I wish for heart

This week my emotions have been on a roller coaster. For various reasons, I wasn't feeling well at the beginning of the week, and what was even more frustrating was that it came as a surprise. But well, feelings can't be rationalized even if I think about them a thousand times. Everyone has their downs, and just like there are downs, there are also ups. Luckily, there were plenty of ups this week.

I'm becoming more and more confident in cooking, which I owe to Marie. I marinated chicken for the first time and made guacamole, and today I had pasta with creamy mushroom sauce. Okay, that doesn't sound complicated, but for me, it's a huge improvement compared to a year ago. I'll soon be competing with Gordon Ramsey. Vibing to music while cooking is always a good idea. Besides cooking, I've been reading more again. I borrowed Peter Pan from the library here in Premia de Dalt. It was really cool and very relaxing. Since I'm still sick, siesta was unfortunately part of my day again, but I wasn't too lazy.

On Tuesday, I went to Barcelona for a concert at the Palau de la Musica. I was really excited and listened to Queen songs on the way there to get in the mood. The Palau de la Musica is near the Arc de Triomf, so I didn't have to search for it for long. When I arrived at the concert hall, I was amazed by how beautiful it looked. It is the only concert hall in the world that is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The entire room was decorated with LED candles, and the stage was a sea of candles. Of course, I was there way too early, but that wasn't a problem. I could take a look at the hall and soak up the atmosphere. The concert hall slowly filled up, and with an 8-minute delay, the concert started. I couldn't have imagined how special it would be for me. First of all, I love Queen ever since I saw Bohemian Rhapsody for the first time in 2019, and I think Freddie Mercury can be called an exceptional talent. If I could time travel, I would definitely go back to the Live Aid concert to see him live. Hearing the Queen songs performed in a classical way made me very sentimental. It reminded me of home because my brother and I always listened to and sang Queen songs together. Music in general touches me quickly, but the whole atmosphere, the room, the candles, and the fact that the audience (including me) sang along with every song made it even more intense. When the concert was over, I bought myself a lemon ice cream and coincidentally met some parents from school. In a very Spanish way, everyone gave me two kisses on the cheek, and we talked about the concert since they were there too. Suddenly, it started raining, which was scandalous. We're not in Münster. So I hurried and headed back home. As expected, there was a rapper in my compartment on the return journey, whom I had actually seen before. He pulled me out of my sentimental mood and made me laugh. I almost couldn't control myself. As a thank you, he rapped about me: La chica bonita... en la camisa Margerita (The beautiful girl... in the daisy shirt), because I was wearing a top with daisies on it. Before going to sleep, I had to bother my brother again to tell him about the great concert.

On Wednesday, work continued with half the energy, but playing the piano in Eurhythmics was pretty cool. I also became a real hero because on the way back, a little dog ran away from its owners, and I simply caught it again. However, I only received a half-hearted gracias. Later, Marie and I cooked together, and I had a very long phone call with a friend. In general, I talked a lot on the phone this week with my family and friends, which was very good.

Thursday was another highlight day. Since last week, the kids have been much more open towards me, and I have no idea how that happened. During recess, more and more of them want to play with me, whether it's tag, hide-and-seek, or role-playing. On Thursday, I sat next to Mar (Sea in English), a second-grader whom I have talked to a few times but not often. Anyway, she wanted to be hugged by me first and then said that I'm the best volunteer. She hugged me so many times and said such lovely things to me. My heart almost melted in that moment. Her best friend also wanted to hug me all the time, and I couldn't get rid of them. She told my colleague that I'm the best volunteer ever, and the next day she told her teacher the same thing. I didn't expect so much genuine love, and I will not forget that beautiful feeling. I had really good mood for the rest of the day.

In the afternoon, we kept working because Marie and I did a big shopping and had to carry everything up to the third floor. We cooked Gigi Hadid's famous Vodka Pasta because Marie's best friend Julian came over, and he was really hungry after his journey. The three of us were out and about a lot, which I thought was cool. Julian even had a rental car, a hybrid SUV, but unfortunately, he had some bad luck because it got towed today, and he had to pay a fine of 674.56€. Driving a car is comfortable in itself, and he's also a good driver. But having to pay for parking every time and finding a big enough parking space in Premia that's not in a no-parking zone (which we obviously failed at) reinforces my opinion that you might want to do without a car in big cities. Especially in Barcelona, where public transportation is relatively cheap (compared to Germany) and relatively reliable and frequent. On Thursday evening, we went to the skater bar "Nevermind" and talked. We didn't get home until 01:30.

That was to my disadvantage because on Friday, I had to work until 16:30. Friday was very, very stressful because neither Marnicq nor Marie were there, and two of my colleagues were also sick. So I had to take on many tasks from the kindergarten as well, and it was raining again. So I spent my afternoon indoors with first and second graders and a bunch of little kids from the kindergarten. The noise level was accordingly high, and I just wanted to escape, but well, I survived and really deserved the weekend for it. Back home, I played Brawlstars with my brother on FaceTime, which was extremely funny. After siesta, Marie and Julian were back home, and we played cards for over 1.5 hours. I'm very competitive, and at the beginning, I lost all the time, which annoyed me a lot and made the others even happier. We played Mau Mau, Arschloch, and Lügen (a German card game). Then, at 23:00, we spontaneously went to Barcelona, driving at 100 on the highway. We went to "George Payne," an Irish pub. The music was great, the atmosphere was too, and we played cards, laughed, and talked. During Mau Mau, I didn't realize that we were actually playing Hearts the whole time, so I made a wish for Hearts again, which Marie teased me about for the rest of the evening. We ended up going to McDonald's spontaneously at 02:00 and went to bed at 03:30.

I slept in on Saturday and fulfilled my duties in the shared flat, which consisted of taking out the garbage and cleaning. As a reward, in the afternoon, I went to Blanes, where I had arranged to go bowling with two friends. We met at a seminar in Malaga and finally had the chance to meet again after a lot of back and forth, which was very, very cool and nice. We got along great, and since I hadn't been bowling in ages, it was a great activity. The bowling alley was quite crowded, which surprised all three of us. Although it was a lot of fun, we were all really bad, and Henrike said that we should definitely not go bowling on a first date. She's right because we all were pretty terrible, although Sophie did the best with 143 out of 200 points (we played 2 rounds), I came in second with 106, and Henrike was at the bottom with 100 points. But the most important thing was that we had a lot of fun. Then we went out to eat and had a great conversation. I was really happy and very excited to see both of them again. In the evening, we went out again, this time to party. It was pretty cool to be in a club again after a 3-week break. However, it was packed, and the DJ was terrible. At some point, sirens started blaring??? and even worse, Star Wars music was playing even though it wasn't even Star Wars day. Julian wasn't too thrilled either; it was his first time in a club. But the three of us dancing together was really funny, and I was somehow in a really good mood. I love getting into the music, even if it was a bit lame this time. I was back in bed at 04:30 and got up early today to help my brother with his English essay as a responsible sister. Then I cooked and just lounged around in bed. The weather is really weird right now, so I didn't go to the beach. But I can definitely make up for that next weekend when I really have to live up to my blog name: Vamos a la playa!