Friday, June 4, 2010

You Know You've Lived in Barcelona When...


{{Es esta vida y funciona así: hoy aquí, mañana allí}}

  1. You more-or-less live in the metro and count on it to get you basically everywhere in the city. You have your home base metro stop; mine was Clot, with Line 1 (red) and Line 2 (violet) for all my transport needs
  2. You hate motos (motorcycles), both when you are driving and when you are walking. They weave in and out of every square milimeter of traffic like they had nine lives to spend. They also seem to go at least 10 km/hr faster than everyone else.
  3. Whether driving or walking, as soon as the other light turns red, you begin going. When a pedestrian, if the stop light is red, you start walking; when driving, if the pedestrian has a red "no walk" person, you're at least changing gear.
  4. While waiting to cross the street, you always stand part-way out into the street to see if there's a car coming or if you can cross now now now
  5. While on the metro, you start pressing the door button or open the door handle the second the train enters the station, even though it won't open until the train stops. You also feel a great anxiety to be the first to press the button, and you feel personally culpable if the doors don't open the second the train stops, like you didn't press it well enough
  6. You always say "Adéu" when you leave a locale, even if the entire time you were speaking in Spanish
  7. You find words of Catalan slipping into your everyday Spanish. Some of my main culprits: "mica"/"miqueta", "molt bé", "trucar"/"truca'm"/"trucada", "bon dia", "adéu", "sortir"/"sortida", "tornar", "arribar"/"arribada", "museu" (respectively "poco"/"poquito" (little), "muy bien" (very good), "llamar"/"llámame"/"llamada" (to call/call me/a call), "buenos días" (good day), "adios" (goodbye), "salir"/"salida" (to leave/the exit), "regresar" (to return), "llegar"/"llegada" (to arrive/the arrival), "museo" (museum)).
  8. You can easily sleep through the sounds of sirens, garbage trucks, yelling revelers, and constant road traffic no matter what the hour
  9. You own a black motorcycle-style jacket. Bonus points if you have more than one, and more bonus points if the others are in different colors as well
  10. You both love and hate Las Ramblas
  11. You use l'Fnac as a place to meet people so you can browse the books if they run late
  12. You love sitting in Plaça Catalunya and people-watching
  13. Even if you don't really follow football (aka. soccer), you love Barça matches and ruthlessly cheer on every goal against the opponent
  14. Dinner is way too early if it's before 10
  15. After every meal you drink a little coffee (tallat/cortado; small espresso with milk). You basically just drink coffee always, and you expect it to always be excellent, even from the little corner bar
  16. You know that if you want to do anything out in the evening, before 10 is too early
  17. Pa amb tomàquet is the perfect snack always.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Adéu, Barcelona



{{Y daría, tantas cosas daría, sólo por que este mundo no girara tan deprisa}}

That unfortunate time has come again where I have to say goodbye to an amazing place that has found a way into my heart and marked me after months of living in it, for tomorrow I leave Barcelona and return to the States. My time here since January has been amazing, full, flew way too fast, and helped me appreciate and become a part of yet another completely different culture. Barcelona is certainly not Urubamba, and neither one is Portland! But they all share small similarities that I delighted in finding as I make my way between the three cities that are now "mine". I met some truly amazing people here, people that I will be able to visit both in the States and abroad, and I was lucky to spend several quality months as part of Guillem's family, listening to them talk in Catalan amongst themselves (and learning their language myself), traveling with them to see other parts of Europe through their eyes, and learning how to make Barcelonan paella.

And I don't think I could have been luckier with my choice of city. Barcelona is incredibly beautiful, blessed with creative, modern architecture on every corner; I never tired of gazing up at the decorative iron railings and unique buildings everywhere I went (from simple touches to a grand madman's invention that is la Sagrada Família). I've fallen in love with the way Catalan and Spanish are both used here, in passing clumps of people speaking one or the other as I walk anywhere, and am proud that I now understand and can respond in kind. I'll miss the fantacism for Barça, the commentaries on TV3 that make fun of the politics of both Spain and Catalunya, being able to walk down to the beach whenever I want, then turn around and enter a free contemporary art exhibit at CaixaForum.

I have completely fallen in love with this city, and, compared to everywhere else that I visited in the south (all beautiful, with amazing history and people), it is still my home. I even breathed an internal sigh of relief as my train pulled close and I could see the Telefònica tower on Montjuïc that let me know I was close to home. I know I will be back soon and I can't wait to see what my next Barcelona adventures will be. But for now, it's time to start looking towards the college part and readjusting to living in the US (dinner at 7.....what?! I eat at 10:30...I can't even be hungry at 7!).

No et dic "adéu", Barcelona, però "fins aviat". Gràcies per a tot, guapa, m'he divertit molt molt molt. Ets boníssima i bonica, ho saps, no?

Doncs res, ens veiem, sip!