Reflections

It's coming up on two months since my trip to Spain, and life has gotten back to normal. I have been back at college for about a week now, but it's nowhere near as Mediterranean as la Universidad de Alicante! I look back at all the pictures I took during that month and sometimes I can't believe I was actually there. Setting my desktop as a slideshow of some of my pictures has been a great conversation starter before my classes! I'll have a hard time forgetting my time in Spain, and the people I met there. It's a little strange seeing friends who took the trip with me around campus nowadays. It's like, "Hey, we're in America now!" I hope to remain friends with those I met during our trip. I still wish we were in Spain, and maybe I'll get to go again someday. Traveling across the ocean only made me want to travel more often and to more places.

The world is open to possibilities, and Spain was just one of them.

Adiós and gracias,

Sam

Granada

This weekend we took a bus trip to beautiful Granada, Spain. When we got there Friday evening, we made a pit stop to see a cathedral and to experience our first gift shop (of which there are many). Later that night we met a guide to lead us around the old section of the city. The moon was full this weekend, and we had a great view of it from the top of the hill we climbed up. Granada has a big gypsy and Moorish influence, and they have a superstition that the moon signifies death. Also, if a gypsy woman offers you rosemary you shouldn't even look at her: if you do you are cursed with bad luck. So with the moon full, there were plenty of rosemary-wielding gypsy woman around. After we were finished touring the old section, we went to see a Flamenco show in some caves! They were very talented dancers: with a lot a stomping and clapping involved. Here's a very good representation of what I saw Friday night, including the setting. The wailing-singing the man does typically accompanies this kind of Flamenco dancing. On Saturday we got up early to make our time slot for La Alhambra and the Generalife--both of which are beautiful. As testament to this I've already posted over 250 photos on Facebook. After shopping for souvenirs for a while, we visited a Chapel. On Sunday we woke up to drive back to Alicante. On the way we stopped at one of Granada's many cave houses, which in this case was an actual home! The house was quite large and had two level connected by stairs, which apparently is atypical. It was cool inside, which was a welcome reprieve from the sweltering Granada heat. It was a great way to spend my last weekend in Spain!

The beautiful cathedral we stopped at during the way into Granada. The girl on the bottom on the picture is Amanda: I guess she was tired.

 The old section of Granada we visited.

A great view of the almost-full moon and La Alhambra at night.

The Flamenco cave experience! This woman was one of the best dancers there, in my opinion.

One of the many exquisite features in La Alhambra.

Lindsey and me in front on the pond. Side note: the pond did have fish in it, but I don't think it was properly oxygenated because they looked awfully lethargic to me.

The famous lion fountain in La Alhambra.

A fabulous view of below from the balcony.

There were some wedding pictures going on. What a beautiful couple!

Another fountain! My friends and I wanted to take pictures in front of that purple plant on the right, but the security guy standing there didn't share our enthusiasm for the idea.

Though it's very similar to the previous fountain, but I swear it's a different one!

The chapel we visited on Saturday.

Inside the cave house! The man on the rightish in the lavender striped shirt is Paco, one of the owners of this cave house.












One of the rooms in the cave
house. The rooms were all
decorated similarly to this one.

