Ah, Catalan…

Two posts in one day? WHAAAAA???

But i just got back from class at UAB (the school outside of Barcelona that we can take classes at) and after much stress and a lot of questions to my advisor, Teresa, I arrived in General Sociology to discover… that it was taught in Catalan.

Not wanting to waste my time, I took notes.  Double column notes: first, of what was happening in the class.  2nd, my reactions to class.

Els problems de la sociologia

Subtitle: Why am I still sitting here?

La dificultat de fer “experiments”

Really bad sign when the whole powerpoint is in Catalan.  That would be difficult to change.

La “familiaritat” amb l’objecte d’estudi

Stupid backwards accents and misplaced normal ones.

Algo sobre “Weber”

I do not know why I just wrote Weber down.

I am the only blond in the room.  Out of 80

I guess it’s a good sign that I’m so lost in this class compared to others.  Maybe I DO understand Spanish.

“La imaginació sociològica és la capacitat d’abastar des de les transformacions més impersonals i més remotes fins a les dimensions més intimes de l’ésser humà i de saber venure les relacions que hi ha entre munes i les altres”  (Mills 1987)

Hey, I recognize the name Mills.

Should I have just left at the beginning?

Okay, no.  She just made a joke at the expense of a guy going to the bathroom.  Shut. It. Down.

At the requisite pausa of the three hour long class, I told her I didn’t understand Catalan and asked if any other section was taught in Castellano.  No, she said, but you could take your test in English if you wanted.  Thanks, but no thanks.

So now I’m again classless, and looking into this class at UAB about the EU. One of the few classes taught in Castellano, because it’s filled with other international students (Erasmus kids)

La Mercé

La Mercé, a festival celebrating one of the patron saints of Barcelona, Mercedes, was this Thursday.  Because of it’s location in the week, we had a “puente” or bridge, which means a 4 day weekend.  Those of us who remained in Barcelona wandered around, Mercé guidebooks in hand, trying to find human towers and fire.

Emmy has great pictures and descriptions of Correfoc and the castellers, both of which were my favorites/the crowd favorites of the weekend.  Correfoc was basically pyromaniacs let loose on the street, spraying sparks and fire, supposedly chasing demons out of the inferno.  Or something like that.  I ended up running underneath the sparks a couple of times (and chanting with the pyros) and have no burns to show for it.  Maybe it’s safer than originally anticipated.

Before the Correfoc, Aley, Katie and I went on a little “corre” of our own- up the mountainside of Barcelona.  In training for our half marathon (countdown 18 days), we had a 9 mile run this weekend.  9 miles in the city was unappealing, so I looked at my map of Barcelona (conveniently posted above my bed) and saw a large green space called “Parc de Collersola”.  We took the train outside of the city and got off, finding ourselves on dirt paths winding our way UPPP UPP UPP the mountain.  It was worth it, though, when we got to the top and to Tibidabo, an amusement park on top of the hill.  The basilica there, temple del sagrat cor de Jésus del Tibidabo, was stupendous.  (I did not take this picture.)

Katie: "there's a guy on top of it." Aley: "I'm pretty sure that's Jesus"

As we came down from the hilltop, the sun was setting over the Montserrat range.  For the first time since coming to Barcelona, I felt like I earned the view I was getting.

Sunday night was the grand final of La Mercé with the “piromusical” on Montjuic.  Most of the music ended up being American, such as the medley of Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean and Lord of the Rings.  Plaça Espanya was packed with people, which gave me logistical nightmares that night.  Seriously, what would happen if there was a heart attack in the center of the crowd? Or some sort of infrastructural failure? Oh what’s that? My paranoia’s showing again.  Whoopsies.

Can't see the fireworks? Climb on the portapotties!

So that’s the weekend in a nutshell (gotta figure out how to say that in Spanish…)  I’m on a quest to find a Mercé bandana, which all of the kinder had throughout the festival.  I’m not completely sure how one says bandana/hankerchief in Catalan (or Castellano for that matter), so it could be a failed quest already.