Assignment #2_Part B_Grace & Melody_s3574544 & s s3672080

If communicating a city requires a lived, personal experience then understanding Girona would involve conversing with its residents. We conducted a Whatsapp video chat with Coral, Dani and Paula on Tuesday 19 November, at 10:00am Girona time.

We learnt quite a few things. Girona is a city within the Catalonia region, Spain. Catalonia’s capital city is Barcelona. Similar to Melbourne’s inner Central Business District, Girona also has a “downtown”: small yet bustling inner city with streets and lanes close to each other. Dani proudly emphasised how it was much more convenient to park and walk around in Girona’s city, compared to its neighbouring Barcelona. They often relate their knowledge of Girona to other cities; they described it as a “creative” space but that “Barcelona is more like Melbourne” in that respect.

We asked if they consider Girona to be modern and they relayed opposing descriptions: “small city” and “country”. Paula explains, there are many “beautiful views” with buildings that have “[an] antique look [but with] modern facilities.” The buildings maintained a medieval façade, but their contents and interior design are modern. Paula’s explanation cleared some confusion; having seen the Gothic exteriors of Girona’s buildings on the internet, I expected our video chat to reveal more dark-lit, bleak-looking rooms like in London and Scotland; instead, they seem to reside in spacious apartments where sunlight and their voices bounced against white concrete walls.

She brings her phone to her apartment window; we glimpse into Girona’s residential area: for miles, it was an expansive field of green. It was reminiscent of Greater Melbourne’s suburbs.

They asked about the common language spoken in Australia, to which we confirmed it is English although there is a diverse mix of immigrants and visitors from across the globe. In contrast, Girona’s residents are more obviously European; their spoken languages are Catalan, Spanish and French. The French and Belgians are common visitors, especially during the summer.

It is interesting to how, since Melody and I have different sets of knowledges (Melody learnt French for years while I have watched Spanish actors), we may note different things about the same group of people. While it struck me that their accent (intonation and pronunciation) sounded more French than Spanish, Melody found both languages to be similar. Our overseas friends laughed. Dani goes on to say that Girona is known as “a mix of France and Spain”.

We moved on to exchange information about public transportation, minimum wage and cultural activities or practises. Catalonia creates human towers! The most popular mode of transport is by driving a car, riding a motorbike, walking and taking the bus which they considered “not so reliable”. Although there is no metro train that takes locals around the city, they have regional trains that bring them to other cities. The minimum wage is 800€ per month and the average 1000€ per month. It would be enough to cover their low costs-of-living. They described Melbourne as liberal and shared about a couple of political matters in Girona: the current pro-separation protests and banning bullfighters from hurting bulls.

Our diplomatic relations revealed the two things Melbourne and Girona undoubtedly share a love for: coffee and barbeque.