After we returned from Rome, my family spent the next two days in Barcelona making me jealous of their fun activities while I was in lab. After I got out of lab on Monday and they left the FC Barcelona Stadium, we met up at Plaça d’Espanya and had a nice dinner on the top floor of the mall there. The service was a bit slow (my mom ate half of my french fries while she waited to get her food), and my parents were convinced that every time we ordered a bottle of water they just refilled the same glass bottle with tap water and then make us pay for it. Oh well, I usually drink tap water, so it was fine with me. Eventually we got our food and it was delicious. The basement level of the mall has a bunch of dessert places, so we went down there to get some gelato and pastries. I had a berlina (chocolate drizzled doughnut with nutella on the inside) and I don’t remember what everyone else got because I can’t focus on anything else when I have chocolate. My mom has also pointed out that food is mentioned a lot in my blog… I guess you can tell what I’m thinking about all the time.
View from the top of the mall in Plaça d’Espanya
On Tuesday they went to the beach to continue getting tanner than me while I chilled in lab. Lucky for us, the FINA (Fédération Internacional de Natación aka International Swimming Federation) Aquatics World Championships are being held in Barcelona this year (yes Ryan Lochte is in my city!!!). My dad used to play/coach college water polo, so of course he had to plan the family vacation to coincide with the water polo world championships. He bought tickets to the men’s quarter finals and we got to see Serbia vs Montenegro (fun fact, they’re not the same country anymore. I was so confused because I thought the same country was playing itself. Things have changed a lot since I did my world map project in kindergarten…) and Spain vs Italy. The games were played in one of the pools that were used for the 1996 Olympic Games that were held in Barcelona. We didn’t have the best seats in the house, but we snuck up to a higher row so we were able to see. We sat right behind one of the benches, so of course I shamelessly stared at the muscular backs of the guys who were not in (no, I didn’t take any creepy pictures of the bench. I’m not THAT lame).
Pretty pool
The Serbia vs Montenegro game was intense and both teams scored early and often. We were sitting near a bunch of hardcore Montenegro fans who had some pretty entertaining chants every time their team scored. The game stayed close the whole time, but with 1:10 remaining in the fourth quarter, Montenegro scored from far out and Serbia was unable to come up with another goal. The Montenegro fans all around us went crazy with the 9-8 victory.
Serbia vs Montenegro. Really all men’s sports should be played in speedos. Just saying.
I should also mention that Barcelona does half time show’s a little differently than the ones I’ve seen at home (although I don’t think I’ve ever seen a half time show for a water polo game before, and I’ve been to a lot of water polo games). First there was the dancing water droplet (who I thought was adorable) who kicked and twirled around to the music of the drum line playing behind him (her? it?). Another element of the half time entertainment was this weird dude in a blue cartoon character looking costume. Some people carried him around and he randomly did handstands while they held him up. There were also people walking around with water guns and spraying the crowd. The whole thing was really weird, but also entertaining.
The adorable dancing water droplet
Cartoon character costume handstand dude
The next game was Spain vs Italy and the stadium was filled to capacity. People were chanting loudly, waving flags, and screaming the entire game. I was routing for Spain because I live here and I wanted to pretend to have some Spanish pride. The game was very rough and watching the underwater views on the big screen was insane. I’m pretty sure I would be drowning/dead if I tried to last 5 minutes with one of those hole sets. This game was also a close, back and forth game that was ton of fun to watch. Despite the many “Es-pa-ña!”and “Sí se puede!” chants, Spain lost to Italy 4-3. While I didn’t manage to get any close up pictures of the stud water polo players, I did find the picture below online. Apparently the Italian national water polo team did a photo shoot for Yaramay (underwear brand here). To all the girls who read this blog, you’re welcome and Merry Christmas 🙂
“Water polo players have the best bodies.” – my mom
My family flew home the next morning, so I went back to cooking my own boring food after enjoying a week of nice dinners. However, last night we had another group dinner at Eduardo’s apartment and it was awesome. Eduardo and Farah were kind enough to do all of the grocery shopping and cooked us some amazing chicken fajitas. Earlier in the day I had messed up pretty badly in lab so I was feeling kinda down (thanks to everyone who let me vent/gave me digital hugs), but luckily copious amounts of cava (Spanish sparkling wine) works wonders on a bad mood. The amount of cava we consumed before dinner was even served was impressive. Needless to say, we had a great time. After killing 7 bottles of cava and some delicious pastries (thanks Bari!) we all headed home to try to recover in time for work the next day.
I didn’t have any pictures from the group dinner, but I didn’t think anyone would mind this picture instead. It’s not every day that I’m in the same city as Ryan Lochte.
I cannot believe that I only have one more weekend here and then start my last week of work on Monday. Craziness!
ChicaConfundida 