I Miss Blogging

I miss the hours I used to spend writing about Catalan customs, taking pictures and the editing process. It has come to a halt because I am enrolled in a Master's Program at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona en Bellaterra. 

I love my classes, the professors and all the learning of language acquisition in Advanced English Studies. Sadly, all my time goes to studying and and keeping up with assignments that take precedence over photographing the beauty of Catalonia.

So, I have decided to not write on my blog to not get boggled with the writing part of blogging, and instead photograph this marvelous city. As soon as time permits, I will take my camera and refocus my blog taking photo documentary pictures of Barcelona, its people, and all its peculiarities. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. 

I truly miss taking pictures and turning inwards to my creative side. At present, my world is all about lexicon, phonology, multilingualism, and  new terminology that sets my mind spinning. 

Fins Ara!

La Diada Marxa

In-de, Independència!  In-de, Independència!  In-de, Independència!  In-de, Independència! 

These were the powerful words chanted throughout the La Diada march yesterday, September 11. It was a unforgettable moment as tens of thousands of people walked throughout the streets of Barcelona to claim independence from Spain. Catalans are very unhappy with the way that the central government has made deep budget cuts in healthcare, education, and salaries. 

I attended the march with my other half and sister in-laws and  walked proudly with the senyera flag tied at the neck. The senyera  is the Catalan state flag with four yellow and red stripes. My proud husband futilely searched shops in Barcelona for the estelada flag (nationalist flag with a white star in the middle of a blue triangle followed by red and yellow stripes) and was disappointed to find out it had sold out weeks ago. 

The march was attended by over  two million people who came from all regions of Catalunya by different means of transportatin, and marched peacefully along various streets of Barcelona. We started our walk at Carrer Provenza to Rambla Catalunya and continued zigzagging until we arrived to Plaza Catalunya and made our way to Via Laietana. The over all feeling was one of euphoria and peace! We didn't make it to Ciutadella Park, but returned home proud to have participated in a historical march, leaving us with swollen and tired feet. 

Adeu Siau!

Buses and cars  leaving Barcelona clogged Av. Diagonal.

 

Don't Grocery Shop without a Carretó!

You arrived a few weeks ago to Barcelona and the idea of walking home with heavy groceries makes your fingers gnarl with horror. You recall the agony of walking towards your new pis (apartment) two or three blocks away and stopping continuously to shift the weight of the plastic bags to keep them from digging into the crooks of your fingers. The weight of the bags begin to slump your shoulders and the grocery bags begin to skim the surface of the sidewalk. You instantly lament those past days of yonder when you once drove to the supermarket and leisurely loaded bags of groceries onto the trunk of your car. 

The solution to this problem is to purchase as soon as possible a shopping trolley/cart. You can load the shopping trolley/cart with bottled water, milk tetra bricks, kilos of your favorite fruit, or any other heavy food item that once hurt your fingers and crunched your spinal discs. You will walk out the store in relief that the carretó was the best investment ever. Shopping carts come in different styles and colors ranging from bag types to trolleys with a separate compartment to keep perishables in a thermos pocket. As you make your way to your pis you will feel in spiritual grocery glory with the local dones pushing their trolleys home.

Next thing to remember when grocery shopping: you need to have on hand a one euro coin, a fifty céntimo coin, or a two euro coin to lock your cart at the front of the checkout stands and another coin to release a store shopping cart. The latter is more common for stores that have parking lots and want to ensure customers kindly return the carts to the shopping cart collection point. If you are British and have a two pence coin and the coin slot accepts a two euro coin, it will release a shopping cart.

Opps forgot to photograph a two euro coin. A friend gave mea mock coin used 

to put in grocery cart slots.

Do not underestimate the use of these carretones especially if you have children. Your kiddies are going to want juice boxes, yogurt, Cacaolat (chocolate milk), etc. And if you need to pack their school lunch, your grocery load is going to be even larger and heavier. Lastly, if your building does not having an elevator and you live on the fourth floor of your building, your grocery shopping troubles are going to multiply. The good news is there are now nifty carretones made with special wheels to help you pull the cart up flights of stairs. Carts made for stairs have three back wheels on each side to make going upstairs easier.

See the three back wheels? This cart can be pulled up 

flights of stairs.

A different option is have groceries delivered to your home for a small fee, normally about two euros. The stoic cashier will write down your name and address and have it delivered during allotted store times.

