The Emilio Castelar Dwellers

Well, no longer am I a resident of Calle Emilio Castelar #4 2d Alcala de Henares, Espana.
I have to tell you that I didn't expect to ever feel like living in Alcala could be home to me. I still wouldn't call this my home, because it is not where my family is or where my friends are, but I can tell you I did get very used to walking to same routes, and I did become so comfortable. I gained a love for the country and the people in just the short time I was there. I have never seen a culture like the Spanish. In fact I really haven't experienced much other culture than America. I did experience the occasional culture clash, but for the most part I tried to remain open to the cultural norms of the Spanish people. I still felt like I could be myself although being surrounded by Spaniards. Spaniard's almost always dress up, all the time. They always look nice, they wear nice clothes, they do their hair, they always wear make-up, and a scarf and boots almost always accompany a womans outfit. Ok so then comes me... I often throw on jeans, hair is usually in a pony tail, make-up is only on if I don't forget, and I would only wear a scarf if it was cold, and I don't own a pair of nice boots to wear, and am usually found in my Chacos. I think, as you can tell by the description, I was not very acceptable as a Spaniard in the way I dressed. I don't think the word granola even exists in the Spanish language. So I made some changes. I tried to always leave the house presentable, I remembered to put on mascara more often, and I actually bought 3 scarfs and wore them even when it wasn't freezing! The only thing I couldn't give up were the Chacos, sorry but I am to big of a fan, plus I have to keep my identity somehow! Anyway, I learned a lot from the Spainish. I will now put in a good word for the country and the people. Spain kind of gets a bad rap, but it shouldn't. First of all it has one of the most beautiful, diverse, landscapes of any country. It is like the US in it's diversity, only much smaller. There are beaches, mountains, plains, city, beautiful gardens, everything! The people are great. If one comes to Spain, expect to find many many viejos(old people). These people have about the most pride I have seen for Spain, especially their region. They are up for talking any time, and are always ready to teach you anything you need to know. The Spanish people are not warm and fuzzy, but if you show them you are interested in Spain, or in anything they have to say, and if you get that good Castellano accent down, they will respect you. People are so different everywhere, and it has been such an opportunity to be able to get to know some of the most unique, wonderful people in the world! Viva Espana!

Madrilena

I have officially lived in Spain for 73 days. Who would have ever thought? I am not sure what constitutes as a local, but tonight as I was writing in my journal, I have been reflecting on all the things that have been the norm for me these past 73 days.
1.Shopping at Carrefour, they have little rolling baskets that remind me of rolling backpacks. I have to put my backpack in a locker at the front, because I may try to smuggle some galletas. A word about galletas, spanish cookies, the digestives have been my staple.
2.Using public transportation (a big step up from the Aggie Shuttle)I have a monthly bus/train pass that has my picture and everything. I can walk most everywhere because of my amazing location, but I have learned the bus numbers to take to various destinations in Alcala.
3.Eating dinner at 9:30, usually it is lighter than lunch which is at about 2:30. The first month I died because I ate breakfast at 8:00 and the wait to eat lunch about killed me.
4.Eating strange, exotic food. Suckling pig, octopus, cow stomach, rabbit, blood sausage, and I eat this because "if it's is famous for the area you have to eat it!"
5. Giving kisses on each cheek to greet people, which by the way for Miss. I am not a touchy person at all, was really weird for me at first, but now I really like it. Plus when in Spain... you know the rest.
6. I know the latest Spanish celeb news from our favorite lunch program Corazon a Corazon. Everything from the hideous Chiki Chiki song, to Javier Bardem winning the Oscar, and then them talking about him winning it for weeks after.
Anyway that is probably good for now. Living in Spain is fabulous. Can't you tell?

A little word on art

I have loved the opportunity to visit some of the most famous art museums while I have been here in Spain. Every time you walk into an art museum you are subjecting yourself to a different viewpoint on life. Sometimes I will walk down a whole wall of art and not be too affected, othertimes there are things that catch my eye. Yesterday I visited the Thyssen Museum in Madrid. It specialized in Early impressionism all the way into Fauvism and Avant-Garde. This period of art is my favorite, so you can imagine what a fun experience it was for me. The first painting of the women on the hill was my favorite painting in the museum. I had never heard of the painter so I came home and did a little homework. His name is Josef Israels and he is a Dutch realist painter. He painted this in 1900. His other works were similar to this. He painted simple peasants or fisherman. I love this girl because I can relate to her. She is just up there looking out to sea and no one knows what she is thinking and no one needs to know what she is thinking, but we can tell she is just enjoying the moment.
The painting in the middle not only intrigued me because it is Degas, but because it is an example of irony in painting. It's title is Racehorses in a Landscape. There lies the irony, because racehorses don't belong in the wilderness, they are taken to be trained on courses. It is beautiful to me because these horses have taken a break from their lives of training and competing and are taking a stroll through the landscape. Maybe Degas is not meaning to paint an ironic situation at all, but maybe he is pointing out that we are never truly set to do one thing. We have freedom to move around sometimes.
The last one caught my eye because my first instinct told me that it was a painting in Spain. Then I checked the artist and he didn't have a Spanish name, but the title said Plaza de Merced, Ronda. I was so happy to see that is was in Spain. Ronda is a little town in the south of Spain. This is a beautiful colorful depiction of a typical street in some of the smaller cities I have visited in Spain. The artist is actually American and most of his work is done in America. He took a trip to Spain and has a little collection of paintings from Granada, Cordoba, Ronda, and a couple others down in Andalucia.

