Hello all! Well, I've been up to quite a bit since my last check-in. Now, of course, I just need to try and remember some of it...

I had a really busy week, last week, with a phonetics test on Tuesday (amazingly, I think I'm getting worse at this subject, which is quite impressive), a new art history professor and topic (it's all about the end-19th-century Symbolist Movement in painting, which is actually kinda cool, and coincides with the era in which Byron and Shelley were writing. It's very dark, wonderful stuff), and yet another test in grammar which was really tough. So... Yeah, it was a busy week. And this one is a whole lot busier, as I have two papers due next week. Ironically, they're for the same class, one is 3 pages (the French students need to write 4, haha!) and the other is 7. But here's the weird part--the longer one isn't graded, while the other is, but we still need to do it. Does this make sense to anyone? Oh, the French university system... *shakes head*

So, as exciting as my academic adventures might be, other adventures might be more appreciated... Like, my trip to BARCELONA this past weekend! I headed out with Essi, Muoyo and Ally on Friday afternoon, hopped on a bus and 5 (looong) hours later we were in Barcelona! My very first time in Spain, how exciting! We stayed in a little hostel "El Residencia Erasmus" which was actually great, and really cheap. It felt very much like a slumber party, as we were all in one room. We had an early night on Friday, and then spent all of Saturday walking around, seeing everything--the market, the sea, the old quarter, the cathedral, the Gaudi park etc. Man... I'd gotten used to Montpellier, which has a downtown of about a square mile. According to my poor feet, Barcelona is quite a bit bigger. We did some more walking around on Sunday and then took the bus back and got home in the evening. Quite the whirlwind trip! But, pretty damned awesome :)

Photo shot from the bus, at the French/Spanish border. The photo doesn't really capture it, but the landscape there is Beautiful, really mountainous, and at the moment kinda misty.










We went wandering through a park on Sunday, and found this! I'm not sure what's it's a monument to, but it was beautiful... And riddled with Greek mythology, which always makes me happy.














L'Arc de Trimuph!... Every city's got one. This one was quite spectacular, though.












Shoe-shot!
I kinda like my turquoise chucks, right here...












My lovely travel-companions!!!













Street in Barcelona, in the Gracia quarter, I think.













So, Monday was spent recovering from the busy weekend, actually getting work done, and getting another fiddle lesson. I learned a great new tune called A Cup of Tea. I think we all know why I like it... Also, I've decided that I need a new violin. After mentioning, for the tenth time, something about getting my pinkie down where it should be, Brian tried to demonstrate it on my violin... And realized that it was practically impossible. The problem is that the strings are Really high off the fingerboard, so being able to push down hard enough to get a good note with my weakest finger... Not gonna happen. It's actually really nice to be able to blame my instrument for my problems, for once.

Tuesday was terribly busy (normal classes, plus paper-writing and going to a required play in the evening), and today has been as well. Sealia and I had our cooking class this morning, which was fun--unfortunately I don't have any photos to put up at the moment. And... tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and I'll admit to being very sad to not be home :( It's only the second time I haven't been with my family for the holiday. We will be celebrating here, though, which should be fun. And now, I have class to go to! Tah!