El Chipiron Restaurant

Earlier this semester I ate at El Chipiron restaurant by the Marina. It is a Spanish restaurant with tapas and paella. I really enjoyed it because of the view that overlooks the water. The place itself is not extremely impressive or fancy, but it is the view that is breathtaking and makes the experience much more enjoyable. I think it is actually better that the inside is not too fancy to take away from the outdoor experience. I ate here when my family was visiting and we all shared a seafood paella. It was very delicious but I still think that I like Caracoles paella much better. The same thing occurred where the shrimps were not de-shelled and I was having trouble eating the shrimp. The sangria was very delicious here as well and I really enjoy having sangria when I am eating fish for some reason. Maybe the fruit flavor complements the seafood well in my mind for my palette. I wish I went back during the daytime to eat here on a clear day because I would have been able to look out on the water more easily because at night it is dark but you can still see the lights from the ships. As well as being able to see the ships, you can see the city skyline and the mountains of Barcelona and you can really capture the essence of the city well. I would suggest to anyone eating here that they make a reservation if they are a large party. It was not too crowded when I got there at around 9pm but as the night went on, it got more crowded towards 11 pm. The service was very good, although it seemed we did have trouble with the language barrier, but what can you expect when you are in Spain. The service was not very fast, but nobody at the table was in a rush and it seems that in Europe meals take more time and nobody really rushes like you do at home, especially where I am from in New York. I really enjoy having authentic paella because I have had it back in New York but nothing compares to the Spanish paella. My favorite part of the dish was the squid that is inside the paella because I am a big fan of Calamari. The restaurant is large and is two floors, and they steam cook the food in front of you which is fun to watch, although my mom does not like to watch how people prepare her food. I did not eat any tapas here because usually I do not get filled up enough from the tapas and I like to eat more of a meal at dinner time. The picture I included is of my mother and brother at the restaurant because I feel that there are way too many pictures of me on this website and I don't have any other pictures from the meal.

Local Article

"El secretario de Estado del Vaticano, turista de excepción en Barcelona"

This article is from La Vanguardia. Today the morning of April 24th, the secretary of state of the Vatican, Tarcisio Bertone visited the Sagrada Familia. He was supposed to come on Monday but all the volcano disruptions prevented him from arriving in Barcelona then. He arrived at 12:30pm to the church and was accompanied by the president delegate of the temple, Joan Rigol, and the director of architecture, Jordi Bonet. Workers of the Sagrada Familia were checking bags and backpacks of people entering the temple and anyone surrounding the temple to guarantee the safety of the number two man to the Pope. There were also many police officials and Mossos d'Esquadra to again ensure the man's safety. The visit of Bertone is supposed to be the prelude to the visit of Pope Benedicto XVI to Barcelona where he is supposed to consecrate the Sagrada Familia by holding a holy mass inside. I picked this article in particular because I live right up the block from the Sagrada Familia on Marina. I noticed today that there was a lot more traffic and a lot more tourists outside the Sagrada Familia and this may explain why. It also may be that it is a Saturday and I have not been in Barcelona many weekends to notice just how many tourists are outside the Sagrada Familia on a Saturday. I can't believe that I am only finding out now that a very famous man was just up the block from me today inside the church. I was not aware that the Pope was planning a visit to the Church soon to hold mass there, and I didn't know that the church actually functions and holds holy services when it is under construction. If anything, I would have thought people would wait until the construction was finished to consecrate the church with a mass service. I am not very religious, and I am also Jewish so I am not sure what a mass will do to make this church more holy, however I do realize that if the Pope travels here and does so it will be a big deal. I wish that the Sagrada Familia church would not be under construction. When I came to Barcelona in 2007 it was under construction and it still is today. I feel like all of the major cities I have traveled to have had their main attraction under construction and I wish it would all come to an end. The picture I am including is of the Sagrada Familia because clearly I do not have any pictures of Tarcisio Bertone inside the Sagrada Familia.