LAS FALLAS de Valencia

I feel like I can be considered a veteran of the whole extreme fourth of July Evanston experience. I mean what has it been now like six or seven years? Every year we risk our lives as we enter into that war zone. We may get a hit to the car, or even to the leg. We have been known to start fires in the fields, but do I have something to top it or what? It is called Las Fallas, and it takes place in Valencia Spain every year during Semana Santa, or Holy Week. Every year the best falla artists spend six months or more constructing the most detailed elaborate floats to compete for first prize. The two in the pictures were second and first, respectively. All through the day herd, litterally millions, of people walk around the city looking at all the floats, while hooligans run around letting off firecrackers about every two minutes. It is a whole family affair. They do big firework shows about every two hours, in the day and night! It is a crazy atmosphere. There are about four greasy churro stands on every street, cotton candy, musicians, it is just great! At one point there was a huge marching band going down the street, so I jumped in and danced along side, it was just great fun At midnight the tradition is to light the floats on fire! We knew that it would be packed to see the fire so we lined up and made camp in front of the second place float. This was at 9:30. We sat and stood and talked and stood some more til at 11:00 they hurded us behind some barriers so the could prepare the falla. The whole Boberos were there. We sat huddled like sardines as we watched them wind fire works in and out of the float and then surround the float with them. We thought that they would light it at 12, but we found out later that because it was the second best they lit it second to last. At 1:15 after we could barely stand anymore, after about 20 times of chanting Fuega Fuega, and just when we couldn't play any more games, they prepared for lighting. The bomberos were ready with their huge hoses and all was in place. They lit the fuse and like a domino effect everything began to blow up! It was crazy loud. We were right in front, as a result of waiting for so long, so we had a great show! I put this video on even though it is really short it gives you the idea of the noise and chaos! It was truly a once in a life time cultural experience! Being awake for almost 24 hours was worth it for the fun we had!

Lisboa y Sintra

Oi Oi is how they would say it in Portugal! Well the little Spanish travelers took a little vacation to Lisbon Portugal last week! As you can tell from the pictures we had beautiful weather, in such a beautiful country. I was surprised at how many people in Portugal speak English, they almost all understood our English better than our Spanish. That is kind of a bummer for students who are learning Spanish, but oh well. I had one of those cool moments people talk about when they are learning a language. I was sitting on a wall overlooking the city at St. Jorge's Castillo when I heard people speaking and it was something I could understand. And this is the killer, it was Spanish! YEA!! At first I couldn't figure out if it was English or Spanish, because it sounded so normal to me. Oh my I just get emotional thinking about it! Anyway more about Portugal. We stayed in a total college kids hostel, it rocked! We slept nine to a room in bunk beds! Lisboa is a lot like San Fran. At least what I remember of it. It is really hilly, has a replica of the Golden Gate, and has a trolley system! Oh and of coarse I must mention the indigenous Pasteies of Belem, OH MY, and that is what I attribute my extra winter coat to! My favorite part of Lisbon was the World Fair Site. In 1992, I believe, the world Fair was held in Lisbon so they have this whole modernized part of town. We did not get to spend as much time as I would have liked there, but it was beautiful, right on the river. The picture of the flags was taken there, my two countries right next to each other, that is no coincidence. They had a lot of cool new architecture, and bikes for rent, it was a pretty happening place.
On one of the days we took the train about an hour north to visit the pueblo of Sintra. This place would take anyone's breath away. I have never been anywhere like it. The minute we walked off the train it smelled like flowers. Basically the whole town is a garden, and in the midst of the garden is a charming little city. Up on the top of the mountain, which we climbed, there are two castles. One is a moorish castle, the other the extravagant Palacio de Pena! WOW. This place was a popular summer retreat for the kings and queens of Portugal. We walked all through it, it was decorated with designed tiles of green, pink, yellow, blue. It was some what like the Alhambra, with it's Mudejar influence, only more decorated, and furnished. I love when historical places are furnished because it makes it easier to picture the people living there. For example, Mount Vernon, it was awesome because it was furnished how it would have been when George and Martha lived there! Also I love George Washington so I could have liked it because of that too! Sintra was a hit, on the way up the mountain we actually swung from a vine. I know remember we were in Portugal not the Amazon. It was a fabulous trip, everyone came home a little browner, and of coarse just a little more well-traveled!

I am a stylist in case you didn't know!

So my roommate Cassi came to Madrid with long hair, but one day she decided to cut it. We were walking home one day from school and she said, "I think I want to cut my own hair!" In my mind I was thinking, She has got to be crazy! but I just nodded and said ok well good luck with that! haha Little did I know I would be dragged into the ordeal! Actually I wasn't dragged into it, and I guess I sort of offered with a huge apology if anything went wrong! We ended up cutting it with tiny thread scissors on Pilar's deck. It turned out to be a success, with only a couple uh oh's and I really have no idea how I made her hair look so good. As of now I am not taking any other clients. I think it was just a fluky thing.

