Economics 101

I would receive an A+. In times of economic turmoil, chaos, and hopelessness, I saw the light. Twice. In two days. 

1. Emily Slatter was correct when she told me European Zaras (thee most ubiquitous clothing store, created by self-made and now richest Spanish man Armancio Ortega, 72 years old, worth $20.2 bill) trump the American Zaras. It took all the self-restraint I could muster up not to make any purchases. 

2. I just booked a flight to Pisa for 10 euros. It would have been 5 had I been the holder of a Visa Electron card, so there's still room for improvement. 

Until later, amigos. May the bail-out be with you. (I will obsessively be checking cnn.com for updates today)

Sevillan Nights

Sevillans live in the streets, totally opposite from Americans. It is not uncommon to see entire families out walking after midnight. Whereas Americans often congregate with friends inside someone's house for an evening of entertainment, here people prefer to meet at the bars and cafes. The house is a private space used for rest, not to entertain friends. The Spaniards would not approve of the countless Rollette Maintence Crew and Friends movie and game nights that occurred this summer haha. They would be even more shocked by Paul's mantra, "If you've been in the fridge twice, you're family." Yesterday after our (pseudo-)class, Alesha, Marisa, Joanna, and I went to a tiny cafe, sat outside, and played Yahtzee for about two hours. We kind of felt like old men, but we had fun. 

Later that evening we were joined by a couple other friends, and we were on our way to La Carboneria, a popular bar and flamenco destination. After stumbling (literally, shoes and cobblestones...not compatible) through the winding alleyways of the barrio Santa Cruz, we found it. There was a tiny, red barn-like door and no sign or address number. A very serious-looking man who could have given the British Guards a run for their money stood outside, looking straight ahead, no emotion. We entered and thought 'are we in the right place?' There was a bar on the left, in a dark alcove, with no one there. The room felt like a cave made of white brick, and there was a lady singing and sullenly playing the pianoforte. 

Finally, we found what we were looking for: two swinging doors opened up to a giant, white tent full of tables, benches, and a small stage. On the other side of the tent was a patio area, very lively. We chatted outside for a bit, but heard more and more people congregating in the tent, for what was a great spectacle. 

The performers:

young, 30-somethings guitarist

young, 60-somethings singer with a booming voice 

flamenco dancer, clad in a satin purple ruffled dress and a whole lot of attitude! 

They were outstanding, and a joy to watch. The dancer was fierce. After the performance, we managed to find our way back to the cathedral (sans getting lost), across the river, and it was back to our apartments. October 10th we are going to Arenal, where we are to watch the reportedly best Flamenco in the world. 

Tomorrow is the bull fight. I'm excited. 

Lost in Translation

...what happens to be a great movie and a phrase applicable to my current state. Sometimes I simply cannot understand my host mom. For instance, she knocks on the door this morning while I'm in the shower, asking me if the water's too cold (which it wasn't). I was a bit frazzled because I thought I had been in there too long, and she wanted me to turn off the water. Anyway, she tells me 'continue, continue'. When I got out, it took her about 5 minutes of explaining for me to understand that when you turn on the hot water, the heater in the kitchen cupboard produces fire. Since she was in the kitchen and didn't see any fire, she thought I didn't have hot water. That was all haha. I wish I could understand everything she's saying 24/7, but I know it will take time (patience was always a virtue I lacked, eh mom?) I felt a little better, though, upon reminding myself that yesterday in grammar class, Ruben our teacher told us if we could understand los sevillanos, we could understand all Spanish-speaking people. Phew. 

Bob- "Can you keep a secret? I'm trying to organize a prison break. I'm looking for, like, an accomplice. We have to first get out of this bar, then the hotel, then the city, and then the country. Are you in or you out?"

Charlotte- "I'm in. I'll pack my stuff."

Bob- "I hope you've had enough to drink. It's going to take courage." 

Princesses and Broken Cameras

Today I mourn the death of my camera. It turns on, but not completely. Kind of like the annoying iPod battery symbol that appears to let you know the battery's dead, what a tease. For now I will result to stealing group members' pictures off Facebook and utilizing Google Image. Ay. 

I'm trying to familiarize myself with Spanish sports, government, music, television, pop culture in general. Here is a song called "Princesas" by Pereza, one of the most popular Spanish Rock bands, enjoy! 

