PBJ: Friends

I’m very glad that I decided to spend a few days in Paris before leaving for the rest of my vacation, as it allowed me to say goodbye to E. As you may remember, E was my laid-back roommate from Nebraska who adores large helpings of stew, long runs, and relaxed conversations. He met up with A and R, some friends from college, to take a victory lap around one of the world’s greatest capitals before heading back to ‘Merica. Je, Ja, and L were the lovely ladies also along for the ride. They have a very strong bond based on complementary personalities : Je is very lively and loves to talk, Ja has some street-cred going on, and L is a Midwestern sweetheart who just wants to get know people. I spent most of Sunday morning with Ja and L and it was fun to cheer for the runners (Je, E, R, and A) together. The girls also decided to encourage others based on their racing tags and were met by various expressions of ignorance, disgust, fatigued thanks, and WOW.

My original reason for making the trek to Barcelona was simple : I had taken a Spanish class last summer and wanted to practice my language skills in a Spanish-speaking country. In the course of planning meet-ups with various friends this spring, I noticed that the easiest way to see my friend G would be on vacation. G is my fun-loving, intelligent, and effortlessly-cool friend who’s a teaching assistant in Strasbourg. She brought along one of her friends, K, a sweet witty young lady who also hails from the Heartland. We worked out wonderfully as travel partners since we all had the same sort of internal rhythm going : wake up mid-morning and have brunch, do some sites, eat a nice sandwich lunch, more sightseeing, nap/Internet break, dinner and drinks. A few hours after meeting K, I was introduced to A. She’s Parisienne by birth, but a citizen of the world by choice : she was a French language assistant at K’s university last year and is now working in Barcelona as a French and English teacher. A reminded me of a more intense version of G and showed all the great spots that the cool kids frequent : a Catalan dive bar, a French expatriate bar/café, and a secret club that involved climbing many stairs and password-only admission. It was at this point in the night when we met AEA : American Expatriate AssholeTM. He proceeded to lecture us on how Europe was SO much more civilized than America, using the same generalities that anyone who had read two articles in the New York Times could tell you. When G had the gall to suggest that we had indeed thought about several quality of life issues and cultural differences, he countered by talking about his friends in CA who had to put their kids in private preschool to avoid them becoming pimps and gangsta drug lords. K suggested that paying 15K a year was perhaps more of a choice and he shouted back « You’re WRONG ! » Through a coordinated campaign of targeted questions and reminders about common decency, we managed to chase him from the table. After a restful night of repose, we met V at the metro on our way to Parc Guell. She’s a spunky independent spirit from Ontario who loves taking photos. More laughs ensued and we had a great time for the rest of our stay in Barcelona.