Spain, Birthday, Ferien

So quite a lot has gone on in a relatively short time since I last wrote. Where to start, where to start...

Last Saturday started with another visit to the soccer stadium in Bielefeld, this time with 14 other American exchange students. The experience in the fan block of a Bundesliga game once again did not fail to deliver. Honestly, if any of you are ever in a country that loves soccer (all of Europe and Latin America...) , I cannot recommend strongly enough picking up some cheap standing room-only tickets in the fan section of the local team and just expereriencing (and taking part in) the atmosphere and enthusiam.

After the game I had to hustle back to Gütersloh to meet up with the rest of the students from my grade level to begin our wonderful 20+ hour bus ride to Tossa de Mar, a town on the coast of Spain near Barcelona.

We arrived, got out of the bus, and were amazed by the tremendous weather. It is just beautiful there. After spending the rest of Sunday exploring the town and getting settled in, we spent Monday lounging on the beach.

Tuesday we hopped back in the bus and went to...



...Figueres, where I saw this graffiti (in English?). Catalonia, the region in which we spent the entire week, is an "autonomous community" of Spain. They speak a different language, called Catalan, that is similar to Spanish. The capital and heart of Catalonia is Barcelona. As you can see from this picture, there's always rumblings about Catalonian independence. (First someone wrote "Catalonia is Spain!", then another person added a "not", then someone painted over the "not"...and so on) In Figueres we visited the Salvador Dali museum. The man seems sometimes brilliant sometimes just plain weird, and more of the latter.

After that, we bussed over to Girona, the capital, where we wanted to visit this cathedral...



...until we found out that the entrance would cost 5 euros. No thanks!



So we walked along the outer walls of the city. This picture is taken from one of the guard towers, and the people down below are my classmates.

On Wednesday we traveled to Barcelona to sightsee, shop, and hear constant warnings from our teachers and bus driver about pickpockets, although no one came close to being robbed.



First we stopped by La Sagrada Família, a basilica which, like much of what we saw in Spain, is under construction.



We spent the next while strolling down La Rambla, a 1.2 kilometer long strip of shops, street performers, restaurants, booths, and stores. I think this street performer could juggle better than anyone in America.



The Christopher Columbus memorial. I don't think this picture accurately shows how tall this thing was...

In any case, it's pointing to America, and so am I. Hi guys!



The busy harbor in Barcelona, Spain. Some guys got together 5 Euros to get Jörn to jump in, and he did. It's not such a big deal for him though, because he just so happens to swim in such water every time he participates in a triathlon.

My 18th birthday started at midnight the next day on the beach (shortly after our class was thrown out of the room and dance floor we had rented in a nearby hotel for a dance party...we were too loud) celebrating with all the kids from my grade and continued with a whirlwind tour through Spain and France to crossing the border to Germany shortly before midnight.

After getting home at 7 the next morning and sleeping just a bit more, I had my birthday party Saturday night outside at my house here. It was beautiful outside and it was a fun evening. After cleaning up the next day, my host grandparents came over for Kaffee, the German equivalent of tea time.

We ate delicious cake, drank tea and coffee, and conversed for several hours. After that we grilled bratwurst, ate, and talked more. At the end I drank Jägermeister (German liquor) with my host grandpa, my host grandma, and my host dad as a toast to my birthday.

And now up to the present: today begins my two week fall break. This week I'm planning on relaxing and spending time with my little host cousins (the ones from a previous post) and next week I'm going to Brussels with a stop in Aachen on the way. As always, comments, questions, and discussion are welcome!