Pilgrammage to Mecca (or Santiago de Compostela)

Well the group embarked last Tuesday for another 5 day trip, only this time we made our way to the north. Our final destination was the region of Galicia deriving from Galic, or in other words the land of my ancestors! right? well maybe not so much, because Spanish is Spanish, but the region was settled by some Celts. Hence why I could hear bagpipes playing in one of the plazas! In Gallego the language spoken there they are called prazas, cool fact. Ok so the history behind the pilgrimage thing... Santiago de Compostela is the very place where St. James' bones lie. Or so it is believed in the Catholic church. It has become the third main pilgrimage site in the Catholic world. People travel from all over the world to visit this cathedral. They come by way of walking, riding bikes, some drive. All the pilgrims we talked to had walked! We met some awesome guys probably in their late twenties that had been walking for a month from southern France. They said they averaged about 20-25 miles a day! When they walked into the plaza in front of the cathedral, we yelled bien hecho, felicidades to them. They came over and talked to us. One was from Italy, there was a bit of a language barrier, I think he spoke Italian, Spanish, and English to us! He sat and talked to us about the journey. He started all by himself, and had met the other two guys along the way. They were both from Cadiz, southern coast of Spain. We got a picture with them. Wow it was so cool to meet all of these people who sacrificed all that to experience this religious moment! To me, walking 2 miles of the camino de santiago and arriving at the cathedral was cool, but I can't imagine what it means to these members of the Catholic church who really make a sacrifice. I learned a lot from talking to people this week. There are so many good people out there we were warmly accepted everywhere we went in the North. People would stop us on the streets to tell us something about their town, or we would ask them questions and they would help us with whatever we needed. We were given free pastries, a cute farmer gave us a lemon from his tree to make lemonade, they were just interested in us having the best experience possible. I think Maria, a lady we befriended at her pastry shop put it best when we thanked her and commented on her kindness she said, "Somos todos hermanos y hermanas, y tenemos la resposibilidad ser buen personas y ser simpaticas a todos." We are all brothers and sisters and we have the responsibility to be good people and be nice to all we meet. I was so grateful for my ability to communicate in another language, because it has been the tool to meet so many amazing people here in Spain. People all over the world are happy and are trying to be good people, and that was something I could relate with despite the language barrier! P.S. I ate octopus here is a picture yikes! I can't believe it, where are my senses going on eating?

More pictures

My friend Brock takes really great pictures and he posts them on a website. He takes a ton, so you may not want to look at them all. He has each album labeled by city or place. There are more from our trip to Basque country labeled Bilbao and San Sebastian. Here is the site. http://picasaweb.google.com/brocktrw

THE GUG

The four adventurous students were pretty worn out from their long day in San Sebastian yet it did not stop them from waking early the next morning to tackle their next feat, BILBAO! Famous for the Guggenheim Museum, and, well not much else. That was what everyone told us before we went to Bilbao. They all said, well you won't see much other than Guggenheim, it may not really be worth your time. On the contrary, Bilbao was fantastic. It used to be an industrial city, but they have remade it to be more modern hence the theme the Guggenheim represents. We started our tour at the old part of the city. Again there were people and the colorful apartments lining the streets. We visited a huge meat and fish market. Brock kind of had to push me in there. I don't have a problem eating meat I just don't like to see what it looks like before it is ground up or grilled! There were full pig heads hanging, and little piglets curled up in glass windows. The aroma of fish floated up the stairs as I walked past, oh boy. The fish market was worse, they had octopus, squid, ugly fish with there big eyes staring up at you! I zoomed through there pretty quick! After the market we took a stroll by the river that runs through Bilbao. We found ourselves walking around this big park with green rolling hills. It was really beautiful. After subiring(spanglish for climbing) the mountain we took some photos and headed down to the museum. Good thing I had my chaco's because it was some serious hiking! haha no but it was mountainous! The Guggenheim was my favorite part! They offered free audio tours, so we actually ended up learning about the motives behind a lot of the modern art(this is actually really good because otherwise, it is just a green canvas!) After about 3 and a half hours in the museum we felt pretty artsy so we took some photos where we were the subject of the art. That was a favorite line among modern artists, "you are the subject of the art, it is what you make of it" Pretty surreal huh? ha The Guggenheim itself is very modern, it was designed by Frank Ghery and he got his inspiration from fish. That explains the undulating design!After two days of going going we weere pretty tired so we caught our flight and came back to Madrid!

Vive Vascos!

