Lastly, some important dates...

December 18th -The day I pack up and leave Barcelona

December 18-20 - Trip to Paris

December 20-22 - Trip to London

December 22nd - Back to Barcelona to grab all of my stuff and say my final goodbye.

December 23rd @ 11pm - Arrive back in OAKLAND! Give me 30 mins and my cell phone will definitely be on. (same number!)

(Check out the entry before this, if you haven't all ready. I should've included it with that one, but oh well.)

Peaceeeeeee

This is it...

(*Disclaimer - This is a real long one. Grab that coffee or get yourself a snack before you read this.)
I was sitting in my cultural psychology class on Thursday and we began talking about our journey back home to the United States. We discussed the term reverse culture shock and what it means to us. Personally, I think the reverse culture shock is going to be just as rough as the original culture shock, because even though I am going back to family, friends and a familiar environment, I have to get used to living back home without college. I can already see myself going back and questioning a lot of things about the U.S., just as I did over here. Why DO we leave our lights on if nobody is in the room? Is it really that bad to sit down and enjoy a meal with somebody, instead of eating it on the go? If traffic is so bad in some areas day after day, is public transportation really not an option? These are just  some of the questions I can imagine myself asking once I get back. A lot of people say you sometimes learn more about your own culture back home than you do of the one you are studying in. While I have definitely taken in a lot of Spanish culture, my eyes have been opened a lot more to the places I call home. Looking back on my life back home, since being here, has opened up my eyes to some faults in my own life. I definitely stress over things that are completely unnecessary and I take a lot for granted, which I need to fix asap!

These four months have been an experience I will never forget. Not only do I have around 3,500 pictures to remind me of all the memories, but the friendships and people I have met will always be close to me. Currently, I am in such a great frame of mind. I feel so much more ready to get to San Diego and start job-hunting. I did a lot of self-reflection while I was here and I feel that my plans after college couldn't be any clearer. There are one or two aspects of my life here that I am hoping will make it back to San Diego with me. I don't want to jinx it, so I will just leave it at that. Family values have come into my thoughts a lot. My roommate and I are the minorities in our program, in that our homestay family really does count us as members of the family. Since day one, I have never felt like a guest in this house. Whether I am sick, tired, or frustrated, they have all been there to help me get through it. This is something I can never forget. I owe them a visit back to Barcelona, where they promised me I would always have a place to stay. Same goes to them in California. Absolutely.

If you haven't caught the drift of this entry yet, I decided this is going to be my last one. Here are some of the reasons why I have come down to this decision:
1.  I still have 4 papers to write, 1 presentation, and 5 finals to finish in the next 2 weeks.
2. A substantial blog entry takes about 2 hours to complete each time (1 hr and 15 mins to usually write it with 45 minutes of internet issues to deal with).
3. I will have plenty of stories and pictures to share. That isn't a problem at all!
4. I realize (especially after my psych class on Thursday) that I blog mostly to keep everyone back home updated with my life over here. I really need to live in the moment for these last couple of weeks. This is going to be an overwhelming goodbye and one that I am not currently ready for. I will be home in less than a month, so I just need to focus on the time I have left over here.

Do I feel like I failed with this whole blog business? Absolutely not. While I have had my moments of slacking off, I feel I have given everyone a general view of my life over here. I don't want to go in too deep with trips or experiences. Some stories are best told in person....a lot, actually. Despite the craziness of the week coming up, I will still be documenting everything and treasuring the last 2 weeks I have here. I am actually surprised I kept up with the blog as long as I did. While I don't feel I have lost touch with people back home or have had an incredibly hard time updating friends, it is hard when you have to put your experiences into words, while telling the story and not going into too much detail.

Will saying goodbye to Barcelona be tough? More than I could've ever imagined. However, I feel that this is the best time to do it. I will be leaving a chunk of myself here to come back and visit in the future. I have made the most of the experience and have no regrets. I am going back home with different ideals and ways of living in the familiar environments I know very well, while coming back with several new friends all across the country. It's a win-win situation. I bet the next time I find myself in Barcelona, it will be tough not to be here with everyone that's here now and as time passes, things will inevitably change. With an amazing experience abroad, I almost don't want it replicated. Why re-live another moment in hopes of making it as incredible as the first, when the first was almost perfect by itself?

I will close the blog with this picture I found from September 1, 2009. This is a picture when Amy and I were about to land in Barcelona. I guess you can consider it my very first picture of Barcelona. While my camera skills have definitely improved, I can't help but remember all of the worries and fears I had when this picture was taken. Worries involving my homestay situation, classes, meeting people, traveling to other countries, money problems, getting lost in Barcelona, being away from home for 4 solid months, etc. I have overcome and conquered all of these. I did it. I made it. Thank you to everyone that made this experience what it truly was. I have never been more honest when I say this - I will never forget this time in my life. There will never be another. Barcelona Fall 2009 for life.

