Barcelona News: Two Graffiti Vandals Caught Red Handed

The following article was translated from El Periódico:

"Detinguts in fraganti dos grafiters per pintar dos vagons del metro de Barcelona

On the 21st of April, police officers caught two graffiti vandals defacing a wagon of the Barcelona metro, according to the Catalan police on Sunday. The police arrested two German nationals, aged 31 and 33, as the perpetrators of the vandalism and consequent disobedience to law enforcement officers. The incident occurred when two plain-clothed patrol officers saw three alleged vandals enter the subway through an emergency exit in the district of St. Martin Street.

When the police identified themselves the young men ran away and tried to get rid of their supplies in their backpack. The police managed to arrest two of the three young people, who all continuously resisted arrest and identification as well as causing minor injuries to the arresting officers.

The police officers later recovered the arrested suspects' backpacks and could see that they were full of spray paint and other graffiti equipment. In addition to the equipment, the police found a memory drive with a video of the vandals performing the illegal act, further proving how dumb some criminals really are.

The vandals incurred damages totaling 1,600 euros and were charged with vandalism, resistance and disobedience to authority. The suspects will go to court Friday as the judge ordered the guard of liberty charges."


I enjoyed reading this small article that demonstrated the fact that small petty crime occurs everywhere in the world. This example being how vandals were caught creating graffiti art on the Barcelona metro and how they were subsequently caught. It was nice reading about how the Barcelona police acted quickly and were able to catch foreigners who had come to their city to vandalize their public transportation. 

Barcelona News: Sant Jordí

On Sunday, April 23rd the city of Barcelona celebrated Sant Jordí, which is essentially the Catalonian version of America's Valentine's day. the day is marked by a festival of romance, roses and books all inspired by the legend of Saint George. Sant Jordí is the other patron saint of Catalunya alongside the  Blessed Virgin of Montserrat (see "Day Trip to Montserrat" blog post). The day of Sant Jordí is celebrated on April 23rd to commemorate the death of the saint in the year 303 A.D. The legend of Sant Jordí is that he slew a dragon in order to save a princess and subsequently picked a red rose for the princess from the rose bush, which had sprouted in the spot where the dragon's red blood had pooled on the floor.

You could see many forms of celebrating Sant Jordí in the streets of Barcelona, particularly on Las Ramblas. The street was blocked off from vehicle traffic and there were countless vendors of red roses and romantic books that went all the way down the street. Many other buildings throughout Barcelona put up red roses to commemorate the day such as the famous Gaudí designed building of Casa Batlló.

Leisure: Cooking

One of my favorite aspects of living in an apartment with some of my best friends is that we had the opportunity to have our own "family dinners." These family dinners happened when we all went to the Boqueria together and decided on what kind of meal we wished to prepare. We would all split up to go buy the different ingredients throughout the market and meet at the back of the Boqueria to go back home and cook together.

The most important aspects of cooking all the time is having the correct spices and cooking supplies so you do not have to make a trip to the supermarket or the Boqueria every time you wanted to cook. Below you can see pictures of our stovetop, which we used for every meal that we cooked. On top of the fumigator you can the the wide range of sauces and spices that we used for cooking. The other picture is how our fridge usually looked with all the foods we would use to cook for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Barcelona News: El Classico

This weekend was the annual Barcelona vs. Real Madrid football game and boy was it a huge game. The historic game occurred with Barcelona placed in second, only 3 points behind Real Madrid and the La Liga title is almost at stake. A win for Barcelona and they tie with Real Madrid at 75 points on the season but will take the top spot due to goal differential. With Real Madrid hosting the match, Barcelona was not favored to win. The game was exciting to say the least.

The first half was marked by Real Madrid domination; they had the majority of ball control as well as more shots on goal; 2 by Ronaldo which were saved by Ter Stegen. Real Madrid finally put the ball in the net at the foot of Casemiro in the 28th minute but Lionel Messi answered only 5 minutes later to tie the game in the 33rd minute.

The second half was one of the most exciting 45 minutes of football that I have ever watched, aside from the PSG-Barcelona second leg of the Round of 16 in this year's Champions League. The half was extremely aggressive with both teams receiving a number of bookings after Barcelona's second goal came from Rakatic in the 73rd to take the lead. The most notable booking was Sergio Ramos who performed a heavy slide tackle on Messi and was subsequently sent off, this definitely shifted the  tide of the game. The following minute Carvajal received a yellow and Kovacic received one as well for Real Madrid only 3 minutes later. Barcelona's hopes to sit at the top of the table seemed to be dashed in the 85th minute after a goal by James Rodríguez. The game was extended for an extra 2 minutes given by the referee and it was in the final 92nd minute that Barcelona charged down the field and found Messi who scored his 500th goal of his career to win the game.

