Monday, July 12, 2004
Sunday
Commercial with Indian servant hiding in bush to drink Coca-Cola and employer catches him and scolds him saying he should be serving. After taking a sip of the Coca-Cola, suddenly has a stylish pink shirt and starts dancing and singing a la Bollywood and all the European guests start dancing and singing as well, like in the Guru.
Saturday
Feel like a big dork. Things got off to such a good start and now not only did I not make any friends here, I have no idea how I’m doing in my classes or if it’ll be worth going back to Tech.
Today went by with no work done, mainly tired and stressed over the fact that I had so much work. A little grocery shopping in morning--found a new place which was cheap and didn’t have the long lines of Lidl or Mercadona. Also had wheat spinach empanadillas. Went shopping a little more to some mini-boutique that was 50% off--Luisa later approved:)
Couldn’t focus at home so thought I’d get work done at UPC. As it turns out, UPC lab was totally locked down and library was closed as well. Bumped into guy from my info sec class and went back to La Ciutat on bus with him. As it turns out Net Kiosk was also closed until 5 so chatted with Soy for a while--she’s packing to go back on Wednesday--then ended up using computer in lounge. Mohammed was talking to other guy about hitting on some girl at a club who asked for ectasy but got special k and was really sick afterwards.Can’t believe the girl would be that stupid--he warned her against it but she took it anyway and was getting harassed by guys afterwards.
Was still tired so decided to go to ATM at plaza catalunya, which was part of my HCI project. Wandered stores for a little while, but things more expensive around there and was super tired anyway. Took nap, still sending out resumes.
Friday evening stopped by Japanese class, but still in session so decided to go to shopping area instead with all the sales. Sat down at bench outside to people watch for my project which ended up being a good experience. Mainly took pictures of cell phones and watched people with shopping bags and baby carriages walk around. After while talked to woman on bench--she’s Algerian but works for an oil company based in Houston so she gets to travel a lot. She was taking a 4 day vacation in Barcelona and had 4 hrs before she had to go to the airport so also people-watching. She talked on cell phone--”yeah, I’m in Spain right now”. Asked her about it--she doesn’t like cell phone but it’s for business so has to carry it.
After finally getting to wander mall a bit and getting some stuff--finally a little style inspired by Luisa--went to open-air karaoke which turned out to be only a few blocks away in Plaza de la Concordia. Seemed like small village square with church and closed in, shops and people looking out from balconies and bar tables. Totally different crowd than I was expecting--like a slice of Harajuku, with a lot of teeny boppers dressed in black. All the singing was in Japanese and an amazing amount of people sang from memory so I guess anime has a lot of fans here. I asked some of the kids in black if they had been to Japan and when I told them they looked like Japanese girls, they swooned wistfully, as if they really wanted to go. It turns out they are big fans of some Japanese heavy metal group. Got up once with a group but didn’t know song at all. Met some guy who seemed friendly, was too nervous to get up and sing, would like to travel but lacked money and scared to go by himself. Later met friendly girl who I thought was talking to him. Turns out they were in same major at U of B but didn’t know each other and seem to hit it off. I actually asked if they knew each other and they said not until tonight, thanks to me so maybe I got a couple together. Their names were Alex and Emma--even a movie named after them. Just around block as walking back found free jazz concert, but only stayed a little while. Got back around 11:30 where Luisa was watching Shrek on TV, during forest fight scene. So of course had to sit and watch a while.
Thursday ended up talking to Microsoft manager for over an hour. He called at almost 11 since he thought I was going to get back late and then chatted until midnight. Seems like I have a good chance, but we’ll see. Did presentation on web security, had stayed up until 4 am, think I did well. Got job offer from Korea which I had applied to on Monday and not even talked to the person on the phone so a little flattered--wish all job searches were that easy. Not sure if I really want to go to Korea--so alien and right now I want to be around familiar people with comfort food.
Commercial with Indian servant hiding in bush to drink Coca-Cola and employer catches him and scolds him saying he should be serving. After taking a sip of the Coca-Cola, suddenly has a stylish pink shirt and starts dancing and singing a la Bollywood and all the European guests start dancing and singing as well, like in the Guru.
Saturday
Feel like a big dork. Things got off to such a good start and now not only did I not make any friends here, I have no idea how I’m doing in my classes or if it’ll be worth going back to Tech.
Today went by with no work done, mainly tired and stressed over the fact that I had so much work. A little grocery shopping in morning--found a new place which was cheap and didn’t have the long lines of Lidl or Mercadona. Also had wheat spinach empanadillas. Went shopping a little more to some mini-boutique that was 50% off--Luisa later approved:)
Couldn’t focus at home so thought I’d get work done at UPC. As it turns out, UPC lab was totally locked down and library was closed as well. Bumped into guy from my info sec class and went back to La Ciutat on bus with him. As it turns out Net Kiosk was also closed until 5 so chatted with Soy for a while--she’s packing to go back on Wednesday--then ended up using computer in lounge. Mohammed was talking to other guy about hitting on some girl at a club who asked for ectasy but got special k and was really sick afterwards.Can’t believe the girl would be that stupid--he warned her against it but she took it anyway and was getting harassed by guys afterwards.
Was still tired so decided to go to ATM at plaza catalunya, which was part of my HCI project. Wandered stores for a little while, but things more expensive around there and was super tired anyway. Took nap, still sending out resumes.
Friday evening stopped by Japanese class, but still in session so decided to go to shopping area instead with all the sales. Sat down at bench outside to people watch for my project which ended up being a good experience. Mainly took pictures of cell phones and watched people with shopping bags and baby carriages walk around. After while talked to woman on bench--she’s Algerian but works for an oil company based in Houston so she gets to travel a lot. She was taking a 4 day vacation in Barcelona and had 4 hrs before she had to go to the airport so also people-watching. She talked on cell phone--”yeah, I’m in Spain right now”. Asked her about it--she doesn’t like cell phone but it’s for business so has to carry it.
After finally getting to wander mall a bit and getting some stuff--finally a little style inspired by Luisa--went to open-air karaoke which turned out to be only a few blocks away in Plaza de la Concordia. Seemed like small village square with church and closed in, shops and people looking out from balconies and bar tables. Totally different crowd than I was expecting--like a slice of Harajuku, with a lot of teeny boppers dressed in black. All the singing was in Japanese and an amazing amount of people sang from memory so I guess anime has a lot of fans here. I asked some of the kids in black if they had been to Japan and when I told them they looked like Japanese girls, they swooned wistfully, as if they really wanted to go. It turns out they are big fans of some Japanese heavy metal group. Got up once with a group but didn’t know song at all. Met some guy who seemed friendly, was too nervous to get up and sing, would like to travel but lacked money and scared to go by himself. Later met friendly girl who I thought was talking to him. Turns out they were in same major at U of B but didn’t know each other and seem to hit it off. I actually asked if they knew each other and they said not until tonight, thanks to me so maybe I got a couple together. Their names were Alex and Emma--even a movie named after them. Just around block as walking back found free jazz concert, but only stayed a little while. Got back around 11:30 where Luisa was watching Shrek on TV, during forest fight scene. So of course had to sit and watch a while.
Thursday ended up talking to Microsoft manager for over an hour. He called at almost 11 since he thought I was going to get back late and then chatted until midnight. Seems like I have a good chance, but we’ll see. Did presentation on web security, had stayed up until 4 am, think I did well. Got job offer from Korea which I had applied to on Monday and not even talked to the person on the phone so a little flattered--wish all job searches were that easy. Not sure if I really want to go to Korea--so alien and right now I want to be around familiar people with comfort food.
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