Institut De Gospel, Barcelona

 

Talk about a change in perspective!  Putting yesterday’s foul mood behind me, I set off with my mom after school to do some shopping around town, and what did we see?  A group of about sixty to seventy people in black shirts, singing in the middle of a courtyard with a bongo player and guitarist.  Their shirts read, “Institut de Gospel, Barcelona”.  Their low hum of an African praise song rang in my ears as I pieced the information together.  Let me get this straight. More than sixty vocally open Christians standing before me with a crowd of triple that size clapping and humming along?  Inconceivable! Well not quite inconceivable, but a pleasant surprise nonetheless. 

 

We were on the way to buy a pair of shoes that I have been bothering my mom about since the first day we got here.  I know, I’ve been quoted and reminded many times that “all [I] wanted was to go to Spain and learn Spanish” – but these shoes would go really nicely with learning Spanish in Spain, I’m serious.  A few days ago, the store next to our apartment informed us that they were out of my size in every color.  Yay!  So to make things more difficult, of course, the saleswoman directed us to the not-so-close other store.  We walked for about two miles and got to a busy tourist street – and then we walked up that for one mile, looking for 44 La Rambla.  When we started to complain that 44 La Rambla didn’t exist, we realized that we were on the wrong street.  Two more miles – then dinner (we would take a break before finally going in the store).  Well when we were done with dinner, we walked across the street to find that we were seven minutes too late; the store was closed.  Oh, irony!  The good news is that we walked off our entire dinner, I’m pretty sure.  More importantly, though, my mom and I had some pretty unforgettable times this afternoon! We are both too tired to hold a conversation and think it wise to turn in for the day.  ¡Buenas noches!