Un período de transición - 4

So this week's blog is titled for two kinds of transition: the ongoing transition to Spanish culture, and the uber time-consuming transition into fall semester courses.

Good-bye Miquel: Part of the transition out of our 3-week orientation hodge-podge to real academic classes was saying goodbye to Miquel, our beloved Catalan teacher. While I continue having very little interest in learning the subject he taught us, I'm definitely bummed that I won't get to see Willy Wonka's long-lost twin twice a week from this point forward. It's especially disheartening because Miquel had just started adding sound effects (e.g. vrrooooom) in the past couple of classes to add to the entertaining concoction of language that defines his teaching style. Also, his genial cackle successfully sparked several class-wide laugh attacks this past week.. I remember laughing for at least 2-3 minutes straight in the wake of Miquel's ridiculous mannerisms.. It was one of those things where you forget what you were originally laughing about and just keep going because everyone around you is unable to control their own chortling. However, we finally managed to keep it together long enough to bid Miquel adéu.

Deceptive Euro: A couple of the other kids in my program and I were talking about this, and it dawned on me just how it's possible to spend so much money while living in Europe! Really, if we break this down, there are two key issues: The first is that everything here is PRICED exactly the same as in the States.. which lulls you into thinking that todo está bien until after you've bought the apple/plane ticket/beer and realize that you really paid 30% MORE in value than what you had intended.. The second problem is that the lowest paper bill for the Euro is the 5 € note. Why is that a problem? Because the 1 and 2 € currency is in COIN form, so - to the unsuspecting American - it feels like you're just throwing around a couple of quarters to buy something when you're actually throwing around $3-4! Compound that phenomenon several times a day, and you've got one very poor study abroad student. As one of the girls in my program astutely noted, it was a brilliant move by the EU to continually stimulate the economy, because the high-value coinage causes people to spend money without thinking about it.

Spanish skillz: Definitely improving.. I already feel more confident when I talk, and while I've still got a long way to go, it's great to see results in the early going. Unfortunately, I still speak a lot of English with the other American students here, but I'm hoping that when classes legit start this week, I'll be exposed to more and more Spanish.

Course selection - Total Disaster. E-mails, schedules, approval, non-existent syllabi & catalán flying everywhere. It's like me vs. the Spanish higher education system in a UFC cage fight to the death. Will keep you posted on the outcome.

Church and Bible study have been great! I'm starting to feel at home at the International Church of Barcelona.. The congregation is made up of a really diverse group of people from all over Europe and the world. I've already met Christians from China, Germany, Holland, Ghana, the UK, the US, Ecuador, Nigeria, India, Switzerland, the Philippines, and - of course - Spain in my short time with the church. Everyone is united by a love for Christ, and it's been so amazing to really see the disciples from "every tribe and language and people and nation." God was really faithful in plugging me into a community of believers right away, and I'm so grateful for that.

Finally, a good buddy of mine, Paul Rudatsikira, just produced a short film called The Poor Rich Ruler - check it out if you're interested.

Bueno, time to wrap up for tonight.. Can't believe it's been 3.5 weeks already!