Spellbound by Spain: España Encantadora

Hello, all!

First I'd like to apologize for my absence from blogging. It's been a busy couple of months.

I'll keep it brief with some pictures, ¿vale?

In November, I was terribly busy with schoolwork, reading books for class, discovering all the hidden corners (rincones) of Madrid, and planning for winter vacations with my dad, who was visiting from December 22-January 4. We had a great time! I´ll keep pictures from that trip brief since I added so many on Facebook.

For my Complutense class in December, we had to give a presentation and I paired myself with Spaniards, so when we presented, it was pretty intense. It was about the United States-Spanish Agreement of 1953, so I learned a lot about international relations of which I had no previous knowledge, and was able to learn a lot from my group mates. They're great.

In late November, our WIPT group went to Córdoba, an amazing little city in the southern part of Spain. It was absolutely gorgeous. We visited the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba among many other places, of which I will add photos below. Here I will also attach the wiki page so as not to weigh down the post with my geekiness. It is the embodiment of Visigoth/Christian, Muslim, and (reconquested) Christian influence in one specific site in Spain and it's truly impressive. The inside has been compared to a forest of palm trees, and I finally was able to understand why. It's a marvelous sight, that's for sure. (Mosque-Cathedral Wiki)

We also had our WIPT group Thanksgiving dinner at a not-so-traditionally Thanksgiving restaurant but it was delicious and home-y nonetheless.

December was a blast-- my dad and I went to Valencia, Barcelona, Paris, and Rome. I got to revisit a lot of my favorite spots and check out some new ones in both Valencia and Barcelona, and even though the weather was pretty painfully cold in Paris and Rome, we saw a lot of amazing things and had some very neat opportunities. We spent almost an entire day at the Louvre museum, where I was able to see things I have been studying for years, and we saw Les Invalides, the Eiffel Tower, Champs-Élysées, L´arc de Troimphe, Notre Dame, the ¨love-lock bridge,¨ among countless other things. One of the local bagel places had a guy who helped me with basic French phrases, since I feel that it´s important to learn the basics when traveling to a country where their language is not one that you speak.

I must say, as enchanting as Paris was, I fell in love with Rome. I was able to practice my Italian a bit there and we did a self-guided, rapid walking tour to see a good portion of the city just before New Year´s. We visited the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain (even though it was under construction...), Piazza Navona, Castel Sant´Angelo, the Vatican Museums, St. Peter´s Basilica and Square, the Spanish Steps, Palantine Hill, the Roman Forum, and the Colosseum among many others.

I´ll definitely be going back sometime to revisit things when it´s not frozen or closed-- ha!

I finished up first semester´s classes really well and am liking my schedule so far for this semester, which include Dialectology, Phonetics, Islam in Spain, Contemporary History of Europe, and Religion and Symbology of the Indigenous American Cultures.

I´m planing on traveling a bit more this semester, and am already looking into Germany, Ireland, London, Brussels, Copenhagen, and Cinque Terre in Italy, as well as Portugal once summer rolls around. I´m trying to keep it light but at the same time, it´s difficult planning ahead and buying plane tickets so far in advance--I don´t live that organized of a life.

In May, Eric will be coming to visit for a good portion of the summer, and at some point, I´ll be taking the DELE exam-- it´s called the ¨Diploma of Spanish as a Foreign Language¨ and basically states that yes, I do speak Spanish. It's internationally recognized and lasts forever, so I'll be studying quite a bit to make sure I get it!

Well, I feel that this has surpassed what I tried to keep "brief," so on this note, I'll end:

"One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things." - Henry Miller, American author

¡Hasta la próxima!

Un beso,
Em

The minaret/bell tower at the Cathedral/Mosque in Córdoba (with a perfectly positioned bird flying around)

The following three photos are of the inside: the Palm forest. It's absolutely stunning.

Passing through what used to be the Jewish quarter in Córdoba, there were some beautiful sights to behold:

Below is what is called the Callejón de las Flores

A photo of a really nice part of the interior of the Casa Andalusí, remaining from the time when the Muslims controlled the city way back in the day.

The minaret of the church of San Juan: the most intact remaining minaret from the age of the Caliphates in Spain.

The bridge by night:

Also, the Roman Temple and what remains of its infrastructure:

The little area behind (not pictured) the statue of Maimonides, a scholar, astronomer, and philosopher who contributed to many aspects of the culture: religion (Judaism, Islam) as well as the sciences, who was born in Córdoba.