We're on day five here and I think my answer to "How's (classes/navigating/architecture/the mix of languages/etc.) in Spain?" is still, "Great! Just overwhelming!" followed by some nervous laughter.
Barcelona's unofficial- but most widely spoken- language is Catalan. Catalan is not a dialect, but a language in its own right. It is also a mix of Spanish and French, and is spoken right alongside Spanish, French, English, Italian, and whatever else people on the street are using. I'm here as a native English speaker whose second language is French and who is trying to operate in Spanish while these similar-sounding languages mambo in my mind. Needless to say, my communication has been less than perfect. The first couple days, I had to take frequent breaks from the world outside my room to refocus my mind so that it could handle Spanish. I'm getting by more or less without breaks now.
For those curious, here's the room to which I retire when I need a break. It's an apartment with a private bedroom and bathroom, two closets, a desk and drawer set, and a shared kitchen.
Classes, though, are challenging because of the language barrier. Most students had studied Spanish before the University of Chicago, and several are native speakers. I'm just happy to be keeping up. My current history professor, Sophia, is very sympathetic and told me today she thought I was brave for coming with so much less experience than the rest of the students in my group. Her class is three hours long. For the first half hour or so, I feel like I'm getting 50-75% of what she's saying. Then my head starts to ache, but I also start really understanding. We've only had two classes so far, leaving six before the final. I'm hoping that by the final, I consistently catch at least 75% of what's being said for the first half hour. But look how enthusiastic I was before I knew what awaited me!
The other class I have is Reading Contemporary Barcelona, a class that teaches basic Catalan phrases and examines the culture of Barcelona. I am so excited about this class! Tànit, the professor, is a native of Cataluña and is highly entertaining. She has a lot of energy and her first class was very clear and fairly easy to follow. I can't wait to do the research project for her class. We get to present on any current Catalan cultural phenomenon or cultural product, examples from previous years including the city's cleanliness and machismo. I'm really interested in doing a project on the amount of green spaces and their perceived affects on the cleanliness and safety of the city. Tànit will take three topic suggestions from each pair, but she ultimately chooses the project's focus.
For now, my focus is on making sure I get three square meals a day. Cost of living isn't low in Barcelona and I don't have bottomless pockets, so I'm making most of my meals. This is why it is so exciting that I managed to find PEANUT BUTTER. For those of you who don't know, I love peanut butter. It is all I eat when finals roll around. Peanut butter gets me through when I have no time to eat real meals. Both smooth and crunchy peanut butter can be found at one of the markets around the corner from my apartment. They come in glass jars with plastic lids, which don't seem to screw on as easily as at home.
I also bought my first bottle of wine. It cost me 1,75€, which is fabulous, and is yummy. I chose it based almost exclusively on the label. Because I'm a connoisseur. It's called caperucita tinta, which translates roughly to "Little Red Riding Hood", as a play on words. It's a tempranillo and syrah blend, bottled on site by Torre Oria. It's smooth and somewhat sweet, with an average alcohol content.
The ice cream here is richer and harder to open. I struggled to figure out the all-plastic packaging for longer than I'd like to admit before I finally got the lid to pop off by some miracle. I picked up chocolate ice cream and it tastes almost like a square of Dove dark chocolate, but thicker, and it contains shavings of real chocolate. Plus, it comes in two separate sections, which I like to think of as portions.
Look for my next post, about seeing the Arc de Triomf and the Mediterranean, tomorrow!
Adéu! Until next time!