Barcelona

I'm convinced that most probably everything in this country is beautiful, but Barcelona is a step above. Located in Catalonia, which is the most northeast autonomous community, it is the second largest city behind Madrid. We didn't have classes on Friday, and instead made the seven hour bus ride to Barcelona. Fun fact: there they don't speak Spanish they speak Catalan, so the Spanish I've learned wasn't much help. Luckily, there was a higher population of people who could also speak English. After driving there on Friday we took almost immediately when to Park Güell to see the works of an artist named Antoni Gaudí. His last name is where English gets the adjective 'gaudy,' meaning overdone, excessively ornate, garish, etc. The negative connotation to the word is unfortunate because Gaudí's work is amazing. Afterwards, during the walk to dinner we passed La Sagrada Familia, which is a famous Roman Catholic Cathedral that Gaudí worked on his whole life, with construction beginning in 1882 and he joining in 1883. Its projected completion year is 2026, which marks 100 years after his death. Work has been able to continue thanks to detailed plans he left behind. When viewed from the outside (in the words of our guide) 'it;s like Where's Waldo' because there's so much detail if you look closely enough. Everything about its construction is religiously meaningful in some way. For example, the three façades will be called Nativity, Passion, and Glory; and will depict scenes reflective of their names. If you care to learn more about the symbolic construction and see some picture, click Here. The next day we got up early to go see Olympic Park, which was used during the Summer Olympics. Then we went to see a park with a beautiful view of the Mediterranean Ocean. Afterwards we went back to La Sagrada Familia, this time to go inside! A friend of mine was so excited to see it she was literally brought to tears, twice. Like the outside, construction is still ongoing, but there are walls of gorgeous stain glass that make the light look like rainbows. Since we were done fairly early in the day, a group of us bought tickets for a tour a FC Barcelona's stadium, called Camp Nou. This was another emotional point in the day, because one of girls in my group aims to be a sports journalist, and was so excited to see the stadium. It turns out they've got a museum in the stadium, filled with old cleats and balls, myriad trophies, videos of game highlights over the past decades, and much more. Then we got to see the field and the press box, and generally explore. On Sunday we got up and immediately got on the bus to go to a tour of a winery called Torres. They have acres and acres of different kinds of grapes, and they explained the whole process to us. After the tour we were given a sample of a white wine, and then let loose to buy whatever wine we wanted (I went with none). For lunch we stopped at the city of Tarragona, which is a very old city in the south of Catalonia. I took some pictures and ate some ice cream! That was the end of our tour, and we proceeded to make the rest of the drive home to Alicante. 

 A nice view from Park Güell.

 The famous benches that Gaudí designed. Surprisingly, they're very lumbar-supportive!

 Some of the girls trying out the benches!

 Lindsey and I posing with one of the lizards. This was a coveted photo opportunity, we literally had to jump into that position for our chance.

 An outside view of La Sagrada Familia. It's even more amazing in person.

 A view of Olympic Park.

 A view of the port from the park we went to. I should probably know the name of the park, but I don't. It was high enough up that there were little gondolas to take people up and down.

 Even the walkway that only your feet touched in this park were detailed and nice to look at.

 A fountain in the unspecified park. It was also very pretty from the top of the fountain, which looked like a small pond.

 A cool archway we we driving past in the bus. It's tinted blue from the bus window!

 One of the many 'Where's Waldo' opportunities that our guide pointed out to us. Towards the middle of the picture you'll see a bull's horn, and below it the face of a bull. Above and slightly left of the horn is a view of the left side of baby Jesus. Easy, right?

My attempt at a panoramic of the inside of La Sagrada Familia. It looks a little weird, but hopefully it gives you a sense of the whole inside.

 This picture is two for one! I'm pretty sure our guide was saying that the white-haired man in the same-colored shirt is the priest of La Sagrada Familia. Or I was mistaken and it's just some guy. In the background is the stunning stained glass that will fill the all the walls in 2026.

 More of the stained glass. I loved it! Our guide also explained that the shape and structure of those columns were what allowed the cathedral to stand. Gaudí was also in tune with nature, which is why they somewhat resemble tree trunks.

 Camp Nou's museum. These are just some of the trophies they had on display.

The field from the blue level seats.

 A view of the field from the press box. It's hard to see in the picture, but I was very interested in the perfect squares of green making of the field. How do they do that? You can also see FC Barcelona's tagline written with seats: "Més que un club," which means "More than a club" in Catalan.

 One of the buildings in the winery.

 One of the areas they store wine to be aged. Although this was for the tour so it might have been just for show. They keep it cool and dark for years, depending on the type of wine.

 One of the many fields of grape plants on the property.

 The selection of wines behind the bar. They made it look really nice!

 A little park in Tarragona. It was very pretty there.

The walkway we used while we were casually searching for food.

Tortitas!

