Aventures Lingüístiques

Hola a tothom,
Things are moving along here, as they tend to do - two weeks down, and the proseminar is almost over. I have my first real class on Thursday! It's both exciting and scary, but mostly exciting. Because I know you're all dying from curiosity, here's my tentative course schedule for this semester: I'm taking Modern History of Catalonia at the UB, which is on Thursdays and Fridays from 12:30 to 2. I'll also be taking a Catalan class at the UB, but I don't know when yet because I have to take a level test on Friday to see which class to enroll in. At the UAB, I'm planning on taking population genetics, which meets Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 10 to 11. Then I'm taking the CASB course on the Spanish Civil War and Historical Memory, taught by Juanjo (the program director), which meets on Mondays and Thursdays from 9 to 11. As you can see, I have a conflict on Mondays between the UAB class and the CASB class, but Juanjo said I can work independently or possibly in a later group and then come to normal class on Thursdays. Excel•lent!

I'm really excited to start classes, largely because I'm eager to meet more people and speak to them in Spanish and Catalan (especially Catalan). This is kind of an awkward time, because I've gotten a lot more comfortable with my surroundings, so I don't necessarily want or need to hang out with other people in the program as much, but I don't know anyone else yet. It's kind of a limiting feeling. However, I think it will change soon. It's funny - there are moments when I feel kind of lonely or down, but I don't particularly miss Chicago. It's not that I want to be anywhere else - it's just that I want to be more here than I am capable of at the moment, if that makes sense. The old OA saying applies, as always: be here now. It's funny how the simplest things, though, like talking to a little boy in the park or ordering café amb llet, can make me really happy.

Hallie and I have been exploring the city a lot - we went to Montjuïc yesterday, for example - and we've developed what is now our favorite game when we're around large groups of people: Guess Their Nationality, or, as Roger de Gràcia, the host of a Catalan TV show called Caçadors de Paraules that I like, says, "Endevina d'on són!" ("Guess where they're from!"). I find myself constantly listening to people around me to try to hear what language they're speaking, be it one of the two official languages of Catalunya or a foreign one. Hallie keeps getting addressed by people in French, which is cool and funny, considering that she isn't French and doesn't speak it at all. I'm always pleased when someone speaks to me in Spanish or Catalan, which happens occasionally. I think my favorite story of a linguistic adventure thus far happened to Hallie during the Diada on Tuesday (I don't think she'll mind if I write this here). There were a bunch of really cool traditional children's games set up on the Passeig de Lluís Companys, a wide street/plaza near us, and she was trying to play one that was made out of iron shaped like a bird - you had to somehow maneuver the bird's egg, which was a small wooden ball, through it. An old man must have noticed that she didn't know how to do it, so he asked her (in Catalan) if she knew what it was. She didn't remember the word for bird in Catalan, so, thinking of Latin, she said the first thing that came to mind, "És un ave." However, "avi," which is what it came out sounding like, means "grandfather" in Catalan! I think the old man was fairly confused, so she quickly clarified in Spanish by saying, "Es un pájaro." Now, however, I keep thinking of the iron bird/grandfather... I haven't had any mixups in particular, but I was very pleased buying milk the other day to find a brand called "T'estimo" ("I love you"), with a picture of a woman kissing a cow on the nose! It was really cute, so I bought it, and later discovered that it's from a group of Catalan co-ops called Llet Nostra - hooray for buying local and loving cows!

I'm going to try to post some pictures from the Diada to give you a sense of it - hopefully this will work.

L'estelada, the flag originally designed as a battle standard for Republican troops marching out of Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War, flying from the Arc de Triomf. There were lots of these all over the place.

The sign says, "A free country, a better country." There were lots of political activists about, especially those for independence from Spain.

A giant banner of Les Quatre Barres, the official Catalan flag, hanging from the Corte Inglés in Plaça Catalunya.

Castellers! We actually saw these the night before the Diada, at Tibidabo. It's one of those awesome, bizarre Catalan traditions: making ridiculously tall human towers, accompanied by dramatic music played on a clarinet-like instrument. The most amazing part was the little kid who climbed up all the adults to stand on top and wave, then shimmied down them as if they were a fireman's pole. I was seriously impressed. I also think it's awesome that, in the newspapers, next to the horoscopes and crossword puzzles, they have a section of Castellers rankings for all the different teams from different neighborhoods.

Well, hope you've enjoyed it! I will definitely update again once classes start!
Saludos,
Sarah