Aquest divendres 28 de novembre desenes de locals ofereixen grans descomptes en tots els seus productes

This is so wrong!!! Shops throughout Europe (at least in London, Paris & Barcelona) are advertising Black Friday deals. It's bad enough that American shops open on Thursdays for the "Black Friday" frenzy, but now they're doing it in countries where the majority of the populations don't even know about Thanksgiving.

Along the same vein, Catalans don't celebrate Christmas with Santa Claus. They celebrate a little bit on Dec 25th with a Caga Tío and then do their REAL celebrating (i.e. gift giving) on King's Day in January. No Santas, no stockings, no trees, no wreaths, no eggnog, nada.

Until now. I'm passing fake Christmas trees in malls with polar bears and reindeer, and ornaments are already strung up in shop windows mid-November.

The entire time I’ve lived here I’ve seen all manner of hipster culture in BCN. Facial hair? Check. Chunky black-framed specs? Check. Ironic t-shirts? Check. Fixed gear bicycles & bakfiets? Check. In fact, you’d better just include all things bike related. And lumberjacky. And old-timey. And artisnal. And DIY + local + crafty. Portlandia has been alive and well here in Barcelonia for years, as it’s been in Paris, London, Rome and Brooklyn, but there’s been an accelerated uptick over the last year, to wit, the TWO home brew boutiques that have opened up on our block during the past few months. One would have been shocking enough as anyone who has spent even a few days in BCN can attest.

"What's on tap?" "Estrella." "How about your other taps?" <Insert blank stare here.>

Mind you, I’m not complaining… that is, not exactly. It’s not like I’m not the beneficiary of this steady march toward hipster homogenization. I now have a source for magnificent soy lattes. For the first time ever, beginning this year, it’s possible to get authentic Mexican food in Barcelona. I can’t go to an event without spying a food truck (as foreign to this town as Mexican food has been until this year) and if I were to spit in any direction I’m pretty sure I’d hit a bike shop with a hand-crafted fixie frame + reclaimed wood fenders + Brooks beeswax-conditioned leather saddle in the window. Chalkboards, typewriters, farm tables and letterpress abound, and a neighborhood CSA stall that sells nothing but organic and seasonal produce has just opened up two minutes (on foot) from my flat. So you see, life in Barcelonia is good… quite good, in fact. But does it take a bit of the adventure out of living abroad when one's surroundings become less and less "abroad" everyday? Maybe just a little.