Aventura 20: Fútbol Feminino

http://www.fcbarcelona.com/football/feminine/detail/article/draw-in-friendly-between-barca-ladies-and-inac-kobe-1-1

A few days ago, I came back from school around 16.00h and my host dad told me that the Women's Barca team was playing, "Today, against the best women's soccer player!" As he meant it, the Barca team was taking on in a friendly a team from Japan, INAC Kobe, with the center-midfielder Homare Sawa, the recently named FIFA Best Women's Futbolista of 2012.  She, along with the Japanese team, surprised and enchanted the world when they won the 2011 World Cup.

I couldn't believe it was TONIGHT! I'd been keeping an eye and ear out for Barca feminina but it often gets overshadowed by both the A and B Barca team.  I looked up information on the internet, but couldn't find much.  Instead of calling over the stadium, I just decided to go for a jog to there! (How cool is it living in the city, 20 minutes run from Camp Nou?).  I asked at the museum, and the game was indeed at 19.00h, in the MiniEstadi, and gratis (free) because it was a friendly.

At 19.00h I left the metro and walked towards the stadium, following Barca chant.  I entered the stadium and there were many more fans than I thought!  I sat down and was in awe of the game in front of me.

I love watching football, no matter what type, but watching women's teams is something really special to me.  I think because that's how I first fell in love with soccer: Watching the U.S. Women's run in the 1999 World Cup, ending up with Brandi Chastain's penalty kick winner.  I loved that team, I followed that team, I knew every player and wanted to be every player for Halloween.  And the same feeling came back watching these two women's teams.  I feel like I can follow it that much better, notice more things, be in awe or more things because I can more easily imagine myself on the field with them.

And the women's game is beautiful.  So much working together, passing, talking, and definitely not as much drama as the men's Barcelona team, and that's something I really really appreciate.  It just feels like a very respectful game.  Given, this was a friendly.  There are definitely female players who dive just like Dani Alves or are poor sports like Pepe from Real Madrid, but watching this game, I didn't see any of that.  Less fouls, only one card.  This was beautiful football because they loved football.  And many players seemed to be smiling while they were playing.

So with this feeling, I started watching the game.  Naturally, being in Barcelona, I focused on the Barca team, watching their passes, offense, defense, positions, but I couldn't help it - my mind shifted to focusing on INAC Kobe.  There passes, touches, relaxed nature, positioning, triangles and quick passes in tight spaces, creativity, was a magnet for my eyes.  I sat there with my mouth hung open and not because I was cheering.

At half-time, I switched seats before I left to go to my own training, and I saw a group of 11-yr old girls cheering like crazy at the end of the stadium, with signs and smiles and flags.  I laughed to myself as the image of being at the Gold Cup with two of my friends, our stomachs painted with the letters U-S-A, flashed across my mind.  This is something wonderful that women's soccer does - inspiring the next generation of young girls.  This is something I realized I'm really proud of of women's soccer - the role models that there are here, in these stadiums.

Leaving the stadium, I got to head to my own fútbol training! Which was wonderful but I definitely only got a taste of Barca fútbol life, but don't worry because tomorrow, at 19.00h I will be sitting (or standing, cheering like crazy!) and watching the Barca men's team take on Valencia in the semifinals of la Copa del Rey tournament.  ¡Vamos Barca!

http://www.barcelona-budget.net/barcelona-football-club-news-20120201.html

Aventura 19: la UB

You're probably all wandering if I'm even in school here given that I've shared eighteen aventuras and haven't mentioned school once.  But don't you worry, I go to school every week (when I'm not sick) in a beautiful, beautiful building at la Universitat de Barcelona, right in the center of the city.  And I guess it's about time I give this place and classes some time on my blog!

