Local News: El Clasico 2010

In the United States, futbol (aka soccer in America) is not a big national sport.  I feel like the only time it is ever recognized is every four years when the FIFA World Cup is played.  Futbol in Barcelona, however, is definitely not like that.  I have never lived in a city that is so obsessed and proud of its main professional sports team.  In this case, that team is Barcelona's futbol team FC Barcelona.  The biggest game of the year for this team and this city is when Real Madrid comes to town to play in the world famous game, El Clasico.  This futbol match is played at least bi-annually and is one of the most viewed in the world, estimated to be watched by over 100 million people.

The game is not big because it is played by the two biggest teams in Spain, but rather symbolizes the Catalonian view and feelings towards Spain.  Catalonia is very big on its independence and the nationalism displayed at this game by FC Barcelona fans makes that loud and clear.  My friends and I were lucky enough to get a table at a bar called Ovella Negra.  We had to get to the bar at 7pm, the game started at 9pm.

Waiting for the two hours between arriving at the bar until the time the game started was well worth it.  The energy in the bar was nothing like I have ever experienced before.  We were the only "fans" who were not local Barcelona residents.  At first we felt uncomfortable with this, but after a few beers and talking to locals sitting around us, we were quickly taught FC Barcelona chants and became die hard fans in no time.  FC Barcelona ended up winning the game 5-0, a huge win for a futbol game, especially for El Clasico!  After the game was over, my friends and I decided to go to Placa Catalunya to see if there was a celebration, and it turned out to be a little bigger than we though.  Las Ramblas was flooded with people all celebrating the big win over Real Madrid, it was crazy!  Needless to say this was one of the cooler sporting event experience of my life.

Local News: Catalonia Elections 2010

What a time to be studying in Barcelona!  Though I missed the midterm elections for the House of Representatives and the Senate back in the United States, I was fortunate enough to experience how elections worked in Spain; more specifically, in Catalonia.  It was very interesting to see all of the advertisements and how certain candidates campaigned for this election.  For instance, Alicia Sanchez-Camacho, representative of the PP (Popular Party), focused her campaign a lot on immigration.  She was clearly against immigration and made that point clear when she came out with a campaign strategy of making a computer game that could be downloaded and played for free on the internet.  This game entailed her face hovering above immigrants coming into Spain and Catalonia, and after clicking on immigrants below her, bombs would be dropped on the immigrants.


Unfortunately, this campaign strategy did not work out for Sanchez-Camacho and the PP party.  Artur Mas, head of the CiU party ended up winning 62 seats, thus winning the 2010 election.  The CiU party gained 14 seats in 2010 after only holding 48 since the 2006 election.  This was a huge win for the CiU; however, it was not a surprising win.  The party that was in control before the election was the Socialist Party (PSC).  This is also the party that has the majority rule in Madrid in the Spanish Parliament.  Due to the current economic status of Spain and Catalonia, the Catalan people are not pleased with the Socialist's policies and therefore were not expected to win this election.  Though it was fairly difficult to know all of the factors voters were voting on this election, it was still exciting to see how another countries elections work.

Artur Mas, leader of the CiU

Barcelona: Local Art

One of the greatest aspects of Barcelona is the profound interest in art that the city has.  This ranges from famous architects and architecture, to famous painters and paintings, to local photographers and local spray paint/graffiti artists.  I don't want to focus on the obvious Gaudi and Piccaso in this blog, but rather the more local art that gives Barcelona the character it has today.  Wherever I walk in this city, I am constantly surrounded by local art.  This includes people on the street making random things with random materials and local scenery paintings, but most noticeably in my neighborhood, Poblenou,  there is graffiti everywhere.  Whether it is a random wall in an alley or a metal protective pull down door to a store, there is a unique graffiti painting.  In fact, about a week after moving into my apartment in Poblenou, there was an intersection a block away from my apartment that was blocked off for a local concert and graffiti showcase.  Local rappers were on stage rapping while local graffiti artists had their own canvases lined up along the sides and front of the stage doing their own designs and displaying/selling them.  The intersection was inundated with locals!  This was one of the cooler experiences that I have had in Barcelona because it showed me another perspective of the culture that I did not realize existed.  I have now developed a more keen sense of appreciation for local artists and graffiti artists because they are not trying to get recognition on a scale that Piccaso and Gaudi recieved, but rather a more "raw" and intimate appreciation by their fellow local neighbors.

