Picture Time!!!!!!!

Okay, so I know i've been promising pictures for awhile now, so here are a few to start. This first one is actually from the holiday season. I know I'm a bit late, but every Christmas here in Barcelona it is tradition to have pooping dolls of the most famous people from around the world from that year. Yes, pooping dolls for Christmas. Here is a link I got from a friend if anyone is interested in reading up on why. Apparently, this tradition goes back to the 17th century.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,592677,00.html

Okay, the first picture is of Barack Obama! This is from the front...notice the yes we can at the bottom haha.



And here is the back...



I bought two of these, they're awesome. By the way, they also have the leading members of the republican party pooping. Catalonians do not discriminate when it comes to pooping dolls!

My friend uploaded pictures of the FC Barca futbol game, which was awesome...so here are a few. This first one is me and my friend Kate before the game...Kate is the one who I hoped would turn out to be a British female soccer hooligan.



And here is just me and the field. Unfortunately, the sprinklers went off right as we were taking the picture.



Here is Barca after they scored their first goal. Kind of a crooked picture, but you get the idea.



And some boistorous Barca fans who taught me some new bad words in Spanish AND Catalan.



And finally here is a picture of me at a party with a bunch of friends from my Spanish school. I thought this picture was cool because of the crazy diversity that we have. In this picture, there are Brazilians, Germans, Italians, Americans, Japanese, Spaniards, Koreans, a Danish couple, a Greek guy, and the girls in the back left are Tahitians. Crazy, huh? I'm hidden in the back right, you can see my face poking out the top trying to rise above the tall Italian guy haha. I like this picture a lot. Also, notice we are all ages. Some of the people are in their 40's, some are in their 30's, and there are a lot of us in our 20's. But, these are all GREAT people and we are all friends.



This is the best I can do for now because I STILL don't have the cables I need to upload the pics from my own camera. The Spanish post office is a bit...difficult. I got some REALLY good pics for the future. This is just a starter =) And i'm still here for 3 more months, so when I go to Hungary/Italy/wherever I go i'll have some pics from there too. It's gonna be great!

Barça, Barça, Baaaaaarça!!!!

My coworker Maria Jose and her husband have season tickets to FC Barcelona soccer, which is insane. The tickets are crazy expensive and Spanish soccer(futbol) as a whole is ranked #1 in the entire world and FC Barca is one of the top teams in the world. So, naturally, when Maria Jose said that she and her husband weren't going to a game against Atletico de Madrid, AND THEN OFFERED THE TICKETS TO ME FOR FREE, I was practically shitting my pants. I accepted, of course, and went to my first Spanish soccer game!!!

I went with a British friend (who I was hoping would turn out to be a drunk hooligan like the ones you see on tv) and arrived at 930 PM for a 10 PM game. This was on a wednesday but Spaniards would rather miss sleep than miss a game. Someone told me that there were 50,000 people there. When we arrived at our seats, we realized that we were 26 only rows up from the field. Wow. The atmosphere in the stadium was nuts. The Barca fans have several songs that they like to sing to get the team pumped up and those were fun to hear (and to try to sing along with even though I don't speak Catalan). And then the Spaniards did the wave. Yes, the wave. But, not the crappy American wave that never works...this wave was like a wave on steroids. The wave here is serious business.

So then it was 10 PM and the game was starting. It was amazing to see how good that these players really were. To only be 26 rows up and be watching some of the best players in the world was a great experience. Oh, and I forgot one thing. Beer is not an essential like when at American sporting events. Everyone is too into the game to worry about beer. Maybe it's because I'm American, but huh? At least they had hot dogs though!

Atletico de Madrid scored first, which prompted a text from a nervous Maria Jose which(jokingly) said that if Barca lost, I would never get tickets from her again. Lucky for me, Barca tied it up later in the half on a beautiful header and went on to win 2-1.

