goin' with the flow.

i find myself feeling less and less foreign as my time here increases. confidence and conviction are slowly replacing the layers of insecurities that i've shed. i've come to introduce myself as "kath-ar-eeene", with a fill-fledged spanish accent...as if a name can't transcend borders. i read "que!" newspaper everyday on the metro. i am [on the average] 15 minutes late to any and everything i attend. yes, the catalan way is rubbing off on me like a virus. soon i will be wearing dark square-rimmed glasses and saying "vale! venga!" at the beginning of every sentence.

i cooked dinner for a catalan friend last night. it was a healthy mix of vegetables and grilled chicken. i introduced it as a "normal american meal", to reiterate [as i so often do] that americans are not [completely] unhealthy slobs. i guess all of my insecurities haven't quite gone.

recently, i've had the same experience about 3 times in the same amount of weeks. men yelling "rubia! rubia! que pasa rubia?" [translated: "blond girl! blond girl! what's happening blond girl?"] at me while they're working; painting flats, building buildings, or emptying the garbage into the garbage trucks. they yelp while flicking the ashes off of their cigarettes. [yes, people here love smoking on the job, in fact i think it's encouraged.] i don't consider myself a blond, so i just ignore them. but it's a friendly reminder that dirty men are everywhere we go.