Before art history class

I realize that my last entry was very poorly written. For this I apologize. I was excited and in a hurry to get everything down. Plus, while I was writing I was also chatting with my mother, father, and then Garrett on Skype so I was a little distracted. Considering all this, the entry wasn´t too bad, right?

I am trying to get this entire past week recorded because like an idiot I have forgotten my journal on every single viaje out of Madrid that I have taken. I get home and have pocketfuls of museum entry, bus, cathedral tickets and restaurant reciepts. I save all these and glue them all in my journal along with explanations and day-by-day accounts. I am only caught up to my Semana Santa, though.

This means that I have a full days worth of gluesticking and writing to catch up through Barcelona and Lisbon.

It does make me feel better about not keeping up with my European journal when I consider that I have been keeping up with my blog a little bit more consistantly (whatever Garrett thinks). After our Andalucía trip with USAC, I remember thinking how well documented my life here was. I had my blog, my personal journal, and my journal for our trip that we had to turn in because it was a field studies course.

Before I break down Lisboa, I have to write that I have been completely loving having movies again. You may be thinking that I am a complete idiot for needing DVDs while I am living in Europe, but keep in mind that you can´t go out every night. I live in this city currently and when I am not doing my hw (which is never because I can do it in class while we go over it because it´s that easy) and I´m home from my day out, there is nothing to do besides the occasional Rome episode in Spanish (which is crap because nothing is ever as good when it´s dubbed).

I read for a while, both books in Spanish and English (currently El Hobbit and the His Dark Materials series which made its way over the big blue ocean with Lauren in the blessed extra bag) but sometimes I need a good movie.

Last night I watched "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar." This is not a super popular film. Although obscure, it may be one of my favorites ever. Picture in your mind (if you´re the creative type) Patrick Swayze, John Leguizamo and Wesley Snipes (yes, Blade and that bad guy from Demolition Man himself) as drag queens. And, the best part is, they are all really really good. You forget who they really are even. If you haven´t seen this movie, then let me know and we will watch it together when I return stateside. It´s definitely worth the hour and twenty minutes it takes to watch it. The plot isn´t astounding, but it really doesn´t need to be. The acting is so good and the characters so memorable that it´s funny every time. I enjoy it a great deal.

OK, ten minutes before art history to begin explaining Lisboa. This entry may yet turn into rapid fire typing like yesterday´s :)

Quickly, though, let me just say that Europeans have no concept of personal space. Every time someone walks by me as I sit in my chair right here they knock the chair or knock my ponytail. They have plenty of space (some dude just did it again!!!) to pass without hitting me but they just choose to do it. This is so angering! It´s such a cultural difference. I think this is due to the fact that we just have so much space in the US and they have far less historically in Europe. There is an Italian girl in our program who mows people over like a bowling ball when she walks past you through an empty hallway. Seriously, we joke and laugh about this all the time.

Lisboa...

When we first arrived I felt so out of place. I don´t speak any Portuguese. The people in Portugal do. I was kinda worried this would be a problem.

Getting to the hostel was the smoothest experience of my entire life, though. We found our bus right away, got on and paid, rode through the city, randomly asked an old lady for our plaza and discovered it was the next stop, walked straight to our hostel (which was incredible) and settled in without any sort of problem whatsoever. This was a little bit different than our experience in Barcelona, otherwise known as the first time I have ever been disoriented and lost in my life. I have an excellent sense of direction, but Barcelona had it out for me. Lisboa went according to plan, though. Lisboa me cayó bien inmediatemente.

AND it wasn´t pissing rain in Lisboa like in Barcelona. I already knew it was going to be a great weekend.

We left our crap and wandered around the city center for a couple of hours.

Lisboa is absolutely incredible. I can´t really explain why I fell completely in love with it from the very beginning because it wasn´t just one thing. It is nestled in between two hills with and right on the bay. If you walk up into the nice neighborhood on one hill, which we did that night, you can see the entire old city.

It is much more intimate. It has more of the tiny streets and local feel that Madrid and Barcelona have lost a little I think. Plus, since there are so many Brazilians there, it has this South American spice to it that Spain lacks completely. There are many South Americans in Spain, but they all have conformed to Spanish culture. The Brazilians in Lisboa have retained theirs and mixed it into the city culture. This made everything a little dirtier, but more interesting and passionate.

Gotta go to class, write more later. We have a test on Thursday so I gotta go and study up!