granada... a month late

Well I just got about a month behind in blogging. I blame many things. Being forgetful, being busy, midterms, traveling, and the Spanish Postal Service. The last reason brings a story. Nothing is really "overnighted" here. For this reason, I limped along for 2 weeks without a macbook charger. One of the those weeks being mid-term week. Despite the apple customer service promising an overnight delivery there was a bit of struggle in between. Communication with customer service was a bit of a struggle. Spanish wasn't there first language and neither was English. Here is a quick glimpse at the tracking of the package for a good laugh. The charger came on Thursday afternoon, after I turned in my last paper and finished my last exam. And then I left for 6 days in Italy.

Well back to more interesting things than lost packages. 

GRANADA. It's my favorite city in Spain. Decided. I know that I've raved about every city that I've been to but I can honestly truthfully say that I don't think anything will top the weekend I spent in Granada.

The last city that the muslims held onto in the 15th century, after visiting the city I know why Ferdinand and Isabella fell in love with it. In fact, they liked it so much that they didn't destroy it. And that's saying a lot because well the Catholics really liked to demonstrate their force. In the south of Spain the city is tucked in the Sierra Nevada mountains. With a river running through the center of the city it was a pretty obvious place to create a settlement. And well the Moors did just that.

The city is home to the Alhambra. Construction began in the 10th century and was originally used as a place for sultans to vacation. Since then the complex has passed through a slew of owners. Most notably, when Granada was finally conquered in 1492, the  sultan handed over the keys to the Catholic Monarchs. Well that's just a short little historical context for the incredible grounds. For six hours my friends and I walked through the gardens and palaces in awe of the beauty. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Protesting is actually a national pastime. Here's a shot from inside the Alhambra grounds and protesters carrying on their way.

A view of the city for one of the towers.

Detail from inside one of the palaces.

A ceiling that looked kid of like a honeycomb.

Sunset from Generalife (part of Alhambra). View of the towers in the distance.

Some fountains inside Generalife.

Palacio de Carlos V

Jamming out. Granada is definitely has a hippie feel to it. It's pretty great.

View from the other side of the city. In the foreground you can see some caves that gypsies live in.

A city that I am considering going back to before I leave Spain. Loved every second. Thoughts on Italy soon.

madrid

After 6 hours of class on Thursday I needed some zen time. I headed out to one of my favorite look-outs in Toledo and spent the golden hour listening to Mumford and Sons and doing some journaling. Perfect way to heading off for busy weekend in Madrid.

On Friday afternoon I headed to the Museo del Prado with my art class for our second visit. This visit we focused on Goya. They artist lived for 82 years and throughout that time a lot changed. He lived between 2 different artistic styles, wars, and revolutions. The change of his temperament is striking as one walks through the collections in the Prado. From magnificent colors to a room filled with his black paintings the viewer can feel how the years took a toll on the artist. The change in style and mood over the course of his lifetime is truly remarkable. Here is a sampling of some of my favorite works. 

El Parasol - 1777

Charles IV y su Familia - 1800

3 de Mayo (1808) - 1814

 El Aquelarre o El Gran Cabrón - 1823

After a few hours of lecture by my art professor I met up with some friends from Carleton (btinladies) and we headed back into the Prado to wander some more. As much as I love art museums when I hit hour 4 I was ready for a change of pace. A night out in Madrid was just that. We embraced the botellón en Plaza del Sol with 1,50€ white wine, progressed to a market for tapas, bar hopped, and then followed some crowds to a small (free!) club which ended up being right near our hostel.

The next morning we woke up and did some shopping in the morning. That afternoon we picnicked in El Parque del Retiro and took in the beautiful day. The temperature was probably in the mid 70s, the sun was out, and some of the leaves on the trees were turning. Bread, cheese, salami, fruit, and wine from a hole in the wall supermercado get you a long way on a budget. After lunch I decided to explore the park for a while. It was hard for me to remember that I was in one of the largest cities in Europe. I fell in love.

Some fall colors

Kids chasing down bubbles outside Palacio de Vidrio

After wandering Retiro I headed to Reina Sofía. The modern art museum in Madrid it is home to many works by Miró, Dalí, and Picasso to name a few. Not the biggest modern art fan I quickly realized the 4th floor was not for me and headed to the 2nd where I found the collection from the early 20th century. I spent most of my time in the galleries with works from the turn of century and the Spanish Civil War. Guernica was definitely my favorite of all the of the works in the museum. One of those paintings that you have seen in countless history books and read about for years but never seen. Another part of the collection that I found intriguing was the works from the Franco regime. One way that artists expressed discontent with the government was through incredibly satirical drawings. I recognized some of the images from a class that I took last spring on Spain in the 20th century which was pretty neat. After a full day of exploration we headed back to the hostel to get ready for the night out. 

