Fourth in a series of nine.
Part 1 - Taylor Cunningham (6/13/17)
Part 2 - Lexi Prevost (6/14/17)
Part 3 - Rylee Kane & Taylor Edwards (6/15/17)

BARCELONA (May 20, 2017) – During the day on Saturday we went on a bus tour. Clive took us around the city of Barcelona to show us more sites that were not in the center of the city. This tour was so much fun and the architecture throughout Barcelona is amazing. We started the tour by going to La Sagrada Familia, which was built by the artist Gaudi. This cathedral was amazing! The amount of detail on the outside of the building was incredible. There were two different sides to the building. The old side was about Christ's birth and the new side was about his death. The two sides were built really differently from one another, which made this building really unique. We did not go inside on this day, but it was amazing to see the outside! The uniqueness and amount of detail that was contained in this building was absolutely incredible and very worth seeing. 
 

After this, we got back on the bus and headed towards the art building of Barcelona. On our drive there, we were able to drive by a couple more buildings that Gaudi had made. These buildings looked amazing as well. His work has a unique architecture that stands out in the city. We also saw the outside of the old bull ring, which is now a shopping center and the outside of the soccer stadium. The soccer stadium looked huge. On this part of the bus ride, we had all started to get thirsty. I grabbed out a bottle of water that I had gotten from the fridge in my room at the hotel. I took a big gulp, but little did I know that it was carbonated water. I almost spit it out and gagged. It was so nasty, but apparently it was hilarious to watch. Other teammates also tried it and they did not think it was good either. 

Eventually, we parked the bus and headed to the art building. We had to walk up a pretty steep hill, but along the way we found two slides! These were so much fun, but also a little dangerous! Vicki, who is a friend to the Breens, and Jeanann, both wiped out. Jeanann was the first one to go down one of the slides and she was hauling down the slide and couldn't find her feet at the bottom, which made her slide on her butt for about 10 yards. Alisha and I were in line to go down this slide next. However, after Jeanann went down, Kevin looked at us and just shook his head, basically telling us not to go down that slide. We went on the other one and were a little more cautious than Jeanann. Vicki approached that same slide at some point and must have been going too fast down the slide and just wiped out.
 

The only part I saw was her body face down at the bottom of the slide and the other adults rushing over to help her up. These wipeouts were hilarious!

Eventually we made it to the top of the hill to see the art building, which was awesome. It had a great view of the city and Carl got birds put on her. These birds were painted pigeons and the owner just set one on each arm. Carl was yelling and freaking out, but it was pretty hilarious to watch. The man then moved one bird on top of her head, which was also hilarious. Eventually he took them off and then was asking us for money. We just acted like we didn't understand him, which was partially true, and walked away.



The two last stops in the bus tour were the Olympic Stadium and a castle.  The Olympic Stadium was very cool to see and I thought it was pretty large, but it's only about a third of the size of their soccer stadium. It was very cool to see and imagine the lighting of the ring for the opening ceremonies.

The castle we visited was incredible. Just seeing and walking around a castle was awesome, but this castle was built on the edge of the port. It overlooked the entire city and the entire port. The views were absolutely amazing. I could not believe how big the city or the port was.The bus tour was tons of fun.

In the evening, we played our second game. It was lots of fun to play and the team we played against was good competition. Even though this was our second game, we were still not accustomed to the rules over there. The shot clock is 24 seconds, their travel call is different, and there are no charges or over the back calls. Their style of basketball is very up-tempo and it took a while to get used to each game. We played really well together and got some great looks, but we just had trouble putting the ball in the hoop. We had a good second half and ended up making a comeback after being down by over 20, and cut their lead down to single digits. We could never quite catch up though and ended up losing by about 10. The other team and referees barely spoke English. One time, I accidentally elbowed someone in the face. On the free throw line, I asked her if she was alright, but she had no idea what I was asking and looked at me with a blank stare. I tried asking in different ways but eventually just pointed to my face and used a thumbs up or thumbs down hand signal to communicate with her. The highlight of this game had to be a play made by Alyssa. The teams in Spain always pressured us full court. Someone had gotten a rebound and passed the ball to Alyssa. She dribbled it cross-court and across the half court line. She just kept on going and put her head down and drove to the hole. She made the layup and got fouled, so she made an and-1 play! All of us on the court went wild. I think Vanessa picked up Alyssa and the rest of us were yelling in excitement. The whole bench and all our fans in the stands were up on their feet cheering. It was awesome. Even though we did not win the game, it was a great game to play in.
 

This trip was so important to me. I have used up my years of eligibility, so I will not be playing college basketball anymore. This was such a great experience for me to play just one more time with my team. It was awesome to hang out with the teammates who had become my family throughout past couple years and spend some more quality time with them. I also got the opportunity to play two more games with Vanessa. We really supported each other my junior year and we were looking forward to the next season, however Vanessa redshirted last season, so we were unable to play games together last season. This trip allowed us to play together again after a year, which really meant a lot to me. I am so thankful that even though I am a senior and done playing collegiate basketball, I was able to play on this trip. I think it was beneficial for all of us to be exposed to a different style of play and be a part of a more up-tempo game. It was also beneficial to be able to play some actual games during the summer and improve our team unity on and off the court. There were so many memories made on and off the court that I will always remember. This was truly an unforgettable experience and I'm grateful that I was able to be a part of it and play my last collegiate game in Spain.
 
 
 
The Buzz in Barca blog is a 9-part series detailing the Yellowjackets' trip to Barcelona, Spain on the dates of May 17-21, 2017. Each of the player journal entries can be viewed online here.