Hola!

Well, Barcelona is pretty swell. Actually, let me rephrase that, its pretty much the bomb and then some, I like almost everything about it.
The weather is amazing, not too hot, cools off in the evenings and the mornings, rained once for like 10 minutes.
The subway is infinitely better than Chicago's El: there are monitors that count down the minutes and seconds until the train arrives (which is never more than five min), the train is almost soundless compared to the el, everything is underground, they have sweet seats, and it doesn't smell like piss everywhere!
Icecream, omfg, the icecream is soooooo good!!!! There is an icecream store on every block, its what my life has been lacking so far, mmmmmmmm.
Olives!!! So many olives...its beautiful.
People are generally pretty cool, we obviously don't know spanish despite what we thought, and they are okay with that. We know enough to ask questions, but not enough to understand the answers very well...signing up for classes tomorrow!
The atmosphere is what I like the best: everyone is chill, even the dogs are chill. No one is in a hurry, except to get home for a siesta, which I am not sure how I lived w/ out so far in life. Everyone hangs around outside in the squares between streets, just chillin, havin a drink, some olives, maybe some icecream. You can walk around the streets at 12 at night and EVERYONE is just walkin around outside with their kids, visiting, eating, drinking, whatev, having a good time, enjoying life. It is really amazing, totally different from anywhere in the US, but I think I enjoy it much better. Especially the siesta part, because there isn't much else to do but take a nap, everything shuts down...and forget doing anything on Sunday, everything was shut, it was really hard to find a place to eat.
Okay things that I miss:
Salads/lots of vegetables/meaty things...most dishes here are smaller portions, some bread/ham slices/cheese...thats cool and all, but I get hungry, I want to eat, not snack!!!
Big stores, everything is little, little fruit stores, little paper stores, little cell phone stores...the one life saver is the corte ingles, which is similar to a department store with a grocery in the bottom.
English, frankly there is way too much stuff in catalanfor me to really understand what is going on when I talk to people or read stuff. Hand signals seem to work well, sound effects help even more. Going for the general idea rather than specific sentence comprehension is what i'm about. God help me when classes begin...
Having a place to live...haha almost forgot this one, I'm still looking for a place to live right now, we should probably be set by the end of the week or so, but until then I'm just crashing where ever, I've been doing this for the past two or three weeks though and uh, getting a little old living out of suitcases.
Overall, I'm having a blast, I don't feel uncomfortable or anything, I love the city and the atmosphere and I'm excited for classes, but like they told us at orientation "you didn't come here because we are the best school, you came here because we are the best people, and for the parties." This is a true story. I'm going to go get some icecream now. Love to all.

50 lb.s really isn't that much stuff!

So, I'm at the airport in front of the beautiful Aer Lingus flight desk, they don't open till 1:00, thats okay though bc I got a ride and it was infinitely better than trying to take my two 50lb bags on the El, no thanks. I sort of forgot the bags have to be exactly 50 lbs or less and spent about an hour last night trying to get them down to weight. It was pretty surprising because one would think 50lbs would be a ton of stuff, not so. I'm taking like 8 outfits, 5 books, a camcorder, my bike helmet, a sheet (for the hostels...oh yeah, fancy!), a pillow, a couple of school supplies I didn't want to rebuy, and some discs...thats it. Apparently it adds up. To kill time I'm finishing up The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand and then I have Atlas Shrugged which I've been told is even better. Nothing like a thousand page book to kill time at the airport! Okay well I'm trying to waste a ton of battery (i think mine last about 2.5 hours) so....hasta lavista!

Skype....so cool!

When I'm in Spain how I'm going to talk to everyone is mosts likely through Skype or aim. My mom and I have been playing around w/ this skype thing and it is really cool, and it is completely free! With skype you just need a headset/mic or something of that nature and you can call anyone else who has skype for free and talk, so much better than paying for a phone! Plus the quality is really amazing. So, my skype name is casey.franklin . Also I'll have aim as always, my aim is kcrox1017. So, don't be a stranger!!!

Looking for Cardboard Boxes

So, I don't have a for sure place to live at all yet, this is rather nerve wracking; however I do have a hostel reservation...woop woop. It is for four days in which time we will have hopefully found someplace to live! That is about all I have to say about that. Just one week till I leave now...I've been too nervous/scared to be excited yet, but now it might happen.

Illinois Institute of Retards

Seriously. I'm so frustrated at my school I can't wait to graduate so I never have to see/talk to the staff again. First they tell us that we won't get federal loans, then they tell us we will, then they tell us we will get them a certain date and not to worry about private loans, then they tell us that basically they know nothing...but of course they only tell us anything after we harass them relentlessly as to what the hell is going on. All this makes it nearly impossible to know what I should do, Not okay. Not okay at all. Today, they told me I should be proud bc i'm a pioneer and next year kids who want to do this won't have to stuggle to maintain sanity blah blah blah bs bs, I really don't care about this, I just want my damn money! I'm stressin. In other news I think we may have actually found a place to live...so thats kinda encouraging...kinda.

Student Visa a.k.a. EXTREME

Just so you know upfront, if you ever want to get a student visa (or probably a work one too) be prepared for the most intense information hunt of your life. It's fairly ridiculous, you have to gather (among other things) proof of mental/physical stability, proof of financial means, insurance, police records from everywhere you lived for the last FIVE YEARS, rights to first born child, etc, etc. Anyway, to make a long story short, I think my head almost exploded in the process of getting everything together for the visa, then they told me that I could pick it up about two days before I leave the country, which was vaguely reassuring at best. I talked to the consulate though and ta-DA! It is all ready to pick up! I cursed several times in excitement. Once I have my visa (going to pick up tomorrow right when consulate opens) and I have hassled my school into actually giving me my federal loans so I can pay tuition, gee thanks, then I will most definitely be able to do anything, including but not exclusively: be the bomb, run for president, beat up ninjas, find a place to live in Spain.

Student Visa aka EXTREME

Excellent

I would just like to briefly note that the orientation week for school in Spain includes wine tasting, which IIT has sadly lacked in my experience (boxed wine doesn't count). That is all.