Barcelona, 2008.: World is a ball.

The title works better in Finnish (Maa on pallo) but as I decided to write this post in English, let it be.

It's interesting how all my longer trips abroad have been influenced by football. In Argentina, it was bigger than life and also in Toronto TFC and U-21 world championships offered great moments of the game. The story here in Barcelona has been quite similar. Who ever claimed first that football is the king of sports, was absolutely right.

Just now I am sitting in our living room, watching a talk show about weekend's games and writing this blog. Even though my 3-year football career ten something years ago was not very successful and the relation has never been very passionate, I must admit that slowly but surely I've really started to love the game.

For example during the past couple of weeks, I've already seen Barca, a club that has a highly interesting history-wise and represents excellent football with great players, win over Valladolid at Camp Nou, watch various games from television and played football during weekends. I strongly believe that is due to the influence around me. As others are so passionate about the game, my options are either to bail out or join the crown.

Living with Jussi in Argentina was a great prelude to the life of a football fan, but my new flatmate probably tops even him. Bojan, a Dutch guy of Bosnian origin from our school moved into our apartment yesterday. In short, he described himself "as one that goes to school and the rest of the time plays football". Bojan brought 4 pairs of shoes with him, all meant for playing football of some type. He also brought a Playstation 2, equipped with Pro Evolution Soccer 6. In short, his passion to the game is something I can just appreciate.

Yesterday we had a perfect Sunday. The day started around 11.00 as Bojan moved in. By 13.00 we were already at the ferrocarril station of Montjuïc waiting for our friends in order to go play football on a school field next to the Joan Miro Museum on Montjuïc. For about three hours, we played together with Moroccan youngsters on small asphalt field that demands a lots of technique. Good for my development in other words:D After the game, Jason from Holland and Hicham, Moroccan-born, but basically a Spaniard gave us two hours to go home to eat and have a shower. After that we were supposed to be at Hicham's relatives Moroccan restaurant to see the final of African Cup. So, there we were, spending two hours drinking mint tea and watching Egypt win over Ghana. The victory was celebrated by a big bunch of Moroccans, while I said bye to the guys and Keelyn (being the only girl in the place) and returned to house. However, before getting to sleep, we still played couple PES matches with Bojan. Quickly summed up, I spent more than half of the day with football yesterday.

This is of course little as compared to the others. Just a week ago the guys spent the whole Sunday watching football. First, Ajax game from Holland, then Barcelona here in Spain and finally Marseille from France. Despite of it, I guess I'm starting to catch up. Today I spent the bus ride to school reading the news of past weekend's games and in the afternoon went to buy tickets to the Copa del Rey semifinal where Barcelona meets Valencia and like wrote in the beginning, just finished watching a football talk show. Even though it's almost time to bed, I guess I still challenge Bojan who just return home from playing indoor football for one PES game.

For your enjoyment, here's couple of photos by courtesy of Tiina (http://www.tiinabarcelona.blogspot.com/) from our previous trip to Camp Nou. Barca's slogan is "More than a club" and for those you out there in Finland and maybe Canada, who get more aroused by hockey than football, I can only recommend rooting for Barca. Because besides handball, basketball, baseball and other sports, they also have their own "professional" ice hockey team.