Tuesday, September 28, 2010

jerez y cadiz

friday i went to wine country with some friends, to jerez, or "sherry" in english, where they grow and produce the original sherry wine which is about 60% alcohol and tastes somewhat similar to what i imagine paint stripper might. 

my favorite part of this city though, wasn't the wine.  it was the amazing museum we went to that had all these centuries-old artifacts like these 19th century wine-corking contraptions:






 afterwards, we ran over to cadiz, a beach town with stoic roman ruins crumbling into the sea.  we spent the day swimming and playing against the ocean, the night skinny dipping, and the next day adventuring around the old buildings.  since we're poor, we slept on the beach, and were ruff silly by the morning (also, freezing cold).  our campsite in the morning:



a couple more shots of the most visually delicious beach i've ever seen:



Monday, September 20, 2010

dentro del acazar, y varias cosas....

outside la catedral a noche


the alcazar is this ancient palace in the middle of sevilla built originally by the romans, enhanced by the catholics, and topped off by the muslims building for their own empire and then building for themselves.  because of this, there are all difference kinds of art and architecture that you can find in the palace and the surrounding gardens.  gothic arches, baroque maps and tapestries, ceilings engraved in arabic...it's all spanish.  but this is also one of those situations where i feel like i'm committing a crime posting pictures of it.  what i can say is this-- i feel altered when i leave.  my breath is taken time and time again wandering around this place.  so, here are just a few attempts at reproductions:


A chunk of a roman wall well older than jesus...you can actually find bits of this "city wall" all over this town.








arabic dome ceiling






Thursday, September 16, 2010

john fulton

my spanish art teacher is this whimsical older lady who has lived in spain for 22 years after spending her first 40 or so in southern california.  she moved here for the love of her life, or in her words, her "media naranja", a bullfighter, painter, and the first american matador by the name of john fulton:

anyway so this is all great, but i have been pretty terrified by this whole bullfighting thing since i got here.  i became MORE scared when she presented us with paintings of his that he had painted with the blood of the bulls he had killed.  all that came to mind was ani difranco's line,

if there is one instinct i just can't get with at all
it's the urge to kill something beautiful just to hang it on your wall

...so....i'm not going.  to hell with it. 

Saturday, September 11, 2010

gratitude

just feeling grateful for my life, all the challenges and rewards, for my brain, for the people i love..por todos :)

i've had so many interesting experiences and learned so much in the last few days.  mostly of the spanish language...not to be a pompous ass, but i'm getting pretty good.   this week i will start intercambio, so i will be assigned a spanish student at the university with whom i'll practice my spanish while they practice their english with me.  also, our neighbor has two little ones (2 and 4 years old), and asked if i could teach them english for one hour a week, so i'll start with that in a couple of weeks. 


javier grew these tomatoes at his mountain refuge, and sandra made this amazing (and very aesthetic) salad.  my roommate maranda and i are going to camp at the refuge with several other american students in the next few weeks.






maranda and me at el parque maria louisa, which is pretty much in our backyard:



a lot of the stores have these pig legs chilling out in the heat all day, it's pretty gross:


the view of the city from el torre de oro:


i get a kick out of this painting of the virgin mary protecting the nina, the pinta, and the santa maria.  and i know somebody is going to say "you like EVERY painting of the virgin mary."  but this one i really like because it was painted in the 15th century, so you can still see the muslim influences, like the light around her face and her black cloak.  it's too bad i couldn't get a better shot of it.  i think it's great. 



both the old and the new architecture in this city is stunning as all hell.  me encanta mucho:






aaaaand this perrito i just photographed because i felt so bad for it:

Friday, September 10, 2010

mi companera de piso

finally arrived after being stuck in portugal for a couple of days.  :)

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

el dia segundo

last night before i had a map or a camera with me, i stumbled upon this endless gathering of little cobblestone paths with the most colorful gardens, buildings, etc, but after exploring all day and night today i couldn't find it again...i think it is a hidden city reserved only for the lost and mapless.  oh well. 

the place where christopher columbus's voyage was planned:

museum of folk art:
the archaeology museum:
persephone:

apollo:



ancient tomb guardian:


a little bit of la plaza de espana (this is seriously so off the real thing that i hesitate to even post it, but  my photo making skills are not so good):

neanderthal:





Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Chaos.

this is the chain of causes and effects leading to me being exhausted right now: my plane from dc to madrid is declared four hours late --> i buy a time magazine to pass the time with a headline that says something about israel --> the guy i'm sitting next to on the plane speaks, tragically, worse english than i do spanish, but we managed to talk about israel among other things for 6 of the 8 hours, and the rest of the time i was way too captivated by the richard dana inspired horizon as we were catching the sun to get any sleep --> once i get to seville i realize i have to walk about a mile with my luggage in a city without traffic signs let alone english ones--> i was exhausted at this point, but not deterred: i still adventured around this breathtaking city for the rest of the evening.