The Real Football

I just got back from one of the coolest experiences of my life.
Spain's national soccer team, always talented, but never seems to realize that talent. They made it into the quarterfinals of the Eurocopa with ease only to run into Italy. A team that they hadn't beaten in a competitive game in 88 years.
Well me and my friends managed to watch this game with a bunch of Spanish soccer crazies, which seems to be about the whole city. And something magical happened, Spain dominated the time of possession, their passes were crisp and their chances were numerous... but they just could not put Italy away, all through the game and into extra time the game remained 0-0, Two great saves by Casillas the Spanish goalie kept the Spaniards even with the Italians but as Spain desperately tried to score before time ran out, it was obvious to everyone in the bar what was coming...
penalty kicks
possibly one of the most dumb yet exciting ways to end a soccer game.
The only thing about these kicks was that Spain was going to kick against arguably the best goalie in the world; Buffon.

A whole head taller than Casillas, Buffon has incredible reach and quickness, but when Spain scored the first PK the place erupted with a feeling of relief. Italy followed up with their own score and Spain scored their second PK. Then things got interesting when Casillas saved the 2nd Italy PK. The third Spanish kicker, named Marcos Senna, the only black player on Spain's team, whom the fans in the bar oddly called negro (which is the color black in spanish), scored the third Spain goal to put them up 3-1. Italy then scored to bring it back to 3-2, and then Spain's shot was blocked, which reminded me that this was Buffon, the hero of the '06 World Cup who helped Italy beat France in a PK shootout. Just when it seemed like the momentum was going to shift back to the Italians for good, Casillas saved another! At this point the place was going wild and when Fabregas came in and made the final PK to win it was mayhem.
It was probably the most exciting soccer game I have ever watched, partly because it was such a huge win but also because of the atmosphere of the bar. A bunch of tortured Spain fans finally got their vengeance by winning the big game, and they now need just two more to win the Eurocup for the first time in a long time.
Even as I sit up here in my room writing this more than an hour after it ended, People are still driving by honking their horns and partying it up in the streets.

I love sports.

Barcelona

Sorry these posts haven't been coming with any regularity, I will change that soon. The reason is that I had to wait until I could post my pictures with this post. Otherwise, nothing I talk about would have seemed half as sweet.
First off, we traveled all the way across the country (guys, maybe biking across Spain is more reasonable than the States, haha) in about a 12 hour bus ride. Somehow, this ride seemed to be about the same length as the ride to Portugal, not really sure why.
Barcelona is a really cool city. We visited 5 different spots in Barcelona with Jesus, our resident director as our tour guide. On Saturday we visited the Casa Mila which is a set of apartments that wrap around a circular courtyard. Designed by Antoni Gaudi, these apartments were waaay ahead of their time when they were built in the early 1900s and they all have this wrought iron handles on their porches which were somehow molded into extremely detailed piece of art.
^^^^^ Kind of looks like Laura when she is mad

Gaudi got a lot of his inspiration from nature and made the coolest roof ever, I hung out on the roof a lot when I was there.
From there we then went up to Monjuic where we saw the Olympic stadium from the 92 Olympics, Bon Jovi was setting up for a concert there that night!
Say It Isn't So was what we were saying when we reached the top of Montjuic, supposedly the best view of the city was covered with fog and didn't allow for any sweet panoramic pictures.
Undeterred by the weather, we ate delicious food and shopped around a bit.
I'll Sleep When I'm Dead was what I was thinking that night.

Sunday came and in the morning we went to the famous Park Güell, also designed by Antoni Gaudi. Words don't really do this park justice.

This is the main part of the park, where the infamous benches line a sand field in the middle, the benches are made up of pieces of crushed ceramic in really cool designs. This is underneath the last picture, these columns hold up the benches and sand infield somehow. Note the curve of the roof here, it is also made up of crushed pieces of white ceramic.

I don't know where you find this much ceramic, but Gaudi had the bright idea to make designs on the ceiling - and he made some cool ones.
Haha he could really do anything with ceramic.
Pedro and I (commonly known around here as Arroz con Pedro) at the top of the park.

By now we were definitely Living on a Prayer as we traveled over to La Sagrada Familia (Translates to The Sacred Family)
Antoni Gaudi (starting to see the theme here) worked on this project for 40 years and devoted the last 15 years of his life solely to the construction of this Temple.
The Temple was crazy, you can see why the total project, which is scheduled for completion in 2026, has taken so long to construct. From the 4 high towers which are symbolic of the 4 Evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John to the facades which capture the Nativity story and the Passion of Christ, it really is exquisite. I can't fit all of the pictures on here so check them out on the blog. If you are ever in Barcelona and you Want to Make a Memory then go here.

Since It's My Life I won't even include the details from our visit to the Pablo Picasso museum.
Who Says You Can't Go Home was what we were saying by Monday morning when we made the long bus ride back to Salamanca.
It's still hard to call this place home, but it's all I've got for the next 3 weeks.
More to come soon on the crazy city I live in. if you stayed with me through this, congratulations, You Give Love a Bad Name