England for Christmas!

I'm (finally) back in England for Christmas! I was supposed to be back yesterday BUT lots of snow in Liverpool meant my flight got cancelled, but luckily my dad managed to get me on another flight to Manchester the next day.

I was leaving Lleida on a high speed train when I received the call from my dad to tell me that my flight was cancelled, so I was a little bit upset, and kind of panicking about what I would do once I got to Barcelona. Had to hold back tears a couple of times cos I was all like "ahhh no, I'm not gonna be able to go home for Christmas" or Idon'tknowwhat, cos I was not thinking very straight I don't think. I was tired... and y'know, it's kind of distressing to be told your flight's cancelled when you're already on your way.

SAO, I got to Barcelona Estació Sants, and found somewhere to sit pathetically on my bags while I waited for contact from my parents. I had left my Spanish phone in Lleida, cos I was trying to pack light, so we had to communicate by text on my English phone. I must have looked a pretty sorry sight sat on the floor in the middle of that massive train station, I wish I could have taken a picture xD. But yeah, I was kinda worried, the next flight I could get a free transfer to was on the 24th... yeah so that wasn't happening. My dad said there was a flight to Manchester that same evening that he was booking, but then it filled up while he was booking. So I was once again waiting, but then THANKFULLY he managed to get me a flight to Manchester the next day at midday.

Entonces, there was just one problem, I'd be staying in the airport for the night. Woohoo. As I'm sure you can imagine, I was less than ecstatic about this prospect. Anyway, I went and bought a ticket to the airport (I love how cheap trains can be in Catalonia), and went to sit on the floor again on the platform (I have no idea why there are no seats in the station). Upon arrival at the airport, I found a seat to plonk myself on, and tried to get some Internet, but couldn't. So i sat there for a while resting, looking a complete mess, with what must have been the most gormless look on my face because I was too tired to walk all the way to the place where they sold sandwiches. Eventually I found the energy to drag myself and my bags over to the shop and paid over FIVE EUROS for a soggy, insubstantial tuna sandwich and a litre of lemon fanta (I thought it might help my breath smell a little fresher?).

So tot seguit I went to sit back down and eat my pathetic sandwich, which didn't really fill me. And then I thought about going to the information desk to ask pointless questions in order to have someone to talk to. And THEN I COMPLETELY RANDOMLY spotted a guy I know from my uni in England (who is from a town near Barcelona), and, blablabla, his family offered to take me home with them for the night!!! :DDD I was pretty happy, though I was probably not showing it too well in my hideous state. SAO, I got a wonderful Spanish meal, and a bed for the night. Cannot BELIEVE how lucky I was.

So, got the train back to the airport the next morning. The plane was delayed so had quite a wait in the boiling airport but that's okay, I had music, and it seems to take hours to get to the gate anyway, after each control it seems there's more and more miles of airport to trudge through, seriously seemed like I was walking forever, thankfully my bag was checked in so it was bearable. It was really strange hearing so many people talking English waiting at the gate, not used to it! The delay was longer than expected but we eventually got on. Monarch flights are a lot nicer than easyJet and RyanAir, cos they are not CONSTANTLY talking at you selling TAT that I DON'T WANT. My head felt like it would explode when we began to descend but at least it wasn't as bad as when I was coming back from Italy, when I thought my eyes were just gonna blow up and I experienced the most horrific pain. SO not a fan of descents. Anyway, then we were in Manchester and on the way to the passport controls... I saw the massive queue and my heart sank, wishing I was one of the Asian girls that had been sat behind me so I could go through the non-EU passport control. But THEN i saw a sign and realised that I had a BIOMETRIC PASSPORT and so could skip the massive queue and get straight through by looking in a mirror...(?) So was happy and thought I would soon be reunited with my father, BUT no. No. No, no, no. We had to wait a whole hour for our luggage. Was just standning there thinking... any moment it will come. But it didn't, so eventually I returned to sitting on the floor, just as I had in Barcelona Sants 24 hours before. Anyway, it eventually came, met my dad, was shocked by the freezing cold which got to me through all my t-shirts, went home and now everything's just PEACHY!

MUAH and Merry Christmas to everyone! <33333

Hem nascut en mons apart

On la llum cau dels estels, sobre un món empolsegat
s'han trobat els nostres cors, en un pont que hem aixecat.

En aquest temps que ens ha tocat
no serveix la veritat
fem un temps per el nostre amor
ple de vida, entre la mort.

Acompanyem els estels
el camí que hem inventat
el teu cor amb el meu cor
per damunt dels mons apart.

- "Mons apart"
(Traduït per Albert García,
de la cançó "Worlds Apart" per En Bruce Springsteen)

Diumenge torno!

As if I'm going back to visit England for Christmas this Sunday!!! Can NOT believe that I've been living here in Catalonia for over three months. Next year I have to make the most of it and travel more. This semester I've been so busy I haven't made any time to travel. But next year I am definitely gonna go visit new places.

Over it

I think it's over now! Annnnd so, I'm moving on to something even more insane and stupid!!!

You have no idea what I'm talking about! *points and laughs*

But yeah, I've decided that something that's been going on for a while was brought to a close tonight. It was doing me more harm than good I think. It was making me sad and angry. And it is still making me sad, but I think now I am gonna move on from it.

I'm having some crazy thoughts at the moment. I want money.

PONIES!

Hermosa

So, this photo is gorgeous. I love it so much. It's just one of those photos that strikes me.
Obviously there's the fact that it's Lady GaGa, who everyone knows I'm obsessed with, so the fact that she is in it is enough to make me like a photo. But this one is different.
Secondly we have the fact that it's black and white, and I don't know why but that always goes a long way helping make a photo look gorgeous.
Then we have her outfit, figure and pose, which all complement each other. I love the trousers' shape. She's doing the classic GaGa photo pose, one knee turned in, hands on hips with elbows and shoulders pushed forward, but with a slight variation to incorporate her swish clutch. Don't forget the shoes, sunglasses and hair, which are maybe even more important than the rest of the outfit...
Finally we've got the scene, or the background, stood in the middle of a wide, badly maintained road, with a (railway?) bridge, a 4x4, some buildings and maybe some construction work. This beautiful fashion figure is such a contrast to this, yet somehow fits in perfectly at the same time.
So yeah, to reiterate, it's a gorgeous photo. I love it.

Why I am always tired

Because I stay up until the early hours of the morning listening to music.

My Windows Media player tells me it has 384 hours of music in it. So if I listened my library all the way through non-stop it would take me over two weeks (16 days to be exact).

Then I have Spotify, which I read has around 10 million tracks. Granted, I have a 20hrs/month limit there, but there's a lot of music there.

So yeah, I like music, and I stay up late because I want to listen to it.

When I'm listening to one thing, I will be wanting to listen to something else, it's like I wish I could listen to more than one thing at the same time. Like right now I'm listening to Evanescence, but I want to listen to some Joni Mitchell, and I also want to finish listening to Carly Simon's albums from the early 70s. And then I'll look at something and it'll remind me I need to listen to something else, like 水樹奈々 or something... BUT I CAN'T LISTEN TO THEM ALL AT ONCE. So yeah, this is why I'm always tired.

:O

SO jealous of people with lovely tan skin and nice hair.

Losing an eye

It’s really hard to go out with a group of people, be the most intensely boring person and be powerless to do anything about it. …I am referring to the fact that my catalan/castilian group conversation skills have not improved very much. In one-on-one conversations I’m much better, I have improved a lot and am super-happy with my progress and ability to converse. But in groups of three or more I understand very little and say even less, and the more people, the more difficult it is.

It’s hard when you really want a good hug but you can’t have one because the vast majority of your close friends live over 800 miles away on an island. I really, really miss being around people who love me.

Oh yeah, so I went to Italy, it was really good. I loved the people, I loved speaking catalan with Italians, I loved the city, and the area, was absolutely gorge. Had a bit of a fail the day of our return. I’d arranged to meet with my professor at the hotel door at 7h50. Unfortunately I left my phone on silent, so it didn’t wake me up in the morning. So at 8h05, sleeping tranquilly, I hear a phone ringing, and I’m like “…què és això….???” and almost ignored it, but then suddenly felt fear that it would be somebody speaking in Italian on the other end (I don’t speak Italian) so I didn’t want to answer, then I remembered there was a guy in the hotel who spoke Algherese so I answered, and it was my teacher…

“Sí? Hola?”
“Hola, Joshua, són les vuit i cinc.”
“WHAT?? Oh my goodness!! M‘havia quedat dormido!!”
“Sí m‘havia imaginat, baixa el més ràpid que puguis, ei.”
“Sí! Perdona, perdona, perdona, perdona!”
“Ràpid, ei”
“Perdona, perdona, perdona!!”

If you really wanna know what it all means you can google translate it, except maybe my second part which is a mixture of my half-asleep head’s english, catalan and spanish. But yeah, basically my teacher telling me it’s 8h05 and I need to come down as quick as possible (as we had a plane to catch). But we made it, I just didn’t get to shower :/.

I’m gonna indulge myself a little more and continue the negativity. Yeah, I’m really trying hard to improve group conversation skills, but it’s so hard. And so when I’m there trying it just gets me down, then I want to talk even less, and then I start thinking everyone must hate me cos I’m so boring! I mean, I’m a difficult enough person to get to know as it is, (I’m usually very closed in case you hadn’t noticed) I find groups of people extremely difficult to deal with in England, never mind in Catalonia! Groups of people make me so nervous. And it's so hard to be be fun and enjoy yourself when you don't understand anything and can't say anything remotely interesting! I don't see how anyone could enjoy my company hahaha! SOW, yeah, it’s hard, and it gets me down. I’m not giving up though, just geting down about it, ha. I have the fact that I can hold half-decent one-on-one conversations keeping me going.

