FC Barcelona, Flamenco, Parc Güell & It's The Little Things That Matter Most

       I was talking to a girl from my program this morning on the bus on our way to Parc Güell. We had only just met, and were discussing our hometowns, colleges, trips we were planning on taking, and how much Spanish we knew before arriving in Barcelona. She seemed shocked at the idea that I came here to Barcelona with no prior knowledge of the Spanish language, chose to live in a homestay, and selected a big city as the location of my study abroad semester. She noted how it must be not only culture shock, but the shock of going from a small town to a city in itself that has affected me. Yeah, I guess you could probably come to that conclusion! I’ve been handling it much better, and even my roommate has commented that I have adjusted to the city well and it seems like I have been here for a long time. I appreciated her compliment that night!

       On Tuesday, I had a field trip for my Sports and Society in Spain class to the FC Barcelona stadium, Camp Nou. Coolest field trip ever. We went on the Camp Nou Experience Tour and Museo: access to the pressroom, the visiting team’s locker room, the press box, the stadium seating, and the edge of the field in front of the players’ benches. I can hardly call them benches as they were far more similar to airplane seats, courtesy of their largest sponsor Qatar Airways, with cup-holders on the armrests! We toured the stadium from bottom to top, then to the museum (so many trophies in there!!), and finally ended in their three-story team store. Messi plays at that stadium! I could have been standing in the exact same spot as him and all of the rest of his teammates. How awesome is that?

Wednesday evening, our education abroad program offered a free flamenco show and dinner at Palacio del Flamenco. Dinner was a roll, paella (Spanish rice mixed with vegetables and sometimes including meat or seafood), and ice cream for dessert. The flamenco show was very neat to watch! Flamenco is not as popular of a tradition here in Barcelona as it is in the rest of Spain, like the traditional city of Madrid. I really enjoyed watching the power of the women as they danced to the music from the live band. The one man dancing was extra serious the entire time to the point it was a little scary and it felt like he was staring straight into our souls, but it was very intriguing nonetheless! I would love to learn how to dance, but knowing my abilities on the dance floor, I could not imagine that going well at all.

Parc Güell is an area of land laid out and designed by Antoni Gaudí. Gaudí is a famous architect of the modernisme period of architecture here in Barcelona. He was not very well known until after his death: he was hit by a car and left on the streets for two days as people walked by him mistaking him for a homeless man. Now his work is legendary. Oh, the cruel jokes of life. Parc Güell is free to the public, except for the cool parts: the famous mosaic bench, mosaic lizard, garden, Casa del Guarda (small museum), gift shop, and spiral columns. It offers beautiful views of the city as well. There is a public school located right in the center of the park where kids were enjoying recess, this public school was built prior to Gaudí designing the area. There were also many elementary students on field trips to the park holding hands in their matching uniforms.

Part of Gaudí's mosaic bench in Parc Güell.

I like to walk places. The metro is fun, but there’s something about just walking through the streets trying to find your way. There is so much to see if you take the time to look. Countless people like to fall asleep on the benches in the green zones. The same homeless man sits at the corner two blocks away from my apartment building blasting 80s music on his stereo with his beanie babies drinking from a dog dish with a few euros inside. I’ve been witness to a poor child roller-skating who fell and bruised his tailbone (that hurts!!). I’ve been the target of a child’s super friendly “Hola!” while he was bored playing near his mother and her friend at a café, which led to a mini conversation before I continued on my walk. I have been stopped for directions, which I usually have no means of helping the poor people that ask me in Spanish! I’ve witnessed the very awkward PDA (Public Displays of Affection) of various couples, lots of butt-grabbing and making-out with no shame at all here in Barcelona! I have been stopped by a group of older couples that asked me to take a picture of them by the Arc de Triompf, which led to another mini conversation in my bad Spanish. Sometimes you can hear the birds chirping in the trees, not the pigeons (they’re annoying and don’t fly away when you walk near them) but the small green parakeets. I get to see parents walking their children to school every morning, usually carrying the child’s backpack and holding their hand the entire way to the school building. If I had not walked by myself to the Tibidabo mountain, I would have never met that man that helped me with directions to reach the top. The metro hides all of these little moments underground in the pitch black tunnels below the city. I don’t typically walk much back home, never really have a reason to as everything is much less accessible than in a city, but it has been an enjoyable experience walking everywhere and getting to appreciate the environment I am in. This attitude is one that I hope will transition with me back to life in the United States: appreciating the little moments a little more.