First, before I dive too far into my typical blogging rigamarole, I would like to inform you all that I have uploaded some of my best photos from my Eurotrip to Flickr for your viewing pleasure. (web address: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shantron5000/) Actually, it's for my own selfish reasons, but that's beside the point. I put them up so I could get some feedback on which ones you all like in order to help me decide which ones I should submit for the photography contest at the university here in Alcala. I am only able to submit 3 pictures, and I think I have to submit them by the 15th or something like that, so if you could check them out before then and let me know what you think it would be greatly appreciated. Make a comment on Flickr, on my wall, send me a message, etc., with which one(s) is (are) your favorite(s). I will take everyone's considerations, as I am really trying to win this thing, despite what my skewed and biased opinions of my own photos may be. Also, please note that the last three photos (car wash, scooby doo, and jessamine county bridge) are not for consideration in the contest. Thanks a million! Now, back to your regular programming...
So now that I've caught up from two weekends ago I shall now fill you in on last weekend, so that I can then fill you in on this weekend and the upcoming weekend. Still with me? Good. So On Friday I went on a li'l field tripski on what the spanish refer to as the "Ruta de Don Quijote." If you are unsure what that means, don't worry, I am about to tell you so you can stop freaking out. What it means in english is... wait for it... the "Route of Don Quijote." Astonishing, I know, but I'm not finished yet. What it really means is that once upon a time this somewhat crazy, self-absorbed and (depending on the time and the work) talented author named Miguel de Cervantes wrote a little novel, the first ever actually of the modern variety, and he called it "Don Quijote de la Mancha." The real title is a bit longer, but you get the idea. Anyhow although this loco Don Quijote was not a real person, per literary tradition of the time period, Cervantes wrote about him as though he were a living, breathing, person who traveled about the spanish countryside in search of grand adventures. Thus we still have today various places which were well-enough described in the novel to merit the placement of their existence to actual locations throughout Spain. On this field trip we visited two of them: Puerto de Lapice and Campo de Criptana.
Puerto de Lapice is a tiny little town which, sadly enough, might not have even existed today were it not for my man Cervantes. The reason being that in this little pueblo lies one venta, or hotel, in which supposedly our favorite crazy man Don Quijote was (un)officially knighted. On the field trip we got to see the courtyard and the trough where supposedly this action took place. We also performed a bit of a skit/dialogue which we had created, with none other than yours truly playing the esteemed role of Don Quijote, in all his pre-knighthood glory, replete with a plastic, child-sized suit of armor. I will post pictures for you to laugh at and ridicule post-haste. We didn't hang around long after this production, as like I said, this town is tiny and doesn't have much to offer outside of this historical hotel. Onward to the windmills!
Campo de Criptana is, as my history professor described to me while we were there, another little town that more than likely would no longer exist were it not for good ol' Cervantes. That being said it was a bit larger than Puerto de Lapice, though it was not what I would call a 'bustling metropolis.' What it lacked in entertainment value and sheer population size it made up for in an amplitude of windmills of the medieval variety. I mean these things were huge, and entirely composed of wood and stone, as per the building and fire codes of the century back then of course. We got to take a tour of one of them which had been fully restored to functional capacity, and it was actually pretty cool. Didn't do too much there, but we did have another little theatrical production in which Abram ran into one of the windmills as Don Quijote, which was pretty fun to watch. (Don't worry, he's fine).
In the week since then a lot of shite has gone down, including but not limited to my self-proclaimed fantastic performance on a radio show in Alcala, done as part of an assignment for my media class here. I don't think it will be posted online unfortunately, giving you one less thing to ridicule me about (I promise, the other photos will be uploaded soon), but I can assure you it was just a rip-roarin' good time. I got to play the part of Lope de Vega in yet another little theatrical production, this time being a script which we read with altered voices for the entertainment of the discerning peoples of Alcala. It went really well though, and I got a few compliments on it, so my self-esteem was still intact as I walked out of the studio, and remains so to this day.
