Un Franc, 14 Pesetas

One movie I have seen since living in Barcelona is the movie Un Franc, 14 Pesetas. The movie was a Spanish movie, and I watched it using English subtitles to understand. While I could understand some of the Spanish being spoken, there was also some German spoken that I had no understanding of. The plot of this movie revolved around two Spanish individuals living in Madrid during the 1960s, and their travel to Switzerland in hopes of earning higher wages. The two men, Martin and Marcos go to a new country without knowing the language, and leave everything of familiarity behind, including their families, in hopes of securing a better future for themselves. The movie shows their journey of at first struggling to adapt to a completely new land to finally being reunited with their family. Here, the struggle of an immigrant back in the 1960s is portrayed excellently. In my opinion, this was a very entertaining and interesting movie. While the movie would be considered a drama as it depicted the hardships these families went through, it also had its lighthearted moments that added to the movie’s effectiveness. Overall, I thought the movie was definitely one worth seeing. I thought it did an outstanding job of showing how hard and different life was back then, and how hard it was to lead a good life and live comfortably. The only problem I really had with the movie was the ending. After several years of the family living comfortably in Switzerland and finally being acclimated with the country, they decide to move back to Madrid. I never really understood this decision, because just as they finally were living a happy and comfortable lifestyle, they threw it all away. The movie ends with the family kind of rallying to say how they will make this work, but it also leaves the uncertainty of their lives as the father does not have a job, and the last scene is the father looking out into the night with a confused expression. To me, this did not provide appropriate closure. However, I did find that it was a very well done film other than this aspect, and really provided an interesting perspective of how difficult life was for an immigrant trying to be integrated into a completely new and different society.

Chiquitos

On Friday, February 26, 2010, my friends and I decided to go to Las Ramblas. After walking around the area for a little bit, we decided we wanted to grab some lunch and settled on a restaurant called Chiquitos. We were in the mood to get a variety of tapas, and after browsing the area for a variety of restaurants, we decided that this was the place for us. At this restaurant there was specifically a tapas menu, where we could get a ton of different tapas delivered to the four of us throughout the course of the meal. This type of meal was much different from the sit down restaurants I was accustomed to from living in the United States. While I am used to sitting down, ordering an appetizer then an entrée, this meal consisted of several different small portions of all sorts of food. The different types of food brought out were of a wide spectrum, ranging from salad and sea food to meatballs and various chicken dishes. I really enjoyed this type of experience because it was so much different than what I am used to. Often times when I go to a restaurant there are several options on the menu which I am interested in. However, although I can only order one thing when I am in the States, this allowed me to sample pretty much everything I wanted. This was a perfect restaurant for me to have a great tapas experience; I got to taste a ton of different types of food and it was at a reasonable price for the amount of food that I got. Although I thought that tapas were supposed to be small, I was easily filled up by all of the food because there were so many different tapas that came out. Whenever it seemed like I had just finished a tapa, another three came out. I am not complaining however; there was nothing better than finishing something delicious and then having something new come out right afterwards. Overall, I really enjoyed the restaurant as I was easily able to satisfy my appetite and get a quality meal for a quality price.

