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?")