Green men

While I´ve been in Barcelona, the stark contrast to Egypt and China of walking on crosswalks and cars stopping for me has really been noticeable. I´m sure you could tell from the posts I´ve made already about it, such as this one.

What do you see when you get to a crosswalk though? And with my impatient post-Egyptian spirit all I see is a red figure of a stick man across the street telling me I can´t cross. And when the red man disappears and the green man shows up with his open stride, it´s time to make progress, or let my life move forward, to put it in more selfish perspective.

So as I´ve been wandering the streets of Barcelona, as there have been a lot of streets and a lot of crosswalks, I´ve taken the habit of finding the green men that are available to me and taking advantage of them as often as possible. Green men have become a sign of goodness and have brought me immediate elation, as it meant that I didn´t have to wait for traffic to pass and my progress would not be stunted the least bit.

We´ve noticed while touring about a 10 square km area around the middle of the city that depending on which area you go to, the green men look different. Some of them are taller, some shorter, some stockier, some more athletic looking (wide shoulders and small hips). Some look like bodybuilders, and others just look happier too. I think there were 4 different ones in all that we came across.