Messi then took his jersey off and waved it in front of the Real Madrid supporters to show them who the king of football is; he subsequently received a yellow for excessive celebration but Barcelona still walked away with a well deserved win.

Las Ramblas Neighborhood Resume

Las Ramblas stretches for 1.2 kilometres (0.75 miles), and it connects Placa de Catalunya in the centre with the Christopher Columbus monument at Port Vell. La Rambla forms the boundary between the quarters of Barri Gotic, to the east, and El Raval, to the west.

Stereotypically known as a dangerous area by night, we have come to the realization that the area is safe and enjoyable, as the experience of living on this strip is what you make of it

Our Metro Stop - Liceu

Our metro stop is the last stop on Las Ramblas on the L3 line. We rarely take the metro because we are so close to school but every once in a while we will use it to go up towards Passage de Gracia area.

Boqueria

As I have stated in a previous blog post, the Boqueria is one of our most favorite spots in the Ramblas area. The pictures below show some of the selection of food at the famous outdoor market. We use this market to buy food for all our meals and have loved developing relationships with our favorite vendors.

Gran Teatre de Liceu - Opera House

One of the most historic places on Las Ramblas from the last 200 years is the Gran Teatre de Liceu, which has been the main opera house for the city of Barcelona since its opening. In the past, it used to be reserved for the super wealthy but nowadays its just a popular opera house that serves all the people in of Barcelona.

Library of Catalonia & Jardins de Rubio I Lluc

One of the most influential buildings in our area in my opinion is the Library of Catalonia. This is home to one of the largest collections of historical Catalonian texts, open only to the researchers who study them. Outside of the research library is a public library open to anyone who would like to read from their collection of books written in over 10 languages. Outside of the library is the Jardins de Rubio I Lluc, which is a courtyard in the center of the building where many young people study or just hangout.

These are some of the main attractions in the Las Ramblas area and it has been a pleasure living in this area for the semester.

Spain National News: El País

El País is the largest and highest-circulation daily newspaper in Spain and one of three Madrid daily newspapers considered to be national newspapers for Spain. It is headquartered in Madrid even though there are regional offices in Barcelona, Seville, Valencia, Bilbao, and Santiago de Compostela. They also produce a world edition that is available online in Brazil and in Latin America. The paper could be compared to the largest newspaper in the United States, USA Today, due to its size and influence.
One recent national news story that caught my attention ad the title of "Spain's modern-day slave trade," which detailed the expanding lucrative business of sex-slavery. The issue has seen an increase of about 5,000 identified people in the last 5 years as victims of sex-trafficking. The biggest problem with this issue is the fact that many of these victims have a lack of knowledge of the Spanish language and are unable to escape from their captors.

The article speaks about the difficult situation the women are in and how they are afraid to step out of line as their families are often threatened by their captors. Another thing that keeps them from escaping is the fact that the traffickers take their victims passports from them, which prevents them from escaping as they have no form of identification. While many people associate the slave trade with brothels and prostitution, there are many men that are forced to work at sweatshops, agriculture, kebab, or wok stores for no pay.

This other kind of slavery is harder to catch and prove in court because it is difficult to prove to what extend exploitation is truly happening in a situation. The reform of the penal code in 2015 has helped the government address the sex-trafficking situation and labor exploitation.

As for the El Paps newspaper, it is very similar to the newspapers in the United States and they address the news in a similar professional manner. It's interesting to see the many similarities between journalism in the United States and journalism in other countries.

http://elpais.com/elpais/2017/04/21/inenglish/1492756977_271906.html

Leisure: Runs

As I have mentioned in a previous blog post, it is really important to make sure that you stay healthy while studying abroad. Other than working out at DiR Claris gym my roommates and I would often go on runs to the beach from out apartment. We would usually choose a day when the sun was shining and it was around 60 degrees Fahrenheit so that we could relax on the beach after our run.



To make it to the beach from our apartment we would run down Las Ramblas towards the port. Once we reached the water front we would run all the way to the large lobster statue and turn the corner. We would then run along the few restaurants next to the port and run down Passeig de Joan de Borbó, which I have also heard referred to as "Gringo Street" because of the large amount of tourists who use the street to get to the beach. In order to get to the beach faster, we turn left halfway down gringo street and run through the apartment buildings of Barceloneta straight to the beach.
In the picture of the map above you can see the route (blue line) my roommates and I took in order to get to the beach on our runs.