I might miss Spain when I leave.
It struck me as I walked down the street in Salamanca and paused in the middle of Plaza Mayor. It was night, and a beautiful half-moon hung above the 16th century walls. The buildings shone golden with authentic-style lamplight, and people were everywhere, walking, talking, laughing, eating, spending time with friends, just living.
Up above me the first star came out. Yes, I did wish on it.
And I realized this was what I was going to miss most - not the Spanish, not the food, not the cathedrals, not any of the stuff we see on our trips - I was going to miss the friendly atmosphere in the streets. Being out in a city at night has always scared me - but there's a sense of community here, a shared feeling of friendship, to some extent. I love the "street culture;" eat on the street, get together on the street, walk on the street, etc. At home everyone has their cars, their houses, their yards, their cubicles, their fences. We put up walls and push our neighbors out. Here you can hear your neighbor two floors up singing to the radio. You know the neighbor across the street because you walk to the train station together every morning. The owner of the bar on the corner is your best friend - he sells you hot coffee and churros every morning on your coffee break.
Maybe it's just me and I'm overly optimistic about Spain, Alcala, all of it. But even if I am, it's still true at least to some extent - and I think that's what I'm going to miss the most.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
"Culture"
Think about it.
The Spanish arrived in South America and called the natives uncivilized and without culture because they were bloodthirsty and primitive.
But the Romans had gladiator fights, and somehow that's "culture."
And the Spanish have bullfights.
I'm actually more than 95% ashamed of myself for going - however, the 5% appreciation is because it solidified in my mind that I'm 100% against it. Culture or not. Six bulls died last night for absolutely no reason at all, and I paid money to go in and watch.
It's true, there's a lot of "technique" involved. It's supposed to be a showdown between the man and the bull, a place to prove the courage and valor of each, in essence, a representation of the age-old struggle between man and beast for domination.
Man wins in the end. It's a bittersweet victory - and for me, it makes them as "primitive and uncultured" as the indigenous peoples in the Americas.
So maybe I'm a strong supporter of animal rights. Maybe I'm unappreciative of cultural traditions. Maybe I'm just religious.
Moses 3:19:
"And out of the ground I, the Lord God, formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and commanded that they should come unto Adam, to see what he would call them; and they were also living souls; for I, God, breathed into them the breath of life..."
If God gave those bulls the breath of life, who are we to take it away?
I'm not saying it's never okay to kill animals. I instead side with the Native Americans - whose belief was that when man took the life from a fellow animal, it was never without a purpose - and they prayed for the soul of the animal to rest peacefully and to forgive them. Then they wasted nothing.
Somehow I don't think "cultural traditions" are going to be on the list of acceptable purposes at the end of the day. It was a waste - a waste of a beautiful life, a beautiful animal, a beautiful spirit - now in a better place than this rather messed-up world we've got down here.
The Spanish arrived in South America and called the natives uncivilized and without culture because they were bloodthirsty and primitive.
But the Romans had gladiator fights, and somehow that's "culture."
And the Spanish have bullfights.
I'm actually more than 95% ashamed of myself for going - however, the 5% appreciation is because it solidified in my mind that I'm 100% against it. Culture or not. Six bulls died last night for absolutely no reason at all, and I paid money to go in and watch.
It's true, there's a lot of "technique" involved. It's supposed to be a showdown between the man and the bull, a place to prove the courage and valor of each, in essence, a representation of the age-old struggle between man and beast for domination.
Man wins in the end. It's a bittersweet victory - and for me, it makes them as "primitive and uncultured" as the indigenous peoples in the Americas.
So maybe I'm a strong supporter of animal rights. Maybe I'm unappreciative of cultural traditions. Maybe I'm just religious.
Moses 3:19:
"And out of the ground I, the Lord God, formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and commanded that they should come unto Adam, to see what he would call them; and they were also living souls; for I, God, breathed into them the breath of life..."
If God gave those bulls the breath of life, who are we to take it away?
I'm not saying it's never okay to kill animals. I instead side with the Native Americans - whose belief was that when man took the life from a fellow animal, it was never without a purpose - and they prayed for the soul of the animal to rest peacefully and to forgive them. Then they wasted nothing.