The next morning I woke up and headed to El Rastro which is a giant flee market that is held every Sunday in Madrid. After finding a hole in the wall café - we indulged in some churros y chocolate and then I headed on my way. I went to mass at a beautiful catholic church right by the Museo del Prado. It has taken a month but I can finally follow my Spanish mass guide book without too much trouble. Exciting progress. After mass I went to catch the bus back to Toledo and ran into some friends that were heading back from Oktoberfest. What I thought was going to be a solo return ended with friends sharing stories of a weekend of adventure. Pretty perfect.

Hasta luego Madrid.

adventures in salamanca

Well I learned a big lesson after my trip to Salamanca this past weekend: get advice from a seasoned expert. A fellow carl, btinlady, and fabulous person in general (Ashley Paquin!) studied abroad in the city last year so I figured I would shoot her an e-mail and ask for some of her recommendations. She gave me an agenda that was to the T. With her advice in hand I headed to the city with my program. Because it was sponsored by my study abroad program it was the classiest trip I've been on while in Spain so far. We stayed in a hotel with PRIVATE bathrooms had real beds and didn't eat bread and cheese for 2 days. Big changes as far as the broke traveler is concerned. We also were led on tours of the city which were really interesting - but got a little long after the 3rd hour. Despite the length, I learned a lot more about the city than I would have if I had just wandered around with a book. 
Salamanca is a University town with about 30,000 students. The alma mater to many - the most notable alum perhaps is Miguel de Cervantes (author of Don Quxiote). The city has served for years as an intellectual hub in Spain and because of that many Spanish authors reference the city. The 16th century work - Lazarillo de Tormes - is a story about the adventures of a boy who was born in the river and began his life in Salamanca. I just finished reading the book for a Literature class and when my fellow classmates and I saw the statue on the edge of the river we were pretty stoked about it. Needless to say, some pictures were taken. 
I could ramble on about how much I love the city for a while but instead I'll share a moment. On Saturday night I headed out with a group of about 8 girls for tapa bar hopping on a street that Ashley recommended. When we made it to the street it was clear we were in the right place. We went to a couple wine bars and indulged in the best tapas I have had in Spain yet. I'm not sure everything that we ate but I know it included shrimp, calamari, cheese, chrizo, and amazing bread. One of the bars that we went to was called: El Café de Chinitas. Everyone in the bar was sipping on drink watching the fútbol game on TV (Barca vs Sevilla). We poured our glasses of wine and began to indulge in some tapas. As I was taking a sip of wine that cost more that 3 euros a bottle (my first while abroad) I started to check out the wall decorations to get a better feel of the place. It took just a moment to figure out that this place had character and a story. This was a local place. And after a realization that the woman in the picture above the bar with a man that appeared to be her husband was the same woman standing over the casserole dishes - I realized it was a Mom and Pop operation. This place had been in business for over 45 years. In the midst of this evaluation I caught one of my friends having the same realization. With a few more sips of liquid courage we decided to go to the bar and test out our Spanish. Denise led it off - asking why the name Chinitas. Note to self for the future: this is a good question. She smiled at us and began to tell us her story. Although we were not 100% on our comprehension this is what I gathered: She opened it when she was our age and the man by her side was her son. There is more but to avoid telling false information I'll stick with the basics. When she asked how old we were the man jumped in with his age - 22. The woman looked at us and just shook her head laughing. We asked her about the food - not surprisingly she makes it all. The conversation went on like this for a while. When we finished our glasses of wine she grabbed another bottle and splashed some more in giving us a wink. Then she grabbed our favorite pincho and brought it over to us. We thanked her for her kindness and kept talking. When the next glass was finished and it was time to move on to the next bar my friend and I just looked at each other and just couldn't stop smiling about what had just happened. 

a salud, a españa, a vida.



Plaza Mayor - regarded as one of the most beautiful plazas in Spain
FYI. Spain has a lot of plazas

 

Old Library of Salamanca University

Side of the Cathedral in Salamanca - can you find the astronaut? 

Sunday wandering

endless chatter

Well since it's now the end of the week (Thursdays are the new Friday) I guess it is time to write about last weekend. After my trip to the Museo del Prado I headed back to Toledo to spend the weekend there. I was tempted to take an overnight bus to Lisboa to join a group of friends but decided that a weekend getting to know Toledo a little better might be kind of nice - so I did just that.

