The two official languages of the city are Catalan and Spanish. My univerisity's official language is Catalan, so I hear and see a lot of it especially at school. Otherwise, I mostly hear Spanish around me or English from fellow international students or tourists. Of course, there are many other tourists speaking other languages, too.
The currency here is the euro. One euro is equivalent to about $1.08.
At restaurants, a bottle of water costs between one to two euros, or usually a little under $2. The water is usually more than 16 oz. I do miss having free water at restaurants, as we do in the U.S.!
I got tapas (small Spanish plates of food) with a group of friends from my college at a restaurant called Fa Patxoca, located near to my residence hall. We ordered fried cheese with honey, chicken croquettes, fuet (a Spanish sausage similar to salami), fried calamari, mussels, garlic prawns, a mini steak dish, and patatas bravas (a fried potato dish).
