Just Your Average 69-Year-Old College Freshman Studying Abroad.
The Spanish Inquisition of the Sixteenth Century aside, few things have visited more pain upon the good people of this peninsula than my use of their language.
Just your average 69-year-old college freshman studying abroad.
YESTERDAY – A father and his daughter (she was wrapped in a flag) said they were going to the rally for Catalan independence and would I like to follow them out of the Metro?
I could catch a few phrases from the speeches. Catalunya is hungry for recognition from other countries. When the crowd started chanting words I didn’t know, a women wrote “I Vindra Indepencia” on my notepad.
After the Greeks and the Romans and the Fascists, this hopeful city caught a break — the weather met it more than halfway.
Just Your Average 69-Year-Old College Freshman Studying Abroad.
SATURDAY — Neighbors went downstairs and watched at the bars on their streets, tiny places usually deserted came to life. There must be ten thousand of them. It’s mostly beer with soccer.
There’s a grudging rivalry between these two cities. “In my opinion Madrid has some good qualities,” people in Barcelona like to say. “But then what do I know?”
Just Your Average 69-Year-Old College Freshman Studying Abroad.
ON THE DAY OF THE DEAD — Most Spanish-speaking students live at home when they’re in college, often until they marry.
Sadness flashes across the faces of professors when kids from the northern countries talk about moving out. The American ethic of rugged individualism — sallying forth to tame a continent and build gambling casinos — is foreign here.
“Telenovelas,” Spanish soap operas, feature in-laws, ex-spouses and all manner or relatives embroiled in tempestuous relationships. Since the Soaps are the truest of art forms, we know that Spanish families are not necessarily happier. The divorce rate here is about what it is in the U.S.
A 3-year-old, being dragged to day-care by her grandparents, threw a blood-curdling tantrum on the street the other day. Looking closely I saw these were actually great grandparents who won’t be available for a fifth generation of servitude. Adios means “Go to God.”
On the rocks protecting the western shoreline of Lake Michigan, students paint messages that last until someone paints over them. On one of the rocks is written “En memoria mi abuelo.” Maybe it will survive until the elements wash it away.
Just Your Average 69-Year-Old College Freshman Studying Abroad.
The prey is always at risk in El Raval.
The stalkers close in at tremendous speeds and from great distances. — feeding their young depends on it.
Yesterday a predator, this one on a bicycle, swooped down with amazing agility upon a guileless visitor. It’s an event that happens here every hour of every day. There’s no way to avoid the risk except to spend a life without leaving the hutch. And what’s that?
The prey, unharmed, discovered the emptiness of life without an iPhone. Every scene that had escaped him when he had his camera now unfolds like magic. Crowds of Metro riders show up like they were choreographed by Hollywood. People on the street gesture with just the right amount of diffidence. The light’s always good and the street noises are muted when you have no way of shooting a video.
