Our Lady of Mercy...or QUEEN OF THE DAMNED ?!

WHAT I LEARNED TODAY:
1. How to say, "No Carlos, not the cigarette butt, that's yucky!" - "No Carlos, no la colilla, es caca."
2. Maria does not like to wear a lot of clothes around the apartment.

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I don't know who's idea it was to organize an event around the setting off of fireworks in a crowd, but I don't fault him. It was a good time and the only casualty was this old dude who fell on my leg and he seemed pretty coherent while being lifted back up by some mask-wearing, spear-toting parae goers.

What I really did't get was what an hours-long parade of spinning balls of fire, a satanic voice over the loudspeaker, wooden pitchforks and demonic dragons had to do with La Mercé, or Our Lady of Mercy. As the parade was narrated in Catalán, I remain mystified.

Yet, as I said before, I should set aside my wimpy American judgments and concerns for safety because last night was definitely the best night yet of La Mercé (although I hear tonight should be killer). Between the hour or so of dodging fireballs in the claustrophobia of La Plaça de la Constitución, being surrounded by mock "viv la france"s and "oh-la-la"s from my French companions during the fireworks show put on by their compatriots, and a successful attempt at ordering a midnight snack at Subway in Spanish, one really has no reason to be a wet blanket.

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P.S. - Will have internet access in my apt. in 2 weeks. Kudos to Maximo for hooking that up, and also props to him for explaining how to go about getting a cell phone. They have a whole temporary cell phone system set up here based on the use of phone cards because there are so many of us foreigners without papers. Bueno!