Today is a special day in Catalunia, it's el día de Sant Jordi!
It's kind of like the Catalunian version of Valentine's day. The idea is that a man gives his girlfriend/wife/sister/mother/etc. a rose, and a woman gives the man a book. On every street corner there were people selling roses and tents full of books. All books are discounted today, and a bunch of us took advantage of the discount to buy the novel for our literature class haha. It's a work holiday for a lot of people, and the University of Barcelona was closed except for our classes. After classes, we went for a walk along Las Ramblas and there were a zillion people wandering the streets, browsing the selection of flowers and books. One of my friends put it best when she said "it's like a city-wide book fair." We also walked around The Generalitat, which I'm pretty sure is the capital building for the province of Catalunia. Sant Jordi is the only day all year that the building is open to the public, so that was kind of cool. We signed our names and a big "Dartmouth 2014" in the guestbook.
Here's a little more information about the holiday and it's history: http://barcelona.de/en/barcelona-sant-jordi.html
On my walk home this afternoon, I bought a rose for my host mom, Amparo. When I got home, I was surprised and happy when she gave me a rose AND a Spanish cookbook!
Just a quick post tonight, because I have a paper due and an exam tomorrow. Here's a collage of some photos I took this afternoon (click the photo to enlarge). The red and yellow stripes mimic those on the Catalunian flag.
It was a spectacular day.
And the school cancellations are... Every school but yours
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