Writer´s block, procrastination, a second language and other obstacles in the way of me finishing this paper.

I´ve been in the computer lab for almost two hours and I only have 3/4ths of a page to show for it. On the plus side, that page is written in Spanish, but on the downside, I have 4 more pages to go. What is it about? I am (attempting to) write a comparative paper that examines the representation of Spain after the Civil War ended and Francisco Franco emerged as victor and new dictator. Sure, that may sound really great and I can even find it moderately interesting but it´s not going very well. I just can´t get going on it. I only need 5 pages... at Knox, I would be expected to crank this out in a night and trust me, I have. But this is the first paper I´ve had to write for a class since... May! I´m a little more than a little rusty.

However, I´ll be liberated after 4:30 because I´m going to go to the Bodies Exhibit at one of the many museums in BCN. It´s a pretty pricey exhibit -- 15 euros for students (roughly 25 dollars), but my host mother got free tickets to it and she gave them to me because she was too creeped out by the idea of seeing dissected bodies on display.
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Okay, so I wrote that yesterday, but never posted it. Tricky, I know. I thought about trashing it, but keeping it saves me time by not having to (re)write an explanation.

So, I didn´t get anything else done with the paper. I decided two pages in three hours was sufficient for a first effort. What took the longest was translating it into Spanish! I just saved what I had, ate lunch and then walked down Las Ramblas to the Drassanes Reials Museum for the exhibition. It was... interesting. I was afraid that maybe I wouldn´t be able to handle it, seeing bodies that at one point walked and talked, etc., etc. but it wasn´t an issue. They start you out slow, with some bones. Smart thinking. Everyone has seen a bone, most of us have broken one or two. So that was okay. Then they show you an entire skeleton, then a skeleton and the tendons, a skeleton with the tendons and the major muscle groups, and so on until you get to the one female in the entire exhibition and she has pretty much every part of her intact, sans skin, of course. Wow, talking about this is really strange. I guess its just one of those things you have to see for yourself. I don´t know who sponsored the exhibit, but they definitely have an agenda. There is a section about the digestive and respiratory systems and they show you a diseased organ next to a healthy one and talk about how not smoking and avoiding fatty foods will save your life. Yes, I believe those things to be true but I didn´t come to this exhibit to be scared into living a healthier life. To each their own, I suppose. And I´m sure that there are many people who need just that sort of experience to change their lives around. It´s probably better to see how it happened to someone else than to actually have to experience it yourself, so I´ll give them credit for trying to educate the masses.

And today? I slept in, made my way over to the library. I have to leave soon though, as its only open from 11 to 2 on Saturday. Yes, I think that that is ridiculous. And yes, I´ve started excusing things I find to be absurdly inconvenient by saying, "Well, it IS Spain, after all." I´ve also noticed that I finally understand the Spanish sense of time. Everything in Barcelona takes 20 minutes to get to, no matter how far away it seems. The trick is how you are getting there -- walking, metro, bus, etc -- and how quickly you are willing to move. These Spaniards... they´re crafty.

written by

achavero on November 17, 2007 from Barcelona, Spain

from the travel blog: Amanda in Barcelona

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