Day 7 -- May 28

I now realize why I have been sleeping so late this weekend (since we don’t have to wake up for anything). The blinds in our rooms are like those blinds you see in the movies where you press a button and a big metal shield goes over it. Okay, not exactly, but there are no spaces between them so it stays so dark in here! I love it, but it may not be good for my 7:30am wakeup call during the school week. This afternoon we took our lunches down to the beach for our first day out in the sun, but unfortunately, as luck would have it, it was cold (literally shivering on the beach) and lots of overcast so we left around 2:30. We walked around for a bit, bought cheap jerseys for the game (go Messi!), and then went home to get ready before dinner. Naturally the sky cleared up and it was sunny and hot outside as soon as we got home. We both showered and basically got ready before dinner since we eat at 8, so that we could leave as soon as it was over to go watch the game with the locals. Rafaela made the same rice and peas, turkey, cooked carrots, zucchini, and onions, and salad as always. We left around 8:45 to go to Las Ramblas (a big street where everyone was around for the game), and we went to La Plaza Real to hang out. They didn’t have a screen up, but the restaurants in the plaza were playing it so we were able to keep up with the game. As you all probably know already, BARCELONA WON!!! And I am not joking when I say that the entire town went nuts. Absolutely crazy! Sara and I met up with our friends Jesslyn and Alicia, and we went out into Las Ramblas to see everyone’s reactions. I really feel like there are no rules in this place. There was a HUGE huge huge crowd (look at my facebook videos) outside of La Plaza Catalunya, and people were climbing trees and light posts and throwing firecrackers in the middle of the crowd. Literally, someone would pull out a firecracker, the group would back away from it in a circle, and then it would go off – they were so loud and sounded just like gunshots so you would never know if there was a mass murderer in the crowd. I have never seen anything like this. It was so cool to witness, though, because everyone was so so excited. Once we had had enough of that, we decided to go down to a dance club called Opium because we were randomly handed free passes. I don’t know if y’all know this, but the dress codes for clubs in Spain are very strict, and they didn’t let us in because I had on a jersey and Jesslyn was wearing flip flops. Isn’t that ridiculous? While we were walking to the train, our friend Katie called and said she had been robbed, so Jesslyn and Alicia went to find her while I took the metro station that we passed to get home. Well, that didn’t go over so hot. I knew exactly where I was, where I needed to switch metros, and where it would take me. However, with the celebrations going on, almost all metro stations around Plaza Catalunya were closed. Because I was alone in a very big foreign city, I got really scared. All of the streets were closed off, people were everywhere drinking and playing with fireworks, and the police were lined across almost every street looking as intimidating as ever. So what did I do? I called my mommy and daddy. Keep in mind, it was 2:30 am here and my roommate had gone home about 2 hours earlier so I knew she would be asleep. I still feel bad because I know I probably upset them (I was crying like a baby), but I was really scared and had no idea who else to call. They talked me through it, and I eventually found a taxi and got home about 45 minutes later (around 3:30 my time). It was awful, and needless to say I have learned my lesson about being alone in a foreign city.