29 People killed in traffic accidents (Regional News)

In an article in El Periodico on December 9th the writer describes how 29 people have been killed in auto accidents since December 4th on the Bridge of the Constitution Immaculate. 8 Motorcyclists have died. Most of the reasons for the crashes have been speed and distractions.

Sunday December 6th was the most tragic day when 10 people died. On Saturday there were 7 deaths, Tuesday there were 6, Monday there were 5 and Friday there was only 1.

This entire year there have been 1782 traffic deaths in Spain. This is a decrease of 13.6% from the past year. Although this is a terrible number, Spanish officials are happy to say that 280 more lives were saved this year from last year.

Here is a link to the online article: http://www.elperiodico.com/default.asp?idpublicacio_PK=46&idioma=CAS&idnoticia_PK=668902&idseccio_PK=1021

Barca vs. Real Madrid Basketball (Regional News)

In a news article from El Periodico on December 1st, it announces that FC Barcelona will play Real Madrid in basketball for the quarterfinal match in El Copa del Rey. This has been a surprise draw because the teams are now ranked number 1 and 2 in the league so people think it shouldnt be a quarterfinal match. Barcelona beat Real Madrid in Barcelona 87 to 67 on December 20th. The quarterfinals are going to be held between the 19th and the 21st of February.

The other 3 quarterfinal matches are DKV Joventut vs. MMT Estudiantes, Unicaja Malaga vs. Kalise Gran Canaria, and Tau Vitoria vs. Pamesa Valencia. The winner of the Barcelona and Real Madrid match will go on to play the winner of the Tau Vitoria and Pamesa Valencia match in the semifinals.


Here is a link to the online article: http://www.elperiodico.com/default.asp?idpublicacio_PK=46&idioma=CAS&idnoticia_PK=577818&idseccio_PK=1011

Sales of Cars in Spain up (Regional News)

The sales of cars is continuing to rise in the past few months but will still be down from recent years by this year´s end. The sales of cars rose 37% last month with 86,693 units being sold. This is all thanks to a plan developed called the 2000E plan. November marked the 3rd consecutive month that the car sales have risen.

Throughout all of this recent success, by years end there is expected to be 940 to 950 thousand units sold. This unfortunately is a 19% discount from the year before.

Taxi line for women (Local News)

Barcelona will now have a taxi service especially for women. The company doing this is Barcelona Servitaxi. This is mainly geared for young women who are leaving nightclubs early in the morning and women that have family troubles.

Cities such as New York, Moscow and London have this sort of service, but all these taxis are painted pink. The plan for Barcelona is to have these taxis have a distinctive pink interior so they can keep the traditional black and yellow paint on the outside. There will be a full plan for this service released later in the week.

Here is the link to the online article: http://www.elperiodico.com/default.asp?idpublicacio_PK=46&idioma=CAS&idnoticia_PK=667482&idseccio_PK=1049

Combating Alcoholism in Ciutat Vella (Local News)

In an article on Dec. 6 in El Periodico, the councilor of Ciutat Vella, Itziar Gonzalez is doing his best to help alcoholics in his district. He believes that if he can fight alcoholism that the homelessness problem will decrease too. The program will help direct the people with problems to social services. He thinks that this will get to the root of their alcoholism. People in the community are excited for this because some people have complained about the alcoholics being aggresive and annoying to the people who live in the neighborhood. The main thing Gonzalez is trying to do is bring together all of the social services and community organization so they can all fight the same problem as one.

Here is a link to the article online: http://www.elperiodico.com/default.asp?idpublicacio_PK=46&idioma=CAS&idnoticia_PK=667980&idseccio_PK=1022

Injection Rooms in Gracia, Les Corts, and Sant Marti (Local News)

In an article on December 2 in El Periodico, the writer describes how in 2010 there will be injection rooms for recovering drug addicts to take methadone in the Gracia, Sant Marti and Les Corts areas. The CAS (Centro de Atencion y Seguimiento) are the places that offer metadone injections to try and help these heroine addicts. All districts in Barcelona have a CAS except these neighborhoods. This plan is to prevent high concentration of addicts in places like Ciutat Villa.

Currently the only centers with these injection rooms are in Raval and Vall d´Hebron. The rooms are intended for the addicts to inject their medicine with proper hygiene and medical assistance. There is a big debate whether this is a good idea, and most people in these 3 districts are not happy about the future opening of the CAS.

Here is a link to the actual article online: http://www.elperiodico.com/default.asp?idpublicacio_PK=46&idioma=CAS&idnoticia_PK=666958&idseccio_PK=1022

Pita House Restaurant

When my study abroad advisor from Marymount University came to visit us, he took Colin and I out to the Pita House restaurant on Las Ramblas. Here I had my first experience with Spanish tapas. We ordered a deal where you can try 9 different tapas for 55 euro. This place also served giant mugs of beer, so we were feeling pretty good. It was a good experience because I got to eat traditional Spanish food for the first time. I had octopus, sardines and calamari for the first time in my life. If I were back in the United States I would never order these if they were on the menu. It was a very good thing that I got to broaden my taste. The restaurant was very cool because we got to sit out on the tables in the middle of Las Ramblas, which is a huge tourist street that everyone hangs out at. Here you get to see people dressed up in wacky outfits and watch street performers do cool things. It was a good dinner because we got to catch up with Victor (our advisor) and find out how things were going back at our school in the states and how other students were doing while they were studying abroad in different countries at this time.