Aaron Lives La Vida Loca and a Very Uncomfortable Spanish Class

The weekend up to Tuesday afternoon (now) was very eventful. It included a large mountain, some french girls, karaoke, bad sangria, and some very nasty accusations made against myself. I'll post something about that later.

From now, we'll move backwards from the last hour: today was my first day of the Intensive Spanish Course, and it was one of the most uncomfortable three hours of my life. After initially taking a placement exam, I wound up in a course with two other people: a Korean girl who doesn't speak much English or Spanish and a French girl who's apparently still in her angsty/bitchy teenage phase (then again, who isn't?), was separated from her twin sister and so sulked for three hours in the classroom.

Basically for three hours, the teacher (poor guy) would ask a question, wait about twenty minutes (because I didn't want to answer EVERYTHING) and when the girls had made it very clear that they either couldn't or wouldn't say a word, I finally gave the answer. This went on for the whole time. Afterwards, the French girl complained to the teacher and then to her friends that they stuck her in a class with a "Korean and a 30-year-old" (I was the thirty year old).

I have to be honest, that was quite hurtful. Seriously. What the hell is up with that? I was 17 years 5 years ago. That really wasn't that long ago. There's only been one new US President and one new Harry Potter book since I was 17.

Please, if you must call me old, at least wait until I have a job. Or send me some social security checks. Otherwise, it's just completely uncalled for. If I have to deal with this again, I might jump out the window of the classroom tomorrow. But then again, I'm so old, I'll probably just blow out my back before I even get that far. The young "kids" will have to help me over the ledge.

Apparently there's a class with the same level of Spanish, except there's ten students, not three. I dropped some subtle (maybe) hints to the director of the Spanish program that if the classes aren't mixed together, or I have to deal with today again, that this would be an unacceptable situation. I've got peeps to back me up on this too; I'll get the guys behind the school cafe and the girl from the computer room to help me bitch out if I have to.


UPDATE: and the day got better! After spending an hour healing my wounds from being labeled an old man, I wound up going on an accidntal "date." It was fantasic.

I was the only person on the intensive Spanish course to bother showing up for the cultural program they'd scheduled for the afternoon (there is 1 every day). Today was supposed to be going to Barceloneta/the Beach. Instead of cancelling it though, the Spanish girl who was hosting the event gave me a one-on-one tour of the area for an hour and a half.

Is it too soon to say I'm in love? Only because we don't even know what love is. I had a good time, that will count as love for now.

Victoria works part time at the teaching school and in the afternoon/evening she gives tours of Barcelona and studies English. She had a great sense of humor and was exceedingly tolerant of my Spanish and my accent.

I was too nervous to ask more personal questions, such as where she gets her hair done, or what she wants to do with her life besides touring me around the city (but from my perspective, thats not such a bad life). She lives near the University (and hates it there because of the traffic and the plethora of banks) but I forgot to ask her if she likes cafe habaluc, but honestly, I think I already know that she LOVES cafe habaluc, because who doesn't love skewers of patatas bravas?

Our conversation was not completely intelligible, but I figured if I even picked up 60% of the things she was saying then it was a success for my ability to have a spanish "conversation." Some things I learned from our tour:
a. she doesn't want to ever ever ever live in barceloneta because its too wet
b. there is a sculpture near the port olympic titled "david and goliath" because...something about when you are standing beneath it, you are david looking up at goliath
c. It sucks when its raining on the beach. That's just poor form from the weather-controlling Jews
d. She hates the beach in the summertime because there's way too many tourists and naked people and its gross and annoying.

The only question is: am I too old for her? I'm going to have to ask the French girl tomorrow.