Culture Shock has set in

We just finished our second full week in this beautiful city.  One thing that has struck me the most is the cultural difference between Spaniards (los Espanoles/Catalanes) and other Spanish speakers (los Latinos - from everywhere else but Spain).  I belong to the latter group and the cultural differences between my culture (Colombian/Dominican/American) and that of the Spaniards who live here is quite striking.  I expected to feel more at home in this European country than any other European country.  However, people here are a bit more reserved, a bit more "European," than the Latinos that populate the other part of the Western hemisphere.  For example, in Colombia, every child learns from the get-go to greet everybody.  "Buenos Dias" and "Buenas Tardes" becomes one of the first things a child learns how to say and the first thing they say upon seeing someone for the first time that day, whether it's grandma or the lady at the supermarket.  However, when I do the same here and follow up with a "Como esta?" (How are you?), I'm given blank stares, as if the prescribed flow of employee-to-customer relations has been disrupted.  Usually, I'm greeted with a less-than-enthusiastic "Hola," followed by the command, "Dime!" which means, "tell me!" (what do you need/want).  I'm sure it's not them being rude, but being used to living in an American service-oriented culture and being raised in a (maybe overly) polite Hispanic culture means that I have some skewed preconceived notions of how a society should work...or maybe it is that people here just aren't that polite.

The woman from whom we rent our place, Maribel, is from Southern Spain and she tells us that people from there are a lot different than Catalan people.  She says that the popular notion of the hot-blooded Spaniard comes from the Andalucia region (where flamenco, guitars, oranges, and mosques-turned-churches-turned-castles all reside).  A person from Catalunya is more reserved and keeps you at arm's length, but the saying goes that once you have made a friend of a Catalan, they are your friend forever.  I don't think that will happen for us...we aren't going to spend enough time to befriend these cold Spaniards...but here's to hoping we'll leave this country having made a few life-long friends.  It's always nice and I always like to leave those sprinkled around the world.

OK...so, our second week was a ton better than our first week because we actually caught up on our sleep (or at least I did...I've been waking up before 8 on my own several days in a row now.  I haven't done that since I was a kid).  Our first major outing for the week was to the Museo d'Historia de Barcelona.

You can see the beginning of the second arch that wasn't preserved on the uppermost left part of the standing column.  These walls date back to Roman Empire times and used to surround the (smaller) city of Barcelona (Barcino to the Romans - pronounced BAR-kee-no).

You could get lost in the Barri Gotic...just like we did.  We have yet to get data plans for our phones, so our navigation consists of Google Maps directions written on paper, just like we had to do pre-google maps and Mapquest.  However, look up Barri Gothic on Google Maps and you will see that there are so many winding streets and alleyways that you can easily get lost even with directions.

Entering Barri Gothic.

Part of the column and wall that surrounded the city in Roman times.  Right near the one entrance to Barri Gothic are metal sculptures that spell out B-A-R-C-I-N-O.  Des is leaning against the O.

I would die for a courtyard, replete with fountain and mosaic tiling, in my house.  

Once you enter the museum, you go down a bunch of steps to an actual excavation site of ancient Barcino.  I guess that the museum actually used to be a church, which used to be part of a palace, which used to be the part of Barcino that was closest to the outer wall surrounding the city.  Those holes in the ground were big containers that were used to either store wine or to make this weird delicacy (called grummum?) that was made out of fish offal mixed with other stuff.  

Oh, and also learned that people would pee in these little aqueducts in the road, which led the urine into a room where laundry would be done in the town.  The urine would provide the ammonia necessary to bleach linens when combined with things like lye.  Pretty smart.

At the end of the museum, there is a permanent cinema technology exhibit.  Might sound too technical, but I tell you.  It is not boring.  It's fascinating to see how the "moving picture show" came to be, since puppet shadow boxes in the 1700s to the Lumiere video cameras of this past century (shown in this picture).  

Another day, we decided to indulge in Desmond's inherited sweet tooth (finally...something he and I could bond over!) and took him to the Museo de Chocolate in El Borne.  But first, we absolutely needed to get something to eat primarily because I was hangry and didn't want my hunger to affect my loving relationship with my husband and son and to affect my willpower at the chocolate museum.  We decided to go to Bar del Convent, which is literally right next door to the museum.  We've read about the charming cafe online and how parents love it because it's spacious and has kids' toys available for the kiddos.

