PARIS!

This past weekend, a few of my classmates and I went to Paris, France.  Paris was a lot more fun than I thought. It definitely corrected many of the stereotypes I held against France and French people in general.  Some of my previous thoughts were: French people are all rude, they hate Americans and will not like you if you don’t speak French.  This trip certainly debunked these inaccurate stereotypes.  On the contrary, French people were actually kind and welcoming, were hospitable towards us as Americans, and greatly appreciated our attempts at French. Although we only knew a few basic words and phrases in French, everyone we came into contact with spoke English pretty well.  After mastering the metro, the first place we went was the Louvre Art Museum, which is arguable the most famous art museum in the world.  It is the home of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.  I had seen the Mona Lisa several times in books and posters, but never in person.  Honestly he work was a little bit of a let down.  It really does look exactly like is does on posters you may have seen and is not very big either.  It was definitely the center of attention, as there must have been nearly a hundred visitors surrounding her to catch a glimpse.  Also, there were four guards protecting here, along with thick glass in front of the portrait.  One thing that is true, however, is that she really does make eye contact with you no matter where you are in the room.  The three of us made it a point to walk around the room to see if it still appeared we were making direct eye contact with the famed portrait.  In every location, it seemed as if she were only looking at us, it was quite impressive.

The next major monument we witnessed was the famed Arc de Triumph.  This arc was much more impressive than I had anticipated.  After seeing several arcs around Spain, I assumed this one would be much of the same.  However, I was proved wrong.  These arcs around Europe were built centuries ago in order to welcome soldiers returning home from battle.  The Arc de Triumph on the other hand, has another purpose.  It was completed in 1836 and it serves as a monument for the generals that served in Napoleon Bonaparte’s army.  Each of their names are engraved at the top of the arc.  Inside the arc is an eternal flame, serving as a monument for unknown fallen soldiers.  When we were there, the monument was covered with flowers.  It was pretty neat to see.  Another neat fact about the arc is that it connects TWELVE streets as a turnabout!         

Another major monument we visited was the cathedral of Notre Dame. This cathedral was extremely pretty!  The first thing I noticed upon entering was the amount of stained glass!  Literally every window in the building had stained glass and was very impressive!  The cathedral was filled with visitors as well as clergy members.  One thing I did not see however was the hunchback of Notre Dame!   

Salamanca/ Real Madrid/ The Alcázar

This is the stadium of the best fútbol team in the world: REAL MADRID of course! I was able to go to one of their games a few months ago (see previous post). My classmates and I returned to the stadium in Madrid this past Saturday to visit their official store and get some Real Madrid gear.  That being said, I post this picture to share some information I learned this weekend about the stadium itself.  The stadium has housed the Real Madrid team since 1947, just three years after it's construction began. When the stadium was first built, it was named after the previous stadium, Estadio Chamartín.  However, the stadium obtained it's current name after it's previous president on January 4, 1955. It holds nearly 80,000 spectators! 

This is a picture from our group excursion this past Friday to the city of Salamanca.  This is one of the many buildings of the University of Salamanca.  Probably the most reputable fact about this university is that it is the third oldest university in the ENTIRE WORLD. It was founded in the 1200's! This school was in existence over 500 years before the United States even became a country! Wow! The rich history of the campus was quite impressive.  Our guide was very knowledgeable of the university.  One story she told us specifically I found very interesting. After the university was well established, around the 14th and 15th century, they had a specific tradition for its graduates. In order to receive your degree from the university, you had to pass a final exam that covered everything you had learned throughout your time there. The night before the exam, you were required to spend the night in the city's cathedral by yourself. After spending the night in the cathedral, the oral exam was administered in the cathedral by a panel of scholars and professors. If you passed the lengthy exam, you exited out the main entrance of the cathedral where a huge celebration would commence with the entire city. Graduates would then paint a red symbol above their door in the form of a 'V', signifying they were victorious in their studies.  However, if the student failed the exam (it only took one professor to vote 'no' for you to fail), then you were required to exit the cathedral through a side door. At this door, the citizens would be awaiting you in order to throw tomatoes, lettuce and other items at you as a form of humiliation! It was neat to see how the education system has definitely changed throughout the years! I am very glad EKU is not like that! 

       

This is a picture of the beautiful Alcázar in Segovia.  We got the opportunity to tour the inside of the castle with my Spanish Culture class last week. It was amazing on the inside! If you think you recognize this castle from somewhere, it's because you probably do. My teacher informed us the castle in the Disney cartoon movie Sleeping Beauty was modeled after this castle! Also, at the beginning of every Disney movie, the symbol used for Disney was modeled after this castle too! It was this castle and one in Germany that Walt Disney himself liked and used for models. I think he made a great choice! This castle was built sometime during the 12th century and enlarged during the 13th and 14th centuries. Something very interesting to me was the many uses the castle has had over the years.  Some of these uses were for: a royal palace, the wedding site of Philip II, a military academy, and even a state prison at one point! Now it is just used as a tourist attraction for the many visitors to Segovia.  

