Andalucia

Here's hoping my Internet stays on for enough time for me to finish writing all this.

And sorry this update is a couple days late.

So we left early Thursday morning from Madrid for Andalucia, the southern part of Madrid, and spent Thursday-Sunday there. I guess to explain what we saw and did, a little historical background is necessary.

As I mentioned before, Spain has a very strong Muslim cultural heritage. The Moors invaded Spain from northern Africa around 700 AD, and 100 years later had control of practically the entire country, except parts of the north where Christian populations remained, protected by mountains. Moorish rule, before the Christians started the reconquest, was an exceptionally peaceful period, as the Moors were accepting of both Christians and Jews and allowed them to coexist without conflict or persecution. In fact, the three ancient Muslim cities that we visited -- Granada, Cordoba and Sevilla -- were each in their heyday the leading cultural centers, not just of Spain, but of all of Europe, which was experiencing the cultural stagnation of the dark ages.

Then of course, the Christians from the north started the reconquest, which over the course of several centuries of warfare wiped the Muslims completely from the peninsula. Andalucia, being the southernmost part of Spain, was the site of the last great Muslim cities (the ones we visited). But they certainly were great.

So we left Madrid about 10:30 Thursday morning, after being delayed a couple hours by a traffic jam on some highway, and a 7-hour bus ride later, arrived in Granada. We checked into the hotel, rested briefly, and then went out to take a walking tour of the city. Some people were disappointed by Granada when we first arrived, saying that it was too much like every other city -- that is, modernized and globalized -- but their story changed once we got to the ancient part of the city, which bore testament to its Muslim influence and its greatness as a center of medieval culture. The highlight of the evening was seeing the Alhambra -- an ancient fortified Muslim fortress/palace/city built on the edge of a mountain -- from a distance, illuminated by the night lights.

(I'm assuming everybody knows they can click on these pictures to view them full-size)

(If you look close enough in the above picture, you can see the Sierra Nevada, which frames the city of Granada beautifully)



Britt and Erin were impressed.


Then we had dinner at the hotel, some people went out to drink and party, and others (me included) stayed in and slept.

The next morning we got up to go see the Alhambra from the inside. As I said, it was more than just a palace, more than just a government center (though it was both of those things) it was a complete city, enclosed in walls. And it was amazingly gorgeous.


(The Muslims developed a big thing for water after leaving the desserts of Northen Africa and finding the rivers of Spain [small and few as they are]. So all their palaces are filled with fountains and pools and baths, etc.)



This is a view of Granada from inside the Alhambra:


Walking back to the bus:



After the Alhambra, a number of us drove out with Maricarmen, the director, to the farm of some family friends of hers, who made us lunch and let us play on their land. This was by far the most fun part of the visit. They had tons of animals (probably 50 horses and lots of livestock of every variety imaginable), let us walk around the place, and Paul and I tried to explain the geometry and configuration of a baseball field to the owner of the farm who is planning on building one on a huge empty patch of land for the groups of kids that come there (I think they run a "learn how to be a farmer" camp). I rode the first horse of my life (except for the pony in that picture I took for preschool when I was like 5):



and we played soccer with their kids (I'll have pictures of this soon; I didn't get to take any because I was too involved with the game, but it was really fun). The kids got so excited that they ran after the bus when we left.

Then it was dinner in the hotel again, and afterwards we all went out to see a Flamenco show. It was different then I had expected, and wholly impressive. I didn't take my camera to this either, unfortunately. It took place in a small, long, narrow room around whose perimeter chairs were crowded. So the dancer would be dancing literally two feet in front of your face. Each flamenco group consists of a gypsy family (flamenco was popularized by the gypsies and they have a monopoly on it, though they didn't invent it), some of whom sing, clap and play guitar while another gets up and dance. These were obviously some of the better groups. The second family that performed included the 89-year old great grandmother, who got up and sang and actually danced flamenco, which was absolutely amazing.

Then they started pulling up people from the audience to dance with the dancers, most of whom were embarassed and did the hop for a few seconds before sitting back down. Then a lot of people persuaded them to bring up Jason, whose 21st birthday it happened to be and who had already had a few drinks to celebrate. He took the stage with a look of supreme confidence and started flamenco'ing harder than I've seen anybody flamenco in my life, flamenco'ists included. He had the attitude, the imaginary skirt twirls.. he had it all. The entire room, including the 40-some people not from our group who were there, went absolutely insane. Somebody took a video; I'll try to get a hold of it soon and post it.

By this point I had actually started to get pretty sick -- fever, sore-throat, cough -- which prohibited me from fully enjoying the rest of the trip. But it was great nonetheless.

I'll have to end the update here, for the time being, before moving on to Cordoba and Sevilla. But stay tuned.


