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.