Johnny, la gente esta muy loca.

And I'm back from Barcelona. It was fantastico! A picture is worth a thousand words so here are 50 million words (This is only a fraction of the 500 pictures I took).

Okay too many pictures taking way too long. I'll post the rest and captions tomorrow.

Hello Barcelona!

Like bikes in Amsterdam, there are scooters EVERYWHERE!

Cathedral at the Barri Gothic.

The acoustics in the Barri Gothic were awesome and a lot of street performance took advantage of it.

Street performers.

Our first tapas.

House by Gaudi.

Oh, come on. You knew that was coming.

There were protestors in the Place De Catalonya.

THE SAGRADA FAMILIA!

The Nativity Facade.

You can already see the part of the church that was built long ago and the
parts that were built more recently.

Part of the Passion facade. Each side of the church has a theme. 

Another house by Gaudi.

Art Museum of Catalonya.

Olympic stadium and structure where they lit the flame.

More tapas! My aunt Charlotta recommended this place.
It was delicious!

Las Ramblas.

Back at Place De Catalonya. She was such a beautiful living statue,
I gave her some money.

The park designed by Gaudi.

He was playing in the park and he was actually really good.

Patatas Bravas.

Tapas 24. So good!

The Picasso Museum.

A mini shopping mall. Can you find us?

La Playa!

At the beach, people were selling all sorts of stuff. Mostly drinks, scarves, henna tattoos and massages. Maud got a massage from one of the asian ladies. All of a sudden she was gone and we didn't know where she went. When she came back, Maud asked me what happened and she said "police, police." Haha! It's illegal to sell stuff on the street/beach so when the cops showed up, they scattered.

She was constantly looking around for police.

Needless to say, Barcelona was a huge success! Thank you Maud for an unforgettable weekend!

Shoes.

I wanted to get most of the garment done I'm working on but Edwin has gone shoe crazy so I spent most of the day preparing the deer legs. It was funny to see the rest of their reactions to having to cut the skin off the bone and saw the bone off. I cut the skin and cleaned it and held the bone as Edwin sawed it. I felt like even more of a butcher today than yesterday. We had a good laugh at the irony of the dirty work that was going to make beautiful elegant shoes. They're going to be so awesome! Sorry but I can't post pictures but they'll be worth the wait.

Kaho bought some Chinese treats at the Chinese market close by. Delicious.

Those black shoes are one of the kinds we're putting the deer hoofs on.

I saw shoes I likes last week during Koopavond so I went to buy them today. Off course.

I will probably not be posting until Sunday so go read Sabine's blog instead!

Sam the Butcher.

Besides working on the new garment, I started working on getting the deer legs ready to become shoes.

Cutting down the middle to hold the skin away while we saw the bone shorter.

Nick wouldn't touch the leg but he was okay with cutting at the tenants keeping the skin on the bone.

Tomorrow we're going to so that to the rest of the legs and finish cleaning them.

After that deliciousness, I met up with a friend from FSU, Tessly, who is working in Amsterdam till August and we had poffertjes on Dam Square. This is Amsterdam. If you have not yet had poffertjes, you need to. Now.

The pigeons likes Tessly's leftovers.

So these are the shoes I usually wear that I had gotten for $17 Euros near the beginning. They fought a good fight but they are now defeated by the streets of Amsterdam. Oh well, looks like Ill have to go to H&M and but a pair of shoes I saw last week. Such a burden.

Distracted.

Sorry people, I was planning my trip to Barcelona with Maud this weekend and I lost track of time. My awesome aunt Charlotta gave me a bunch of guides and stuff on Barcelona so I was checking everything out. She used to work there and loves it so she helped me figure out a lot of things.

I brought the deer legs to work today and everyone thought they looked delicious. Edwin decided we're going to clean and dry them ourselves and I called a taxidermist and he said to use denatured alcohol and soak it for 14 days and then dry them. Considering we only have 3 weeks, this will be an interesting endeavor but so cool if we pull it off. I started working on a new outfit today. It's a variation of the last one I made so I'm hoping this one goes super fast.

I'm getting sick of all the construction going on in the street. It's never ending and it looks like one big mess.

So more proof that Macs are better than PCs: my boyfriend can't Skype right now because when he started his computer (PC, off course) up he was informed it had to reinstall windows. Awesome. Sorry George, Macs beat PCs. I hope we can still make this relationship work. :-)

I could really use a Port Key right about now. 

Pinksteren.

So Sunday and today was a national holiday called Pinksteren so I didn't have work :-) Pinksteren is when Jesus goes back to heaven or something. It's ironic to me because The Netherlands is not religious at all but I think it's just left over from when it used to be. Either way, I don't mind a long weekend.

My aunt Margo is turning 50 on Tuesday so my cousins threw a big surprise party. Turning 50 in The Netherlands is a really big deal and the woman becomes "Sara" and the man "Abraham." There are no Bat Mitzvas, Quinceneras or sweet 16s here but those who turn 50 get a 50-era and there is always decoration outside the house. It was really fun.

Grandma and grandpa had given 50 little gifts, just like they did when my dad turned 50.

Tell me that is not precious.

The neighbor lady was all up in Margo's business when she was opening gifts. She would take the wrappers out of Margo's hands and put them in a bag and she would take the gifts out of her hands to put them all in a basket. She also looked over and touched every gift that passed my aunt's hands. It was hilarious!

She LITERALLY took gifts out of her hands when she was still looking at them. But the neighbor lady was determined
to Put. Them. Away. 

Traditionally, there is also a song that gets song. It usually has the melody of a well-knows song and had lyrics about turning 50 and becoming older.

Saturday morning I went to Limburg to see my family there. I went to a fashion show as part of Fashionclash Maastricht with an old friend (Joelle) of mine. She lived in my block and we were both super fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. We both ended up going in fashion.

Me on the left, Joelle on the right and Joelle's friend in the middle.

There was an exhibit of local artists and then a fashion show of students from the academy in Maastricht.

My favorite picture.

Edwin needs deer hoofs for the attempt to make shoes with heals made from them so I thought my uncle Richard might be able to help since he hunts. I was right.

The only problem is that I need them meatless and bloodless and ready to become heels.

Now lets hope we can make these babies into awesome shoes. My uncle and I discussed a business prospect. We shall see...