But only on Thursdays. Sadly. Anyway, here is a post long overdue. Enjoy!
2/4/09
Today I was inspired to blog. Yes, inspired. And what inspired me, you ask? Was it some beautiful sculpture or piece of art? No. Was it the pain of classes, or some intriguing intellectual question? No. Did I get mugged, and need to let everyone at home know that I’m all right now, though with several bruises? No. Well then, Tim, what the hell was it?!
Cheese.
Yes you heard me. Cheese. For the first time over the course of my time in Spain, I have actually been surprise by food. Others on the trip were surprised (and some, appalled) long before. In our paella, a shrimp was served whole, with the head still on, unnerving a few members of our company (I just finished reading LotR again, pardon the strange language). But I have seen that for years, both at home and at restaurants. Did the sight of a piglet dead but whole at the butcher’s shop phase me? Nope. Once you’ve seen cow penis frozen and sold at a supermarket, any sort of meat will fail to surprise (I swear, you could play baseball with one of those things).
No, what got me was cheese. We had just finished our traditional ginormous (spelling, anyone?) meal, and I was waiting on dessert, when my señora asked me if I would be willing to try cheese. Sure, I said, I love cheese. What she brings out was a piece of cheese, clearly prepackaged and in the shape of a flan. Fair enough. But what got me was that they used to putting fruit jam on top. Jam! Nothing in American, Southern, or Asian Cuisine prepared me for this strange culinary combination. Once over my surprise, I tried it, and (as expected) loved it. And that was one of two culinary delights of the week, the other of which I’ll get to some other post.
Clearly this is probably more exciting for me than to you, and it is highly ironic that I spent more time describing my encounter with a piece of cheese and jam than any single experience with a cultural icon since my arrival. But, it cannot be helped. That said, it is time to back track a little bit and describe a little of Granada for you, so we can eventually catch back up to the present.
I (as well as most of the others, I believe), fell in love with Barcelona, and was not quite so impressed with Granada. However, it did have it’s perks, and it’s one really awesome site, which is worth the trip should you ever come to Spain: the Alhambra. The Alhambra is a palace/fortress that was built by the Moors during their long time in Spain. It sits on the top of a small, green mountain overlooking the city. Behind it are snow capped peaks, the combination of which makes it look like something out of a fantasy novel. Walking through the halls and imagining what it was like in its hay day put me in the mind to write more fiction, though I have yet to begin.
What makes the sight even better is the Plaza of Saint Nicholas, which is located on a mountain directly opposite the palace. I went there twice: once during the day, and once for the sunset. Gorgeous. With good reason Bill Clinton once called it the most beautiful sunset in the world (funny story and side note: the authorities put up a plaque that said “Bill Clinton was here.” By the next day, there was graffiti next to it saying “and so was I” and “me too.” The plaque itself didn’t last the night before being smashed).
Well, I’ll let you go with that. I saw free flamenco too, which was awesome, and got free tapas with drinks at various bars, a must if you go to Granada. And I turned 21, as roughly 50 people noted via Facebook (all of whom I still have to reply to). Well, time for me to sleep, and/or watch the equivalent of Fox News with my host family. ¡Adios!
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Repeat that one more time, and slower please...
Hmm, just got out of my first "regular" class (aka for natives) and I hope that I can get a decent grade in the class. Really. It´s called "Social Politics and the Welfare State." For those of you who know me, that´s a great class for me and my interests. However, the fact that it´s a regular class was not quite so forgiving. The professor walked in, put up a slide, made a joke about having to come in early (9 o´clock class with a 45 minute commute is a bitch, especially when dinner is at 10), and proceeded to talk. Fast. And quietly. The following is a brief description of a portion of the lecture.
"One of the important parts of what we´ll be studying in the first section of this class is the powers of the state. There are three basic concepts that we will look at surrounding the state. The first is..."
*someone coughs
"...the third is..."
Shit, wait, what were the first two? Damn it, now I just missed the third...
Luckily for me, the slides were provided for me after the class, and (due to sheer coincidence) I found an American partner for the joint project we have to do. Unfortuneately for me, due to my broken Spanish and the inability to understand my professor, he now thinks I´m the dumbest person in his class. Sweet. Exacerbating this problem is the fact that this is not, in reality, the first day of class. Everything started last week. However, I found the room number through a link on the translated, English portion of the university´s website. The room number that link gave me was wrong. So I missed the first week of class before realizing my mistake, and am very behind on understanding what I need to do for class.
*sigh*
On the bright side, of the two hours I spent in class, he only spent roughly 20 minutes bashing America!
"One of the important parts of what we´ll be studying in the first section of this class is the powers of the state. There are three basic concepts that we will look at surrounding the state. The first is..."
*someone coughs
"...the third is..."
Shit, wait, what were the first two? Damn it, now I just missed the third...
