Home Sweeeet Home

So, as I hope you've all noticed, I have not blogged recently. The reason is that on Sunday night (1/25) I moved from my residencia, to a home-stay. For those of you who are interested in how close/far I actually moved, here is a map. Anyways, my home-stay is absolutely great, minus not currently having the Internet. I have been through thick and thin (had a technician come to the house and try to fix the problem for hours then demanding tons of $$ from me... nothing worked, language barrier is tough in real-life dilemmas) trying to get this problem solved, and hopefully it will be shortly.
With that said, here I am, updating you all. I am currently at UPF, where all my classes are now kicking off as of this week. I have to blog from here due to my Internet not working at home. Anyways, now that you are all caught up, the home-stay. My friend Josh and I live with one woman, and her name is Carmen. As soon as I moved in, she showed me around, gave me keys and told me this is my house now- she is amazing. Mid to late 50's, widowed, mother of three, and oh so cool. She has cooked us burgers, homemade Vegetable soup, spaghetti, and chicken, all of which has been delicious-she basically cooks for us b/c these are not authentic dishes nor does she eat late at night. In the mornings she makes us tea, coffee, gives us cereal, muffins, fruit, bread whatever we want. The day I go there, she did my laundry for me, and since there are not dryers here, she hung everything out on the balcony, which is in my room! Hmm what else?? Josh has his own room (which somehow again is huge) and I have my own. Both are great and perfect for us. We are starting to form a nice little family even though these first few days have been hectic with Josh being sick and myself trying to get the Internet going. Overall, every night we have a dinner together, where Josh, Carmen and myself talk, relax, and enlighten one another about our days(all in Spanish obviously). This is where I try to understand what she is telling me, and sometimes I do, while other times I simply do not. The area we live in is also quite nice and extremely CENTRAL within the city of Barcelona. Basically, with the home-stay, I get to see more of the culture: How Carmen runs her life, how energy actually matters because lights are always off, rooms are always cold, water does not stay warm long, and dryers simply dont exist, and I enjoy taking all of this in. Overall, I am very happy about my move. Carmen is a great cook and a very sweet woman, providing quite the grandmother touch I have been looking for! Josh and I are eating it up... ;)

Since I am a little behind and Internetless I do not remember everything that I should blog about, feel free to ask me more about my home-stay. This is a summary of what comes to mind for now, to give you all an idea, but like I said... feel free to ask about more!

**Lastly, I plan to take some pictures of my home and Carmen shortly and
post them on my blog and facebook.

BARCE---BARCE---BARCE!

Last night, a few of us finally made it to a FC Barcelona match, and let me tell you, words cannot describe the experience. First of all, tickets for the cheapest section were all sold out. Somehow, someway, this lady gave us some random free tickets and we got in! Right from that point, I realized this is meant to be! As soon as I entered the stadium, Camp Nou, I wanted to cry. The "pitch" is so immaculate and surreal. 100,000 fans cheering on their pride and glory, and I was in the heart of it, experiencing it all. The amount of pashion alone is unimaginable (and then screaming, blow-horns etc) and make up the total experience for a futbol match.
Afer some scrambling, I made it down to the lower level, grabbed a seat and enjoyed the match. FCB is the best team in La Liga (Spanish Leauge), and they showed it last night. They beat their oponents 4-1, and it was truly amazing. Everything from the living the first GOALLL, to the simply listening to the fans, to scrambling through the stadium was ideal! Like any sporting event, watching it live takes the cake, but with futbol, you have to live it. I look forward to getting to as many matches as possible!