Living Statues in Barcelona?!

I come to you from the dear country of Espana! While our dear Sarah Miller takes advantage of this siesta time by snoozing away, I’m just chilling in the hammock of our hostel listening to my girl Ella Fitzgerald, courtesy of Jenning Tanner’s laptop. What could be better? (Stop your snickering, we’ve already maintained that I’m a theatre dork and an art dork as well, now you’ve got dirt on my jazz addiction. I wish I had a voice like she, but in order for that to occur, I’d have to gain about a hundred pounds and change skin color, as well as smoke a pack a day, yuck, to get Ella’s dear rasp. Still, one can wish…)

We arrived in Barcelona last night, late. REAL late, the metros had already shut down. But who can complain, the flight was only 15 pounds from Luton Airport to Barcelona, on Ryan Air. I think we paid maybe 56 pound for both of us in total, including taxes. See, the delays served to save us money by not taking the Chunnel if nothing else. (And Audra, I’ve got one picture of some stencil graffiti, I’ll email it to you, but I’ve no idea who did it. It’s just cool)

On to the topic at hand: Barcelona. What a vibrant city, full of rhythm and life, gypsies and music, open air markets, blue roses, café con leche, classical acoustic guitars, sangria, and tapas. I’ll tell you this, those years of learning Spanish in school? I’m grateful for them, seriously. As for art, the city is packed full. We spent the majority of the morning exploring los mercados del aire libre (open air markets), heading down Las Ramblas, which is a loooooooong street packed with everything you can think of, notably the living statues, who made money by allowing you to take their picture for a donation. They were hilarious- dressing up from Humphrey Bogart to the invisable man to a huge fat lady bumping into the throngs of people filling the streets. I’d talk about our amazing hostel but this is already getting long, I’ll save that for next entry.

As I’m sitting here writing, trying to paint you a picture of this festival with my words, I realize how inadequate my description truly is. There is nothing I can do to send you the sights of a gypsy on a Metro, the smell of delicious tapas or the salty Spanish port air. I can only wish you feel the rocking of a Barcelona metro train, or the sensation of walking through the art museum, with so many ideas zooming through your eyes that you brain starts to feel as you’ve licked a battery. I can only give you words, transported to your monitor via pixels and binary code. I’m learning so much: to love life, to truly see everyday as a gift from God just waiting to be opened, to not be afraid of growing up, that it is better to speak a language you don’t know perfectly and get to know the person behind the language barrier.

This is life. A journey, a pilgrimage we’ve already begun without realization. Only now am I beginning to see this… Blessings for you today, blessings for tomorrow, blessings from the God who made them both.
Sarah.Hope