Fuimos a San Sebastian y Bilbao este fin de semana. Era bonita y increible. Oh wait... sorry. I just finished up my Spanish midterms last week where I drilled the past tense into my head. Sheesh good thing right after I finished my test I got to embark on the adventure to Pais Vasco, or Basque country! Emily, Callie, Brock, and I boarded our 6 hour train to Bilbao on Thursday, not really knowing what to expect out of our weekend excursion. We were definently being helped though, because everything in our transportation worked out for us, we found a metro straight to our hostel. That next morning we woke up at 5:30 to yet again figure out how to find the Termibus to San Sebastian about an hour away. We ended up finding it perfectly and almost 20 euro later (yikes) we were on our way to the beach! We were so lucky to have a beautiful day to enjoy the best city in Spain! Right away the people were so nice to us. They would walk with us to tell us how to get places. We chatted with all the Vascos, it was great. They spoke Castellano(Spanish) and Vasco(Basque). Basque is crazy, it is not like spanish at least in spelling, at all. It has z instead of s, k instead of c, and then throw in a bunch of x's. It was such a pleasent town, everyone had that laid back feel. When we were up in the neighborhoods, I could have sworn we were in England, it was so green, and the homes looked a certain style. We hiked around in the mountains, walked along the beach, and I even decided to take a swim. I was running ahead of the others just being entertained by the waves, and I didn't see a little hole in the sand ahead so I biffed it and fell in to water! Everyone said it was hilarious to watch. It was sweet though, because it was so hot I dried pretty quick. We met and awesome old man that was fishing off the wall above the ocean.(technically the Bay of Biscay). Alberto sat there and talked to us for awhile. It smelled awful while he was talking, I looked down and realized he was using poo for bait! It was all over his hands! We got a picture with him and he gave us a card with his address so we could send it to him so he could show his wife the pretty Americana's wearing skirts with beautiful bare legs! haha I took that as a complement! We loved Alberto! We all decided we should be more like the Vascos, and just be friendly and talk to everyone. We hiked up to a huge statue of Christ with a castle, it overlooked the whole bay. I got to dance with some band that was playing by the beach! I didn't realize I had such an audience, but when I finished they made me take a bow, and I got applause! Oh man, I loved everything about San Sebastian! I will put more pictures when Brock posts his, he was kind of the designated photographer!

El Escorial is a monastery/palace/basilica all constructed under the watchful eye of king Phillip II. In 1584 Escorial was completed taking only 21 years. Which is amazing for the size of this place. It has a huge art gallery to house all of the art Phillip II collected during his reign. It is sometimes called the mini-Prado. His empire was so large that he controlled Netherlands, Portugual, Naples, Sicely, and the Americas. As a result, he has Flemish, Italian, and Spanish art. It was incredible. All the art is showcased in just one little corner of Escorial. In the middle is the Basilica, which itself is rather large. Phillip was highly religious, and was always found doing what God wanted him to do. His devotion to the Catholic church and to God is apparent in Escorial. He had is bedroom built right above and to the side of the basilica, so when he was too sick or too frail to leave his bed, he could still participate in Mass every day. His palace was far from decorative and elaborate. His bedroom was very plain, and was just enough to fit his needs. I asked myself, if he was such a religious man, why did he build this huge palace for himself. But I learned as I saw it that it wasn't built just to glorify the state or himself. Phillip was a king that loved knowledge and reading. This was apparent in his amazing library with 40,000 books! The library was my favorite room. All the books were spine in, which was interesting. They had some of them pulled out and we could see that Phillip had annotated them. I also loved that he had the model of Ptolemy's Universe. It was the original. We weren't supposed to take pictures, but I did. I thought it was cool, it had the earth in the middle with all the sphere's surrounding it. El Escorial is still used today as monestary, so we couldn't see all of it. It was very impressive, though. It was awesome to be able to know so much about Phillip II because we read a book on him. It explained a lot about the place, and why some things were the way they were.

Los Caidos y El Escorial: Pretty Stately

On Friday we took a trip to Valle de los Caidos, which is just outside of Madrid. It is tucked away into these beautiful green mountains, I didn't even know existed that close to us. The mountains are littered with granite, lots of it. The monument of Los Caidos, is a 450 M. tall cross, and at the base of it a basilica built into the mountain. It is all granite, and was built to huge to make the human spectator feel small. The purpose of the monument is controversial. First some history. It was built between 1940 and 1958, by thousands of Spanish Republicans, which were POW's of General Fransisco Franco. The basilica built into the mountain is bigger than St. Peter's basilica in Rome, but was only half blessed because no basilica is allowed to bigger than that one. The granite that comprises the cross is the granite they blasted out for the basilica. Ok so to the theories. One is that the monument is built to all those that fell in the tragic civil war. The other is that it is a tribute to fascism and Franco. This is my conclusion, because the fascist insignia is on the front of the basilica and he and the founder of Falange Espanola( fascism) Jose Antonio de Riviera are buried in the basilica. I liked visiting this monument so much, whichever it's purpose. It was impressive and was in the prettiest setting. Another interesting detail I noticed was on the ceiling, they made the blocks to look like real parts of the cave, but they are just decorative, and the way they are arranged looks somewhat cubist, which was the popular art style in the 30's and 40's.

LETI, LETI, LETI, ATLETICO MADIRD!!!

