Local Expert
ReginaWB
A writer and photographer with chronic wanderlust; living in Spain's bonita Barcelona-
A writer and photographer with chronic wanderlust; living in Spain's bonita Barcelona-
News Articles
The city is incredibly conducive to staying slim, trim and healthy. The largest factor in the Barcelonese fit physic is walking. Like Parisians or New Yorkers, locals in Barcelona do a lot of pounding the pavement working off chocolate croissant breakfasts and greasy pates of paella. It’s not a large city, so walking most places is possible, especially from the city center. One friend of mine came to visit for a month leaving her car and the rainy weather behind her in our home state and lost 10 pounds!
But walking is not enough for Barcelona resident these days, as is noted in the many gyms, yoga studios and martial arts dojos around town. It seems that people in not only want to be fit, they want to have inner peace, large muscles and the ability to karate chop potential enemies.
I do yoga at Yoga Studio three times a week…in theory. Those three classes are sometimes two, one or none, but I am trying to stick to a routine. Yoga Studio is one of the older and larger studios in Barcelona, with two grand white rooms filled with natural light. It’s in a building from the early 1900s with a great central location on Plaza Universitat. I love their little touches at Yoga Studio, like the bouquets of fresh roses and Ganesh statue. They have three teachers who are very good, and a few others who are so-so. The best part of Yoga Studio is their schedule of classes, which is very extensive. They offer Ashtanga, Vinyasa, pregnancy yoga, Hatha and more from 7am to 10pm.
Besides Yoga Studio there’s hot Bikram yoga which offers an intro course for €15 and a Pilates studio led by Aussie Natalie Laing. Wing Chun offers Kung Fu classes on Fridays and basic martial arts for self defense is available at BCN Martial Arts in the Gracia neighborhood. Taking classes is a great way to practice Spanish (I’ve learned a lot of body vocabulary in yoga), meet people, and unwind in what can be at times a stressful city.
There are tons of language schools in Barcelona ready to take the eager students’ cash and teach him Catalan, Spanish, English, Italian, French, whatever. Many foreigners (unless they are like my friend Steve, who can learn by osmosis) need language help when they arrive in Barcelona and lucky for them there’s no shortage of programs, which range from expensive to free.
Because of its usefulness, Spanish is usually the language students and new arrivals want to study. It makes sense. Spanish is spoken all around the world and speaking it allows a basic understanding of Latin-based languages such as Italian and Portuguese. The problem with studying Spanish in Barcelona is that people here don’t want to speak it. The national language is Catalan and most locals would prefer that you speak to them in their native tongue. I guess this is fair enough.
Catalan is spoken in Catalunya, Andorra and on the Balearic Islands. While that’s quite a stronghold for a language that could have been wiped off the map, it doesn’t come close to the estimated 400 million native speakers of Spanish woldwide. If you’re like me, then learning a language takes blood, sweat and tears. I have to study, practice and make it to class on time to learn the verbs in the past, present and future. With such a huge investment of time necessary for most learners, it is no wonder that most people chose to study Spanish in Barcelona instead of Catalan. But what about after class on the street? An issue in studying in Barcelona is also where to practice. There are two forces against the Spanish student: 1) Catalan 2) English. Because Barcelona is such a cosmopolitan city, English speakers will have it way too easy. Most young people speak some English in Barcelona and pretty much all of the foreigners do, (the northern Europeans sometimes have a higher English level than some people I know back home!).
The truth is, if you are thinking to come to Barcelona to learn Spanish, you’d be better off in Madrid or Seville. I love Barcelona and came here with a near fluency in Spanish. Still, because of my work and being a native English speaker, it seems like my Spanish has topped out. How do I use the conditional? What’s the subjunctive? I can’t remember. This is why I am going back to school to take an intensive Spanish grammar class. Maybe I should be taking level two of the Catalan course I began and abandoned, but I just can’t justify it right now. Both Catalan and Spanish are important in Barcelona, but unless you have unlimited time and money, a choice must be made.
Language School List:
Babylon Idiomas – www.babylon-idiomas.com
Spanish Express –www.spanishexpress.es
Speakeasy- www.speakeasybcn.com
As most of the world knows, the United States will soon elect a new president. The Obama-rama fever in the USA has spread far and wide and it seems that the charismatic senator has not only won the votes of half of America but also the ‘would-be’ votes of most of Spain. More than once in the last few months Spaniards have told me, “It’s not fair; the USA affects the whole world so I want a chance to vote for the US president, too!”
Well, that’s not going to happen. Americans living abroad can vote though, and there is a huge global effort to get the vote out. This is certainly true in Barcelona, where the group Democrats Abroad hopes to lean the voting scales in favor of Obama. The Spanish chapter of Democrats Abroad was formed in 2004 and has been growing ever since, it’s main membership based in Barcelona.
Currently, the group’s biggest focus is getting students who are studying abroad in Spain and ex-pats to register to vote in November’s elections. Many inspired volunteers have signed up with the group to help reach an estimated 90,000 Americans living in Spain. Rebecca Lewis, the group’s chairwoman is originally from Chicago but has spent half her life in Spain. She believes that Americans living abroad are the country’s best ambassadors and still feels patriotic about being an American even after so many years on foreign soil. She is motivated to help get Obama in office and has planned, along with volunteers, many fundraisers, debates, meetings and parties in the last couple months supporting the Obama/Biden ticket. As the countdown continues, Democrats (and some GOPs, too) are coming out of the woodwork to vote in what is viewed as being one of the most important elections in US history.