Let me first give you a photo tour of my university.  Here's the entrance, en la plaza Universitat.  It takes about 20 minutes in metro, 50 minutes walking to get here from my house.  

http://www.gogobot.com/universitat_de_barcelona-barcelona-attraction

After entering the front doors, you are welcomed into the arched entrance of the university.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vest%C3%ADbul_Universitat_de_Barcelona.jpg

Turn left, then right, and you will enter one of two outdoor but enclosed areas.  Everyone hangs out here in between classes, meets for group projects (if not in the library), or just stays here to read.  Along with the plants, columns, and arches, there are pools of goldfish and orange trees!

http://www.iagora.com/studies/uni/Universitat_de_Barcelona

Finally, go up the stairs and enter the library.  My spanish friend told me that the library looked like it's from Harry Potter - I think I would agree:

http://estudios.universia.net/espana/institucion/universitat-barcelona

So yes, this is the university I go to every Monday to Wednesday.  My classrooms are your typical classrooms, but when I explore anywhere in the university - the gardens inside or outside, the concert hall, the library, I find surprises everywhere.

As for my classes, I'm taking four, all in castellano. In Democracia en España, we have a animated, passionate UB professor teaching us about the Spanish Constitution and the remarkable transition Spain has made from a dictatorship to democracy.  As I've never taken a political science class before, this class is as much learning about Spain's political system as about political systems in general! The professor is so open and encouraging, and we ask as many questions as we can possibly think of!

My next class is Grámatica, so nothing terribly interesting, although the profesora is nice and makes the 1.5 hour class go by pretty quickly.  I'm learning that although I think I have a pretty good grasp on the Spanish language, I've got quite a long way......

In my Novela de Barcelona class we are learning about the history of Barcelona, from la Guerra Civil until more present day through reading important novels.  La profesora is increíble.  She knows so much, and is one of those more formal teachers (we use the formal directive Usted. instead of the informal Tú to address her) but she is so funny and keeps everything so interesting.  I'm currently reading a book titled Nada, written about a girl who goes to la UB right after la Guerra Civil.  She moved in with her grandma and aunts and uncles in order to go to the university, and she discovers all these dark secrets and the dark pasts of her family and she gets entangled in it with her friend from school.  It's so wonderful to be learning about the history of the place I'm staying - it makes me feel like I'm less of a tourist and more of a cultural and historical aventurista!

Finally, my historia del arte class with the father of the above profesora.  This profesor is unlike any I've had.  He's 80 years old and is a walking library, as my director described him.  We are learning about Goya, Velazqúez, Picasso, el Baroco, el Renacimiento, and art around Spain - but really we are learning more lessons about life than just about art.  My notes are colored with phrases like:

"Your homeland, your nation, is any place where you have been happy, not just where you were born." "Absolutes don't exist; Everything is relative."
"God is the people closest to me: my wife, my kids, and my students."
"Art is the best way to understand a time."
"Music teaches us the words of life."
"Love is to think that the person you love is God."
"There isn't love without liberty."
"Your idea that God exists is correct, and your idea that God doesn't exist is also correct."
"There are no races; there are ethnicities."
"The computer has entered our lives without asking permission, and its changing our world for the worse."
And to end with an art one: "Who doesn't understand Picasso, doesn't understand the modern world."

As you can see, every day in school, en la UB, is a day full of aventuras, that if I were really to count all of them, I think I would be at Aventura 53 by now....

Aventura 18: Miba

A measuring tape belt.  A spoon with a spring instead of a handle so you can slingshot your food! "Boc N' Roll": The reusable bocadillo sweater to bring your sandwiches to school in.  A water bottle with a built in filter.  A chair that has a piece on the back that prevents you from tipping over.  A cookie-dunking mug!

A picnic bench that converts to a picnic table.  A kitchen towel with a magnet so you can throw it on the fridge whenever you aren't using it.  A stirring spoon that has two taste-testing ladles at the end.  A jacket that converts to a purse and back to a jacket.  A bathroom mirror that is also a radio and a clock and a thermometer.  A mop with a microphone so you can really jam out while you are cleaning.

