Today I had a slightly difficult time getting up, and woke up late around 9:30. I quickly ate breakfast and was still out of mi casa by 10 or so. It was quite chilly this morning but turned out to be a beautiful day with temperatures in the low 60's. The metro ride was quick today and I still arrived at class before 10:30 which was nice. We had to write a composition about our goals for the semester and what we really wanted to get out of our study abroad experience. I made my first dent into my credit card today and had to withdrawal some cash. I took out 300 euros, which was $415 US dollars which was worse than when I previously exchanged.
After the short break I returned to class and we got some information about transportation and how to get around the city. Barcelona has over five different ways to get around, buses that run between small cities, buses that run only in the main parts of the city, trolleys, tour buses, trains to get around to the outskirts of town, trains to only get the the neighborhoods, and that's just to name a few. I love the simplicity of traveling in this country, it definitely makes my commutes much easier.
After class was over I decided to go walk around and explore for a couple of hours. Everyone that I talked to was either going home to sleep, or going shopping, or doing something that I wasn't quite interesting in doing. I took a walk down Plaza Catalunya for a while and then decided that I wanted to go check out one of the local universities here in Barcelona. The university was much different than the ones I am used to at home. The entire layout is just different in general which was interesting.
After I walked in a couple of shops I decided to stop at a caffe for a bite to eat. I stopped at a place that had outdoor seating which was perfect since it was so nice outside. I had a drink and a croissant and then had patatas bravas, which are a very popular type of tapa here in Spain. They are small fried or roasted potato cubes with some type of tomato sauce which has been different every place I have eaten them. The term "brava" translates to the English "fierce" referring to the spicy sauce. I guess it depends where they are ordered but they weren't extremely spicy, but I enjoyed them.
Then I finally walked back to the metro and returned to mi casa. I cleaned my room and organized some of my stuff. I talked to Nick and we decided that we would meet around 8:30 for the game which starts late at about 10. I hoped on the metro and met up with Nick and we headed to meet up with Peter. Our seats were pretty good, and we moved down into an excellent section (the game was only about half full because it wasn't an important game). Half full for them is like 50,000 people, there are well over 100,000 people when it's an important game. So I decided that before I leave I will see one of those games.
This stadium was absolutely enormous and I really enjoyed the game. Although the game didn't really matter it was still pretty cool being there. Especially since we were sitting in seats that probably costed 100 Euros and we only payed 35. After half time we met up with some other Americans on the opposite side of us and just sat in some open seats next to them. This was nice because we were on the side that Barca was scoring on. The crowd was pretty insane for only being half full, I can't imagine how crazy it gets when the place is packed.
The stadium was quite different than I expected. First of all, I didn't expect it to be as big as it was. Second, they only served non-alcoholic beer inside, but you were allowed to bring alcohol in. Third, there were people smoking marijuana in the middle of the crowd without anyone thinking twice about it, except us Americans of course. The crowd was screaming and singing every chance they could get. The Barca theme song echoed throughout the entire night. The wave went around the stadium a couple of times which was fun and also some song that they sing and dance to. It has the same concept as the wave and goes from one part of the stadium to the other.
After the game was ofter the street outside was unbelievable. There were thousands of people walking everywhere. It took forever to get down to the metro (which is usually closed by 12, but I assume stay open later on nights of futbol games) and once we finally got on we were all basically on top of each other. Again, this is only when the stadium is half full, I bet it would have taken ten times as long if there would have been more people. Anyways, I finally made it back home and I am debating about whether I should go out or not. Many people that I have talked to tonight are going out now (it's 2 AM my time) and I have a feeling that I will have a difficult time making it to my 10:45 class, but we'll see.
Tomorrow I will probably buy my books after class and maybe do some more exploring, or just come home and sleep depending on the situation.
Ciao!
