La cuidad de color

Barcelona means "City of Color". OK, I don't actually know that, but it could. You wouldn't know it by every woman's refusal to wear anything outside the black/grey spectrum, but the city itself is known for being very vibrant and artsy. A few of the things that remind me of this are well-known symbols of BCN culture: the street performers along Las Ramblas and the surreal Gaudi buildings and architecture. But also, at night the shop keepers pull down big metal barriers over their front doors, giving graffiti artists and muralists a perfect meduim to decorate the walls with color. So here you are: a few of the things that make Barcelona such a unique and beautiful place to live.

First up, more pictures of the street performers. A lot of them change their costumes periodically, so there's always someone new to see and it's impossible to tell which one they were before.


























































































And then sometimes
when you're walking
home after running
errands, you run into
a random clown on a
bike in front of your
apartment. He was the
one who insisted on
the picture, I swear.






















Then there's Gaudi. Gaudi is famous around the world for his colorful, curvy, surrealistic buildings which are located in different places around the city. Lucky for me, my work is located right near Passeig de Gracia, where two of his better known buildings are found. This is La Casa Batlló at night:








And here's some pictures of Casa Milà, or La Pedrera, that I took during the day between classes:





Finally, the most informal and impulsive form of art. I'm planning on taking a lot more pictures of the interesting murals I see along the maze of the Barrio Gotico streets where I'm living, but here are a few to give you the idea:





These look like they were commissioned specifically for the clothing store, but there are tons more (like the tiger behind Sad Clown's head) that were done informally. There are still plenty of people with cans of spray paint who can't resist the urge to sign their name all over the wall, but some of the artists are really talented.

More pictures to come soon, including some from my trip to Gaudi's park this past weekend and my new neighborhood.

P.S. I'd like to pass along some advice I learned this past week: Don't Google image search "jello" in front of students (or anyone young and impressionable). Yes, it's hard word to try to explain to ESL learners, but it's better than having pictures pop up that involve red fishnets. You'd be surprised what crazy things jello-related activities young people are doing these days.