Gratefulness

What a fun day! After getting up around 11:00am, because I got in so late, I sat around the apartment and relaxed a bit before I headed to the beach. Trust me, I could really get use to this life- Weekdays: Walk around the city, see the sites, speak and learn some Spanish, write a blog, have some delicious food for lunch, go to the gym, meet up with friends for drinks, have a great dinner at home- then on the weekends: Wake up late, go to the beach, come home to get ready to walk around the city with friends, have a delicious dinner out, have some drinks, go to a bar/disco, and then come home and crash! SERIOUSLY- this is the life! Unfortunately, I feel my reality of the present moment coming to an end. It is exciting, because I have gotten the opportunity to live like this for the past 18 days, but also sad that it's going to be come to an end soon.

I was thinking last night as I was coming home from the bar, that I really am sad/mad that I did not get to experience living here for three months. My mind wandered to a place of should's and what if's (what more could I have seen, where else could I have traveled, who else would I have met?). This is not a fun place to be, because it does not allow you to enjoy the present moment. As I walked out of the Metro station, right by our apartment, I stopped myself and thought- Am I really going to obsess about something that is not going to change? What good is it going to do you to contemplate an action from the universe that has already been made!? NOTHING! Instead, I pictured how I sometimes walk around San Francisco, in a daze, unappreciative of what I have there- and instead tried to take in the things IN THAT MOMENT that were a gift. The first was the weather at 3:30am. To be able to be out in a polo shirt and shorts at the early morning hours and feel a slight breeze, but be perfectly comfortable is something that I miss. The freedom to not have to PREPARE your clothes for the day is a joy that I do not get to experience in San Francisco. The ability to sit on a train and not worry about other cars or the possibility of an accident or ticket is also a new concept for me. Sure, I am giving up control (but please, I could use a little lessening on the control department), but it's well worth it. The fact that I have been in this country for 4 weeks is such a blessing. I am so grateful that I have been blessed with this opportunity- I now want to make these last 10 days extraordinary! I want to enjoy each moment, savor them and burn these memories- not just into my head, but also my heart.

As I was saying... I ended up heading to the beach around 2:00pm (I am telling you, writing this blog is like a full time job). I went to Marbella, which is one that I have not been to before, so I was really excited. I was told that it's about a 20 minute walk from the Metro stop, so I prepared myself for a trek. I was also warned that there were not any signs for this beach, so just walk straight and you should run into it. I got a little nervous, so I followed the gayest looking guy on the train to the Sea front- ha ha ha! It worked! I met up with Oriol and his friend Damian and then his friend- crap, I forgot her name (but she was very nice). Wait, I think it was Angela or something. Now, Marbella is a nude beach- not everyone is nude (in fact, the majority are not) but nude beaches have a tendancy to make me giggle. I would say that it's probably more for the fact that I am uncomfortable that people around me are naked than it actually being funny. However, I will say that after living in SF and having been to the nude beach there quite a few times, it was not as big of a shock to me as I thought it would be. Though, there was lots of laughing involved on my part and a few RIDICULOUS pictures- but I have decided to not post them and keep this a little more family oriented. I mean please, you all (okay, some of you) were complaining about me in speedos, you most certainly could not handle the couple of pictures that I took : )

Anyhow, after an hour or so in the sun, Oriol, Damian and I went swimming in the Sea. It was wonderful, except for the whole- shaving before going in the salt water fiasco. Word of advice- DO NOT GO INTO THE SEA AFTER SHAVING! OUCH! Okay, most guys probably don't have a choice, as they shave everyday, but my weekly shave : ) ha ha ha (I am so prepubescent) needs to not be done on a weekend day. After enjoy some waves and watching Damian and Oriol flirt (they are too cute), I instigated a little cheerleading/tumbling into the mix. Damian is a smaller guy, so I pursuaded him to try flipping, as he would jump in Oriol and my hands and on 3, we would toss him and he should flip himself into the water. For some reason, I was thinking- this should be a very "given" feeling for someone. I mean, just a few days before, I was flipping Lloyd and he had no problem. Well... Damian had a little bit more trouble. After the first 3 tries, he had successfully done 3 back flops and knocked Oriol in the jaw with his knee (ha ha ha- okay, stop, it's not funny). So, I gave him some very condensed and quick instruction on how to rotate. I don't think he understood all of what I said, except "knees...". As some of you may have guessed, he completely knocked himself in his left eye with his knee. I felt horrible, yet extremely impressed that he was flexible enough to do that. We now take this moment of silence to mourn the injury of Damian...

