9/26/10 Piromusical

I woke up pretty late again.  I had breakfast and Pepita’s granddaughter had slept over the night before, so we hung out together.  Paola is 6, so we drew pictures together.  Her dad came to pick her up and Pepita and I went with them to their apartment for lunch.  Lunch was to celebrate the birthdays of the two parents—because both birthdays were the week before.  We had the same type of cake and cava (champagne from Spain).  Everyone got a glass except for Paola.  From their house, I met Emily on the beach.  It was kind of cold when the sun went into the clouds, but it was nice to get some vitamin D.  The worst part of the beach is the vendors.  Every two minutes an Asian woman will come up saying “Masaje? Massage?  Masaje?”  They don’t even care if you’re sleeping, they’ll just keep saying it until you wake up.  There are also people trying to sell everything from soda and water to coconut and sunglasses.  It was actually not relaxing to be there, because you always had to ignore them, and I’m not exaggerating when I say every two minutes. 

I went home and was going to write my blog, when Pepita’s son showed up with two of his friends.  He is older and is a Tai Chi teacher.  He is a model Tai Chi teacher… overweight and a chain smoker.  We sat on the patio and talked.  Pepita broke out the picture book of New England again—definitely getting its use.  They stayed until the sun started to go down and it got cold.  Pepita and I ate dinner around eight, so I could get ready for the fireworks show.

I met up with Chris, Dhariana, Kevin and Kelly (all the kids who live near me) and we took the metro to Plaza de España.  Once again it felt like the whole city had come out.  The final show of the weekend was not a let down either.  It took place in front of the palace.  The fountain and the fireworks were both timed with music.  I was surprised with how much American music they used—about 85%.  At one point, a voice came on in Catalan and then all the sudden everyone lit sparklers and a Spanish/Catalan/ English version of “Imagine” by the Beatles came on.  We didn’t even attempt to try to get back on the metro when the show ended.  Instead we decided to walk back and stopped in a café for a snack.  Some people got gelato while everyone else got hot chocolate.  By the way, ice cream doesn’t exist in Spain, except for Ben and Jerry’s it is all gelato.  The hot chocolate I got was delicious, but not as thick as the chocolate “pudding” drink that I had last week.  Overall a good end to the festivities of the weekend.