february first

Everything is getting much better. I have met two people off Loquo (the Spanish Craigslist) for language exchange, and both turned out to be very nice and eager to show me around. Their English was much better than my Spanish (thank god or we wouldn´t have gotten far!) but it did mean that we did not speak much in Spanish. I´m really looking forward to my classes, which begin tomorrow. I also met some other travelers at my hostel, and we went out for drinks the other nights, so nice to have a long English conversation over wine! They thought it was very funny that back home I can´t go out to pubs (one being from Australia and the other from Quebec.)
Today my main goals are to find a pair of sunglasses (very nessecary here), locate my language school, and get cash from a machine to pay for my classes. I spend most of the day wandering around, sometimes with a destination but often not.
The main lessons I have learned so far, in my three days of misery, are: 1) it is perfectly okay to not have fun all the time. And 2) that in order to move forward you must be bold and make yourself a little vulnerable. My mom passed on a quote to me from her friend´s facebook status, "All real adventures start with the feeling, I am not so sure about this." I have this quote written in gigantic bold letters across a page of my journal, which I write in constantly, and it has been such a source of strength for me. So thank you very much to whoever wrote that on Facebook. Ha!
I have also just received an email reply from a friend of a friend lving in BCN that has offered their couch to me for a little while. Sweeeeet. I think I may be staying with them starting Tuesday.
Of all the famous gothic architecture, art, parks, cathedrals, museums, and Gaudi, by far what has excited me most in Barcelona is the graffiti (or street art, which is really more apropriate.) Here you have all these incredibly old and beautiful streets, quaint and so very European, and it´s all covered top to bottom in both hectic little tags and and extravagant works of masterful spray paint. It was only a few years ago that graffiti was even made illegal here, and the sense of limitation when it comes to choosing your canvas is nonexistent. The street artists paint anywhere and everywhere. The whole city could easily be considered a free museum. I will try to post some photos soon.
I really appreciate all the support and encouragement that I have received from home. Keep commenting and emailing! ¡Abrazos para todos my amigos y familia!