Los Campeones del Mundo!

Wow, what a weekend. If you have not heard, Spain won the Eurocup last night!! It was crazy. This weekend started for me on Thursday night with the Russia/Spain game. They put up a big screen in Plaza Mayor where we watched it with probably a thousand other people.

Notice how everyone has dark hair :o)

It was a sea of red and yellow. After they won, (against Russia) we celebrated for a while and got up early to drive to Portugal. We got back from Portugal just in time to watch the last game (against Germany). If I thought there were a lot of people in the Plaza for the semi-final, there were twice as many for the final!

There is me towards the center on the left side! Can you see me? It was wonderful. When we scored everyone went crazy! When the game was over there was singing and dancing and honking and yelling and drinking and lots of jumping in fountains. It was incredible to be able to be here for that. The streets were crazy for a while afterwards. I had a loooong night the night before so I was home by two but many of my friends were out most of the night. When I walked home, I saw people of all ages. Young kids, lots of students, even the elderly still out and about each celebrating in their own way. Our morning class was moved to the afternoon so we had this morning to recover. Soccer is such a big deal here. There are even some stores that were closed the day after.
It was really great! I bought a newspaper this morning so I could keep the headlines.

In between the two games we drove all the way to Lisbon, Portugal. (Which made for a really long weekend). We stopped at a beach along the way- it was SOO good to see the ocean. I didn't realize how much I missed the beach.

The ride was long, it took most of the day though we did stop several times. We went to bed late and got up early to a feast of a breakfast in our hotel! It was especially nice to be able to have eggs for breakfast. In Spain eggs are dinner food. Sometimes just eggs. Sometimes eggs with hot dogs. Weird, huh?

Communication was strange in Portugal. It has been a long time since I felt as clueless about how to talk to someone. In Portugal, they speak Portuguese (of course) which is similar enough to Spanish that I felt like I should be able to communicate with them but far enough that it just made things confusing. And, although many of them speak or at least understand Spanish, we were given the impression that they are somewhat offended by it because it makes them feel "colonized" as one professor told us. So when I am in a foreign country my mind automatically switches to Spanish but then I couldn't use it. It was strange. I guess I felt a lot like the people from my group who don't know Spanish have felt for the past three weeks. Makes you feel kinda stupid.

Portugal was a whirlwind. We got in late Friday and left early Sunday so we really had only one full day. We went to a museum that was once someone's private art collection and had pieces from multiple cultures... egyptian, arabic, chinese, spanish, impressionist paintings and much more.


There are many aspects of Lisbon that are reminiscent of San Francisco. This bridge for instance: (me with my roommate Angelina)

After a busy day of cathedral, museum, tour, and beach, a smaller group of us made it to the other side of town just in time to watch the sunset over the city from the palace walls. We took the metro and a trolley (like in San Fran) to get there and walked up lots of hills. It was worth it. Totally gorgeous.

So it was a busy busy weekend full of football, sun, and driving. I think I will stay in tonight in an effort to prepare for our trip up North on Wednesday! So much traveling! But, it should be fun. We are driving to Asturias to my professor's house we will be gone from the 2nd until the 8th. Long time in a small vehicle with 9 people....
It should be fun. Hope this post finds you all well!
(PS My niece rolls over now! She is getting so big and I am missing it! I miss you guys. I am almost halfway through my travels. I'm sure I'll be home before I know it.)
Love
Kari