Interacting with the Locals: Pink Eye and an Intercambio

So as I've mentioned in some other posts, when I came back to Barcelona last Monday, there was something wrong with my eye. Over the night, it was pretty clear that I had pink eye, particularly when I woke up and couldn't open my eye because it had been sealed shut by goop. I had to use my hands to open my right eye.

What I love about Spain is that I didn't need to go see a doctor. I could just go to my local farmacia, describe my symptoms, and he gave me medicine. In this weird way, I finally felt like I lived here because I was having a real life problem and needed to ask real Spaniards for help. The pharmacist was very nice, of course; in fact, he might be the nicest shop owner I've met so far, except for the underwear saleswoman, but more on that later. He gave me the eyedrops and then asked in Spanish if I was allergic to anything. I told him sulfa, but in English of course, and he seemed to understand, but then when I looked at the drug list there are all these references to sulfados, which made me a little nervous, but everything seems to be fine, so esta bien.

Many of the students have gone to Ireland for St. Patrick's Day. I tried to explain to them that there is more to Europe than getting drunk, but, oh, well. I kind of lost it today in my class. I was talking about how a community college study abroad program probably doesn´t make sense, since obviously most of the students just came to Europe to be drunk. Patricia wouldn't be happy with me, but really what's the point if that's the only reason why they're here. The students didn´t disagree with me, interestingly, and a number of them complained about the same thing. I would say half the students are here for the right reason; half are here because they want to drink themselves city. Unfortunately, I predict either a major injury or an unwanted pregnancy. I'm not sure that some of these kids know how to take care of themselves. One student, who will remain nameless, fell asleep on the side of the street near his house last week, and, needless to say, was robbed of everything he had on him. Who does that? Anyway, I cross my fingers and hope for the best.

Today, I also had two other good experiences with locals. The first was at an underwear store, where the saleswoman essentially flirted herself into a major sale. There's nothing like buying underwear in a store where everyone who works there is a woman to make me buy more underwear than I probably need. But it was fun having her explain the different kinds there were. I love how there are underwear stores in Barcelona. There's one down the block from my apartment for women: foundation garments galore.

The other experience I had today was to meet this guy for an intercambio. I went on loquo.com, which is a Spanish equivalent of Craig's List, and answered an ad for an intercambio. We met at Starbucks, interestingly enough; he suggested it. It was my first European Starbucks, and it looks and feels exactly like Starbucks in the U.S. There was a funny argument with a Spaniard and a worker. The Spaniard didn't understand what he was ordering. He thought he was ordering a cafe con leche when he ordered a latte, and he thought it was way too expensive, which it is by Spanish standards. I can't believe that my Tazo tea cost 2 Euros. That's 2.50 dollars. Doesn't seem worth it really.

Anyway Enric is a 36 year old biologist who is from the Barcelona area. He works for an American company, and he's trying to improve his English. We talked for 30 minutes in Spanish and then 30 minutes in English. It was fun, but of course, we were really just meeting each other. We'll probably get more in depth later. It is really helpful to just speak Spanish, so I think meeting with him will help until I start taking actual classes.

Tomorrow, I see Mozart's Requieum in an old church, and on Saturday, I meet a friend of my friend Mariano. So, finally, I'm feeling like I live in Barcelona.