A calendar with package bubbles on each day of the year, so instead of crossing the day out, you pop the bubble! A wristwatch that is a magnet to hold nails, screws, bolts when you are constructing something crazy.  An egg cuber? Glitter spray for food to make broccoli more appetizing.  A waterproof notebook to write all you best ideas and inventions in the shower.  A flower pot that finds its own sun, in case you forget to move it!

These are just a few (crazy, huh?) of the crazy, silly inventions and ideas at the Museeu d'idees i invents de barcelona.  You enter the museum in the store, with crazy inventions already surrounding you - then the first words you encounter tell you that you're entering a world of crazy ideas and inventions that YOU could be the next to display.  You walk through rooms of all these inventions and ideas that just MAKE SENSE and are so much fun.

And don't forget about the bathrooms.  You sit in the bathroom (for girls) or stand (for guys) and there's a tv in front of you that starts, with three guys walking by, "peeking" and making fun of you! I left the museum with my brain spinning.  Different colors, ideas, inventions going on in my head.  

And the next few days of class, while you should see my margin notes: a ring that converts to a long pointer-finger for teachers to use, or anyone, when needing to point at something.  An earring that is a little man sitting in your ear that records what the teacher is saying, so if you aren't paying attention, you can pull his leg and he'll repeat that last question you missed....Or the picnic basket that has glow-in-the-dark ribbon weaved in it so you can have night-time picnics! 

Always remember: "No todo está inventado." -- "Not everything has been invented." These inventions are pure work of the imagination - and it was beautiful to see.  Imagination is what keeps the world moving, what keeps it interesting, what keeps it worth living I think.

May your creative and crazy imagination flourish!

Aventura 17: Eh, Che, ¡Vamos a Chacha!

So of course the first restaurant I go to in Barcelona is an Argentinian restaurant, but I do miss my empanadas - and I got my filling here.  We ordered all the different types of empanadas: jamón y queso, queso y cebolla, espinaca, pollo y carne.  For the main dish, I ate Milanesa de pollo con jamón y tomates.    And to finish it up? Ensalada de fruta con helado.  Oh, and don't forget the 35 empanadillas we ordered for Montserrat the next day! 

http://lachachabcn.com/

The restaurant itself felt very authentic, as the waitress was from Argentina and speaking to us with that wonderful Argentine accent (¿Tenes las ll(shhhhh)aves, porfa? en vez de ¿Tienes las ll(yyy)aves, por favor?)  The wall decor and atmosphere was all Argentina, and we didn't read nor hear one word of english! I was trying to decide if my program would pay for half of this, as they do for cultural events where I have to read in Spanish.  But for some reason enjoying empanadas and milanesa I don't think passes.......probably because I was having too much fun.

Aventura 16: Montserrat

 This is one adventure that I can't explain except with short phrases and photos, so here it is:

Finger-mountains.  Hands coming up from the small towns, reaching for the sky, the sun, the stars, space. 

Eating 35 empanaditas at the top of the mountain.  Tomando el sol.  "Bon Siesta."

Adventure shoes in Spain.  Walking backwards down the hills because forwards was to steep for my knee.  Strange looks from kids and parents.  Lots of laughs.

The smirking, smile man in the mountain with his pet tree. 

The afternoon sun hitting the city, but putting us in shadows with the strangely beautiful mountains.

The monastery in the mountains.

Painting what I felt, what I saw.  The purples, yellows, greens, blues, reds grays, blacks of everything around me.  The colorful finger mountains in front of me, the blue snowy mountains behind them, and the soft, pillowy clouds above them all.

Are those the mountains? Through the clouds? Is that really them?

Hearing Catalan and Spanish all around us, but not a word of English. 

The footy field of the gods? Of the giants that turned to stone in the mountain? Of the monks? Could it someday be ours?

Riding up to Montserrat on the Cremallera railway, but really, we were flying among the clouds.

Walking on a dream?

