Flamenco Show

Whats up everyone, so let me try to remember where I left off...I am starting to love Barcelona more and more every day that I am out here, the city has so much going on all the time, especially late at night, and has so many people in it from all over the world. The architecture is amazing, the beach and boardwalk is awesome, and the metro system is so convenient (i still need to figure out the bus and the train).

Some things are very different here though. the culture is so much slower than in the US (except for the cars and mopeds which drive crazy and wont stop for pedestrians), everyone strolls everywhere they go and seem to be in no hurry. The ciesta is a real deal, especially in the non touristy sections and most shops shut down and there are much less people walking around the city in general. There is some word which i cant remember which kind of translates into "sitting on the table", and it is where everyone just sits around and socializes for a good while after eating, usually smoking a cigarette (almost everyone seems to smoke out here) and having a coffee. Street signs are confusing, with them up on the sides of houses and never really in a logical place, and many times they arent even up there. so I have found walking around the be troublesome, but I am getting it down more and more everyday...

So for an update on what I have been up to...it takes me about 20 min to get to the beach, walking and taking the metro station. I have gone running on the boardwalk there, which is really long and wide with concrete and wood. In the middle of my run there is a kind of jungle gym thing for working out, with pull up bars and push up and ab workout devices, so I am extrememly sore after running and working out the past few days, Im actually hoping to come back in decent shape with a combo of excersising and eating small, healthy portions.

On that note, most people out here seem to be in very good shape, mostly thin and fit. The prefelance of obesity in the US embarrassing, we should stop eating at so many fast food places and not deep fry everything and have gigantic portions where a lot of food gets wasted. Not to mention our huge gas guzzling cars and the fact that most people over here can speak english but most americans cannot speak another language, we should stop thinking the US is the center of the world and try to be more respectful i guess, but anyway i digress...

I went to a discoteca last night the was themed in tribute to michael jackson (RIP you were the man), which was really fun, many of the big discotecas are underground and have multiple stories, and they dont get popular until 2 in the morning...

I saw a Flamenco dance show which was really cool, the dancer was awesome ill try to post videos as soon as I can. It is a spanish singing/guitars/knid of bongo things and a kind of tapdancer, with a really pretty tight long and flowy spanish dress. After that a group of us went out to eat papas (small almost appetizer like meals) and sangria and tonight I am going to relax and get some sleep, cuz tomorrow I am going to walk around the entire city and keep figuring out stuff.

Upcoming events on my agenda...There is this enormous sale during the month of July where most of the cities stores have good deals all month, Im gonna get a FC Barcelona jersey for sure, the girls here are all excited to go shopping though lol, there is a huge shopping scene with tons of different shops (girls be jealous)

On friday we are going on a day excursion to the Salvador Dali museum, which should be awesome, I really like his work. The fourth of July is coming up when I am going to be that obnoxious american, and the tour de france is coming though Barcelona for the first time since 1965, so that should be awesome as well.

Well until then, adeu!

David