Am I a local yet?

Second week of classes in the books. Nothing to report.

Last night, I attended my first FC Barcelona game. For you Americans, that's the football team in Barcelona (soccer ugh why don't you guys know anything). Some of you may not know this, but these Spaniards LIVE for football. Like, you can almost tell someone's political ideology just based of what team they cheer for. They mean business.

So we bought these tickets because they were super cheap because Barca was playing a bad team or something like that? I really have no idea but they were cheap so I figured why not. I get off the metro to meet my friends at the stadium and it is pouring rain. Obviously, I was not dressed appropriately for rain. I decided to spend 5€ on a bright orange poncho (I was already soaked before the game even started so I figured why not) and then when I put it on. it immediately ripped down the center. Then I wore the poncho like a cape.

We get to the seats that we paid for and they were front row. Literally, at eye level with the players (which didn't even matter because second string was playing ugh MESSI WHERE ARE YOU). We took a fantastic picture in front of the field and then sat down in the pouring rain. I sat down for maybe 40 seconds before saying, "I can't and I won't." Me and one of the other guys in the group went to get different seats under the overhang of the stadium where we happened to run into a bunch of other kids in our program so we sat with them (the stadium was empty so we could sit wherever). I guess everyone else had the same idea:

We watched Barca kill the other team 5-1 (which does not make for a very exciting game, let me tell you). It was really cool to see how the locals acted at the game because they are so passionate about this sport. There was a group of fans who were cheering the entire game. Like they had specific cheers to do at different times and there was a huge drum and a man with a megaphone and everything. Also, at 17 minutes, they chant,"Independencia" because it was in the year 1714 when the Catalans lost the war and were stuck being a part of Spain. So that was interesting. I might have started to chant it too...I'm just trying to fit in, ok??

Overall and despite the rain, I had a good time. We are also going to a game this Saturday. FCB is playing Valencia and apparently they are kind of a good team so it should be a better game. Our seats are wayyyy up top so I probably won't get the opportunity to take another picture as fine as this one:

Go team go.

I'm headed to Montserrat, Spain tomorrow for the day. Supposedly there are cool mountains or something so I guess it should be fun. Stay tuned.

Angela