Local Article

"An organized gang of twelve jewel thieves have been arrested in a police operation in Barcelona"

This article from the BarcelonaReporter.com talks about exactly what the title implies. The National Police foreces arrested twelve men who were of South American origin today in Barcelona city. The men were in an organization that specialized in robbing jewelry stores. They would break into the stores forcefully and make the employees open their safes by restraining them and acting violently. The gang of robbers moved to Barcelona pretending to be tourists and stayed in the Catalan capital for three or four months. During those months they would carefully plan each attack on different jewelry stores. Just one of the robberies alone they stole jewelry and cash worth over one hundred thousand Euros and they threatened the employees there with knives. They are not only charged with many robberies, but they are charged with assault on private business people, seizing revenue and payrools, and thefts from customers of banks, using the method "cogotazo" where a member of the group watches their targets within a bank and once outside the other members of the group violently assult them. The men were operating from their home in Sant Boi de Llobregat and a room they rented in Plaza de Espana. The room in Plaza de Espanya was their meeting point. When they were caught today to be arrested they were carrying knives and they resisted the arrest very violently. This article caught my attention because it is very similar to what takes place in the United States. Specifically, my dad is a jeweler who has a store in Manhattan in the diamond district. He comes home and often tells about robberies where people get away with a great deal of cash and jewels. The only difference between Barcelona and New York is that usually in New York these robberies take place when nobody is around because it seems robbers do not want to deal with confrontation. Furthermore, in New York it is usually an inside job where somebody who has some close relation to the store is able to access the jewels and money and get away with it. In New York City, it would be very hard to get away with acting violently in a store front because there are so many people flooding the streets of the diamond districts and there would be too many witnesses to the crime. It makes me nervous that my dad works in a profession where many robbers and bad people are out to steal from them. Diamonds and jewels are worth a lot and my mom also worries sometimes that it is not worth it to have my dad hurt in any way. I cannot believe that these men were able to organize this robbery ring for almost four months without being caught. I also wonder whether or not they had visas to be here or were living here illegally and were not caught for that. They deserve to go to jail for an extremely long time or at least pay restitution to those they have taken from. I hope the jewels will be recovered although I am sure the money and jewels are long gone. The image included is of the police car in Plaza Catalunya.

Local Article

"La amenaza de lluvia no disuade a los barceloneses de tomar el centro de la ciudad"

The article from La Vanguardia on April 23rd talks about el Dia de Sant Jordi, a Catalan holiday that takes place each year on April 23rd. It says that the people from Barcelona starting celebrating the holiday very early in the morning filling the streets with books and flowers even though they were scared that the forecast predicted rain. At the start of the day many salespeople were fearful that the rain would ruin their business for the day. One saleswoman who was interviewed explained that the is a day of liberty because most days you must go to the shopping centers to buy things, but today the people buys and sell in the street. Many students were enthralled by the many colors that filled the street, there were even 5 different colors of roses being sold. Many tourists are attracted to this city for the holiday as well. This year, the market Mercabarna-Flower predicts that six million roses in Catalonia will be sold, a figure that is 10% higher than last year. Of course the red rose will have the most success and its price will be around 3 euro. Mercabarna-flower will market more than 2.4 million roses, 40% of which will all be sold in Catalonia. The price of the flowers will be around the three euro. The Gremi of Llibreters of Barcelona i Catalonia predicts to profit around 20 million euro, a figure that has maintained stable in the last three years. It is coincidental that I had to research this holiday for my CEA class the first week I came here. I learned that it is the Day of Saint George and it is heavily celebrated by Catalonians on April 23rd to recognize the day of his death. On this day, women must buy their men a book, while men must by their women a rose. This holiday is often compared to the American holiday of Valentine’s Day. The day all comes from a legend that St. George killed a dragon to save the princess and when he did so, he gave her a red rose that grew out of the blood of the dragon. The idea of giving your boyfriend a book is said to have come later on as a business ploy and a day for book publishers to make more money. I walked around the city on this day and I was amazed to see how many different stands were set up to sell books and roses. Furthermore, I saw such cool colored roses that I kind of wanted one myself, but I sadly had no one to buy one for me. The city had so much traffic, I am not sure if it is because of this day or just coincidental. I am going for dinner tonight at a restaurant and I hope that it will not be too crowded as a result of this day. The picture I included shows a vendor selling roses on the street.