Live abroad and want to vote? Whether you are a Dem or a Republican or neither, you can cast your vote by visiting: http://www.democratsabroad.org
I saw the new Woody Allen film set in Barcelona last night in the packed Icaria original version cinema. Of course, everyone in town is talking about Vicky Cristina Barcelona and how Allen has portrayed our fair city. Do people like it? I’d say for the most part, yes, and for the record I enjoyed it and my box of popcorn immensely.
While Allen’s film is fun it is not accurate and anyone who has spent more than a week in Barcelona will quickly realize this fifteen minutes into the movie. In my three years in Barcelona I have (sadly) yet to meet anyone who lives in a house in town. People here don’t live in houses, they live in apartments. Usually these apartments are on the small and noisy side offering very little in the way of natural light. Sure, there are some houses in the outskirts of the city, but only the richest of the rich are calling these mansions home. It was hilarious and unlikely that Vicky and Cristina’s hosts lived in such a huge pad in a city where space is hard to come by.
And then there was Javier Bardem’s house, which was no house at all, but a masia or farmhouse in Barcelona. How, on his artist’s salary, could he possibly afford that? Where on earth was that place? It was not in the city. There were some other points too, which seemed unrealistic, like when Juan and Cristina (Bardem and Scarlett) are taking photographs of the friendly prostitutes. This seems unlikely, especially in the middle of the day.
It was also strange that no one spoke Catalan during the movie, which is Barcelona’s preferred language. In fact, there weren’t any Catalan actors (well, none with important parts) in the movie as both Penelope Cruz and Bardem are Spanish. Even the soundtrack of the film, which I thought was great, was sung in Spanish. It seems to me that Allen forgot to mention and include one of the most important parts of Barcelona culture, which is its people, who are Catalan, speak Catalan and sing in Catalan. Oups!
I could go critiquing but I won’t because all and all I thought it was funny and I don’t think Allen intended the film to speak to Catalan issues. The movie seems to portray a fantasy that would be easy for most of us to entertain: come to Barcelona in the summer, meet a sexy artist, fall in love, live in his masia, ride in his corvette and have picnics and threesomes with Penelope Cruz……Alas, this is not what Barcelona is really about. A more accurate plot would be something to the affect of: come to Barcelona for the summer, stay in a two-star hostal with the bathroom in the hall, meet some foreign friends in your Catalan language class, ride on the metro, and drink beer late into the night at Plaza del Sol.
What Allen’s film accomplishes is showing off two of Spain’s most famous actors, Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem who carry the movie. It also includes a few good shots of Barcelona’s Modernista architecture, although most of the Guadí sites mentioned in the movie are well-known tourist attractions. Vicky Cristina Barcelona is worth the $7.00 but only if watched with the understanding that this it is 95% fiction.
Barcelona is the capital of Catalonia, a Spanish ‘state’. Long ago, Catalonia was a country and a pretty large one at that, with power extending down the Mediterranean coastline and onto the Balearic Islands. To this day, most people in Catalonia do not consider themselves Spanish, but Catalan. They are not part of Spain by choice, but by force, and if they had it their way would separate and become and independent country.
Catalan culture and language was outlawed by Franco and they have suffered because of their unwillingness to submit to a larger Spain for generations. However, the struggle between Catalonia and Spain did not begin with Franco, but with Felipe V who took Catalonia in a battle in 1714. Not many cultures celebrate a loss. The Catalans however, remember vehemently their defeat 300 years ago and dub it as a holiday. It is not so much that they are celebrating losing but instead are remembering the past and focusing on the future of Catalonia as a country.
Those who are very pro-independence will be especially vocal on September 11th and in general emotions run high on this day. Around the city shops and services will be shut down and replaced by marches and music. This is an interesting day to be an observer in Barcelona and get a feel for how passionate many Catalans are about protecting their history and culture.
When: 11 of Sept, 2008
What: La Diada
Where: All over Barcelona
Ciutadella is the city’s most central park. It is here that people gather to ride bikes, sunbathe, go to the zoo, have picnics, practice juggling and paddle around a man-made ‘lagoon’ in a plastic boat. The park is charming enough, but not quite big enough for all the people who want to come and use it. It is not uncommon to sit in cigarette littered grass or mistakenly watch some desperate soul relive himself in a cluster of bushes. Maybe for these reasons I prefer Ciutadella at night, which is precisely when its jazz concerts take place.
In July and August the park puts on free concerts under a cupola near the ‘lagoon’. There’s some limited seating and if you want a chair you must come early. Otherwise, bring a blanket, a bottle of wine, some cheese, a bit of baguette and dessert and make yourself comfortable in the nearby grass. Not only are the concerts free, they’re good! On cool summer evenings there may be nothing better than jazz and Ciutadella. As August winds down we are coming to the last of the park concerts. Check out the last of them if you get the chance.
What:
Wednesday the 27th
Organic Trio
- Jordi Matas: guitar
- Albert Sanz: piano
- David Xirgu: drums
Friday the 29th
A Contra Blues
- Jonathan Herrero: guitar
- Alberto Calvillo: guitar and harmonica
- Héctor Martín: electric guitar
- Pau Lligadas: bass
- Núria Perich: drums
Where: Pg Picasso, 21 Districte: Ciutat Vella