Seeing a Barcelona football match was a thing I was looking forward to a lot ever since I knew I was going to Barcelona. Last Saturday Mette and I saw our first match at the Camp Nou! And oh my, it was really great! Strange at some points as well, but in general just a great experience.

It started when getting to the stadium. There were 82.000 people to see the match (FC Barcelona - Real Betis Sevilla) and even though the stadium is huge, we still got to our seats within about 5 minutes… and were able to stop for a hot-dog along the way! There was no security checks what so ever. They checked our tickets at the first main gate and ripped a piece off. Then at the second and last gate to actually get into the stadium, we just had to use the bar-code from the ticket to open a little gate and we were in. So weird in such a big stadium! Not even being frisked or anything?!

The match itself was good fun. Barcelona mainly on the attack, but defending so badly that Real Betis got much more chances, but failed to make them so Barcelona never looked troubled. And it was truely amazing to see Ronaldinho play! Oh my lord… I thought he was quite good, but he was just SO much better!!! By far the best on the pitch. And by far the best I ever seen in real life. Just amazing. Every touch of the ball seemed so easy, yet so briljant. Passes, tricks, but also his movement without the ball… Just amazing. And without a doubt the best player on this earth at the moment!

Strange things at the stadium were the Barcelona fans… so unbelievably quiet!!! The have just 2 songs (Barça, Barça, Barça & Fútbol Club Barcelona) and some occasional but rare cheers (Ronaldinho, Ronaldinho, Ronaldinho or Messi, Messi, Messi), but that was about it… Really weird. And for some reason hardly any supporters wear the Barcelona shirt, or even just a scarf. We bought scarf’s just before the match, but way more then half of the people had nothing to indicate their love for the Barcelona football team…

But all in all it was a great experience! Already looking forward to go see another Barcelona match! :-)

Update (February 27, 2006):
Some highlights from the game I was able to capture on camera! Please don’t complain about the quality… I don’t have a magic zoom! ;-) Pictures of the game and Camp Nou will follow later. Stay tuned!!!

Briljant play! (11.8 MB)		Ronnie goal (9.9 MB and watch your neck!!!)

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… but it wasn’t meant to be… Snoesy wasn’t pregnant after all. Very strange, because she had never dug so many holes then in the two weeks after she had met the male bunny… Plus she had never played in the hay, let alone make somewhat of a nest in it… Strange… very strange. And sad. But hey, better luck next time! I just figure she had a fun time with the male bunny and she just wants to see him again! ;-)

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Oi, oi, oi… It’s not all fun being away from home, when your bunny is pregnant… I am just so curious about how things are going with Snoesy. The news that gets to me is just that she is doing great, looking great and only digging A LOT of holes at the moment. But that seems to be very normal for pregnant bunnies… So there is not much to worry about, but still I do and are very curious about what is going to happen!

Even more as she was “calculated” to give birth today or tomorrow… So it might happen tonight!!! Will be fun if it does and my mamma calls me in the morning when I am in class! “Sorry, I really have to take this call!” *hahaha* :-)
But we will see. See is getting her “medication” (half an aspirin in her water), to make sure she don’t get a fever when giving birth. If she does she could eat the little ones or even die, so that would be the worst nightmare, but with the medication she should be totally fine as getting the fever is almost impossible!

For now I just look at the pictures my brother send me last week. And one thing is to say, my sweet bunny still looks very sexy while being pregnant! Well, how could she not! ;-)

Snoesy		Up close		Getting candy

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All the exercise I had done in the year so far, consisted of just one gym-class with the seniors, early January, and one squash match a couple of days after that. A bit to little to say I am in great shape at the moment… So as the current school-schedule allows lots of time for exercise, I joined a local gym, LA Fitness, last week and already started to make the most out of it, with going 3 times in the first 4 days!

Well, I can for sure not keep up that frequency, as after just the crosstrainer and bike on Tuesday, running and Body-Pump on Thursday and intensive spinning on Friday, my body is currently (Sunday morning now) still in serious pain… Especially the Body-Pump proved to be killing for my upper legs… But a hot bath and taking it easy yesterday and today, should get me back in the gym on Monday!

