A few weeks ago I pushed my way through a sea of blue and red stripes onto the metro. It was the night of the final game of the Supercopa de España, where Atletico Madrid traveled to compete against FC Barcelona in their home stadium.

I was on my way to a friend's apartment for a few drinks before the game. Walking from the metro to her place, I zig-zagged through crowds of fans who wore their city's colors proudly while sipping beers outside Camp Nou.

I was in Europe, Spain more importantly, where they live and breathe soccer football fútbol. And this was a big game: the final of a tournament that crowns the overall champions of the country. I prepared for it to be crazy: drunken fans, throwing flares, fights... I mean, we've all seen it on YouTube, right?

I walked with a big group of my (mostly) foreigner friends into the stadium and many of us were surprised to find it an alcohol-free zone. It made me think about going to Washington Redskins games where everyone in the "standing room only" section seems to enjoy the drinks and atmosphere more than watching the game.

We arrived at our seats (in the nosebleed section) where everyone around us sat patiently awaiting kickoff. As the game began, there were some cheers and obvious enthusiasm, but it was calm. Everyone was there to watch that game and not miss a single play due to rowdy fans or a beer/nacho run. 

When it got a little exciting, even two young girls politely asked us, in English, to sit down so they could see.

Fútbol in Park Güell, Barcelona

La Costa Brava: Zaragoza, Spain

When I first moved to Ecuador in September of 2011, my Spanish was almost non-existent. I knew some basic phrases, colors, numbers, "Donde esta el baño?" but not much more.

I really wanted to learn, but I wasn't willing to pay for lessons when I was already immersed in the language: through the people that worked in the shops, my boss, my friends, and the music.

Everyday, whether is was thumping from the worker boys' cabaña on the farm or playing from radios at every restaurant in town, I heard reggaeton: an awful mixture of Latino pop and hip hop. Terrible music, but it was addicting.

I wanted to sing the words like everyone else and know the meaning of these songs, so I got mp3s passed on from the flashdrives of friends and I downloaded from youtube. I looked up the lyrics online, printed them out, and translated them to English.

I listened to the music while making my four kilometer walk to the bus stop. I learned it made a great running mix and I also danced to the same songs at the beach cabañas almost every weekend. I was memorizing the lyrics while learning new words and phrases. I was learning a new language through pretty crappy music, but it worked.

Since leaving Ecuador, returning back to The States and moving to Spain, I have known that I've wanted to continue learning the language through music, but this time, some better music.

It has taken me almost a year, but I have found a solid groundwork of Spanish-speaking artists that I enjoy. It all started with stumbling across Devendra Banhart's weird freak-folk music video for Carmensita with lyrics like "Me como tu amor y cago el infierno."

So check out the September 2013 playlist on Spotify:

"While you’re young, you should travel. You should take the time to see the world and taste the fullness of life. Spend an afternoon sitting in front of the Michelangelo. Walk the streets of Paris. Climb Kilimanjaro. Hike the Appalachian trail. See the Great Wall of China. Get your heart broken by the 'killing fields' of Cambodia. Swim through the Great Barrier Reef. These are the moments that define the rest of your life; they’re the experiences that stick with you forever."

2. THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON ADVENTURE
"This is your brain on adventure. This is your brain when you're lost in the world… They gave me this drug once. It was called "adventure." It was injected, a bite, into my brain and filled every cortex, every lobe, every bit of matter. It choked me. It changed me."

3. AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PARENTS OF DAUGHTERS WHO WISH TO TRAVEL THE WORLD
"She has developed a mind of her own during her studies, has gotten ideas from books that lead her to believe that perhaps another kind of education awaits her after graduation – the kind that involves leaping into the great unknown, of setting out on a journey. She has heard talk of cheap student fares and raucous hostels, whispered rumors of Incan ruins at dawn and dingoes at dusk. And she is intrigued. More than intrigued. Dear parents: brace yourselves: your daughter wants to travel the world."

4. EVERY WOMAN SHOULD TRAVEL ALONE
"If you are lucky, you stop seeing the world as a series of things you do not have — a boyfriend, a baby, an adorable terrier – and you start noticing the things you do have. A healthy bank account, unburdened by mortgages or school loans. No romantic ties. Loving parents who wanted nothing but happiness for me. Years to burn. That kind of freedom is like a command from the universe to get off your ass and do something amazing."

5. LET’S RUN
"Let’s find our feet and take a walk, no RUN. Ya, let’s run. Let’s run like we’re five years old and time goes slower because everything is new again and we don’t yet know what every day will hold because we’re still using our imaginations to make it up. We’re still playing house, playing James Bond, playing make believe. Like we’re five years old and running through the grass, jumping over the dog poop, [stepping in the dog poop] and running for no particular reason except that we feel alive and we’re breathing and we can."