The sun was so relaxing today, I felt addicted to its warmth. After my stomach wouldn't let me neglect it any longer, Oriol and I went and split a pizza at the beach bar. It was there that I realized- oh Sh** I am getting really red. Now, I know the first question is going to be (as it was Oriol'), "did you have on sunscreen". I am just going to - no- but explain that I have quite a base and I told Ivan that I was going to be darker than he by the time he came on Friday- Well, as I type this (Sunday morning), it doesn't look so bad, but I will definitely need to be wearing sunscreen for the remainder of my trip as I am bordering on a Teddy sunburn. In 5th grade Teddy was at a Saint Paul track meet and didn't put on suntan lotion. He burned so bad in his tank top that he still (at 27- almost 28) has two color skin tones on his back from where the tank top was.

I left the beach about 20 minutes later as I could feel my skin cooking in the sun (I mean, what good would sunscreen do me now?). I headed back home to the apartment. When I arrived, the girls asked if I would like to join them for dinner- after a 10 minute shower and changing quickly, I was out the door again. This time, I was a little bit dizzy and not so with it (I think the sun might have done me in). As the girls and I walked around downtown, we got to see some interesting things. 1) The oldest bachelorette party I have ever seen 2) Street performers imitating people as they walked by (I found this hysterical)- Jen and Cristina were not so ammused 3) (Sorry- back track) I took a Barcelona bus with them for the first time to get to downtown- that was awesome 4) Saw a Paris and Nikki Hilton look a like 5) Dodged a projectile sneezer... It was a perfect night for walking and after about an hour, I needed to eat (but not realizing in this moment, that my dizziness had subsided because of the fun the girls and I were having).

We went to a restaurant called La Sala or something like (I really am bad at this). It was so good. Jen described it as a place that looks really fancy, but when you look at the prices on the menu, it was super cheap. The dinner only ended up being 52 Euros for appetizers, a full meal, dessert, sangria, and bottled water- for THREE! She wasn't kidding- it was exactly how she described. I also noticed as we left- it was the first dinner, aside from eating at home, that we were able to eat WITHOUT the smell of cigarette smoke. I will now take a very important moment of silence to thank GOD for that!

Afterwards the girls headed home and I went to a bar to have a drink and meet up with Oriol and some of his friends. Unfortunately, he wasn't feeling well (the same feeling I had earlier after the beach), so I stayed out and just bar hopped. Nothing too exciting, but it was nice to be out and be around the energy of the bars. That's seems to be all for now!

Hot guy of the day! He and his muscley friends were handing out circuit party fliers. I learned how to say (after repeating it 20 times) Estaras alli? (are you goign to be there?) However, I kept mixing it up with Estarais alli? (are you all going to be there?) My counterparts were having quite an enjoyable time with my gramatical mix up- but either worked for me- they were all pretty hot. Unfortuntely, the party they were giving information on is in August : ( (and no, I did not speak to the guy- I just wanted to have the phrase for future uses)







Skate park next to the beach









Damian icing his eye after he kneed himself in the face : (













Okay, so I was talking to this guy, Igor, from Italy, (he wanted to know if I was a gymnast, because he was also one- my body looked "natural") when all of a sudden everyone on the beach had turned away from the Sea and onto the promenade. Oriol's thought was that it was a pickpocketer who got stopped by a group of people and was being held until police arrived. Do you see EVERYONE on the beach watching! I know I was taking the picture, so I was watching too- but come on! Can you imagine something like that happening in San Francisco- there might be a swing of heads, but then everyone would be lying back down on their towels enjoying the last few minutes of sun, before the fog rolled in. This was going on for at least 10 minutes. Jen was teasing Cristina later at dinner about this picture, saying that "her people" were very nosey! It seems it might be true (?)!
What appears to be a bandit CAUGHT!







