Discount only for pretty girls

I had to give up on the "Vamos a la playa" this week again. Not only was the weather disappointing for Spanish standards, but my health condition was as well. On Monday, I was at work as usual, but I (just like my roommates Marnicq and Marie) had a cold. So I rested at home and had no energy. But what made my Monday 20 times better was a nice message from Marie's best friend, which was laid as a farewell surprise on my bed.

On Tuesday, my roommate took sick leave. I was feeling better that day, so I went to Barcelona. And guess what: there was an accordion player in my train compartment on the way there. I made the mistake of filming him, and he noticed and danced and sang in front of me. I ignored him and aggressively typed on my phone. He said goodbye with a "adios bonita", I was so embarrassed. In Barcelona, I met a school friend for tapas in the Sarria district, where we had the best Patatas Bravas in Barcelona (at least according to TikTok). They were delicious and quite cheap. The neighborhood was really cute and looked similar to Gracia, so I definitely want to go there again to explore it properly. It was the first time I took the S-Bahn to the tapas bar, which was actually quite relaxing. There was an advertisement on the S-Bahn with a big loaf of bread, and I realized that I'm getting tired of toast bread and want to eat bread rolls, pretzels, and more.

On Wednesday, I literally had a stuffed nose, so I decided to stay home. So poor Marnicq was all alone at work, but not for long because he threw in the towel shortly before 11. He was really sick too, so all three of us were back together in the apartment. Marie and I started watching a series that we finished today: "Die Kaiserin" on Netflix, it was okay and much more entertaining than the Gordon Ramsey meme compilations that I watched to pass the time. On Thursday, I was somewhat better, but I decided to stay home just to be safe. In the evening, I became a bit more active. I finished a painting, but I also realized that spending 2 days in the apartment can be really depressing. I went grocery shopping for our flat because the other two really weren't capable of it. Since Aldi also exists in Spain, they have some German products there, including pretzels. I bought one and ate it at the beach. Unfortunately, the taste was quite disappointing, but with a Spanish 69 cent pretzel, I wasn't expecting anything extraordinary.

Because I was home for two days, I was really motivated on Friday and was looking forward to work. Although I didn't have my FSJ colleagues with me, the children were thrilled to see me again. I had to help out a lot in the kindergarten because Marie and Marnicq were still sick at home. The kindergarten children were so cute and looked at me with big eyes. They asked me many things, and some were proud that they knew my name. Rave's birthday was celebrated. I think the name is really cool, and he's even German. So there was Waldorf-like vegan and gluten-free chocolate cake, which was quite delicious. I had to cut a lot of fruit for myself and the children beforehand. So it was the perfect combination of unhealthy and healthy. I love fruit salad. What made me really happy was how grateful everyone was for my help. For me, it was natural to help out, but hearing thank you so often and being told that I'm really good at it made me very, very happy. In the evening, as a reward for the hard work, I treated myself to my monthly kebab. I chatted with the kebab man about my Abi. My friends and I joke about when he will finally propose to me because he asked how I'm doing and inquired about me through them. The kebab was delicious, as always, and I could watch "Türkisch für Anfänger" (German TV show) as well, so it was a perfect calm evening. I talked to Lotti on the phone and went to bed relatively early.

On Saturday, I made American pancakes, and shortly after, I went back to Blanes. I met up with the same girls from last week, Henrike and Sophie. It was so, so nice. You know that you're spending time with the right people when 5 hours feel like 5 minutes. Blanes is a small world trip with 1.5 hours of travel, but it was worth it. First, I went to their apartment, which is way more modern compared to ours. They even have a vacuum cleaner and a toaster, which made me really jealous. Then we went to the beach to eat. I had a poke bowl with quinoa, even though I declared war on quinoa. But since I hadn't eaten it in a long time, it was actually tasty. Henrike knew a good café where I had a super delicious croissant and cortado. We chatted for ages. It was one of the best conversations I've had in a long time, exchanging experiences during our voluntary services. It was so interesting to see how they were doing during their service. In many ways, we were similar, but in other things, we were quite different. Reflecting on my time here triggered a new feeling of gratitude and calmness in me (for the past 2/3 weeks, I've been emotionally unstable), but it really helped me. Now I'm looking forward to the last two months here in a completely different way, and I know that I will handle everything and do a great job. On the way back to Premia, I had a smile on my face and felt so free again. It's a shame that the two of them won't be here for much longer. Originally, Marie and I wanted to go out in the evening and even ran to catch the train, but we spontaneously went back home because she still wasn't feeling well. After all, health always comes first. At home, I took care of her a bit because I was really worried.

As a reward, I slept in again, so Marie and I set off for Barcelona comparably late. We went without a specific destination in mind. I got to advise Marie on buying her new belly button piercing. We spent a lot of time in the "El Born" neighborhood, the artist district of Barcelona. There, I had ramen for the first time. It was very delicious, the service was nice and funny, and I love trying new foods. For a few weeks now, I've been thinking about buying an "I love Barcelona" t-shirt. Today, we finally did it. Marie and I went to a sketchy tourist shop where we took our time to look at all kinds of t-shirts. We negotiated a discount of a whopping 10 cents, so instead of 10€, the t-shirt only cost 9.9€. The cashier revealed to us that only pretty girls get a discount, and that we are both very pretty. He showered us with compliments, and not just us, practically every other female customer as well. We both found it very funny. On top of that, we got the ugliest magnet in the world as a gift because I noticed a small stain on one of the t-shirts. That made us laugh even more. To recover from all the walking and laughing, we went to "the vegan corner," which I found this time without using Google Maps. We had coffee and a rock-hard, sugary vegan cookie. I like the café and especially the street it's located on, which is decorated with fairy lights. To top it all off, we had an Aperol, which we drank outside on a beautiful square with guitar music playing. Back home, I booked tickets for the Picasso Museum, where I'll go on Thursday, and looked at Airbnbs for Seville because I'm going there soon with my very good friend Lotti. I've really recharged my energy for the new week, which is sure to be very cool, but vamos a ver y poco a poco :).