Part 2: la vida cotidiana

First things first, I live in the Grácia neighborhood of Barcelona. This was originally a tiny pueblo that Barcelona basically overwhelmed. As a result, the streets are narrow and tree lined, the shops are tiny and unique and there are all kinds of little plazas randomly interspersed throughout the area. Basically, its a small town in a big city. Not the suburbs, persay, but there is definitely a small town vibe, in the way that people will recognize each other on the street and its not very touristy. For those of you who can, imagine the "historic" part of Galesburg´s Main Street/Seminary Street area. Now instead of office buildings above the ground floor businesses, imagine lots of apartments, more small trees lining the (narrower) sidewalks, and lots of vespas tooling around. That´s where I live.
I am staying with a host family for the year. Wonderful people. Right now, there are four people living in the apartment -- myself, Pepita (host mother), Juan (host father), and Virginia (their daughter, 25). I have a tiny room -- just enough space for a twin bed, dresser and nightstand, but that is more than made up for by the fact that I have a private bathroom.
My host mother is a fantastic cook. There really isn´t anything more to say about that. I just plan on learning a few things before I go home in June. Given that I´m not really known for my culinary skillz, this could be... interesting. But I´m optimistic, I mean, how hard is it to mess up anything that starts with olive oil and garlic? Besides, I can boil water. And I can make good chocolate chip cookies.
What else... oh... location! If you check out a map, you´ll see that I live in what is more or less the middle of Barcelona. Parc Güell, la Sagrada Familia, the Univeristy of Barcelona and Plaza Catalunya (the heart of public transportation and businesses of the city) are all easy 30 minute walks from my front door, and they are all in totally different directions!
As for getting around, I usually take the metro. It´s fast, pretty clean and goes to pretty much every part of the city. I haven´t tried out the bus system yet. Its more extensive than the metro, so the map is more difficult to read which is why I don´t really bother with it. However, I do know that if I ever need to take the bus, I need the Blue Line, Number 55. Both the metro stop and the bus stop are around the corner from my apartment.
Anything I forgot to mention... oh yeah, I have "my" gelato place. Gelato is pretty much the most fantastic thing in the world, by the way. I was walking home one night and while I wanted gelato, I didn´t know anywhere to get it. So I got overwhelmed and headed for the metro. En route to the metro, I walked past Dino´s, saw the 20+ kinds of gelato they had and when I saw that they had mango AND kiwi, I was sold. I´ve found that the litmus test for gelato places is to try the mango. If the mango tastes like mango, then its good. At Dino´s, not only does the mango taste like mango, and the kiwi like kiwi (and the same goes for the Milk Chocolate, Black Raspberry, Dulce de Leche, BonBon, and Creme Broulee...), the one male employee hands it to you with a wink and doesn´t make you pay. Okay... well, he winks at me and doesn´t make me pay. I did at first though. But its kind of expensive there!
Along a similar theme is "my" internet cafe. Its a block from home, and has one of the "cheapest" rates (of one euro per hour). No, one euro an hour isn´t cheap by poor-college-student standards. I go there when I can´t use the University computers (on the weekends). The guy there generally doesn´t make me pay. I´m there quite a bit. Recently, I´ve insisted on paying because I realized that he seems to think that his "generosity" means I´ll go out with him.

Um...No. No way.

Sigh, I suppose I should comment on the whole Amanda-gets-free-stuff thing. At first I thought about refusing the free-ness, but I realized that I am poor, they are disillusioned and as long as I´m honest and don´t lead them on if they ask me out, I have no reason not to appreciate their kindness (even if their motives are less than pure).

That is part of not just my, but all female life here though so there´s no point in me glossing it over. I don´t like to think about why men feel entitled to stare or whistle on the street, or why some men think that they can "buy" me with free internet or gelato (neither of which is really an act of generosity because they don´t own the businesses). I could talk forever about the cultural differences of Spain and the United States, but that would just make me sound ignorant and short-sighted. I really don´t think there is any inherent difference. You just deal with it.

Finally, I think that after a month, I have struck a balance between local and foreigner. I "look" like a local -- dark hair, dark eyes, olive skin. My accent is painfully American, but there are a few phrases I can say that don´t showcase that fact. I dress more or less like I did at home, but that doesn´t make too much of a difference because anything you see in the United States can be found here. Finally, my favorite day-to-day bag is a canvas tote that is more or less an Andy Warhol tribute. It has three screen prints of the Campbell tomato soup can stitched to the canvas on one side, referring to one of Warhol´s most famous pieces. I use this bag for everything because I can fit everything in it. And when people see me, sometimes I see the recognition on their faces. It usually happens with tourists. They see my bag, but then they see me and they don´t know if I am being obnoxiously American or if I am a Spaniard that knows American culture or just happens to know Andy Warhol. It´s sort of fun.

Also fun is when people ask me for directions. At first I would give them a terrified, deer in the headlights look because I didn´t know Barcelona any better than they did. But now, I realize that they are probably asking me directions for one of three reasons.
1. They are desperate and I was the next person to walk by.
2. I look like I might speak English.
3. I look like I would actually know the answer to their question.
(And sometimes, if I´m in a bad mood and they ask me directions in English, I only answer them in Spanish. Its only happened a couple of times though.)

:)

Well, that´s pretty much it. I decided yesterday to leave for Rome tomorrow, so I need to pack tonight. The tickets were really cheap. For the record, that´s definitely the most spontaneous and momentous thing I´ve ever done. I´ll make sure to take lots of pictures and tell you about it when I get back. Ciao! :)

written by  achavero on October 16, 2007 from Barcelona, Spain
from the travel blog: Amanda in Barcelona
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