Barcelona Dining: Bar Mut

Bar Mut is a famous tapas bar located in the L'Eixample neighborhood of Barcelona.  When my parents and older sister came to visit me for my birthday in late October, they told me we had to eat at Bar Mut while they were there because a friend of our family recommended it to us.  I got to bring two of my roommates and the three of us all agreed that this had been our most adventurous night of eating while in Barcelona.  This restaurant only serves tapas and we didn't know which ones to order, so we told our waiter to bring us a sample of all of them.  I had never liked sea food until I ate at Bar Mut.  The first 5 tapas were all sea food such as clams, oysters, lobster, different types of fish, and muscles.  I really liked the muscles, lobster and fish that they brought out to us.  Next was the meat tapas which only consisted of chicken and filet of beef.  This was definitely my favorite part of the dinner because ever since leaving the United States for Barcelona I had been craving a juicy piece of steak; finally I got it this night and it was cooked perfectly at medium rare!  My 26 year old sister did not have the same sense of adventure that the rest of us did at dinner and so unfortunately her meal consisted of the bread that came out before dinner, and a bite of the chicken tapas.

After the dinner, our waiter told us that they have a drinks bar that they wanted us to check out.  This was not a normal bar, however.  We had to be escorted by a waiter of Bar Mut outside and around the corner to what looked like the door to an apartment building.  Once we were let inside, there was a man in a suit and earpiece at the bottom of the apartment building.  After a minute he told us to walk up the steps and enter the first door on the left.  Once entering that door, there was a dim lit hallway with another lady and earpiece at the next door.  She made us wait for a second and then let us in and showed us to our table.  Once we sat down we asked her what kind of place this was because we were all a little creeped out.  She told us that it is a "speak easy" bar, meaning not many people in Barcelona were supposed to know about it.  The logo on the menu further explained this because it was a pair of lips with a finger over it, implying the "shhh" gesture.  Though I'm sure this "speak easy" bar wouldn't want pictures up on my blog, I decided to put them up anyways. Shhh!

                                                                My sister's "dinner"

                                                     Everyone at the "speak easy bar"

                                                                   Actual dinner

Jewish Quarters Field Trip

This field trip was a very special one for me.  I am Jewish and thought it was very interesting to see a place where my ancestors lived many centuries ago.  What struck me most about the Jewish Quarters was how narrow and close everything was.  The windows were very small in these buildings so that suggested to me that many, if not all, activities were held outside in the main square.  I also thought it was interesting how the streets were named “Call” instead of “Calle” in order to indicate that we were in the Jewish district. 

 Another part of this field trip that I thought was very interesting was in the square where the wall was used as for a firing squad during the Spanish Civil War.  It was disturbing but fascinating that no bullet holes have been touched since then.  I also thought that it was ironic that back in the Civil War days that area was known as a place of fear; however, in present day it is a place of fun and joy.  The kids having a great time playing soccer when we were there are a testament to this. 

The last notable part of this field trip was observing all of the architecture.  Wherever I walk in Barcelona I am always taken back and mesmerized by the beautiful architecture.  It is so cool to know that a lot of the buildings, especially the ones on this field trip, have been around for many centuries and are still standing today.  Finding such buildings in my hometown is a rare thing.  I also thought it was cool that we saw the statues on the back of the Barcelona Cathedral that are the same ones from the cover of our book.  

Barcelona: The Beach

The most obvious thing that Barcelona has that my hometown of St. Louis, Missouri, doesn't have is the beach.  I have never thought much about living on a beach since I hadn't before coming to Barcelona, but now when I go home that is all I'll be thinking about.  Back in the states I don't have the chance to go relax on the beach after a day of classes or on a nice weekend afternoon, so I took full advantage of doing that while here in Barcelona.  The beaches here are beautiful!  The waves aren't too big and disruptive and the water (at least in the beginning of the semester) was a perfect temperature.  Another thing I love about the beaches here are the guys walking around selling beers for one euro--nothing more relaxing than a cold beer while sitting on a hot beach.  The beach is only a 10 minute walk from my apartment in Poblenou and is called Platija de la Mar Bella.  Our first time at this beach the first thing we noticed very quickly was that almost everybody was half or fully nude.  We didn't think much of it though because we thought it was just the European thing to do.  One time some locals asked us if we wanted to play beach volley ball with them.  Two of the girls were wearing thongs and it was pretty distracting to say the least.  It wasn't until about three weeks into hanging out on Platija de la Mar Bella did we find out an interesting fact about the beach.  We met a guy from the United States on this beach and were having a normal conversation.  He then started to tell us how he just discovered that he was a homosexual.  Though we didn't care what his sexual preferences were, we all were wondering why he was telling us.  That is when he said, "You guys know this is a gay beach, right?"  We all looked at each other first in shock, but then started laughing because we now realized why so many of the men and women were so comfortable laying nude next to each other.  

Once it started getting a little too chilly to go into the water, there was nothing better or more calming than running along the beach for exercise.  I personally cannot run on treadmills because I hate staring at the same wall when I run; it is a lot better to look at the Mediterranean!  My regular jogging route would be from my apartment, to the beach, down the beach to the start of Port Olimpico, and then back to my apartment.  It was a good 3.5 to 4 mile run.  When I go back home and people ask me what I miss most about Barcelona the first thing that will come to mind besides its awesome and unique culture will be the beach.