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!