day 11 (1.14.09)

Hola a todos (hello everyone!)
I am loving it more and more here each second. This is definetly somewhere I could imagine living for a more extensive amount of time! (Although its highly unprobable and way too expensive) The best thing is I dont have to drive here!! (I despise driving, I dont have the patience for it). Monday night I went to flamenco with my 'guardian angel' group. It was a lot of fun!! The singer sounded like an instrument not a voice, it was soo interesting to hear. And the dancer was a male, I was expecting a female. He was really great though! It is kind of like a salsa-ish tap-ish and the dancer waved his coat jacket around like they would in a bullfight. I dont know how to explain it but it was a really cool performance in a very small place so we all sat around the stage and our ticket included wine. (All of these events with our guardian angel tapas, flamenco, our trip this weekend, etc. are included in the program fees so I am taking advantage of ALL of them! ) After the flamenco show we went to a bar and then to a night club. It was the first big night club I have been to here-- it was crazy the DJs literally put on a show!! They were on a stage and there is like a light show and people dance like crazy here. It was a lot of fun-- and we got to go for free!
Last night I got to meet the two other Americans who are sharing this apartment with me and Antonia for the rest of the semester- they are really nice, Evelyn and Becky. They are in a different program so I really dont see them except at breakfast and dinner. Ill tell you more when I actually get to know them.
Tonight I am going to my first ever FUTBOL game!!! I am so excited-- the tickets are normally like 50 euro for nose bleed but tonight we are going for 8 euro because they are playing Madrid's team that is in a lower league. I dont really care who they play, I am excited that it is a guarenteed win for Barca!!!! I bought an official Barca jersey today-- Luis said youre a loser if you dont wear one. I got it from a street person who probably stole it because it is the Nike official one with all the tags and the actual 3-D league stamp on it. But, I paid 30 euro instead of 60. Not really a deal, but apparently these jerseys are hot items!!
This Saturday I am going on a day trip (included in the program) to Besalu and Girona. Two medevil cities about an hour outside of Barcelona. I heard they are incredibly beautiful and old. In Barcelona the buildings aren't that old. Most of the city was built in the 1800s because they had a HUGE expansion. Technically 30,000 people lived within the city limits.. but now 2 million do. If you include the "suburbs" Barcelona is home to 4.5 MILLION people. It is crazy-- people EVERYWHERE. Every metro is packed, and they are only 2 minutes apart. That was probably one of the wierdest things to get used to, everything is crowded, always, everywhere. There is one section of the city that is super old, where the Romans first founded the city-- but most of the buildings have been rebuilt because they widened the streets or because of fires, or because of Franco (who tried to get rid of Catalan culture) or Mussulini. (who bombed areas in the city). Antisemitism was also basically founded in Spain (or so my guide on my walking tour today said) which is a negative part of their history but makes for a very interesting section of town. The jewish neighborhoods often have very narrow streets because they wanted to control them coming in and out especially at night so they originally had gates around their areas. Also, they put up huge churches in their neighborhoods to remind them who ruled.
Enough history for one post. I cant wait to have visitors so I can show you all of the cool places that I have seen since I have been here! Expect lots of pictures from the Barca game and my trip on Saturday soon!!
Love you!