Barcelona: October - November, 2022
October in Barcelona was a blur from the instant that we had arrived. We landed on October 5 but it had already felt like the 15th of the month. For everyone during our time in Spain, it was a rush. I don’t want to say that I had high hopes for my time in Spain, but I recently found out my lineage is over 50% Spanish from my father’s side so I was more curious, wanting, and expectant to dig deeper into my inherent culture and know more about what half of my european ancestors did to my other half of indigenous descent. Fast forward, we learned that Spain has a culture of forgetting to forgive and not embracing or even being held accountable for its past. In other words, I didn’t get to see, hear, or learn a lick of what I had hoped to. The program for Barcelona was difficult. We focused on issues surrounding housing and immigration.
I have similar sentiments that I want to visit Spain again, but not necessarily Barcelona, because for me, it was a total disappointment. The more I look back on my four weeks there, the more I suffer from secondhand emotions… And the blame doesn’t belong to one particular thing. I know I profess having no expectations, but for Spain I did want a lot. I found it weird that a program that travels to seemingly unconventional countries would go to Spain, and found out SIT includes it to appeal to the students that want a study abroad experience in Europe. My professor told me they go to Barcelona specifically because it’s where the program has the most available contacts. Because our program was so rigorous, we weren’t able to travel as much as I was hoping to as we didn’t have much free time.
While in Spain, I wanted to visit my friend who had completed the same gap year program as me in India. She’s from Granada, about 4 hours by plane, 6 hours by train, or 15 hours via bus from Barcelona. I had also wanted to visit the small town of Alfaro de La Rioja, where I confirmed my father’s ancestors (his great grandfather) migrated to El Salvador from. The northern-Spain town is about four hours by car from Barcelona. Unfortunately, neither of these trips happened due to lack of money, time, and overall not having the flexibility to do what I wanted outside of the program. We only had the weekends to ourselves. My family mentioned wanting to go to northern Spain with me to explore my heritage and so I didn’t stress about my adventure and instead went to the island of Ibiza, in true island-girl style. Unfortunately, after the second week of October, the island of Ibiza is officially “off-season” and it wasn’t until the third week of October that we had a ‘break’ (or four day weekend), so my good friend from the program, Mercy, and I rested plenty, connected with nature, and made do with our budget vacation. I had also caught tonsillitis a few days leading up to the trip and had no idea what it was because I never caught it before. So, yes, my month in Barcelona was a lot! My favorite parts however had to have been how walkable the city is, the trains, and the “menu del dia”, which are basically three-course meals priced at about €10-€20 or $11-$21. I met more tourists or people who moved from around Europe than locals there as well.
I learned about sustainable ways of living and more about community and intentional living when I’m used to an individualistic means of living, and was taught and guided by very serious and passionate people. Regarding my research, Barcelona also threw it off. My group consisted of me and two boys who were arguing that “Informal street vendors have been pushed to create their own solutions due to being excluded from the formal economy. Their ability to make a living is influenced by their autonomy, or the ability to act according to personal desires and motives. Their autonomy is determined by the level of intervention authorities have in their activities which is influenced by the type of goods being sold, the type of spaces, and the type of people.” I noticed the most street selling whenever I would be traveling from place to place. It wasn't as dominant in Barcelona as it was in the previous two countries, which was mostly because of stricter vendor laws and anti-migrant policies.
By the second weekend in Barcelona, my phone had been stolen. I was alone and vulnerable, my trust taken advantage of by two male strangers. After I had told my family what had happened to me, they said “well at least it was just your phone,” which I agree with, but ironically, Barcelona is one of the safest cities in the world. I had no concerns regarding my safety, but likewise, Barcelona is one of the most popular cities to have your phone stolen and your pocket picked! I remember journaling directly after it had happened that “just when I thought I couldn’t be humbled enough, this happens”. At the time I had two phones; one from three years ago, that had contacts, data, and photos that I no longer had access to because I hadn’t backed up the phone. Even more ironically, I had a notification from when we were in Argentina that my phone hadn’t been updated to iCloud in almost 51 weeks. I was upset to say the least but grateful for the learning moment. I have been too open and trusting and it’s true, the situation could have been worse – they had at least left me with my wallet. Being in Barcelona made me feel like I had to have been from there to really fall in love with it– the city has dealt with over two decades worth of being a tourist’s playground after it hosted the Olympics in 1992.
My biggest tips for a semester abroad…
Backup your phone whenever possible (maybe make it a monthly habit)
Don’t be alone after dark
Save up and budget as best you can to enjoy the most you can
Try not to be a tourist!
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