European integration

Last week I experienced the ultimate demonstration of a UNITED Europe. As the first official break of the school year, we are given a week off to celebrate “la Toussaint”, the day when all saints are celebrated/remembered. I decided I wanted to visit a country I had never visited that bordered the Mediterranean; I am just craving the ocean by now. So I went to Barcelona. The first amazing thing about the journey was the price of the ticket: it costs less to travel to Barcelona than it does on average to go from Strasbourg to Paris.

Next was the airport itself, actually built half in France and half in Switzerland. Yes, an actual building on two countries, I was shocked. Last was my arrival in Spain. Once I landed, I was getting mentally prepared to argue with the immigration officer about the fact that my visa IS Schengen, even if it says FRANCE. It just so happens that the French decided to change their rules and not notify authorities. The point is, I did not even notice where immigration was because there were no officers in sight. That is integration right there.

Barcelona itself was just amazing; I liked it so much more than Paris. Not just because people are more ehm…humble? But because the architecture is astonishing, it’s like you are walking in Gaudi’s head all the time. You just walk and walk and walk and you don’t realize that you have walked the entire city until your feet go numb. The food is so cheap, well, cheaper than in France anyhow, and it’s so GOOD. The meats, the seafood…everything. The shops are also a tiny bit cheaper, but my favorite stores like Zara and Mango, which are Spanish, were considerably cheaper. It was the best possible choice for the break.

I had to cut my trip short to go to Paris for a UK visa appointment. I did not have to show my passport there either. The nice part about this trip is that I got to see a side of Paris that is NOT advertised: the banlieues. Well, it was not quite the banlieue, but it was on the northern part of the Seine and I was VERY scared. This made me realize that Paris is in fact, not such a safe city. Beyond the tourist areas there is a whole world of poor minorities struggling to survive. That is not what you think of when you think of Paris. It’s not like New York for instance, you KNOW New York has everything: poor, rich, white, black, blue, anything and everything. You know that there is the Bronx and 5^th Avenue. Well, there are MANY areas like that in Paris as well. So I have yet to visit a French area that dominates over Strasbourg. Which is good, very, very good.

Now we are in ‘la reprise,’ which just means the break is over and ALL must go to normal. I’m supposed to plunge myself into CIEL like Barcelona never happened! On the other hand, Europe is happy this week. Very happy. Twenty years ago today the Berlin wall went down and over 30 heads of state stood under the nasty Berlin fog and rain to celebrate. The radios have been recalling that era non-stop, including Reagan’s “Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall” speech. In Paris, to intensify the intentions of amity between both countries, they actually built a small wall just to tear it down yesterday at 12 a.m. That is intense. As if that were not enough, tomorrow is the day of the Armistice in France, when the French people celebrate that the Nazi’s got out of France and peace reigned again. It’s ironic how it all happens together and so fast. Twenty years ago Europe was divided in two, and today I can fly from France to Spain without even showing my passport. Magnificent.