As we walked out of the Prado we happend to run right into a wedding. Right outside the Museo del Prado isn't a bad place to get hitched. A few of us were seriously thinking about crashing but decided that the whole language barrier would bust us pretty quickly.

Back in Toledo I meet up with some local Spaniards to have some tapas and check out some of their favorite bars in the city. Nightlife in Spain is pretty unique. Not only do people go out really late - I'm talking like sometimes as late as 12/1 at the bars... on a busy night nobody goes to the clubs until at least 1 or 2. But all of these times differ on depending on the night... yeah it gets complicated. I will spare you of all the details of Toledo's nightlife but I will say that I am growing to love the long chats over tapas and beer. In one of my first classes this term my teacher was talking generally about life in Spain. She posed the following question to the class: What do Spaniards love to do the most? The responses from the class were the stereotypical answers that most people think of when they think of Spain: dance, travel, drink, take siestas... and the list goes on. With each response the professor would just shake her head. Clearly she had only one response in mind. After a minute or so of guessing she finally revealed the answer that we had failed to come up with: spaniards love to talk. At first I was a little thrown off by the answer. 

But I can say that the more I think about it this statement, the more it resonates with me.   It is not rare for late afternoon coffee date to turn in to having some beers and tapas at another bar and then dinner. They great you with a kiss on each cheek and will sit/walk/stand and talk for hours. A place where talking and hanging out often comes before sleep. This is my kind of country. Now here's for the big challenge: be able to have more interesting conversations in the native tongue.  

Off to S

Adíos.

museo del prado

Well here's to another update on life in Spain. 

This Friday brought a trip to the Museo del Prado with my art history class - Grand Master Painters of Spain. In general our program doesn't have classes on Friday but this class has three trips to museums in Madrid throughout the term. This visit we focused on El Greco and Velazquez. During our first spin through the galleries we moved at a pretty quick clip. The pace combined with clutching the listening device between shoulder and ear while simultaneously scribbling down some notes on the works left little time to process the masterpieces. After our lesson we were given additional time to explore the museum. I knew that if I ventured into any more galleries my head might explode so I decided to wander back to the first painting of Greco and re-trace my steps.

I took out my notebook and began to skim back over my chicken scratch notes as I started from square one again. Although the size of El Greco's first works in Italy (about the size of an iPad) and his larger masterpieces vary greatly, his careful calculation of brushstrokes and color are constant throughout. The mixture of colors he uses to convey depth and texture is impressive and makes his works truly come to life. Along with his knack for utilizing color, I am also drawn to his connection with Toledo - the city that I am living in. As he lived much of his life in Toledo, the outline of the ancient city is present in many of his works. Although he took some liberty with the exact location of La Catedral in some cityscapes - one can always discern Toledo's charming outline. Since the museum serves as the home for many works by the master painter, or professor couldn't comment on each work. When I was retracing my steps I took a moment to pause at a work that we had mentioned in class but didn't stop to discuss in the museum - "Cristo Abrazado a la Cruz." This painting really struck me. The incredible amount of emotion in Christ's gaze towards the heavens creating a simple yet incredible powerful scene. Another one of my favorites is "La Adoración de los Pastores" which El Greco had intended to mark his place of burial. This game plan didn't work out - read more about it, it's an interesting story.

                  la adoración de los pastores                cristo abrazado a la cruz

After feeling satisfied with my second pass through El Greco's work I moved onto Velazquez. A man who spent almost all of his years working for the royal family, his subjects are markedly different than those of El Greco. A perfectionist to a T, he was never satisfied with his one works. Looking carefully at his pieces one can often see his paths towards perfection. In the case of one particular case, the horse appears to have a ghost leg. Although I could spend an hour talking about the works I narrowed it down to two of my favorites in the collection. I spent quite some time staring at "Cristo crucificado." My professor talked at length about the way that Velazquez portrayed this moment. Throughout history, artists have spent a great amount of time re-creating the time that Jesus spent on the cross but this work is unique. The black background - giving the viewer no chance to get distracted. His portrayal of Jesus's body as relatively pristine. And the list goes on. The second painting, "Las Meninas" is part of an interesting debate. One that I will not go into here but I highly recommend reading up a little about the work. 

                   cristo crucificado                                 las meninas 

I hope this post serves as a short (and hopefully interesting) look into just a few rooms of the Museo del Prado. I will be back again to study more and am looking forward to it. Well since this post was dedicated just to a few hours on Friday, I'll have to get to a more light-hearted post about adventures in Toledo this weekend. 

