Become the master of your own 3A

 

You know what’s great about 3A? You get to move to an unknown city full of opportunities. There are endlesss possibilities for you to do what you want,  start a friendship with anyone, be who you want and ultimately become who you are.

As easy as it is to find those opportunities, especially if you live in a big city, it is also easy not to see them at all.  What I mean is that, if you decide to close yourself to what is out there you miss out on some amazing things. Unlike living in Reims,  you can’t just expect to sit at home and wait for the next party opportunity to fall on your lap. You are no longer invited by default to an overwhelming amount of events and hangouts. You now need to be a bit more proactive. Meeting friends, having life-changing experiences, that doesn’t happen from the comfort of your bedroom. You really need to get out there, and once you do, you will reap the rewards.

I know this seems obvious, but we are confronted with so many changes when we move to a different place that sometimes we just want to crawl in bed, eat some comfort food and skype with our friends who now live all over the world. I am guilty of doing that many times. It’s totally fine,  you are entitled to missing your friends and eating good french food. It only becomes an issue when it is your daily routine.

It’s so easy now to stay at home and yet socialize with your old friends. But, thinking nostalgically about our time in Reims and trying to relive it via facebook is not at all effective. It’s like buying a croissant in North America, you are really excited at first,  you think you are getting a croissant, but deep down inside you know it’s not the real deal. Instead, grab a nice north american hamburger.

So I guess my point is that you need to stay motivated. At least at the beginning,  you have to make that extra effort. And what I mean by making that extra effort is getting off the computer and out of bed.

Everything is set up for you to have an amazing 3A. But they don’t just happen. Only you have the power to do that.

 

Here is a little proof that getting out of bed is worth it: I am now involved with TEDxBarcelonaWomen, and I am even writing their blog. It is such an amazing opportunity and to be completely honest it wasn’t the hardest to find. I actually found it from my bed, but had to get out in order to actually enjoy it ;)

Now for a bit of shameless self-promotion:

Please check out tedxbarcelonawomen.com and stay tuned for the « blog » section. If you are not familiar with TED at all,  go on ted.com first, and prepare to have your life changed.

 

 

Saying Goodbye to Parc Güell

Anyone who knows Barcelona, knows Parc Güell.

The name might not sound familiar,  but there isn’t a single Barcelona movie that does not feature a scene in that park. There isn’t a single tourist who doesn’t trek up the hill to get to one of Gaudi’s most famous architectural wonders. Even the background image of my blog is a picture of tiles in Parc Güell. It is on everyone’s list of free things to do in Barcelona.

But not for long.

Starting on October 25th, you will need to pay 7€ to visit the park. Which means everyone who is reading this should get on the next plane to Barcelona and come visit me Parc Güell.

For those of you who have never had the chance to come to Barcelona, Parc Güell is a UNESCO World Heritage site that was designed by Gaudi and built between 1900 and 1914, as requested by Count Eusebi Güell. Gaudi was really able to let his imagination run wild in this park. Many aspects of it have become symbols of Barcelona, such as the salamander that you see in the picture above and also the view of Barcelona from the terasse. It is by far the coolest and most popular park in Barcelona.

Financially it makes sense for them to charge an entrance fee. It is estimated that 9 million people visit the park every year, which represents a potential income of 63 million euros. Of course,  less people will be coming now that they will be asked to pay (myself included). But if they managed to get half of those people to continue visiting the park, that would represent about 30 million euros, which is still a considerable amount of money. It is quite clear that Spain is still in the middle of an economic crisis, and there is no better way to generate a bit of income than by asking tourists to do it. In this case,  it is quite literally what they are doing since locals who live next to or in Parc Güell  will not be charged entrance because they need access to the park for more « practical » reasons.

However, I think that there is more to this decision than just finances alone. This park was originally intended to be a private housing complex and was therefore never built to receive 9 million people per year. The high affluence of tourist  means that the park has been falling into pieces little by little. If you pay close attention, you can already see that many of the tiles need to be replaced, that some of the towers are in the need of a good fix. Imposing an entrance fee means less people will come, which means less damage and more money to potentially fix the damage that is being caused.

