Adventures Abroad: Today's a shorty

As much as I would like to write (and believe me, there have been plenty of things going on the past few days to reflect on), it is already 2AM here and I have a long day planned out for tomorrow, so today is going to be a quick update on what has been going on.

On Thursday, we had our typical class session in the morning, a break in the early afternoon for lunch and a siesta, and then a cultural meeting from 4-6. It was a meeting designed to give students a perspective from which to view Spanish culture, and how that might be different from that of America. However, as someone who does not identify completely with American culture (read here, Chinese American), I found it difficult to associate with many of the things that were being said at this meeting. For example, to delve into qualities that Americans value, we went through some sayings such as "the early bird gets the worm", and "variety is the spice of life." While some were things my parents repeated to me often, I found myself intrigued that the meeting leader inherently associated us all with American culture. For her it seemed, there were only two cultures at play--American and Spanish cultures. Yet America, at its core, does not consist of a single people; rather, it is a mix of individuals from across the world, a heterogeneic culture. To lump myself and other individuals who are multi-racial or whose parents immigrated from other countries with those who would consider themselves American through and through was interesting, and a little upsetting to see. We were warned against having a single story, a single perspective of one individual or of one culture. I definitely felt like that narrow mindset that all students from America came from the same background was thrust upon us, like the narrative of a single story. Anyway, after that meeting, a couple friends and I headed to a tapas place to grab something to eat and drink before heading home. The night was pretty uneventful--I helped my host mom move in some stuff from her Tai-Chi studio (did I mention before that she teaches Tai-Chi classes at night?? How cool is that?), and spent time working on my dental applications before packing and heading to sleep.

(One of the few times I have resigned myself to get coffee--café con leche. It was pretty good, I must say)

I am spending the weekend in Barcelona. Just a fun outing with a few friends of mine, since this si essentially the only free weekend we have to do something. This morning, the marine students had class while everyone else got a break for the day. After class though, I had to make a mad dash to the airport to make my 2:30PM flight. As soon as I got on the bus, I tapped my bus card as usual to pay; however, it did not work. The lady mentioned to me that those types of bus passes would not work for the trip to the airport because this was a more expensive route. So, looking in my wallet I realized I either had 2.20 euros or a 50 euro bill. Showing each to her, she insisted that I pay with the 50 and as she was driving, she took out a fat wallet of bills and broke down my 50 so that I could pay the 3 euros that it cost to ride the bus. What a nice gesture, but I would have definitely been more comfortable had she not been driving and talking to the person behind me the whole time...Anyway, I got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. There were very few people there--it reminded me a lot of a more upscale Pittsburgh International Airport in terms of passenger traffic and the feel of the airport. My flight was quickly boarded and we hopped the 30 mins across the western part of the Mediterranean sea to Barcelona. I hopped off the plane, stepping into a beautiful terminal, and then caught the Aerobus to Plaza Catalunya at City Centre before meeting up with my friends (who had caught an early morning flight) to go to the Airbnb and drop off my stuff. After lounging around, we went to La Plaza España to watch a fountain show in front of what looked like a palace. It was amazing, something that I had never seen before. The lights of the fountain, juxtaposed in front of the palace was magical, something exactly out of Disneyland. It was definitely surreal. After the lights went out and the show ended at 11:30, we stopped by a nearby place for tapas and dinner, and then caught the subway back to our Airbnb. Something I will never understand about Spanish culture is how late everyone stays out. It was at least 12:15 if not later by the time we finished our meal and started heading back. But the subway was still decently crowded as if it were the middle of the day. And not with weirdos like you might find in NY in the middle of the night. These were regular people--businessmen, families, tourists, people going out--individuals from all walks of life casually catching the subway at 12-1AM. I find it crazy that so many people can stay up so late and still function in the mornings. I definitely could not do that--I value my "late" bedtime (which I now realize is not so late compared to bedtimes here...)