Not football, not soccer, fútbol

The Barcelona fútbol team is playing Arsenal (they're from London) for their league championship tonight. I continue to do a pretty crappy job of getting into fútbol, but this is pretty hard to miss. Everyone seems to be wearing an FC Barcelona jersey; some are carrying flags. Even more kids than usual are playing fútbol in the street. Cars honk at groups of fans. You can feel the excitement all over town; I spent the afternoon running errands, so I really did feel the excitement all over the city. I like it when cities get excited; it makes you feel like you're part of something. I felt that way a lot in New York and hardly ever do here.

There's this website here with weekly event listings and one of the events for today is titled "Unheard of Silencio en Barcelona." They say "Going for a walk around the city may seem like an unoriginal activity, but on Wednesday the 17th it most certainly won’t be. You will never have seen such a still, quiet and breathless Barcelona.... You could hug the Pedrera, lie down in the middle of a carless calle Aragó, climb to the top of Columbus’s statue and bite his finger... you could even sneak into the Ayuntamiento and steal a flag. No-one would notice. Do whatever you want. Barcelona is YOURS!"

GOOOAAAALLLL!!!!