Barcelona Weekend

This picture is taken inside of Gaudi’s park in Barcelona.  The famous Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi designed this park.  He created some very odd buildings during his life.  One of which is the apartment building pictured below.  In this building there are no straight lines/planes anywhere besides the floors. As you can see from the outside’s curves, this is true.  

This is a picture of the beach in Barcelona. Besides it’s beauty, it has many other appealing features.  One of the first things I noticed from the beach is the intense diversity.  I strolled along the shore for a short while one afternoon and realized I have never been to a more diverse place in my life.  Within the twenty or so minuets I walked, I came across: elderly people, young people, Indian people, Asians, American students, English visitors, Spanish natives (of coarse), homosexuals, fit people, obese people, you name it- I saw it.  I have never heard such an array of different languages spoken in one place either.  Another unique feature of this beach was the architecture.  There was a ‘building’ about two hundred yards away from the sea in the sand of the beach.  This building was about three stories tall and served no purpose except for ‘eye appeal’.  It was a form of modern art that I found rather intriguing.  This beach was very exceptional to say the least.      

This is the Casa Milá in the Eixample, Barcelona. 

This past weekend I went to Barcelona along with a few other classmates. It was a remarkable city! In Barcelona, I was able to see first-hand the constant ‘internal’ conflict that we learn so much about in my classes here. There has been a conflict for a long time now between Barcelona and Madrid.  The main argument is that Barcelona should naturally be the capital of Spain, mainly because of its geographic placement.  It is conveniently situated along the Mediterranean Sea and very close to the rest of Europe.  Madrid on the other hand, is in the center of Spain with no geographic advantages of any kind.  This has made travel to the city a pain throughout the centuries.  Also, Barcelona is significantly wealthier than Madrid is as a city, thus giving it even more reason to be the capital.  However, one fall back I see is that in Cataluña (the province Barcelona is located in), the official language is Catalan, rather than Spanish.  

Toledo/ Flamenco Dancing

Our engagement picture!!!

This is a picture of some Flamenco dancing we saw in Granada (Southern Spain-Andalucía).  We ate at a restaurant one night for dinner and they had a Flamenco dancer perform. There was also a man singing and someone else playing the guitar.  This is my future wife. I will marry this woman.  She was an amazing dancer and I love Flamenco dancing now. The singing is very unique with a lot of voice inflection. The dancing was also very unique and hard to compare to anything.  If I had to compare it so something, at times it was like step.  She and the man singing would make a beat with their feel and slapping their lap or anything out.  The beat is kept throughout the entire dance and it is high energy.  When she was performing, she would usually make eye contact with someone in the crowd.  I was lucky enough to be this person once and it felt like she was peering into my soul! No lie! When I was lost in her trance, I decided that we would be married one day!  If you all are lucky, you’ll get an invite to our wedding!    

These are pictures taken of Toledo’s cathedral.  It is the second largest cathedral in the country and my personal favorite of all the ones I’ve seen.  You may be wondering why I chose these pictures of the cathedral instead of  ‘better’ ones. Well the answer to that question is: THEY WOULDN’T ALLOW PHOTOS IN THE CATHEDRAL! How frustrating is that? It was beautiful inside! My favorite part inside was definitely the two ‘sky lights’ they had.  There were two openings in the roof that made ‘sun roofs’ for the cathedral.  There were two on different sides of the cathedral so that it would be illuminated at different times of the day.  These were so awesome because they had real-life sculptured angels/people up in these skylights.  It looked like there were angels looking down from heaven and sharing light from heaven too.  It was very different than any cathedral I’ve been into.  Also the detail in many of the rooms was amazing and full of history.

Another view of the cathedral. 

Our group excursion this past weekend was in Toledo.  It was about a three-hour bus ride south into the province of Castilla-La Mancha.  This is a picture of the city of Toledo. The city was significantly larger than Segovia; the city’s population was around 80,000 and seemed to be larger all around.  We had great weather there-it was sunny and warm. Toledo is a pretty city that has a lot of history to it.  For example, it actually used to the capitol of Spain when the Muslims here in power in the 8^th century.  It also boasts the second largest cathedral in Spain.

Carnivales- Southern Spain

*For some reason this post went psycho when I posted it.  When I try to edit it, it looks fine in my window so I don't know how to fix it. I hope it's not too confusing! 

This is a picture of the street in Sevilla.  I took this in order to compare the differences between Northern Spain and Southern Spain, or at least to compare to Segovia.  Southern Spain was a lot different than life in Segovia.  The first noticeable thing is obviously the palm trees. It is MUCH warmer there and I loved that! Also, from what I saw, it seems that Southern Spain is more modern for lack of a better word.  For example, I saw lots of huge roads like the one pictured and there seemed to be less 'historical' buildings that are centuries old, Segovia is full of these.  Also, the construction going on up north is almost entirely renovation of older buildings, whereas in Sevilla we passed a few construction sites for new buildings/ plazas.  There really isn't any new construction going on here, which is somewhat understandable with the world economic situation.  Also, I liked this picture because it looks to me like a Southern California city, like LA.    