Somehow I don't think "cultural traditions" are going to be on the list of acceptable purposes at the end of the day. It was a waste - a waste of a beautiful life, a beautiful animal, a beautiful spirit - now in a better place than this rather messed-up world we've got down here.
90 minutes in heaven, well, just about
Trip 5: Valencia, Toledo:
Thursday, October 7 - reunited with the now-very-familiar bus and headed off to the mysterious land of Valencia.
First stop: Lladro factory. Lladro (accent on the O) is a very prestigious brand of porcelain. We stopped at the factory and took a tour and saw how it's made. Very, very cool. I would definitely have the patience to do that for a living - for about three and a half minutes. Then chuck it out the window, I say! The detail was amazing.
After the tour, our group spent a rather LONG time in the "seconds" store - meaning they had all the "flawed" statues at a "discounted" price. I put these words in quotes because the flaws were completely invisible... as were the discounts... no, they were cheaper than the perfect stuff, but seriously, $200 for a porcelain statue? Please. I can find statues I like better at Hallmark in the mall.
Obviously, I have not developed a taste for the prestigious and exquisite.
Nonetheless, here's some of the pretty stuff they had in their showroom:
Hello Kitty grew up and got married
This piece - about 2-3 feet long - took two years to design and complete. It's the most expensive piece Lladro has ever done - I believe it's about $120,000, if I remember right. It's Nefertiri's boat on the Nile - Charlton Heston, go ahead and let your jaw drop, they didn't give you anything this cool in The Ten Commandments movie.
This piece did speak to my heart a bit.
As did this one. If I would have bought anything here, it would have been this statue. I feel they captured the missionary spirit really well.
After Lladro, we went on a walking tour of the city at night (thank you Dallin, for being our tour guide). It looked basically like all the other Spanish cities, so I won't bore you with pictures. However, we then arrived at our dinner destination - a fabulous paella restaurant. Paella is one of the best dishes ever invented. I refuse to come home from Spain without learning how to make it.
Friday morning: We went to the Ciudad de Artes y Ciencias, a fabulous modern museum near the harbor in Valencia. It looked like something out of Star Wars. We only went in the science museum part - it had a bunch of cool interactive exhibits.
There were pools of water all over. We all wanted to swim in them. Which is probably what prompted us to speed through the museum and go to the BEACH!!!
The seven of us who swam in the ocean - the others only waded a bit.
Thursday, October 7 - reunited with the now-very-familiar bus and headed off to the mysterious land of Valencia.
First stop: Lladro factory. Lladro (accent on the O) is a very prestigious brand of porcelain. We stopped at the factory and took a tour and saw how it's made. Very, very cool. I would definitely have the patience to do that for a living - for about three and a half minutes. Then chuck it out the window, I say! The detail was amazing.
After the tour, our group spent a rather LONG time in the "seconds" store - meaning they had all the "flawed" statues at a "discounted" price. I put these words in quotes because the flaws were completely invisible... as were the discounts... no, they were cheaper than the perfect stuff, but seriously, $200 for a porcelain statue? Please. I can find statues I like better at Hallmark in the mall.
Obviously, I have not developed a taste for the prestigious and exquisite.
Nonetheless, here's some of the pretty stuff they had in their showroom:
Hello Kitty grew up and got married
This piece - about 2-3 feet long - took two years to design and complete. It's the most expensive piece Lladro has ever done - I believe it's about $120,000, if I remember right. It's Nefertiri's boat on the Nile - Charlton Heston, go ahead and let your jaw drop, they didn't give you anything this cool in The Ten Commandments movie.
This piece did speak to my heart a bit.
As did this one. If I would have bought anything here, it would have been this statue. I feel they captured the missionary spirit really well.After Lladro, we went on a walking tour of the city at night (thank you Dallin, for being our tour guide). It looked basically like all the other Spanish cities, so I won't bore you with pictures. However, we then arrived at our dinner destination - a fabulous paella restaurant. Paella is one of the best dishes ever invented. I refuse to come home from Spain without learning how to make it.
Friday morning: We went to the Ciudad de Artes y Ciencias, a fabulous modern museum near the harbor in Valencia. It looked like something out of Star Wars. We only went in the science museum part - it had a bunch of cool interactive exhibits.
