Birthdays!

Laurent's birthday was August 24th, and Stephanie's was August 26th, so we had a few days of birthday celebrations. Since Laurent's birthday was on Sunday and Stephanie's on Tuesday, they decided to start out the birthday week with a joint party on Saturday night.

Saturday during the day, we mostly worked on the executive summary. In fact, we Pol, Laurent, and I were an hour and a half late for dinner because of it. Anyway, the three of us eventually went to Tasca y Vins with Jaisha, Doha, James, and Jame's girlfriend and friend.
The specialty of this restaurant is long pieces of bread (like half a baguette) covered with a really wide variety of toppings - three cheese, botifarra (sausage), mushrooms, etc. Andrea and Pol ordered a bunch and we all shared everything. It was probably the most food I had eaten in one meal while in Spain - everything was really good.

Feeling completely stuffed from dinner, we walked over to Roxy Blue, the club where we the birthday dancing was planned. Thanks to Jaisha, we were all able to get in for free to this trendy club. Since it was our last Saturday in Barcelona, lots of people put away their work for one night and came out to celebrate. It was a great night of dancing with all our friends.The next birthday event was Laurent's birthday dinner on Sunday. Sunday was also when I decided I was ready for a break from work. I went with Pol to his house to pick up his laundry and cook lunch (and by cook lunch, I mean stand by and watch while he cooks lunch - I wasn't a very good assistant), and then we watched the closing of the olympic games. I had all my beach stuff with me, and every once in a while one of us would suggest the idea of going, but somehow the idea of just lounging around on the couch was more appealing after a month and a half of constant activity. We ended up watching Star Wars - A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back - until dinner time. Though we didn't make it to the beach, this activity did improve my Spanish - I now know important phrases like "Estrella de la Muerte" (Death Star) and "Luke, soy tu padre" (Luke, I am your father). (Thanks for the Spanish lesson, Pol!)

So, after a day of doing nothing, we headed to Con Cortada to celebrate Laurent's birthday. We met up with Laurent, Jaisha, Anna, Brice, Sonny, Michael, and Francois. Con Cortada is a pretty fancy restaurant, and the food is amazing. Add to that the fact that the French guys were in charge of ordering all the drinks and appetizers, and you get a pretty amazing meal. They ordered a pate' platter, with different kinds of pate', and I reallized that I really like it - who'd have guessed! My palette has definitely expanded this summer... I had veal for my main dish, and some of Laurent's birthday cake for dessert. It was a great end to my last Sunday in Barcelona.The last birthday event happened on Tuesday, when we went out for Stephanie's birthday. We had a team project dinner at Bombay Spicy - it was awesome to have Indian food for the first time all summer - I arrived late with Brice, Pol, and Laurent, and they let me order for all of us, so I was able to have a bit of all the things I like.

The real birthday event was afterwards, though, when we went to Chupitos. This is a bar that sells hundreds of different types of shots (mostly fun mixes, nothing too strong). Some fun ones included "The Boyscout" where they light the bar on fire, you roast a marshmellow, and then you eat the marshmellow and take a shot of a very sweet drink. There was also the Harry Potter, the Teletubbie, and one that incorporated pop rocks.In addition to a bunch of the people from our team project dinner, Victor, Alberto, and Andreu all came to celebrate, too. They serenaded Stephanie with "Feliz Cumpleanos" (Happy Birthday) when she arrived.