UB

Plaça Universitat

Coming from a country in which the majority of the people is monolingual, it is interesting to be in a city where everybody is at least bilingual and most people can get by in English and maybe another language too. Bilingual Barcelona - the capital of Catalunya and yet still part of Spain - boasts two official languages: Spanish (Castellà) and Catalan (Català). It comes as no surprise therefore that the 'UB' (The University of Barcelona) is also bilingual.When choosing my modules at University, it was therefore unsurprising to see that each module specified which language it was to be taught in (normally Spanish or Catalan).

The Courtyard of my Faculty

One of the modules I have chosen is an introduction to Basque; a module taught in Spanish I chose last minute so I was doing enough credits. I arrived promptly to the first lesson at 8.30am and the teacher started blabbering on in Catalan and then half way through the class stopped and asked us if we spoke Catalan. There were two Chinese girls in the class who didn't, so the teacher asked us which language we preferred. Despite the fact the other students said they didn't mind which language the module was taught in, the teacher ended our little linguistic discussion by saying that she'd always taught the class in Catalan and that it must have been a mistake on the website. She said if they really wanted to do the module that Spanish and Catalan weren't actually that different and that she could just keep giving them summaries in Spanish after each section if they didn't understand. Needless to say they didn't come to the next lesson.

Arrival

The year abroad begins:

Íngrid, Me and Maite on our balcony

The day after I arrived was the Diada Nacional de Catalunya (National Catalonia day), which saw 1.5 million people flood the streets of Barcelona in a massive demonstration for independence. Although this demonstration was a one off for this year, I was surprised to learn that the origins of this national holiday were not on a military success, but instead a military defeat in the 'War of Succession'. I also learnt that the English had supported Catalonia in this war, and then we abandoned them (which is maybe why they lost).

Demonstration for Catalan Independence

Plaça Major - Vic

The weekend before University started I escaped the city and headed North with my flatmates Íngrid and Maite to Torelló and Vic to go to Música Viva Vic, an annual music festival that was on that weekend. As we watched numerous Catalan bands including els Catarres and Txarango, the aftermath of the national celebrations were still visible with flags hanging from many of the balconies in the Plaça Major, and the gaps between acts filled with the chants of the previous Tuesday: IN, INDE, INDEPENDèNCIA! 


Before heading back to the city on the Sunday we headed to Banyoles to watch a swimming competition, and then Girona on the way back for Ice cream and a walk around the city walls!

Banyoles!

Girona

During the weekend I was also interviewed on Ràdio Manlleu - a local Catalan radio station - about why I chose to learn Catalan, about Catalan at Leeds and about my thoughts on Barcelona etc. Apparently they normally have authors as guests on the show, but as they couldn't find any that week they resorted to me, a foreign student of Catalan. It was the first time I'd been on the radio so I was a bit nervous, but apparently it went well!

Bye Florence! Bye England!

Piazza Duomo, Florence
(Painted for me by my Neapolitan friend
who worked in the market near my flat)

Most of the people reading this will know me, but in case you've just stumbled on this by chance, I'm Rachael, a third year student of Spanish and Italian at the University of Leeds. 

This year I've had the chance to spend an amazing four months studying British Institute of Florence improving the Italian side of my brain, and I'm now off to spend my year abroad at the University of Barcelona. 

Why Barcelona, you ask? Well, apart from the fact it's an amazing city with almost everything (beaches and mountains and all that...), I wanted to use my year abroad to learn Catalan and Spanish at the same time.. so where better to do so than the Catalan capital!