Forever.

Friends, I am happy to say that the sickness has passed! The doctor gave me a few meds, an anti-stringent diet (?), and told me that my body reacts to fevers in strange ways. This achy pain that I get every few months is my body's way of fighting off fever, but sometimes it reacts more strongly than other times... hence the anti-stringent diet. Sadly, I got sick during the week of La Merce and only got to see 3 of the big events. I wish I could have seen more, but it was much better that I stayed close to my bed, which is close to the bathroom if you get my drift. Sorry, but I just like to keep it real.

There's a lot to update you guys on.

For organizational purposes, this post will be bulleted.

* Last Friday kicked of La Merce. If you forgot (or if I forgot to tell you), La Merce is the festival that celebrates Barcelona and the Roman Catholic feast day of Our Lady of Mercy. Each city has a patron saint, and Barcelona's is Mare de Deu de la Merce. Friday's festivities included a parade of sorts. I say "of sorts" because I'm not really sure it can be categorized as a parade. The name Correfoc, literally "fire run," should give you an example of what we experienced. Community groups dress up as devils and demons and run through the streets wielding fireworks, flame throwers, and even dragon-like contraptions that blow fire. I really don't know how to explain it, but that's probably because I don't even know the purpose of it.
This is in the middle of an explosion. As you can tell from that girl's face, people weren't that concerned about being burned.



I think something crazy happened behind me right when this picture was taken...

* The next day I woke up and headed to Placa Sant Jaume to see the Castellers de Barcelona. This is the most traditionally "Spanish" part of the festival. Essentially teams from different community groups create towers of people and a small child climbs to the top. Unfortunately I was feeling quite sickly by this point, and I only stayed long enough to see one tower completed. I wish I could have stayed longer. It was really cool! If only I were a little taller... I had to take all of these with the camera held above my head, so I'm sorry that they're not very good... or straight.


This team didn't make it. They started climbing down after this.




These guys were the first to build a complete tower. You can kind of see the child on top in the last picture. The little bugger was so fast I couldn't get her holding her arm up in victory.

*I went to the International Church of Barcelona again this past Sunday. This time I chose to go to the later service, and it proved to be an excellent decision as there were many more people my age attending. The 20s/30s group had a cookout after church and I got to go and be a part of that. It was held in Les Planes which is more than gorgeous! It's an area in Barcelona, but outside of the hustle and bustle of the city. The church owns a house there where people are constantly meeting for church/prayer/gatherings/etc. It also has several rooms for people to stay in when they are visiting. The pastor of ICB and his wife live in the little apartment upstairs.
The large building in front is the Les Planes metro stop building. The whiteish/yellowish (it's yellow in real life) house to the left is the house ICB owns.

It was good to be able to meet and spend time with other Christians my age. I've definitely missed that since I've been here. Hopefully, I'll get to know them more as the semester goes on. I've decided to join a small group with them, and that starts Wednesday night. I pray that it will be a good time of growth and fellowship.

*I've written this post over the course of a few days because the internet here is less than stellar. Less than stellar internet = hard to upload photos. So, I've kind of forgotten all that I wanted to share. I have a few more pictures from a parade, and will share them when I get them on my computer. Here are a few random pictures for you.



El Corte Ingles- my one-stop peanut butter shop! Seriously, it's the only place I've found in this city that has peanut butter.



**The title of this post has nothing to do with the content. It's just my current favorite song by Ben Harper. If you want to make me happy "forever" you could send me some Ben Harper music :) Please enjoy this youtube video.