Granada

Escorial!

I visited the Escorial on Friday, and it was super cool. The monsatery itself is really beautiful, but it also has an incredible collection of paintings, antiques, statues, frescoes, etc. We spent the better part of a day slowly meandering through the monastery, and saw, among other things:

-El Greco´s last (and failed) attempt to be a court painter
-The Pantheon of the Kings. This is the mausoleum of the past kings of Spain. It was probably the most impressive room in the whole monsatery. The room is made entirely out of marble and gold.

The whole experience was very amazing. We found out later that, had we gone on Saturday instead of Frisay, we would have had the opportunity to see a relic housed in the monastery that is onyl shown two times every year. Bummer.

Upcoming Weekend

We had a group dinner last night at a resteraunt called Casa Mingo. It serves typical Asturian food, and we got to enjoy Cabrales (astrong cheese), grilled chicken and cider. Rafa, our history teacher, was kind enough to be our escanciador. Apparently with cider, you have to pour the cider from up high into a glass down low, otherwise the cider tastes bad. Somehow the shock of hitting the glass completes the fermentation process, something like that. Anyways, the escanciador is the person who pours the cider in such a manner. The dinner was a lot of fun, and it´s always great to get together with everyone in the program to eat.

We have a three day weekend, and I´ve got a packed schedule. Despite a number of amusing setbacks, I´m heading to the Escorial tomorrow, and to Granada Saturday and Sunday. We not only have bus tickets, but reservations in a hostel and tickets to the alhambra. It sounds like we´re organized, but we´re really just saving up all of our calamity for the last second. I´m in the process of puring my camera, in hopes of lots of sweet architecture, landscapes, etc, so hopefully I´ll have some images to share at the end of the weekend.

Sean OUT

Cordoba!

These are pictures from Cordoba! Cordoba was really amazing. It used to be one of the most important cities in Spain, and was inhabited by the Visigoths, the Moors, and eventually the Spanish Monarchs. The mosque here was probably the most interesting. It is built on the foundation of a Visigoth temple, was built in the 8th century, and has a cathedral built inside of it. It is really impressive, and the photos can´t do justice. The picture of the fountain with trees around it is from the botanical gardens. We visited the gardens even though it was raining, and we got to see some plants. There were also some frightening spiders.

Sean OUT

Salamanca and Segovia

I spent el Puente en Salamanca (Thursday and Friday) and Segovia (Saturday). I only now have had a chance to actually document the trip, because of a fairly large project due in our history class.

Salamanca was amazing. It was and still is the university town of Spain. We visited everything, including three museums, two cathedrals, a convent, a roman bridge and the university. There was a really great self led tour of the towers of the new cathedral (Salamanca has two!), and we had a chance to see the amazing landscape of the city and the various landmarks. The unviersity has an amazing entryway, covered in sculptures. I could go on, but basically Salamanca was incredibly beautiful and has a lot of history.

We spent the night in Salamanca, and I had my first experience in a hostal. It was dirt cheap (12 euros), and as one might expect it was cheap and dirty. Definitely sufficient for a one night visit, but I might look for better accomodations later on. We also went to a bar called la Chupiteria, where they serve exclusively shots. It was cheap, and they had some neat drinks, for example the "cerebro", strawberry vodka with baileys. If you put the baileys in last, it looks like a brain covered in blood. Very interesting.

Segovia was a little more touristy than Salamanca, if that´s possible. Segovia is home to some very old and very famous roman aqueducts, and is also home to a very old cathedral and castle, formerly residence to the Spanish monarchs. The aqueducts were amazing simply because they were so big. Feats of engineering really aren´t the same nowadays, and it´s hard to imagine constructing a 2 mile long, 100 foot high section of aqueduct without cranes and steamrollers. The castle was so-so, but we paid an extra 1.50 to climb the tower, and ti was totally worth it. Depsite almost dying as 250 tourists attempted to both ascend and descend a one person staircase at the same time, the view was amazing. You could see the countryside for miles and the entire city of segovia. It was amazing. The cathedral was also very impressive, but I´ve seen about 8 cathedrals by now and they´re beginning to lose their effect.

Weér heading to Cordoba and Sevilla tomorrow! I´ll be spending the next four days travelling in the sout of Spain, so Hopefully ´ll come back with exciting stories and intersting scars (and no strange illnesses). Hasta luego!

Sean OUT

El Puente

I´m off to Salamanca and Segovia this weekend. We have a four day weekend thanks to the Puente. I think we get extra time off because there´s a religious holiday, but I´m not sure. Regardless, we´re going to enojy ourselves checking out tourist spots and seeing the sights. Hopefully, we will also find a hostel, and won´t have to sleep in the streets.