AND I didn’t like what I saw in the mirror tonight. I want new clothes and a haircut, and other things too. People like me annoy me.

Mirall

So after talking to a friend I have begun to tell myself I'm beautiful when I look in the mirror in the morning. You should try it. I'm hoping that soon I will start to believe it.

30 Days 30 Songs - Day 1 - Winter

So I’m doing this 30 days 30 songs challenge thing cos I heart music. I’m posting the songs on facebook each day, and then writing a blog about each one, which will probably come sporadically, rather than every day. Anyway, here’s a little about my favourite song:

Winter
(written, composed and performed by Tori Amos, orchestra arranged by John Philip Shenale)

I’m fairly certain this was the first Tori Amos song I heard. It was 2005 and I was in Chemistry class, which was my favourite class because I sat on a bench with my best friends and we always had such a fun time together, and we loved the teacher, who we dubbed “The Party Queen.” Anyway, my best friend had recently started listening to some artist I’d never heard of, who had influenced Amy Lee, called Tori Amos, and she was pretty obsessed with her. So she brought the CD into school with her, big CD walkman and everything (those were the days xD) and told me I HAD to listen. And she’s not the kind of girl you refuse when she tells you you have to do something :P. So I listened, and I was immediately struck by the beauty of the song, which is something that never happens for me on a first listen. I finished listening and told her it was really beautiful.

A few weeks later my friend made me a CD which included some of her favourite Tori tracks, Winter obviously being among them. I listened to that CD so much. She put some of the most gorgeous songs on it. The beauty of many of the earlier compositions and recordings of Tori Amos is indescribable. Winter is the most beautiful of all in my opinion.

From the very opening motif, beautiful. So delicate. And it stays in your head. Tori’s voice: so very delicate, almost childlike, yet so full of feeling and strength. Her internal anguish is so evident in the chorus, “you say that things change, my dear”. The gorgeous orchestration cannot be forgotten either: though the piano accompaniment can hold its own, the Little Earthquakes album version with the strings, horns and drum has a completely seperate dimension that isn’t present in solo performances. The instrumental climax leading to the third verse is breathtaking, and when I play the song on the piano, I always include the part played by the strings and horns, because it just takes me to another place, even higher than the piano part alone.

The lyrics. I can’t even begin to describe their beauty and meaning. The chorus goes like this:
“When you gonna make up your mind?
When you gonna love you as much as I do?
When you gonna make up your mind?
Cos things are gonna change so fast
All the white horses are still in bed
You say that things change,
My dear.”
That’s just a snapshot, the imagery used in the verses is fantastic, so evocative. I can’t even talk about it, you have to hear it. I urge you to go and listen to the song if you don’t know it. It is beautiful.

http://www.we7.com/#/song/Tori-Amos/Winter

“Què dius?” "I'm going to Italy!"

“Què dius?” That’s what they say here at the beginning of a conversation, like if you see someone you know in the street. It means “What are you saying?” Better translated as something like “What are you telling me?”. So basically you are immediately under pressure to come up with something interesting about what you have done today, where you are going now, or what you will be doing later. I really do feel under pressure when somebody says it, just imagine it in English “Hi!” “Hey! What are you telling me??” So direct haha.

Another way of starting a conversation is “Qué tal?” kinda like “How are you?”, and if you’re out walking, for example, you can say “here, walking.” or if you’re in the supermarket, you can answer with something like “here, buying things.” They know how to get right to the heart of things here, it’s a lot less superficial than casual English conversation.

In syntax class today, the teacher, bless him, seemed so scared of using an english sentence to demonstrate a point, he was like “You help me okay? I’m gonna write the phrase, and you tell me if anything’s wrong with it okay?” (pardon my lazy translation, I know we don‘t say “okay?” all the time in English). On the other hand, he didn’t seem at all afraid of using a basque phrase as an example haha. We had a “5 minute pause” a couple of hours into the class (which apparently was “nearly not worth it” but it so was), which obviously meant 15 minutes, ahhh the Spanish sense of time ©.

I managed to not lose all the money I earned yesterday, yay! Also, I got some envelopes, from Carrefour of course. Carrefour’s so great, I swear they are rolling out “Carrefour discount” (the equivalent of ASDA Smartprice) products to fit my needs. It’s like, when I arrived they had hardly anything in the discount range, but then I found chocolate rice cereal, and then the next week dark chocolate, and this week they started stocking discount tomate frito (fried tomato)! I haven’t tried the tomate frito yet but I think I will tomorrow, I’m sure it will be better than the bonpreu stuff

I’m going to Italy next month! For my Catalan Dialectology class we’re going to Alghero, in Sardinia, which is the city in Italy where some people speak Catalan. And it just so happens that I have a friend who happens to be working on that very same island in a city not too far away! So hopefully I shall be able to see her! It just gets better and better, AND I’m allowed to take hold luggage so I can take all the liquid (hairspray) I want! ^_____^

It’s less than two months til I’m going to visit England! Wheeeeee!!!

A fail... and some news.

Eek, it’s been a little while since my last update, I really want to start writing more regularly. I will! I promise! Lleida is keeping me very busy though. Between going to uni, studying for uni, preparing english classes, giving english classes, learning thousands of songs for the choir, spending hours cleaning the kitchen, sleeping, etc etc I don’t make myself too much time to do things like this.

First, we’ll talk about my latest fail. Yesterday I failed. So bad. It was all going swimmingly. Went to uni at 9, back home at 10.15 to catch forty winks before going back into uni at 11 til 12. Home for lunch, email reading, and preparation for the two classes I give on Tuesdays, which I did thoroughly and pretty well if I do say so myself. Then a little siesta before going to heading to work at 17.30. First class went well and I was paid 20€ because the Señora I work for didn’t have 15€ in change, so she would just pay me 20€ this time and 10€ next time. Lovely. Then time to (power)walk to the other side of the city for my next class which I managed to do in record time in order to arrive at the agreed hour. This class also went very well, since in the first one I could barely get them to speak, and this time I managed to get them conversing really well. One of the girls even told me she thought a postcard of Morecambe I gave her to describe was “beautiful”. Lol is all I can say to that. So yeah, so far so good, class over and another 27€ richer on top of what I earned before. It was just after 9 so I just about had time to go to Carrefour to get some essentials: bread, croissants and chocolate. Mmmmm *rubs tummy*. Then time to walk home, get home, put my keys on my desk, search for my money in my pocket, and, it’s not there. It’s gone. 40€ gone. Gone. Luckily I have a broken phone I can throw around violently to help me avoid screaming. Can’t even describe how annoyed/upset/angry I am. I couldn’t even sleep properly wondering how on earth I could manage to lose 40€ from my pocket. I failed. And that is the last time I keep monies in my pocket, I’ve lost things that way before, never so much though. Next time I am always bringing my wallet to work. No more fails that involve losing money please.

Anyway on a happier note, after discovering that I had lost the money I spent the day earning, my flatmate informed me I had mail! *_* And I temporarily forgot about my rage squeaking “quina il·lusió!!!” I got two letters from friends in England and it really helped to give me something to focus on other than lost money. I still have yet to visit a post office here but hope to do so this weekend I think, and hopefully they will sell envelopes, because I couldn’t find any in the four-floor llibreria.

I have a kinda love-hate relationship with the horari here. I like the fact that you can arrive as late as you like to class and it’s fine. I like sleeping in the middle of the day, BUT… BUT that’s usually the only free time I have during the week to go shopping, unfortunately it’s the time when all the shops are shut, and they don’t open again until I’m busy working or practicing songs. Great. Luckily the vast majority of the supermarkets are open all day so I’m okay for food and stuff.

Classes are going quite well. They’re not easy but I heart Catalan so I’m enjoying them, and luckily I have great classmates. 20thC Literature and Catalan Syntax are my most difficult classes but they’re okay, and all the teachers are nice too. I love History of the Catalan Language, and am also really enjoying Catalan Dialectology, the only thing about that is I wish I weren’t the ONLY student in the class, and we’re taking a trip away somewhere for two nights, just me and the professor… -_-’. Anyway, French Grammar is also okay…ish, it’s honestly fairly complex, I’ve never studied latin and stuff before, and what we’re doing at the moment is studying the evolution of words from the latin to today’s french. Also, the teacher constantly mixes the three languages (French, Spanish and Catalan) which is fine in that I can understand perfectly, but I’m trying really hard not to mix languages and I don’t think this is helping me. I’m forgetting French though so I really need it.

Ummm, what else… oh I spent six hours cleaning the kitchen on Saturday and I actually really enjoyed it. I also enjoy mopping the floors. Well, as long as I can have loud music on whilst I’m doing it. Yeah.

Fins ara

Life here has its ups and downs. I really like the Catalan people. They're very welcoming and friendly, I find them much warmer and easier to talk to than a lot of people in England. I have an amazing flat with some really friendly flatmates, a Croatian guy moved in a couple of weeks ago and he's really friendly, I'm so happy I have good flatmates! Oh, and thanks to the clever Chinese girls we now have Internet inside (thank GOODNESS, I couldn't stand it outside any more).

I'm pretty sure I've been phoned by the entire population of the city asking me for English lessons. So there's no shortage of work for me. Next week I start earning money teaching English to people's kids. I'm gonna be busyyyyy.

Uni is going good, the classes are really interesting and the teachers and classmates are all really nice, I'm very happy with the uni. I just need to matriculate... the form is not much fun to fill in haha. Hopefully I will be able to get some help from the secretariat.