Adíos.

ohhhh valencia

This past weekend brought my first weekend of travel in Spain. I headed to a costal city - Valencia - which is the third largest city in Spain.
We arrived at our hostel at around 10:30 on Friday and grabbed some drinks from the hostel bar. After meeting some other travelers and chatting with them we decided to join them on a pub crawl and despite the bar/club's interesting take on some classic American songs (notably Aretha Franklin's R-E-S-P-E-C-T), it wasn't a bad way to greet Valencia. 
On Saturday morning we started with a free hostel breakfast - toast, jelly, and coffee. Well, free is free. After a quick breakfast a few of us decided to rent bikes and head out for an excursion. To give you an idea of where we biked, some historical context is needed. In 1957 the city was completely devastated by a flood from the Turia River (Río Turia) and it was decided that because of this the river would be re-routed and split into 2. This left one large dried up river bed right through the heart of the city. Now the riverbed serves as a beautiful park and makes for an incredible bike ride. Along the way we stopped at numerous places to take it all in. One of my favorite places was called Parque Gulliver. To give you an idea of the sculpture it is best to look at an aerial view.

An aerial view of Gulliver

It is... well a massive playground but also has some historical context to it. I had seen the park on the map of the city but didn't know much about the sculpture until I returned to Toledo and was able to read more. Now, I'm even more impressed by it. The story behind the work comes from Part 1 of Jonathan Swift's famous work, Gulliver's Travels. It portrays Gulliver being tied up by the people of Lilliput. Upon waking he soon discovered that the people tying him were merely 6 inches tall. In the case of this scene, the visitors are the Lilliputians. 


A close up of a part of the sculpture. 

After spending a while trying to figure out the sculptures and going for a few times down the slides we continued onward to check out the renowned Science and Arts Center. We decided to just admire the architectural beauty of the buildings from the fresh air as tickets to enter were about 10 euros per person. Later in the afternoon we headed for the beach and spent some time soaking up the rays and swimming in the (very warm) Mediterranean. 
Sunday morning I headed to mass at the Catedral de Valencia with some others. After mass we spent hours and hours wandering around el casco of Valencia marveling at the ancient plazas and the beautiful cathedrals. I continue to be amazed by the contrast between ancient and modern, fast and slow.
This weekend was the perfect balance of adventure and relaxation, culture and beach, cathedrals and nightlife, reflection and talking, fast and slow. Let the bar be set for excursions. 

One of many of the Science and Arts Center Campus

Shores of the Mediterranean 

La Catedral de Valencia - not a bad place for a Sunday morning mass.

Next time I got to Valencia hopefully it will be for La Tomatina.

post weekend bliss

Well after a fabulous first weekend in Toledo, today marked the first day of classes. I'm really excited to start classes and actually be able to get on a semi-regular schedule. Right now my schedule isn't set in stone but I'm pretty sure about most of my classes. Since the program is on a semester I'm in 5 which is terrifying because Carleton is always just 3. Not sure how that whole transition is going to work. The ones I'm for sure about are a grammar class (the least interesting of all), an art class called Master Painters which includes 3 guides tours on Fridays in Madrid (incredibly exciting and I've heard a great class) and a history class about Spain in the 20th century. After that I'm debating between taking 2 lit classes (20th century writers or a class on renaissance writers) and taking another art class that focuses on Toledo. I don't have to decide for a week so I'm going to pull the classic Carleton move and just go to extra classes for now.
This weekend we checked out the local bar scene and I was pretty impressed at how busy it was (even though it's a small town). On Saturday morning I rolled out of bed for a guided tour of Toledo with the program which was really interesting. We took a bus to this incredible overlook on the other side of the river and were able to city the city from a bird's view. Definitely not a bad overlook. 
Saturday night brought some more adventures and confirmed the rumors that Spaniards really don't sleep much on the weekends. The discoteca (outside club) started getting busy around 3am... Fortunately siestas exists in full force here - with people actually closing down their stores for 2-3 hours to honor the tradition. 
I woke up early on Sunday to go to church with my host mom. Thank goodness I'm Catholic because it is a great conversation starter. The apartment has rosaries/crosses/pictures of saints in every room. We showed up to mass earlier and chatted with the priest for a little bit (which of course is one of my host mom's best friends). Then came mass. I knew when to sit, when to stand, and when to walk but couldn't decipher the prayers/homily much. Hopefully in time it will become a little easier. In the afternoon I wandered into the walls of the city and got lost for a little while which was nice. It is pretty impossible to actually get lost in the old part of the city since it is surround by walls and is fairly small. I ended up in the old Jewish quarter of the city and stumbled into one of the oldest arches into the city (the last remaining structure from the Muslim period). I decided to camp out on a ledge overlooking the city for a few hours for an afternoon read (and of course siesta). Apparently I looked like I knew what I was doing because a had multiple tourists come up and ask for directions. Unfortunately I wasn't able to help but I hope that someday soon I'll be able to respond with some authority. I guess all will come in time.