Also of note is the fact that I have since moved out of Isabel's house for the last month here due to complications, and by that I mean her and Carlos really didn't get along well. Like, at all. So without bashing anyone too much or putting the blame on any one person, it is safe to say that although the new house is farther away from everything (about a 30-minute walk), I am much happier with my new family and everything else that goes with it. Hopefully no one was worrying too much about it. I have an unfortunate habit of posting my daily events as my facebook status when I don't have time to write anything else, which I suppose leaves a lot of people wondering. And no, it's not a literary tool that I employ to get you all in suspense for reading my blog, although it's not such a bad idea...
Anyways I have just been hanging out with the fam this weekend, getting ready for my big Italy trip, about which I am very excited. I will be leaving Monday, and flying into Milan. From there I will be heading directly to Venice, then to Florence, then to Rome for two days, then to Pisa, then to Genoa, then back to Milan for the last night, so I can catch my flight back at some ridiculously early time in the morning. Hooray! I hope to take lots of pictures (some of which could be candidates for the photo contest), eat lots of delicious italian food, and try to relax a bit before I have to go back to school and hand in the homework my jerk professors assigned to me for doing over spring break. I may or may not be able to get online during my time there, no promises, but if not I will update when I get back. I hope it's been as much of a pleasure for you to catch up with my current events on here as it has been a chore for me to write about them. (I didn't mean that). Ciao for now! :)
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Friday, April 3, 2009
Playing catch-up
I just switched houses a couple days ago and I don't have wireless internet anymore, so I have to make my time online more brief and to the point, but I will add what I can when I can to catch up with the past two weeks and tell you more about what's going on now...
So I went to the Fallas two weeks ago, catching the bus to go there by one minute, literally. It was a nice ride though, only about 4 hours, and we got into Valencia around 10 that night. We stayed at a really nice hotel, very modern (it was a "high-tech hotel" by designation), and we went out exploring the city a bit that night. We also got to see a bit of the big fireworks show they do the second-to-last night of the festival, which was pretty impressive. We woke up pretty early on Thursday for the big day's events, and also to go in search of fireworks stores. We attended the mascleta (fireworks show) on the bridge of San Jose, patron saint of carpenters and the reason they have the Fallas celebration, then walked all over to see the big fallas statues and take pictures. In the afternoon we attended the huge mascleta on one of the big plazas, and we couldn't see everything because it was so packed with people but we did get to hear it and see some of the fireworks and the smoke that resulted from the show. After walking around for a while we did end up finding a fireworks store, and we loaded up a bag with all sorts of different kinds to take to the park for an explosion-fest of our own. It was a lot like the 4th of July, but with bigger fireworks. I mean these things were loud! We hung around for a while, then met up with some friends and did a big show with our best fireworks that we had saved. Yes, we were drinking beer while we were doing this, but no, no one lost any fingers. Great success!
That night was the culmination of the whole week's festivities, and by that I mean they ceremoniously torched all of the fallas in the city in a huge pyro extravaganza. We were pretty lucky in that we actually got to see two of the big ones go up in flames from start to finish, and I got a bunch of good pictures of all of this which I will share when I have more time. We met up with some friends after that and hung out, and all-in-all it was a great time in ol' Valencia. My only regret is that we didn't have more time to explore the city and see the museums, the beach, the aquarium, and everything else it has to offer.
That Saturday we (my friends Aaron, Abram, Carlos, and I) got free tickets to a bullfight in Madrid through Carlos' dad, so we all went to see that and get a taste of Spanish culture. There were four other students there from our program (they go to St. Mary's in Texas, and some school in Dayton, Ohio), and we got to sit with them in the arena, which was cool. Once again I was really glad Carlos' dad was there because he had all sorts of information about the bullfight, so we understood it a lot better than if we had been there on our own. Basically the way it works is there are 3 main matadors, and they each get to fight 3 bulls in succession, then the order repeats for the next three buls, meaning there are actually 6 bullfights per day of bullfighting. In our case we got to see 8 bulls total, because two of them didn't make the cut and had to leave the arena without going through the whole bullfighting process. The others were interesting though.
The matadors that we saw were not yet full professionals, as they were called 'novilleros', stemming from the name for the 4-year old bulls that they were fighting, called 'novillos'. Technically for a bull to be considered a professional fighting bull it has to be 5 years old or more, and in this case it would be called a 'toro', with the matadors who fight them being called 'toreros'. Anyhow the first bull was kind of a bad introduction because it was the goriest one (and I don't mean it gored the matador a lot of times, though I was secretly hoping for this the whole time). The others though were a lot more enjoyable to watch because the matadors got the job done relatively quickly, without as much blood and all that madness. I took quite a few pictures, and still have not had time to go through and edit/select the best ones, but again, I will do this as I can and update/post them when they are ready. In conclusion bullfighting is not something I'm really going to get into, but I think it was a good experience, and a good way to learn about the culture of Spain, especially since it was free.
