Happy 2009!

1 January 2009

LETS ALL PARTY LIKE ITS 1999 2009

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! Yeah, let’s backtrack a bit!

So on Jessie’s last night, we hit up the Chino restaurant, taking her trip full circle. Gotta love that place! Not only is it cheap, but there are Muse lyrics written in one of the bathroom stalls! Unfortunately, no presents at the end but that’s probably because we were some of the last people there and they just wanted to go home! We decided to take Jess to the Fountain of Canaletes (I might have made that name up), but legend has it that if you drink from it, it is a sure thing that you will return to Barca at some point in your life! We also told her she had to buy an Estrella off one of the street vendors. We decided she needed to go the shot bar (let’s call it Espit), but on our way, we ran into a group of young Italians who just walked up, took a picture with us, and then started walking away. There were a lot of awk moments where they followed us and we ran but then we stopped and they were going the other way. Yada yada yada, they asked if we wanted to hang out, so we let Jessie decide. She said “ohhhhhhh, why not?” So we followed them because they said they might be going to the absinthe bar. But once on the Rambla, they were like, “where are we going?” Umm, what? I thought we were following you!! Whatevs, so we took them to a real shot bar (cheaper shots with more alcohol content, let’s call it Grouchos). We went in and they lingered outside, probably since they were too young to even be drinking in Europe, bahahaha! No, but then they came in and left like a half hour later. So then we were looking at the shot list and didn’t know what to do next, so we asked the guys next to us what they suggested. He was like, “you’re speaking Spanish but I don’t understand it.” Bummer? WRONG! He and his friends were also Italian and he just didn’t speak Spanish. One of the guys who looked a tad like Emile Hirsch spoke Spanish so i spoke it to him, haha! They ended up joining us and out of the 10 or so shots I had that night, I only paid for 3! Nice! Shots kept appearing, so why not stick around?! We had a particularly nasty one involving both vodka and tequila…YIKES! They were fun though. We had nice chats about Michael Jordan and how they liked the Celtics. Pschhh, whatever! Since Allie has these new rockin bangs that Jessie cut for her, I would ruffle them and say, “guaaaapa!” The Italian who was totally in love with her thought that you are always supposed to ruffle the person’s hair when you say it to someone so he did it to all of us, ahahahah! Silly Italians and their non-comprehension! Some random dude asked me at the bar where I was from and I said Chicago and he went, “CHICAAAAGO! University of Illinois!!!!” At that point I was like, “whaaaaa?!” He said he wanted to go to U of I and when I asked him which one, he said he didn’t know yet and that it depended on what he studied. I of coursed vouched for Urbana-Champaign. I guess people like Chicago because I got lots of high fives just for being for there? We headed back to the leaf’s hotel room where we ended up talking about how cool our family is for about an hour. Before we knew it Jessie was like, “HOLY CRAP ITS 4:15!!!!!” So I said goodbye and peaced out. Poor little Jessie had a very rough plane ride home. Poor girl. She’s just so tiny!!

As for New Years Eve, we were all rather conflicted. We’re all used to going to a friends house and then just crashing there for the night. What were we supposed to do here? Spaniards don’t even go out til after midnight! What was going to happen tonight? So we had a Mexican feast, got ready, made some lovely drinks, and then had some chips, salsa, & cheese. Once we were ready to go out, we grabbed our fake champagne glasses filled with grapes and headed out in the general direction of Grouchos. Once we got on Carrer Pelai, we realized something was going on because there were people pouring onto the street from every possible p lace and heading towards Plaza Catalunya. There were police guarding all the entrances to the Plaza for some reason. I don’t know, it didn’t really make sense to me. So we got in and then were confused because there wasn’t even a countdown going on there. There was one clock at the top of a building, but most people couldn’t see it and no one actually counted. Oh well! We ate our grapes and that’s when people started coming up to us saying, “Happy New Year,” in English and then proceeding to kiss our faces. Okaaaay. Right. Moving on! We ran into Karen, her BFFL, and these two random germans they had just met. We were going to go with them, but we lost them in the crowd. So we went to Grauchos instead. No one bought us drinks that night (probably because their price had been raised by a euro for the night). We sat next to various groups of boys who all just wanted to take pictures with us. Whatevs. There was this guy later in the night who had been eying Amy and then he came over and was like, “she’s real pretty!” So I of course went on being all, “omg, I KNOW! Isn’t she pretty!?” Amy looked all nervous/confused as we discussed her. Ahahaha! They love Amy!! I tried to make friends with the bartenders so we could get stuff for cheaper. One wore a funny hat, another’s name was Ali and he came over from one of the middle eastern countries, and the dude in the suit wore a schnazzy jacket’s name is Victor. I swear to God, there is a Victor at every bar I frequently go to. What’s the deal with that!? We got home around 3:00 and Allie got sicksters. I knew Mexican food would make for interesting…yeaaah. But that’s now New Years went! Yay Barca!!

I hope you all had a lovely, safe, & happy New Years!! Bring it on 2009!

Resolutions that I will never follow through on:

Stop swearing

Be more generous and giving

Being less of a Negative Nancy when life slams doors in my face

MORE PICTURES!

New Years Eve