How time passes

104 days, 17 hours, 40 minutes and one second then everything is over. Ok, that sounds pretty dramatic at first. But how is it possible that so little of my time here is left??? I find that totally crazy and surreal. Attentive readers know that I have a countdown app and enter important dates there. On the one hand, this is very practical but also a bit depressing. I once read that as a child, every period of time seems much longer because you have many more new impressions to process. As an adult, you have already seen everything and time passes much faster because you have less to process. Somehow that's true too, I feel like the days are just flying by, while the time before Christmas seemed super long and sometimes very exhausting. Now it's routine at work, the language is getting easier, doing household chores is still annoying but also easier, and I finally feel completely at home here.

Exactly because time goes by so quickly, I want to make the most of every day and I write a bucket list with things I absolutely want to experience in my last 100 days. For example, it will include watching a football match at Camp Nou, which I will do next Thursday. A friend of mine told me that next Thursday is the Women's Champions League semi-final (Chelsea vs. FCB). The tickets cost only 13€ (!!) and Marie and I immediately jumped at the chance. Even though I'm actually a Chelsea fan in the men's team, I'm naturally rooting for Barcelona and hope they win. I'm really looking forward to finally going to the largest stadium in Europe and being able to see a top game there.

After my super cool trip to Paris, I had to go back to work for the last two weeks. Not much has changed, the kids are still the same little devils as before the holidays. But now more kids eat in the Bona Tarda, which results in more noise and more dishes to wash. Unfortunately, I also cut my thumb deep on a broken glass. I don't want to complain too much because many kids were very happy to see me again and hugged me. The fourth graders even painted a picture for me together, which I want to hang on my wall. Between washing dishes and playing with the first graders, there was plenty of variety in the schoolyard. Last Monday, the third graders went to a pastry shop. The kids are currently learning about professions, so they get to know a different field of activity every week. In the pastry shop, we were shown around first and then made our own Easter creations. I got a super delicious free cappuccino and even made a rose for Sant Jordi out of white chocolate mass.

That came in handy because I could give the chocolate to my mother and my brother who visited me this week. The visit was really great and after some persuasion, I even got a day off. In the evenings, we always went out for sangria and food together. And the most important and best game of EU West was played, Settlers of Catan. Unfortunately, I didn't win but well, it happens to the best. It was particularly great to see my brother again, I finally had someone to tease again. No, just kidding, we have always had a really close relationship and I really missed him. I could show him Barcelona and discover it with him, that was really cool. Actually, we wanted to go to Park Güell. But unfortunately, it was already sold out, but that's not a big deal. Because we were in the Gracia neighborhood, which is really nice and worth recommending. It's much quieter and more relaxed there than on the Ramblas, and it felt like we were the only tourists there. But of course, we also went to the Plaça Catalunya, where I dragged Vinci to my favorite Indian restaurant (Surya-Mumbai Soul Food and drinks). Some gifts were also bought and I got rid of some sweaters and jackets that my family will take back to Germany.

But the days were over so quickly, but I didn't have much time to be sad. I even had a really good mood on Saturday, I discovered a new favorite reggaeton song and met friends in Barcelona. We went shopping and then cooked together. It was relaxing and fun. Totally Spanish, we took a siesta first and only really came back to life when we went out to party. We tried a new club but for some reason, I was super tired, so I couldn't really enjoy it. I even fell asleep on the night bus home, which is quite unusual for me because I never sleep in public transport. To compensate for my lack of sleep, I slept in on Sunday and spent the weekend at the beach. In the afternoon, we even had live music, right across from our apartment there was a guitarist with his band. It was Sant Jordi aka Catalan Valentine's Day aka the holiday of the Catalan patron saint. People were in a good mood, there was dancing, and many gave each other a rose. Sweet tradition, I think. But none of us had the energy to participate anymore because we were tired from Saturday and busy planning future trips. The new week has been rather unspectacular so far, but tomorrow I have a hairdresser appointment, which is also desperately needed, and on Thursday, there's the reward for the hard work at school - football at Camp Nou!