Mustaches (June 30)

Today was our last day in Spain. Our goal for the day was to finish up shopping for gifts and souvenirs, and also just to walk around and FEEL the culture of Spain. We’d seen all the sites, but now we just wanted to be a part of Barcelona for a day.

We walked down Las Ramblas for a bit, but the goal was to go to side streets. We stopped at the Boccadillo and I got some things I wanted. As we continued down Las Ramblas, we wanted to watch for people getting pickpocketed- to witness it because the only thing we’d witnessed was me, when the guy tried to pickpocket me. We walked slowly on the sides of Las Ramblas, careful of our own things, and walked by the street performers (not there to make money by donations— they work with pickpocketers as distractions) and shell games. While watching one particular group, we saw a group of guys about our age suspiciously standing behind a guy with a backpack. One of the guys was taking pictures and another was laughing at the performer. The third one, shielded by the other two, started reached for the guy’s backpack. All seven of us were staring at him, so when he noticed he got extremely uncomfortable. We saved a guy from being pickpocketed! The guys peaced out, but were going to fast for us to follow.

One of the stores we went into was Happy Pills. It was so cute! It was a candy store, and you could make “bottles” of “pills”- but really candy. I wanted to eat it all! We went into the Gothic Quarter and ate at a place called Buenas Migas- which means “good crumbs.” And let me tell you, they were some GOOD crumbs!! It was mostly foccacia sandwiches and such. I might have gotten some chocolate-filled foccacia for dessert…. :) And it might have been delicious!

Sometime last night, we were talking about fun pictures and drawing mustaches on our fingers. We decided that would be our trademark- mustache pictures! In each country, we will each have male names of the country, and draw mustaches on our fingers to use in pictures. :) Is it a surprise that I was Julio? I’ll post a picture when I can!

At one of the markets, there were “jamon” Pringles. As in, Pringles brand. That’s how big ham is in Spain!

We got back to the ship, and I had an FDP lecture to attend. It was a Doctors Without Borders lecture. I thought it would be really interesting! It was for my psychology class, so the lecturer focused on psychological issues. I was really disappointed by the lecture- it was jumbled and unorganized, she had a very thick accent, when we asked questions she answered different questions, and it went a half hour longer than it was supposed to- right into dinner! Nobody messes with dinner. I know Doctors Without Borders in an amazing program, but that particular lecture was a let down.

After dinner, we took a ship picture. Everyone gathered on the decks and the photographer took the picture from port. Then we went to the piano lounge to hang out and swap pictures. The ship left port, and we were officially off. Goodbye, Spain! I got frozen yogurt…and cookies..then did some laundry. A bunch of us girls watched The Proposal and gave each other massages- MUCH needed after so much walking! Thanks to my massage class, I have perfected face massages. I know they sound weird, but don’t you dare judge until you’d had one! A few of the girls fell asleep during them!

I decided that Spain made my whole childhood become clear and make sense! All the girls I’m with agree- as I went through Spain, I was constantly realizing that Nani made this, and Nani does that, and Nani would say that. Everything from food- all the Spanish tortillas and orange juice- to the way Nani speaks- her mannerisms and hand motions. Everything down to the last detail in Spain reminded me of Nani! (For those of you who don’t know, Nani was my babysitter growing up while my parents were at work!) I am so glad I finally got to see the beautiful Espana!