Moltes gràcies, Barcelona - 17

Hey! Thanks for checking out the last blog post on my fall semester in Barcelona.. It's been a lot of fun for me to put these how-do-you-dos together, and it's also been a good excuse for keeping a chronicle of my trip that I can look back on. I'm humbled that y'all have checked out "Una Estancia en el Extranjero" over 2,000 times from over a dozen countries. If you've found the updates even mildly entertaining, then I can quite happily say that my blog has served its purpose.

So this last post I'm writing from the good 'ol USA; I arrived back home late last night, after experiencing my own share of the weather mess that has plagued Europe this past week. As the columnist mentions, the whole European airport freeze seems a bit absurd: "It snows in winter. This shattering discovery has now cast Britain and France into chaos for a week, with London’s dysfunctional Heathrow airport leading British claims to be officially designated a third-world nation." In my case, Brussels hadn't quite figured out how to obtain enough de-icing fluid for their planes, so my Tuesday departure for the U.S. was delayed for two more days.. Although the really frustrating part for me wasn't even the two-day delay, but just trying to figure out what was going on after my flight was cancelled. The Continental window at Barcelona's airport is conveniently open for three whole hours a day, and amidst the chaos of many other people trying to figure out what was going on with their flights, it took me five hours - of phone calls, waiting, and communication with three different airlines - to get my flight re-booked. I'm still not sure I understand what happened, because Continental was blaming Brussels Airlines, Brussels was blaming Continental, and United Airlines (which, just to make things interesting, has sort-of merged with Continental) was thrown in the mix somewhere along the way. But the good news is that my re-routed flight took me through Madrid, which meant that yesterday I was able to avoid the disaster areas of London, Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, and Brussels..

But enough of the travel situation. In this adéu to Barcelona, I figured I'd make a list of things I'll miss about that singular city and its myriad charms (the rankings have no bearing on their value, btw):

#1 - Carlos the Security Guard. Always cheerful, he would often greet me by name as I left my student residencia.

#2 - GBU. Grupos Bíblicos Universitários, a Christian group at the Autònoma, my university in Spain. Great, scripture-loving people.

#3 - Pick-up soccer games. Playing with Spaniards is always fun, as they're very skilled passers who teach you how to make the ball do the work.

#4 - Gaudí. The man, the legend. And the architect! I'll definitely miss seeing his zany but awesome creations, like the Pedrera, the Sagrada Família, and Parc Güell.

#5 - CASB. That's my study abroad program, the Consortium for Advanced Studies in Barcelona. While it's dubious how advanced the studies were, the other CASBers were definitely some advanced friends by the end of the trip.

#6 - ICB. The International Church of Barcelona. I loved my Sundays and Wednesdays with ICB, and will definitely remember it fondly. A great place of healing, rest, companionship, and prayer.

#7 - Café con leche.. That's coffee with milk (and tons of sugar if you're a real Spaniard!), a simple but delicious hot drink that's common all over the country. I love how they whip the hot milk and how the little circle of milk sits cheerfully on the top of the drink with the richly-colored ring of coffee around it.. Lovely.

#8 - Bocadillos. Some of my friends got sick of these very typical Spanish sandwiches, but I feel like I could keep eating them forever. Some of my favorites were: bocadillo de tortilla de patatas (bocadillo with potato tortilla), bocadillo de queso (cheese bocadillo), and bocadillo francesa (egg omelette).. All, of course, with abundant tomato spread on the bread.

#9 - Mis amigos. Thanks so much to all my great friends in Barcelona.. Whether you're American, Spanish, Catalan, Hungarian, Ghanaian, Indian, Swedish, English... You guys made my stay as awesome as it was.

#10 - FC Barcelona. Thank you for incredible soccer and for inspiring the passionate fan base that made watching your games so much fun.

Of course, there are many more things I will miss & cherish about Barcelona but these 10 came to mind first.

Well, I guess this is goodbye for now, at least as far as my involvement as an internauta in the blogosphere goes. I'll be heading to Panama next semester, which will be fascinating and exciting but in a different way. My time in Panama will be total immersion in tropical biology, whereas this fall has been more of a "spiritual, cultural, political exchange thing". I'll consider posting every so often about my experiences with Panamanian flora & fauna, but I definitely won't be doing the same weekly updates.

With that, thanks for reading. All that's left then is to wish you a Merry Christmas and joyful New Year!