Barcelona - Day 3

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I am writing this as a cumulative experience of the past two day where we had the opportunity to visit the Picasso museum, the Museum of the City, and a History Museum in Tarragona.



Overconfidence

I have had a complete turn-around from the the beginning of the week when I was very hesitant about interacting with different people in that I have experienced overconfidence. I was starting to overlook the differences in the cultures and found myself in some awkward situations. There was a man who came up to me and another student and handed us bracelets. I thought this just might be a kind gesture, which was my overconfidence speaking. He then asked us for “donations” to some organization and we politely handed the bracelet back and said no thank you. This reminded me that there are still a lot of aspects to this culture that I am not aware of.



Well I AM a Tourist

The above interaction also reminded me that although I feel confident, I am still a tourist, and I look like one too. The man asking for donations sought us out in that crowd I’m sure because we looked like tourists and he knew we might now understand what was going on, and to be fair, he was right. This reminded me that no matter what I do, I will be treated as a tourist, but I can do the best I can to immerse myself and respect the culture.



Tourist culture

These experiences also make me think about what the locals think of tourists. It seems like there are many people whose lives depend on tourism. There must be people who have a positive outlook on it. I have noticed though that the people in the shops tend to be more kind and happy when you try to speak their language when they know you are a tourist.

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Photos

Cappuccino Freddo
This is a coffee I was able to order in Spanish and the vendor was very appreciative that we were trying to speak Spanish.