Barcelona Day 4- Sleep is good

I don't understand how you could really live in Barcelona, or be here for four days. And by four days I mean ONLY four days. Though I've seen a lot, I haven't stepped inside a museum (not that it matters too much), I haven't eaten a real meal of tapas, and I've only had one glass of sangria and three beers the entire time. Shame on me. I want more. Sangria party at my place when I get back, j/k.

Alas, today's plan didn't change any of that. I went bar hopping last night, so I got back really really late. (Yes, I had a good time. No I'm not writing about it.) Alas, so did everyone else. I did get up for breakfast, however, enjoyed it with a few friends, before realizing sleep deprivation affects perception just as bad as alcohol. (I had one can of beer. Trust me, I wasn't hungover.) So I went back to bed.

When I came to, it was lunchtime. I ran into Hang, I hung out with at Las Ramblas the first day, and she told me she and Brianna were going out. Not wanting to waste another second with our time left, I came with them.

After traversing the metro and walking up quite a hill, we ended up at Parque Gueil. (My spelling has been terrible this entire time in port, Catalan drives me nuts as much as French. That said, It's definitely on my to-learn list after Tagalog, Spanish, German, French, Esperanto, and Hawaiian. Just before Maori, Korean, and Chinese.) It was a park commissioned by some billionaire before the turn of the 20th century, and designed by Gaudi. That name Gaudi has come up a couple different times. That said, it means only one thing- this part was somewhat out of this world.

The exterior of the park was lined with a wall covered in tile with circular designs. (That's a terrible description. Quite frankly, I find it hard to put Gaudi in words, you can hardly relate it to anything you've seen before ever.) When we went through the front entrance, we saw a striking set of stairs ascending further up the hill. I would compare them to Spanish steps, except in Gaudi style.

If I just use the words "Gaudi style", I suppose I have to try to define it. Okay, take straight lines that are anything but parallel to the ground, vertical, diagonal, whatever. Now throw them out. Take some traditional columns, Ionic, Corinthian, whatever. Don't throw them out, but put them on a roulette with a 1/100 chance of seeing them, with the other 99 being either strangely morphed variations or something that looks more like bone than a column. This stuff is weird. Then throw some eggs on top and paint it with the strangest colors of the visual spectrum. Crazy icing on a freaky cake.

Well, since we can't really talk about architecture anymore, what else is there? On the top of the mountain is a mansion, it might have been a Gaudi but it had vertical lines this time. There were beautiful flowers. There were a lot of tourists, Spanish, American, and Asian alike. There were street salesmen with jewelry, fans, and squeaky toys. Also, a tremendous view of the entire city. Whether we'll disagree on the rest of the park is one thing, but the city view was gorgeous.

We tried to get back at 4 pm because Hang and I had a field directed practicum on the boat for our Psychology class. We listened in on a woman from Doctors without Borders, and learned their purpose, as well as their efforts to aid in mental and psychological health. While we missed perhaps the first fifteen minutes of the presentation because the bus took its sweet time and the security line was long, we were able to appreciate the great deal of difficult work that organization performs for the world.

We had a group picture taken. It was lame. Moving on.

Alec and Gabe, friends of mine who live in the Bahamas, bought guitars while in Spain. I gave them a guitar lesson, trying to teach them the first verse of "Sweet Home Chicago". It brought back memories, seeing them slowly learn chords, struggle to do B7, and strum while I tried to guide them. But both of them are picking up, hopefully they'll be good enough that their parents aren't mad about their purchases.

Tomorrow, we have a two hour Global Studies lecture, followed by Sea Olympics, and I'll be playing Knockout and Ping Pong. Yeah. Also, Italy is coming up quick. See you soon Tito Percy!