We had guest speakers come in to teach us about building Castells, a Catalan tradition. Castells are human castles (people form a base and then others climb up standing on each others shoulders as high, as 10 levels, and then a small child climbs all the way to the top and must raise his hand to signal the completed tower) that are built in town squares to celebrate special events.
We got to try ourselves in class. We only formed the base and one level of climbers.
I was picked to be in the center of the base, supporting the knees of the climber. It was a really tight squeeze but it was a lot of fun... It's really crazy that these people do this regularly as a hobby.
Then on Thursday night some friends and I went to an FC Barcelona soccer game. It was an amazing experience! They played Espanyol, who is not as good of a team, but also from Barcelona, so it is a big rivalry. The stadium was packed and the crowd was really into it. The soccer hooligans created a pretty different aptmosphere from the student section at Penn State.
I went to buy a jersey during the afternoon before the game and met some British students in the store. They were just here for the weekend but they were really cool. We walked around and I showed them some of the city. It was really interesting to talk to them about things like sports and shopping and see all of the differences....
FC Barcelona plays in Camp Nou. It's a very impressive stadium. I I went with my friends Juliet, Danny and Tom, our seats were very high but it's SO steep that we still had a great view.
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Messi, one of the FC Barcelona players, is considered the best in futbol right now and he's only 21 years old. It was really cool to see him play. We're going to try to get to another game as the season continues, maybe one that is home for Espanyol because they play in the stadium that was built for the 1992 Olympic games.
Hi Lindsay,
ReplyDeleteWow, wow, wow! It's been nothing short of wonderful to read your blog and "go along for the ride" with you. Barcelona looks absolutely gorgeous and I'm so jealous of the nice weather. (It's currently 29 degrees and snowing here! >:-P) Can't wait to read more. Take care and don't study too hard! ;-D
Love,
Kathi