Some advice for anyone who comes to live in Spain, don't get an Orange phone. They are ridiculously expensive, as soon as I can I am moving to Yoigo.

Today met with my "linguistic volunteer" from the uni, she was really friendly and it was good to be able to go out, meet someone new and have a relaxed chat with them.

I was really sick the other day, but luckily it only lasted for the evening, I was vomiting and everything, but by the morning I was all better :).

I think that's all for now, I'll write again hopefully when I start work and we'll see how it goes. :)

Porque estou triste

E você vai à boate. Você começa a dançar como um louco, e sabe da segurança que tem em ser quem você é lá. Há pessoas que vão achar tudo isso meio ridículo. Inclusive lá. Mas em seu coração, você está seguro. E isso realmente importa. Nada mais importa.

Aí você vê casais se beijando. Você vê paixão em seus lábios, e você cobiça tudo aquilo para si. Você lembra que seu tesouro está distante demais, e que até alcançá-lo, há um caminho missionário a seguir. Infelizmente, todo esse pensamento não é o bastante.

E você quer o amor. Você deseja ter o amor. Você suspira amor, na esperança de que alguém lhe suspire também. Na tonta esperança de que, em meio a uma boate, alguém consiga lhe tirar da escuridão.

“Você perdeu um pouco a razão…”

É, você tem razão.

Mas eu sinto falta… Sinto falta de ter quem beijar, abraçar, e de ter a certeza plena de que meu coração, mais que arredio, pode esperar.

E continuo a buscar.

E não sei como buscar.

E meu tesouro está lá.

Lá, em algum, mais que distante, lugar.


-Escrito por Hernando Neto, originalmente publicado no blog You&Me&She&He
(Written by Hernando Neto, originally published on the blog You&Me&She&He)

Beginnings in Spain

first-time flyer
I was up bright and early on the morning of the 25th for my flight to Barcelona. Special thanks go out the fabulous Mme. Clémence Coleman for driving me to the airport, preparing me for the flight and the process and for helping me check in, I would have been lost without her! Anyway, I didn’t have to pay the excess baggage fees, woohoo! I was a little nervous getting on the flight, but not so much, went and found a seat, and the flight went without a hitch, it all felt perfectly normal to me, except sometimes I got a weird feeling like we were dropping, but other than that, it felt like nothing out of the ordinary, I was completely calm. The views were rather impressive though, I must say. It was just over an hour from Basel to Barcelona, so not long at all.

It was absolutely boiling when we landed. BCN airport seemed huge to me, but I managed to find where our baggage would be coming to okay, and had to wait a while for it, but it was fine. What wasn’t so much fun though, was dragging all my stuff all the way to the train station in the airport, which seemed MILES away, and also, I was wearing three pairs of jeans, a few tee-shirts, a cardy and a hoody. I had to take all the tops off (except one haha) on the way, cos it was far too hot, I thought I was gonna die, but I managed to safely tie them all round my waist.

trains
So, I eventually made it to the train station and got in a queue for buying tickets, when some random girl came up to me and gave me a ticket with three journeys in Barcelona on it, which was awfully convenient. Luckily I had heard somebody talking in England about how the train stations work in Spain so I knew how to get through the barrier to the platform. Had a bit of a wait for the next train, and I was just hoping it would be going to Barcelona Sants. So got on the train, which was so crowded, oh, and loading a 24kg suitcase while carrying a massive coat and a 12kg bag on to a crowded train isn’t much fun.

Anyway, it did go to Sants Station, which was probably the most terrifying place I’ve ever been haha. It’s so huge, and the staff aren’t much fun, and even less fun, is dragging/carrying tons of luggage all the way round it. Also annoying was the fact that I was completely in French mode and kept saying “oui” instead of “sí”, how embarrassing. I waited in a queue at some sort of information stand for a while to ask about the AVE (the high-speed trains in Spain) to Lleida to be told that she only gave information about the cercanías trains… great. I eventually found some sort of information office which gave me some sort of general direction to go to buy a ticket for the AVE. I knew there was one at 12.00 so I had to hurry as the hour was fast approaching and the next one wouldn’t be until 14.00. Luckily the queue wasn’t very long, but for some reason it took forever to pay, she just seemed to be sat there with my card staring at her computer, and the time ticked away. But she eventually gave me a ticket and told me where to go, so I went, had my ticket checked, had my luggage checked and made it onto the train and sat down.

The AVE was sooo comfortable (and ©air conditioned©). A short while after departing I realised looking at my ticket that I was allocated a seat and that I wasn’t sitting in it. Luckily it was just in the next carriage so it was fine, I walked past an old man who sounded exactly like Tim from the CDs we used to learn in Catalan class, and there was a guy sat opposite me that was talking on the phone who also sounded just like him, and incidentally, I have heard a number of people in Lleida who sound just like him…

arrival in Lleida
It only takes an hour to get to Lleida on the AVE from BCN, so it’s nice and quick. Lleida was also burning hot, I walked out the train station and got a taxi to the place I’d be staying, which seemed really cheap, less than 6 Euros. Was so weird being driven through the city, cos it’s so different to England. Everyone here lives in apartments, there’s not many houses at al, the vast majority of the city is big apartment blocks with shops on the bottom floor. Everywhere is shops, so weird. Anyway, I rang the apartment of the family I was staying with, they live on the first floor so I had to drag my luggage up a few flights of stairs, which wasn’t easy, I was so shattered. However, a few days later I was going out to go church with Liliana and Pedro, went out the flat, and saw they were in the lift. I was like “I didn’t know there was a lift!” was funny… and embarrassing, haha. Anyway, it was nice staying with Liliana and Pedro, they are really nice, and they have the cutest little baby, he’s only 3 months old *-*.

First few days were okay, it was so hot though. Went to uni to tell them I was there and the guy who deals with the international students, Joan Carles, is sooo nice and dead chilled, made me feel really calm. There were several days of fruitless flat-searching, but eventually I got put in touch with the land lord of the place I’m staying now, and it’s really amazing. I’m living with three Catalans and a Belgian, so I get to speak Catalan, Spanish and French *-*. The flat is also huge, the dining room is amazing, the first night I moved there we had the neighbours round and had tortilla patatas and pa amb tomàquet (bread and tomato), which is actually amazing, I love the food they make here. But yeah, the dining room, HUGE. The flatmates all seem dead nice as well, and the neighbours, two Chinese girls are so cool too. The only problem is we don’t have Internet at the moment. We have to go out onto the balcony to use it atm, which is not good. Hopefully we shall buy some soon, cos it won’t cost very much between all of us, especially if both flats pay for it.

I was looking for a copisteria the other day to make a photocopy of my passport, but there’s millions so I wasn’t sure which one to go to, when I eventually decided on one the girl who worked there immediately could asked me for English lessons, so I (hopefully) already have work $_$ ! I asked her if it was so obvious that I was English, and she was like “a little, haha.” Anyway, it’s quite difficult with the language barrier, but it’s not too hard, I didn’t spend all this time studying so I could get here and understand and say nothing. Some woman in the supermarket started jabbering at me in Catalan and I was fine, but I’ve met some people that don’t speak either of the languages! I haven’t got a clue how they manage, I couldn’t imagine being here without being able the speak the languages. I do have to say “perdó” constantly when people are talking to me, cos it’s hard to understand, it’s quite annoying, but I hope that in the near future I’ll get better, especially once uni starts, which I’m really looking forward to.

Another thing is people here cannot pronounce my name, so I’ve started introducing myself with the Spanish form of my name “Josué.” I don’t mind so much when people call me “Yosh” but I refuse to be called “George”, which some people derive when I tell them my name, so I’ve decided to just go with my Spanish name.

I obviously am missing England and all my family and friends, so can’t wait until I am busy with uni and stuff. One thing I really miss though is my piano, I’m finding it really difficult not having ready access to a piano, I just want to be able to sit and play, especially when I am feeling sad, but I can’t :/. It’s been ages since I had a chance to have a proper sit-down with a piano. I got to play a hymn in church on Sunday which felt soooooo good, but yeah, it’s difficult living without a piano.

Okay, I think I’ll leave it there for now, I’ve pretty much caught you up on my life. I’ll prob write again soon. Miaow for now. :3

Holiday to France

(if you don’t know already, we went to France for the wedding of a friend)

journey
It took twenty five hours to drive down to Meslières, I don’t think I have ever been so tired in my life, goodness only knows how Sara managed to stay awake and drive for all that time. It was hard enough for me to stay awake to read the directions and make sure she was okay. During the last few hours it was so hard, my head just kept dropping and I kept dropping what I was holding. It was weird cos I’ve never felt like that before, I’ve never been that exhausted that my body just tries to shut down like that.

Anyway, after a couple of mishaps we eventually made it to Meslières, and, in the state that we were got introduced to about thirty people, the bride’s (Clémence) family and friends (French-style, with bises) who were there for the wedding, but we were told apparently French people don’t really use deodorant that much, so they mustn’t have minded us being such a mess. Then we all went to eat down at the salle where the wedding would be held, it was really nice, I just wish I hadn’t been so tired, I could barely concentrate on what anyone was saying, and it’s hard enough to understand French fully awake! Meslières, the village, is tiny and gorgeous, really rural and lovely.


wedding
That night me and my friend Al camped out in a neighbour’s garden in a tent under the stars. I’m really not usually a fan of camping at all (I hate bugs), but I was actually really comfortable and enjoyed it! I didn’t get up til about 1 the next day I think, it got soooooooo hot in the tent in the morning, the weather was gorgeous, but I was too tired and lazy to care.

