Manitou Heights

"Well I've never been to Spain, but I kind of like the music…"

There. I've said it. Gotten it out of my system. (For those who don't recognize the quote or cultural reference, it's the lyrics from a song covered by the band Three Dog Night in the 1970s.)

Today I arrived in Barcelona. The airport terminal, the second-largest in Spain, is a modern, light-filled space. After days of gray and wind and rain in both Paris and London, it was glorious to step out into sun and warmth.

As a first time visitor (and a seasoned road warrior), I was really impressed at how easy it was to get around — particularly for non-Spanish-speakers.

Once out of baggage claim and customs, currency exchange was immediately to the left. And just next to them was the visitor's bureau, where I purchased a 4-day Barcelona Card that gives me complete use of the local Barcelona train, underground and bus system — including to and from the airport — as well as many other extras. An added benefit is that you don't need to dig out cash to buy tickets during your journeys.

What most impresses me is the signage. Now I know that many places now have graphic images to guide visitors around, but I am particularly impressed at the way that Barcelona has put them together. My whole journey into the city (except for one small glitch) was effortless. And I don't often have that experience when first arriving in cities, even in the USA.

After picking up my Barcelona Card, I simply walked through the terminal, took an escalator up, went across an enclosed bridge and then down to the RENFE Airport Train Terminal. The signage easily confirmed that I was in the right place and that the train would take me into the Barcelona Sants station.

I simply put the Barcelona card through the ticket machine and walked though to the platform. I could clearly see which side was "next" as people were already waiting for the train, so I joined them.

Although it was Sunday afternoon (and maybe my timing was good), I waited only about 15 minutes before the train arrived. It was easy to get my luggage on and get settled.

I was amused that, in succession, two Spanish passengers got on and immediately came to me and asked — in rapid Spanish — if this was the train to Barcelona. While I may not look like a Spaniard (or maybe I do - my host says I look somewhat Catalan!), I must not have looked "foreign" enough. I quickly explained (in Spanish) that I don't speak Spanish. They immediately switched to English and asked if this was the train to Barcelona Sants, which I confirmed.

Then I settled in for the journey. Like many train journeys from airports into cities, the route went through a lot of industrial area . What I enjoyed most about the entire journey was the music! From the moment I stepped on the airport train, there was music: jazz, new age, classical. I assume that the music was by Spanish groups/composers. It was a wonderful aural introduction to Spain.

Once I reached Barcelona Sants, it was easy to find my way to the Barcelona Metro. Right off the train, up the escalators, into the main hall, follow the signs, Barcelona card through the Metro ticket machines, down stairs again. (I'm so happy I have only carry-ons!)

The only glitch occurred when I tried to figure out which direction of the L5 line I needed to be one. The was only one entrance to the L5 indicated, but the signs on the platform clearly indicated that the tracks headed out of Barcelona and not in, where I needed to go.

A kind gentleman saw my confusion and told me to simply follow the M3 line signs that would eventually lead me to the L5 inbound. I did that. Once again, easy to get on the Metro. The signage and stops are clearly indicated. Some Metro trains even have video screens telling you what the next station is or panels with blincking lights for the next station.

Once I got to my final stop, the Diagonal Stacion, I simply went up the escalators, up a staircase and — much to my surprise — discovered that my hotel was conveniently located across the street.

Barcelona has a lot to offer the study abroad student and the traveler. The transportation system is just one example of how to "do it right."

At home in the States, I often watch TV channels such as BBC America that help to give me different perspective on news and culture outside my own country. So when I get the opportunity to be abroad, I really enjoying watching television in the countries that I'm visiting to help give me insights into the cultures I'm visiting.

Granted, hotels offer a limited selection, but the diversity I have here at the hotel in England is significant. For example, within the past 24 hours, I have seen the following on the handful of channels offered:

• Global news channels such as BBC, CNN and Sky News. The latter channel often features a person using sign language for the hearing-impaired.
• Arabic, German, Japanese and Spanish language channels
• Proactiv and other infomercials — in German (not dubbed). The Proactiv infomercials particularly interested me. They are so ubiquitous in the USA that I couldn't help myself and I sat through a whole 30 minutes watching the "program" unfold auf deutsch just to compare/contrast it to the American versions.

I'm not a fan of reality TV and I don't watch the vast majority of reality shows produced in the USA. The one exception I can remember was a PBS series trying to recreate early colonial life.

But tonight I discovered a gem on BBC2 called Tribal Wives. The series, produced by Diverse Productions, spends each one of six episodes with a different British woman who gives up her everyday live and spends a month living with one of the world's remotest tribes.

The production web site explained the concept of the series:

"To get a real sense of her new life, all the women will be expected to spend a month living with their new families and immersing themselves fully into their new culture. They will need to work, eat and sleep exactly as the other tribal women in order to experience what it is really like to live in the community.

In turn, the series will reflect on the tribe's perception of Western culture and garner their views on their visitors: members of the tribe will be interviewed each week to assess how the British women are doing, how well each woman is integrating into the community, how useful she is and the strength of the individual relationships she forges."

This evening I watched Yvonne, a 37-year-old mother of three from Blackpool, spend a month with Namibia's semi-nomadic polygamous Himba tribe. I was transfixed.

Caitlin Moran of The Times wrote in her review of the series:

For starters, the “wives” aren't ludicrous, privileged, shallow, Western clichés.