The outside seating area.  Stunning, isn't it?  There is also a large courtyard (to the right of the picture) with plenty of space for children to run around while the parents have some cafe amb lloc (cafe au lait in Catalan).  The food here was pretty tasty: I had the quiche and Billy had a bocadillo (sandwich).  They usually have a plato del dia (plate of the day), which consists of salad, main course, and dessert/coffee, but we got there a bit too late.

Here is the courtyard of the Bar del Convent at night.  The bar/cafe is straight through those doors and the museo de chocolate is to the left of the picture.

In the Museo, they showed the history of chocolate making and how it originated in the new world (usually made as a bitter drink) and was taken back to the old world (where Europeans' palates couldn't take much of the bitterness, so they added fat (milk) and sugar to sweeten it into a version of what we all know and love today).  Also displayed in the museum was artistic pieces made out of chocolate.  Above is one artists rendition of the Pieta.  

Los Pitufos!

New Orleans needs a chocolate Louis Armstrong sculpture.  Maybe we'll have something similar for our vow renewal ceremony.

 Also, when you buy tickets to the museum, they come in the form of chocolate bars.  Totally made the price worth it.

Finally, we took another afternoon trip to see the Disseny Hub, an innovation and design museum.  We boarded the L3 metro towards the Palau Reial (also the exit to get to Camp Nou, FC Barcelona's stadium). As we walked into the gardens that led into the museum, we saw that the museum had been moved to a new location (new location?  What???  Where???)  Since we still did not have any wifi on our phones, we couldn't do a quick check to see where it was and how to get there.  We debated going back home, but decided to stick it out and go to the Ceramic Museum (we both yawned when we read "Ceramic Museum.")

On the grounds of the Palau Reial.

We took the elevator instead of the stairs.  If you go here, take the elevator.  It's one of those old-fashioned ones with a cushioned seat and one of those doors that you manually have to close so that it could go up or down.

Example of 15th century ceramics with the royal family's coat of arms.  Lots of ceramics were inspired by those made by Muslim artisans.  

Once in a while, Des does actually get bored in museums.  I guess ceramics aren't his thing.

Although there are some examples of beautiful craftsmanship (see the two pictures above this one), there are some pieces that make you wonder how much money the owner paid to commission something like this.  Either the artist was that bad or...

the subject was that awful looking.

At first glance, you think, oh, nice-looking plate...Good detail of the knight's (?) suit...and then you take a closer look at his sinister face.

Precursor to the Guy Fawkes mask.

The museum has interesting pictures sprinkled throughout the exhibits of past visitors "enjoying" themselves at the museum.  Such as this one.

Take a look at this closely.  Go on.  What do you see?  Is that poo coming out of that guy's bare butt?  And is he playing a tune while it happens?

And what do you think is going on here?  The first recorded instance of pantsing.

We actually had a great time at the Ceramics Museum.  There were several beautiful ancient and contemporary pieces and I learned a lot about the different types of ceramics.  Makes me want to plaster them all over my future kitchen wall.  Especially if they look like the last two pictures.  After the ceramic museum, we decided to stop into a placed called Pudding, which is a restaurant/cafe aimed at kids and teenagers.  Don't let that stop you from going, though.  It is amazing.  The decor makes you feel like you've entered an Alice in Wonderland circus show, minus the freaks, but with an English tea shop twist.  

This is the "kids'" area, at the back of the restaurant and down a level.  You could barely make out the red and white striped cloth that covers the entire ceiling of the upstairs portion.

I loved this wall.  Seen as you're walking down the stairs.

They had a little play area with Legos and trains that immediately drew Des's attention.

There is also a giant blackboard so that kids can write and draw.  If they're into something more digital and less analog, the cafe lets kids borrow ipads while they are there.

We ate underneath these giant mushrooms.  We ordered the menu del dia (Billy had a hamburger and I had quiche, again, with a delicious side salad and some dessert for around 11 Euros each...a bit pricey, but they also have menus that only include the main dish or the main dish with salad).  There are also all sorts of children's books in different languages and table and board games.  

And that was the main happenings for this week for this little family...until next week!