Standing at the top of Sant Jeroni.  After two hours of hiking up straight stairs.  That couldn't have been the way the monks got to the top here.......

Oh.....so THIS is the way the monks made it.  The 2 hours we went down, on the long, winding, mostly cobblestoned path with very few stairs.  That makes a little more sense.

A long, long time ago there were giants in Barcelona.  But something happened one day.  No one quite knows the story.  And they disappeared.

To reappear as the magnificent cliffs of Montserrat.

Will you join me again tomorrow? I promise you - you have no idea what's at the top of these stairs.  It's beyond anything you've ever imagined.

Aventura 15: Museo de Picasso

A museum a week.  That's my plan.  And the museum of the week is........el museo de Picasso.  This museum is in the Barrio Born, and the entrance and bottom floor of the museum is an old stone palace. So even from the get-go I loved the museum.

http://www.canalpatrimonio.com/es/noticias/?iddoc=51767

What was great about this museum wasn't that it had all the most famous paintings of Picasso, but actually the opposite.  It had all the little secrets, all the sketches or the unfinished paintings that no one ever sees, and you wouldn't expect to be from Picasso.  One day he drew caricature sketch of a friend, with an angry sun!  Another day, for a comedy journal, he created another caricature of a friend, having quite a lot of fun....

He had a few paintings that had secrets, like this one where after doing a radiographic screening, they realized that there was a painting of a man underneath.  I tried to will my eyes to have x-ray vision so I could see the man underneath the flower, but alas, today was not the day for x-ray vision I guess.

And there were paintings of Picasso's time in Barcelona! So I could see Barcelona through his eyes during his time!  This is pretty different than the beachfront today, isn't it?

And the best part of the museum: that I could see the evolution of Picasso's art throughout his life, from his oil paintings on pieces of wood when he was fifteen to the cubist art that he is most famous for.  Seeing this progress of art was breathtaking - especially as someone who likes art.  I got to see all the hard work for many years to get to his famous pieces of work.  I got to see thirty different versions of "Las Meninas" until he got to the final one that is his best-known work.  Art isn't just about one painting, but all the history and hard work behind that painting.  And walking through the different rooms, seeing how Picasso's art change while also seeing where it was going, as if I could look into the future, was a great adventure.

I've tried to put these in order and representative of the progression of art in Picasso's life.  All photos are from the collection online at Museo de Picasso.  You can see for yourself a little slice of this amazing evolution.

Autoretrato

Las Meninas

I even tried my hand at some of Picasso's work, sketching La Menina, a dog, and a circus girl!

Aventura 14: Fútbol Sansur

Although fútbol is everywhere in Barca, at the same time it's hard to find if you are an outsider.  Once you are in the world of fútbol, especially fútbol for women, it's easy to be a part of it.  And that's exactly what I have figured out - because I am now on the inside of the fútbol de mujeres world here!!!!  I had almost given up my search, after asking three or four organizations if there was a team I could play on, and then my director found this club that is in my barrio! 

Tuesday I was welcomed to A.C.E. Sansur by 13 girls who are so awesome and nice and make sure I understand everything!  I thought I would only be able to practice as I'm here for two months, but I just found out today, after emailing the director all my information, that I am on the team!!!!!  I get to play fútbol three times a week, IN SPAIN! Entrenimiento Tuesday and Thursday, and Partidos on Saturday! 

http://www.futsal.cat/equip/98-a.c.e.sansurfemeni

However, this fútbol is different than fútbol 11 that I'm used to.  It's fútbol sala, or fútsal, played indoors and 5 players per side.  The ball is heavier and smaller, and the goalies have elbow and knee pads because they slide all over the hard gym floor.  The movements are more structured than I'm used to, so I have a lot to learn! But I cannot WAIT and I get to play in my first game tomorrow!!!  

http://www.futsal.cat/noticia/289-a.e.f.s._arrels_femeni_1_a.c.e._sansur_1