There were pools of water all over. We all wanted to swim in them. Which is probably what prompted us to speed through the museum and go to the BEACH!!!
We spent about an hour and a half on the beach. The day was perfect, the weather was perfect, there was basically nobody there at the beach, the water was just barely chilly but still great, also super salty. I went out farther in the ocean than I have before - okay, so I haven't actually ever been out that far, this time, we were out where we could touch and sort of bodysurf the waves. It was a super clean and smooth beach. Basically, it was amazing!!
The seven of us who swam in the ocean - the others only waded a bit.Saturday: Toledo
It couldn't have been more of a contrast - cold, wet, rainy, gloomyish... did I say cold?
It couldn't have been more of a contrast - cold, wet, rainy, gloomyish... did I say cold?
Toledo is famous for it's mazapan, a kind of candy (marzipan? not sure) and also it's swords/blades. It's also famous for another cathedral, a painting by El Greco that hangs in a church there, and a large weapons museum. 
Store windows. Mmm.
Store windows. Mmm.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Day Zero Project
So I stumbled across this website via a friend's blog I was reading the other day, and I won't lie, I've been thinking hard about it ever since. I finally decided I'm going to do it: 101 goals in 1001 days (about 2 3/4 years). After quite a bit of thought, here's the goals I came up with:
- Read all the standard works
- Be on the Dean’s List
- Read the triple combination in Spanish
- Pay off my student loans
- Give away three pass-along cards
- Stop biting my nails
- Think of 5 people who have made a difference in my life and write them a letter
- Visit my grandpa once a week for three months
- Write in my journal at least three times a week for three months
- Learn how to play 10 songs well on the guitar
- Throw a dart on a map and go to where it lands
- Let my hair grow for a full year
- Run a half marathon
- Document all 101 goals with a picture and caption in a scrapbook
- Visit 3 new states
- Get married
- Pay for someone’s meal behind me in the drive-thru
- Kiss someone at midnight on New Year’s Eve
- Go snowshoeing
- Make a quilt
- Have 7 friends suggest a book and read them all
- Splatter-paint a wall
- Refinish a piece of furniture
- Learn to cook something new every month and save the recipes
- Ride a jetski/waverunner
- Tie a note to a balloon and let it go
- Do a random act of kindness every day for a month
- Make and decorate cookies shaped like zoo animals
- Go barefoot for a whole day
- Buy a lottery ticket
- Learn how to swim correctly
- Keep a dream journal for a month
- Kiss in the rain
- Knit a scarf
- Take a First Aid class
- Write to my grandparents at least twice a month for a year
- Master the art of driving a stick shift
- Choose the songs to the soundtrack of my life
- Carve my initials on a tree
- Visit 15 different temples
- Go two weeks without spending money
- Learn how to play soccer
- Leave five dollars in a library book for someone to find
- Attend four extracurricular lectures
- Answer/call back all my phone calls for a week
- Write a song
- Open a cookbook randomly and make that recipe
- Make a list of 101 things that make me happy
- Go to a professional sporting event
- Keep a blessings calendar every day for 1001 days
- Make a time capsule for myself in 10 years
- Kiss in the snow
- Sleep and eat outside for a week
- Go to a “real” concert
- Learn to identify 3 constellations in each season’s sky (12 total)
- Ask someone on a date
- Plan a healthy diet and stick to it for a month
- Do the temple work for my great-aunt Margaret
- Write to three family members on my mom’s side
- Start a new tradition
- Start my family history
- Visit an extended family member I haven’t seen in a long time
- Visit a butterfly garden
- Attend the midnight premiere of a movie
- Have a mud fight
- Save 10% of my income for 6 months
- Learn how to sew basic clothing
- Take an interior design class and redecorate a room
- Read 5 church-related books
- Floss my teeth every night for a month
- Fly a kite
- Take a self-defense class
- Save $10 for every goal I complete
- Participate in a service project a week for three months
- Go to Festival of Colors
- Go on a multi-day biking trip
- Read the Ensign every month for a year
- Learn and master the art of baking bread
- Learn the basics of amateur photography
- Take, edit, and frame a picture
- Watch the evening news or read the newspaper every day for a month
- Complete and internship
- Own a little black dress
- Get a pedicure
- Learn how to can fruits and vegetables
- Grow a garden
- Go camping with friends
- Make a budget and stick to it for a month
- Take a finance class
- Make three different kinds of pie from scratch
- Learn how to say “I love you” in 16 different languages
- Document my nativity collection
- Go skinny dipping
- Put my wishes in a bottle and throw it into the ocean
- Hike Mt. Timpanogos
- Go rock climbing
- Read 5 classic books
- Sort, organize, edit, and scrapbook my Spain pictures
- Get a scholarship
- Write something and submit it for publication
- Spend three minutes a day thinking only positive thoughts about myself for a month.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Spanish-American food wars
Come mas! Come mas!