Anyway, it was the big day for the happy couple. The ceremony was in the village hall, and then we went to the salle to celebrate. It was an amazing experience, I’d never been to a French wedding before and it’s just amazing. The food was great, lots of MEAT! I even got to try escargots, though I wasn’t too keen on them… but I tried and that’s the main thing. There was a band playing Irish music, cos James, the groom has Irish ancestors, they were really good, I think they were trying really hard to impress us English-speaking people with their English hehe. There were all kinds of crazy games, I did one which involved dancing around in partners, one wearing a sombrero, one wearing these weird shorts, then when you hear the whistle you have to swap what you’re wearing and the last pair to change is out. Was so funny. I even managed to hold conversations in French, though I couldn’t say too much, I did have conversations. It was really good to have such a good opportunity to practice my French in France with French people xD, none of them really spoke English, which was good. Anyway, it was an amazing night, was so tired at the end.


the day after
The day after the wedding we just hung around the village, most of the people who came left (except the legendary Gégé), we ate at the salle, went down to the river/stream/thing and stuff. We hung out at Clémence’s parents’ house in the evening, they were so hospitable and chilled out, it was amazing. Me and Al were then upgraded from the tents to a camping car, cos of everyone leaving.


Freiburg
On the Monday (23 Aug) we went to Freiburg in Germany with Clémence, James and the kids for the day, it was a really nice city, some interesting sites, including a certain statue… I hate sausage so (un)fortunately I didn’t eat any kind of Wurst, I did however get some gorgeous Swiss biscuits, nomnomnom. And Naima managed to find some sort of exotic flavour of Pringles that was also really nice xD. Had a bit of drama with Alfie laying down in the middle of the street cos Clémence wouldn’t buy him some toy he wanted, was so funny, all the people staring at him as they walked round him and some guy went up and poked him with his foot, haha. Anyway, another fun day, and another new country I’d never been to before. Before this trip the only places I’d ever been to outside the UK were France and Andorra, and now I’ve been to Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and Spain too!


fin
The next day was when my friends had to leave to drive back to England, cos they were gonna stop off in Brugge to try and break the journey up and make it easier on Sara so she didn’t die. Was sad saying goodbye, there were tears! Anyway, then spent a while trying to sort out all my baggage, but couldn’t get it down to 20kg so thought I would just have to pay excess fees, but I didn’t care too much, cos there was nothing that could be done, cos it’s not exactly easy to pack your life into 20kg of luggage and 12kg of hand luggage. Anyway, I shall continue the rest in the next blog cos this marks to end of my French holiday and the beginning of my journey to my new life in Spain!

A few sentences

So I'm sat here on my laptop with lastfm, facebook, blogger, twitter, gmail, windows live messenger and windows media player all on in the background. I am so dependent on my computer. We probably won't have Internet where we're going in France. So I have set up my Twitter so I can text updates to it, which will automatically be posted to facebook. The thought of being disconnected from them horrifies me. Only a few hours until I leave. It will be good to get away from the Internet, I know I could do with a break from it, I shouldn't be as dependent as I am on it. There should be plenty to distract me in France, Belgium and Luxembourg though :D

Leaving!

Tomorrow I leave England.
Road trip down to France, via Belgium and Luxembourg.
France for a few days for my friend's Wedding Reception.
Off to Basel Airport.
Fly to Barcelona.
Try not to have a nervous breakdown on my own in Spain.
Get the right trains to take me and all my luggage to Lleida.

I hope it all works out! :D

Ima miss everyone :(

Entonces

Esperamos entonces.

(me muero de esperanza)

...

Mas no sei que dizer.

Tenho mais palavras.

Mas já não posso dizer

a coisa que quero

mais que tudo.

Mais.

Quero você

How empty of me, to be so full of you.

We have a special need. We all wanna feel special.

Outside leave judgement. Outside leave hate.

My love. My need.

One rule. No rules. One love. FREE XONE.

Love your sister. Love your brother. Love yourself. Free to be who you really are.

When I close my eyes I can see your face. When I lick my lips I can taste your smile

How empty of me, to be so full of you

Stop letting my whispering heart... CONTROL ME.



(-Janet Jackson)

Eczema relapse

The past few weeks I had a sever eczema relapse. For a few days I couldn't sleep at night time because my skin was just burning, it was awful. I'd lie awake in bed all night, then get up at, like, 6am and get something to eat, before finally losing consciousness about 9/10am for a few hours. I did have an appointment with the doctor, but, I managed to miss it because I slept in, because I wasn't sleeping at night, haha :/. Anyway, I made another one and had it on Tuesday (27 Jul). The doctor looked at me, for, like 2 seconds and prescribed me some new cream: a big bottle of DoubleBase and a moderately strong steroid cream (which has really thinned the hair on my arms, I can't decide whether that's a good or a bad thing). I also decided to change my diet, cutting down on dairy and citrus fruits (sooo hard) and eating more oily fish and I'm also taking fish oil, zinc and vitamin C supplements. Annnnyway, all of this seems to have helped as my skin has imporved a LOT and I can now sleep through the night (which really feels like a blessing after the experience I had!)

...glamorous, eh?

YESSS! Exercise

I totally exercised today. It's been a while! Since I'm staying with my parents I had access to my Jane Fonda's New Workout video and a VCR ♥
The New Workout is easier than the first one, but it's muuuch more fun. Well, in fact the aerobics in the New Workout is harder than the first one, I prefer that section much more. So basically the ideal situation would be the aerobics of the New Workout with the floor work of the first workout.

In your hand

SOW...

Today is one month until I leave England for the continent. I'm going to France for a few days for my friend's wedding reception and am so excited for it! ^_^ We're gonna drive through Belgium and Luxembourg on our way there. The only foreign countries I've ever been to up until now are France and Andorra, so it's weird to think that in a short while I will have visited three new ones and will then be living in yet another new one. The other two, are Switzerland, where I will be catching a flight, and Spain, where I shall be living.

I know the address of where I'm going to be staying in Lleida. It shouldn't be too hard to reach, well I hope so anyway. It's near a street called Carrer del Music Vivaldi, which basically means Music of Vivaldi Street. I think that's cool.

It's quite scary thinking about all the things I'm gonna have to do when I get there, I mean, cos I'll need things... like FOOD for one, cos obviously there's only so much I can pack. Exciting times ahead.

Don't say

MY GOODNESS am I lazy. I need to DO things.

Intstrumental

It's actually really insulting when people say that they can 'play' instruments (well) when in fact, they cannot. Because some of us actually can play those instruments well, and have spent the majority of our lives practicing these instruments every day, to get good and to be able to say 'I can play this instrument.' (and some people are geniuses, but there's not too many of those around :P). There is such a big difference between 'being able to play a bit of guitar' and actually being able to play the guitar. And then there's a difference between someone who 'plays the guitar' and a 'guitarist.' It was quite a proud moment of my life when my music teacher told me she would now call me a pianist, whereas before I was Josh who 'plays the piano.'

Sol

It's really not much fun being allergic to sunlight. I can't spend my life avoiding it. But at the moment my eczema/dermatitis has been worse than since I was a baby, and sunlight is just not helpful.

I love the sunshine, why can't it get along with me? :(

P.S. I had a birthday. It was fun ^_^. Got lots of amazing stuff. Lots of Lady GaGa and Hilary Duff things <333333333. And spent a day showing my bessie round the sights of Warrington. (Un)Fortunately the sun was shining, and it was a great day! I don't much like my new age, the previous one was much better. Exciting things are coming up soon, I'll write more soon :) xx

Back

I'm back at my parents' for the summer now. I miss Lancaster, I miss having my own place. I also miss having unlimited downloads. I can't stream music here, like I'm used to doing all the time at home, or even watch much TV online. Oh well...

Only a couple of weeks til my birthday. I don't really want to turn 20. I like being a teenager, I like being young. I'm trying to get my sleeping pattern back to normal. This hot weather isn't helping. It's really difficult to sleep at night when it's hot. I like hot days, but I prefer the nights to be cooler, so I can comfortably sleep with a cover over me. Sleeping in bed without a cover, just doesn't feel right, somehow. I'd much prefer it to be cold at night, so I have to sleep with clothes on and a warm cover, I guess it's cos that's what I'm more used to. Hmm, next summer in Spain and France should be interesting...

The time to move abroad is getting closer too. I now don't have to get a plane, because my parents are going on holiday the week I'm due to leave, so I'm going down to France in the car with them, staying for a couple of nights, and then getting a train from Béziers to Barça, and then from Barça to Lleida. I still don't have anywhere to stay, and that's the thing that's worrying me the most. But hopefully it shall be sorted out soon. Just waiting for some emails. I need to check if my application has arrived at the uni yet too... it cost quite a lot to send it by tracked delivery. Hopefully once that gets there they will send us more info about stuff.

BadOut

Yo quiero que tú sufras lo que yo sufro
y aprenderé a rezar para lograrlo
yo quiero que te sientas tan inútil
como un vaso sin whisky entre las manos
y que sientas en tu pecho
el corazón
como si fuera de otro
y te doliera.
yo te deseo la muerte
donde tú estés
y aprenderé a rezar para lograrlo
yo quiero que tú sufras
lo que yo sufro
y aprenderé a rezar
para lograrlo

Yo quiero que te asomes
a cada hora
como un preso asomado
por tu ventana
y que te sean las piedras de la calle
el único paisaje de tus ojos.

yo te deseo la muerte
donde tu estés
por dios que y aprenderé a rezar
para lograrlo.

