Erin & Rob in Spain: Barcelonians are crazy!

So we haven't posted in a little while. This is due to two things: 1.) We have been pretty busy. It's a lot of work going to buy groceries every other day, working 6-8 hours a week, and hanging out with friends almost every night. (please note the sarcasm) and 2.) Barcelona never sleeps.. well except the siesta during the day which is still very common and popular for those of you who have been asking us about the siesta. Most people here close up their shops/businesses around 1/2 PM to go grocery shopping, eat a large lunch with the family, and take a little siesta (nap), then go back to work around 4/5 PM and close around 7/8 PM. Since working people don't get home until around 9 PM, families eat a light dinner around 9:30/10 PM. When they finish around 11/11:30 PM, most people just then start to go out to meet up with friends for a beer or a night time café (very popular to do this). And, apparently Friday and Saturday are not the only days to go out here. It is very common to go out every night here. Most restaurants are open until about 2 in the morning and you see people sitting with friends on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday... night. So as we've been trying to adjust to a "normal" sleeping schedule from the jet lag and time difference, we've been trying to live the "Barcelona" lifestyle, which, like we said, basically means you don't sleep. So on a Sunday or weekday, it is common to go out until about 2 AM. Weekends are another story. You don't meet up with your friends until about 12/1 in the morning and then you go to the bars/clubs around 2/3 in the morning and stay out until about 6/7 in the morning. CRAZY.

So we went out Friday and Saturday with our friends and we were out until about 5:30 in the morning both nights. Had a lot of fun.

Sunday night, we went to a really cool Irish bar to watch the 49ers/Ravens game. The bar was huge and full of Americans. It was kind of cool and kind of annoying. Felt like being back at home for a night. Here's a pic of the bar from up top where we were. Yes, there was karoke going on downstairs- if you can see the lyrics someone was singing a lovely version of Diana Ross' I Will Survive. :) Craziness. All on a Sunday night around midnight.

Monday night is trivia night. So we went to trivia with our friends at yet another Irish pub. Trivia starts at 11:15 PM. Needless to say, we stay out until about 2-3 AM easily. We won last week, but lost our strongest team member this week and we got second place by 2 points :/ Still fun.

Tuesday night we went out for a friend's birthday and had a few drinks at a local bar called Kulas. Out until about 3:30 AM. Took it easy Wednesday and Thursday and getting to start the cycle again tonight! As much as this sounds like going out and partying, it's more than that here. It's a culture that respects family and friendships and caring more about sitting and talking with people than watching TV, playing video games, going on facebook, playing on the latest electronic, etc. It's a much simpler life. You don't see anyone glued to their iPads or a lot of consumerism. People are content with just living life- eating delicious, fresh healthy food, being with family, and going out with friends. It's refreshing to see and one of the reasons we wanted to move here.

Another thing we have learned since moving here is that Barcelona is like a melting pot of people. There are people from all over the world who live in Barcelona and call it home. We have met friends from Australia, Ireland, Sweden, Canada, the United States, Vietnam, Brazil, Holland, Nigeria and we've only been here three weeks. It makes us feel a little less like outsiders. Still practicing our Spanish so we can order at the local market though...

We took some pictures of our apartment. Erin has an album on her facebook too if you want to check those out. It's small, but we really like it. It feels very "homey." It came fully furnished and painted which was a huge plus for us!

View from the door