Barcelona Day 2

Jetlagged yes but ready for action. I woke up really early.



The unemployment rate in Spain was just quoted at 21% the other day. It's a big problem. Marco says maybe a lot of it is because the weather is so nice in Spain all the time. I can kind of believe that. This TV show Aqui Hay Trabajo presents work opportunities like its the help wanted ads in a newspaper.



what do you call that area in the middle of your building that is open so sunlight comes in? well this is it through the window in the dining room.



metro card and the many big and unwieldy keys i have to carry. one set for the apartment, another set for bike and bike parking room. judging from the architecture in the neighborhood i'm guessing most people have a pocket full of old school keys like this too.



directly across the street you have a fruit store....



a meat store (in Catalan not Spanish)......



and poultry shop. at the end of the block is a Chinese run bodega. here bodega means winery not convenience store, I don't know if it means winery in every Spanish speaking country because a lot of things are different here. Anyway in Madrid they say vamos al Paki (lets go to the convenience store) because there are so many run by Pakistanis. but here in Barcelona they say vamos al Chino I guess cuz so many are run by Chinese people. what the hell. In one go they've re-associated Chinese/All Asian people with convenience stores placing them at the bottom of society by stomping on proper Spanish and jumping over grammer hurdles in a single bound. It's kind of funny but kind of offensive on many levels. most importantly on a personal level because everyone here just assumes you're Chinese and most don't know or don't care what the difference is. I have heard Chino fly around a lot and Marco has had to say no no he's American, Korean American, and then they're like oh, with that look on their face like, "what the hell is a Korea"? I will feed this issue to you and the issues i have with this issue in small bites so it's not such a drag.



the french roommate, marco, marco's illustration classmate, and I went for a jog on the top of Montjuïc, a hill that has the Montjuïc castle and various olympic facilities amongst other things. Except Marco rode a bike around. It would make bob chuckle to see us running and marco riding a bike behind us.



the Mediterranean there was a ton of stuff to take pictures of but i only had my crappy pocket cam and decided that i would come back with my real cam to take photos. on the behind me is what could said to be the most magnificent view of all of barcelona below. I'll snap that photo when i come back.



a vintage SEAT car. SEAT used to be a Spanish manufacturer but now is owned by VW.



marco and his girlfriend have a loft like studio on the second floor of Selena's friend's gallery. So they watch the gallery and work away on their interior design company that they are starting up again.



Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) is a skater hangout at night. the the left of it is a terrace cafe thing and this mosaic by Eduardo Chillida who was a Spanish Basque abstract sculptor. We drank beers at the terrace cafe below this art later in the week amongst the skaters and cracked out hobos bumming cigarettes and fighting each other.







more shoes on power lines around the area with a section of the wall that the Romans built 2000 years ago.



armored bank car.



some building kind of close to the gallery near Sant Antoni station.



around the old Market across the street from St. Antoni station there was a weekend book market. There was this big group of people across the street. upon further inspection they were parents with their kids who were dealing soccer player cards. the parents all had lists that they were checking off for the kids. pretty cute scene.





something for the kids. there were many tables with at least some visible old unwanted porno mags and videos. This one is 100% that. this would have made a good gift if i had any friends that were scummier than me.



a particularly awesome apartment building near ours with gorgeous bay windows that get like 23 hrs of sun a day.



subway in Barcelona is pretty nice and clean. but, something is added that doesn't exist in Japan at all..... pick pockets. if you google barcelona you will see tons of sites about how bad the pick pockets are. especially on the subway. they can work in teams and they are the best in Spain. People have pointed out pickpockets to me and I would have never known. I hope if i lived in this country as long as them i would know.



we went to go see Selena dance bollywood dances at an indian restaurant. she teaches bollywood dancing during the week.



dude trying to sell people glow-y things at a bar we were at.



taxi ride home. less than it would have been in NY. That's marco, selena, and ludivine the french roommate. Another jam packed day.