I never thought that it could become so cold in mid-September. Perhaps writing about my three days in Barcelona (from 2nd to 4th July) will help me feel some warmth again! 想不到九月中已天寒地凍，不如靠寫寫七月初在巴塞羅那的三天（7月2至4日）取取暖吧！ My Hong Kong friend at my research institute once told me something about his colleague from Barcelona. She has actually been offered a post in Madrid, but was somewhat hesitant because Madrid was, in her opinion, a completely different place which would not make her totally feel at home. I thought that must be an overstatement, but once I’ve been in Barcelona, I could finally appreciate why she would have such an opinion. 我在研究所的香港朋友告訴我，他有個來自巴塞羅那的同事，本來已在馬德里覓得新職，卻老不大想去，原因是環境不同，不大喜歡，而且要適應一番。當時心想，究竟是不是如此誇張？去過巴塞羅那，就終於明白那人為何有如此想法。 Barcelona is situated in the region of Catalonia (called Catalunya in the local language) which has retained its own language of Catalan (Català). It’s actually quite close to Spanish but differences are easy to spot. Catalan enjoys a status that many re