Luckily for me, the slides were provided for me after the class, and (due to sheer coincidence) I found an American partner for the joint project we have to do. Unfortuneately for me, due to my broken Spanish and the inability to understand my professor, he now thinks I´m the dumbest person in his class. Sweet. Exacerbating this problem is the fact that this is not, in reality, the first day of class. Everything started last week. However, I found the room number through a link on the translated, English portion of the university´s website. The room number that link gave me was wrong. So I missed the first week of class before realizing my mistake, and am very behind on understanding what I need to do for class.
*sigh*
On the bright side, of the two hours I spent in class, he only spent roughly 20 minutes bashing America!
Monday, February 9, 2009
Well...
So, my computer is having some issues. Aka it is refusing to read flash drives (I think). Therefore my previously written post on the Alhambra, Granada, and cheese will have to wait until a later date. Oh well.
I am currently sitting in a computer lab at Carlos III, the university at which I will be studying for awhile. My schedule is basically set; I just have to make sure that I can count the regular class that I want to take for credit in the poli sci department back home. I´m pretty pumped to take almost all of my classes, which is good, and also the first for a while. I will be taking: The Art of the Short Story (see, Fiction Writing), Spanish Language, Spanish Culture, The Politics of the Welfare State, and an independent study (aka branching off of my Mellon Project). It´s looking to be an interesting semester, especially if you include fencing, kickboxing, and whatever else I decide to do in my free time. I´m certain I´ll let you know about the more interesting things, and possibly some of the mundane things in a more interesting way (I hope). For example:
Yesterday I went to Mass in the park (yes, church). There was a procession beforehand honoring San Blas where they carried a ceramic statue of him surrounded by flowers down the street (in a box with carrying sticks?) from the church to the park where we had Mass. It initially promised to be an interesting procession for me, but boring for the average American student, when I discovered something interesting. For the people of this church, this walk was probably sacred at one point, but it seemed like the city of Madrid could have cared less. At one point, they set him down to look at the building he (presumably) used to live in. However, the way they set him down made it look like instead he was blessing the neighboring Doner Kebab (think gyroesque fast food restaurant; they´re EVERYWHERE). In addition to having blessed one of my favorite foods, Saint Blas proceeded to pass the biggest sex shop I had yet seen in Spain thus far. Perhaps he should have taken the time to stop there instead of making me feel better about eating what is possibly the best tasting health threat in Europe. After these adventures, we then proceeded to Parque del Retiro where I found out after mass the San Blas is the patron saint of throat problems (who knew?) and they would be passing out bread afterwards that would keep you from having any throat sickness for a whole year. All in all, a pretty productive morning I would say.
The rest of my time here has been spent pretty uneventfully. Classes are just getting underway, and already I have learned more about common problems of American Spanish speakers than I´ve learned in all my time taking Spanish in high school or WashU. Well, that´s what studying in another country will do for you I guess. Next things to do: Find a fencing club, start the kick boxing class, make Spanish friends. Check.
I am currently sitting in a computer lab at Carlos III, the university at which I will be studying for awhile. My schedule is basically set; I just have to make sure that I can count the regular class that I want to take for credit in the poli sci department back home. I´m pretty pumped to take almost all of my classes, which is good, and also the first for a while. I will be taking: The Art of the Short Story (see, Fiction Writing), Spanish Language, Spanish Culture, The Politics of the Welfare State, and an independent study (aka branching off of my Mellon Project). It´s looking to be an interesting semester, especially if you include fencing, kickboxing, and whatever else I decide to do in my free time. I´m certain I´ll let you know about the more interesting things, and possibly some of the mundane things in a more interesting way (I hope). For example:
Yesterday I went to Mass in the park (yes, church). There was a procession beforehand honoring San Blas where they carried a ceramic statue of him surrounded by flowers down the street (in a box with carrying sticks?) from the church to the park where we had Mass. It initially promised to be an interesting procession for me, but boring for the average American student, when I discovered something interesting. For the people of this church, this walk was probably sacred at one point, but it seemed like the city of Madrid could have cared less. At one point, they set him down to look at the building he (presumably) used to live in. However, the way they set him down made it look like instead he was blessing the neighboring Doner Kebab (think gyroesque fast food restaurant; they´re EVERYWHERE). In addition to having blessed one of my favorite foods, Saint Blas proceeded to pass the biggest sex shop I had yet seen in Spain thus far. Perhaps he should have taken the time to stop there instead of making me feel better about eating what is possibly the best tasting health threat in Europe. After these adventures, we then proceeded to Parque del Retiro where I found out after mass the San Blas is the patron saint of throat problems (who knew?) and they would be passing out bread afterwards that would keep you from having any throat sickness for a whole year. All in all, a pretty productive morning I would say.
The rest of my time here has been spent pretty uneventfully. Classes are just getting underway, and already I have learned more about common problems of American Spanish speakers than I´ve learned in all my time taking Spanish in high school or WashU. Well, that´s what studying in another country will do for you I guess. Next things to do: Find a fencing club, start the kick boxing class, make Spanish friends. Check.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Feliz Cumpleaños a Mi…
¡Hola Todos!