Sexo en Barcelona! I told the girls that this picture looks like an add from Sex in the City.
















My infamous "building" pictures- I had to post at least one!

















Look at this posh place- mirrors on the wall, red booths, dark wood, etc... I don't even think I mentioned it, but the meal was delicious. Word to the wise- don't worder croquettes (UGH!- gross- they are very garulo (sp?)).








Trying to decide on what to have- there were quite a few really great choices. One of my favorite parts to this menu, as Jen pointed out, is that pasta is an appetizer. So, you could order a FULL plate of spaghetti with bolognese and that was just for "starters" (the guy next to us did it- I didn't believe Jen).






So, this might not be funny to all of you- but Cristina was giving me hell for talking about how good the Sangria was when I was in Sitges. She talked about how trashy Sangria is, and how it's the cheapest red wine and it's a joke throughout Catalunya - blah blah! Oh yea, how only tourists drink it and like it, etc. I even went as far as buying her some (that was in a box in the store) this past week when Jen and I went shopping. I had to order it at dinner just to see her reaction! As you can see, she was a little embarassed to be with "tourists".

This was not a posed picture, I snapped it the instant the camarero put the Sangria down. That's why her fingers are so blurry.





I tried to take another one- a little more posed to get the idea (without it being blurry) of how much Cristina despises Sangria. She refused

This picture is hilarious, not just for the expressions on their faces (which are priceless) but because Cristina was not cooperating in posing for another picture showing her hatred of Sangria. In fact, she was trying to cuddle up to Jen and smile and fixed her hair, etc. Then, right as I was about to shoot, she turned to look at Jen and WHAM! There we have it- The priceless pic. You can see Jen's overwhelming excitement for the Sangria and Cristina's TRUE feelings of our drink.




Oh wait- what's this? Cristina TRYING OUR SANGRIA! Again, sorry for the blurry picture, but I pulled my camera from my pocket, didn't even look at the screen and shot it. I LOVE IT!














They don't like this picture, but I think they look adorable! "Love is in the air..."














The desserts were rather difficult for me to translate tonight. In fact, even Jen and Cristina had to ask about some of the things. One dish that he mentioned sounded good (even though it was described in Spanish- I was pretty sure I got what he said). Well, when this came to the table, I almost barfed (how long has it been since you heard that word?). It looked like eggs benedict sitting in molasses. My face turned all sad, as Cristina's dish looked far superior to mine. I started to complain and then explained to the girls that I thought I understood him, but apparently, I was way off. They said no, it was ice cream underneath the carmalized something or other) and that the dark stuff was chocolate. OMG- I bit into it- it was HEAVEN! The crunchiness of the creme de catalan (or something like that)- Jen said it was like Creme Brule. The sweetness of the caramel ice cream and the slightly bitter taste of the chocolate- SO GOOD! Oh yea- and 3 euros! This place was awesome! Cristina, I can see why everytime Jen asks where you want to go out to eat you suggest this place! YUM YUM YUM! My mouth is watering just thinking about dinner last night.
I WANT MORE! : (













Where the smokers belong- in a cage! I had the same feeling I get when I walk through and airport, say in Vegas, where all the smokers are in one little room that others can see in as the addicts are puffing away on their last cigarette before they have to smoke free for the next 4 hours of their flight- their hands trembling and their lips quivering at the thought. Immediately replaced with, "OMG- how sad! I am glad I am not addicted to anything". That's sarcasm- we all know my addiction to sugar (see post above).


Mis Chicas!













This is Angel. He came up to me and introduced himself to me at the bar, while I was waiting for Oriol. He was very nice, but a little off. He wanted to show me his picture from the 80's that he keeps in his wallet. He cracked me up when he warned me he looked like an 80's porn star. He was not kidding! Ha ha ha! I asked if I could take his picture with his photograph.