National Article

"El PSOE abre la puerta a que se utilicen las lenguas cooficiales en el Senado"

The article from La Razon on April 22nd says that on the 28th of April, a Senate meeting will debate the taking into consideration a proposal that was presented by 34 senators in order to spread the use of co-official languages in the upper house. This article specifically points to the fact that the PSOE socialist group announced that it voted in favor of the proposition, so the only group who will propose the idea is the PP. This all stems from a request from the nationalist parties. It will be studied in order to decide “where the use of autonomous languages would be able to be expanded and for what type of initiatives.” It is thought that the Socialist party is in the Senate and not in the Congress where such a debate should take place. The Socialist party is emphasizing that this controversial proposal needs the maximum possible consensus of political forces in order to pass. In my mind this is an interesting article that the popular party would oppose such a proposition, while Socialists would be the ones to back it. Usually when I think of a socialist, I think of more repression and I would have thought that the popular party in power would want to gain more recognition from the Spanish people. Such a proposal would gain popularity from regional groups like Catalans, and Basques who have a different language than Spanish. It would allow these people to feel more closely tied to their heritage and allow them to feel less undermined in their culture. I am wondering if it would be confusing to start introducing co-official languages to the Spanish nation; however it would make for more diversity, and a more unique place. Furthermore, so many people speak different languages like Catalan, Basque, Galician, etc. that it may even benefit the nation and those in power to allow co-official languages. The image shown above is taken from La Razon's website and shows a picture of the senate. Clearly I am unsure if this is the Senate in debate over the topic, but this was the most fitting picture for the article.

Field Trip 3 - Raval

On April 22nd our class visited the Raval area of Barcelona. I had never been there before sadly as it its almost my last week here. Next year I think it should be an earlier field trip so that kids can really experience the area and hopefully go back during their abroad stay. I was hesitant to go here because I heard it was a very creepy area with prostitutes and drug dealers, but it was much nicer than I thought it would be. I learned that previously this area was filled with more creepy people because it is close to the port. Also, Las Ramblas was where the city used to be considered to end so when you went to Raval you were considered to be leaving the city. I really like the CCCB area and the fact that you can see the skyline because the building is shaped in a certain way at the top. I only wished I visited the area on a sunnier day but maybe I will go back next week. There is an eclectic mix of stores in the area ranging from electronics, to shoes, to clothing, to candy stores. I felt as if I saw many middle eastern people in the area. The thing that struck me the most were the new garbage bins in the streets. The United States should start such an idea where the garbage put into the bins goes beneath the ground so that it does not overflow or smell bad in the streets for many hours until it is collected. That is a very modern and forward thinking thing to do and makes the area much nicer with that one small addition. I don't think I would like to live in Raval though although it seems to be an up and coming area. I do not like living in small alleyways, because at night time I would be frightened. Furthermore, it was mentioned that in small alleys like that in the summer time it gets very hot because there is not much ventilation through the tall buildings. I enjoy living on a more main street that is more well lit, etc. I enjoyed learning that most of the official community and government buildings in the area used to be monasteries and churches. It was even more intriguing that these religious buildings used to be orphanages and take in the children who had no parents. My favorite part of all of these field trips has been the grafitti artwork on many of the buildings and garage areas. I think its amazing what people can do with a spray can and not many people pay any attention to this when passing through an area. I always wonder if grafitti artists make a living doing anything with their talents or they just do this in their downtime.

International News

"El África subsahariana sigue perdiendo la batalla contra la pobreza extrema"

The article from La Vanguardia on April 20th, 2009 says that all developing regions except the African Sub Saharan are doing well on the road to reduce extreme poverty by 2015 a date that was set forth in the “Objectives of the Millennium” in 2000. There were 8 objectives established during the Summit of the Millennium of the UN in 2000, one to reduce poverty. Another goal was primary universal education, the reduction of child mortality, the reduction of malaria, improvement of maternal health, etc. The latest report says that the attainment of these objectives has been uneven among the countries it was created for and only 49 of the 87 countries on the list are on a good pace to reach the goals. However, they note that since 2000 37 million more children have been capable of and attending schools and more than 14 million have been vaccinated against disease. According to the last available data, seven of each ten people in developing countries have reached the universal schooling. Despite improvements school and other things like major access to drinking water or equality in schooling, the World Bank insists in its study that it has not advanced enough in the reduction of child mortality and malnutrition. Thus, some 8.8 million children die yearly before reaching age five, a lower figure to the ten million in 2000 but it is still too high. Furthermore, despite all the improvements, there are still 72 million children of school age that do not attend school, the majority of them in the south of Asia and the Africa sub-Saharan. This report surfaces on the eve of the semiannual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington this weekend. They say that the World Bank expects to receive the go ahead to spend 3,500 million more dollars over the next 20 years to help the developing countries. They also plan to transfer at least three percent of the power of the rich countries to the developing countries. The picture above is from the African Sub Saharan and shows the poverty where everything is flooded and houses do not seem sturdy or livable.