First Journal Entry: FC Barcelona Game vs. Getafe

On Saturday, February 6, I attended the FC Barcelona versus Getafe CF soccer game along with three of my friends. One of the main things I wanted to do when I came to Barcelona was to see a soccer match. Growing up as a huge sports fan throughout my whole life, I figured there would be no better place to capture the excitement of a sporting event than at one of the most famous soccer stadiums in the world in Camp Nou. Sure enough, this sporting event did not fail to impress me. The stadium was a spectacular place, seating more people than any stadium I had ever been to other than Penn State’s Beaver Stadium, where I watch my college football team in the United States. Since I was told Barcelona was not playing a very good team, I was even more surprised that the stadium was almost at full capacity. This showed me how dedicated the fan base truly was. I was amazed with how the crowd intensity stayed so high throughout the entire game. While many sports in America like football and basketball have many stoppages in play, you really cannot afford to miss a second of a game here. Although it felt like Barcelona was much more skilled and dominated the time of possession in this game, it was still only a one goal game for the majority of the match. Despite Barcelona’s numerous scoring chances, one bounce of the ball could have propelled Getafe right back into the game, which is what made this such an exciting experience. Another reason why this was such an amazing experience for me was because I have never been to a soccer game with so much intensity and such a large crowd. Many people play soccer in the United States; I played for the majority of my life until I began to play football and basketball in high school. However, major league soccer in the United States is not that popular, and does not draw very big crowds. Going to a stadium with such a devoted fan base really gave me a greater appreciation of soccer. Seeing how all the fans watched each possession with such focus was great to see because it showed that they truly cared about the team. Sometimes when you attend professional sporting events in the United States, you do not have a crowd which is as highly involved in the game. For example, many times at professional basketball games they play music during the games to create an atmosphere. However, here the crowd noise was so loud that there was no need for artificial sound creation. One thing I was surprised about was that there were no instant replays on the big screen. While professional sports in the United States have grown to use instant replay tremendously over the years, it was weird to see not even goals shown again after they were scored. With all this being said, going to this soccer game was a life-changing experience, and I hope to see another one before I go back home.

CARNIVAL IN CATALUNYA

Carnival in Catalunya was an experience I had never seen in my entire life, and is certainly an experience I will never forget. Going into the night, I had heard about how this would be an almost surreal experience and that this is the craziest time of the year throughout Spain. However, words could not really express how unbelievable this experience actually was. While I compared it to Halloween in my head because of the notion of everyone dressing up, this was a very different atmosphere with few similarities. While Halloween is predominantly a holiday for little kids to get dressed up and go trick or treating, here everyone is in costume ranging from young children to adults. This provided for a very festive atmosphere, and I appreciated this to the fullest. In my opinion, it was a great time seeing people of all ages embracing the night and really getting into it. One of my favorite costumes was seeing an older couple dressed as two individuals from the movie Avatar. It showed true creative ingenuity, and I loved that even an older group of people would go out of their way to get in the spirit of the event. In the United States, I feel it would be rare for people who were adults to be dressed up in costume and get in the Halloween atmosphere because they would be looked at as immature in some regards. Another aspect I liked was how the event was just such a care free atmosphere. With people everywhere and many drinking, there could have been a potential problem of fights breaking out or crime taking place. In the United States, the streets would be lined with police officers and security. However, at carnival everyone was truly out to just enjoy the spectacular affair, and to have a good time. This was extremely refreshing for me to see, because living in the United States I have seen many different occasions where fights and riots have broken out for thoughtless and stupid reasons. Overall, carnival was an experience that I will hold onto for the rest of my life. It was simply unforgettable, and magnificent to see everyone come together for such a great occasion.

Trip to Roman Barcino

Our trip to Roman Barcino and the Museo D’historia was a very interesting way to learn about the ways of the past in Barcelona. After we got off at the stop Jaume I, we headed over to the museum but not before we went through the narrow alleyways that made up some of the old Roman Barcino. It was very intriguing to see how people lived back then, in what appeared to be such narrow passageways and crowded townhouses. When we first got to the museum, we entered into seeing various sculptures preserved from many centuries ago. Even though I have been to many museums in my life, it always amazes me that sculptures from hundreds of years ago are able to be kept in good condition after so many years. After going through the first floor and watching a short video on the history of Barcelona, we took an elevator down to the ground floor, where I really got a different perspective on how people lived back in this time period. One of the most amazing things to see was their complex plumbing system. Despite the fact that they lived in a far less technologically advanced time period than we live in today, the people during this time had a very efficient system that worked very effectively. In addition we saw where massive pools would be that the people who lived during this era would use in order to wash their clothes. In addition, I also learned how wine was also a major part of their society and was incorporated in everyday life. On a smaller scale, I found it funny to see an old stone that featured a game of tic tac toe from this time period. I thought this was cool to see because it’s pretty unreal that a game that is practically played all the time when people are bored is so deep rooted in society. Also, it was funny to see how the game has changed considering people can now just pick up a pen and piece of paper and just play quickly; back then people had to carve the game into stone. I think today’s games are a little more time efficient.