Sunshine and catholic italians

It's incredible how the weather influences a person's mood! Yesterday I saw the sun shining when I woke up and I was instantly happy again. So no more complaining ;-)

Also, less things seem to go wrong when the sun is shining. Before class, I had to go print out anohter small paper I had to write with Lena, and it took only 10 minutes (that's very quick in comparison to the 40 minutes it had taken last time). So I still had half an hour before class started to have a cup of tea on the campus terrace. When the sun is out, it's warm enough to sit outside in a t-shirt again!

During class, we suddenly heard loud music coming in through the windows. Apparently there was a concert on campus yesterday, so we enjoyed live music instead of the professor's vague story about some cooperative I've never heard about. On the picture you see Nynke and Lena, and in the background the artist, who was singing in Valencian, by the way!

After class I had lunch with Lena, the german girl, Nynke, a Dutch girl from Friesland, Martha, an Italian girl and Fatiha (I hope I'm spelling it right), a French girl with a very difficult name to pronounce. A very international table! And we discussed a very international subject... boys! :-D

At 4pm I met Simone, the Italian, to start working on the paper we have to write together. At a certain point, we were discussing religion (and totally not working on the paper) and he told me he was a practising Catholic. He actually goes to church every Sunday! I know it's stupid of me, but it struck me as totally odd that someone my age still goes to church every Sunday. Strange how something that 50 years was the commonest thing in the world, strikes me as odd today.

Anyway, I went to capoeira training and then I still had a class. I was sitting alone, rather in the back of the classroom, because between capoeira and class I have exactly 0 minutes to get from A to B, so I don't have time to shower. I just spray myself abundantly with deodorant and don't sit next to anyone in the following class. :-) After the 10 first minutes, a girl came in and sat next to me. Then suddenly she turned to me and said 'Are you not in my Evaluación Económica Pública class?' I did indeed recognize her from another class, and that's how I met a very nice Spanish girl called Maria José. It was very special for me that she so spontaneously introduced herself, because for an Erasmus student it's not that obvious to get to know Spaniards in class. In a way, that is obvious, because the natives have been in this university for 4 years together, they all know each other and have already formed their groups of friends, so why would they bother in getting to know Erasmus students that leave after a few months? So as an Erasmus student, the bulk of the friends you make here are other Erasmus students. When you meet a nice Spaniard, that's a rather special event. These encounters make my day!

Yesterday evening, for no reason at all I felt quite proud of myself and decided I deserved the night off. I got 2 DVD in the videoteca near my house. (Two, because on Thursdays it's two for the price of one). So I watched 2 movies one after the other, very nivardian! :-)

Oh, I still have to tell you this! My flatmate José went to the market and bought some mandarines because the mandarine season is starting. He bought some, well, 8 kilos! So now we have mandarines for weeks and weeks, mandarines for breakfast, lunch and dinner! Very healthy!