I hear this every. single. meal. It means "Eat more! Eat more!"
Okay, so my host mom is super nice - I really like her, she cooks very well, the food here is excellent, but every meal is about three times the size what I've eaten my entire life, and every meal is meat. meat, meat, meat, meat. I've tried and tried to eat everything she gives me, but I just can't. Every single meal I eat too much - simply because I'm trying not to offend her, and I'm super sick of it. So I've stopped eating more than I want to eat - it's my body, I'm the one who has to suffer through the stomachache the next two hours if I eat too much, not her. However, she's been getting increasingly frustrated with me every time I leave food on my plate.
Today I went out an hour before lunch and told her I wasn't very hungry, and that I didn't want very much food. She gave me less than normal, but still more than I could eat. When it appeared I wasn't going to finish it all, she started getting agitated - and there we were, the American girl trying to explain she has a small stomach, the Spanish woman trying to tell the American girl she's too skinny, anorexic, and needs to eat more. Anorexia is DEFINITELY not a problem... but geez, how do I even explain that convincingly in Spanish?! I ended up stuffing the rest of the meat in my mouth, excusing myself from the table, and spitting it out in the garbage can in the bathroom.
I'm really looking forward to being in charge of my own meals again.
I hear this every. single. meal. It means "Eat more! Eat more!"
Okay, so my host mom is super nice - I really like her, she cooks very well, the food here is excellent, but every meal is about three times the size what I've eaten my entire life, and every meal is meat. meat, meat, meat, meat. I've tried and tried to eat everything she gives me, but I just can't. Every single meal I eat too much - simply because I'm trying not to offend her, and I'm super sick of it. So I've stopped eating more than I want to eat - it's my body, I'm the one who has to suffer through the stomachache the next two hours if I eat too much, not her. However, she's been getting increasingly frustrated with me every time I leave food on my plate.
Today I went out an hour before lunch and told her I wasn't very hungry, and that I didn't want very much food. She gave me less than normal, but still more than I could eat. When it appeared I wasn't going to finish it all, she started getting agitated - and there we were, the American girl trying to explain she has a small stomach, the Spanish woman trying to tell the American girl she's too skinny, anorexic, and needs to eat more. Anorexia is DEFINITELY not a problem... but geez, how do I even explain that convincingly in Spanish?! I ended up stuffing the rest of the meat in my mouth, excusing myself from the table, and spitting it out in the garbage can in the bathroom.
I'm really looking forward to being in charge of my own meals again.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Slipping away
Today was a super-reminiscent day.
Does anyone else ever look back at the past and feel like it wasn't actually real, that it didn't actually happen, that it was all just a long ago and faraway dream? Sometimes I feel like that... I'm not sure I like it. Some things, yeah, I'm fine with letting them slip out of memory, but others I want to hold on to them forever, preserve them just real and vivid as they were when they happened.
I feel like that's going to happen when I leave Spain. I'll go back to my life, and this land of Spanish and train stations and cathedrals is going to seem like a faraway, foggy sort of dream, that passed so quickly.
I don't want it to. Why can't all the good memories just stay there, perfectly preserved forever?
Does anyone else ever look back at the past and feel like it wasn't actually real, that it didn't actually happen, that it was all just a long ago and faraway dream? Sometimes I feel like that... I'm not sure I like it. Some things, yeah, I'm fine with letting them slip out of memory, but others I want to hold on to them forever, preserve them just real and vivid as they were when they happened.
