. Then it was both burnt and soggy. Delicious. But my turkey was good, and we showed up a little late to the dinner, so our turkey didn't get too badly eaten and we fed off it for the next couple of days pretty solid. Here's my food being prepared. Minus turkey which is in the oven trying to get done on time.

And here's a picture of our prof who came with us from Dartmouth reading his Thanksgiving poem that he reads every year. He's been leading this trip for 25 years or something ridiculous like that. We had class with him four days a week and then a play or concert or something about once a week.And 11 of the 13 of us doing the skit.
As you can probably tell I am Werther from one of the plays we went to see. Most of us were characters from one of the plays, except the four girls in front who are more or less us and our three profs were also represented.
And here's one more from the Feldgen-Dinkelackers and myself.

I'll post again after Barcelona.
Alles Beste!