Catalonia Independence Day

So even though we're fully Asian and had a Spanish exam the next day, we all still decided to live a little and go down to Parallel to watch the demonstrations, which actually weren't the least bit violent (unlike what my momma has been telling me for the past 20 years). In fact I had one of those 'I'm-so-happy-to-be-right-here-right-now' moments (which doesn't happen a lot, I must say. Except for times like when I got to play with a dolphin and saw the inside of the Sagrada Familia). 

While I don't have an opinion on whether Catalonia should or should not be independent from Spain, it was great being there amongst all that energy and passion with the Catalonians waving flags, chanting and singing. Was also really cray watching the castellers climb up each other as effortlessly as a hamster climbing to reach food. 

A clear sign that you're getting old/independent/broke is when you start Googling 'easiest recipes', 'pasta recipes' and 'easy pasta recipes'. I even started making grocery lists. I don't even recognise myself anymore.

I just whipped up some honey+soy sauce+oyster sauce+pepper marinated chicken fillets and scrambled eggs/omelette (I meant for it to be an omelette but..........) for lunch and I think I'm on my way to becoming a master chef already. If only momsy was here to cook me some decent Asian food.......

I actually stayed home from school yesterday becos I was too tired to sit through a 4.5h lesson and also just cos. And life was pretty damned good. I think I've started to appreciate alone time with the ability to go down to the supermarket, make lunch (completely tasteless spaghetti) at my own pace and do nothing, really.

On Saturday we stayed home all the way till dinner. Which was a funny story because we all wanted to head out and see Barcelona (the way humans should) and Zhi Wei and Daryl decided that, nah they wanted to stay in and finish up their work cos apparently they had plenty to do. And we all kinda just decided to..... why not stay in and then just go out for dinner. Then it turned out that while all of us were sitting around the living room on a Saturday afternoon, the only one of the house was Zhi Wei, who was at the mall. Like whut.

But anyway we went out and had some Japanese teppanyaki buffet for dinner and it was too great being reunited with sashimi, noodles, teppanyaki and the freedom to eat whatever I wanted without worrying about the prices. Life was good that night :')

Exchange has been really good - seeing all these beautiful sights, walking down streets that look like they could be in movies, learning a new language (trying to see the beauty of it despite not absorbing much of it), being around my weird but fun housemates, trying out new food, learning to live like a hobo, actually attempting to budget and the list goes on and on.

I suppose the best part of exchange is getting to meet all sorts of people, talking to them about their experiences, where they come from and eventually making friends with them despite the tremendous number of differences between the two of you.

Then in comes the part where Spanish classes (9.30am-2pm erryday for 2 weeks) starts to take a toll where by the time lunch rolls around all I want to do is scroll through Instagram because alone time is in order.

Despite life being all about new experiences, new adventures, new people and how all of this shapes and guides us, I'm actually tired of the rush to mingle, to attempt to fit in, the pointless small talk, the little 'promises' to catch each other sometime soon during these initial few weeks. I mean, sure, some of these cray/impromptu/spontaneous/in the lunch queue conversations do lead to amazing friendships in the end and blablabla it's great and all, but for now I'm looking forward to meeting people in classes over discussions on Spanish art/antropologia/the emergence of China and picking each other's brains - if I still have one left after these intensive Espanol lessons.

Les Corts