See you all very soon! d:-)

-Brent

Update delayed...

I know I promised to continue my Prague trip, but unfortunately, it is 4am right now and I have a 10 page paper to finish by 9am. I am definitely only on page two, as we speak. Time to put my all-nighter skills learned in San Diego to use....

In the meantime, enjoy this great picture. This is the original group that all met up within the first two weeks of Barcelona. We had a reunion dinner last week and it was great to have all of us at the same table. Its been awhile. We were still missing people, but this is the majority of everyone. This is just an example of some of the incredible people I have met throughout these months. I can honestly say I will keep in touch with everyone at this table and plan to visit them all throughout the U.S. within the year.

Time to get on this. Get back to you tomorrow! d:-)

"What's REALLY in Prague? I mean, who REALLY knows?"

That was one of many unforgettable quotes from this past weekend. Myself, along with a few of my good friends in Barca, went to go visit Prague over the weekend for Thanksgiving. The city itself is incredible! It has that big city with a small town vibe to it. Not a huge fan of the people. We definitely met a few incredibly helpful/decent people, but overall, they weren't really kind to us. Either that or they just didn't wanna go out of their way for us. Not really sure. Then there's the language....Let me just say I'm glad we knew someone otherwise the trip would've been a nightmare trying to translate Czech.

Bryan and I got in around 2:30ish, which means there is only about 1 1/2 hours left of sunlight. Real strange to me...We check in to our hostel called the "Czech Inn" (haha?) and it is by far the best hostel I have stayed at. Waterfall showers, keycards to get into the rooms, buffet breakfast, and all for only 30 dollars, not euros! Sweeeet. Then we head over to Cassie's apartment, who is Brad's girlfriend. Thank God for her this whole weekend. Without her, we would be lost and confused in that city of Czechness. We (as in them) made an AWESOME Thanksgiving dinner that looked like this. It was really weird and strange being away from family on the holiday, but this was definitely second best. Good company, good food that night! We then went out to a club later that played a lot of old-school hip hop. It was a good trip down memory lane. Not too much more, because we had to get up early the next day for adventures!

The next day was awesome! It consisted of churches, castles, bagels, infamous clocks, Christmas decorations. It's a lot to go into, but here are some of my favorite pictures...

  
               

Ah, my internet is starting to load real slow and fail with uploading anymore info. I will continue this tomorrow...2am time to go to bed.

Ugh

I am 3 presentations, 4 papers, and 5 finals away from being completely done with my undergrad work.

Didn't I graduate in June? It is starting to look like a dream the more I think about it.

Well, hello again!

"Oh so you are gonna have a blog while you are in Barcelona? That's awesome. Good luck keeping up with it though. That's usually the hardest part."


These were the words that Lindsay told me right before I left California. Sadly, it is becoming true, since my last blog was at the beginning of this month...and about Michael Jackson. Yes, I'm a huge fan and with it being around the release of his movie, it was all I could talk about. Now onto Barcelona updates.

Looking back on the 2 1/2 months, it has been quite a wild ride. I have experienced just about every emotion possible over here, while still looking back and having nothing but fond memories and great friendships. As my time here is wrapping up, I am starting to get nostalgic, as usual. I find myself not only thinking of my time here, but the whole year of 2009 in general. With it being my last year at UCSD, my last year RAing, last year on-campus, first and only college graduation, and the many unforgettable memories that have been captured on film, it makes the idea of coming back home have a very interesting feel to it. In exactly a month, I will be back in the Bay Area and happy to see everyone back over there again. I just about secured a place to live in SD until June, so know I just need to follow up on job offers and make all these plans a reality.

Life is so much up in the air right now. After graduating, I am starting a brand new chapter in my life (one that I have no experience with). Not being busy from 8am-12am with meetings, rehearsals, study breaks, and other priorities is going to be real strange for me in the beginning. Still, as I am embarking on a new journey, I can't forget the last four years of my life. UCSD has been more than a second home to me, which is why I never second guess returning down there. I had THE BEST college experience and couldn't have seen any of it coming when I arrived there as a scared freshman back in the fall of 2005. As I mentioned earlier, I want to return and get back in touch with everyone, including those who I haven't spoke to in awhile.

Whew, that was definitely some self-reflection up there. Hope some of that made sense, at least. On another note, I am having a blast in Barcelona. I couldn't imagine myself being happier here and making some friendships that will definitely last forever. It hasn't been a perfect trip, but its honestly been pretty damn close. SO, since I was slacking for the last couple of weeks, I have promised myself to update this thing daily. Since I have travelled a lot the last 2 months and haven't come close to blogging about them, I may either mention some on here or just wait to share them when I get back. The idea of blogging about every single trip in the past is just overwhelming, which has a lot to do with why I haven't updated this in awhile. Also, I wanna be able to come back with SOME stories!