-Albert Pla "Sufre Como Yo"

Aha

Not being able to say what I really want to say. That's what I'm not liking. Not telling. And also reading crap which I hate but somehow find compelling. You know when you hate something, but just can't stop yourself from being so amazed by it that you continue to watch it? There's just no need to talk rubbish really, is there? No need for lies. No need to say things that have no basis in truth. No need to say things that are just a load of rubbish.

---------------------------

"Tan a prop un dels altres
I estem sols com a casa,
I sempre hi haurà un incendi,
Que mai s’apaga.

I no recordo cap dia
On no hi hagi mentides,
I busco el Nirvana,
I tot passa de llarg...

Sol,
Torno sol,
Quan tomba el sol,
I no m’has mirat
Sempre em passes davant."

-Ivette Nadal

----------------------------

Xk puc

Esta molt be poder parlar altres llengues xk puc dir moltes coses que no entenen. Ja et faig por? I quan faig servir uns abreviacions i no faig servir accents ho fa mes dificil per la gent de traduir el que dic ^_^ (I tambe que no parlo perfectament!)

Algunes persones son molllt molt i molt estranyes. I probablament no canviaran mai. Tambe haig de recordar que aquestes persones no veuran mai com jo veig coses, i com estranyes son elles mateixes.

(insereix alguna cosa aki)

Xk la gent diu mentides? Com pot persona A estar tan intim amb persona B, persona B no es res excepte un/a amic/ga molt be, persona A...awhiehweorbfk bfkhi. No entenc. Vull mostrar als altres quin tipus de persona es el/la seu/seva amic/ga

The real you

I mean the unpleasant side of you that is usually hidden, but overrides things that happen with the more pleasant side of you.

·

I want to tell you a story

Just an ant

How can someone say "I love [somebody]" and then completely disregard them like an ant crawling on their arm, which they flick into oblivion?

Piano lesson

I've begun to learn a classical piece on the piano for the first time in years. And I cannot describe how amazing it feels. For the past couple of years, since I stopped piano lessons I stopped daily practice habits, and just enjoyed playing freely. But recently I came into possession of some sheet music and decided I would practice properly, just like I had to in the old days. Even after just a couple of days I'm amazed at the progress I have made with it, and I was even be able to play a Debussy piece, which a couple of years ago I was playing a lot, because I performed it for an exam, but over the many months it went out of reach of my fingers. It feels so good to have it back within my grasp.

I love the piano. I wish I could show you the plane it takes me to.

Classic

I forgot the passion I had for Classical music. Well, it's actually mostly Romantic period, but most people know all Baroque, Romantic, Classical and even Modern Period music as "Classical". (I'm so glad for my A-Level in music, it introduced so much to me.)

...When I was young I would spend hours a day listening to it, while I lay in bed...

A friend of mine asked me to make a mix of Classical music I like. I was so excited to do so, so I've been listening to my music like never before. It's been so long since I've really listened to it like this. I wish I had all my CDs. I wish I had a bigger collection of this music, there is so much out there, and so many recordings of the so much that is out there. The mix has turned into a piano-focused one, since that's the kind of music I'm more into, know more about and have more of. I went through a load of recordings and bought some new recordings of pieces I l♥ve... I really love dramatic music, and music with fire. Fire of PASSION, dark fire, the burning flame of love.

Someone give me some money, pleeeease? I NEED to buy more Clara Schumann music, and then pay for some way to have her resurrected from the dead so she can write another piano concerto ♥.

To end, I would ask you to please watch this video, I never get tired of it. Clara Schumann is so overlooked, it is absolutley criminal. If you at all like piano music, dramatic music, or even are just interested in Women's History go listen to her Piano Concerto too. It's amazing (The final movement is so INTENSE, ask me about it, honestly). I do so wish that females weren't so overlooked in musical history. Anyway, here is the video: Rina Cellini playing Clara Schumann's Scherzo no. 2, Op. 14.

Maria del Mar Bonet

She's my favourite musician at the moment.

Her song Estrofa al vent came up on my last.fm and I loved it straight away, so downloaded her album Jardí tancat, since then I've been listening to her on we7 and Spotify. I can't get enough of her voice, and the fantastic soundscapes on her records. When I listen to her I can feel like I am in the Mediterranean, or with other songs, in a grand cathedral hundreds of years ago. She even crosses over to pop and blues with some albums. She is amazing. I don't know why she isn't more popular, she's obviously extremely gifted, I wish her CDs were easier to obtain here. Maybe when I move to Catalonia I'll be able to get my hands on more :D

La seva cançó Estrofa al vent es va reproduir al meu last.fm i em va encantar immediatment, doncs vaig descarregar el seu disc Jardí tancat, i des de aquest moment he estat escoltant a ella a we7 i Spotify. No puc escoltar prou a la seva veu i els sons fantàstics dels seus discos. Quan escolto a ella puc sentir com si jo estigui al Mediterrani, o amb altres cançons, com si estigui en una catedral grandiosa fa cents d'anys. Travessa a pop i blues en uns discos. Ella és excepcional. No sé perquè no és més popular, és evident que és una dona amb molt i molt talent, espero que els seus discos eren més fàcil a obtenir aquí. Potser que quan em traslladi a Catalunya en podré obtenir més.

Train

I fell off the exercise train probably about the same time I fell off the blog train. Uni was keeping me super busy and I jsut didn't feel like I had the time to exercise, I think it was just that I wasn't willing to make the time though, I got pretty lazy (Lazier than usual). Anyway, I've started doing it again, and I'm GONNA keep it up. Yes I am. Now I am free from exams I have no reason not to.

The weather here is really bright and warm today. It was actually nice to take a trip to the post office. I love the warm weather but I don't love the fact that with summer comes allergies. The hayfever pills keep them somewhat at bay, but they eat a little hole in my shopping bill, and still don't completely remove the problems. In other moans, my skin is also pretty bad recently, I hate my skin.

The time for me to move to Lleida is coming closer and closer. It's scary scary scary. But today I got the email of someone from my uni who has spent this year there, so I'm going to email him and ask a few questions, which will hopefully help me with it all. Next week is the Year Abroad prep course at uni, so hopefully that will be useful.

I need to go shopping, I have no chocolate or biscuits in the house. I really don't like being without sugary desserts. At least I have cereal and milk, I go crazy without that.

Tonight is party time.

I'm slowly tidying up my house. I hate moving.

Write

I spend so much time at this computer, I really don't have an excuse not to write more. I could sit here and make excuses and stuff, but I'm just gonna say that I'm gonna try and get back into the habit of writing more, because one of the reasons I started this was so I'd have something to keep everyone updated on me when I go live in Spain. So here I am, writing.

Today the weather was warm.

Recently's been crazy.

I think people don't really change, it's just that you come to see sides of them you didn't see before.

The drama

It keeps my life interesting, at least.

I want

There's so much music I want to buy. I've always found it really difficult to hold back from purchasing CDs when I go out, and at this very moment I am looking at several albums online I want now. Now. NOW. And I can get them for relatviely cheap. But unfortunately it all adds up. When I've written my budget I will buy some... or maybe I won't wait that long... it's just so EASY to press the little "one click" button next to a song on Amazon and to have it within seconds.

I watched Almodóvar's film Carne Trémula today. It was okay, I need to read about it so I may be able to reference it in my Spanish film exam this Thursday.

Today, well, yesterday now, I had my Catalan oral exam. And on Monday I will have my Spanish oral exam, it seems like I've spent so many weeks speaking Catalan and trying desperately to avoid slipping into Castilian that I can't make the switch to Castilian thinking. Hopefully by Monday I will be able to think properly in Castilian.

I've been on this amazing website recently, We7, it's like Spotify, except anyone can listen on it and you don't have to download anything. There's so much on there, so much I want to hear, but it's so hard for me to decide which album to listen to next... ♥ music actually is my life..!

P.S. If anyone wants to buy me any of the following albums, then feel free, I wouldn't mind in the slightest...

Loreena McKennitt - Live in Paris and Toronto
Maria del Mar Bonet - Amic, amat
Dolly Parton - Those Were the Days
Ivette Nadal - A l'esquena d'un elefant
Sanjosex - Viva
Janet Jackson - Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814
Dolly Parton - Backwoods Barbie
Loreena McKennitt - An Ancient Muse
Loreena McKennitt - Nights from the Alhambra
Kelis - Flesh Tone
Nina Simone - Original Album Classics (5CD box set)
Clara Schumann - Complete Piano Works
Donna Summer - Bad Girls
Kate Bush - The Dreaming
Nina Simone - Nina Simone and Piano!

And don't worry, if all those get bought for me, I want plenty more ^_^

Year of Independence

It's 4.45am and I'm awake, I have been all night. I'm singing along to Barbra Streisand's epic 8 minute song Make it Like a Memory. One good thing has come out of staying awake all night. I've realised I need to make some changes, because there are a few things with which I am unhappy, and while I can't change some of them, I can make an effort.

I've just noticed the sun is rising.

I've been reflecting a little over people and things that have caused be serious stress over the past unspecified length of time. My living situation this academic year has been so much better than that of last year. Although a housemate who is thick in the head and neither lifts the seat nor checks his aim before firing does irritate me, it is *so* much easier to deal with than what I had last year.

I've opened my window and I can hear birdsong.

Last year was awful, and maybe it wouldn't've been all that bad if a certain issue hadn't continued chasing me all year, and has only now begun to go away, though my bank balance still feels its effects.

***

Last (academic) year (September 2008) I moved away from home to a new city where I had no friends or family, you'd think that would be trial enough, and it was, for a while. However, independence was what I wanted so I grew used to it. I rented a room in a house near the northern outskirts of the city next door to a chip shop and a garage, with a bus to town only once every half hour, which was rather unreliable, because it came all the way from out in the countryside of Cumbria and North Yorkshire, and the way on foot was along the busy A6 which was particularly unpleasant in the rain.

