i was trying to think of a clever title for this entry

and came up empty. my wit just isn't what it used to be. i have, however, become more adept at expressing sarcasm and generally joking around in spanish, which is no easy task.

the highlights of this past week included Fun With Midterms and election madness. Even for my extremely difficult to understand and succeed 20th century spanish literature class, my midterm was kind of laughable. One of my program friends put it best when we reconvened upon completion of the exam, "was that a test? or a cute little exercise?" definitely the latter. i am not complaining. now it's basically smooth sailing until a little bit of work in the form of papers and tests starting at the beginning of december.

i don't really have much to say about the election, because i'm pretty sure everyone knows how it turned out. i feel very positively about it and all, but i'm just kind of election-ed out. it was very exciting at the time though- i watched the returns (til 6 in the morning spanish time...poor choice) with seven other CIEE kids. we stocked up on chips and oreos to give the six hours of spanish commentary more of an american feel. i now get approving smiles and nods when i have to reveal my place of origin, so that's pretty cool. i also consider it a huge plus that joe biden and barack obama both seem to be able to identify africa as a continent. hell, they can probably name all of them as well! humor aside, i am determined to try and go to the inauguration.

this weekend has been excellent. it included a thursday night at la oveja negra for jenny's pre-birthday celebration, and then both my parents and tara arrived on friday! i have been playing tour guide to my parents, taking them to la boqueria, la catedral, sagrada familia, parc guell, MNAC, the olympic stadium, and the montjuic castle...plus some delicious tapas. tara has kept herself busy whilst i entertained the rents, and joined me and some other friends for a couple nights out. i will not be in barcelona for a weekend again til the first weekend in december, sniff sniff. it's been great seeing my family and also talking wayyy too much about tufts- what more could i ask for.

this week i'll be tour guiding a bit more, and then it's off to paris!