This is taken from the side of a bus stop advertising a local newspaper called "El Correo".  I chose this picture though because of what is on the advertisement, President Obama's inauguration.  I never truly realized the impact the United States has in the world until coming here.  I see Obama on the news here almost as often as I see Spain's president Zapatero on the news.  A clear example of the US's global impact was seen last month when I watched a question/answer session with President Zapatero on TV with my senora.  During this session, ordinary citizens were given the opportunity to ask the President questions regarding just about anything.  Naturally many of their questions were about the declining economy. I quickly learned that Spain was facing economic hard times, much like America.  Nearly all of his responses about the economy included the United States and even Wall Street.  I had no idea that our economy has such an impact on the world until that night.  Another quick example of our influence on the world was made evident to me last week when watching a series of documentaries with my senora. (I seem to watch a lot of TV with her huh? I see watching TV here as educational haha.) One of the short documentaries we watched was about the war on Iraq and the US's presence there.  In the documentary they interviewed some college students in Iraq and these college students knew more about US politics than American college students! It was an eye-opening documentary.    

This is a picture of the cathedral in Sevilla.  This cathedral is the largest cathedral in Spain and the third largest cathedral in the entire world.It was literally impossible to fit the entire thing in one picture, so this is the best I could do.  Inside there were a few past popes' tombs, including one from the 13th century!  You know your holy when your body ends up in the largest cathedral in Spain eight centuries after your death!  My favorite part about this cathedral though was the bell tower.  You could climb it (there were 34 ramps to get to the top!) and see the entire city.  It was awesome, Sevilla is beautiful.  When we were in the bell tower, it ended up being 2:15, and for those of you that don't know, that means it's time for the bell to sound.  It only rang once (since it was :15) but it scared the begeebers out of us!  It scared us at the time, but we all got a good laugh out of it afterwards.  It was really cool to be up there.

This is taken from La Alhambra in Granada.  La Alhambra was the last Spanish stronghold before the Muslums took over in the 8th century.  This place was RIDICULOUSLY beautiful! It easily ranks in the top three most beautiful places I've ever been in my life.  This view is from the top of the palace and it was SO pretty. I want to go back there ASAP!        

RealMadrid/ Castle

This is the outside of RealMadrid’s soccer stadium.  A group of us were able to go to a game last weekend.  It was one of the coolest experiences I’ve ever had.  The stadium is called Estadio Santiago Bernabeu.  It was definitely the largest sports stadium I’ve been to in my life.  The game was RealMadrid vs. Racing Santander.  The stadium holds over 80,000 people and seemed to be completely full!  I was surprised to see how many people were there, and also their ages.  There were some spectators there that had to be in their 60’s or above.  The entire stadium cheered and booed at every play.  It was especially cool because ReadMadrid won 1-0! Spaniards sure love their fútbol!

This is a picture from the first castle we saw last weekend. This castillo de Coca is from the 15 century, as our tour guide informed us.  It has had some extensive renovation since then, but has maintained it's same overall appearance.  It's age shows in some rooms inside the castle. Our tour guide shared with us that Napoleon was here at one point in his conquests! If that's not history I don't know what is! One interesting thing from inside the castle was the prison. About two stories above the prison room is a hole large enough for a person to 'fall' through. Come to find out, that is exactly what it was used for. Our tour guide told us that prisoners would be dropped from this hole into the prison room so that upon impact their legs would be broken and they'd be left 'to rot' as he told us.  I don't know about you but that sounds like no fun Freddie!! 

This picture is taken from the train station of Madrid’s downtown buildings.  I chose this one because for a major world city, you might be surprised why there are so few tall buildings.  I think it shows how old Spain really is.  These are the only buildings that really seem to be ‘modern’ to me.  All of the city’s other buildings are from centuries ago, just like their post office that can be seen in my last post.  I didn't realize until coming here the rich history this country really has. It makes me realize how young America really is. 

Madrid/ Segovia

I chose this as one of my pictures because I believe it shows how American 'culture', at least American corporations are big in other countries.  This is in Madrid, we passed this McDonald's, which was next to a KFC and then we saw a Burger King.  I thought the prices were higher but the food was much of the same.

This picture is from Madrid.  This is the old palace of a previous royal family.  The Spanish oscars called 'Goya's were hosted here last night.  It was really different to see an award show from a different country because, not only were they in another language, I didn't recognize any of the actors or movies.

This is a picture of a beautiful cathedral right beside our classroom building.  It was probably the biggest I have seen before (hence it doesn't all fit in one picture). I chose this picture because this cathedral is evidence of the strong Catholic influence in the country.

This is a picture from the street marketplace that happens in La Plaza Mayor every Thursday.  The street was filled with vendors and people bartering over goods.  They sold mainly food items, but there was also clothes and other items.

This is a good picture of the Aqueduct that goes through the city of Segovia.  It was built when the city was under Roman rule between the first and fifth centuries.  It is really cool to walk past something that old everyday!