As I wrote previously my course was cancelled due to 3 students cancelling at the last minute. I did not find out about the cancellation until 2 weeks before I was to start my course. So after trying to work it out with my instructor I decided to try and do it on my own which entailed me reading a huge amount, lots of hand outs, and doing worksheets by myself. Nouns, pronouns, adverbs, adjectives, gerunds, proper punctuation,apostrophe usage, on and on.. (For extra credit points who knows what a gerund is? I bet my teacher friends will get the points!) Of course I know most of this stuff, but hadn´t thought about it in years!! I struggled through this for about a week and a half, before realizing I was never going to be able to retain it all well enough to teach it. I had been panicking because I didn´t want to come all the way over here and not do the course even though it wasn´t the way I had hoped it would be. I know that the best way for me to learn is in the classroom setting. I was able to sit in on a few classes with the April group which made it clear that was the best way for me in comparison to trying to read lessons by myself and trudge through the information without feedback. When I was in the classes I was competitive and excited with the answers, absorbing the information easily due to the way it was presented. I met with my instructor again and let him know how I was feeling and what I realized was the best way for me to learn. He completely understood as this information is hard to retain when doing it on your own. He suggested again for me to stay and take the June course. I let him know my concerns about my financial situation, as my rent is 600 euros a month and Barcelona is an expensive city just to eat and get around. We worked it out that I could move somewhere else for the month of June where the rent would only be 350 as he knew someplace that would be available in June. Also he said he could work out for me to be done with the course on June 22. I felt a sense of relief after our conversation. I called the airlines to see how much it would be to change my return date, the good news is that it would only cost $200 to change, but the bad news was I couldn´t get a return ticket until sometime in July. I looked into just buying another ticket home one way and they started at $1,500. I need to be home in June for many important reasons. My health insurance through my previous company ends at the end of June so I wanted to get in for some last minute check ups, my nephews 13th birthday is June 29 and I promised him I would be home for it, my dog is deathly afraid of fireworks and needs to take a mild tranquilizer on the really bad nights before the 4th of July and I don´t want my mom to have to deal with that, and I am just ready, there are many more reasons but those are the main ones. This has been a real struggle for me to understand, am I just supposed to be over here to have fun and explore new places and learn about myself, is there something else career wise waiting for me? When something continues to not work out I believe you have to pay attention to it, but I don´t understand this. My trip has gone really well, of course there have been mishaps but I have always been able to figure out answers to the problems or at least another way. I have been praying about this and am hoping to find the answer. I have paid my rent through June 3rd where I am currently living and am tempted while I am there just to continue travelling as there are many other places I would like to see in Europe, and I have a place to keep my stuff. I would mainly love to go to Ireland before I have to leave on the 13th. It would only cost around 200 for a round trip flight and to stay in a hostel in Dublin for a week!! I just am confused about what the right thing to do is. I do love it in Barcelona, there is so much to see and do. I have been enjoying myself exploring the city. It has been a great experience for me to actually live somewhere else so different from my home and what I am used to. The other places I have been I was just visiting really as I only stayed at the most a week. I am proud of myself being able to figure things out here in Barcelona especially with the language barrier. But I came here with a purpose and now I am at a loss for what I should really do. I just wanted to share with everyone what has been going on with me.
Barcelona is amazing, it is beautiful weather, so much history and art everywhere, and with it being a big city there is great people watching, pretty much anything goes. By the way I saw the naked elephant man again about a week ago, he was by himself no boyfriend this time. I only saw him from behind and come to find out it is not body paint, it is tatooed on!! My roommate Luca said that 2 days ago he was on our street by the metro, so close! I asked him if he took a pic, he replied why would I do that, I am not gay! I explained that I wanted a pic to show my friends back home, he just shook his head at me like he knew I was crazy. I will get a pic of the naked elephant man before I come home, I guess he is always walking around. While Kevin was here visiting Anheichen even he saw him.
I have walked all over the city getting to know the different areas and it is great, I love my new church and feel grateful to have that community to center me during this crazy time. I can´t complain if the course doesn´t work out I will travel more, not the worst fate in the world!! As I have been gone I have missed my friends and family, but I do love to explore different places. I wish someone would come visit me, my roommates have people visit them all the time. An had her parents here this week and it really made me miss mine. I told my roommates that my family and friends are poor which is why they aren´t visiting me. It is different for them as airfare within Europe is pretty cheap which makes it easier for them to visit. With airfare being cheap it is a good incentive for me to travel.. Who knows how this will all turn out, we will see. Stay tuned.. XOXO Marci
