Lemonade

A few things to touch upon:

1. God reads my blog. I know this because after my last diatribe about Barcelona's relentlessly rainy and overcast weather, we had the four warmest and most beautiful days yet. Of course, we also had class. But less rain and more sun makes Jillian a sunnier girl.

2. I'm supposed to be in Sevilla, though I am not. I won't go into detail in order to save myself from reliving the infuriating nightmare that was all of yesterday morning, but let's just say Murphy won. Everything that could have gone wrong, starting at 6:30am, did. Fortunately I was in the company of two wonderful compatriots, Raelene and Lindsay, who reminded me that to miss a plane to Sevilla is to be "stuck" in Barcelona for one more brilliant weekend. So we made lemonade out of lemons. Well, actually, we made mimosas out of orange juice and cava, and then we moseyed on over to Eddie, Chris, Pawel, and Tom's apartment for a little BBQ action on "the terrace." Despite the stress and agony of the morning, I was reminded of how much better it can sometimes be to just pause for a few hours and cherish laughter, friendship and good food.

Upon leaving some five hours later, Raelene, Lindsay and I happened upon the Magic Fountain of Montjuïc, which plays for 20 minutes Friday and Saturday nights in the winter, and nightly in the summer. It was just as its name suggests, magical, and I was once again silenced and held in an awesome rapture. I'm still absolutely livid about the lost trip to Sevilla, but I realized that there's still lots to see and do here. So my new resolution is to stop feeling pressured to plan elaborate trips for every weekend I am here without the help of a convenient study abroad program. I cannot control the universe. It's gonna be fine.

Looking forward to China, which IS completely planned for me. Phew.

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