I feel like that's going to happen when I leave Spain. I'll go back to my life, and this land of Spanish and train stations and cathedrals is going to seem like a faraway, foggy sort of dream, that passed so quickly.
I don't want it to. Why can't all the good memories just stay there, perfectly preserved forever?
Monday, October 4, 2010
Don't cry for me, Barcelona...
THE trip: Zaragoza, Monserrat, Barcelona...
So I feel like after this study abroad I ought to write for National Geographic or something, considering I go cool places and then write reviews of them for y'all... Also, I really recommend you look at my Picasa album about this trip, because I took about 200 photos and they're ALL interesting. :D
Anyway, so once again we departed on the autobus for strange and far-off destinations in Catalunya - a part of Spain in the northeast corner that pretty much would like to secede from Spain entirely. They're pretty proud, the official language is Catalan, not Spanish, so all the signs and everything are in Catalan with Spanish underneath. Our tour guide the second day told us that the FC Barcelona soccer players are the World Champions, because more national team players in that game came from the team FC Barcelona than any other team - therefore, Barcelona is world champions, not Spain. In return, most of the rest of Spain calls Catalunya weird and strange and says they're not really Spanish, so hey, everything works out in mutual minor dislike.
Day one - visited Zaragoza, a city between Madrid and Barcelona - it has this cathedral, which is where the virgin Mary supposedly appeared to St. James - I went out on a bridge by myself to take amazing pictures, got in trouble for leaving and taking said pictures, but... it was worth it, if I say so myself.
We continued to Monserrat, in the mountains, where there's a little monastery and a GORGEOUSLY BREATHTAKING VIEW of a mountainous rivery valley.
I was overcome by an urge to take an artsy picture - there's more in my Picasa album. Here you can see the mountains, though. There weren't a lot of mountains, but they looked like this.
We got to Barcelona just after the sunset, went to our hotel, then headed out to see the Sagrada Familia at night and eat. If you haven't seen the Sagrada Familia before, I suggest you go to Google and look up pictures of it. None of mine do it justice. But I'll try...
The next day we took a bus tour of Barcelona. We saw a lot of crazy things. Barcelona is a more modern city, influenced especially by the work of Gaudi, a half-crazy, half-genius architect. I plan to learn more about him - because his works are amazing!
The "Face of Barcelona" statue. After seeing this, I started thinking maybe the rest of Spain isn't so off in thinking Catalunyans are weird...
We drove up to the lookout point on a hill overlooking Barcelona called Montjuic. From here we could see the city and the Mediterranean. We later came back to Montjuic and hiked ten minutes up to the top, where there's a castle/fortress. It was closed when we came, but we got to see all the city lights and lights from ships out on the sea.
I fell in love with the Mediterranean. Unfortunately, looking at it from on top of Montjuic was as close as I got to it.
From Montjuic, we went back to the Sagrada Familia with the guide to take the official tour. It's a cathedral dedicated solely to the Sacred Family - Christ, Mary, Joseph - started in the 1800s, that's STILL under construction. It's the most crazy cathedral ever invented. However, it's also incredibly cool, because everything is symbolic. The front side of it has scenes depicting Christ's birth, and the back side has scenes depicting his death. The whole thing was amazing - it's been declared a world heritage site, it's definitely one of a kind! They anticipate finishing it (for real this time) in 2016. The world is waiting to see if it actually happens.
After our tour, our group basically spent the rest of the day walking around Barcelona. We saw the Plaza Catalunya and Las Ramblas - a street with lots of flea-market type stores - we saw a statue of Christopher Columbus, who visited Barcelona after his first trip to the Americas, we explored a neighborhood of Gothic -style architecture, and best of all we ate at an all-you can eat that had FRUIT and VEGETABLES and PASTA and I was in heaven!
Yes, that IS grapefruit! It was AMAZING!!!
On our way back to Alcala the next day, we stopped at Monasterio de la Piedra - monastery of the rock - and it was cool, but the best part was the park - basically it was a mountainside with trails all over through the trees and waterfalls EVERYWHERE! It was quite possibly the most beautiful place I've ever been.
