Barcelona in News - Catalan Indepence

          The Catalan News Paper, El Periodico, reported that Catalan is still calling for it's independence from the Spanish Government, most recently with the President of the Generalitat, Artur Mas, comparing Spanish Governments take on the Catalan Constitution to that of Franco's Regime on Catalonia. 

 

          The President of the Generalitat challenged the Catalans to demonstrate there sense of state because while it has tried under Spanish rule, it has not been fully able to for the past 300 years. Since the fall of Barcelona in the War of Succession, on September 11, 1714, Catalan's have shown been shown to have a "sense and a sense of country." Now though, it is time to know their own state and fight for their independence by showing that they can have a self governing society and that their people and state can do well without the help of Spain. 

Final Days in Barcelona

It has literally come to the end of my stay in Barcelona with 4 days left until I start my next European adventure and I cannot believe how fast the time has went by. I remember coming here like it was yesterday and meeting my roommates and figuring out how to navigate this city. Now I feel like an old pro who knows the city like the back of my hand. My friends joke that I am a human GPS because I always know where we are in the city as can also direct us around any city that we have been too. Coming from NYC I knew I had a good sense of direction, but find that it is even better than I thought.

I truly have seen so much of Barcelona, but my only regret is not being able to see the south of Spain and exploring more of Spain. While I have gone to a lot of places in Catalonia and in Europe, I want to come back and explore the south of Spain and go to Morocco and Portugal in my next adventure. Even so, I have explored areas where others in our program and other Americans really have not been. For example, I went to Andorra with my parents and everyone there was amazed that we were American. Most people there knew no English, but all the signs were in English.

While I have many top vacations here, one of the best that occurred within Spain was my trip to Gran Canaria because I got my scuba diving license while there. I went to this little port Mogan and Taurito on the island and it was amazing. Everyone was so friendly and it was just so beautiful.

I really am going to miss Barcelona and the friends I have made here. I feel like with a lot of my friends I am just starting to really get to know them and know we have to part ways. For some I will literally never see them again because we all live all over the US. It is strange to think of this and sad, but true.

I loved every minute of my experience here and loved living my 'fake life' as I called it!

Barcelona News - Tourism

According to El Periodico, Barcelona Tourism and Vueling Airline have joined together to promote tourism in the city. They have signed an agreement to create more advertisements to attract more people to the city. 

The agreement between the entity to promote tourism and the main airline operating in El Prat Airport have signed the respective presidents, Joan Gaspart and Josep Pique. The general director of the consortium, Pere Duran, stressed the commitment of both parties to the joint action and coordination.

Tourism in Barcelona is up, but it is not at the peak it once was at due to the recession. Looking around Passaige de Gracia, La Rambla, and the Sagrada Familia one can see that Barcelona is filled with tourists and slowly starting to recover from the depression Europe is in. 

Barcelona News - Economy

Spain, like most of the Western World is in a recession and is one of the countries in the EU that is suffering the most. Catalonia, however, is seeing improvements in retail shopping, especially in Barcelona. According to El Periodico, the fall of consumption in Barcelona has stabilized and started to improve shopping.

The Fundació ESADE Barcelona Commerce, which conducts a survey every three months found that from January to March, sales drop was 3%, compared with 7.5% down on the same period of 2012. Buyers are also said to have a more cheerful behavior than during the previous quarter.

Even so, Francecs Josep Valls, director of the study stated,"the buyer has not changed in over their habits and follows with a rational purchase, buying only what you need and making smaller purchases."

My Neighborhood - Dreta de L'Eixample

The neighborhood I live in is in my opinion the best and also is in the best location. It includes Plaza Catalunya, Tatuan, Plaza Urquinaona, my school, and some great restaurants and bars. Besides this it also has some great architecture and has many of the works of the one and only Gaudi. I am also very close to 2 metros, Girona & Verdaguer, but I usually walk everywhere because everything is so relatively close to me.

My Barrio:

Casa Mila and Casa Batillo Pictured Below:

Something else I really love about my neighborhood is my market, which is actually right behind my apartment building. It has all the food I would need, with fresh meats, fruits and veggies as well as an actual supermarket in the same building and an electronics store.  It is really great because I can literally run there when ever I am in need of any thing or just forget to grab something.

 Directly next to my market is the District Office Building, which can be seen below. The building is where tourists can go and get information and where some paper work is done. There is also a school and music hall connected to the District Office so there is always a lot of kids hanging out by it. There is a building across from it where people can go to file paper work and get visas, which is also a part of the office.

Above is the school that is attached to the District Building.

In our area we also have a small local public library that I have been too and have a library card for. It has a nice little outside area and courtyard where a person can go work. There are also tons of computers and desks where many teens and kids will go do their homework after school.

Here are some pictures of the library:

 

My district also contains two hospitals, one of them being a children's hospital, which is actually really cute and I always see children going in and out of it.  

 

 The main attraction in my area is Plaza Catalunya, which is the center of Barcelona and leads to La Rambla, and the Gothic quarter as well.

Barcelona News - Futbol

One of the most important things in Barcelona is Futbol and here the only team that matters is FC Barcelona. On game days everyone goes out to a cafe or bar and watches the game making a huge social event out of the game. Most people here also have season tickets to the games and are die hard fans.

Yesterday, Barcelona played against Levante in the Champions League semifinals and was able to score the win thanks to Cesc Fàbregas in the last few minutes of the game. The Levante wanted the game to end in a draw, which it seemed like it was about to be, but Cesc changed that. With Messi, one of the world's best player, injured it left room for Cesc to step up for the team. After missing several penalties, Barcelona was able to finally score, and able to move on to the next stage of the Finals.  Barcelona will play Bayern in May for the next round and will hopefully come on top once again.

 

El Raval - History

  The El Raval neighborhood has its good parts and its sketchy parts, but for the most part it is a beautiful area. It was one of the first parts of the city affected by the renovation plans because of the Olympic Games becuase it used to be a poor area with prostitutes and drug dealers. This all changed when the socialists won the election in 1986. The government either wanted to tear the whole thing down and build a mall similar to la rambla stores or make a social place where they opened hospitals and schools and to attract people from other parts of town, this is what ended up happening.

 

The first goal was to bring young kids into the area and to make a social revival.  This was a success because it is now a safe place where children can play.

Old churches and nuneries were converted into libraries and primary schools, or museums for people to go to. Also the area became well known for art and has  the Foment de les arts I del disseny, which is where fashion shows are held and art exhibitions and also has the contemporary art museum next door. 

Furthermore, in this area is a section of the University of Barcelona, which brought even more young people to this area. The University, which is free to citizens and paid for by the government, is an area where students share there ideas and protest. It is where locals come to know what is happening and to listen to speeches. All the classes are open to all and the students have the city as their campus. 

 This is quite different than my university at home because I have a campus that is separate then the city it is in and also because I, like others in the US live on campus, whereas in Spain they usually live at home. While there are places in the US where the city is the Universities campus, it is not free at all. Schools like NYC or BU are some of the most expensive schools in the US.