9-20

Is it really Monday?

Lets seeee....

I made my down-payment on my apartment on Friday =) Toni came with me and got the tour and spoke a lot with the flat-mates... he loves the room, the place, the people... he's happy for me... and that means a LOT since he's FROM Barcelona and knows a good deal when he sees it... Isobel (who's sort of in charge of the flat, she's the oldest and has been living there for 4 years) told Toni that as soon as they saw me they knew they wanted me to live there! And Toni thought "Look at my Becky, everyone loves her" :)

On Saturday Paul had sort of an off-day; we went to the pool but he didn't really like it too much... he was done in an hour and wanted to go home.

There had been a storm the night before and it created huuuge waves at the beach... So I decided to distract him and take him there and maybe he would want to stay... and of course he was sooo ready to put his bathing suit back on. I was a little scared he was going to be terrified while being thrown in the waves around but he loooved it.

I had dinner at Toni's house with him, Rafa, and Claudia... pizza. Then we drove 30 minutes to a small town and had to walk up this really dark path with huge stairs and rocks and bushes... I thought I was going to be attacked by some Spanish animal.. or a snake. The party was at a gooorgeous house that was really old and had a castle tower and 3 floors and was simply amazing. Everyone at the party had been drinking since noon and they were completely wasted... so we stayed for maybe 30 minutes... and drove the 30 minutes back to Barcelona.

On Sunday was the big raaace!!! 10K Cursa de La Merce. La Merce starts on the 23rd or 24th and is the festival of Barcelona... so it's a big deal.

There were 14,000 people running... in sexy pink shirts

In the end, Ignacio finished in an hour, Toni finished in 1:12, and Alexia and I finished in 1:31... my joints were killing me... my breathing was fine, but my knees and ankles couldn't take it. I think it's time for new shoes.

We had a great lunch and I took Paul to the pool. He wasn't really into it again, and was done in about an hour, so we met Alexia at La Rambla to walk around. We went to the Cathedral, which he loves, and we saw the geese and wandered around to kill time.

We met up with Alexia and her friend Ana and we saw the best band...

Paul was loving them.. so I told him to GO DANCE!!! And he raaaan to the band and stared banging on the cymbal... I had to run after him and drag him away... such a musician haha... I couldn't stop laughing.

In the evening I asked Toni to come pick me up to hang out... we had no idea what to do or where to go and once he decided he wouldn't fill me in on where we were going. It was a "surprise". We ended up at the beach... a part of the beach I had never been to. We walked around and I saw across the street some lights... and it was a carnival. So we walked around there for a little.

Back at the beach people were all over... on the sand, sitting on the wall... I asked why and Toni said it was because it was such a nice night with no clouds. He said people came to see the moon over the sea. I said I see that all the time at my house... he said not in Barcelona. True...

But then we found out the REAL reason everyone was at the beach.

So it was a nice surprise for both of us :)