Unfortunately this is all I can update for now, as I have to get moving on my homework and trip planning, but that at least catches me up with two weekends ago. Next post will update my adventures on the Route of Don Quijote and this past weeks mishaps with housing and moving, and getting ready for my trip. Hasta luego!
So I went to the Fallas two weeks ago, catching the bus to go there by one minute, literally. It was a nice ride though, only about 4 hours, and we got into Valencia around 10 that night. We stayed at a really nice hotel, very modern (it was a "high-tech hotel" by designation), and we went out exploring the city a bit that night. We also got to see a bit of the big fireworks show they do the second-to-last night of the festival, which was pretty impressive. We woke up pretty early on Thursday for the big day's events, and also to go in search of fireworks stores. We attended the mascleta (fireworks show) on the bridge of San Jose, patron saint of carpenters and the reason they have the Fallas celebration, then walked all over to see the big fallas statues and take pictures. In the afternoon we attended the huge mascleta on one of the big plazas, and we couldn't see everything because it was so packed with people but we did get to hear it and see some of the fireworks and the smoke that resulted from the show. After walking around for a while we did end up finding a fireworks store, and we loaded up a bag with all sorts of different kinds to take to the park for an explosion-fest of our own. It was a lot like the 4th of July, but with bigger fireworks. I mean these things were loud! We hung around for a while, then met up with some friends and did a big show with our best fireworks that we had saved. Yes, we were drinking beer while we were doing this, but no, no one lost any fingers. Great success!
That night was the culmination of the whole week's festivities, and by that I mean they ceremoniously torched all of the fallas in the city in a huge pyro extravaganza. We were pretty lucky in that we actually got to see two of the big ones go up in flames from start to finish, and I got a bunch of good pictures of all of this which I will share when I have more time. We met up with some friends after that and hung out, and all-in-all it was a great time in ol' Valencia. My only regret is that we didn't have more time to explore the city and see the museums, the beach, the aquarium, and everything else it has to offer.
That Saturday we (my friends Aaron, Abram, Carlos, and I) got free tickets to a bullfight in Madrid through Carlos' dad, so we all went to see that and get a taste of Spanish culture. There were four other students there from our program (they go to St. Mary's in Texas, and some school in Dayton, Ohio), and we got to sit with them in the arena, which was cool. Once again I was really glad Carlos' dad was there because he had all sorts of information about the bullfight, so we understood it a lot better than if we had been there on our own. Basically the way it works is there are 3 main matadors, and they each get to fight 3 bulls in succession, then the order repeats for the next three buls, meaning there are actually 6 bullfights per day of bullfighting. In our case we got to see 8 bulls total, because two of them didn't make the cut and had to leave the arena without going through the whole bullfighting process. The others were interesting though.
The matadors that we saw were not yet full professionals, as they were called 'novilleros', stemming from the name for the 4-year old bulls that they were fighting, called 'novillos'. Technically for a bull to be considered a professional fighting bull it has to be 5 years old or more, and in this case it would be called a 'toro', with the matadors who fight them being called 'toreros'. Anyhow the first bull was kind of a bad introduction because it was the goriest one (and I don't mean it gored the matador a lot of times, though I was secretly hoping for this the whole time). The others though were a lot more enjoyable to watch because the matadors got the job done relatively quickly, without as much blood and all that madness. I took quite a few pictures, and still have not had time to go through and edit/select the best ones, but again, I will do this as I can and update/post them when they are ready. In conclusion bullfighting is not something I'm really going to get into, but I think it was a good experience, and a good way to learn about the culture of Spain, especially since it was free.
Unfortunately this is all I can update for now, as I have to get moving on my homework and trip planning, but that at least catches me up with two weekends ago. Next post will update my adventures on the Route of Don Quijote and this past weeks mishaps with housing and moving, and getting ready for my trip. Hasta luego!
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