After finishing classes and exams last week, I went to my roommate’s graduation. She was studying her master’s at a design school in Gracia, a neighborhood that is a few metro stops away. It was a very small and informal ceremony, broadcast on the internet for the 15 student’s families, and afterwards there were tapas and drinks for everyone. After saying goodbye to her and to my other roommates that were leaving before I would come back from Hamburg, I went to Razzmatazz one last time. I got back around 4:30, with just enough time to pack my backpack and catch the 5:45 bus from Barcelona to the airport.
After my flight and another bus ride into Hamburg, I arrived around 1:30 to the first snow I’ve seen this year and shockingly cold weather. At the bus station, I met the friend I was vising and we did a tour of the city. We walked around the Christmas market, which smelled like sweets and a special type of wine that they serve hot, and then saw a few more things before taking the train to his house. It was nice to be with a family around the holidays; they showered me with sweets and we played several rounds of Monopoly.
The next day we went to a museum with a huge collection of miniature models of different places in Europe. They had rooms and rooms filled with trains, boats that traveled on the water, and little figurines of people (including hundreds of Santas in random places). We planned to do more that night, but the cold was almost intolerable, so we took the last bus home and spent the next day playing more board games.
I had to take a 3:00 am bus to catch my 6:00 am flight home, meaning I also didn’t sleep that night. I came back to a warm and rainy Barcelona and slept for about 8 hours, until 9:00 pm. I woke up feeling sick, dizzy, and sweating. On my way back from the bathroom I was so dizzy that I passed out, thinking I was in my room, but I was actually by the front door. I crawled back into my room and slept through the night for another 8 hours. Now I’m feeling better and I’m no longer paranoid about having swine flu.
