So I figured I would make a blog to keep loved ones updated about my semester in Spain. I leave in approximately seven days for Barcelona until late January. And I have nothing cool to report yet, because I am just packing and sweating.. since when is it 90 degrees in Maine for a week straight?
Anyways... I guess I will talk about Barcelona for a little bit? Barcelona is a tricksy little city (not actually little, but little usually follows tricksy, but I digress). Barcelonians are famous for loving their cultural identity. Back in the day Franco got all upset because Barcelona was extremely loyal to their Catalan roots and actually considered the capital of Catalonia (a region in Europe including parts of Spain and France where they speak Catalan). Anyways. Franco hated Barcelona because they were the last of the regions in Spain to resist his efforts to unite Spain by cultural cleansing (i.e. banning all use of Catalan, censorship of literature, press, etc). Franco's reign lasted 1947-1975 and was described by a famous Catalan writer as "the color of a dog running away" to mean that it as unclear what was there. There was definitely something there, but it was undefined. Since then, Catalans have regained much of their culture. The University of Barcelona, where I will be studying, was the first school after Franco to teach in Catalan, but taught it as a foreign language would be taught. So yep, that is what I know.
I don't have any cool pictures... but I google image search Sagrada Familia to find this picture of Sagrada Familia, an unfinished church which was designed by Gaudi.
Adios!
