trains, planes, and giant fire hell dragons

Yesterday was my first day of school at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. A big, fatty American fish in a pond of Spanish teens and twenty-somethings. And I am proud to report that the day was a success! So much so that I was floored by the minimal amount of comedic material the day provided me. Despite a class cancellation and a moment of shock when my Barcelonan seat partner, who arrived late to our Spanish Lit class, started whispering to me about sharing my handout, I pulled through with a swagger in my step . This week also marks my first week as an official English teacher! I will be tutoring four days a week for the children of eight families, ranging from four-year-old-adorableness to too-cool-for-after school tutoring-thirteen. I have to say, revisiting colors and the numbers 1-10 every day reminds me that I've actually come a long way since elementary school. It's humbling to know that in a foreign language, my entire education counts for nothing to be translated--that I too would have to go back to colors of the rainbow and counting on my ten fingers to get by.

Additionally, I just returned home (now my reference for Barcelona!) from a week-long adventure to the Spanish island of Mallorca and northern France to visit my family. Mallorca was a beachy paradise, dominated by the over-fifty crowd, with a side of retirement community reminiscent of Florida--a relaxing and beautiful, albeit age-inappropriate excursion that I thouroughly enjoyed. Then I was off directly to Charleroi, Belgium to take a shuttle through Luxembourg to my grandparents near Nancy, France. So essentially, from the old to the older, but I enjoyed spending time with them. After a week of French food, Columbo reruns, and little connection to the outside world, I happily landed back in Barcelona just in time for the end of La Mercè, a weeklong festival of outrageous debauchery and revelry in the streets of Barcelona. I was greeted by a wonderful night with Amanda that started with the Correfoc (a simulation of Hell where citizens covered head-to-toe run through the fire of giant dragons being paraded down the street--translated into the "Little Devils Fire Run"), two bottles of Cava at a restaurant called Orgasmic, a Belle and Sebastian concert held in the street outside the Estrella Damm beer factory, a giant fair, and to top the night off, a Spanish techno rave. Oh what a night.

So in toto, I am now an honest to goodness student at a foreign university, a teacher in a foreign country, and a witness to the entirely insane, borderline illegal celebrations of Spanish pride. PLUS, tomorrow I ship off to Munich for the weekend of wild wickedness that is Oktoberfest! So excited, crazy stories to come I'm sure. Here's a look at a the Fire Run--with sparks, cinders and ashes flying at the crowd, it was honestly too crazy to believe: