HIATUS

In case you hadn't already noticed, I'm a bit behind on this whole blogging thing. I've started a good eight posts or so over the past month, but haven't gotten around to finishing them up and adding pictures and such. I've been traveling quite a bit lately, and since the end of the semester is near, I have a ton of papers/assignments to work on. I'll be taking a break for a bit, but don't worry. As soon as I'm done, I'm hoping to have a good 10-15 more posts for you all (yes, all five to ten of you) to read.

Walk This Way

Growing up, I often heard the phrase that "the shortest distance between two points is a straight line". Taking this to heart, I always made it a point to heed these wise words when walking about (alliteration-- what up!?!). Apparently nobody mentioned this to Barcelona's city planners, as one of the first things I noticed upon arriving here are its atypical cross-walks/intersections, which look like this:

...rather than this:



While it doesn't seem like much, given the amount of walking the average person does in this city, it can add up considerably. In my case, it can serve to be quite a inconvenience if you are in a rush to be somewhere (since I'm always late to class, I'm always in a rush). Even more interesting to me is the fact that you hardly ever see pedestrians forging their own paths across intersections (or even crossing when the "don't walk" signal is displayed and no car is within sight). That being said, I'm usually the only person around who's power-walking down the sidewalk and cutting corners. This observation has always stuck out to me, as I think it highlights two key differences between Europeans and us:

1) Europeans have a much more laid-back approach to life. While I may be stating the obvious, I think this serves as a testament to the fact that they are more patient/less concerned with the notion of "time". Basically, they're not a bunch of spastic freaks like us in the States. I suppose the "time is money" mantra doesn't apply over here. Not a bad thing at all.

2)Europeans prefer "form" over "function", and are willing to place aesthetics over efficiency. I guess this is also obvious, especially when looking at their style of dress. I've been told many a time that Europeans "dress for the seasons, not for the weather". This means that even on a randomly warm, 65 degree February day, you'll see most folks bundled-up in thick jackets and scarves. As for me, I'd rather look foolishly comfortable than fashionably sweaty.

To highlight the inefficiency, I merged the above two drawings (in case you didn't catch it):

Despite my passion/knack for getting places quickly (after leaving horrendously late, of course), at the end of the day, it's nice to see that not everybody is time-obsessed as we are back in the US. We've got plenty to learn from these crazy Europeans.

That's it for now...

Hasta luego!

The Velvet Underground

Though Barcelona isn't a very spread out city, if you aren't living in one of the main districts- Ciutat Vella (the "Old City) or L'Eixample ("The Expansion", pronounced "la ee-schamp-lay") -using public transport is more or less a necessity, and everybody seems to be taking full advantage of Barcelona's efficient-as-hell mass transit system. At this point, I'm pretty much in love with it. I suppose the system can be best described as a medium between DC's Metro rail/bus system and the NYC Subway, though on a smaller, more-condensed scale. It's clean, safe (aside from the occasional pick-pocket), and often-times entertaining (drunk-watching is a hobby of mine).

Thankfully, the fee for my study abroad program included metro passes (a 30-day T-Mes pass, plus a 90 day Trimestre pass), so I've been able to take full advantage of the TMBs offerings. Basically, for a couple hundred Euro, you can get unlimited access to all trains/metros/buses in Barcelona proper.

In addition to the metro exists an extensive bus system. Though I've yet to use one of the regular day-time buses, I make regular use of the city's NitBus system. Since the metro stops running at midnight on most days (with the exceptions being Fridays and Saturdays, when it runs until 2am and 24-hrs, respectively), this becomes a very practical resource. The NitBus runs virtually everywhere the metro does, and then some; covering pretty much every street in town. This is great because you can catch one just about anywhere-- although they don't run nearly as often (a 20-minute wait between busses means that many a night are spent literally chasing down random busses in random neighborhoods), and its hard to tell where it will end up taking you. Thankfully, most pass through Plaça Catalunya, so from there you can catch one that will take you home.

As much as I miss driving, with a metro stop within a two-minute walk from my place, it hardly even crosses my mind that such a possibility even exists (I've only been in a car twice since being here, both times in my first week). I can't think of more than two days since I've been here that I haven't hopped on a the metro at least once to go somewhere. I can get used to this.

Green Barcelona

As much as one may be able to argue that Europeans are lagging behind the US in terms of technological advancements, they surely have us beat when it comes to environmental consciousness. Sure, people in the states are becoming more cognizant of "Global Warming" after all the hoop-la sparked by An Inconvenient Truth, but we aren't really going to great lengths to do anything about it, and neither is our government (we've gotta spare the economy, right? Being "green" doesn't earn us "green"). That being said, it's extremely refreshing to see the extent to which Europeans are willing to go to be more environmentally friendly. Here are a few examples:
Recycling bins

It makes sense for city blocks to have dumpsters, right? Well how about recycling bins on each block? Not only are they there, but they also detail what can and cannot be put in them. For every two dumpsters on a block, there are three equal sized bins for recycling. A blue one for paper blue, a yellow one for plastics, and a green one for glass (I'm sure one of them takes aluminum, but I don't know how to translate it). With these so easily accessible and easy to understand, there's no reason for people not to recycle.

"Organics" Bins
In addition to the presence of recycling bins, many of the dumpsters also have a separate partition inside that is solely for compostable, organic trash (food scraps, leaves, etc.). In some cases you'll even find separate bins (pictured) for this type of stuff, often accompanied by small bins for batteries and other potentially toxic waste.

Motion-activated Escalators
A lot of the metro stations have escalators that only turn on once you step on the platform right in front of them. this ensures that energy isn't being wasted when they aren't in use.

Timed Lighting in Stairwells
Getting into/out of one's flat almost invariably requires that one trek up/down a few flights of stairs first. As stairwells generally lack windows, all tend to have light switches at their entrances and outside each door to make sure that people are able to see where they are going. To make sure that these lights don't get left on when not in use, the switches are timed to shut off briefly after being pushed (roughly 1-2 minutes).

Timed Lighting of Buildings and Monuments
Though Barcelona has its share of lit-up buildings, fountains, and other sites, the lights tend to shut off as the midnight hour approaches. This makes sense based on the fact that anyone who's out past midnight (nearly all of Barcelona) isn't looking to visit the sites, and likely couldn't care less whether or not they were lit up. Just imagine if the folks in New York decided to follow suit with Times Square!

Natural Gas
Like some cities in the US, most of the buses in Barcelona run on Natural Gas rather than regular petrol. Being much cleaner from an emissions standpoint, this is a logical "green" move.

Hang Drying
I doubt this can be attributed to environmental concerns, but I think it's worth mentioning that everyone in Barcelona hang-dries their clothes. While I find this to be a pain in some instances (its no fun hang drying something small, like socks), I'm growing accustomed to it. Whether intended or not, this likely goes a long way toward reducing energy consumption as high-powered dryers are not being used.

Working hard for the money

Since Barcelona isn't a cheap town-- especially for those of us from the States (the dollar-euro conversion rate has gone from $1.47 to $1.51 to $1.54 in the past two weeks)--, my roommate Alex and I have been trying to find a means of earning some cash to make up for the dents we're putting in our wallets. Unfortunately, this has proven to be no simple task, as we lack the European identity cards that all citizens/tax-payers of the Euro-zone are required to possess. Basically this means that unless you have connections, no "papers" means no (legitimate) work. All that is left is a mixture of odd jobs here and there, which is why you see a lot of recent immigrants looking toward alternative means to make a living (Pakistanis and other Desis sell beer or samosas on the street, West African women work as prostitutes, etc.).

That being said, our options were limited to some sort of unskilled labor that didn't require mastery of Castillano or Catalan. This meant we'd have to do something that either didn't require us to speak (the only issue that arises with this scenario is that you have to at least be able to communicate with your employers), or requires that we speak in English. Thankfully, since Barcelona is always chock-full of visiting foreigners (tourists, as well as tons of kids studying abroad), it's not impossible to find the latter type of job, as there is a fairly large market for anything that caters to this English-friendly crowd.

Barcelona is known throughout Europe for its nightlife, and since people often come here just to party (i.e. 90% of the kids who study abroad here), one of the easiest odd jobs to work is to do promotions for a bar or club by handing out flyers to younger (18-30 year-old) pedestrians on Las Ramblas and other high-traffic areas.

So how does one go about getting one of these jobs? Well, the best way to describe it is like the situation of "Day Laborers" in the US, except we find the work, as opposed to work finding us. In our case, we simply inquired at a few of the bars we frequent to watch soccer matches. Incidentally, Alex befriended one of the promoters for one of these places, a bar geared toward foreign travelers (aptly named "Travel Bar"), who was able to offer some insight on the matter.

So last night Alex and I, with nothing better to do, walk into Travel Bar, and Alex asks one of the waitresses if they need anybody to hand out flyers. Next thing you know, the bartender pulls out two thick stacks of cards and tells us that he'll give us five euro to hand them out for the next 45 minutes, and that we'll get 30 cents for each referral that actually comes in. Five minutes later we're standing in the middle of Las Ramblas amongst the beer/samosa-selling Pakistanis and African prostitutes trying to get the attention of younger-looking passer-bys and approaching groups, shouting "Free shots at Travel Bar", or asking "You guys looking for a bar?", and "Who wants to drink tonight?".

It wasn't long before I realized that I wasn't really any different from the Beer-selling Pakistanis that surrounded me. Though I wasn't actually selling anything, I was profiting off of getting others to drink (the promotion was a free shot with purchase of an alcoholic drink), which I didn't feel too great about. Granted, Travel Bar has plenty of food options as well, but this wasn't one of the points I was advertising. Let's just say I don't see myself doing this again anytime in the future.

While I'm certainly not proud of what I did, I can't say that I didn't enjoy doing it. As strange as this may sound, I felt as though I was actually a part of the city, as opposed to just a temporary inhabitant. There I was, in some respect a physical aspect of Las Ramblas (Bar/club promoters, along with the aforementioned Desis and prostitutes, are a staple after dark), one of the most famous sites in all of Barcelona. On top of that, I got to interact with people from all over (Americans, Eastern Europeans, people from the UK, other working folk, and even locals); not just calling at them, but I even had a conversation or two. It was a side of Barcelona that very few people in my shoes can say they've experienced, and for once I didn't feel like I was the one who was the tourist.

Though I don't plan on repeating it, all in all, it was definitely a memorable experience.

That's it for now...

Hasta Luego!


(Side note: As for the conversations I had with some of those whom I approached, they were mostly similar in nature. Though I suppose it was somewhat expected given that they seem to be more knowledgeable when it comes to current events and international affairs, I've found that it's very common for Europeans to start talking politics once they find out you're from the States, especially when they find out that I'm from DC. It generally follows the below format:

Local: "¿De donde eres?" ("Where are you from?")
Me: "Pues...Mis padres son de Pakistan, pero vivo en Estados Unidos" ("Well...My parents are from Pakistan, but I live in the US")
Local: "Ah. ¿Donde vives en los Estados Unidos? ("Oh. Where do you live in the US?)
Me: Washington, DC
Local: "Ahhhhh. ¿Con Bush? ¿Condoleza Rice?...¿Hilary o Obama?" ("Ohhh. With Bush? Condoleza Rice?...[Whom do you prefer,] Hilary or Obama?")

There's Always Room for Dessert

If you have a sweet tooth, living in Barcelona can either be a heavenly or hellish experience. For me, it's a bit of both. With an abundance of various options to fulfill my regular cravings for something sweet, I can pretty much find something satisfying at any given time of day or night. Great, right? Not so much. Though I'm certainly able to get my fix, it ends up being money unnecessarily spent (FYI: exchange rate is roughly $1.51 to 1 euro now), and definitely isn't helping me maintain the relatively healthy eating habits I have back at school.

While most kids from my program have the issue of spending most of their money on alcohol, I face a similar problem, but with sweets instead. Basically, I have no will power when it comes to stuffing myself with junk. Since I normally I live off of a meal plan, I have little reason to venture beyond my campus' dining hall and go out of my way to waste hard cash on candy/junk food, and therefore I'm better able to avoid such temptation. But things are much different here. It's not at all uncommon for me to make a meal of some type of dessert, especially when there is so much unique variety, and my options for food are limited (both due to my laziness in learning to cook, and the presence of pork in almost every small meal option other than Doner Kebab, which I've already had four times in the past week).

