The flights here were easy, and relatively short. Got to sleep on both of them, and was generally encouraged when every flight attendant was still speaking English fluently. Made it through the airport and customs with ease, even though I was patted down both times despite not setting off the metal alarm.. Do I look like a dangerous guy? Must be the beard I was working on growing out.
My bedroom consists of a bed (two twin beds pushed together) in the corner of a small, simple room with white walls and a lime green chair. I can hear the family next to my wall speaking Spanish as if there was a window open between us. I have a porch door in my room as well, but it only leads out to a 5x5 cemented open-air space that if you walk out onto and look up, you'll be able to see our fellow apartment-goers drying their shirts, underwear, and whatever else. For a second I thought it was going to smell nice out there, but it doesn't. Our apartment is probably cleaner than the usual status of my house at 249 Foster, but calling it clean would be a stretch. These white walls haven't been re-painted in a while.
The city itself is beautiful and pretty clean, or what little amounts I've been exposed to so far. Our apartment is secluded on a small, unknown street that is only recognizable to taxi drivers after mentioning a few landmarks close by. They refuse to speak English too, and I haven't really found a driver that likes my American/BC not-so-charming charm. But they can talk forever about the city and why it's better than places like Boston and New York. One of my taxi driver's main reasoning for that was because of some huge mall in the middle of Barcelona that used to be a bull-fighting ring. It looks like an Americanized Colliseum from the outside. There are some shops around here that you can recognize immediately as American, and I'm not just talking about the Burger Kings and Starbucks, but most of them are unique to Spain/Europe.
Everything is more expensive, and every single store has a big sign on the front that translates into Sale! Apparently something is always on sale, but I have yet to find that item. Being in a city, the shopping is a little weird and compact. Nearby we have a “mall” that has everything from a grocery store & supermarket on the first floor (where you have to pay 1 euro for a cart and.05 euros for a grocery bag that you have to fill yourself) to a place to buy Gucci sunglasses on the 5th or a toaster oven on the 9th floor. And in case they missed anything, there's a 'Sex Shop' right across the street to handle any other stuff.
All the shops start up later in the morning and close around early evening, unless it's a bank. Apparently the banks around here are typically open for about 4-5 hours, which can be a stretch for those workers who need a little more ciesta in their daily life. It's very convenient for us as we need to open up a Spanish bank account at some point in order to properly pay for our apartment and get wifi, which would be nice. The city is shut down on Sunday. Streets are relatively empty, all the shops are closed, with only a few restaurants being open. They take the Day of Rest thing pretty seriously, and who wouldn't after a whole 28-hour work week?
The people here seem pretty nice, especially at night. The city is alive at night (are those song lyrics?) with more people then you'll ever see during the day. The people here are not American at all.. they refuse to cross the street until the little electrical sign switches from a red hand to a green guy walking. I guess it's a little more dangerous because there are a lot of people on mopeds or scooters driving pretty recklessly.
Everyone seems smaller here, skinnier and shorter. Constantly smoking cigarettes, too. Is it a law here that you have to try a cigarette by age 13? Maybe smoking cigs makes them feel cooler for wearing a scarf and tight black jeans. I guess that's style in Europe. The outfits are strange, usually very tight and dark colors, a lot of unnecessary hats and gloves The younger kids all seem to be going through a skaterboarder/gangster/rebel phase of bright, flashy colors combined with copious amounts of hair gel. You won't find a young kid not wearing flashy Nikes.
The bar scene here is ridiculous, but it was too much to ask for them to try and put on the Pats game around 4 am. Fuck off Tebow. I swear some of the local folk in there are about 16 years old, but they know how to order drinks better than I do. Everything is pretty close together, so taxis are cheap and walking is the easiest way to get around, especially when the temperature in January is low 60s. Everything in the bars are over the top and expensive, so drink up before. That's all I got for now kids, I'm getting sick of sitting in a library for Wifi access. Hopefully that will change soon. Adios for now.
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