In the beginning my only housemate (in this 6 bed house) was a rather deaf guy who was perfectly nice, so I could do pretty much whatever I wanted, play piano as loud as I wanted whenever and he didn't have a clue. My landlady was a 60 year old woman who had just finished a degree in Spanish and would shortly be off travelling round South America; her daughter would be looking after her houses in her absence. I walked an hour to ASDA so I could buy a cheese grater. Letters and phone calls from friends helped keep me sane. I had to stand on my desk to talk on the phone. Uni wasn't very welcoming, but that's another story. I got facebook.

3 October I hear my landlady showing somebody round the house, I don't like the sound of them, but am informed later that he shall be moving in the next day. I beg my journal that it won't be an awful person. It didn't do so much good.

The problems begin, but they start off small: TV left on, and back door left unlocked, etc. We sort out the paying of the bills, and my and my problematic housemate's names (we'll call him James) are decided to go on the bills. I discover James is on probation, and hear him talking on the phone mentioning something about a girl and grabbing her by the throat, among other things. I wrote in my journal "I don't think he's a nice guy". Understatement.

The problems continue. Being woken up at 4.30 in the morning, getting an earful of crap when I say anything, loud late-night parties, urinating at the back of the house, leaving the gas cooker on, scary african drug dealer guy, not giving me any money for bills. The list goes on. I was terrified to leave my room most of the time, and I was quite sad for some time. He always seemed to be in trouble with the police. One Sunday morning they were hammering on the door for a good 45 minutes while James and his friend lay low in the front room. One day the police broke into our house (I was out at the time) and into our rooms looking for him, we had to get new doors, but my landlady had to ask for temporary locks while we were waiting for them, because the lovely police weren't going to give us anything, so we would have open rooms. Open to our dear criminal housemate.

As I mentioned, I wasn't getting any money from him for the bills, I was paying them alone, and they were expensive, as he thought nothing of leaving the heating perpetually on. One quarter, the gas bill was almost £400. My first term I had comfortably within my means, but money problems were starting to weigh down on me.

Eventually we get to evict James, this takes a while. We have to write statements about him, which the police kindly photocopy and send back to James, so he knows everything we said about him, and he still lives with us, because they take their sweet time doing anything about it. One night I come home to find James and his scary african drug dealer friend in the living room, they had been drinking. James is rather drunk (remember he is a violent criminal). He greets me in his own special, drunk, not-very-nice way and talks about the statement, telling African guy all about it, thrusting it into my hand and telling me to read it aloud, I hand it back to him, tell him all I want is a quiet life and to go upstairs to my room, however he wouldn't let me past. He wasn't very happy and I was absolutely terrified... luckily I managed to escape out the back door and run away down the road, he didn't chase me. So in floods of tears I called my best friend and asked her to come and pick me up. I stayed with her that night. Never mentioned that night again with James.

After a while, he was finally evicted, and I never wanted to hear from him again. He didn't want us getting in touch with him either, which was rather convenient for him because it meant that I could not get any money out of him. He owed me a few hundred pounds, which is an awful lot when you are a student, and this hole in my finances made me lose control a little. It came to the time when I was to move out so I requested final bills from the gas and electric companies. I paid half of these and told them to chase James for the other halves, and gave them an address which was all I had as to where he might possibly be. I thought I may have heard the last of the issue.

But no. No I hadn't. They kept chasing me for the debt, which I couldn't pay, and I had already paid half so I thought I shouldn't have to pay the rest as well. So I ignored them. Eventually the debt was sold, then sold again to Buchanan Clark and Wells (who specialise in making people's lives a misery) and fees were added to it. At one point I was receiving phone calls from them every single day, demanding payment. It all made me quite distressed.

Eventually it got to December 2009 and I sought help from the Citizens Advice Bureau, with whose help I discovered that because James and I were jointly liable for the debts, the collectors of the debt were within their rights to chase whomever they pleased for the debt, and as they couldn't find James, it fell to me. After a few weeks I managed to agree a weekly payment plan with them. Unfortunately I ran completely out of credit by the end of the Lent term so couldn't keep up with my payments, and couldn't afford to live so had to borrow money from friends in order that I could live and pay for the things I needed.

Only a couple of weeks ago, I finally paid the debt off in full, and I need never hear from them again. The hole in my finances is still there though, I used up all my £200 of meagre savings paying the bills in 2009 as well as all of my credit. My credit rating is runied, I am unable to obtain credit, and I don't believe that this is something that will go away, that is why I had to borrow money from friends. I couldn't extend my overdraft. If only none of this had ever happened... I wouldn't even be in my overdraft.


***


So there you have the story of what made me very sad for some time.


"Oh well. I gained life experience" is what I say when I talk about this whole saga.

It's now twenty past six in the morning.

On heavy rotation

So recently I discovered this amazing musician/poet called Ivette Nadal. One of her songs came up on my last.fm and I just loved it so I went to find more to listen to and she is amazing. She's of the acoustic guitar singer/song-writer sort of style, I guess you would say, and I don't usually go for that sort of style, where guitar is so prominent. But anyway, I really really really like her.

I realised last week how amazing Vanessa Carlton's Be Not Nobody CD really is. I listened from Rinse onwards and it was a wonderful experience. She is a talented musician.

Sharon Hopkins - If You Could Hie to Kolob - Magic.

I cannot get Barbra Streisand singing People out of my head, it's going round and round and round, and I keep bursting out singing it.

So This is Love from Cinderella is also in my head, I really just do not know why.

Look up

Last week wasn't so great, I had a bad "down" spell at the beginning of it. It got better towards the end though, all in all though, not a great week, it meant I wasted a lot of time.

Have been to all sorts of different places in the countryside recently. I feel so free out there in the car traversing the winding roads. We even spotted some deer in a graveyard near Capernwray, it was magical. And then another night, we saw one bouncing down the road right in front of us, amazing! I love deer, the way they move is amazing, it just looks so effortless, the way they run along. I can't wait for summer, we went to Burton in Lonsdale yesterday and it was so cold, it made me nostalgic for last summer's trips into the country. Roll on summer.

Went out dancing on Friday night in Hustle. Was lots of fun, although the DJ wasn't great :/. On Saturday we went to the Rose Prom, it wasn't very good. The DJs were actually awful; the music was crap and there were long pauses between the songs. I couldn't get into it. Luckily I got some chocolate muffin out of it, so I guess that makes the trip to Chorley worth it.

I actually managed to do pretty well playing the pedalboard on the organ on Sunday, they must have been easy hymns.

This week I am really going to be starting my coursework/essays/etc in earnest. I shall be taking lots of books about Juan Rulfo home with me for my Spanish essay.

I'm going to stay with my parents for a week tomorrow, I didn't arise from my pit until one o'clock in the afternoon today. I've done a LOT of laundry and I cleaned the kitchen and did some vacuuming. Soon I shall pack... I'm debating whether or not to take my laptop with me, it's so heavy and my parents have a computer and my mam has a laptop, we'll see how I feel when I have packed all my other things, it's pretty likely I shall be leaving it behind, because I'll have a lot of books to carry.

I am completely addicted to pancakes.

Every day is a gift from God

Don't value life too low

To waste it is a crime

Avui, ahir i Pasqua

Tinc moltes coses que he de fer i no he estat fent-les. Des de ara tinc que fer el meu treball i de no malgastar el meu temps mirant Facebook i fent altres coses inútiles molt tarda a la nit.

Ahir va quedar-me despert fins a dos quarts de cinc del matí no fent res important, només surfing el Internet i també mirant Laberint d'Ombres (començo a ser un addicte). Doncs aquest matí m'he aixecat a les 8 per anar a l'universitat, crec que he estat com un somnàmbul, no he pogut concentrar i quan la hora de plegar ha arribat, he tornat a casa, he menjat alguna cosa i he anat al meu llit per uns quatre/cinc hores.

Després de aixecar-me (de nou) he fet exercici, parlat amb un amic per telèfon, i he fet el meu sopar. He de fer algun treball sobre el meu cross-cultural project. HE DE FER-LO. (I potser mirar Laberint d'Ombres...)

No puc creer que ja és la setmana final del trimestre. Durant de Pasqua he de fer molt treball. Em quedaré amb els meus pares per unes set dies. Un amic vindrà a veure'm a Lancàster per unes dies, deurà estar molt bé! Que esten unes vacances molt divertides.

Ugh

I am sick to death of people who don't know what they're talking about.

Sick sick sick.

I need a break.

I sleep so much I'm having trouble forming coherent memories of what I do.

My Heart Goes Out

My heart breaks for and goes out to all of Akta Patel's close friends and family.

Akta was a girl in my year at university who also studied French, she died after being hit by a bus in Lancaster last week.

The whole thing makes me feel sick to my stomach.

I'm praying hard for all who knew her, especially her close friends and family. My thoughts and best wishes are with them at this time of great sadness and greiving.

Article in Lancaster Guardian

Chocolate

I have very little money at the moment, so I couldn't afford to buy loads of what I normally get when we went food shopping on Monday, my basket was a sea of green and white: the colours of the ASDA Smartprice brand (instant pasta, noodles, cereal, etc)...

...So later that night I was sat in my house, and I go downstairs to discover a mysterious envelope, and what should be in it, but chocolate from my best friend. It made me very happy.

:)

I'm tired.

Yes I am.

Things to do.

Eek

I've left it wayyyyy too long between posts! So... I shall resume (can you say that in English?) the events of the past... time.

