Culture and Cocktails

Everyday here in Spain surpasses the last and I find myself realizing that a month simply just isn't enough. But, alas, we are scheduled to leave in a week or so and we had to get movingon our bucket list!

I finally walked over to the Sagrada Familia.

I've almost been here a month without seeing it. I didn't buy a ticket to go inside, let's not get overzealous here, but I did take some awesome pictures! It's an absolute marvel and I very much look forward to checking out the interior. Scott and I grabbed some drinks at an Italian cafe down the streetand we called it a night.

On Wednesday, I treated myself to an extreme shopping trip. My credit card was HOT after Wednesday afternoon but it was definitely worth it. Of course, if I keep eating the way I am, I won't actually fit into anything I bought when I get home. But that's neither here nor there. After shopping, Scott and I ventured up to Camp Nou where FC Barcelona plays. This is like the Yankee Stadium of Spain. It is 18 Euro to get inside so Scott and I just went to the Mega-store instead. The mega store was awesome! It had everything FC Barcelona you could imagine;

from slippers to lunch boxes to coffee mugs. And the prices were what one would expect, too. They ranged from the cost of 1 appendage up to the price of a soul. Needless to say, I didn't walk out with much. Instead, I just took pictures of the nice things.

We decided to hit up a movie that night - Toy Story 3 actually. It was playing in Imax 3-D and it was phenomenal! Great great great movie! Highly recommend it!

Here's a little culture lesson on Spain. We get to the 10:15 movie at about 10:10, I look at the girl behind the counter and I ask her if they sell popcorn. She answers "Yes, but not right now... if you want popcorn you can get it outside." So the movie theater is open, and showing movies, yet the concession stand is closed. Scott and I walk outside. There is literally nothing around the movie theatre except for a habour. I was so disappointed, but decided to just go in and sit down. 2 minutes later, we see a bunch of people walking in with popcorn. This, my friends, is what I like to classify as the "enigma of españa".

And what I mean by that is, whatever makes the most sense - Spain will do the exact opposite.

On Thursday I had a Spanish course exam. I was pretty sure I wasn't going to do very well because I entered the class a week late and never bothered to look over what I missed. Luckily, my NFHS/UConn education didn't fail me and I wound up getting 100% on the test. This was a huge surprise to me! And I didn't let anyone around me forget about it. I kept reminding Scott and Valentina they were in the presence of a genius. It also helps that I was placed, upon request, in a class 3 levels below where I should be....

but the self confidence boost was welcome! We went out for Crèpes and then headed over to the chocolate museum. The museum was super interesting! They had everything made out of chocolate - even The Beatles drum set! I think my most favourite fun chocolate fact comes from one of the displays about the coacoa bean where the information read,

"Mayans used CoaCoa beans as a form of currency. 10 beans was the price for one prostitute." If I were a teacher in Barcelona and I took my kids to the Chocolate museum, I would most definitely create the test question "How many chocolate beans does one prostitute cost?"