After Spanish today Erin and I got fruit at El Mercado and went to lay out by el mar en el sol. Erin and I tried working on our tan, and watched sea kayakers and sailboats going out.
We also were people watching. That is one of my favorite activities in Spain. People are so much different here. They stare at you, and you have all the right to stare back. There is no such thing as a personal bubble, and people invade your space. You know in the States when you look at someone in the eye, and you look at each other as though you have seen each other before, and continue to walk, but look back and look into their eyes and keep walking, but still looking behind. This happens daily here, the constant eye contact, even after you have passed where you have to do the full body rotation to stare. You don’t smile; you just look at each other like I know I have seen you somewhere. I don’t know if I like it. But it almost makes you feel special. And sometimes I wonder if I have met a couple of these people before. It makes your day interesting, and it is weird how this rarely happens at home.
For a couple hours we watched weird mullets, matching couples, and skinny scrappy dogs go by. Several awkward encounters occurred during this time. One man asked us if we knew the time, which turned into do you smoke marijuana, or do you want hashi, to you are really pretty. Then we go another offer to buy weed, and then another one. After that I was laying tanning and I guy came behind and crabbed my ass. And when I say grab, I mean a full on grab. And it was weird and wrong. And Steve watched it all. One of the best lines from a walker was “I love you…Shaaaaakira… I love you….”
After the whole public pda groping incident, Steve and I watched an acoustic performance of traveling musicians whom were amazing. They played American old 70’s tunes, and were over tan from constantly playing the in the sun. And they could sing so well, we listened for a while and talked. It felt as though we were in paradise listening to old hippy music at Port Vell looking over the Sea and watching the boats.
We walked through the Olympic Port looking for a good bar, and ended up at a British Pub off of Uriquonna. We drank a few and ate American fries. And it tasted amazing! And then people started filling in for the Barack Obama presidential inauguration. This was a huge bar and we got 1 euro beers and went to the mega screen room. Two floors of this bar were packed, and everyone cheered when they saw our new president coming on screen, and booed when Bush’s face appeared. When Obama declared "Greatness is never a given. It must be earned," the bar went crazy. People were singing the American national anthem, and people were proud. You know America can do great things, and potentially with this change we will achieve them.
I feel patriotic and proud to be an American, especially the experience of making history in another country. To see others reactions and perspectives help add to my own understanding of where the United States stands in the World. People despise the president; they despise the country as a whole. But Spain loves Obama, and so did London when I was there. I felt amazing cheering and clapping as he read his speech and was sworn in. And the bar was chaotic, and was full to capacity. Spain was proud for the United States, and so was I. On election night in Minneapolis there was fireworks and champee and running through Dinkytown, here it was beer, a pub, and a country celebrating for a fresh start for America. People in Spain where happy for us, and people in America didn’t get to fully experience how other cultures were rejoicing with this new superpower change. America has so much money, potential and power, and we can now use that in positive, constructive way. In Barcelona I was proud to represent the United States, and the experience of witnessing another countries perspective of the US taught me a huge lesson.
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