Moral? Very High.

This weekend has been especially good for me.

So I subscribe to various online zine/cultural reader kind of things (thanks to Lindsay!) that tell me every month some of the cool under the radar things that are going on in Barcelona. That's how I found out about John Lennon's birthday celebrations. I also read about this flea market that was last night.

Hannah and I excited for the flea market agreed to meet at metro Paral-lel at 8:00. We found each other and armed with the street name and a map we set out to find this place. I imagined it in a big open square and figured we couldn't miss it. So we are zigzagging through these narrow dark streets looking for this flea market. When we found the street we started to think this place didn't exist when I noticed a small sign above a poorly lit doorway. There were a few people milling about outside but for the most part the whole block was deserted. We ducked inside to find the golden nugget of flea markets.

We were immediately hit with a wave of heat emanating from the throng of people inside. Inside the entry way you could make out from the top of stairs a large well lit room of probably 60 feet by 60 feet with no windows. Laid out on platforms were heaps of old vintage clothing, books, old albums, sunglasses, retro anything, funky jewelry, and nik nacks and pins. It was awesome!

I came away with a funky pair of bright purple sunglasses (2 euros), a hot red mini skirt in great condition (4 euros), a retro teal plaid button up shirt (3 euros) and a embroidered red leather purse (2 euros). My big excitement of the night was finding a used Harry Potter book for 4 euros! I was so excited to read it in Spanish that I snapped it up only to discover outside it was in Catalan! Sadly I returned to the vendor and told him I couldn't read Catalan and he laughed and said, "No pasa nada" and gave me back my money.

Hannah and I left the stuffy flea market to go over our purchases on a street stoop. We were so excited by our finds and the deals. It was so much fun! We walked around the neighborhood for a while and found a bar that had the Portugal world cup qualifying game on and stopped to watch that for a while. All in all a great night.

Lindsay (where would I be without you!???) told me about this great site called Loquo.com. It is exactly like Craigslist but for Barcelona. So Friday I posted a language exchange add. My english for your spanish. I said I was looking for someone my age to go get drinks and practice Spanish with. Well I got over 20 responses! Most we older guys telling me they looked younger than they were...uh huh sure. But one girl, Julia, said she was 19, originally from Sevilla, and studying here. Perfect! We friended each other on Facebook and today met for drinks.

I was so excited to meet with her because I have yet to make that all elusive Spanish friend. In my University classes the Spanish kids stick together in a tight knit group and don't talk to anyone else...So we walked to a cafe and talked for over two hours! We talked about classes, going out, Europe, and culture. We bonded over Ratatat, Casablanca, and our love of English accents. It was fantastic. When we paid for our drinks we walked back to the metro together. When we had to go our separate ways we kissed goodbye and she told me that she had a lot of fun and that would like to meet again and get to know me. I said, "Of course!" We agreed to talk over facebook and meet again soon! A SPANISH FRIEND!!! POR FIN!!!!!!!

Tomorrow is Pilar's Saint Day, so we are going to have a ton of amazing food. I am going to go buy her flowers in the morning. Then later in the afternoon I have another language exchange partner an older woman that I spoke to on the phone. And on Friday I am meeting with ANOTHER language exchange partner, a 23 year old Italian guy who seems excited to practice his english. So I'm excited about all the Spanish going on currently. I knew I'd break away from those Americans eventually!

Current Moral? Very High.