PS, I think I'll start an actual photoblog soon, so that you can go and browse through all my photos, including ones that I don't post here.

it's a small, small, small, small world

Today I went to a meeting with all the people that work at MAP magazine, the online magazine I'm designing stuff for, and I was talking to this one guy whose name is Leon, I guess he writes for them. He asked me where I was from and I said Texas, near Austin. And he talked about how he'd been to Austin a long time ago, and I was like "yeah that's cool." Then he told me he was from Mexico.

"Actually," he said, "I have some family that lives near Austin."

"Oh really? Where?" I asked

"In Wimberley."


I just about had a coronary. I couldn't believe it.

Here I am, 6000+ miles away from home, and I meet a guy who has relations in our humble little burg. He proceded to tell me the names of his family, to see if I knew them... but I didn't because they're Mexican :(

Barcelona, part II

So I left off Friday night. After dinner that night (which was paella, Spain's national dish, which consists of many different types of meat [beef, chicken, fish, shrimp, mussels] thrown together with rice and vegetables), some people went out, but a lot of us went to the hotel and went to bed because we were dead tired from having to wake up and be at the airport at 6:45 (it was an hour away for a lot of people, me included).

Saturday morning we woke up and took a bus ride to Montserrat. It's a mountain about half an hour outside of Barcelona proper, on the side of which has been constructed a monastery and a lot of shops. Here's a picture from the Internet which shows Montserrat from a distance:



This is the little village as viewed from on the mountain (the monastery is dead center):



My friend Britt sitting on a wall on the edge of the mountain about to fall to her death:



Inside the monastery is housed the famous black Virgin of Montserrat statue, a representation of a black virgin Mary, the only one of its kind in Spain. Supposedly it's 1000 years old, and legend holds that it was made white and turned black on its own volition:



After that we returned to Barcelona and were dropped off in the Gothic district (very old buildings) downtown. Some of us went and visited the Picasso museum (like I said, he and Dali were Catalonian natives, and frequent denizens of Barcelona). I didn't take any pictures, but it was interesting. None of his famous works are there, but it gives a comprehensive portrait of his development as an artist -- from a young man painting small landscapes to an award-winning social realism portrait artist through his blue and cubist periods. They do actually have what I think has become my favorite Picasso work there: a study/interpretation he did of a famous work by the Spanish artist Velasquez, entitled "Las Meninas". Here's Velasquez's painting:



and here's Picasso's study of it:



Absolutely incredible, as far as I'm concerned. I could sit there looking at it for hours (and I did; at least, for a few minutes).

After that it was dinner in one of the best restaurants I've ever been to -- one of the most popular places in Barcelona, because the food is so good and it's also really cheap. I had a salad, cheese croquettes, pork filets, bread, wine, and one of the most delicious desserts I've ever had in my life, and it probably only cost about 12 or 15 Euros. The dessert was called "The Catalonian dessert" and I knew it must be good because they named it after their beloved "patria chica." It consisted of nougat ice cream covered in a delicious custard with chocolate sauce. I was so delighted I had to take a picture:



Sunday it was up early and a two-hour bus trip (during which everybody slept cause Saturday night was all about partying) to the town of Figueras, the hometown of Salvador Dali, where the Dali museum is situated.

The museum is like nothing else in the world. The entire thing, brick by brick, was designed by the artist. Thus, it's like a 3 hour surrealist experience that dominates every sense. The first thing you see when you get in is a statue he did for the musem, which consists, among other things, of an old cadillac inside of which are three mannequins, one of whose torso dissolves into a sea of coins, the other a topless woman, and the other missing a face. If you put in a Euro, it rains inside the car:



The museum is vast and every corner of it is impressive. You really get to know the artist and his personality. I gained a lot of respect for him and appreciation for his art. Here are a few memorable pieces:

This painting, when viewed from up close, looks like a cubic fresco including a nude portrait. Very nice...



but when viewed from far away is a portrait of Abraham Lincoln:



This is a painting of Beethoven that Dali did with the ink of a live squid:



There's a statue... of sorts... of Mae West, which, when viewed from the side looks like a room with bizarre, lip-shaped furniture and nose-shaped fireplace, but when viewed through a lens on a staircase up above looks like this:



In the wall behind Mae West's head is a room that you can look into through holes, which I believe represents her dreams:



As I say, there was a ton of stuff in the museum like this. A great experience.

After that, it was back to the airport, back to Madrid, and then home for dinner and sleep.

Barcelona

What an incredible city. All 35 of us stayed the weekend there, seeing the sights, doing the touristy thing, and living the night life, and I have to say it's an entirely different world from Madrid. The first and most noticeable difference, at least to a Spanish student, is that they don't speak Spanish in Barcelona. Barcelona is the capital of the province of Calatonia, where they speak Catalan, not Castillian, which is the official language of Spain (and Latin America). Although Catalonians learn Castillian in school, they seem to disdain having to speak it, and only do so begrudgingly -- in fact, frequently when we tried to talk to a Barcelonian in Castillian, they would just speak back to us in English (which everybody seemed to have learned as well).

