The Rain in Spain Falls Mainly on...

Hey folks! Last time we communicated I was in Barcelona and sober, and although I stayed in Barcelona, I didn't stay sober. What ensued in the three following days of my last blog post were three consecutive nights of going out until 7 am. 7 AM is insane, but what's really insane is that's what people in Spain do EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. Well, probably not every single night, but I've heard in the summer that's how it is. People grab dinner around 10 or 11, go out for drinks around 12 or 1, and then start heading to clubs around 2. They then wake up the next morning, probably pretty late, head to work for a little, take a LONG siesta in the afternoon, and then maybe go back to work in the afternoon. And still, people wonder why Spain's unemployment rate is one of the highest in Europe-people are so damn lazy! (compared to Vietnam at least). But back to our nights out. The first night we went on a pub crawl with some American girls whom we met at our ritual meusli breakfast joint who had just arrived on a study abroad program. For 15 euros at a pubcrawl, you get lead around by young expats living in Barcelona from pub to pub, and eventually to club, and get handed free shots at various times. I realized the monetary benefits were clearly not in our favor, as we only received several watered down half shots of jungle juice. I also didn't like feeling like a stupid tourist being lead around the streets of Barcelona while someone yelled constantly reminding us of pickpocketers and excessive noise. However, it was so much fun being with American college kids for a change, so the night was awesome. The next night, our Brussels friend Pierre took us to some nice bars and clubs, and we enjoyed the less touristy side of Barcelona (there were actually a lot of Italians and Germans, it was just that there weren't any Americans there). During this three day stint, we hardly slept at all and were pretty much non-functional the entire day. We did make it out and about in Barcelona though, and we spent a day at the Olympic stadium and the area around it. They had one of the coolest museums I've ever been to, a high tech and highly interactive display of the history of the Olympics and sport. One of the main things I took away from the day was that it is absolutely essential, and we all must do everything in our power, to make sure that the Olympics come to Chicago in 2016. Seriously. The most worldly event, a collaboration of sport and competition and culture, an event that represents everything humanity strives for in a global community, in our hometown! Chicago 2016. Come on!
We took a flight down to Malaga the day after, a smaller city located on the southern coast of Spain. We were expecting a little warmer weather than the excessively cold and non stop rain we had received in Barcelona, but our expectations weren't exactly met. It's a little warmer here, and when it's sunny it's beautiful, but it's not Malaga in the summer- which I can only imagine would be paradise. I recently found out that a guy called Effy whom I used to play soccer with lives in Malaga, and had a game the night we were arriving. So as soon as we landed, Matt and I scrambled to find a bus that would take us to his game (Sam opted out and chose to find us a place to sleep for the night). It was a little difficult finding a way to his game, especially since it was a Saturday evening and so few people speak English here. In favor of catching at least part of the game, we decided to splurge on a taxi, and made it with 35 minutes left in the 2nd half. I missed both of Effy's goals, but it was still cool to see two higher level Spanish teams with players of my age. My reactions- their individual skills were exceptional, much better than anything you see in the US. The speed of play was also much quicker than games in the US, and I think if one of the best teams in Illinois came to play this team, us Yanks would get smoked. However, their play is much less physical. They go hard to the ball, but not like Americans do. If you were to take the majority of the players on the field, and place them in a college level game with only Americans, I don't think they'd be able to fit in with the American style and they probably wouldn't be that successful. So there's my soccer analysis, sorry if you think soccer's lame.
Effy's parents invited us over to their house for dinner, and we enjoyed some nice home cooked Spanish food. It was Saturday night, so Effy took us out to the city where I saw something that every American high schooler dreams about. Every Saturday night in Malaga, they close down a main street by the beach, and people of all ages head to the street to listen to music, talk with friends, drink Sangria, pound shots, and get inhebriated. At around 32 degrees, it was one of the coldest nights of the year, and still, there were over 1000 people there. This being the 4th consecutive night of what I described earlier, we opted into taking it a little easier than we had been. But just being around such a festive and laid back environment made it an incredible night, and it was one of the coolest places I've been so far.
We've been hanging out in Malaga the last couple days. Yesterday, we were graced by great weather, and we headed to a small village to the East and checked out some caves that hold the Guiness World Record for the largest chamber in the world, pretty neat. We then went and hung out by the beach for several hours, overlooking the beautiful sea and coastline.
Our plans have changed for the next couple of weeks. We plan to go to Morocco tomorrow, for somewhere between a week or two, and then head back to Spain to catch a flight from Madrid to the Canary Islands. We have no idea what the Canary Islands are like- they're supposed to be one of the most amazing places on earth, but they're supposed to be very touristy and filled with only 5 star resorts, something that won't fit into our budget. So we'll have to figure some other accomadations out, but we're going for it anyways.
Talk soon, be well, and of course...

Chicago 2016!