Vamos a ver una corona muy "bling bling."

...said the tour guide Pilar. Translation: We are going to see a very "bling bling" crown. Today we toured the cathedral here in Sevilla. It was magnificent: gothic architecture (tall columns, dark), 3rd biggest in the world after the Vatican and St. Paul's in London. Apparently this one is the greatest in volume, though, so...go Sevilla!

The cathedral houses the official tomb of the world's most glorified pirate: Chris Columbus. He wasn't actually buried, per se. His remains lie in a structure that is held by four kings, representing the four kingdoms of Spain, which were Castille, Leon, Aragon, and Navarre. Supposedly there are other tombs that contain some of his remains: Havana (Cuba), Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), Valloloid (Spain) where he originally rested. 

In the words of Pilar, "May Columbus rest in pieces." 

The best part of the cathedral was the glorious Bell Tower (1st picture above), we walked up and up and up the ramp spiraling around the tower til we reached the tippy top. The bells (24 in total) sound every 15 minutes. You could see the entire city, which I noticed is almost completely flat. I saw the Plaza de Toros where we are going to see a bull fight Sunday! One girl in our group is opting out, citing that bull fighting is inhumane because they kill the bull...yet she's a carnivore. I feel like while it's not necessarily the nicest thing to do, humans have done much worse. The bull will die whether I go or not, and afterward it will end up on someone's dinner plate (just not mine haha). More to come Sunday night!

Note: Spaniards are very unaggressive drivers. No one beeps their horn at other cars (or pedestrians in the crosswalks.) I suppose it's because no one's in a hurry to get anywhere, bienvenidos a Espana.  

Art Things

Picasso's "Guernica"! Amazing, no? This is definitely el Museo de Reina Sofia's most precious work. There are three rooms dedicated to it (the glorious mural in the middle room and rooms displaying sketches of different phases of his masterpiece on either side). Guernica is a town located in Northern Spain, and during the Spanish Civil War, Franco, the brutal dictator who was buds with Hitler, allowed the Nazis to drop a saturated bomb that leveled the city. Picasso was away in France at the time, but the horror inspired him to create this brilliant anti-war mural. Perhaps it's difficult to see all the components in this picture, but it basically depicts the chaos and destruction of war..an injured horse, a woman and her dead child, a man trapped by fire, etc. 

La Vida Espanola

eat. relax. eat. siesta. eat. walk. sleep. repeat.

Mi casa, su casa

Room with a view: Unfortunately my Sony Powershot fails to capture the details of the rooftops I can see for miles and miles. 

Today I sit idly, as nothing is open on Sundays save a few cafes. We are lunching soon, afterwards I might have to sip some coffee outside and continue reading Emma, which I am shamed to admit I have been neglecting since I've been here! 

This evening we're meeting a couple girls at an internet cafe by their apartment to plan a trip to Greece in November. I'm just going along for fun (and because nothing's more exciting than vacation planning!) because I will (hopefully) be meeting the Arndt girls somewhere in Italy that weekend. Oh, and fear not, Lola (our program director), has a turkey dinner planned for us on Thanksgiving, what a charmer. 

We don't start class til next week, so I feel like a bit of a deadbeat, but I suppose I'll try to enjoy the downtime before the chaos of studies and weekly excursions begins. This week we just have a 2 hr/day crash course in grammar, and tomorrow we are going exploring with Lola on bikes around town. Seville is a very bike-friendly city. For 13 Euros, we can buy a year's pass on their bike system. There are different points around the city (bike stations, if you will) where you simply take a bike and ride it wherever you want, as long as you drop it off at another station. 

My Classes:

Spanish Art of the Golden Age

Spanish Realist Novel

Spanish Literature: Humanism to Cervantes

Contrastive Grammar: English-Spanish

Spanish Semantics 

Good day!

Destination: Sevilla

After a lovely last night in Madrid spent at el Museo del Reina Sofia, we ventured to Toledo, also known as the "City of Three Cultures." Toledo was the capital of Spain whilst under the rule of the Visigoths (after the Romans, before the Arabs) in the mid-6th century. The city was an important hub for Jews, Moors, and Christians alike. After our tours, we had an hour for lunch, but I went off to find some house slippers (with no luck), but I happened to stumble upon a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant that served kebabs.  Never in my life did I predict I would be speaking Spanish with a Turkish man haha..it was finally off to begin our 5 hour journey south to Sevilla!

