Yesterday I went to a house party and after that, I met some Catalan and Spanish people and we went out downtown, around the Union Street. We actually went to a club called The Priory, in Belmont Street. This far everything looks normal. But there is a small detail you have to pay attention to. The Priory is located literally inside a church. It seems like it is a pretty spred practice in Aberdeen (dunno about the rest of Scotland) to have clubs in churches since in the same street there’s another “church club”.

Ahir al migdia vaig jugar el primer partit de futbol des que he arribat a Aberdeen. Feia un fred que pelava (jo diria que estavem al voltant dels -1ºC). Vam ser unes 24 persones, gairebé tots estudiants internacionals, així que vam fer dos equips de 12. Un cop a Seaton Park ens vam vestir de curt (quin fred, Déu meu!!) i vam començar a jugar una cosa similar al futbol, on hi havia jugadors vestits de tots colors per tot arreu (el camp que vam fer era una mica més petit que un camp de futbol regular per questions d’espai). Més que jugadors del teu equip i adversaris el que hi havia era obstacles; no va ser una bona tarda de futbol, però va ser força divertit almenys, sobretot tenint en compte que la gran majoria de la gent no portava botes amb tacs i estava tota l’estona per terra -doncs la gesta estava lleugerament gelada-. Els afortunats que teniem botes portavem un gran aventatge, doncs.

Here goes my new address, which is meant to be permanent till I leave Aberdeen on June:

Toni Sagrista
Room 121F
Keith House
Don Street
Aberdeen
AB24 1WU

So finally I could swap rooms with Kunal. It’s been quite a hard task to accomplish, since there’s a lot of bureaucracy for such an easy thing as well. But let’s start at the beginning. Kunal is an indian guy who arrived at Scotland just one day after I did, and he was very close to the indians of my former flat. This flat was actually occupied by three indians and Mathew, a german erasmus who’s given up in teaching the indians how to behave when they live with others. The thing is that they are used to have everything done at their homeland, with servants cooking and cleaning for them and this kind of stuff. So when I first saw my former kitchen I was a bit shocked coz it looked like the Irak war had taken place in there. A big mess, indeed.

Finalment he aconseguit superar amb èxit el caos i la desorganització d’aquesta universitat els 2 primers. He tingut força problemes per gairebé tot. Primer, per a registrar-se com a estudiant i aconseguir un compte per poder utilitzar internet -cosa extremament simple a Reading- he hagut de recorrer d’un edifici a un altre per després tornar al primer durant gairebé dos esgotadors dies sencers. Del Help Desk a la University Registry, i d’allà al departament de Computer Science. Un cop vist el coordinador d’erasmus de Computer Science, torna cap al Registry per després acabar al Help Desk. Quan sembla que tot està enllestit, resulta que a l’endemà no puc entrar al meu compte. Torna a baixar a la universitat, un altre cop cap al Help Desk, on em diuen que no estic matriculat completament i m’envien per enèssima vegada al Registry, on em diuen que hi ha hagut algun error i m’ho arreglen, de manera que des d’avui al matí el meu compte hauria d’estar actiu.

Well, everything is set, my second erasmus experience is about to start. During this week I’ve been arranging and fixing some pending tasks I had pulled apart, mostly some erasmus paperwork. And now it is time to say farewell to everyone. For example, yesterday we had dinner with the work colleagues in a comfortable, warm restaurant in Gracia district called La Barbacoa de Gràcia. Food was excellent indeed, with a wide range of barbecued meats and torrades, slices of toast with cold meats, cheeses and stuff like this on it. Well, regarding the trip, I have to say I’m flying from Barcelona Airport (13.30h) to Glasgow International Airport (15.25h) with FlyGlobeSpan. Once there, I gotta have to look for a way to get to the Queen Street train Station, for there’s only one direct train to Aberdeen at 17.40h. They told me it is worth to behold the landscape during the train journey, specially when passing near the Firth of Forth. Anyway I promise I’ll pay attention and take some pictures to show you in future posts. Take care!