Visca el Barça, Visca Catalunya!!!!

HOLA!!!

So since the Canary Islands, I have just been enjoying my life in Barcelona. I have no more trips planned, so I am able to chill and get work done in Barcelona. I am currently very depressed because I know I only have 1 month left here. Time seriously does FLY. I have never had 6 months go by so quickly. I remember the first day I arrived in Barcelona, and I am SO jealous of that day because I have my whole semester in front of me. Now, my time abroad is dwindling down. It is going to be such a culture shock going back to real life, to a schedule, to waking up early, to going to bed at a reasonable hour, to be surrounded completely by English. I love every aspect of Barcelona. Like seriously EVERYTHING. The culture, the food, the people, EVERYTHING. This is the life definitely meant for me. I am seriously considering moving back here after I graduate. If I end up taking a full-time job with PwC after graduation, I did some research and they have an office in Barcelona :). I cannot wait to move back here, knowing that I can stay for as long as I want! I know I say this with every post, but I have never been happier in my entire life. Being abroad has been such a valuable experience that I am lucky enough to have lived.

Alright well enough with that sentimental talk, what have I been up to for the past couple weeks? Barcelona has been having a lot of futbol games. They had the "Clasico" against Madrid (we hate Madrid here) which consisted of 5 games. So, all my friends and I have been going to a local bar and going loca for our players. We ended up winning the Clasico, which was amazing!!! There is a spot in the city where EVERYONE goes to celebrate any futbol win. IT IS LITERALLY INSANE. Like, I have never experienced anything like it. People are drunk dressed up in all Barcelona gear and it is literally like a riot. People are on top of lampposts, you can barely move in the ocean of people, fireworks are going off, bottles are being thrown everywhere, horns are going off, and everyone is chanting "Visca el Barça, Visca Catalunya!" It was so incredible to experience, and I got to show my Barcelona pride! I ended up with a huge Catalunya flag, so I was running around waving it everywhere, and at least 20 people stopped me and asked for a picture with me! So I guess I was one of those crazy Barcelona fans.

But then it got scary. All of a sudden people were screaming and running in every direction, so I look behind me and there are these guys with swords running at people (some say they were Madrid rebels, some say they were undercover police). So then the riot got broken up and everyone was screaming. So I ran away with my friends and started walking back to my apartment. Then, a stampede of people are running at me and I look behind and 2 SWAT trucks pull up, 6 people in each truck jump out, then they start chasing people and beating people. I literally couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was quite an experience. But, I got home safely, and have an amazing memory of Barcelona pride after beating Madrid. Cannot wait for the next riot when we play Manchester United in the championship!!!

Take a look of a couple videos of what it was like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-APgypHKRnA
And when it got broken up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gN6SxikGxlw


Anyways, that was that. School is good. Oh my gosh, for those who don't know, my Economics professor died! We had a different teacher for a couple days, so I asked my friend and he told me! He had pancreatic cancer I guess, but so sad! He was not a very good teacher though, and our new professor is REALLY good (I am actually learning stuff). So yeah, that was quite a shock to me!

I am in a really big project for my psychology of sexuality class. I am working with other exchange students from Brasil and they are super nice! We ended up going out together one night and it was SO fun! In my teaching English class, Sophie and I asked our teacher if we could voluntarily do a presentation to the class. Everyone in that class is super nice to us and curious about the US, so we are doing a presentation encouraging everyone to study abroad. We are explaining how amazing our experience has been here, and giving them a presentation on UCSB and why it's amazing. Hopefully we will encourage at least one student to consider studying abroad at UCSB! My history of Catalunya class is good, we went cava tasting a couple weeks ago which was really fun. Now, I just have to write a big paper on changing economic policies during Franco's regime. Fun.

I have some exciting things coming up as well. There is a huge beach music festival the day before I leave, so I bought my ticket for that. There are some amazing DJ's coming (I guess, I don't really know DJ's) but it should be super fun, and a great last day before my dreadful arrival back to the US. Shakira is also coming to Barcelona, so I am going to buy my ticket for that with my friends. Also, David Guetta and 50 Cent are coming to my FAVORITE club, so I am going to buy tickets for that too.

I don't really know what else to share. The days and weeks and months fly by here. Still going out a lot but also getting into a regular exercise routine. Oh, and my Ultimate Frisbee team won Regionals, so now they are the 1 seed at Nationals!! I am so jealous, I want to be playing with them right now! And if they win Nationals this year I am going to be very upset, not going to lie. My apartment is great as always, love my roommates!

That is it for now, I will try to write more, but it is hard since I don't have trips to write about. LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!