El Fin de Semana (The Weekend)....

Well this was my first full weekend in Barcelona. WOW, about all I can say. Friday evenings the school has a happy hour where you can meet other students and practice Spanish or help someone practice English. It’s a great idea, cheap drinks and great way to meet people. I met a bunch of locals with some of my friends from class. This worked out perfectly because after the happy hour we went with the locals to eat dinner. What this meant – we were at local restaurants rather than tourist places. We had a 3 course meal for 10 € - I originally ordered Paella, Bistec con Potatoes, and then dessert. However the chef who makes paella wasn’t there so instead I had pasta. Now each of these courses was like a full plate of food. It was a ton of food plus tons of wine. We got to dinner around 10 pm and finally finished at 1 am. Sometimes I really enjoy the European way of eating, slow and steady. From there it was recommended we head to a club/bar that is up on a hill (Tibadabo) with a great night view of Barcelona. It was beautiful; if you are coming to visit me here I will be taking you. I took some pics but it’s really hard to see much of anything. We stayed out til 4 am (completely normal here). On Saturday during the day I did nothing. It was a holiday so most of the stores were closed and I decided to relax before the evening festivities. Friday started a street party in one of the neighborhoods called Fiesta de Gracia. The streets join together and decorate the street with recycled materials. Each street has bands playing, selling food and drinks. It was pretty cool. We ended up at a stage for a while doing cultural dances through the years. It started with some type of native Indian group (like mayans or incas) that had the men in loin cloths. Yes you just read that correctly, they were basically in a G String with a front part, almost like Adam and Eve. They had paint on the butt cheeks. The girls looked like they were doing hula type dances and the guys were bouncing all around. It was interesting…..not something you’ll see in the US much. Sunday I headed to the aquarium. It was pretty decent sized with a large shark tank. Nice but expensive. This weekend I’m heading to another beach town Tarragona to hang out.