First off, last weekend a friend from Vandy came to visit me, and Barça became champions of all of Europe! It made for an awesome weekend. Tyler got in on Friday night, and we spent the day Saturday being supertourists, seeing as much as is possible to see of Barcelona in one day, and rescuing a slightly clueless and very lost Canadian couple from the confusion of the metro system. After a full day of sightseeing we met up with a friend of mine from church and joined the crowd at Arc de Triomf to watch the game. Normally for a game like this, the city sets up a big screen in Plaza Catalunya, but since Plaza Calalunya was, and still is, being occupied by "the indignants," protesters, they moved the screen to Arc de Triomf. We got there about two hours before the game, and their were already tons of people there. By the end of the night, the whole place was packed and people were climbing up lamposts and trees, and even sitting on top of porta-potties to be able to see. Barcelona pretty much dominated Manchester United, so the whole game was a huge celebration. At one point the guy behind us opened up a bottle of champagne or something and we got drenched. We sang lots of Barça chants and songs and joined in the uproar when Barça scored, at which point people lit flares and fireworks and just generally went crazy. One of said fireworks went off right next to us and may or may not have permanently damaged my left ear. Other than that and the fact that I could never really see the screen very well because of my shortness, the night was a huge success. After the game, the three of us went and got Gelatto and sat in Plaza St. Jaume eating our ice cream, talking, and watching Barça fans trickling through the plaza singing and cheering for Barça. On Sunday, Tyler had just enough time to go to church with me before catching his plane back to Madrid.
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| notice the people perched up in the lamppost |
During the week I didn't do much other than write and turn in my last paper at the UB (yay!) and study for my possibly monstrous final coming up this week. Yesterday, though, a friend of mine from church took me to see his town, Manresa, which is about 45 minutes away from Barcelona. Apparently it was the capital of Spain at some point in its history, and it was a really pretty place. We walked around for a while and then decided on a whim that we might as well go to Andorra for the day. I had never been and wanted to go, and he had never been and wanted to go. Andorra is a tiny country in the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain. The drive there was beautiful (mountains are pretty much my favorite thing ever). It was a very rainy day but that didn't stop us from seeing the sights in Andorra and getting back safely to Barcelona. It was a great day-I got to see the Pyrenees, add another country to my list of places I've been, and speak a lot of Spanish.
Today was my last Sunday at Iglesia Evangelica de la Gracia de Barcelona, and I'm going to miss it a lot. It has been a great place to grow this semester, and I've been really blessed to have been able to be a part of their family here. Praising and studying with the people there, and getting to know them has definitely been one of the best parts of my semester. I was sad to say goodbye to them.
Well, this time next week I will be home! I guess maybe I'll write one last blog post at the end of this week, and then I'll get to talk to you in person instead!:)
