Barcelona addict (Feng’s witness, a Chinese PhD student in CReSA)

When I try to recall the past 4 years in Barcelona, I have already been in China for 2 months. Every single sight that is worth remembering just seems like it was happening yesterday. Blue sky, wonderful beach and passionate people, everything seems not far from me…

The first impression I had of Barcelona was the sunshine and the nice temperature. On 26th Sep, 2011, a person appeared in BCN airport at 10 am with heavy sweat on his face and looking for a familiar face that he had seen on a computer in a totally different country. The only companions were a 23kg luggage and a very heavy hand bag. That was the first time that I arrived in Barcelona airport. After picking me up, my humorous and nice supervisor, Quim, started to ask me about my life in China and introduced me to the university and CReSA on the way to UAB. Admittedly and shamefully, after 14 hours travelling and with my awful English, I could not concentrate on the talking with Quim. After the car entered the campus, Quim started to explain different buildings, faculties and the culture of this university. Finally, we parked outside CReSA, the place where my PhD life started and ended, where I met my new friends and where I was made a better researcher.

feng at work 2

Field studies at pig commercial farms.

To a Chinese, knowing nothing about Spanish or Catalan, the life at the beginning was really hard, but also interesting! For example, when I first entered in a supermarket called “Al campo”, I was lost in the sea of products. Besides the goods that I knew by my eyes, imagination and dictionary became very necessary for my shopping time. You cannot imagine how embarrassed I was when I discarded the sheep-cheese with only one bite, since I only knew that it was cheese but had no idea about its taste –“too sheepy!”.     Remembering the first time that I wanted to try cheese.

In CReSA, everyone was ready to say “¡Hola!” to the others, even if they didn’t know each other. In this place, I knew lots of friends who gave lots of help on my experiments and shared every beautiful moments with me. Under the help of Anna, Eva, etc, I rapidly started to process my project independently. Under the affection of Marina and Tujia, I realized that an excellent researcher should be rigorous to himself and take care of every detail in his study. Besides, my PhD colleagues, friends from different parts of this world, also gave me a chance to know different cultures, which fed my sight a lot.

…an excellent researcher should be rigorous to himself and take care of every detail in his study.

Like the Mediterranean weather here, Spanish people are very friendly and passionate people. As a foreigner, asking for your way around is normal when you are visiting Barcelona. The friendly people always patiently showed me where I wanted to go, sometimes they even led the way to my destination. If I had to explain why Barcelona is a passionate city, I would say the people who live here make it.

Walking through the streets in downtown Barcelona, the countless museums are always a good choice to know the thick history of the city. From Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya to  Drassanes i Museu Marítim, from  la Sagrada Família to Casa Milà, from  Parc Güell to FCB Museu, there are always some museums to let you forget the time and this may be the glamour of the night of museum.

If you ask me where I suggest to go for relax, I will say “seaside” without hesitation. At the beach, you always see blue sky, sailing boats, swimmers, volleyball players and runners.

After 4 years working and living in Barcelona, I deeply love this place. And too many memories and friends let me treasure the experience in Barcelona.

See you Barcelona! As I said, I don’t like to say “Goodbye”.

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