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.

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