Arcadia Spain

November sure came fast and is a month full of events: a scavenger hunt around town to portray the linguistic landscape of Barcelona, a practice session with the Castellers (human towers) and a stroll around Girona.

For the 'Rags to Riches: The Transformation of Barcelona' course, students explored the area of the Ramblas. In a full photographic safari mode, students captured the complex and interesting world of signs in the many languages spoken in Barcelona: official announcements, protest graffiti, makeshift ads…English, Spanish, Catalan, but also Urdu, Romanian or Arabic!

During this month, some of our students went as well to the beautiful city of Girona, which sports one of the best preserved medieval old town centers in Europe. Its Jewish quarter is amazing and a big portion of the sixth season of Game of Thrones has been filmed there. Speaking of which, you wouldn't believe who dies in this season!

Our students also took part in what is considered one of the big identity signs of of Catalonia: the human towers or Castellers. Our students were fascinated with it all and helped build a tower by supporting the castellers, making a strong foundation at the bottom of it. This tradition signifies solidarity, common work for a goal and a sense of community that´s very unique to Catalans.

With just a few days left of the semester, there´s a flurry of activity now, trips, exams but also time for fun gatherings. Tonight we are going to watch a FCBarcelona game on TV at a sports bar. FCBarcelona is ON FIRE after having beat arch-enemy RMadrid 0-4, Roma 1-6 and Real Sociedad 4-0. Sweet time to be in Barcelona!