Arrival: Our host families met us near the University, where we all went our separate ways. My roommate's name is Joanna, and she attends the College of Charleston. We live with a sweet little lady named Carmen, her son Carlos, and her adorable little black dog Tana. Right away, Carmen went ahead preparing us a delicious dinner of salad, tortilla (potato omelet), fresh bread, apples, and plums. We ate and watched Private Practice with dubbed over voices in Spanish, so that was interesting! Carmen just so happens to be a Grey's fanatic as well.

Our room: 7th floor, killer view...picture to come.

Little facts about Spain:

-size of Texas, 3rd biggest country in Europe after Russia and France

-17 autonomous regions (Sevilla is in Andalucia)

-2700 miles of coastline

-2nd most mountainous country in Europe after good ole Switzerland

No Bug Bites!

Don't tell Molly. Last night's sleep was delightful. Today I really felt that I was in a whole new world (!!), it makes a world of a difference to actually be conscious and aware of your surroundings, and to be able to think well enough to communicate with Spaniards.

Overview:

Went to the Royal Palace, very ornate, stunning (but what palace isn't?) Carlos III had quite the impressive collection of tea sets from Germany and France, not to mention a dining table that seats 140 guests. 

Later we visited el Museo Nacional del Prado and saw the works (obras) of El Greco, Velazquez, and Goya. El Greco was definitely my favourite. He painted eye-catching religious works, focusing on the figures. His paintings are almost divided in half: divine characters in the upper half and earthly characters on the lower half, but creating one cohesive painting.  Unfortunately this museum didn't house the works of more modern painters (i.e. Picasso and my personal favourite, Salvador Dali), but I found out they are located at another museum nearby, so have no fear, it will be found! 

Food:

It will be hard eating at American restaurants again. Food here is ridiculously amazing, or maybe I had two days of good luck?  You can choose to eat at the bar, at a table inside, or at a table outside, in increasing order of price levels, however the difference was about $1 so we thought we'd take advantage of the lovely weather. The restaurants offer a bazillion (I counted) a la carte options, but we all ordered from the menu of the day, which includes a drink, bread, two courses, dessert, and only costed 8.90 euros, so pretty good deal. I ordered gazpacho (my new-found culinary love), which is a traditional Spanish soup in a tomato base, served cold. It sounds strange, and maybe is, as I am the only one so far who absolutely loves it haha but oh well..the second course had three options, and I found out the first two were cerdo (RED FLAG! PIG! RED FLAG!). The third choice was fish, phew. If they don't serve pig, the next most popular is fish, so I'm lucky! But you would truly be amazed at the number of pig cuts and ways of cooking it the Spaniards have discovered.  Anyway it's almost 2, we have an 8 a.m. wake-up call, what am I doing? Buenas noches de Madrid!

What day is it?/Initial Thoughts

Quick explanation of title: I wrote for my school newspaper, the Criterion, and "Incessant Rambling" was the name of my title. That is what you're sure to find. I must admit my writing prowess is much inferior to that of Emily haha but bear with me, I'll try to make it interesting!

Day 1, here goes nothing

Flight: Nothing is odder than flying away from the sun and meeting it again 7 hours later, not to mention being served breakfast 3 hours after dinner. I was ecstatic upon finding my seat in the aisle (personal space!), and the girl next to me didn't get up the entire length of the flight, what a champ. 

Madrid: Madrid is huge. Five million people, I do believe. There is an astronomical difference between the architecture and feel of the outskirts of the city versus the interior. The outskirts are not necessarily "slums", but definitely not the Europe you picture. Lots of tall, brick buildings and even more graffiti, very American-urban feeling. The centro is gorgeous, as I expected. Fountains, government buildings, museums, apartments in shades of beige with the same tall windows and same tiny iron balconies. No skyscrapers. 

Hotel: It felt wonderful to finally settle into our (petite) room at Hotel Regina. The room is, well, quaint. The decor is straight out of the 70s, with gold tapestry-like comforters and silky sage green curtains. The bathroom, strangely enough, feels super modern until you note that there's no screen on the window. The window overlooks a "courtyard," which is comparable in size to an elevator shaft and resonates sound like mad, making everyone's conversation heard. 6 inch voices, people!