Barcelona

What an incredible city. All 35 of us stayed the weekend there, seeing the sights, doing the touristy thing, and living the night life, and I have to say it's an entirely different world from Madrid. The first and most noticeable difference, at least to a Spanish student, is that they don't speak Spanish in Barcelona. Barcelona is the capital of the province of Calatonia, where they speak Catalan, not Castillian, which is the official language of Spain (and Latin America). Although Catalonians learn Castillian in school, they seem to disdain having to speak it, and only do so begrudgingly -- in fact, frequently when we tried to talk to a Barcelonian in Castillian, they would just speak back to us in English (which everybody seemed to have learned as well).

The reason for this is the strong sense of pride for the "patria chica" (little motherland) that pervades Spanish people. That is to say, unlike in the US, in Spain people identify first with their state, and then with the country. Ask a Barcelonan what nationality he is, and more often than not you will probably get the answer "I'm a Catalonian." There are actually 4 languages spoken in Spain -- Castllian, Catalonian, Euskara (the language of the Basque country) and Gallega (the language of Galicia). They're far from being dialects of Spanish -- all are distinct languages. In all four provinces, there are very prominent separatist movements -- from the peaceful protests we saw in Barcelona, to the terrorist attacks carried out by ETA.

Regardless, Barcelona is beautiful. It's clearly the most modern city in Europe, full of innovative architecture and young people. It was the working place of Picasso and Dali, and is home to a large international population.

When we first arrived -- after taking a short flight from Madrid -- we were given a bus tour around the city and then taken to the Park Guell, which was designed by the vanguardist architect Antoni Gaudi, who has buildings all over Barcelona. His style was modern and innovative to the point of being indescribable. So here are some pictures:

The Park Guell:



This is the Temple of the Sacred Family, also designed by Gaudi (a closeup, sorry I didn't get a good one from far away):



Later Friday night we explored the city, had dinner, etc. There's this amazing series of fountains (with programed shows and all) in front of the National Museum of Catalonia, which is up on a hill overlooking the entire city. Because this weekend was the holiday of the patron saint of Catalonia, the fountains were lit up, something which only happens once or twice a year. It was such a wonderful experience, sitting above the city and watching the water and lights dance.. that was the happiest I've been since I've been here. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me, although it would have been hard to truly capture. Here's a picture I found online that gives a general idea though... just imagine another, much larger fountain down below those people, with a myriad of lights illuminating it, dancing and suggesting something supernatural:



To be continued tomorrow, as it's late now and uploading pictures is time-consuming....