Walking all over creation

Hello friends!

On Saturday, I (along with Jake) met up with a couple who are Christian leaders here in Barcelona. Saturday was the National Day of Catalunya, so we met in the Parc Ciutadella. It was absolutely teeming with people and there was an extensive program with music, poetry, performances, speeches, etc. After spending a good bit of time trying to locate the group, I finally met up with everyone. After the official ceremony was over, we walked over to sit on the grass to pray for Spain and Catalunya. After that, we had a picnic lunch and then went to see the Parliament building. The building was absolutely amazing! It was extremely lavish, and mixed modern and historic architecture and design.

After this, Jake and I decided to stick with our new acquaintances to see if we could locate some more of the festivities. We walked, and walked, and walked, and walked, and walked! All the way through Barri Gotic and out onto Placa Catalunya. We went through the old Jewish Quarter and got to peek into a window of a tiny synagogue that was just recently re-discovered. There was also a stone inscription in Hebrew on one of the walls! Cool stuff! After walking for so long, it was time for a little merienda - nothing like a cone of ice cream for 1 euro.

Jumping forward to today, I was going to get up early and visit a church, but I slept until 12:30. I have done so much this week, it all finally caught up to me. So today, my main goal was to do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. I succeeded. I lounged around until about 5 pm, hanging out with my host family. At that point, I decided I needed to get out in the sunshine and have some fresh air. So, my senora told me about a nearby park and I went over there to read. It was very pleasant outside, and the park was filled with families and people walking their dogs. It felt very communal. I sat on a bench and read for a few hours. I was feeling a bit down earlier today, but I pushed through and this evening was lovely. I just hung out at home with my senora, and my sister Ana and her boyfriend Christian. Que tranquilo! How relaxing!

Before I sign off, here are a few more things to add to my growing list of differences that I have seen:

1) Party time - The normal time here to go out to a bar is 11:00 pm. Although people pretty much socially drink all the time here. Bars are open until between 1-3 am. Clubs do not open until 1:00 am and stay open until 4-6 am! But no worries, there is also no such thing as an 8:00 am class. 9:30 is an early time to have class.

2) Strollers - The guys are the ones who push the strollers. I have maybe seen 1 woman pushing a stroller in the time that I have been here. All of the other times, it was the dude. And I have walked around a LOT, so I have seen a lot of stroller-pushing.

3) Dog Walking - Sitting in the park today, I noticed that the people were letting their dogs go up and play with other dogs or sniff them. However, the dog owners did not seem to exchange some chit chat while their dogs were communing. In the U.S., it is pretty common to exchange a few words with someone if your dogs are playing together in the dog park. Here, people are very affectionate with people they know, but don't really greet people they don't know who are passing by.

That's it for now ladies and gents. My first class is tomorrow at 12:30 pm.

Besos!