Fiesta Italiana

It has been raining (hard) for three days, but it's supposed to stop tomorrow. Apparently, the storm we had yesterday was strong enough in the southern part of the city to qualify as Barcelona's first-ever tornado. It certainly has been interesting. This morning when I came back from the gym and was getting ready for class, it was somehow pouring rain but also brilliantly sunny. Had I known I'd be doing my MBA in Hawaii I would have brought a surfboard.

We are almost done with our first week of class, and we are all taking our first Spanish test tomorrow at 5pm to determine whether we move on to the next level. Group 6 is very entertaining and we always have a great time talking and laughing in class, and our teacher is seems pleased that she doesn't have to push us to talk. In fact, it's quite the opposite... What else would you expect from a class with 2 Italian guys and a Belgian feminist. Caramba!

Last night, Federico cooked pasta for our entire group of 10. He lives with Jill (the Belgian femenist) and Mikael from Russia. Mikael is in Group 1 - aka Absolute Beginners - so there were a few people there from his class as well. Jill and Federico are like an old married couple, always picking on each other and giving each other a hard time... but with Italian and Flemish accents, which makes it all so much more fun for everyone else. We had a great time eating and chatting and I managed to be back home by midnight. Federico and Francis (from the UK) managed to go out to a club till 4 am... and still stay awake all day. Impressive.

Here are our lovely hosts, Jill and Federico:


And el magnifico grupo 6 from left to right: Federico (Italy), Jan-Erik (Norway), Jill (Belgium), yours truly, Robain (Netherlands), Francis (UK), Andreas (Switzerland), Matteo (Italy), Carol (Chicago), and Mikael from Grupo 1(Russia):

The only one missing from our photo is Ali from the UK, who had already made plans for the evening, unfortunately.

Tonight, of course, there is a party. It's the usual Thursday Bar of the Week (BOW) event, and this week it's at a place called Justin. But it starts at 11:30 so I'm torn between going out and going to bed early so I can swim in the morning. I have four hours to decide, so let the countdown (and studying) begin!