11 Apr 2008.  9:19pm. For lunch, Gloria, Jani, Asunta, Merced and I go to El Museo del Jamón , which, for its goofy name, is actually quite good.  The paella is especially tasty, chock-full of little seafood. Following lunch, we meet the teacher and the others in front of the entrance to the Palacio Real .  We get in and as our guide takes us from room to room, I'm almost sickened by how gaudy and ostentatious it all is.  While it's pretty, it's mostly poin...

More Madrid.  I wrote a lot while I was there.  Don't worry, my next post will be the murder story.  And then back to Madrid.  Still got at least two, probably three more posts from there, and then back to beautiful Tarragona. I'm totally going swimming later today in my beautiful sea. -- 12 Apr 2008.  10:10pm. My phone rings early, an alarm to get me up so I don't have to wait in line at the Reina Sofía Museum.  After a day full of renaissa...

It's true. I've been feeling ill for the last week and a half. Originally, I thought it was a bug of some kind. I don't think it is anymore. In fact, I'm afraid I'm going to feel sick like this for the next, oh, seven or eight months. 'Why', you ask? Because I'm really, really nervous. Ever since I went and had a good talk with my professors and have been looking into graduate programs with some degree of depth and seriousness, I've been sick to my stomach. That's it - I don't h...

A quick post, because I'm ditching class and feel like making one: Been listening to a lot of Cloud Cult lately. After the rainy-day miasma that was the election season, I was in serious need of a pick-me-up, and few bands can do it with the aplomb of Cloud Cult . But this morning I've been enjoying their latest (and supposedly last - say it ain't so, guys) release, Feel Good Ghosts (Tea-Partying Through Tornadoes) , and I've been moved by one of the songs on the record. (Expect a revie...

Usually I love school. When I'm taking classes that are engaging, interesting, and keep my attention, I'm more than willing to put in the effort it takes to excel. In Spain, I worked my hindparts off - and consequently got some of the best grades in my classes and (I was informed by Profesora Giralt upon my return) I also did better than any other exchange student ever in the Weeb's history with URV. So, obviously, I enjoy school as a general rule. However, that is not true at all of my...

14 Apr 2008.  3:43pm. Some days I miss home - real home, not Tarragona-home - more than others. Today is one of those days. Maybe it's because I don't have anything to occupy my time - I should've bought my return ticket for Sunday night rather than tonight because 1)nothing is open on Mondays, and 2)I'm broke anyway, so I wouldn't have been able to find anything free to do besides exactly what I'm doing - still chilling in the park. Maybe it's because all this 'alone ti...

Or are you just twits?  But seriously.  So after hearing all about Twitter for all these months, I finally signed up .  And you know what?  It'll be cooler once I'm back in the states and have a phone plan I can afford, because I'll be posting from my mobile phone. Yeah, Twitter is tacky, but it's also rather fun.  I mean, stupid and tacky fun, but fun nonetheless.  Yet while most of the twits I follow are known in the Stardock family of sites, they're ...

I'm pretty sure that's the most exciting title I've ever given an article of mine.  For the record. Now, this is a story I don't tell very often (and I didn't even tell my family about it until I was back at home, for good reason) but I've had a couple of requests to share it.  This was, without a doubt, the second scariest thing I've ever had happen to me.  Even scarier when the crazy woman was shooting at us with her shotgun and hit the sign right over our heads. So, h...