Barca!!

First: Don't pronounce Barca like Bark-a.  It's embarrassing (Sadly, I would know).  Obviously, it's a shorter version of Barcelona so you keep the "c" soft.  I said Bark-a once without thinking and the 7 year old boy I take care of laughed at me.  Therefore, to show that you know the slightest amount of knowledge concerning football (not soccer) whatsoever, never say Bark-a. Ever.

As the au pairs and I have come to realize, we are not going to be in Igualada forever.  There are a limited number of weekends so we have made a list of everything we want to do before saying goodbye to the wonderful country of Spain.  One of these was going to a Barca football game.  Tickets were expensive and so was the jersey but it was COMPLETELY WORTH IT. Walking into any big stadium I am always amazed at the size.  It is actually slightly smaller than Neyland Stadium but for some reason it seemed so much bigger.  As we were walking into the stadium, saw the sky above us surrounded by thousands upon thousands of seats, and were at least 5 stories above ground, one of the au pairs said "this must be what it's like to go into heaven."  Let's just say I hope heaven is a little more exciting than that but you get the idea.

In our giddy excited states we took many-a-pictures and were obviously tourists attempting to get every angle of that enormous stadium.  Even though we were closer to the clouds than the players, we could see the players surprisingly well.  Throughout the game, the fans would erupt into a barca (clap clap clap) barca (clap clap clap) chant but seeing as it's difficult to maintain a simultaneous chant between 70,000 people, it tended to only last around 10 seconds.  While I didn't realize this at the time, at 17 minutes and 14 seconds, the crowd starts to sing a song of Catalonia Independence.  This is because on September 11, 1714, Catalonia lost to the Spanish army in a siege during the War of the Spanish Succession.  While it may seem odd that Catalonia celebrates a day in which they were defeated, they interpret this celebration as a continuing desire to be independent, even after 300 years.  I didn't know much about football and absolutely nothing specific about Barca players so during half time I attempted to memorize some facts from my wise au pair/english professor friends.  Messi is the favorite of many in Barcelona and ended up scoring one of the two goals of the night for a win against Liga España (2-0).

The Crew at Camp Nou 

Panorama! 

Next adventure was to explore the Barcelona nightlife.  We decided on a nightclub on the beach and it was quite the experience. Full of strobe lights, loud music, and lots of people.  After a short time, we felt relieved to go out the back door and hang out on the quiet beach for a while.  If it had been a few degrees warmer it would have been absolutely perfect, but even so, we enjoyed sitting on the cold sand talking under the star-filled sky with the sound of the waves in the background.  To make it more interesting, there was a blinking green light in the distance and I couldn't help but think of the Great Gatsby.  Movie coming out in May!!

We started the next day with none other than a hearty McDonald's breakfast.  It was fancy in terms of Mickey D's because I finally was able to try the infamous macaroons! While they are more typical in France, the only opportunity I had to try them there was at the Versailles gift shop, for 30 euros (a box with 10 macaroons).  My desire to try fancy sugar-filled treats did not stretch as far as 30 euros.  McDonald's had the great price of 0.70 euro per macaroon, so you can imagine my excitement.  Better yet, it was worth it! Essentially it was pistachio flavored sugar with a little bit of crunchy macaroony wonderfulness but that was definitely my kind of dessert.

Pistachio, Vanilla, Carmel…toma lo que tú quieras!

What's better than exploring Barcelona on a Sunday?  Exploring Barcelona on a Sunday when it's sunny and warm!  While it's still officially winter, the weather said otherwise, causing people to flock the streets of Barcelona.  La rambla was full of tourists (spring break season) and locals enjoying the first days of spring-like weather looking at multicolored jewelry and scarves from the kiosk shops, getting their caricatures drawn by one of the many artists, and buying flowers for their loved ones from stands along the rambla.  I talked with a friend over a coffee in one of the many squares tucked away in the city.  Later, I explored Barcelona with a local friend who knew quite a lot of history regarding the monuments, cathedrals and Barcelona in general.  Spain is a little more strict about when stores can be open and for the most part, stores must be closed on Sundays.  Depending on the type of shop and the season, there are less restrictions but those with the freest rein are tourist areas.  It can be difficult to get this status, especially in Barcelona, but one area intended to be a port for cruise ship was deemed "a tourist hotspot." The builders in charge of this area received all the necessary licensures to obtain this status and receive less restrictions regarding taxes and to allow Sunday shopping.  It wasn't until later that they realized the port was not deep enough to allow a 100,000 ton cruise ship to enter.  Better luck next time I guess.  Lucky for the stores already established in the enormous shopping center as they can open on Sundays with no restrictions and pay less taxes due to their inaccurate "tourist" status.

Only downside of this weekend was the amount of money I spent but, no pasa nada (it doesn't matter), because I'll probably only be living in Spain once.  I carpe diem-ed! You can call that Latinglish.

Coming up is Semana Santa-what they call Easter week here.  Happening next week! Hasta luego!