Today was like a normal weekday: we went to class, ate lunch and then went to read on the beach. Something out of the ordinary: we prepared a presentation about Galicia that we'll give in class tomorrow. It has a be 15-20 minutes. WHAT I can barely do that in English! Anyway, a little bit about Galicia: it is one of the seventeen autonomous communities in Spain, and is located in the northeast, right above Portugal. Its capital is Santiago de Compostela, and if that name sounds familiar it's because since the ninth century thousands of people have been making the pilgrimage to see the body of St. James. In Spain he is only referred to as 'Santiago de Compostela,' and his tomb is special because supposedly it contains his whole body. Churches are venerated when they have only a finger or maybe a bone (called relics), but this place has the whole body, great! Anyway, Lindsey and I brought presents for our host mom Carmen, and Lindsey's was maple syrup from her home state. That got us talking about pancakes and next thing I know we're making them! Carmen said she had never tried them before, but she seemed to really enjoy them. For not having made pancakes before, Carmen knew what to put on them! In addition to the syrup we had the choice of whipped cream, margarine, and two flavors of ice cream. As they say in Spain, ñum!

 Our attractive stack of little pancakes, which are called 'tortitas' in Spanish.

 Lindsey and Carmen sitting down to the wholesome meal. Can you guess who's who?

Here's Galicia! For reference, Santiago de Compostela is located in La Coruña.

The House We Live In

Nothing very exiting happened today: I went to class, came home to have lunch, then went to the beach! The first class of the morning is with the teacher from America, who we call DZ. So far we've read the play Bodas de Sangre (Blood Wedding) by Federico Garcia Lorca, which is about an angsty bride whose antics cause her two lovers to kill each other. The second class is longer, and we learn about Spanish culture and geography. We've gone over all the major cities in the comunidades that make up Spain, and some things making up their culture. Speaking of culture, Alicante has really calmed down since the Hogueras of San Juan have ended! No more music until five in the morning, and there seem to be about half the number of people. It's still interesting how many shops are closed from 2 to 5 in the afternoon for siesta, and most people start dinner as late as 10:30 or 11. Writing this at midnight I can still hear people sitting outside at the cafes down the street. Since I haven't taken any pictures today, I'm going to include some pictures of the house I've been living in! Note: mi madre espanola, Carmen, does have a bedroom. I just didn't take a picture of it!

 This is my room, while Lindsey was taking a nap :) The window opens up to the street.

 This is the bathroom, which is a quick right when I leave the door to my room. Yes that is a bidet. We wash our feet in it.

 This is Lindsey's room. It's a lot smaller than mine but it does have the nice perk of an air conditioning unit.

This is the living room, which does have a nice-sized television, but nobody ever really watches it.

This is the terrace outside the kitchen window. Sometimes we eat breakfast here and it has a clothesline. Carmen reads out here quite often.

This is the view of the kitchen from the doorway. There's a fridge to the left out of the picture, and a window opening to the sunroom to the right of the table. We eat most of our meals here; my chair is the one farthest on the right.










This is a just a sign on the wall of the hostel in Valencia. I thought it was funny and makes me feel better when the locals have zero patience with my baby Spanish :)

Weekend in Valencia

This past weekend almost all of the kids on the trip decided to visit Valencia together! The others stayed in a hostel both nights of the weekend, but Lindsey and I decided to wake up early Saturday to catch a train, and leave Sunday evening. Two of my roommates were a couple from Australia who dropped everything at home and have been backpacking through Europe for the past few months. Valencia is beautiful, as per usual for Spain. Also typical of Spain, there was a lot of walking involved with it. Some people visited the aquarium in the 'City of Arts and Sciences,' but mostly I just walked around to see the sights. Unfortunately the ratio between time spent sleeping and time spent on activities has been way off this weekend, so I apologize for the generic tone of my post tonight. Valencia really is an amazing city--I'll just let my pictures say it for me!

 This was the street right near our hostel.

 A nice-looking building in the Plaza de la Virgen.

 A fountain in the Plaza de la Virgen. I assume the female statues are the virgins the name refers to.

 The type of street we were walking through this weekend.

 A view of the city visible from the top of one of the grand entrance ways to Valencia left over from older times. I only know that because we briefly hijacked a tour group.

 This was one of the first buildings we saw while walking to the City of Arts and Sciences. This is the music building.

 This seemed to be some sort of halfway enclosed garden.

 This is only part of a giant shallow pool in the 'City.' In another part they had big plastic hamster balls people could rent.

 Another view of the pools.

 This was our room, complete with a tired Lindsey. All the rooms had the birdcage decals on the walls. It was clean and cheap!

 People standing around.

 I'm not sure what this building was. There were buildings aesthetically similar to this one all over the place.

This is one of Valencia's train stations (the one we used, of course).