I am all for the preservation of historical sites and I agree that there are way too many people damaging Parc Güell on a daily basis. However, I have always been against charging people for access to parks and ultimately nature. Maybe that’s my canadian side speaking,  but one of the things that surprised me the most in Europe is that parks have opening and closing times, that you cannot just go at any time you please. I love going for a nice walk in parks in the evening or even at night. Living in a city full of buildings and cars means that I need access to trees, grass and nature often. Barcelona is a great city because there are parks everywhere (and the beach). Going to Ciutadella park or Montjuic is great on sunday afternoons. Parks are a vital part of any city because they allow people to get together, enjoy the sun and be happy. As Olmsted once said: « Parks are the lungs of the city ».

Despite the original intentions that Güell and Gaudi had for Parc Güell, the reality is that now Parc Güell is a park, not  a private housing complex. There are only three houses in the entire park, and only one of them is actually inhabited, the two others are a museum and a school. And except for the main entrance and the giant terrace, Parc Güell is very much like any other park. It is free to go to all the other parks in Barcelona and so this one should not be an exception. It is the city’s reponsability to provide its inhabitants (and visitors) with adequate access to nature. By asking people to pay 7€ to enter this park, it is being turned into a theme park, an attraction, a tourist trap. So in a way, it feels like they are closing the park and depriving the Barcelonans from enjoying a nice patch of green.

Clearly this is something that I am quite unhappy about, but I’m going to try to enjoy Parc Güell while I still can. So if anyone is looking for me, they’ll know to find me at Parc Güell until October 24th.

Fall has arrived.

There comes a time in every city when the sun doesn’t shine quite as bright, when dresses can no longer be worn without tights and when your feet get cold. I thought that time would never come in Barcelona. But I guess it had to happen: Summer is over.

10 days ago, I was still going out in dresses (no tights) and complaining about the heat. And then, one day out of the blue everything drastically changed. Since October 4^th, everything has become grey. I don’t think there is a direct correlation with my birthday, but the weather was so horrible on that day that I have to use it as a turning point. Since then, I have worn long sleeves every single day. And today, the temperature dropped to 12°C (but don’t worry, it will be back in the low 20s next week).

The arrival of fall coincides with me getting old, me officially being registered for classes and me finally getting into a “rhythm”. I know how depressing all of this sounds. Some of you might think that:

• Being twenty means I have to deal with real responsibilities and be a bit more “serious”. It means I am officially no longer a teen and cannot get away with a lot of the things I used to do. It means I am an adult.
• Being officially registered for classes means that I have to take them seriously now, not that I didn’t take them seriously before, but now I HAVE to. Being registered means that I can no longer pretend I am on vacation. It means that I have real homework to do, that I can be graded on. It means back to work.
• Finally getting in a rhythm means the end of spontaneity, the end of unplanned adventures and the beginning of an old and boring routine that is taking me further away from all the fun Barcelona has to offer.

Those of you who think that are wrong. The fact that it is fall makes this entire Barcelona experience so much better.

All the tourist have gone and I can finally see Barcelona the way that it really is during the year. I can finally begin to hear more Catalan than French, English and German in the streets. There is more room to walk around and things are a bit calmer. Now I actually notice the catalans sitting in a cafe in the morning or getting to work or picking up their kids from school. Daily life feels more authentic.

Fall also means that I can get back to real life. I love summer as much as any student I know, but it got to a point where four months of summer was too much. I needed to be stimulated intellectually, I needed to be busy, have responsibilities and things to do that are not limited to eating tapas, taking a siesta, going to the beach and drinking cervezas. Summer is like a parallel life with no problems, but eventually that gets tiring. I need the challenges of every day life. Finally, I have joined local organizations and met local people (and they take me more seriously now that I can say I am twenty). At last, I am not vacationing in Barcelona, I am actually living here.

My mind and body have finally gotten used to the Spanish lifestyle. Yes, I wake up late, go to class, eat lunch at 2 or 3pm, take a siesta, go back to class, have dinner around 9 or 10pm and go to bed at 1 or 2am (or go out at that time). It was not a conscious change in my lifestyle, it happened naturally. It makes it easier to keep up with my class schedule (I don’t have a lunch break at noon) but it also makes it easier to socialize with the locals. Because socializing with the locals is where the real fun in Barcelona starts. 

For all these reasons, Barcelona is home.

My summer fling is over and I am ready to fall in love with Barcelona for real.