The trip to Barcelona was, for various reasons, the trip I was both looking forward to the most and worrying about the most. However, it couldn't have gone better! The only sad thing was that we were only there a day and a third. Someday I'm coming back to Spain, and when I do, I'm going to spend all the time I want in Barcelona.
So I feel like after this study abroad I ought to write for National Geographic or something, considering I go cool places and then write reviews of them for y'all... Also, I really recommend you look at my Picasa album about this trip, because I took about 200 photos and they're ALL interesting. :D
Anyway, so once again we departed on the autobus for strange and far-off destinations in Catalunya - a part of Spain in the northeast corner that pretty much would like to secede from Spain entirely. They're pretty proud, the official language is Catalan, not Spanish, so all the signs and everything are in Catalan with Spanish underneath. Our tour guide the second day told us that the FC Barcelona soccer players are the World Champions, because more national team players in that game came from the team FC Barcelona than any other team - therefore, Barcelona is world champions, not Spain. In return, most of the rest of Spain calls Catalunya weird and strange and says they're not really Spanish, so hey, everything works out in mutual minor dislike.
Day one - visited Zaragoza, a city between Madrid and Barcelona - it has this cathedral, which is where the virgin Mary supposedly appeared to St. James - I went out on a bridge by myself to take amazing pictures, got in trouble for leaving and taking said pictures, but... it was worth it, if I say so myself.
Basilica of the Virgin Pilar and the river Ebro - photo taken from the bridge.
We continued to Monserrat, in the mountains, where there's a little monastery and a GORGEOUSLY BREATHTAKING VIEW of a mountainous rivery valley.
I was overcome by an urge to take an artsy picture - there's more in my Picasa album. Here you can see the mountains, though. There weren't a lot of mountains, but they looked like this.
The next day we took a bus tour of Barcelona. We saw a lot of crazy things. Barcelona is a more modern city, influenced especially by the work of Gaudi, a half-crazy, half-genius architect. I plan to learn more about him - because his works are amazing!
The "Face of Barcelona" statue. After seeing this, I started thinking maybe the rest of Spain isn't so off in thinking Catalunyans are weird...
We drove up to the lookout point on a hill overlooking Barcelona called Montjuic. From here we could see the city and the Mediterranean. We later came back to Montjuic and hiked ten minutes up to the top, where there's a castle/fortress. It was closed when we came, but we got to see all the city lights and lights from ships out on the sea.
I fell in love with the Mediterranean. Unfortunately, looking at it from on top of Montjuic was as close as I got to it.
From Montjuic, we went back to the Sagrada Familia with the guide to take the official tour. It's a cathedral dedicated solely to the Sacred Family - Christ, Mary, Joseph - started in the 1800s, that's STILL under construction. It's the most crazy cathedral ever invented. However, it's also incredibly cool, because everything is symbolic. The front side of it has scenes depicting Christ's birth, and the back side has scenes depicting his death. The whole thing was amazing - it's been declared a world heritage site, it's definitely one of a kind! They anticipate finishing it (for real this time) in 2016. The world is waiting to see if it actually happens.
After our tour, our group basically spent the rest of the day walking around Barcelona. We saw the Plaza Catalunya and Las Ramblas - a street with lots of flea-market type stores - we saw a statue of Christopher Columbus, who visited Barcelona after his first trip to the Americas, we explored a neighborhood of Gothic -style architecture, and best of all we ate at an all-you can eat that had FRUIT and VEGETABLES and PASTA and I was in heaven!Yes, that IS grapefruit! It was AMAZING!!!
On our way back to Alcala the next day, we stopped at Monasterio de la Piedra - monastery of the rock - and it was cool, but the best part was the park - basically it was a mountainside with trails all over through the trees and waterfalls EVERYWHERE! It was quite possibly the most beautiful place I've ever been.
This is the biggest of the waterfalls we saw - and this isn't even the bottom of it.
The trip to Barcelona was, for various reasons, the trip I was both looking forward to the most and worrying about the most. However, it couldn't have gone better! The only sad thing was that we were only there a day and a third. Someday I'm coming back to Spain, and when I do, I'm going to spend all the time I want in Barcelona.
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