Since being here in Barcelona, I got to have an interesting conversation with my host mother's boyfriend, Nicholas. He comes over often and is a wonderful help in translating between my roommate and I and our host mom. He speaks English very well and we like to catch up with him when he's over. One night before dinner he started a discussion with us about politics. At first it felt a little strange and uncomfortable, but I was intrigued so I just sat and listened. He began to explain to us the history of Barcelona, Spain, and Catalonia, and the relationship between the three. This was all new to me, and at this point I had only heard about the controversy of Catalonia gaining independence, so I was interested to learn about what the fuss was all about. But he described it more as a history lesson, than a political debate. He wanted to keep us informed, and shared his opinion, but didn't do it in a forceful way. I enjoyed this conversation and it was quite refreshing, honestly. Politics are quite possibly my least favorite thing to talk about. In fact, I avoid talking about politics at all costs whether it's with friends or family, I do not enjoy it. But this time it was different. It showed me that it is rooted in cultural differences between home and here. These types of things are more openly talked about, and thats okay. People are taught to voice their opinions in, hopefully, a more mature and thought out way.
We had a discussion in class the other day bout discussing politics and how different it is here than in the states and I made a comment about social media. I believe it has gotten to a point where people hide behind social media and use it to "voice" their opinion rather than doing it in a civilized manner, face to face. I see tons of hate-filled comments and posts every day about what's going on in the world around us, and not many of those comments come from people who are actively doing something to help the world around them. This conversation with Nicholas, and our class discussion has sparked my interest in these trends and noticing the differences between the two.
IN OTHER NEWS:
I got to see Rome this weekend, which was pretty amazing. With this new adventure comes a few new tips for traveling, and traveling while traveling.
1. BE PATIENT! This weekend we were faced with a lot of hardships (stolen wallets, deactivated credit cards, getting very lost) and it required a ton of patience, in order to still make the most of our time.
2. Go with the flow! when things don't go as planned, complaining only makes the situation worse, and hey getting lost may be the best thing that happened to your day, leading you on a new adventure!
3. Stop and smell the roses. Don't get too caught up in the itinerary you have planned out. If you see something amazing along the way, check it out.
21,600 minutes down, 21,600 minutes to go!
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