"The great book, always open and which we should make an effort to read, is that of nature" -Antoni Gaudi

Read a few interesting articles this morning. The first was about the Greek deal witht he IMF. The update here is that if Greece cannot pay back its debt (by the end of June at this point, but I think it'll probably be extended) then they are going to risk being kicked out of the eurozone. So I'm getting excited to head over to Greece because I'm itching to know what everyday Greeks feel about this...do they even care? Does it really affect them that much? What do they feel they are going to be losing if they have to leave the eurozone. 

The second article had to do with "the rise, the fall, and the rise again" of green energy. It was a great read because this idea of green energy has recently been getting some bad press because of how expensive the infrastructure is and the payoff of using green energy versus fossil fuels. This was more hopeful saying the 2014 had the most amount of investment in green energy than any other year on record--and even that developing countries are reaching the point where they have invested almost as much as developed countries...which means in a decade or so there could be new major global players as green energy becomes the norm. The article did talk about "the fall" being when too many ideas were being funded all at once and couldn't really take off...but maybe the strong ones will come back and survive #capitalism.

(Anyways, glad I found these reads because I've been listening to the news on podcasts semi-regularly and it can be a bit of a bummer...wake up: IS sucks...before bed: IS sucks more; and a famous musician has died. Repeat. So yeah, if anyone has any recommendations of news stations or journalists to follow let me know, it would be much appreciated!)

There were a lot more events going on at the University today and a lot of big study groups. Basically everyone was walking around in heards so I was at the University for quite a while trying to find people who weren't cramming for finals. So unlike yesterday when people were coming out of the wood work I struggled a little more. Please, eat lunch alone so I can find you! So some of the people I managed to talk to today:

(Another picture of UB's garden)

#1 

Robert is studying "Spanish studies" I found out, and I also found out that he's probably being bullied for having that as his major. Poor Robert. He said that he mostly feels Catalan though, he is just interested in Spain because it is so big and has so many cultures. It is one land with many countries, he said. So it isn't so much patriotism that makes him feel Spanish more that he spends a lot of time learning about how different and unique it is. 

He likes the EU and is glad that he's a part of it, he even feels European, but knows that every country is different with its own history. It's big. And he doesn't like the politics of it. Some countries just can make all the decisions which go against what other countries and people want. 

Big question: how is Catalonya not its own country. Literally no one in Catalonya wants to be a part of Spain. Like, I knew there was a big seperatist movement but what the hell is keeping this country together?! My thought is that the seperatist movement is lacking a strong leader but maybe I will just have to see.

Side note: I love when I ask people if they speak Spanish like half of them say "of course" and the other half say "mas o menos" (more or less) and then have a perfectly strong conversation about European politics and opinions on tough things. When I say I speak a language "more or less" that means I can order food and ask for help. Way to go America.

#2

Manni is from Barcelona but he doesn't feel any kind of idenity to anything. People come from their mother and their father. That's it. Interesting, thats similar to what someone said yesterday. He said places like the US and UK and Luxembourg (?) feel a lot of pride, but not Spain. 

When I asked about the EU he wasn't really gung-ho about it because its too different and doesn't really do anything. Would you take Spain out of the EU if you could? Yes. Then I asked about environmental laws and if he thinks those are better on a continental level or if they should be more localized or set by individual countries. He animatedly beleives that it needs to be a group effort and cooporation is needed to get rid of all of the pollution (he was struggling to find the right word here, I think he was going for "climate change" though). He wants it to be more of a global effort though and not just laws for only the EU. Everybody needs them and everyone needs to follow them. 

The rest of the day

Last night I met a girl from Holland, Lativa, who was also traveling by herself and the people we were with were talking about the pros and cons of traveling alone versus traveling with people. Lativa had been traveling for a little over two weeks (almost the same as me) and she was like "yeah the first week and a half was really hard and a little lonely, I thought" and I was like, hmm yes, I understand this sentiment. We talked about it a little more and we both felt better about our "rocky" start and very glad that we have both opened up and things we wanted to do/see. I am glad I have this project though because it does keep me focused because these backpackers loveeeee to go out because a lot of them really don't feel any kind of responsibility and sometimes I feel overwhelmed just hearing about how other people are traveling. So thanks Brueggeman again for giving me some purpose and probably keeping me out of a lot of trouble. 

After grabbing some lunch I wandered over to La Sagrada Familia and was completely blown away by its facade. It was so intricate!! I bought a ticket (for 13 euros, ugh) for the unfinished church and had to wait an hour until I could go in. So I wandered around for it for awhile. Everywhere you turn it was more and more detailed and new details would just pop out! It was crazy. I took a zillion pictures, sorry.

Note: the church is scheduled to be finished in around 2050. 

...

So that is some of the outside, I wish I could have just flown around it and looked and everything. Also, have a mentioned that the man who designed this, Antoni Gaudi, is on his way to becoming a saint? Seriously, crazy. So I don't know if you looking at these pictures picked up on a kind of theme of this design, but Gaudi was very influenced by nature when he undertook this project. I loved this quote of his "the great book, always open and which we should make an effort to read, is that of nature." And so this grotto looking building and all of its details are reflective of elements of nature.

think that's insane...now lets take a look inside...

the sunlight reflects the stained glass into the church

Gaudi planned the colors of the window to tell different stories and as the sun moves through the sky the story changes as different parts of the church are illuminated.

this is what walking on sunshine looks like

and the closest I've ever been to walking through a rainbow

But there is more to the inside of this church than just the amazing colors. When I first walked in I felt like I was in a very open aired cave, seeing as the outside was a grotto...but then I looked around and realized (and read on a plauqe) that it was not a cave but a forrest. And the columns were trees that created a protective ceiling to keep out the rain and limit amount of sun that comes in...is this guy for real?! (he's a local hero of Barcelona from what I've seen). 

Here's the ceiling 

MEEEEEEEEE!!!

And I realize now that I should have taken more pictures of the columns but hopefully you get the picture, or if you don't, you could probably just google it. So that's it for now!