Litfest Reading
This went well (I think)! I read three short poems by Salvador Espriu in Catalan and English. I say I "think" it went well because I didn't notice anything go majorly wrong, but the thing is, I couldn't hear myself so I actually have no idea how I sounded, how quiet my voice was, or how stupid I may have looked swaying from side to side...

Mossfest
Was a letdown. The DJs for the "rave" were terrible; skips in the tracks, really messy crossfading, crap songs, I mean, half the tracks you couldn't even dance to... I prefer a more constant and quicker rate of bpm, but maybe that's just me!

Oh, the bands were alright though.

The rest
-I'm applying for a job. Please cross your fingers for me.
-I fell out of the workout routine for a week, but I'm back into it now.
-I had a terrible oral exam today. I'm really worried about how I'm gonna do in FREN200/201.
-I'm having a fridge war with my rude housemate. He keeps taking my apple juice out of the tray and putting it on the shelf and replacing it with his carton of cranberry juice, I keep taking his cranberry juice and replacing it on his shelf whilst putting my apple juice back where it belongs, in the tray.
-I am loving last.fm and have developed OSS (Obsessive Scrobbling Syndrome).

Reinvention

I want to reinvent myself. I could do with some money for some new clothes. Unfortunately I have none. I guess reinvention will have to wait *sigh*

The moments that we live for

Last week was an amazing week. It was full of big events, of the moments that we live to see in life, they were all packed into one week. I went to a funeral, a wedding, two concerts and a birthday celebration. It seems so unreal that they all took place within just one week. Anyway, I've saved up my writing until now, so here goes my account of the week...

Funeral
This was the first funeral I have ever been to. It was that of a lady from church who died rather suddenly. I was asked to play the organ at the funeral which I was rather nervous about, but I think that I did an okay job. It was quite unnerving when they brought the coffin in, but it was okay. It's sad that she's gone, because we miss her, but she had so many health problems I know that she will be very comfortable where she is now, so I am happy for her. But my heart goes out to her family. It was awful to see some of them in tears throughout the funeral. I hope I don't have to go to another one for a long time.

Manel Concert
Manel are a band who are really big in Catalonia who I went to see with some of my friends and our Catalan tutor. Arriving home after the funeral I had to go out to town to get a few things, upon arriving home and getting everything together I realised it was 5 o'clock and we were supposed to be going down to Manchester at 6 for the gig. I backcombed my hair and got dressed in record time, and met my friend at the bus stop where she had been waiting for a while, because no buses had been going past. Upon arriving at uni I had to run to the library to print our bus ticket for getting back to Lancaster. I then got in the car and we set off for Manchester. We got a little lost once there, as is customary on the roads of Manchester, but eventually found the Café and met our friends. And who should be standing outside the café but Manel themselves!!! Our tutor was talking to them and they were talking like friends, they were so nice, we got a picture with them and everything.

We had arrived quite early, Manel weren't on til after 10, so we went to a lovely little place next door to get something to drink, and we had some chips. When the time had arrived we went back to Night & Day and watched Manel play. They were amazing. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. We all had a great time, and went crazy when they played our favourite song "Al Mar". After the concert my friend bought a CD and we hung around for ages trying to find each member of the band to get it signed, we managed to get 3 out of 4, so pretty good.

Afterwards, me and one of my friends were getting the bus back together, but it wasn't until 1.10 so we went to try and find somewhere to get pizza, and we found a place, I forget what it was called, but I'm pretty sure it had Istanbul in the name(?) Anyway, the guy who worked there was a right laugh, he was telling us all about his facebook and wanted us to take our pictures with him, which we naturally did. It was rather bizarre, but the pizza was good, especially in Manchester's heated coach station ♥. The bus ride was uneventful except for a completely totalled car wreck we saw on a roundabout between Garstang and Lancaster. All in all, it was a brilliant night.

Lady GaGa Concert
This was my first ever big concert. It was at the MEN (massive). I loved EVERY SECOND. I adore Lady GaGa. I was so full of energy afterwards that as soon as I got home I just had to jump on the piano. It was also her first UK show of this tour, and she completely changed it from what she did in USA, so I felt privileged :) ♥. She changed outfit so many times, it was brilliant. The setlist was amazing, Brown Eyes and Speechless were awesome. It was just amazing. I couldn't stop smiling. And even now I smile thinking about it. I want to go to more concerts!

Wedding
This was lovely! It was great to see two friends finding happiness in each other. The reception was wonderful too. The tables were amazing, the bride designed them, they were themed around flowers, and it was beautifully done, if I ever get married, I think I may have to enlist her creative table talents.

Birthday Celebration
This was Saturday. We went for dinner at The Station in Morecambe, which was great, haven't been there in AGES, and forgot how nice the Italian chicken was! :P mmmmm. Then we went back to watch movies. We watched The Ring and The Ring 2. I'd never seen them before, and I enjoyed them, it was scary!

So yes. All in all an amazing, shattering week! I'm so lucky to have a great life ♥

Don't make me angry :)

My rude housemate incenses me. I need to vent to avoid really getting angry with him.

Most of yous know about the ridiculous letter he left myself and my other housemate at the beginning of the year about how untidy we were and our "apathy to the squalor we were living in." Anyway, so we expected him to be a very clean person. However, he is quite the opposite, peeing on the toilet seat, rarely cleaning the kitchen/living room, leaving the floors soaking wet, messing up the kitchen and leaving such things as a single chip out on the side for weeks, letting crap drip all over the fridge... etc. This doesn't really bother me that much, cos he's not extremely dirty.

I'm the only one that has ever cleaned the toilet and bathroom sink and he has rarely cleaned the kitchen, I'm the one who does the recycling, I'm the one who vacuums. So as far as I'm concerned, his facebook status "i don't think they could get much more un-fucking-tidy" is very irritating. But rather than showing him the real meaning of untidy, or biting his head off, I am dealing with my anger and not letting it out. Instead of screaming and taking various types of smelly food and soil to the furniture I am writing here.

Hair

I love big hair. I haven't got a clue why. Most of you will know that I experiment with various big hairstyles, to varying degrees of success. My friend posted a blog mentioning her hair and it made me want to write about mine... I do love hair.

My hair just isn't long enough at the moment to do too much with (much to my chagrin... I can't wait for it to grow!). I think I did pretty well with it today though, I used some texturising stuff and kept the top tied up for longer with gel in the roots before I dried it. I was pretty pleased with the effect at any rate. It wasn't huge, but it was not small.

Today we watched the beginning of Almodóvar's Carne Trémula (Live Flesh) in our Spanish culture lecture, and Penelope Cruz's hair was AMAZING. It's always amazing, but in this film it's GIGANTIC. I. ♥. IT. And I loved that it was just some simple backcombing, or rather, a lot of backcombing...



Backcombing = life

In other news, my housemates are away so I'm home alone this weekend. I'm (not-so) secretly hoping for some company. I mean, I don't wanna seem desperate, but everyone likes company, or even a nice chat on msn/faceyb... don't they?

I feel stronger now

I hate being ill! Monday I felt so awful, I just stayed in bed all day, I was so ill I missed out on our weekly ASDA trip.

:'(

That's right, that's how ill i was... too ill to go to ASDA.

Luckily I was better by Tuesday, ready for my lovely 9 o'clock class, which was all about words to do with pleasure and happiness. There was something which made me very uncomfortable about the prospect of discussing how intense I think orgasme is on a scale of 1-9 with my French writing tutor...

Catalan class was pretty cool on Tuesday too (despite the fact that we had an aural test which involved transcribing phone numbers which were said ridiculously quickly, and two phone calls from two guys with different names who sounded suspiciously alike...). Anyway, our tutor told us about a gig in Manchester by some Catalan band called Manel and asked us if we wanted to go along with her, so me and a couple of friends have said we'll go. It's next Wednesday (17-2-10), the day before I go and see GaGa (soooo excited for that), it should be a right laugh, we've decided to scream "MOLT BE" (very good) and "TREU-TE ELS PANTALONS" (take off your trousers) to them, hopefully we won't embarass our tutor too much!

Also did the workout on Tuesday. I find a great satisfaction in becoming more and more flexible, I always have, there's just something about being able to reach my chest to to my knee sat in straddle position that I find satisfying. I'm proud to say that I'm becoming "flexy" again. I'm also noticing a difference in how easy I find it to do the actual workout, not that I find it particularly easy, but it's getting less difficult to do, so i'm getting fitter. Yay!

Today I'm listening to some old Lady GaGa stuff: The Stefani Germanotta Band's Red and Blue EP. I'm liking it, I also got some remixes to listen to, it's ages since I got a remix single, so it'll be cool to listen to, gotta love the sick beatzzz hahaha!

The Catalan Poem

It's been a long time since I really read a poem. High school sort of put me off them, forcing me to read and analyse. I don't like doing things I'm forced to do.

A couple of weeks ago I decided I would look up some Catalan poetry, because I find the Occitano-Romance languages and their history so interesting. I came across a book of poems by Salvador Espriu called Lord of the Shadow. I read through many of them and have really enjoyed them, I love the Catalan and I love the poems. Though his work is rather tragic I find I can relate to it and lose myself reading through them. I decided I would read one in the literature festival that the Dept of European Languages and Cultures is holding at uni, and I wanted to share it. It's called Pel Meu Mirall, Si Vols, Passen Rares Semblances (Or in English Across My Mirror, If You Like, Strange Images Pass)


Davant el meu últim mirall, en veure’m

sencer, malalt, potser acabat,

potser damnat, tan pàl·lid,

vaig dir molt lentament clares paraules

beles, fràgils, altes, les més nobles

que trobava en la foscor del meu record.

