Rob Brogana web journal

I have wanted to go to Barcelona for as long as I can remember. It was one of those places that people often have in their head of “one day I’m going to…” and this is all because my family went there without me. When I say without me I mean that they lived there (here?) before I was born. Of course, to make matters worse, they talk about it all the time and not once in my twenty two years did we take a trip to Spain. It’s quite expensive to take a whole family on a trip to Europe, so I understand – but one could save. Oh well, my point is that I have grown up with some sort of Brogan nostalgia for a city that I’ve never seen. Finally I am here and I have a month to absorb all that I can about the place. It’s a bit much to accomplish.

As I have mentioned before, I’m a horrible tourist. I don’t like to make plans, but I have tried. Even when I make plans to see A, B, C, and D, I usually end up wandering around and maybe I’ll see B and a gift shop. I don’t know why, or perhaps it is just being self conscious, but I hate walking around with a map in front of me and in second place, I don’t like walking with a camera around my neck. If something is particularly fascinating I will snap some discrete photos, but nothing more. It’s not that bad if I am with a group of tourists, but especially when I am on my own as I am on this trip, I can’t stand to stick out. A little ironic that I waited to come all this way and I don’t want to be much of a tourist. I need to get over myself in that sense – maybe later. Besides, since I am on my own, all the photos would be of buildings and sights that have probably been photographed by better photographers on the internet. Without me or someone in them, there is no unique purpose to them. So, that’s me on being a tourist. I have however, taken some video clips of things that I see since they are brief and the video camera is smaller than my digital camera and I feel like I have a duty to the blog. With a secondary purpose (such as material for a web site), I don’t feel strange being a bit touristy.

In my week here I have had Spanish classes at a school for foreigners and the majority of my classmates are Italian. One is an American and another from Kazakhstan. I love Spanish with an Italian accent, and sometimes it rubs off on me. Have you (English speakers) every been in a situation speaking with someone that has a heavy Australian or British accent? Sometimes I am drawn into using a bit of an English accent after talking to a Brit for a while. Since our brains are wired to pick up on inflection and mood of the speaker so that we can communicate better (when someone is angry, you know to also respond in an angry tone of voice) this perhaps works along the same structure. Either consciously or subconsciously, I bet that we unwilling adopt the accent of the other as a part of improving communication. In the case of a second language, I have noticed that this happens a LOT faster. I guess this happens because I am less familiar with the language and my structure of the language is very malleable. When I was staying in Costa Rica for two months in 2008 I started to use their particular vocabulary and probably even rhythm or intonation of speaking because I heard it enough. The same goes for Spain this time. I doubt one can avoid staying here for very long without being infected by “vale.” So, take this process of malleability and apply it to accents. I don’t know about other people, but I have noticed that I have my own sort of Spanish accent and then it changes when I am speaking with Americans that aren’t very good at Spanish. Their heavy use of American vowel sounds brings out the same vowel sounds in my speech. It’s almost a type of camaraderie. In this class with Italians, everyone has heavy Italian vowel sounds “qui” instead of “que” or “trabaco” instead of “trabajo” for example. By the end of class we’ll be having discussions and I sound like them! That took a while to say that I’m picking up an Italian accent, but I’m always curious about why these things happen. Now you know my hypothesis.

Also during this week, I have seen the Barrio Gotico several times. I spent an afternoon at Parc Guell, got an overpriced pineapple milk shake, and quite a few video clips from there. (photo: 1 -Me jumping around of course. I have better material in video form on the park, don’t worry. 2 – The park is pretty high up, so eventually they give you some escalators.)

I visited the Fundacio Miro and saw the most Miro in one place I’ve ever seen. It was amazing because he’s one my favorite painters. Yes, sorry, these sentences are quite shallow, but I don’t have much to add at the moment – I’m merely giving an overview for you and for myself about what I’ve seen.

(photos: inside the Miro museum, and the second is on the roof patio – I have more in video form later.)

I took a two hour walk down the street Roger de Lluria (from Diagonal to Plaza Catalunya). That walk had six planned destinations and I spent time at one of them, saw another but didn’t feel like paying to enter, and must have missed all of the rest. As I said, I’m no good at being a tourist. If I had my Aunt Kathy here I bet I would see every tourist place in two weeks! I don’t mind going along with someone’s planned out day, but I lack the forethought to make a schedule and once I leave the house I prefer to feel like I can leisurely do what I want. A rigid plan diminishes some of the authenticity. Well, by now I think I’ve come to a compromise. What I do is give myself an objective and I can take whichever way or however long I want, as long as I see X. I like it.

Let’s see, what else do I have to report? Oh yes, of course probably the most fortunate thing about this trip is that I have a friend that lives around here and I have been brought along with her to go spend time with some people here near my age. This is perfect since it’s very non-touristy. The first weekend I got here, there was a Barça-Madrid (pr: /bar.sah/) soccer match. From here on out, I will now refer to soccer as football because soccer just sounds strange now. Although I am no fan of football, nor of sports of any sort, I have discovered that soccer if easy to watch because it is fast enough to maintain my attention (unlike American football or baseball, etc). For those that don’t know (probably most of my readers), there is a huge rivalry between Madrid and Barcelona. I feel this rivalry exists on multiple levels, but it is most noticeably expressed via football as a medium. The match was an epic 2-6, creaming Madrid! I had never seen so many points (in all the maybe two or three football games I’ve watched). I found out from the people there that it is tradition for everyone to go celebrate in Barcelona when they win, and in particular at the street La Rambla. If I ever find a decent internet connection for this laptop, I have video clips of this as well as most other things. In words, it’s best described as rioting in the streets with flairs, fireworks, honking horns, the ground sticky with beer, constant football chants and songs, and banging on the nearest wall, floor or object. No one gets this excited over a sport in the states. You might think of the super bowl, but there is not much of a city collective (except maybe unless you are in the home city) and when points are scored, you don’t necessarily hear it for miles down the street.

(Photos: 1,2, &3 -Going crazy celebrating in the street. Don’t worry, no one exploded. 4th was inside a place I forgot the name of for some bocadillos. It was delish, let me tell you.)

I think this should suffice for a post to update everyone. I don’t know what else to say off the top of my head right now. I will enable comments on this post for now. Is there anything in particular you would like me to write about, would like me to go see, to photograph/video? On a funny little side-note, while I have been walking all over Barcelona I’ve also been looking for wifi with my iPhone and I have found three access points that are free and open so far. I should make a map and sell it to the tourists! Sorry I can’t post any interesting media yet. As I have previously complained, the internet situation is frustrating. As nerdy as I am, I can’t figure out why I would be allowed to connect to a wireless network but not have internet connectivity. Because of this, I’m dependent on the mere luck of a faint wifi signal somewhere in this neighborhood. Feel free to include tech help in your comment too!

Accent marks: I’m not that incompetent, simply lazy. On some posts, I might have them if I write them on the web site itself I can insert them easily, but in the word processor I can’t do that so easily. So just ignore the lack of accent marks. Oops.