Viva Espana! Go Atletico Madrid! On Thursday night I, along with a bunch of crazy, drunk, men, got to watch Club Atletico Madrid play the bloody English team Bolton FC. Unfortunately, the score was 0-0 so nobody won. Madrid was way better though, except the Bolton goalie was on the ball.(nice pun) We(Atletico) had so many shots on goal, just none were good enough. It was such an exciting game though, on and off the field. There was a huge rowdy group across the stadium from us, and just after the game started they let off a huge stink bomb that the smoke was all over! ha we didn't think much of it until we looked over and someone had a firework or something, and all the people scattered to the edges. The scary bomb squad police had come up from the field and were chasing the crazies. Then probably 20 minutes later. Right up and to the left of us were all the Bolton fans. They started fighting with the Madrid fans. Then this huge fight broke out. Bodies were flying over the chairs, and then when the bomb squad came to the scene to break things up, they started dragging bodies around! It was the craziest thing. Luckily we didn't get beat up, because shocker, we don't really look Spanish! When we were walking to the game, the police told us to turn around and go in on the English side. We were way close to the entrance, and we were like oh no we are Atletico fans. He was like well, you don't look like Atletico fans, you look British! We could sense his seriousness, and then he said I am just telling you for your safety! They are very serious about these things! When we were walking out there were tons of police lining every street for like a mile! Oh my it was so awesome though. It was so good to be watching sports, in Spain!

Pedro the Suckling Piglet

Pedrazza is famous for their authentic, Castilla y Leon cuisine. We had ordered before from the choice of cordera a la plancha(lamb roasted) or chuchinillo(piglet) which I ordered. Rumor had it that they brought out the animal almost as whole as possible. My stomach got a little queasy knowing that I have a hard time eating chicken off the bone. About 22 of us decided to eat the 28 euro meal so we had a big group. I think that was the most expensive meal I have ever had! Don't worry our program paid for 15 of it as it was to be a rich cultural experience, and that it was! We sat down to a big piece of pan(bread) not bad. Then they began to bring out the tapas(appetizers). First they brought churiso(sausage) it was pretty good, especially with the goat cheese. Then they brought out another type of sausage that made me a little ill looking at it. It was dark red and had rice in it. But you can't pay for an authentic meal and not try everything. I later found out it was blood sausage...glad I didn't know before. Then the salad, and then as we all anticipated they brought the meat. The put them in these huge terracotta bowls.Since most people ordered lamb they brought a huge one for 4-5 people to share. The two girls next to me were lucky enough to find a special body part in their piece of lamb. They lifted up each of them had one, lamb testicles!!!! You know how on fear factor people eat those for money, well these girls didn't need money they dared each other to eat them, and they just popped them in. They both almost barfed but they did it! By this time they were bringing out my dinner. I saw this lady put down a pig leg in front of me, and I was just thinking, this is disgusting. My face must have been saying that too, because everyone was laughing at me. Ah it was so gross to look at, the skin was cooked, but it was still leathery, and I could even see some hairs growing out! Sorry can't leave out any details. I cut through the skin and tried some of the meat,and it was delicious! It was so tender, and tasted like pork in the crock pot! It was a little disturbing to cut around a ball and socket joint, but it was really good! I ended up really liking the little pig by the end, I named him Pedro. We were laughing so hard at the little foot, I had one and someone else had the other. We shook hands with them and everything! I took a big leap in my trying new things that night! It was such a fun dinner, I am so glad we got to eat there!

Segovia Adventure!

Segovia/Pedrazza
Oh Friday our group traveled to Segovia for the day. It is just 40 or so Km outside of Madrid, so it was perfect to see it in one day. Segovia is the city where Queen Isabella named herself queen of Castille in the very Alcazar up on the hill. Although it was not this exact Alcazar because in the early 1800's there was a fire, and the entire Alcazar was burned down. It was rebuilt to duplicate the original, and still maintains the ancient feel. The outside has the enchanted fairy tale castle feel, we even learned that Walt Disney patterned the famous Cinderella's castle after the Alcazar in Segovia. Inside was slightly furnished and so we were able to make out the king's bedroom, the throne room, etc. There was one room with a wall mural, and it was this white-as-a-ghost queen, could have been Isabel or Juana the Loca, and there were people all around her, but the catch was that none of the people in the painting had eyeballs, just empty sockets. It was very disturbing, like something on a scary movie. We kept looking for secret passageways to get into the mysteries of the castle, but everything was locked, don't you hate when that happens. There was this little staircase we found though, and there wasn't a rope in front of it so we walked down, and found a secret little door. It was pitch dark and the door was locked(of coarse) but we told everyone we heard Juana the Loca wailing behind the door! The story behind Juana the Loca:she was married to the handsome king Phillip the Fair, son of pious king Phillip II, and he died at a young age, and she was just devastated. She kept his corpse and would take it around with her, and kiss it every night. Thats where the name the Loca comes from. She lived in the Alcazar for some time, and we were convinced her ghost haunts it! Another famous site in Segovia is the 2000 year old Roman Aquaduct.It was declared as a UN world heritage site, and is also on the list of 100 endangered historical sites. It still works to carry water today, although not with the same efficiency as long ago. It has 120 arches and was built completely without mortar. I was amazed to see such a huge structure still standing. After we were done walking around Segovia, we drove about a half hour away, through beautiful country, to an old medieval pueblo in the middle of the country called Pedrazza. Dr. Shumway said our dinner reservation wasn't until 8 and we got there at six, so he told us to explore till then. He said to meet in the Plaza Mayor. Well we walked up the hill to the town, and walked down about two deserted streets and we were in the Plaza. Hm...so then we kept walking a little bit, and we reached the other side of the city. All the little houses were so old. It kind of reminded me of something you would see in a little town in Britain. Because down the hill were just green field with sheep and cows. We just bummed around with each other till our reservation for dinner.

