¡¡Felicidades, F.C. Barcelona!!
On Wednesday, May 27th, Football Club Barcelona (Football in Europe = soccer) became the champions of the '08/'09 European Champion's League after defeating Manchester 2-0. That night, F.C. Barça made history in Spain for being the first Spanish team to win all three cups in one season: The King's Cup, the National Cup, and the European Cup. Considering that this was such huge accomplishment, I'm sure you can imagine the excitement and crazy celebration that has been going on this entire week.
A group of friends and I watched the game a bar in Barcelona and the atmosphere was SO much fun. We sang "We are the Champions" in Spanish and the team's song multiple times. I have almost learned the first part of the F.C. Barça team song (in Catalan), which will come in handy when I root for them this August 5th in Seattle when they play the Seattle Sounders. Anyways, when Barcelona won, everyone was cheering, singing, and hugging. Afterward, we made our way to Las Ramblas which is the notorious gathering for crazy, drunken celebration. It definitely did not disappoint. People were climbing on top of anything they could, setting off fireworks, running around with bright red flares, singing, chanting, drinking, breaking things, and having an amazing time. My friends and I decided to move to the side to best observe the crazy celebration much like the the dozens of cameramen filming the mayhem from the balconies of the hotels lining Las Ramblas. After a while, we decided to head out before it got out of hand (which it did and the police had to take action). We all had to link hands and push our way through the crowd, all the while watching out for beer cans, glass bottles, and firecrackers. I even stumbled over a traffic light that had been ripped off and thrown to the ground. Throughout the entire night, horns, fireworks, cheering, and singing could be heard all over Barcelona and in the surrounding neighborhoods. It has been quite an exciting week.
-----------El Corte Inglés Carrera (Run)-------------
Other than that, I've just been going on day/weekend trips to places surrounding Barcelona. I was able to go on a short church retreat to Tarragona last weekend and had a great time. That Sunday, I participated in the Corte Inglés Carrera, which was a run/jog/walk of 10 k (about 6 miles). I jogged most of the way but slowed down to take photos and to try and weave my way around all of the participants. This race is known to be the race with one of the largest numbers of participants in the world. In 1994, El Corte Inglés Carrera broke the Guinness World Record for number of participants with 109,457 athletes. This year had 57,175 athletes running the course from Plaça Catalunya to Montjuic, through the Olympic Stadium (from the 1992 Olympics in BCN), and back to Plaça Catalunya. It was a lot of fun, great exercise, and free, which made it even better. Haha, I still find it quite funny though that we all received our medals before even participating in the race... so I brought mine with me and "medaled" myself after finishing the 10 k.
-------------Sitges and Topless Beaches-----------------
A couple weekends ago, my friends and I went on a day trip to Sitges to hang out at the beach all day. I had gone with this same group to Sitges by night for Carnaval in February and it was a completely different city then. The streets were lined with drunks in crazy costumes, vomit, garbage, and general disgustingness. After that event, I didn't have very high expectations for Sitges this time around but luckily found myself very pleasantly surprised by what we did find: spotlessly clean streets, quaint stores and alleyways, and gorgeous sandy beaches. I would highly recommend Sitges as a day trip away from Barcelona to hit the beach, play some beach volleyball/soccer, and get a tan... as long as you don't mind that the beaches are generally topless. ;)
--------------Learning to Cook-------------------
Last night, I had my first cooking lesson from one of my US friends who is from Louisiana and really knows how to cook. She decided to teach me and give me some recipes since I'm going to be on my for cooking next year. We invited three of our other US friends and had a great dinner, ending it with a good quality movie... Anchorman. :) Cooking is actually a lot of fun and the food was amazing. I've decided to make and effort to learn how to cook this summer... and to get a little more complicated than just french toast, cereal, spaghetti, soup, and rice. Anyone have any good recipes?
-----------Placement for Next Year-----------------
Lastly, if you are still reading after this novel of a post, I finally received my placement for this next year. I will be working in a very small town/city in Castilla y León called Palencia (not to be confused with the amazing Valencia in the South East). It is a city of 80,000 inhabitants and apparently isn't used to foreigners at all. I have already gotten in touch with someone who is working there this year with the same program and she told me that the people are generally very friendly and that she and the other Assistants are pretty much the only foreigners there. She also told me that it is a very beautiful city and is very conducive to learning Spanish... though there isn't much to do there, so some assistants have gotten bored there in the past. She, however, loves the city and is sad to leave in a week. So, I am actually getting quite excited to work there next year. I'm also getting more and more excited to head home for the summer. Since I booked my flight this last Sunday, I've just been counting down the days until Seattle... which is now 45 days (6 weeks, 3 days). I can't wait!
See you all soon!!!
Linnell
P.S. PHOTOS!!!
Barcelona, Sitges, Tarragona, Corte Ingles Run
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2423729&id=10707115&l=1c9d958eb7
F.C. Barcelona Champions!!!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2429400&id=10707115&l=debdf98961
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