Well, it’s probably about time to give a more detailed description of what’s been going on out here in España, given that I haven’t written a detailed account since Madrid. Much has happened since then, as you can probably guess from my previous post. I will attempt to pick out the most important/interesting things from the last week to report.
Barcelona is an amazing city. So far I’ve liked it the best. For those of you who don’t know, it is on the eastern shore of Spain on the Mediterranean Sea and is the second largest city in Spain. As mentioned before, it is the home of many famous buildings, artists, and authors. It was relatively recently the site of the Olympics and experienced significantly remodeling since then. I have many pictures of the city, and they are all gorgeous.
The more visited area of the city is divided into two main sections: the old city and the new city. Our residence was a two-minute walk from the beach in Barceloneta, around the old area of the city. It was a pretty nice residence. Each of us (except for one person) had a roommate, with a small bedroom and a decent sized common area. Our school was about an hour and fifteen minute walk from the residence, but you could make it in half an hour if you took the metro. Walking home every day was awesome though, and it took me through the main commercial area of town, which is full of different kinds of shops and bars (the tapas were great). It was walkable unlike any other American city I’ve been to thus far, which was pretty awesome for me.
I’ll limit myself to two of the awesome places I went to in Barcelona. First, the Sangrada Familia. If you haven’t heard of it, the Sagrada Familia is an extremely large cathedral designed by Gaudí in the late 1800s. The catch is (and what makes it amazing to me) is that he wanted it funded only by public donations. What that means is that the building is still not finished. It has been worked on for many years and there are different sections with different styles. This causes some controversy (some people think it looks just like a patchwork of different styles), but I really liked it. If you ever come to Barcelona, you owe yourself a trip.
I also managed to get out to the Dalí and Picasso museums in the area (I know, two in one, I’m a cheater). Both had an amazing inventory of work from both the artists’ histories as well as what they were known for. It was amazing to see the development of their work over time, especially the variance that you don’t get to see when briefly studying an artist in a class. Picasso’s early work is gorgeous, and we got to see some work he did with metals and pottery as well. Dalí, on the other hand, had a ridiculous amount of random types of work. The most interesting to me was the hall of precious stones, where all the work was made out of various expensive types of gemstones (including, but not limited to, a creepy, beating heart).
As of right now I am actually back in Madrid (worst, blogger, ever), but updates about my time here and Granada will have to wait. Until then, I hope all goes well back in the States!
Well, it’s probably about time to give a more detailed description of what’s been going on out here in España, given that I haven’t written a detailed account since Madrid. Much has happened since then, as you can probably guess from my previous post. I will attempt to pick out the most important/interesting things from the last week to report.
Barcelona is an amazing city. So far I’ve liked it the best. For those of you who don’t know, it is on the eastern shore of Spain on the Mediterranean Sea and is the second largest city in Spain. As mentioned before, it is the home of many famous buildings, artists, and authors. It was relatively recently the site of the Olympics and experienced significantly remodeling since then. I have many pictures of the city, and they are all gorgeous.
The more visited area of the city is divided into two main sections: the old city and the new city. Our residence was a two-minute walk from the beach in Barceloneta, around the old area of the city. It was a pretty nice residence. Each of us (except for one person) had a roommate, with a small bedroom and a decent sized common area. Our school was about an hour and fifteen minute walk from the residence, but you could make it in half an hour if you took the metro. Walking home every day was awesome though, and it took me through the main commercial area of town, which is full of different kinds of shops and bars (the tapas were great). It was walkable unlike any other American city I’ve been to thus far, which was pretty awesome for me.
I’ll limit myself to two of the awesome places I went to in Barcelona. First, the Sangrada Familia. If you haven’t heard of it, the Sagrada Familia is an extremely large cathedral designed by Gaudí in the late 1800s. The catch is (and what makes it amazing to me) is that he wanted it funded only by public donations. What that means is that the building is still not finished. It has been worked on for many years and there are different sections with different styles. This causes some controversy (some people think it looks just like a patchwork of different styles), but I really liked it. If you ever come to Barcelona, you owe yourself a trip.
I also managed to get out to the Dalí and Picasso museums in the area (I know, two in one, I’m a cheater). Both had an amazing inventory of work from both the artists’ histories as well as what they were known for. It was amazing to see the development of their work over time, especially the variance that you don’t get to see when briefly studying an artist in a class. Picasso’s early work is gorgeous, and we got to see some work he did with metals and pottery as well. Dalí, on the other hand, had a ridiculous amount of random types of work. The most interesting to me was the hall of precious stones, where all the work was made out of various expensive types of gemstones (including, but not limited to, a creepy, beating heart).
As of right now I am actually back in Madrid (worst, blogger, ever), but updates about my time here and Granada will have to wait. Until then, I hope all goes well back in the States!
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