Tribal Wives deftly avoids that trap, which made me reflect how an American production would have ruined the whole concept and taken it to a whole new (low) level by filming something like "The Housewives of Orange County Go To Borneo". We had none of that tonight. I was impressed by the way Yvonne really worked to understand and enter into the culture in which she was placed, in spite of all the expected and resultant culture shock.

Moran went on to write, 

But where Tribal Wives really shows off its non-stupid chops is with the tribes themselves. As with [previous series] Tribe before it, Tribal Wives doesn't present the natives as a collective mass of spiritually superior primitives, with funny food, scary toilets and tiny loin-cloths. The film-makers feel as at ease and familiar with the tribes as they are with the Western women. The Waorani of Ecuador and the Kuna of Panama are presented as the joking, teasing, stroppy, tearful, analytical equals of the [British women].

Anthropologists and others will certainly find things to criticize in the series. However, I found it generally respectful and illuminating — and very human. It's certainly a series I would recommend to anyone interested in international educational exchange and intercultural communication — especially young women. 

I hope we'll see it soon on BBC America. We could use more series like this.

Image via Wikipedia

Today's Tech Tool is brought to you courtesy of the Holiday Inn Paris Bastille, where I've been staying while in Paris — and it's the hotel room keycard.

One of the interesting things about traveling abroad is how what you think should be familiar suddenly becomes somewhat unfamiliar. I have spent a goodly portion of my adult life as a Road Warrior (someone who travels a lot on business) in college admissions and institutional relations, including media and public relations — that's strategic communications, marketing and public relations in the educational world.

I've stayed in a lot of Holiday Inns over the years in the United States. However, when you stay in Holiday Inn abroad, there are differences due to culture, building codes, laws, etc.  And these differences sometimes make you feel as if you are a child again, trying to figure out how everything works.

Case in point for today's Tech Tool. I received my electronic room keycard from the front desk. The door mechanism was much like that of what is used in the USA. No problem there. In fact, the door had a motion detector that turned on a light right above the doorway as soon as I stood in front of it and turned off once I had entered. Convenient and safe.

The room was full of wonderful fresh morning air from a slightly open window high above a back courtyard. What a treat! I set about unpacking and getting things setup for my stay. 

One of the first things that I like to do when in a hotel in a new city — especially when abroad — is to turn on the TV and let it play so that I can get a sense of television programming, language (even if I don't understand it) and culture in my current location.

The TV remote was easy to understand, but the TV didn't seem to want to turn on. And then I noticed that while the entry lights worked, I couldn't turn on any other lights, such as the desk lamp or the bathroom. I started looking around. 

Just inside the entry door, I found this little square device that said "Hotelcard" and had an arrow pointing toward a slot just the width of my room keycard. So I took my keycard and placed it in the slot.

Voila! The lights turned on, the TV worked as did the air conditioner! Likewise, when I removed the card, everything in the room immediately turned off.

Brilliant! While I'm in the room, my hotel keycard is safely ensconced in a little holder right by the door. It's impossible to misplace or lose while in the room because it is by the front door, controlling the electrical power.

When you leave, for any reason, you simply take it out and everything, including power to electrical outlets, turns off - except for the entry light that can be left on. When you renter, the lights that you had on before immediately come on again — but the TV has automatically reset itself to the opening "Holiday Inn Welcome Channel."

Now, if you go in and out of your room within the hotel a lot (for example, to get ice or to run down to the front desk), it might get a bit annoying to have to come back in and reset your preferred TV channel. And you can't recharge electrical devices while you're absent, so you need to plan to do this while you're in the room, perhaps overnight. For short absences, my computer simply used battery power and immediately started recharging as soon as the keycard was in place.

However, these are minor inconveniences that can be dealt with easily when compared to the benefits for the customer as well as the obvious energy savings for the hotel.

Now I'm hoping we'll see this kind of technology implemented in USA hotels. I can see all sorts of practical applications — and not just in hotels. Imagine using these in college dorm rooms, bathrooms in locations protected by keycards, etc.

A simple tool that helps save energy and improves the environment. C'est si bon!

Paris has been quieter than I expected today. Perhaps everyone is off to the country in much the same way that Minnesotans headed in droves for their cabins in the Northwoods over the 4th of July.

It was evening and my stomach was talking to me. I found a little brasserie [...] Continue Reading…

My hotel is not far from the location of both the Bastille and the Seine River. So this afternoon, I went out to experience a Saturday afternoon walking through parts of Paris.

I walked along the Seine, the river that basically defines Paris, towards Île de la Cité, an island where the city [...] Continue Reading…

Paris greeted me with green fields appearing out of the drizzly yet vaguely romantic weather upon arrival at CDG airport this morning. And immediately, I was drawn into the cross-cultural experience that typifies landing at an international airport.

The French airline flight attendant who assured me that he doesn't eat [...] Continue Reading…

Anyone who really knows me knows that I love technology, music, dance and traveling the world…almost as much as I love dark chocolate.

Today's Favorite on Friday celebrates them all. Join me in viewing Matthew Harding's video, posted on Vimeo, of dancing around the world.

 
Where the Heck is Matt? (2008) from Matthew [...] Continue Reading…

Yesterday I attended a webinar on the uses of Facebook Groups for business purposes. The individuals presenting — who were from around the globe — had gathered both anecdotal and empirical data on how businesses are and can use Facebook Groups, particularly for marketing and/or recruitment.

I quickly understood that [...] Continue Reading…

At the last NAFSA: Association of International Educators annual conference, the head of an international education program told me a story that the program is graciously allowing me to share with you today. Names are being withheld and a few non-essential facts changed to protect the innocent — and [...] Continue Reading…