What makes turning down all of this junk especially difficult is the fact that my stomach is able to make a fair bit of arguments to justify what I've been eating:
-You can't get it in the states
-You don't normally eat this unhealthily, so what harm is there in doing so for a few months?
-This is a once in a lifetime chance; you shouldn't leave it with any regrets (you may be thinking "who on earth would actually 'regret' passing on dessert?" I would. No, I'm serious)

So here's a roundup of what's been going into my stomach, and what you folks are missing out on:

Gofres

Words cannot convey how strongly I feel about Gofres. A crass description would be that a Gofre (a.k.a. The Liège Waffle) is a small, fresh waffle coated with a layer of caramelized sugar (giving it a slightly crisp outer shell), which is then topped with some type of sweet(s). The most simple of gofres will be topped with nothing more than a layer of nutella, though more can be added in the form of condensed milk, custard ("crema"), caramel ("dulce de leche"), whipped cream, bananas, nuts, strawberries, gelato, etc.

I can honestly say that the Gofre, in its many varieties, rivals the cookie (all varieties, cooked and uncooked) as my all-time favorite dessert. In fact, it would surely take the top spot if cookies didn't have the advantages of portability and the fact that they can be consumed in multiples without making me sick. (Honorable Mention: Crepes of any "sweet" variety, Cold Stone's "Mud Pie Mojo", and Chicken and Egg's "Stoner Cakes").

Churros

Churros are a lot more common in Spain than in the states (where I can only seem to find them at CostCo), and are markedly different from their American counterparts ("hombres"?). The churros I've encountered in the past tended to be much longer and more doughy than those you find here in Barcelona. Here they are generally short (3-4 inches) and much crispier on the outside, while being more dense on the inside. Also, a variety exists in churros here, as you can get them plain (with powdered or granulated sugar), chocolate covered (kind of like doughnuts, but 10 times better because they are crispy and more dense), or stuffed (with chocolate, crema, or dulce de leche). Another option is that you order plain churros, but ask for them con chocolate caliente ("with hot chocolate"). Because chocolate caliente is so thick here, it becomes a dipping sauce for the churros (it's actually the same stuff the chocolate-covered churros are covered in before they harden), which can be fun.

I'm personally a fan of the stuffed (not so much the dulce de leche, though) churros, mainly because they are cheaper than a small vaso (a paper cone; translates to "glass") of the plain or chocolate-covered (1 euro for one stuffed versus ~1,50 for five or six small at the stand where I get them), and are equally filling. The ones with chocolate caliente are too rich for me, as there's always leftover chocolate, and drinking that (which is it's actual intended purpose to begin with) is like drinking a cup of melted semi-sweet chocolate chips. Even I can't handle that.

Basically, the hierarchy of Spanish churros works like this (for me, at least):
crema stuffed > chocolate stuffed > chocolate-covered > plain > dulce de leche-stuffed > plain with chocolate caliente

Pastries
Though these aren't nearly as unique as the two aforementioned items, this is certainly worth taking note of. Pastry shops are literally everywhere. There are 4 within 100 meters of my apartment. This becomes especially difficult in those morning walks to school, during which I pass a dozen or so bakeries. The alluring scent of freshly made croissants, tarts, and the like, is impossible to ignore, so it is not at all uncommon for me to quickly stop in and grab a topped (powdered sugar, honey, nuts, or sprinkles) and filled (chocolate, custard, or apple) pastry "para llevar" (essentially "to go", although a more direct translation would be "for to wear").

Gelato
I don't really understand the big deal about this stuff. Don't get me wrong, it's good, but I don't find it to be that good. For as good as it looks, I would expect it to be much more satisfying. I suppose nothing beats my Mud Pie Mojo. Everybody else seems to think its the "cat's pajamas" (shout out to Saif-e Bhai, who probably doesn't know this blog exists), though.

In an effort to curb my consumption of all these sweets, I've tried to set some ground rules for myself:
-If you can get it in America, there's no sense in spending more to get it here.
-Never buy in bulk (our grocery store sells multi-packs of Twix, Mars, and other Euro candies), because you'll eat it all at once.
-One Gofre a week maximum (since I like them far better from one specific shop in the Gothic Quarter, which is at 15 minute metro ride from my place, this should be a piece of cake --no pun intended)
-A total of three churros/pastries a month (one or the other)


Morals of the story:
-Dessert is awesome.
-Gofres are enough of a reason for you to visit Europe.
-I may very well be 20lbs heavier upon my arrival (Thankfully, I've yet to pack on the weight, but that's probably because my caloric intake is too low for anything to be stored as excess).