 

Vocabulary Challenge #3 : In class

I have officially finished my second week of school! Two weeks of school means ten long hours of classes in Spanish and about ten thousand words that I did not recognize or understand. Out of those ten thousand “vocabulary challenges”, I have picked out the three funniest ones to share with you guys.

Ilustración

This happened during my very first Political Theory class. The class had started with the teacher showing us Eugène Delacroix’s famous “La liberté guidant le peuple” painting. We commented on it for about a half hour, talking about all the hidden symbolism and what it means for the French people. Eventually we linked it all back to political theory and we talked about both the French and the American Revolutions. About an hour into the class, he asked what was the “ilustración” and what it represented. In my mind, I automatically assumed that “ilustración” meant illustration so I thought that he talking about the Delacroix again. I was confused by his question because we had just spent a half hour answering just that. Yet, no one seemed to be raising their hand to answer. Until someone said that it was about how everyone was equal and had ideas. I then realized we weren’t talking about the Delacroix so I frantically tried to find what other painting he might be talking about. I couldn’t find anything. I was kind of getting discouraged but then my teacher said that it was a cultural and intellectual movement that was often associated with light. All along he had been talking the Enlightenment.

Ours

In my Relaciones Internacionales Contemporaneas class we’ve been talking about the Cold War and how it has shaped contemporary international relations. This professor is really hard to follow, he just kind of goes on and on without giving anyone a break to process the information. So, naturally, after a while, my mind kind of drifted elsewhere. But at some point the professor started talking about how the “ours” got nuclear weapons. Ours means bear in French so I made that link in my head. However, I knew there was no way that he was talking about how a polar bear got a hold of weapons. I love and respect polar bears as much as the next Canadian and I know that they are capable of great things and sometimes have to be feared, but there was no way that polar bears had gotten a hold of weapons. And I was right to think that that was not what he meant. He was simply referring to the USSR, which is abbreviated as URSS in Spanish and therefore pronounced like “ours”. Did I feel stupid? Only just a little. I was secretly dying of laughter on the inside (and couldn’t wait to write about this later ;) ).

George Warren

This one is not my fault. I put the blame entirely on my teacher. He was talking about an essay that we have to hand in a couple of weeks from now. There was a long list of topics to choose from and one of them was about To Kill A Mockingbird. So then he recommended another book for those who aren’t native English speakers. He couldn’t quite remember the title but it was written by the famous George Warren. What? You don’t know who George Warren is? Neither did I. And apparently neither did the entire class. Seeing as he was getting confused looks from all his students, he asked if anyone knew who George Warren was. No one answered. He was really surprised and he said it was really shameful that no one knew the great George Warren and that he was a very important person to know. Then this one guy raised his hand and said “I know who you are talking about sir, actually we all do. But his name is not George Warren, it’s George Orwell”. The entire class burst out laughing and the teacher admitted to being wrong and blamed his mispronunciation on his “roman accent”.

EXTRA: “alinabinlistación”

Before I start, I should precise that “alinabinlistación” is not a real word in Spanish. I made it up. It pretty much represents what Spanish sounds like when Spaniards mumble. I don’t understand anything except the end of the word which is usually “-ación”. This is probably my biggest vocabulary challenge yet: Spanish mumbling. When you learn Spanish is class, your teacher is like a professional articulator (if that’s a word), you can hear every single syllable. All the other students suck just as much as you do in Spanish so they also speak super slow so you can understand everything. That never prepares you for the harsh reality of someone lecturing in Spanish for two hours straight. It’s something I had never really thought of before because when I met Spanish speaking people, they always slowed down their pace when talking to me. But I think this is an issue for anyone learning any language, it doesn’t just apply to Spanish or to me. When I was in Reims, the English speakers often complained about how the French speak really fast and don’t really articulate. This made it harder for them to understand what was being said. I obviously never felt that way because I was probably one of those fast mumblers. But now I get it. The worst is in my Relaciones Internacionales Contemporaneas class, where the teacher speaks really fast, lowers his voice at the end of sentences and literally just mumbles for half the class. I absolutely need to be looking at him and at his mouth (no comment) in order to understand what he is saying. When he turns his head and I can’t see him, I am unable to follow. But, I don’t feel too bad because some native Spanish speakers in that class have told me that they have the same problem.

