Living and Learning, part I

Okay, so you all really cannot be surprised that it has been about 3 weeks since my last post because it is a pure reflection of my way of life--being very dedicated to something and then dropping the ball for a little bit. Then, when I feel guilty enough, I eventually turn back to it and give it my attention again. This is probably the case for most things in my life that require consistency, other than maybe friendships (although that is obviously up to your individual experiences with me... haha). That being said, a ton has happened these past few weeks, so I will try my best to summarize as extensively as possible.

SIDENOTE: My señora, Begoña, just walked out of the kitchen towards me holding up a giant strawberry (the first of the season!) looking kind of like that cute little mouse from that children's book saying "Ay, qué grande, ¿no?" (Wow, look how big this is!) to which I responded "¡Sí, es como una oreja!" (Yeah, it's like an ear!) My schedule this semester has a big chunk of time every day in the middle of the day which allows me to come home every day for lunch and have precious moments like these :)

Catching the Traveling Bug...
Recently, people keep telling me that I've been traveling a lot, but I still think that I definitely have not traveled as much as other people. However, I guess the outsider's perspective does have some objective truth to it, so yes, I am grateful to have gotten to travel recently! Although I still haven't left Spain yet, which I actually really love because this is a great country to explore because there is such a variety of culture here. I'll be leaving Spain in a couple of weeks though so that is exciting! More details on my future travel plans later in this entry.

Another thing: it's the people that make the place. This isn't a new concept for me, but it's certainly one that has been reaffirmed in my time here. As someone who values relationships a lot, that's what I've found is one of the greatest things about traveling: all the people that you meet just because of the nature of your status there as a tourist. You don't really have too much to lose because you are there to experience the place, squeezing as much in the little time you have there as possible. You have no obligations there, and every encounter has so much potential to change your experience. In a way, you're forced to let go of your inhibitions because that's the only way to have the best time: to dive in headfirst. (The life metaphors that you can make based on what I just wrote are so blatant that I'm not going to even spend time spelling them out :-P)
And then, of course, when traveling, second to the people is the food, on which you already know how much value I place from my Madrid entry!

>> Sevilla y Córdoba were absolutely amazing. I signed up for this trip as soon as I heard that my Islamic Art professor was going to be leading it, and I was not disappointed at all. Cordoba is about a 2 hour bus ride from Sevilla, so we went there as a day trip on the second day. It was a perfectly sunny weekend, and by the end of it, I realized that we had been learning so much throughout the day that my head almost wanted to burst with all the information! Both are much more of the small-town, typical Spanish cities that you imagine visiting as a tourist in Spain. At one point when I was walking around the streets of Sevilla, I felt like I was in Disney World with the bright, pastel-colored buildings, everyone walking around on the street, and especially with a tram. Later, because it was Carnaval (kind of a Halloween-esque Mardi-Gras) my friend told me that he actually saw a Mickey Mouse, which confirmed our previous impressions.

The theme of the trip was basically to actually see the religious tolerance and conflict of the Iberian Peninsula that we discuss in my class (The Iberian Peninsula: Cultures & Religions Through the Arts), and it was just so interesting because the architecture blatantly told that story. It's literally like a living picture book, where the pictures illustrate the (hi)story. For example, this image to the left is one that I took in the synagogue in Cordoba. There is the Christian cross under the Islamic carvings that are outlined with Hebrew writing. How much more obvious can you get about the religious heritage of Spain?

But my favorite building was the Great Mosque of Cordoba, that is now called the Cathedral of Cordoba (again, religious/political conquest!) We had been learning about the Mosque for the past couple of weeks in my class, and getting to see it with my professor guiding us was just amazing.

The more that I've been learning about the intentions of Islam in its architecture, the more I grow to respect its ideals. For example, the mosque is basically a huge area of space in which you can pray wherever you want because they consider God to be present in every part of it. The only form of direction that the building provides is the direction towards Mecca with the mihrab in the center of the qiblah wall. No one leads a service, there is no procession, it is just a direct encounter with God.
Then, also, you have Arabic calligraphy carved everywhere, which is just so beautiful and spiritual. I've learned from my readings for class that a reason why the Muslims use the writing a lot in their architecture as a form of a more intellectual encounter with God, so you can engage your mind in the act of devotion as well as everything else. It just makes your relationship with God such a more valued, precious thing.


I don't think I've ever seen such a stark contrast in my life than the one between the Great Mosque and the Cathedral that the Christians built smackdab in the middle of it when they conquered Sevilla. One telltale difference was in the lighting. The cathedral was flooded with sunlight whereas the mosque had much more subtle lighting, producing a much more tranquil atmosphere. There were also so many more images of people and ornate items in the cathedral whereas in the mosque you wouldn't really find very much iconic representations of things other than vegetation. It just made me think about the differences between what each religion chose to emphasize in their places of worship, and how as a Christian, I find myself appreciating the Islamic manner of encountering God a little more than that of the Catholics.

There are two things that my professor told us, once in class and once while on the trip, which really made an impression on me and I thought about them throughout our time in Sevilla and Cordoba.
--Sensuality: so when Carlos asked us in class "What is sensuality?", we were all a little taken aback by this question from our soft-spoken professor. But after we got over our immaturity, Carlos told us about how it is the noun to describe the sensation of the senses, which makes total sense (wow, that was not on purpose--how many different forms of the word can I use in one sentence??) He asked us that in the midst of our discussion on the difference between baroque Christian art and Islamic art. A lot of the Christian art that I've seen in churches and museums have been highly embellished and extravagant, and Carlos explained that the point of that art is to heighten your senses so that you are drawn into the art. Except what I realized is that my senses are more aroused when I am in the presence of Islamic art. There is something about the complicated simplicity that is depicted in Islamic architecture, and I experienced it so much throughout the trip. I would just get lost in the architecture that surrounded me, so much that every once in a while when Carlos would ask me a question because I was supposed to know the answer since I'd been studying for the past two weeks, I couldn't come up with the answer.

--The Weight of History: sounds like a book or something, right? When we were walking around the Cathedral of Sevilla, Carlos asked us the reason why we came to Europe and how we found it to be different from the United States. People gave their various responses, but then he gave us his own opinion--that in Europe, when you walk around and you visit places, you cannot help but feel the weight of history. And it is just so true. You just know how much influence the implications of the actions of the people before in Europe had on our present. Their history just goes so much further back in time than that of the United States.

So apart from the amazing history that we experienced in Sevilla, there is also amazing food and nice people to meet. Both nights that I was in Sevilla, we went to La Carbonería, which was this huge warehouse looking place turned into a bar/flamenco performing space. It was free entrance, and the drinks were both cheap and delicious!

I basically went on this trip on my own, even though I knew a few people, and it was great because it was a good group so I made some new friends, which is something I like to do in my spare time :) It was the type of trip that probably should've happened more towards the beginning of the semester instead of our scarring trip to the medieval, middle-of-nowhere towns of Besalu and Vic...

Okay, I'm going to write about my other trip to Granada now, but will continue in another post so as not to overwhelm you all ;-)