barcelona wrap-up

hey all,

as my time here has dwindled, my motivation for blog updates (and schoolwork) have similarly diminished. my sister arrived here on friday, and i've been doing a bit of tour-guiding, although the weather has not been exactly cooperating. anyway, i took my last exam yesterday, packed up today, and am jetting off with cindy to london tomorrow for five days before heading home for good. who knows the next time that i'll be able to take a 30 euro easyjet flight over to london, so might as well aprovechar. today i introduced my sister to the concept of baguette-and-tomato lunch picnics, which we enjoyed on our trek around montjuic...rain and all. tonight we're having a last tapas dinner out with my program friends, and tomorrow's agenda includes a walk on the beach, parc de la ciutadella, la boqueria, and the all-important xocolata amb churros, all before heading to the airport in the early evening.

i feel a lot differently about barcelona now than i did originally, after spending four months here and after traveling to various other spanish cities and other european union countries. besides feeling frustrated with the amount of catalan spoken here, and the intense feelings that many barcelona residents (in particular, students), have about using catalan, learning about the history of catalonia- especially how they've really been screwed over and oppressed during Franco's rule, and even today- as the richest autonomous region in Spain...while Madrid takes all of their money and makes all of the appropriate decisions- has really given me some perspective. i can't say that i can make an informed opinion about the situation, but originally writing it off as a bunch of whiny and entitled catalans yammering about wanting to keep their money was a kind of immature opinion.

the problems that spain has with its economy, with immigrants, with diversity- are the same problems one finds EVERYWHERE. spanish people think that americans are xenophobic, we (at least, the people in my program) have found spanish people racist and ridiculously politically incorrect. these are all results of the current situations in our respective countries. catalonians are afraid of the andalucian (READ: moroccan/north african/arab/muslim) immigrants. americans are afraid of immigrants from latin america. i think that we could relate on this subject, but instead we like to focus on how OTHER people or countries are intolerant, racist, etc. whatever. it's not just america, though. that is somewhat comforting.

barcelona is to spain like boston or another northeast city is to america. they are not concerned with formalities like greeting strangers on the street or saying "sorry" if you bump into someone. they are concerned that the "others" are taking their hard-earned money from tourism and industry and subsidizing pointless and dying economic activities. they have become obsessed with "multiculturalism" and "multicultural" activities and displays as this is becoming more of a necessity.

the city itself is beautiful and never boring, and i'll miss spending weekend days just wandering around the backstreets, always running into some remains from when the romans put up walls around "barcino," catalonian nationalist protests, and castellers doing their thing in some plaza or another. i have seen more art and history here than I had in nineteen years in the states. and that's not to mention my other travels- they each had their own blog updates, so i won't bother to recap.

and with that, VISCA CATALUNYA LLIURE.