Being Sick in a Foreign Country Sucks

So, for my first completely free weekend in Barcelona, I was sick, probably with some sort of flu. Normally, I´m not a really good sick person. I complain a lot and feel awfully sorry for myself. I curl up in bed and imagine all the horrible things that my sickness could be: cancer, TB, malaria. In a foreign country, where I can´t really understand the television, being sick is seriously boring. It was so boring that I forgot to feel sorry for myself. I spent most of the day Friday sleeping, and most of the day Saturday doing the same. And because my apartment is not stocked to the gills like my condo is in Long Beach, eating became a big issue. But, interestingly, because I had to go get food, it got me out of the house, so I had another reason why not to feel so sorry for myself.

Even with my illness on Friday, I managed to get to the Basilica de Santa Maria del Mar and see an amazing rendition of Mozart´s Requieum. Now the first thing you have to know about this performance was that it was in a gothic church, and it really was unlike any other musical experience I had. The acoustics were, of course, amazing, but also because it hadn´t been designed with a modern ear in mind, the performance wasn´t overly loud, which meant that I found myself leaning over and hanging onto every note.

The two bad musical things: the conductor seemed to be in a race against time to finish it because -- whew -- was it fast; and the soprano clearly doesn´t play well with others because she couldn´t blend with the other soloists to save her life.

But in general it was an amazing performance. My favorite things was the tenor on the far left who had the whole thing memorized. That´s right, he had a 45 minute requieum memorized. He didn´t even bother bringing his music on stage. My other favorite was the alto on the far right who looked like she was either having an orgasm or a deeply religious experience during the whole performance. She also performed for the crowd like an opera singer, and barely looked at the conductor. But there were a few times, seriously, like in the Lachrimosa, when I thought she was going to faint, she seemed so overcome.

I went with a few students, some of which seemed to be exhibiting symptoms of ADHD, but after, some of them and I went to a tapas place. Some of the girls got artichoke chips -- which were amazing, and completely unexpected. They´re potato chips, but made of artichokes. I had my first patatas bravas, a Catalan speciality, which is essentially deep fried potatoes served with a really hot red sauce and mayonnaise. They were yummy, but they went right through me, thanks to my illness, and I crawled to the metro, and into my bed.

The next day consisted of more sleeping, but then I met my friend Mariano´s friend Ibon for coffee in the afternoon. I was feeling much better by then, and we ended up spending about 3 hours together talking until he had to go to a party, and I had to go to a party. One of the students, Stephanie, is a caterer in California, and -- wow-- can she cook! The food was yummy. There weren´t many people there, including the guest of honor, who left so that she could go to Sitges. But it was a perfect outing for me because it was really low key, and I was home and in bed by 1 a.m.

Today, I´m feeling much, much better. I seem to have only a cold at this point. My nose is running more copiously than the Trevi fountain. But my fever is gone. So today, I went to Parc Ciutadella. It was a beautiful day, so I spent most of the time just sitting in the sun reading The Sun Also Rises, which I had forgotten is such an amazing book. I have some pictures which I will post later. The park used to be the old military fort that kept the population down, and it´s now considered the biggest park in Barcelona, but I don´t see how that´s possible since Montjuich and Tibidabo are much bigger. Maybe those two aren´t considered parks since they haven´t been managed very much. In any case, Ciutatdella was great. In a small bandstand, I came across a bunch of people swing dancing (Tamara!). I have a picture of it, which I´ll post later, but it was hysterical. Here I am in Barcelona, and people are swinging in the park.