Reasons Why Plaça Sant Felip Neri Is My Favorite Spot In The City

Maybe it’s because of the way that I stumbled upon it the first time.

As I have mentionned in previous posts,  when I first came to Barcelona I was with a group of friends. Those friends liked to wake up late after our long nights and so in the morning I would go for walks. Sometimes I would walk through the El Born neighborhood and then walk along the water near Barceloneta beach, this was the « easy walk ». But there were morning when I felt more adventurous and I would go explore the Barri Gotic or Ciutat Vella area. This is the oldest area of Barcelona and I just loved getting lost in those tiny streets. The thing is, it’s also one of the most touristic areas in the city. So as I was trying to escape the main tourist routes, I stumbled upon this place. It is just meters away from the Barcelona Cathedral and from the busy La Rambla, yet all of that felt miles away. It was just the most peaceful place ever. That’s kind of when I knew that I had fallen in love with Barcelona.

Maybe it’s because I can never find it.

When I first « found » this place, I was just walking aroudn and had no idea of where I was or where I was going, so there was no way for me to remember how to get there. The second time I went there, it was actually a friend that brought me. I didn’t know that this was the place she was bringing me to so I didn’t pay attention to how to get there. The third time, I also stumbled on it randomly. Anyways, my point is that I never really learned how to get there. I have been there countless times before, I can place it on a map and everything yet I always have the hardest time remembering where it is. It gets better every time but because the streets are so unpredictable in Ciutat Vella I can never be one hundred percent confident in where I am going. But I think that having to « hunt » for this place every single time I want to go, makes it even more magical and rewarding when I do.

Maybe it’s because no one knows it, yet everyone does.

When you are sitting in Plaça Sant Felip Neri,  you can sometimes feel all alone in the world. Not in a depressing way. I mean this in the « zen » way. This place can be so peaceful and empty at times that you feel like you are one of the first to ever set foot there. You feel like you and maybe a handful of other people  are in on this great secret about this place. But the truth is that this is a very known spot. Firstly, there is a school there, a restaurant and hotel,  a soap shop, a church and a museum. Those are enough attractions to bring a whole lot of people. And on top of that this place has a very interesting history – don’t worry I’ll talk about it later – which means that tour guides often stop here when showing the Ciutat Vella neighborhood to tourists. (Somehow those guys don’t have a hard time finding this spot.) When I talk to people who are either from Barcelona or have lived in Barcelona they all tend to know about this spot or mention it as part of the things that I must see during my stay. It was even featured in Vicky Cristina Barcelona. So it’s more like a not-so-secret secret spot.

Maybe it’s because it is calm.

Other than when tour guides come in or when the school children are playing this place is super quiet. I know that I am making it sound like the calm is the exception rather than the rule, but I promise you it is the other way around. This place is always super calm. You know how when some people want to relax they play these CDs with sounds of nature, things like waves, a storm or a river. Well this place is better. Here you get to hear nothing but the sound of the fountain and your own thoughts. Everything around you is beautiful, from the buildings to the trees. There is some sunlight but not too much that it becomes bothersome. You simply have no reason not to be at peace.

Maybe it’s because of its history.

You might have noticed on the picture above that the walls of the church in the picture above are not exactly « smooth ». That’s because this is one of the only remaining buildings that did not get it’s façade renovated after the bombings of the Spanish Civil War. The Barcelonans wanted to keep it intact as a reminder of the tragic event that happened here. During the Civil War many people took refuge in churches and bunkers around the city. This church was no exception. But in January 1938, a bomb hit the plaça it killed 42 people including 20 children. The sadness of that tragedy can be felt when you are there. But the fact that they decided to put a children’s school here is also an amazing symbol of strength and hope.

An other little known fact about this place is that Gaudi regularly attended the church in Plaça Sant Felip Neri. Apparently he was running to get to this church when he fatally hit by a tram in 1928.

Maybe it’s because of the soap shop.

One of my favorite things about this place is that there is a small soap factory/shop called Sabater Hemanos. It was recommended to me by a friend and I have been going back there every since. To be completely honest, ever since that first trip to Barcelona I have pretty much been using their soaps any time I can. They smell amazing and they last forever! Sometimes they put some soap petals in the fountain which makes the entire plaça smell amazing!

Maybe it’s because of none of these reasons. Maybe it’s because of all of them.