To start this new promise off, today a group of us checked out this area outside of Barcelona called Montserrat. It's a huge giant mountain range about an hour away from the city and you have to take this ski lift kind of contraption up for about 3 minutes. We were SO high above the ground, so it was a little intimidating when we first got on. Once we did make it up there though, the view was spectacular. We continued to climb the mountains for the next 2 hours and took this awesome picture. After that, we went back to get a buffet lunch, check out an art museum, and spend some time in a monastery. The whole day cost about 35 euros, which was a GREAT deal.

This week will be easy. Three days and then on Thursday, I take off for Prague for Thanksgiving. This will be my very first Thanksgiving that I haven't spent in Pinole. Very strange to me. However, I am spending it with good company and we will be making our own Thanksgiving dinner. Definitely excited.

Talk to you all soon....seriously!

That WAS It!

It's 2:30am right now. I should REALLY be packing now, because I have to be up at 7:30am and have a lot to do before my flight to Dublin tomorrow night. However, I just saw an incredible movie and must write a short review of it...

I wasn't sure how This Is It would be publicized over here, because it's another country. However, I saw these posters up all over Barcelona ever since the movie came out last week. I waited VERY patiently all week to see it tonight. After reviews online, it seemed to get great reviews, overall. Most of the negative ones had to do with people complaining about it not being a documentary about the entertainer's life. This was supposed to be a film that showed his preparation for his comeback show, not a biography on his life.

Josh and I were frantically looking for the theater and got lost, which resulted in us missing the first 15 minutes. We walked in and it didn't seem that we missed much. Overall, this movie was incredible. Yes, I'm a huge fan, so I guess you can say I'm somewhat biased. Still, for a 50 year old, Michael has incredible energy and moves/sings as if he was back in his younger years. Plus, this wasn't even the final product! He was always known to be a perfectionist and he is still flawless in this movie. With every song, Michael Jackson had a big screen projection of some sort to accompany the song. After thinking about it, this makes complete sense. Not only was he an amazing entertainer, but he is extremely well-know for his classic music videos. The screen wasn't necessary, but for Michael Jackson, it was definitely ideal. I am shocked at how humble he is throughout the entire film. He always thanks and praises his dancers, without any attitude. I mean, he is Michael Jackson and he knew it. Still, at the end of the day, he knew that everyone was just as important to putting the entire show together.

Another amazing part is how well he knows all of his songs. He would critique aspects of each song, which prove how much his music means to him. From tempos of songs to lighting on the stage, it is clear this is not new to Michael Jackson. The idea of making Thriller in 3-D was incredible and looked like it was going to be real cool. Billie Jean was a flawless performance and he was moving just as well as he did back during Motown 25. The ending song, Man in the Mirror, is the one that gave me goosebumps. It's such a great song with a powerful meaning. At the end of the movie, everyone got up and clapped. It was a memory I will never forget. The impact he had on people all over the world is a one in a million opportunity.

Throughout the film, MJ does look incredibly thin. He also never shows his legs or arms. Some of the critiques voiced their concern with the movie not being completely honest, in terms of the state he was in during rehearsals. While this is true, who would pay to see a movie that showcased his struggles and declining health? I was glad to see him at his best. This concert looked like it was going to be the comeback of all comebacks. Now that he has passed, it's hard to say how successful his show would've been. Still, after seeing the movie, I'm convinced this concert would've been a reminder to the world why he is known as the King of Pop.

All in all, great movie! Personally, I think it does a great job of showing how he really acted around others. I would've loved to meet him. For being an international superstar, he seemed very down-to-earth. Go see it if you haven't! I will be waiting for the DVD release, for sure.

Now, I'm off to Dublin for the weekend...with two giant midterms waiting for me on Monday. Wonderful. Here's to a good weekend, more updates on Monday, and hopefully A's on those exams. Take care everyone!

WHAT a coincidence...

So, since Amy and I made our plans for London and Paris (after school ends), I was trying to look up some stuff for us to do in London. Then, I ran into this...

You best believe I already bought tickets. They will be showcasing items from the Jackson 5's signed contract to Motown and the infamous glove he wore in '83 when he did the moonwalk at Motown 25 for the first time to numerous awards and outfits of his. Apparently there are over 300 items to show. I'm excited!

P.S. I was walking home and saw 5 billboards for his movie that came out today. One week away!
I can't wait!

BOMB THAI FOOD!

So, a bunch of us have been hitting up this Thai restaurant that is literally 10 seconds from our school. It's legit and definitely crackin. Not bad prices either.

I will actually be going there before salsa and hip hop tonight. It's sort of a tradition now...