When you get to the checkout line and it is your turn to have your groceries scanned, make your move fast and do like the iaias and retrieve your trolley even before the customer in front of you has finished packing his/her trolley, so that you are ready to pack your groceries. Load the heaviest and biggest items at the bottom. You can naturally figure out what to do next with the rest of your groceries. Thank the cashier and wheel your groceries home like you just bought the most useful and convenient item on earth.

Molta sort!

This trolley has a red ribbon to distinguish it from an exact

 trolley there might be at the store.

When your trolley is full, push it instead of pulling it.

Cucurutxo with Gelat and Other Associations

On evenings when the temperature has dropped only two degrees Celsius on a thirty-two degree day, use it as an excuse to buy a cucurutxo with any flavored ice cream scoop topping you want. I like whip cream and coconut flavored gelat on my cucurutxo. This last word and sentence make me giggly because it sounds like I am making references to hanky-panky talk, but far from it. My fingers typed the sentence naturally on the keyboard as I thought of the image of a cucurutxo amb gelat.

Words fascinate me, especially those with strange articulations, rare mixes of consonants and vowels, or clashes of syllables. By now you have figured out cucurutxo means cone and gelat means ice cream in Catalan. Now stare at the image of the yummy ice cream cone and imagine the delightful sensations of eating  semi-frozen ice cream before I ruin what I have to say about this word in my wacky mind.

My marit and I split a cucurutxo that lasted only two minutes before it was all gone.

This cucurutxo is one scoop banana and one scoop coconut. The cone is very long.

I finished off this part.

The reason this word makes me giggly is because I don't associate it with the cone shaped wafer used to hold scoops of ice cream. I got a real kick out of this word when I first heard my mother in-law ask who wanted a cucurutxo for dessert. A cucu what? I had her repeat the word over and over until I could pronounce it. I try to use any excuse to say the word out loud (coo-coo-roo-chew). The only associations I have with the first four letters of this pleasurable word come from my Mexican Spanish.

1. Cucurrucucú Paloma by Tomás Mendez sung by Miguel Aceves Mejia.

2. Cucaracha (roach)

3. el Cucuy (bogeyman)

In my strange way I think of this Catalan word in the following contexts.

1. Step on that  cucurutxo! (insect)

2. I saw a cucurutxo roosting on a branch early this evening. (bird)

3. That darn rooster is cucurutxing again at six o'clock in the morning. (crowing)

4. Go to sleep or the cucurutxo is coming to get you! (bogeyman)

5. The northeastern part of the United States was once inhabited by the cucurutxo tribe. (Native Americans)

I can keep going with this examples of how the Catalan word for ice cream cone is fertile ground for my fanciful imagination, but why keep ruining the word with far fetched examples of nonsense, when all it means is ice cream cone. 

                                                 Gaudeix!

Hip Perruquer

This is my last guiri entry having to do with California. Maybe. While visiting the city of Santa Ana with my cosina Vanessa, she took me to her hairdresser on North Broadway. I kept giving her compliments on her short wavy bob I secretly envied because my hair is so straight, dense and heavy that it is impossible to style my hair like hers and pull off a great bob look. 

The hairdresser responsible for working his magical scissors is perruquer Joseph Atilano, who doesn't just have a perruqueria with the typical sleek chair and rinse sink, but an art gallery. My attention was first engrossed by all the artwork hanging on the walls and ceiling, the eclectic furniture, and the two and a half mannequins on display before I noticed the red patron chair where Joseph cuts and styles hair. 

I haven't seen a salon in Barcelona  comparable to Joseph's, and if there is one, I would love to hear about it. In Barcelona we have Jean Louis David,  Raffel Pages, and Llongueras with sleek chairs and hairdressers all dressed alike. None of the them have an original look about them or a hairdresser that creates his own artwork and displays it in the salon for private sale. Joseph's proclivity for cutting hair goes alongside with his talent for creating artwork in various styles of expression.

It's a hair salon and art gallery  where apart from walking out with an edgy haircut, you can also walk out with fabulous artwork. If a haircut and artwork is not enough to beautify your hair and home, you can browse the boutique part of his salon-gallery to find vintage jewelry ranging from brooches to necklaces. While chatting with Joseph and talking about his background he pulled out a family tree he keeps in his salon and showed me his father's country of birth. Want to guess? Spain of course, surprise! No matter where I went or who I met, it was always somehow connected to Spain. 

So friends from California or any other part of the world, if you want a singular experience while getting your hair trimmed and are looking for artwork to hang on a bare wall at home, I recommend stopping by Atilanos Salon and Gallery. Molt guai!

Adeu

Mr. Atilano in the boutique part of his salon.

Hair stylist Joseph and cosina Vanessa whose haircut I envy.