¡una manifestación en la plaça!

I met with my conversation partner, and she’s AWESOME! Yesterday, instead of heading to a café, we went to the Gothic Quarter and walked around for about an hour. The first half was in English, and the second in Spanish. I’m so excited about doing this exchange! I’m heading off to a workshop that certifies TELFA teachers (just for an “I survived this ESL methods” workshop) and it should give me access to a load of resources to improve my ability to teach and learn (and visa-versa!).
Oop! And today was *ahem* interesting... My first encounter with no-tranquil Spanish protesters (these people took to the streets, instead of moving in to the University)... or really, any kind of protesters in the streets... wait... yep. Okay! I’ll explain. After napping in Barcelona’s equivalent to Balboa Park (Parque de la Ciudatella) I went to the ISA office to check up on some of the travel books they have in the break room. When I left, it was around 5 in the afternoon (and for those of you who have lived with me... quiet time!). I was quite drowsy as I headed towards UB to check out spanish easy-read books in the library, play with the mangy cats in the garden, or walk around wherever; however, when I got to the first intersection I have to cross to get to Plaça Cataluñia (center of town) I noticed there were a bunch of police cars parked up and down the street. Instead of thinking “oh, geez, I should probably take a different route”, instead, “Hmm... now would probably not be a good time to j-walk” ran through my mind. While waiting on the corner of the street for the pedestrian sign to turn green (in my sleepy state of mind), I heard what sounded like a ton of bricks falling from a crane (not that high up, just enough to make a startling BANG!). As these sounds frequently visit my ears in the city, I walked across the street (when the light was green!) and ignored it. Then, right when I reached the pavement, I heard two more explosions back-to-back, and people yelling and screaming. At this point, I finally looked up and saw a huge group of protesters (signs, t-shirts, the works!) being pushed back by a police barricade. And the explosions? TEAR-FrEaKiNg-GAS! (I was upwind from it! It was blowing the other way! Don’t worry!). I was... a bit... freaked out, I (waited for the green light again, funny how logic doesn’t always kick in when one is scared) ran back to the ISA office. It’s not too far away from the intersection I discovered the protest at, but there’s quite a hike up the stairs (okay, in Spain building floors are deceptive. I live on the “third floor” in my building, but I have to walk up 5 flights to get to it. This is because (And it changes from building-to building, there is an entrada, a ground floor, and then the first floor second floor gibbily-gab begins... the ISA office is on the second floor (4th) of a similar type of building), and I was too anxious to calmly walk up them. I realized that I had left my map (ol’ faithful!) at home, and didn’t have a clue of how to navigate the side streets without being lead back to the “fiesta”, so once inside, I burst (well, not really, that’s a bit dramatic) into the office and, in the worst Spanish to ever flee my mouth, tried to explain what had just happened (I don’t quite have the vocab to explain “holy cow! there’s an angry mob in the streets, and they’re being gassed by the police!”). The message, thankfully, got across (mostly because all of the directors are bilingual, and fluent in “freaked out american hand gestures”) and they were extremely helpful. I think one of them was worried I would pass out... I was a bit flushed from sleeping in the sun earlier but that was all! ...I’m just pale... But, they offered me water and looked up where the protest was at on google (and what it was about: housing), and then helped me come up with a plan to take the metro back home (it can be a bit confusing if you’ve never taken that specific exit/entrance before). I popped up from the metro at the university just to make sure that the area was clear to go to my night class. It was, no one was there. So, I took the metro (making sure I stayed underground) back to Plaça Cataluñia. On a normal day I would have just walked above ground, but today I figured it would be best to just stay away from all the excitement. While I was navigating the stations (it’s quite large. Two metro systems, and renfe (national train system) run under the Plaça) announcements began to come over the intercom. As I live in Cataluñia, if info ever gets announced in the metro, it’s always just in Catalán, but today they ran bilingual messages (the other in Spanish) to make it absolutely clear that no one was allowed to move the protests underground.
Well, I made it home totally safe, and had no trouble getting to my night class. When I came back a few hours later, there were emergency vehicles in between the office and the plaça, but the crowds had been dispersed.
So, like I said, it was an interesting day. I truly, truly hope no one was badly hurt, and that the housing problems are resolved quickly. I’ll let you guys know when I find out more about what they were protesting.
Hope your day was excellent, and to hear from you soon!

Love you!