Barcelona essentialised (week 9, assessment)

Football is Barcelona and Barcelona is Football

The picture above perfectly captures what most people, or at least what I was lead to believe, Barcelona was all about. "Architecture and football"- said every travel agency ever.

Try googling the term "Barcelona". This is the first result you'll get:

The popularity and the overwhelming media coverage of football, means that football overshadows other sports in Barcelona, giving the misrepresentation that Barcelona is all about football. 

During our lecture on essentialism, I realised that I myself have essentialised Barcelona in this way. For me, Barcelona and football were always linked together. Determined to rid myself of this essentialisation, I conducted an on-line search and spoke to my friend from Barcelona to uncover the truth.

Barcelona, the city of many sports.

Barcelona is the home of the Formula One World Championships and the Formula One Spanish Grand Prix. It also hosts the prestigious Barcelona Open, that has tennis fans from all over the world flocking in every year. Hockey and Basketball are also relatively big sports that the people of Barcelona particularly enjoy. 

Formula one

Rafael Nadal in the Barcelona open

Arriving in Barcelona with the idea that everything revolves completely around football, could led to my disappointment when I realise that the people aren't as football mad as i was lead to believe. It could also mean that I, blinded by this essentialisation, will miss out on experiencing the local Catalan culture.

This essentialisation could also mean that football is being forced upon the people of Barcelona by the expectations of the tourists. They're probably sick of hearing, football this and football that all the time. Football even plays a role in their politics for crying out loud!

I've learnt that in order to avoid disappointment and travel 'smarter', one must always do their homework about a place so as to avoid surprises and get a more realistic view.

Culture Shock (week 6)

Culture Shock! 

Culture Shock!

Yes it's real. 

When i moved to Australia from Dubai I experience a pretty electrifying culture shock. 

I spent 3 or 4 week in my honeymoon phase, definitely a very short period. and then I went through a very lengthy shock phase. (I wish it would've been the other way around).

Driving on the left, use of many Australian terms that make absolutely no sense to a foreigner and the biggest struggle for me was the sense of humour. Everything that i though was hilarious turned out to be lame, and jokes that i would get hit for making back at home, would make people tear up. good luck fitting in when you have 'no sense of humour'.

but all that's behind me now, having adapted to the sense of humor here, the only downside is that my jokes no longer work when I'm back in Dubai.

having already experienced this first hand, I was determined to not go through it again during my visit to Barcelona.

so my research begun, here's what i came up with

Maleck's List to avoid culture shock:'

1) always stay positive and active

2) eat and sleep well

3)experience the new culture

4) actively build new friendships

I think as long as you're flexible and open minded there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to cope with anything that's thrown at you. 

while researching and looking up other travelers experiences with culture shock in Barcelona, I came across one aspect of life there that was going to be a big struggle.

they don't have dinner till 10:00 PM...

A typical day meal routine starts off with breakfast which is often a small pastry and coffee.

two hours later it's time for "real" breakfast.

Lunch tends to be much later in the day and is the biggest meal, its like the entire city takes a break for a few hours to eat, relax and socialize. 

lunch has to be quite large to hold everyone till the very late dinner.

This works well given the crazy night life that Barcelona is famous for, having dinner that late gives you the right amount of energy to party till sunrise.... literally. Clubs don't close till around 7 a.m. in Barcelona, perfect for a quick breakfast before you crash. 

I don't know about you guys, but this sounds amazing to me. 

My body is going to need some serious conditioning before I can take part in all of that.

so, a few weeks before i leave, I'm going to try this new meal plan (luckily I'd have summer holidays so doing is this completely feasible, except instead of clubbing till 7.a.m I'll just play FIFA.) 

I'm also going to incorporate a sneaky nap, or as Spanish people call it, a siesta.

Siesta's definition is literally 'the traditional daytime sleep of Spain'. 

Being a university student, I'd kill for the opportunity to take a mid day nap, but the immense work-load makes this impossible.

So, I don't think a siesta is going to be a culture shock for me, but a blessing.