Here be some music having to do with my conflicting feelings about going home. 1st half is the sadness to go, the second half is my excitement to arrive.
We had our final dinner on t
he 22nd at this place called the Trobador. It was delicious! The layout of the restaurant was not convenient for our type of gathering though, which really sucked. We didn’t have our own room this time, so it was really hard to hear the speeches and awards that were being given out. B*Town was there, but he didn’t bring his gorgeous wife. Oh well. Elena came over and talked to us twice—once to tell us that 2 people’s bags had been stolen and the other time to tell us she was leaving and to study hard, but not too hard! They people who stole the bags had been wandering around our group and they stuck out like sore thumbs. We all knew they had no reason to be standing in the middle of our group looking around, and I’m surprised they didn’t realize the same. Well, anyways…finals were fine. I definitely gave them my all! Marianne’s last class was challenging, but great nonetheless. I turned in my final paper yesterday morning, and I am finally free! SCHOOL’S OUT FOR SUMMER!
Tuesday night was Allie’s last. We all went to Oveja Negra and had a drink before the final goodbye. She cried and told me I had a heart of stone, haha! True, unfortunately. I transferred all of my money back to the US. The Caixa had been remodeled since I was last there, so I was a bit confused when I walked it. The guy asked me if I was going to watch the game and I asked if they were going to show it at Plaza Catalunya. He had no idea, but said sometimes they put the jumbo up! I had my last Boqueria experience. They had a lot of Barca flags up and there were lots of people doing the Barca cheers in the market. Since we were wearing our jerseys for the game, lots of people were yelling to us and cheering on the streets!
The Barca-Man U game was aweeesome! Instead of showing it at Plaza Catalunya (which apparently they did later), they had it playing on a jumbo down at Mare Magnum—the big mall down by the port. It was ridiculously crowded there! On the bridge over, we heard that Messi scored a goal and the people on the bridge went nuts! When we got
over there, there was nowhere we could stand to watch, so we tried going into the mall. No dice, but it was funny to see people running around the mall drinking and smoking. We found a good place to stand on the ot
her side and camped there for the night. Insane crowd and game. Ronaldo is a little bitch. He’s so cocky and arrogant, yugh! Long story short, WE WON! Barca has now won the Copa, the Liga, and is the new Campion! Insanity ensued in Plaza Catalunya. The people who had restaurants or plants along the rambla had to chain things together so no one took stuff or trashed it. There was a lot of dynamite, fire, drunken cheering, and people climbing light posts. After hanging out for a while, Amy and I decided to head home, but the way was blocked. So we had to go aaaaaall the way around the Plaza, which was practically impossible due to
the amount of people. I stepped on a piece of glass that got stuck in my foot (no biggie, just a small piece). Here are some Barca sayings or cheers:
“¡VISCA BARÇA!”
“Ese portugues…hijodeputa es” – in reference to Ronaldo
“OH LE LE! OH LA LA! Ser del Barca es, el millor que hi ha!”
“Copa, Liga, CAMPION!” – to the chorus from We Will Rock You
Thursday afternoon, we got all the way to the bus stop before realizing the Tibibus doesn’t run on weekdays. Instead, we went to Parc Guell. A lot of it was blocked off due to storm maintenance, so that wasn’t cool. When we got back into the city, we went to 4 Gats for some yummy crema catalana. I got my ear pierced (it was only 9 euros, haha), bought a don Quijote painting on the Rambla, got some other little doodads, and then went to SIX—a store the US desperately needs. No joke, I wanted to buy half of the store. Their stuff is so cute! On the way home, we ran into a 
mob in Plaza Catalunya. Everyone was wearing Barca stuff and carrying flags, so we assumed the team was going to come by! We ended up waiting 2 hours for them to show up, but it was totally worth it! They showed up on their Barca bus and were dancing and waving flags on the upper deck. They were totally wasted—it was hilarious! Behind them was an Estrella party bus that was playing music and stuff. It was SO cool to see them all up close! When we got home, we told amy what she had miss and then went with her to Aribau to watch them again. Perfect timing! This time we saw the other side of the bus and different people! Score! So awesome! Later that night we met up with Jimmy and his adorable Italian roommate at Oveja Negra. We taught him to say “keep your pimp hand strong” and then told him to go say it to the group sitting next to us. Unfortunately, they were Kiwis and didn’t know what that meant anyways. So, they settled on ripping up his cardboard Barca hand and then tried to steal him, haha! Funny night.
