Slow Down

The Things We Miss:
A Violin Virtuoso Plays A DC Metro Station

"A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousands of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.
Three minutes went by and a middle-aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule.
A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk.
A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.
The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.
In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.
Photo by Carles Fargas
No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars.
Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston and the seats average was $100.
This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of an social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?
One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be:
If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?"
Excerpt from the Washington Post

It's About Time!

What Would You Do??


Hello everyone! Once again I have revived and I apologize for the delay. I got so caught up in living here and celebrating the holidays that I didn't update my blog in the meantime...but I am back after a few demands! I do have to say that I have been busy and enjoy everyday that this city brings me. So let's go back in the past, far back into the end of October where we left off last.




One Saturday afternoon as Oriol and I were welcoming the day, he surprised me with entrances to Barca's Camp Nou! I had yet to visit it and not only did he say we would go see the game but we would take the scooter the way real Barceloneans do. I was thrilled especially the moment we walked into the stadium and you heard the countless amount of people cheering and screaming for their team. I was so thrilled that I called my dad and he was just as excited and right when we were on the phone they scored and he cheered along with me. It truly was a once in a lifetime experience...

Then the very next day, after the euphoria of the game we woke up to one of the last summer days we would experience in 2008 and decided to hit the beach up North, Palamos.
We spent the entire day in the sun, taking pictures and simply enjoying one of the last warm days of the year. I don't even want to get started on how cold it has been these last few months...I am dying for Spring to get here soon. When??
In the meantime, let's take few minutes of nostalgia and concentrate on the beauty of the blue sea, tanned legs and salty windblown hair that screams summer.



Then to finish off the month and officially welcome Fall, we celebrated La Castanyada on the 1st of November. We headed out to Oriol's family house with his sister and her kids to roast chestnuts and make panallets, a special sweet treat made out of flour and pinenuts. Biel was the official panallet maker along with Oriol and we got our fingers dirty making little balls of dough and peeling warm roatsted chestnuts.

Biel and I took our fish faces seriously and I couldn't help but start humming Christmas tunes to myself as Laia and Biel joined in, even though they had no clue what I was singing...


Finally, I closed off that month without Thanksgiving, but a little birthday dinner for Idoia in Tarragona. I joined her and her lovely friends to celebrate, have girl talk and laugh our booties off all night.




The next morning I had the honor to wake up with my dear friend and join her and her daughter for a coffee in the sun and some more laughs. Laia and Ada only keep growing and I love seeing them turn into lovely young ladies...

November came and went and ended with a bike ride on the beach and the anticipation of my very first Christmas in Barcelona...if you stay tune, I promise to let you in on my big 30th surprise birthday party, Christmas and New Year and all my small 'happenings'. As well as few opinions on the status of the world...and to not fall back on the updates...Paris, our plans to travel to California in April and more!