Andalucia Trip- Part 2

Cordoba
Oh Cordoba, ancient and holy. The Moorish and Jewish influence still loomed in the aura of Cordoba. Although the two peoples have not lived there for hundreds of years, their presence is felt in the old part of Cordoba. The main attraction in Cordoba is the Mezquita. It is the Cathedral/Mosque built in the 720's and then Christianized in 1500's. This structure is famous world wide. Honestly I could not believe I was actually seeing it in person and not from a picture. It looks exactly as it does in the pictures, only bigger. It feels different than a cathedral, it is more holy and simple. Although it is now a place of worship for Christians it bothered me that such a unique mosque would be taken from the Moors. Fernando III was the one who wanted to build the cathedral shortly after the conquest of the moors in 1492. Before he commissioned it to be built he went to Holy Roman Emperor, Carlos V, and asked permission. Permission was granted with out even knowing what the Mosque looked like. Because of the rarity, they did not tear it down, but simply built a cathedral right in the middle of it. After it was built and Carlos V visited he said of the new cathedral, "You have taken something you could have built anywhere, and ruined something truly unique." That was exactly what it felt like inside. I made a movie with some documentary from the Mezquita, but it is not loading. It was sort of a walking tour, a short one. The Mezquita has 840 of the red and white horseshoe arches, typical of Muslim design. I will put a picture up. We walked around the old Jewish quarter which was very cool. Cordoba, especially, the Jewish quarter, is known for it's beautiful patios. The people adorn them with flowers and plants, and in May there is a big competition to judge who has the most beautiful one. They are open to passerbys so we got to go in and see those. Also there is a famous street called Calle de Los Flores where all the tourist take pictures, so of course we took them too. You can see the tower of the Mezquita at the top of the picture. This city ranks as my favorite from the whole trip. I woke up early to run and see the sunrise by the old roman bridge, and it was just great to be up and look at the city when everyone was sleeping. I got a really cool picture of the city at night too, which I included. At the end of our time in Cordoba we visited a cool old synagogue which was only a room. It had Hebrew written all over the walls quoting the Old Testament. I thought it was really cool, and such a hidden special place. We also visited an Alcazar in Cordoba, but it was not nearly as ornate as the one in Sevilla. There were a lot of good little moments in Cordoba like when we asked an old man to take our picture, he had never used a camera before, and when we walked into the candy store and all bought the weirdest thing we could find. I found gummy flan...only in Spain. Emily and I dressed up as Mudejar people, I wore the turban she wore the shawl around here head, we didn't go out in public though don't worry. We were just feeling the spirit of Mudejar.
Granada
Our last city. This city is hard to explain. It was the first city in Spain I have seen with mountains, that was exciting, the high ones even had snow! The Alhambra, which is the main attraction sits up on a hill above the city. The Albaycin, the old Muslim area, also sits on a hill adjacent to the Alhambra. The rest of the city is down in a valley. We stayed up next to the Alhambra, so we walked down the big hill to get down to the city. The Alhambra was built in the 700's when the Moors conquered Spain. It was built as a huge fortress/ palace. The structure is giant and has various buildings. The first we saw was the Palacio de Nazarin. I have a picture in the first courtyard, the Court of Myrtles. You can see the Mudejar deco and the famous muslim baths. It was cool to try and picture the wealthy Al-Andalus elites living here. They had it good, they lived in a beautiful palace they created for themselves. Another interesting room was the Court of the Lions. In the middle stood a font, and at the base of the font were 12 lions. They were said to represent the 12 tribes. Another cool fact is that the Muslims created a clock out of the formation, and at each fifteen min the lions would spit water out of there mouths. When the Christians came in and conquered they took the fountain apart to see how it worked, and they ruined it so it never worked again. I was a little bummed though, because the lions are under reconstruction so they weren't on display. After the Palacio we walked through the elaborate gardens that as one girl on the trip said,"Will take you up on hills you didn't even know you could get to!" They were huge. The had lots of little pools and carved hedges. They led over to another palace on another hill. It was really cool. All we really saw in Granada was the Alhambra. We ran down the hill to the city and then back up in the Albaycin neighborhood to a look out that is famous to see Granada at sunset. It was quite the hike, but it was awesome. That's where I took the picture of the Alhambra lit up. Then we walked back down and had Kebabs! That was definetly another highlight. They were such tasty Turkish goodness. It was fun to walk around the town a little that night. I found Meringue's at a pastry shop, they were so tasty as well! The next morning Emily, Susie, and I woke up at 6:30 to run up to the Albaycin to the look out to watch the sunrise! It was freezing, but since it was Saturday morning nobody was up. We were all alone, and we got to watch the sunrise over the snowy mountains. I loved it so much, it was the perfect way to bring in the morning. I was thinking to myself, I am just up watching the sunrise in Granada, Spain, I probably never be here again! It was such a cool experience. I definitely realized I need to relish those experiences. On the way home to Alcala, we stopped at the ever famous Don Quixote windmills. They are up on a very windy hill in the region of La Mancha, hence Don Quixote de La Mancha. We imitated the battle that Don Quixote had with them. It was such a great trip, Spain is full of so many hidden treasures no one really recognizes! It is great!