Being at that stadium was like being at an American football or baseball playoff game. That's how pumped up the fans were. And this was for only a regular season game! I can only imagine what it would be like if it were in a championship or against rivals Real Madrid. That would be awesome to see. Oh, and I learned several new curse words in Spanish and Catalan throughout the game. Barca fans do not hold their tongue when they are upset.

Now, I know a lot of you Americans are like what? Soccer???? But I gotta tell you, when you're watching the best players in the world live, it's a really great experience.

PS Maria Jose said that she also has season tickets to FC Barcelona Basketball and sometime in the future I could use them. This woman is amazing and I am one lucky SOB.

Matt

Ich Liebe Deutschland

I had a really really good time in Germany. I didn't quite make it to Hamburg, but I stayed in Dusseldorf and visited Cologne. The family I was staying with was amazing. They took me out for Christmas dinner and even bought me cologne and chocolate! Very nice people.

One thing I was very surprised about was that 99% of the population under the age of 60 speaks English well. It was crazy, no matter where I went, everyone understood me. And then when I was in the clubs in Dusseldorf, they always played American songs and everyone sang along. It was awesome.

It is COLD in Germany. It was about 20 degrees the whole time I was there and that's pretty damn cold for this California boy. I now appreciate this Spanish weather a lot more.

The German food surprised me because it was actually pretty good =) I'd heard from several people that German food isn't the best, but I was pleasantly surprised. I guess I'm just a meat and potatoes kind of guy.

I'll upload pics shortly, I promise! I took about 4000 in Dusseldorf, but don't worry, I'll only post the best ones.

Have a great New Years everyone.

Update

Sorry it took so long to update, I'll be quicker now that I'm done with my classes!

There was just a huge soccer match here between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. It was pretty much like the Superbowl of soccer. There was NO ONE outside in the street during the game and when Barcelona won, everyone was singing and dancing and drinking in the streets. It was a lot of fun to see. Some people actually celebrated by walking a goat through the Metro. Yes, a GOAT. It was actually pretty funny.

I'm headed to Germany for Christmas. I have some friends who live in Dusseldorf and Hamburg and I'm planning on staying with them. It's my first time going to Germany, so I'm excited!

I also got invited to stay with friends in Rome and Budapest and I think I'm going next month. Quite a tough life I have.

Once I figure out how to post pictures on here, I will! I have loads now.

Have a great Christmas everyone. Feliz Navidad y bones festes!

Matt

Hola

Hola amigos!!! I've been here in Barcelona for about three weeks now and I'm having the time of my life. I wanted to update you on what I've been up to these last few weeks.

So the monday after I got here I started my spanish class. The class is made up of people from around the world....except no English-speakers, which is great because I HAVE to speak Spanish. It's crazy how much I've learned in only 3 weeks and how many great friends I've made from Italy, Germany, Brazil, Japan, Spain, etc. I'm already making plans to visit some of them when they move back home.The ongoing joke in class is that I blind everyone with my white teeth. I'm pretty sure that's the best insult ever.

I've had a little trouble with the language barrier along the way, but I'm learning!!! The first day I was in BCN I accidently said something to the effect of "excuse me old woman." Oops.

But Barcelona is great and I love my apartment. It's centrally located to everything, and it's in a safe neighborhood. I have a roommate named Fran who is probably in his late 20s-early 30s. Fran owns the place and he's a really good guy. Fran speaks NO English, so I learn a lot of my spanish from him.

This last week I started my internship with a company called Southwing. It's a company who makes bluetooth and I'm in charge of coming up with the next great idea to make them billions of dollars. It's great experience because I actually get to sit in with the CEO at every business meeting and I actually get to be involved with day to day stuff that's important to the company. And they decided to pay me!!! Okay not much...but better than nothing!!!

I really am having the time of my life. Come visit me, you'll love it too!

-P.S. Do not walk alone in La Rambla if you're a blonde guy and it's 2:30 in the morning...unless of course you want to be repeatedly groped by prostitutes who look a little bit like Shaq. I learned that last night.