We had an encounter today with some riff raff. Every Wednesday we have a picnic in El Retiro, and today as we were beginning to eat a group of kids approached us asking for food. We hesitated, then offered them some fruit. They must have taken our hesitation as some sort of signal, and they refused to leave until we gave them more food. They eventually fot tired of asking and simply grabbed a loaf of bread and a bottle of soda and ran off. It was kind of frustrating, because there´s not much you can do to a group of 13 year old kids to make them go away. Also, Gillian cut herself with a knife. So, not the best picnic ever.

And finally, I´ve spotted signs for Sodexho around Madrid. I didn´t have a camera with me, but I´ll get some photographic proof. Sodexho, it seems, is everywhere.

From Salamanca with love,
Sean OUT

The Weekend

I had a very interesting weekend, despite never leaving Madrid. On Saturday, my little brother Gaspar invited about a dozen friends over for his birthday party. This, in itself, was not that unusual. However, parents and relatives were continually dropping by to chat or have a drink with María José, and as a result she spent the better part of the day mildly inebriated. The greatest part about Saturday, however, was Manuel, the older brother.
Manuel attends boarding school during the week, and only returns for weekends. On this particular weekend, Manuel´s friends had decided to celebrate his return on Friday by having a get together. Manuel had never drank alchohol before, which was very apparent the next day.
Manuel had an epic hangover, the kind of hangover with trips to the underworld and divine intervention. And it was his little brother´s birthday.
So imagine, if you will, the combination of:
1) The worst hangover you´ve ever had
2) The incessant screams of your brother and his twelve best friends
3) relatives constantly stopping by to offer advice on how to deal with your hangover, or telling you why you feel like shit.
Overall, it was pretty funny to watch Manuel shuffle between the bathroom, bedroom and the nagging relatives. Also I felt a little sorry for him.

On sunday, I had a unique experience in the park Buen Retiro. I like to run in Buen Retiro because the run is usually about the perfect distance, and there´s a jungle gym in the center of the park that´s very convenient for pullups and abs. This Sunday, the Buen Retiro had an atmosphere totaly different from anything I´d ever seen before; The air was thick, like the whole park was filled with clouds, or there was a storm that only existed inside the park gates. Sundays are busier days in El Buen Retiro, and I eventually decided the air was thicker because of dust. So many people had been walking through the park that the air had filled with dust. It was a little surreal to change from day to dusk just by entering the park.

Once I reached the pullup bars, I went through my routine, which includes some ab excercises on the pullup bars. I shared the bars with the other runners and rugby players. A huge man approached me, a man who shook the whole set of bars when he did pullups, and asked me which muscles my ab excercises worked.

"The Stomach," I replied akwardly, "but I don´t know if the excercise actually works." He immediately recognized me as a foreigner, and asked where I was from. It turns out he was from the Dominican Republic, and is studying in Madrid to be a cook. He told me he hopes to work in Miami, because they pay well, and speak Spanish.

Not sure why, but the whole encounter was really interesting. It has a lot to do with accidental encounters, which is what we´re discussing with Huergo. A lot of our readings say the only true way to know a person is by accident.

Sean OUT

Animated and animation

Two items to report,

One, I feel better. I think the flu has died the terrible death it deserves, slow annd caused by tiny squirmy things.

Two, there is an animation festival here in Madrid that is pretty amazing. I´m going to spend a fair amount of time in the festival, but even still I won´t see half of what I´d like to. If you want to check it out, head to www.animadrid.com (if that doesn´t work just google animadrid, I had problems with the address).


In other news, my brother Gaspar turned twelve two days ago, and nobody in the family bothered to tell me. I´m now scrambling to buy him a present, although I feel like two days late and 7 days late are about the same, especially when the family didn´t bother to inform me.

Sean OUT

Architecture!

This is Toledan arhcitecture! hurray Spain!

¡Toledo!

The group took a trip to Toledo this past weekend, and it was pretty sweet. Toledo is a really old city, so it has a bizarre mix of arabic and spanish architecture. It also has a booming tourist industry. We were constantly assaulted by offers to buy swords, marzapan, and other things "typical of the area." We were only in toledo for a night and a day, so we only had time to do two things, window shop and take tours. By the end of the trip, everyone was tired of walking, and it was a bit of a relief to sit down.

I of course bought some souvenirs in Toledo, but I brought back something extra to Madrid: a fever. My personal belief is that the illness stemmed from a decidedly foolish act inspired by Humberto. On Thursday we watched a film called The Gleaners and the Gleanerette, a french film about people who recover food, art, etc from refuse. Inspired by the film, Humberto recovered what appeared to be a bread in perfect condition from the garbage. Following several nights of fever dreams, I have come to the conclusion that the bread was not in perfect condition. However, other students who did not partake of the tainted bread have also fallen ill, so perhaps there´s another explanation.

In the picture above, we have Rob on the left, looking very cool, humberto in the middle, with said tainted bread, and Rosalind on the right. Hopefully I´ll get a chance to put up some pictures of the Toledan architecture.

Sean OUT

Family Picture

Finally, here is a picture of my host family. From left to right: María José, Gaspar, Paco (divorced husband), and Manuel.