Andalucia Trip

Last week the whole group headed down south for five days! The region in the South of Spain is called Andalucia. It is known for its warm weather(it was mid 60's-70 when we were there), gazpacho(not a fan, cold tomato pudding stuff), orange trees, and much Muslim influence in architecture and design especially. On our way down there we stopped in Merida. Merida is one of the oldest cities founded in 25 B.C. by the Romans. It was the Roman capital of Spain. They built temples, theaters, and aquaducts. Most of these still remain in parts today. We first crossed an 800 meter Roman bridge. Before I found out it was 800 meters, I said to people "Oh I bet this is about 800 M, I could do intervals on it!" Just an aside, anyway. As we walked up to the main ruin, the teatro and ampitheater, we passed the Temple of Diana. It was just sitting there amongst the newer buildings. That's how it was everywhere in Merida. Roman ruins randomly all throughout the city. The theater was pretty cool, still very much intact. My friend Emily and I even acted out a little play on the stage there. We took a huge group picture there, that the one with 46 people if you couldn't figure it out!
Sevilla
Oh beautiful Sevilla, a big city, surrounded by the Guadalquivir River. It had the feeling of a busy, lively city. There were always many people out and about. Sevilla is famous for their Flamenco which we were privileged to see a show! That is where the movie come from. It was by far the most cultural activity I have done in Spain. We sat in this little theater and watched an hour and a half of Flamenco dancing. The dancers loved what they did, it was so fun to watch their passion for the dance. The would yell Ole! at the end of every song and then wait for all of us to yell it back, it was sweet. We visited the Sevilla Cathedral. It is the largest Gothic Cathedral in the world. It is famous because it holds the bones of Christopher Columbus( which have been switched from here, to Cuba, back here, and there, and now here?!) We got to climb the bell tower which was built by the Moors, where the cathedral stands was originally a Mosque, and they kept the tower. It had 36 ramps built large enough for horses to go up to the top. We could see the whole city up there, and that's where I was shocked at how big it really was. After the Cathedral we headed right next door to the Alcazar, built by Pedro the Cruel. Or Pedro the Great, depending on which side of the sword you were! It was highly influenced by Muslim design, Mudejar. (this is our favorite word because it was everywhere in the south, we made up a language and pose) The most exquisite thing were the gardens. Keep in mind that we weren't there in the summer so none of the jardines are completely full, but they are still great. It was a day of about 70 degrees, and they had fountains, baths, orange trees, myrtle bushes(smell really good). After those two places we had free time, which was basically the whole day. Callie Clark, Emily Bourne, and I walked around trying to find a Flamenco club, when we came upon a bike rental place. We looked at each other all with the same idea, and walked over to it, to rent our cruisers! We rode for about three hours around the whole city! We rode through jardines shaded with trees, and along the river, where we stopped to talk with some Sevillians! It was the funnest thing, and a great was to see a lot. My other favorite thing about Sevilla was waking up early and running along the river. In the morning there were tons of men out rowing, it was really cool. The city was very vibrant.

Fact: Getting a small fever in Spain=going straight to the Doctor

Ok so the car thing was a little something characteristic of Spain. I just found out today another trait, dramatic of coarse, of the Spanish. My roommate Cassi got a little sick today at school, she had all the normal cold symptoms. So she came home and went to bed. Pilar, mi madre, was immediately worried and asked me if I thought she would be ok. I said I was sure she just needed to sleep a little. That wasn't good enough however, so she went back to our room to talk to Cassi. She asked if Cassi had a fever. She replied that she didn't think so, but Pilar went straight to the neighbor, her friend Ana to ask for a thermometer. While they talked back and forth at a million words a minute about how to work the thermometer, Cassi and I looked at eachother kind of laughing. Then Pilar gave her the thermometer and when she went to put it in her mouth, she said no no and motioned for her to put it in her armpit! She doesn't actually have a fever, which is good. But the two ladies told me to watch her because she may need to go to the doctor. I said I think she needed sleep and a glass of water. So Pilar brought in a glass and some yogurt, of coarse. Cassi is still feeling under the weather, what we in the United States would call the beginnings to a cold. Bummer, but not knocking on death's door. I gave her some ibuprofen which she said helped a little. Pilar said that if she is not better by the morning we will take her to the doctor, he sister in law knows of a great one! Oh funny funny Spanish people.

Fact: Parking in Spain is Crazy

Spain is such a unique place. I mean I am living in a completely different culture. So it is pretty obvious that there are things I see everyday that when I think about them, strike me a little funny. One being this problem that although the cars in Spain are all little euro cars, they leave about an inch of space between each other. I took some pictures finally after seeing this all the time. The only way they have to get out of their parking spot is to "bump" their way out. I named them bumper cars. All these pictures were taken on my street actually. Another quandary is also pictured. If there aren't any open spots, which usually there aren't people just double park. It is a very common practice in Spain. The picture actually doesn't depict it very well, but the other picture I wanted I couldn't take because the owners were standing outside their car. I guess cars aren't as valueable to people here. Today on my run I saw a man back right into a cement pole, and he wasn't a new driver. He jerked when the car hit, and then drove off! I wish I could have filmed it, I was laughing my head off!
Changing directions, I took a picture of my favorite candy I discovered here. Actually I didn't discover it, because honestly I probably would be too scared to try it if I saw it and didn't know how good it was. There are all different flavors, like green shell with pink inside(watermelon), greenish-brown shell with green inside(rootbeer?!), and my favorite is the one pictured pink with sour on the shell white inside! Nobody knows the name, but we all love them. I have gotten one for .20 euro at the Alimentacion one street from my house the last three days!

