BARÇA! BARÇA! BARRRRRRÇA!

So I finally made it to a Fútbol Club Barcelona game last night! Third time's a charm. For some reason my roommates and I have had horrible luck getting tickets this semester. On our first attempt we were told you could just buy tickets before the game, but they were sold out. The second time, I spent hours trying to figure out the servicaixa machines (ATMs that sell tickets) to no avail. We also tried buying online, but same thing happened (I think it was an American credit card problem). We even tried going all the way out to the stadium, but got to the box office just 10mins late, ugh.

Nevertheless, our persistence finally paid off (thanks to Paula & Ruben) and last night we went to see FC Barça play Getafe CF (yeah, never heard of them either. In fact Julia and I spent a good 10mins before the game trying to read the Catalán program to see where they were from) in a quasi important La Liga game. The game was a thrilling....tie...at 0-0... Yep, both teams walked off the field without scoring a single goal. A double bagel as we would say in tennis. Although, Barça did hit the goal post 3 times, if that counts for anything. I have to admit, (if you can't already tell) I don't think I could ever become a fútbol fan. It's a game of constant disappointment and overly dramatic athletes. Although, I do give the sport more credit than Baseball, because the athletes and their footwork is pretty impressive.

Was it worth the trouble you might ask? Absolutely. I am taking a Sport & Society in Spain course, and we visited the museum, watched a documentary, and wrote our midterm papers on FC Barcelona. Moreover, I just finished my final paper for Barcelona: Ciudad y Historia on the manifestations of Catalán nationalism (6 pages in SPANISH!) and a chunk of it talked about Barça. In other words, I probably know more about the history of the team than some of its members. So for this reason, It was great to actually see them in action at Camp Nou (the Barça stadium that is 11th biggest stadium in the world). Also, since it was such a bad game, I got to see the fans wave white scarfs and whistle signaling extreme disappointment which we had seen in a documentary about the team (although, I think booing is much more satisfying than whistling). ...Go Barça!