On Friday we rented bikes and rode them all over the city. Let me tell you…Barca is not a bike friendly city. People kept getting mad at us and I was super annoyed. We eventually made it all over the city and saw everything we wanted to revisit in a day! My allergies were HORRIBLE though. When I got home, everyone in the piso thought I had been crying really hard because my eyes were all bloodshot and watery and I was sniffling a lot. Nope! Just allergies, yaaaaay?
We finally made it to Tibidabo on Saturday. Our bus driver was so chipper and he was playing oldies music all the way up. Tibidabo was so fun! We got to see the big church and then went on a bunch of rides! We went on the rollercoaster twice, a swinging ship twice in one go, the hurakan (which is 2 rows of seats that spin, all attached to arms that go in a circle), the bumper cars, and this insane ride whose name I don’t even remember. This last one was terrifyingly awesome! It raised 4 people on seats up incredibly high and then dropped them. If you were sitting on my side, the seats tilt so you’re facing straight down on the way down. It was so fun! I have a video of it which I will put up later since I realize that description didn’t make much sense. It was a very fun day, but I got sunburned even more on my left side. Oh well!
Sunday we had planned on going to Sitges, but since none of us had finished our papers, we decided to call it a work day. That night, we went to the magic fountain show in Plaza Espanya which is one of my favorite things in the city. Of course, they did part of the show set to My Heart Will Go On from Titanic. I had already been upset during the day since it finally hit me that this was one of my last days in Barca, and writing my sad story only augmented those feelings. So having to watch that, I felt like I wanted to cry the rest of the night. Boooo!
Monday I was better. I sent my paper in and packed most of the day. We made a hodge podge dinner last night of things we had lying around. It was fun! We watched some Undeclared. Very funny show by the way.
Here I am on Tuesday. I made my arrangement for my taxi tomorrow already. The woman on the phone was so nice. After giving her all my info, she was like “okay, don’t worry. When the driver gets there at 5:30, he’ll buzz your apartment, okay?” What a nice lady! Not sure what I’m doing today. I was planning on going to bed at like 8pm so I could get up at 3am, take a shower and finish packing and such, but I don’t know if I’ll be ready to sleep in 8 hours. Today I ran and got some squishy candy and then went to the beach! It was SO hot today! We went later in the afternoon so we wouldn’t have a heat stroke. On the way back, we did some shopping along the rambla and got some gelato at our favorite place. And guess what they were playing?! MGMT! Sweet! We also saw (on 2 separate occasions) an old man riding his bike though Barcelona butt naked! Hilarious, but why? Lovely last day! I’ll be back up in 5-ish hours to start my day from Hell. Ugh, I cant wait to just be home and done with all of this traveling!!
Anyways. This year has been amazing. Thank you to my parents for their love and support—I couldn’t have done this without you! While I know I didn’t do a lot of things on my “To Do in Europe” list, I am not upset because I did things I didn’t even imagine I would do! This year has been a whirlwind of ups and downs, and I wouldn’t redo any of it! I am sincerely grateful to have been able to come here for a year. I have evolved as a person, and am better for the experience. While I know it will be incredibly hard to say goodbye to my little home in Barcelona, I will get to look forward to seeing my wonderful family and my puppies! Given all of this, I know I shouldn’t cry because it’s over…I should be happy that it happened. Europe isn’t going anywhere. I’ve got my whole life to come back to it, and I’m sure I will one day. So everyone, thanks for the memories, thanks for the laughter, thanks for the tears, thanks ever after.
Until I’m in the 720
Much love,
Abby
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