TOLEDO

Holy Toledo! No seriously, Toledo Spain is AMAZING! Conquered by the Christians in 1085, it served as the capital of Spain for some time, no Madrid has not always been the capital, actually Spain has had many capitals.(they are a little unstable)Toledo is rich in history and has been occupied by Visigoths, Moors, Christians, probably some Berbers as well. It is home to one of the largest cathedrals in the world. After 200+ years it was completed in 1493 one year after the Reconquista. We weren't allowed to take pics in the cathedral so I only have view of the outside. I guess you could say it was just another cathedral, empty, ornate, and grandiose. It did have some cool unique aspects, first, when prominent cardinals died they paid to be buried in the cathedral and then a red hat hangs above their tomb, until it decays, and then it means their bodied have decayed. Throughout the cathedral I would look up and see this wilted, dusty red hat, kind of weird! Another controversial piece of info,in the 1700's they tore a hole in the ceiling of the cathedral to allow more light on the transparient, which is a shrine to Mary, of coarse, and they decorated it like a window to heaven. I thought it was really cool, but some Catholics were offended at the defecation of the church.
We also visited a Jewish Synagogue right after the Cathedral. I thought it was interesting to compare the two places of worship, very different. The synagogue is one of three remaining medieval in all of Spain. Because the Jews were so persecuted in Spain it is a miracle it has survived this long.
Toledo is famous for swords(because the river surrounding it is the perfect temperature to cool steel), fancy pottery, and MAZAPAN! I ate six little mazapanes in Toledo! First was from the little nun's at Santa Rita's. You go up to a little revolving door and ring a bell, a little nun comes to the door and you tell what you want, and then put your money down, she rotates it out with your sweets! It was amazing! Plus mazapan is amazing and it is everywhere! That is what the picture is of, she got kind of mad at me for taking the picture! woops!We spent most of the time just wandering into building and through streets, we got lost a couple times, it was great. I also got to see the Burial of Count Orgaz, a painting by El Greco, one of the most famous. It was painted exactly in the spot of Count's tomb, but 200 years later. El Greco paints himself in the painting, and he is the only one not involved, and he stares creepily out at the viewer. The Toledo trip was so great. I loved to experience the small, antigua feeling. Here is a movie, not too great but I made it in Toledo looking out over the city wall!

Retirio Park

On Saturday after the Prado we walked up to this park called Retirio. It opens up into this fountain surrounded by statues and hedges, and in the spring probably flowers! There are tons of Spanish people around running, biking, rollerblading, paseoing(strolling). It is such a happy place. We got some pictures at these broccoli trees, they were so strange. As you walk up some stairs you arrive at another part of the giant park. It was my favorite. There is a huge stair case-plaza-statue thing that kind of reminds me of D.C. and a big pond with rowing boats. When we were there it was almost 60 degrees, so many people were just out soaking in the sun! It was such a good time. Oh and to mention how Americanized the world is, which I am not negative about, it is just funny, there was a Spanish Mickey and Minnie at the park! When we said Hola to Minnie, she responded in this low, husky spanish woman voice! Classic! well I included some pictures of Retirio, to date that is my favorite place in Madrid! For the pic on the right just click on it to see bigger view~

Museo del Prado

Yesterday was spent all in Madrid! Each time I go there I find something new and exciting!Whether it's churros and chocolate, or entertainers all over the streets, my cousin Mike stuck in lockdown at the MTC, it is always an adventure!Yesterday our entire group, nearly 40 people, rode into Madrid to visit the El Museo del Prado! It is one of the largest art museums in the world, to rival the Louvre, and the Met. Famous for its selection of two famous native painters Velazquez and Goya, it is a famous landmark of Madrid. Diego Valazquez painted in the Baroque era of the early 1600's. His art uses mostly warm colors and has a similar style of Rembrandt who was also painting around the same time. Valazquez's most famous painting, Las Meninas can be found in the Prado. We were able to see it yesterday. It is quite large, and is beautiful. When I studied it in art history, Miss Wood said that it is known as the best painting in the world. As we looked at it, I was trying to see why. First, I know because he painted it to involve the viewer. He painted if for the King and Queen, whose reflection is painted in the mirror. As I looked at that I almost felt as though I would see my reflection as well. Another interesting point is that Velazquez himself is painted into the picture.
Francisco Goya painted later at the end of the Romantic period in 1780's to 1820's. He is most famous for Third of May, which documented the revolution of the Spanish when the French invaded. He makes the armies out to be menacing, and the peasants are more glorified. I wasn't able to see Third of May because it was being restored for April. I remember writing an essay on it for my AP art history test so it would have been cool to see it! They also had hi works on display from hi Black Period. They were awful, he depicts gruesome scenes, such as the Roman god Saturn eating his children, in mostly dark colors, and the eyes of the people are white, to look crazy!
We didn't get to make it through the entire museum so we will be going back for sure.