Unrelated Note/Ridiculously Long Digression:
I've been thinking about opening up a "dessert lounge", perhaps a late-night restaurant specializing in serving various desserts (aptly named The Midnight Snack; equipped with nice couches/sofas, mood lighting, music, etc.). Here I would sell all types of dessert foods, including cookies, brownies, ice cream, sundaes, cakes, shakes, smoothies (there's gotta be at least one healthy option), cupcakes, and anything else, both with traditional and unorthodox varieties for each.

Anyway, I was thinking of modifying my present scheme by either giving it an international theme, or making it part the dessert menu for my recently thought-up gourmet sandwich shop, where I served traditional international dishes, but converted them into sandwiches/wraps/pitas (it would thus be called Around the World in 80 Bites-- potential dishes include The Italy, pasta with sauce and meat/veggies stuffed between two slices of pizza; Butter Chicken with Roasted Red Peppers on Nan, etc.). For the dessert menu, I would offer dessert foods from all over the world, thus bringing things like Gofres and Churros stateside. Here they would accompany other dessert foods like Baklava, Mochi, Sticky Rice, Crème brûlée (here they have their own version, called Crema Catalana), and other ethnic/international sweets.

Perhaps I'll have a restaurant by day, dessert lounge by night type of set-up, or just make it one of my many restaurants (one of my other ideas was to convert part of an abandoned train station into a themed restaurant called The Last Stop, where patrons sit in pseudo train cars and are waited on by people dressed in conductors' outfits; food would be brought to the tables via toy train set).

That ended up being much more longer than intended...my bad.

There's No Such Thing as Free Water

So my crusade against purchasing bottled water came to a screeching halt upon my arrival in Barcelona, as the tap water here doesn't seem to be clean (it has a distinct smell and taste to it, even after heating/boiling it), and Brita-esque filters are difficult, if not impossible, to find. While the public authorities claim the water is completely safe for drinking, if the locals aren't even drinking it, I figure I'm much better off shelling out some Euro for the added peace of mind.

Thankfully since the demand for clean water is high (4 million+ people in the city and surrounding metropolitan area), there's a huge market for it, which leads to a ton of competition, which means prices that are, in most cases, much lower than in the US (man, I miss introductory Microeconomics). Basically, one can purchase an 8 liter jug of water here for €1,15-2,50 depending on the brand and where it's purchased from. Translate that to dollars (€1 = ~$1.48), and you're paying $1.70-3.70 for 8 liters, whereas a 25 pack (0.5 liter each x 25 = 12.5 liters) of Deer Park water bottles costs about $5 at Costco. Assuming people drank solely bottled water in the States (common on college campuses, at least), I'd be saving quite a bit of cash (in addition to plastic), so I shouldn't be complaining too much.

Unfortunately, paying for clean water in grocery stores means paying for clean water at restaurants and cafes also, which certainly is not as cheap. While I haven't been to any really posh restaurants, the cost of a half liter bottle of water seems to range anywhere from €1-1,50 in most places. Ridiculous, no?

Well, leave it to my Sigg to save the day. Back home I pretty much don't go anywhere without my trusty, non-chemical-leeching water bottle, so why should things be any different in Barcelona? While originally I would only take it with me to class, since the days are long and predictably unpredictable, I've recently begun taking it everywhere in my gym bag (one of those small, lightweight drawstring pouches you wear like a backpack). Since it doesn't outwardly look like a water bottle, I'm able to sneak in a few sips while dining, saving me some cash and the guilt of having contributed to the ecological dent caused by the production and transportation of an additional bottle.

Side note:
Spain's been in a drought for the past few years, and as the desertification of the Iberian Peninsula continues (currently at 1/3, according to Toni, one of my professors), matters seem to only be getting worse. Since I've been here, there have only been three days of rain, which, albeit nice from a pedestrian's perspective, should definitely be a cause for concern. When speaking of the looming drought, Toni is always quick to mention (not an exact quote):

"People always ask 'Aren't you worried about terrorism?' 'No, no, no! That's something that I cannot control' , it's unpredictable. I'm more worried about the drought, because we know that's happening. How the hell is a city that can barely provide water to its 4 million inhabitants (metropolitan area) going to be able to provide for them and the 20 million tourists that come here annually?"

Thank you, Global Warming.

That's enough ranting for now...

Adéu!