PERI: Andrew and the Pope visit BCN

Well it has been a very eventful week (? two weeks?... sorry!) since I last wrote.  On the 27th my fiance Andrew flew in for a week long visit!  Needless to say, it was fantastic to see him.  His first few experiences in BCN were not very pleasant ones.  Being blonde, I usually get a lot of unwanted attention from the local men, and I was really hoping that this would subside having Drew with me.  Unfortunately this was not the case.  Right off the bat we had people saying very nasty things to us, always ending in "Americanos".  Not only did we get negative attention because we are American, we also got negative attention from the older people because we are an interracial couple.  It really bothered Drew at first, but we learned to make a game with it, and it seemed like the staring and talking lightened up.  That aside, we had a wonderful time!  We did a lot of things: some things that I had never done before, and others that are my favorite things to do around here.  My favorite thing was going to the Labyrinth Park, I had never been before and it was so beautiful and romantic!

Eating gelato in the big market :)

Labyrinth

I am so thankful that he was able to come out here, he has a much better perspective of what my life is like over here now.  My words and stories are just not enough to convey my experiences.  It was really bittersweet saying goodbye; he reminded me of how much I miss home.  BUT, I only have 7 weeks left here, I can't believe it!  The upcoming weekend is the only weekend I have free until I go home... where has the time gone!?!

Fountain in Parque de la Cuidatella 

After Drew left, I spent the weekend catching up on homework and crossing things off my to-do list.  The one thing that I did plan to do this past weekend was head down to La Sagrada Familia Cathedral on Sunday (yesterday) because the Pope was paying Barcelona a visit!  La Sagrada Familia is the famous cathedral designed by Gaudi.  The church has been under construction for almost 100 years and is still not finished!  However, the Pope was coming to consecrate it so that mass can be held there every Sunday.  This is the first time in 20 years that the Pope has been in BCN, so there has been a lot of buzz about it for a long time.  Some people were very excited that he would be in town; others were outraged.  I found out that the cause for anger is not directed at the Catholic church, or at the Pope himself, but at the government.  It cost Spain 7 million Euro (about 9.75 million dollars) to bring the Pope here, and with the state that the country is in financially..... people get a little upset.  We had heard about several riots/protests that were supposed to take place and so we were a little leery of going out, but we decided that it was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Turns out, it was not the riots we needed to watch out for...  Myself, my roommate Elizabeth, and another girl from our program Jessica, went out about 10:45am in order to catch the Pope's exit from the cathedral at 12:45.  About 500,000 people were expected to be in this area today so many makeshift squares were set up to accommodate all the people.  Before it started to get really packed, Jessica made a comment about how there were a lot of paramedics and hospital stations around because of the large number of elderly people in attendance (and as it turns out... not just the elderly need them).  Of course, the day's events were running on "Spain time" and at 1:30, the Pope had still not made his exit, and was showing no signs of getting ready to.  By this time, we are pretty packed into this space, us 3 girls were about 4 rows of people back from the barrier on the street.  Long story short, I started to feel a little weak, so I told myself to take deep breaths, don't lock my knees, etc.  I turned to Elizabeth and said "I feel like I am going to pass out" (which I didn't mean literally at the time!), I took a deep breath and closed my eyes and the next thing I know, I am on the ground and I feel like I just woke up from a nap!   Cops and paramedics came out of the crowd to help me up and half-carry me to the ambulance that was close by.  I was in the ambulance for about 20 minutes, one of the paramedics spoke no English, and the other just a little, but they checked my blood sugar, heart rate, respirations, and took my blood pressure about 7 or 8 times.  I believe the reason I passed out was because of low blood pressure: I was hydrated, I had slept and eaten breakfast, and it was not hot in the crowd of people.  I don't remember any of this but apparently after I said I thought I was going to pass out I started to sway so Jessica grabbed me by the jacket and helped me fall gracefully to the ground.  It was a very strange experience!  I am glad that the paramedics were so responsive and were close by and that I had good friends to help me out.  The rest of the day I hydrated and rested, and today I am feeling much better.  Alas, I did not end up seeing the Pope :(.  I hear his exit was very disappointing though: he flew through the crowd in his PopeMobile, without slowing for the cliche parade waves or anything!  Well, that is all for now, sorry for the novel!!!

The last picture I took before I went down!  Lots of people!