Des de sempre, però, allí hi havia

grasses, molles, llefiscoses bèsties,

que dels racons venien fins als llavis,

a rosegar-me els mots mentre naixien:

no sents encara la remor profunda

de pergamí, d’ossos trencats, de vidre?

I al mirall, entretant, es reflectia

a poc a poc una perversa imatge,

el signe de la qual podràs entendre,

si fas també, com jo, l’estranya prova

d’esguardar el teu bon fons, quasevol hora,

tot intentant de nou una impossible,

inútil creació per la paraula.


Here is an English translation by Kenneth Lyons:


In front of my last mirror, seeing myself

Full-length, pale, possibly done for,

Possibly damned, so pale,

I said, very slowly, crystal-clear words,

Beautiful, fragile, soaring words, the noblest

That I could find in the darkness of memory.

But there had always been present there

Fat, soft, slimy beasts

That came out of the corners to my lips

And gnawed my words away as they were born:

Can you not still hear the deep crackling

Or parchment and of broken bones, of glass?

And meanwhile, in the mirror was reflected,

Little by little, a perverse image,

The sign of which, you will surely understand

If you try, like me, the strange experiment

Of gazing into your depths, at any time,

While again attempting an impossible,

Useless creation through the word

I miss my camera

I miss my camera.
I miss being able to document all the little things that happen in my life, as well as all the big things.
I miss taking pictures of myself.
I want to take a picture of my wall.
I want to be able to take photographs again :'(

The Mystic's Dream

A clouded dream on an earthly night
Hangs upon the crescent moon
A voiceless song in an ageless light
Sings at the coming dawn
Birds in flight are calling there
Where the heart moves the stones
It's there that my heart is calling
All for the love of you

A painting hangs on an ivy wall
Nestled in the emerald moss
The eyes declare a truce of trust
And then it draws me far away
Where deep in the desert twilight
Sand melts in pools of the sky
When darkness lays her crimson cloak
Your lamps will call me home

And so it's there my homage's due
Clutched by the still of the night
And now I feel you move
Every breath is full
So it's there my homage's due
Clutched by the still of the night
Even the distance feels so near
All for the love of you.
- "The Mystic's Dream" by Loreena McKennitt -


This is one of my favourite songs of all time. The soundscape is so indescribably lavish it gives me butterflies just thinking of adjectives to describe the lush instrumentation and production. The text also enchants me. Even the title, "The Mystic's Dream" draws me in, and from the first seconds of music I am completely and utterly captivated. Loreena's music takes me to another world. There's nobody like her.

Try to have your cake and eat it too

Being busy is so much better than being bored.

Last week was one of the busiest I've had for a while. I had Monday off, which was lovely ♥. But after that it was pretty much non-stop business. I had loads of work to do, and I didn't even do it all. I need to prioritise better and organise myself. This week I plan to stop staying up ridiculously late every night, because it is actually killing me, and I am horrified by the awful bags under my eyes! I also need to tidy my desk, because it's a disgusting mess, egh and I spilt milk on my laptop today... I don't think it did any damage though, luckily.

Anyway, the weekend was amaaaazing! So much fun. I barely had time to breathe on Friday, spending the day finishing my work and preparing things for my friend's birthday, and then dashing off to Preston to celebrate. We had a great time though. And we had Domino's, which I haven't had in forEVER! It was sooo goooood! So I got a sleep in on Saturday morning, after getting home pretty late, which was heavenly. Later on my little brother videocalled me (my parents have finally got the Internet!) and that was really nice.

It didn't seem too long from the time I got up to when I was off to Morecambe to get ready for a night on the tiles. I did my hair really big, and because of all the stuff that's been going on I got my nails painted all different colours. Ooh, and I wore a new shirt I got from H+M, and skinny jeans. We went out to the club we wanted to go, and found the dance floor closed off. Sad times, so we went elsewhere til midnight, when we hoped the dancefloor would be open, and it was ♥. Was so much fun, haven't had a good dance for ages.

Anywayyys, regarding my new year's resolutions:
-I haven't been doing so well on the bedtime one, but I'm gonna try a lot harder with it this week.
-With the working out I've been falling behind, but I'm getting back on track, I'm going to organise my time better, and make sure I definitely do it three times this week.
-I've met a few of new people this year so far, I can still do better though at being more social.
-Music wise, I'm currently arranging a hymn for somebody and I'm going to get paid for it, so I'll definitely be working on that this week. Ideas have been running through my head for a performance arrangement of it as well as a straightforward hymn arrangement.
-I did see a job vacancy the other day, but I looked again today, and it wasn't there any more, so it looks like I'm going to have to dedicate more time to music, because I really need the money (the "financial problem" from last year is still haunting me, unfortunately, yes).

I've been eating so much junk recently, my diet is ridiculously poor, there are way too many 33p packets of pasta & sauce in it! This week Ima make sure I get some real food when I go shopping!

Ooooh, another thing I've been doing recently is reading poetry. I've never really been a big poetry fan in the past, I think school put me off it, because it was a duty rather than a pleasure. But I've been reading some Salvador Espriu, because I'm thinking of taking part in a literature festival my department at uni is holding, and I love it! I need to choose one to read...

Well that was a bit random... but that's your Josh update for now ^_^

Us estimo ♥

Wow, my last post provoked some really interesting responses, some smart, and some not-so-smart! It's funny just how stupid some people can actually be, I really don't understand people like that, they have no place in my life... yet I am still curious as to who left the first idiotic comment... perhaps we'll never know!

Anyway, many of the responses to the blog were from my brilliant friends, who I'm so lucky to have. I'm seriously so glad that I have people around me who are intelligent and open-minded, rather than stupid, closed-minded and pathetic. Having people around who you are scared of talking to, being yourself around or causing an argument with isn't a good thing really; people who accept you for who are, don't judge and truly love those around them are the best sort. I suppose those silly judgemental people will always exist though, since there has to be opposition. They will continue with their silly little beliefs and ideas, but it should be easy enough to ignore what they think, since it really doesn't matter... at all!

Judgement and Gender Roles

On Tuesday night I discovered what someone I thought was my friend really thinks of me and my friends, and that they really aren't the sort of person I can have as a friend. It's sad, and it's angering.

The things that were said were making me think a lot about judgement. It's sad that some people feel the need to judge others. I wonder why they do it. I think a lot of the time it's because it makes them feel better about themselves, it's true that you often find the most judgemental people are ones that have a lot of problems themselves and their behaviour is often quite hypocritical. What is also sad is some of the things that people use against others and things that they judge them for.

Another issue that has come up is one that's very important to me. That of gender equality and destructive gender stereotypes and roles. I think it's so sad that people in this day and age are still holding on to outdated, ridiculous and destructive ideas. I feel so strongly about these ideas because as a male who has never been average, who has never fitted into the mould, I've been through some very difficult periods regarding things that people have expressed to me and around me regarding boys that don't fit into the mould; one of the earliest of these I remember was me not being good a sport and being unable to perform the simple action of catching a ball. Just a simple thing like this, that should have no bearing at all on the way people treat me affected me all through school and even still does today because people STILL EXPECT boys to love sports and are SURPRISED that some do not. It astounds me. This is just one little example of this issue, it's the same for all the other things that boys or girls are supposed to do, but when they don't they can be outcast by many and be made to feel extremely excluded and as though there is something WRONG with them. Being made to feel as though you have something wrong with you when you don't can be extremely destructive to a human being, I'm hardly an expert, but it just isn't healthy.

I realised some time ago that it's okay, and actually a very good thing to be an individual. These days I actually like not fitting into the mould, I like being different, I like my individuality, and I like having the right to express it however I choose. Being told that people "don't agree with the way I am" is still upsetting to me, but just because of the fact that people are still holding on to ridiculous and quite frankly wrong ideas of gender roles. And now I come back to judgement, I hate being judged for using my rights as an individual. I have been judged for (amongst other things) the fact that I have been known to go around with nail polish on; it doesn't matter that it had only been done to me by my friend for a laugh, the fact is if I choose to wear nail polish then it's my right to do so. I think it's terrible, the things that people can say, not just about me, but about anyone who does something like this, these people that think things like this are so wrong. For some reason they can't see that it's their judging ways that are wrong.

It really boggles my mind!

More hours please?

I am so tired. I know it's only Tuesday but I would very much like the week to be coming to an end now thank-you very much. Two early mornings in a row and two late nights in a row... it hasn't done me much good. I could feel my eyes wanting to shut and sleep as I was sat in the library this afternoon waiting for my 5 o'clock class.

I have two pieces of coursework in for the end of this week. I just want rid of them. Luckily Wednesday afternoons are free so I shall have all afternoon and evening to work on them. And hopefully I shall get a good night's sleep tonight so I will be ready to do this after my early classes. I wish I could just add some more hours to today so I could sleep and then do some work.

Yesterday was my first day back at university and it was okay, I only had one class because my Catalan tutor had got stuck in Spain. But she's back today so it's okay. The class I had was Spanish oral and it was pretty relaxed, we just chatted about what we did durante de las vacaciones really and did a bit of listening. And I even made the time to do the workout in the evening, so I'm keeping it up :D

The ice that has covered the city is finally melting, though some parts were still a little dangerous to walk on, such as this street, which I couldn't even see down because the reflection of the sun's light on the ice was so bright.

You can't really get a good impression of it from this photo. Because I took it from my phone. Because my camera's broke. (I really miss it)

It's still early so I'm not going to bed yet even though I'm dying to. Because I know if I go to bed to early then I'll just wake up at, like, 23.00 and then my sleeping pattern would be still messed up. I might eat a pizza or something...