It’s especially great as going to the gym fits so well in the current daily rhythm. School until 1300, still to early for lunch or to start home work, so gym from about 1400 until 1530, then lunch and maybe a little siesta followed by the homework. It sounds busy, but everything goes in the normal Spanish pace… tranquilo, tranquilo… :-)

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The challenge to learn Spanish has from today entered a different level. In our classes there is not much room for repetition of just common words, so to force myself to learn some basic Spanish words, I started to put little Post-it® notes all through my room, explaining what the basic things are: wall, postcard, book, computer, movie, vitamins, agenda, mobile phone, map, lamp, curtain, central heating, bed, closet, door, etc. etc. So far it’s working great! Ok, I do admit the room looks quite silly at the moment, with these Post-it® notes everywhere, but hey, anything to learn the language! :-)

And yes, truely anything goes now, because today I also bought a children’s book! “Bambi, el principe del bosque.” Yes, very childish, but that is exactly the level of Spanish which I am at. I did the same when I was in Sweden, and that proved to be great fun! With lovely books as “Jag vil gräve”. Maybe not very useful in daily conversations, but easy to read and good fun to learn some extra words. The first book I got in Spanish was actually a present from Sally, El patito feo (The ugly duckling, a story she told in Spanish in her class) and now I got a second with Bambi. Plus I am still looking for a second-hand bookstore, to buy some more cheap children’s books!

Another great help will be the Friends episodes from season one I got on DVD now. I traded them, temporarily, with Magnus for my Seinfeld season 6. So now I can watch Friends in English with Spanish subtitles, or, if I am feeling lucky, watch it in Spanish with Spanish subtitles! All for good practise and because I am very curious how Joey will say “How you doin’?” in Spanish! ;-)

Post-it® my room

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Slowly I am starting to see more and more of Barcelona. I never been much of a tourist, but I am learning to be one! Making more pictures then I normally would do, and started visiting museums and exposures. And I am liking it.

More Montjuïc: Lovely place. At night as well. Every Friday and Saturday evening there is a fountain show with classical music and colourful waterfalls and fountains. And the inside of the Palau Nacional, the Museu Nacional D’art De Catalunya, is very beautiful.

Palau Nacional		Palau Nacional at night		La Font Magica

La Pedrera: One of the houses build by Gaudi. I didn’t know much about Gaudi before coming to Barcelona. Of course I had heard of the mans name, but that was about it. Turns out he was truely a briljant architect!

Inside		Stairs		The roof		Art on the roof

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Last Thursday evening was the first time in Barcelona I went to see a sporting event. I would really like to see a FC Barcelona football match in the Camp Nou, and that will for sure happen before I leave, but on Thursday there was basketball. Barcelona should have the best team in Spain and also plays in the Euroleague. As they did that night against Armani Jeans Milano. I have seen some Basketball matches on the highest level in Holland, and that was always quite ok fun to watch, so when some people from my class were going, I was keen on joining them.

And fun it turned out to be! I don’t know that much about basketball, but the level of play was, in my opinion, quite good and the way the score developed made it even more exciting! Milano was up 5 to 8 points most of the match, until the final quarter! With 90 seconds to go Barcelona actually took a 74-71 lead!! But then the best player on the court, the Milano nr. 9, a very tiny guy called Bulleri, made yet another 3 point score and tied the game. After that the last minute was just about taking free-throws. Normally kinda boring, but with the score so close it turned out quite exciting. Milano deservedly won it in the end with 77-75, and we had a fun evening! :-)

Oh, two strange things about the basketball event… first was the Barcelona fans. They were unbelievable quiet! It took until way in the 3rd and 4th quarter before they finally started to support their team! Strange… I wonder how this will be at the football… But the second thing was much worse… The beer… oi, oi, oi… it was pure piss!!! 0,00% alcohol and by far the worst beer I ever tried in my life! :-|

If you are really into basketball, you can read the full game report here.

Board action		Winterthur FCB - Armani Jeans Milano (12.1 MB)

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