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.