Here are some pictures of the city 

La Catedral - one of the main sites in Toledo - with good reason 

The main plaza - Plaza de Zocodover  

One of the many shops around the plaza - where pretty much everything is overpriced - total tourist trap

View of the city across the river

Not a bad place to post up for the day at all

Close-up of some of the classic architecture seen in Toledo - this is a picture of convent in the city

Look-out onto my neighborhood where I live just outside the city walls

Sunday wandering right into the route of Don Quijote

Not a bad place to read on a lazy Sunday afternoon. 

Adiós for now.

adjusting

Well after a long day of traveling and jet lag I'm into my first full day in Toledo. Yesterday was spent getting to Toledo, meeting fellow American students, and settling into my host family. My host family is a mother and she lives in a cute apartment in a neighborhood just outside old Toledo. Before dinner yesterday I went on a walk with my mother and neighbor girl (9 years old) who is practically like my host mom's daughter. We strolled around a beautiful park called Parque de las tres culturas (Park of three cultures). This is Toledo's motto as it served as a hub for the coexistence between Catholics, Jews, and Muslims for many years. It was a really nice walk and it struck me how active the people of Toledo were. Drones of runners, rollerbladers, and sport enthusiasts filled the park. After a 9 o'clock dinner (early by Spanish standards) I gladly went to bed at around 11... then of course woke up at 3 thinking it was 9. JETLAGyahooo.

This morning was spent taking a placement exam (written and oral) and figuring out classes for Monday. Then I wandered around the city for a while with some fellow students. Find of the day was this bar/cafe right by where we have our classes that serves coffee and a pastry for 1,70€ and a cerveza and tapas for 2€. I have a feeling that we will be frequenting this establishment quite often.

This evening we have dinner together and then are going to checkout Toledo's nightlife. While not as massive as Madrid I have heard that the quaint city has a lot to offer.

Right now I am fumbling my spanish like no other. Most of the times as my host mom talks I just nod my head and reply "si." Just hoping that I won't feel like a total idiot for too much longer but I guess these things just take some time.

Adíos. 

see ya america!

Well after unpacking and repacking about 10 times I finally zipped up my suitcases for the last time. I'm playing the "how many types of transportation can you take" travel game today. It goes something like this: car ride to indy -> megabus to downtown chicago --> subway to O'hare --> 8 hour flight to Madrid --> bus to Toledo with my group. Total time... not really sure. But I leave my house at 5:45am EST and will get into Toledo around 12:30pm (Spain's time). Yahooo. letsssgooo.

final preparations

hola!

This fall I will be studying abroad in Toledo, Spain. The city is about a 20-30 minute train ride south of Madrid and has a rich and intriguing history. A former capital of the Spanish Empire it was also a place of coexistence between Christians, Muslims, and Jewish cultures. Not only that but it is also famous for the metal working industry and was where the famous Renaissance painter, El Greco, did much of his work. I am looking into how to transport some swords home for my brothers but am a little worried about how TSA would feel about it.
The program I am studying is through the University of Minnesota and entails a home stay and courses through a Learning Abroad Center (all courses will be taught in Spanish). As excited as I am about the program, I was very sad to find out that I would be arriving just a week after a festival known as La Tomatina. It is held in Buñol, a small Valencian town, and takes the prize for the world's largest food fight. On the last Wednesday of August about 150,000 tomatoes (~40 metric tons) and 40,000 tipsy people (equipped with goggles and gloves) collide for an hour of total chaos. Below are five rules laid out by the city to ensure that it "remains a celebration."

1. You must not bring bottles or other type of objects which could cause an accident.
2. You must not break(knot) or throw T-shirts.
3. The tomatos must be squashed before throwing them, to avoid hurting people.
4. You must be careful of any lorry.
5. When you hear the second shot, you must stop throwing tomatos.

Here is a link to pictures of the celebration: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/la-tomatina-in-pictures-the-50-greatest-1284048

The dates for the upcoming years are as follows: 
August 28, 2013
August 27, 2014
August 26, 2015
For anyone that is interested, just keep me posted. It is a sure thing that I will be attending at least once in the coming decade. 

I plan on using this blog to give readers a sense of Spanish culture through the lens of a college student, share stories, and post pictures. Well now it is off to finish unpacking from a summer away and re-packing for Spain.

Adiós.