Okay, I'll eat some more ham

This is a picture of La Sagrada Familia...I wanted to take the picture through the trees because of how the design itself draws so much on nature. 

So as my time is winding down in Spain what have a learned? So much, and all over the place from Valencia to Barcelona this has been a very enriching week...

1) this culture is so amazingly different and unique from the countries I've been to already

(view from the rooftop of my hostel at about 10pm...I wish I could get a better picture of that church on the hill) 

2) I never want to leave because I think that there is still an unbelievable amount to learn from this very rich and accepting tradition

3) it's beautiful and fun 

the cathedral:

4) They feel more connected to the EU than their own country in this region of Spain, which is amazing to me. Not what I was expecting. But generally that was an overall feeling, they don't like being Spanish (generally), feel more European and especially Catalonyian. 

5) I can order a meal in broken Spanish (not Catalon--I also can't spell this word to save my life) and not be yelled at. I cannot buy a peach without messing it up (I didn't realize I HAD to weigh the peach)...and someone gets paid to weigh this fruit.

6) the markets are great for public discourse and there is a lot of traditional music (I heard that weird small obeo in like three different places!) that brings people together. They are also everywhere

7) the general feel is much less individualistic, the feel is more for shared experiences.

8) people are nice if you are nice to them 999 times out of 1000 and even if they are shy about how good their english is, its always good...it is actually pretty interesting how all of these students speak English however, some of them are fighting to not learn/conform to speaking Spanish, only Catalon. The global world reallly has a strong influence, especially in a country with little patriotism and self identity of being Spanish.

9) how privileged I am to have been born in a primarily English speaking country. People I've been meeting have been from literally all over the world and everyone speaks english, they have to learn it early on. Some people have even abandoned their own language and primarily use and think in English because it is demanded in public spaces. And American accents are much easier to understand to foreigners than Austrialians, British, and Kiwis (New Zealanders)...like who knew? 

10) Spain is politically active, there were protests in the streets two days I was here, they are also religious, especially compared to the French (and the British too, I feel). 

11) They eat so much ham here. It's so good. I am amazed at how many hams they have hanging around EVERYWHERE!! WHO IS BUYING THIS HAM?!? Ameica has a beef problem, fine. Spain has a ham problem. (Which is weird because I've heard that Spain was originally named after all of the rabbits that the Romans found when they came over and settled here...I did not fact check that, so don't get mad).

It's hard trying to think of a comprehensive list of things that I learned but I think these were some of the overachricing things that I wanted to write down so I didn't forget. But know that it is much more than eleven brief and sometimes silly things. I'm going to try to head back to UB tomorrow morning and see if I can grab anyone else before my flight but that schedule might be a little up in the air especially with check out times and figuring out how much it would cost to store my backpack for a few hours.

And I took a nice walk to the beach

Gracias Valencia y Barcelona!!!