The reason for this is the strong sense of pride for the "patria chica" (little motherland) that pervades Spanish people. That is to say, unlike in the US, in Spain people identify first with their state, and then with the country. Ask a Barcelonan what nationality he is, and more often than not you will probably get the answer "I'm a Catalonian." There are actually 4 languages spoken in Spain -- Castllian, Catalonian, Euskara (the language of the Basque country) and Gallega (the language of Galicia). They're far from being dialects of Spanish -- all are distinct languages. In all four provinces, there are very prominent separatist movements -- from the peaceful protests we saw in Barcelona, to the terrorist attacks carried out by ETA.

Regardless, Barcelona is beautiful. It's clearly the most modern city in Europe, full of innovative architecture and young people. It was the working place of Picasso and Dali, and is home to a large international population.

When we first arrived -- after taking a short flight from Madrid -- we were given a bus tour around the city and then taken to the Park Guell, which was designed by the vanguardist architect Antoni Gaudi, who has buildings all over Barcelona. His style was modern and innovative to the point of being indescribable. So here are some pictures:

The Park Guell:



This is the Temple of the Sacred Family, also designed by Gaudi (a closeup, sorry I didn't get a good one from far away):



Later Friday night we explored the city, had dinner, etc. There's this amazing series of fountains (with programed shows and all) in front of the National Museum of Catalonia, which is up on a hill overlooking the entire city. Because this weekend was the holiday of the patron saint of Catalonia, the fountains were lit up, something which only happens once or twice a year. It was such a wonderful experience, sitting above the city and watching the water and lights dance.. that was the happiest I've been since I've been here. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me, although it would have been hard to truly capture. Here's a picture I found online that gives a general idea though... just imagine another, much larger fountain down below those people, with a myriad of lights illuminating it, dancing and suggesting something supernatural:



To be continued tomorrow, as it's late now and uploading pictures is time-consuming....

So far

Well, it's been about three weeks since I got to Spain, by my reckoning, and the time has certainly flown by. Since I've been here, I've eaten at a lot of Spanish restaurants, become somewhat acquainted with the city, visited two world-famous museums, seen Picasso's masterpiece Guernica, participated in the Spanish night life, visited two of a multitude of ancient Spanish cities, read a lot, gone to a lot of classes, started working at two internships, and signed on for a video project and a magazine project apart from all of it.

Tomorrow morning, at about 6 AM, I'll be leaving for Barcelona with all 35 classmates. We'll spend all Friday, Saturday and Sunday there, seeing and learning about one of the world's most modern and vanguardist cities. It should be fun -- I'll be sure to come back with pictures.

Classes have just started getting demanding this week, and I'm enjoying them. My two favorite teachers are Paco, the art history teacher who holds nearly half of his classes in the Prado museum and who is funny, passionate and awfully knowledgeable about the subject, and Javier, who teaches the 20th century part of the Spain seminar. This guy is just downright brilliant.

So anyway, things are going well, I seem to have adjusted and acclimated without going through too much culture shock. I enjoy conversations with my Senora and my Spanish has gotten noticeably better.

That's about it. I feel like this semester is going to fly by.

Cáceres

This weekend we took a trip to Cáceres, a small, fairly charming town about 4 hours west of Madrid by train. It was me and my friends Britt and this girl Colleen, whose idea the trip was and who planned it. Cáceres has a very old (14th & 15th century) "ciudad monumental" -- historic district basically -- in the middle of what is now the modernized city, which has been carefully preserved and protected from modern development. It's filled with old churches and monasteries as well as a few restaurants which inhabit what must have been taverns of yore. Definitely interesting. The rest of the city is like you might expect -- lots of bars and cafes and the typical commercial establishments, but with a definite Cacerian flair. We spent a couple days there and tried to live like the locals do, with varied degrees of success. Our day of departure was an absolute disaster, but it's really not worth getting into.

I should have photos later -- I didn't take my camera with me, so I don't have any of my own to upload.

Observations

A few interesting cultural observations I've forgotten to mention:

When my familia eats at the dinner table, they have an extra tablecloth that they put over their normal one, and then you can like cut bread and spill stuff and get crumbs all over the top one. Then you just take it off when the meal's done.

The toilets have buttons on the top of the tank, not levers.

The doors all open the opposite from how we're used to. Push to go in, pull to leave.

There are very few children because the birth rate is really low. Whereas the normal rate to keep a population in equilibrium (the replacement rate) is like 2.01 (1 child to replace each parent, plus .01 to account for infant mortality), here in Spain it's like 1.1 children for every adult. Social security problems ahoy. (Compounded by the fact that Spain has a really high life expectancy)

The average age for children to move out of their parents' home is about 28-30. Most people live in the same house until they get married. There's a much larger emphasis on family life here.