O Valencia!

I spoil you all with my whole two blog posts in 24 hours.

So THIS weekend our group went to Valencia. Why didn't I go to Valencia to study? I say that about everywhere I visit. Valencia is very quaint and Gothic and old. They've done a marvelous job of keeping up some of the original walls and fortresses. When you cross over from the old part to the modern part you pass through these huuuge arches, presumably where sentinels patrolled and dumped hot oil on you if you were a foe. I climbed so many stairs this weekend, my quads hurt. Good for Spain for not putting in some nonsense elevator in the middle of a cathedral, but honestly I got motion sickness climbing up 250 ever-narrowing stairs. 

Also as per usual our group was a yelling brigade of philistines and nearly got us kicked out of a cathedral for being loud when people were trying to pray, sliding on the tiles, and generally being obnoxious in a house of worship. 

On a related note, I have discovered that the quality I most dislike in people, above almost all else, is willful lack of curiosity. A lot of people I have met on my study abroad adventure have this sort of "learning is dumb, I don't care about this, why do I need to know this" attitude when it comes to things like history, architecture, and politics. Why WOULDN'T you want to know this? Why doesn't the pursuit of knowledge consume your entire being? Don't you realize that you, o privileged white upper-middle-class twentysomethings, have the luxury of being granted a whole 24 years of your life (give or take, I don't know when you started being read to or joining educational daycares or somesuch things) to JUST LEARN? As Americans born into a social class that grants us basically unrestricted access to fountains diluvial tons of information, we are expected to put any sort of social-contributing activities on hold until we earn a diploma. So please do away with this attitude that learning is dumb when there are people around the world who would do anything for the chance to even learn how to read. Pay attention to the nice lady telling you about relics and minarets. The end [steps down from self-righteous soapbox].

Also my mummy came to town last week. I was nervous, what with my crippling phobia of hosting in any capacity and the fact that Alicante solicits a resounding "meh" when people ask me how I like it. But I had a grand time, and I think Mom did too. She brought my aunt and uncle along, and they went to some towns in Alicante like Altea and Guadalest, and we went to the castle, and ate a lot of paella. Thursday I brought them to my house to have lunch with Juani and she made the most impressive paella I've ever seen, with prawns and mussels and all sorts of magic. Thanksgiving was nice too. We went to an Italian restaurant and had pizza, wine, and marscarpone ice cream. I haven't been able to spend Thanksgiving with my mom for a couple years now, so it was really nice to have her around, and also be a part of adult conversation. Mom was also good about practicing her Spanish and trying to learn things about Spanish culture. It was kind of an exhausting week for me because of class activities, but a good kind of exhausting. Only 5 weeks until I see her again. I hope the time goes by quickly; I'm ready to be home.

Enough rambling, here are photos: 

The town hall-like place where government stuff happens

 You may nominate me for a Pulitzer now for my stunning photography skills

 The Cathedral

 Apparently that thing is supposed to look like the ascension of Christ but I don't see it.

 A saint's relic...

 St Someone's ACTUAL RIGHT ARM ISN'T THAT AWESOME AND WEIRD.

 We also went to the Valencia aquarium! These pictures are terrible because it was through the glass, obviously. I love fish. I love aquariums because they are so calming. Also it's not like every day you're like "sting ray no big deal" so in that sense aquariums are like zoos but better.

The sea turtle was shy and wouldn't hover long enough for me to get a non-blurry picture

 Sea urchin!

 Moray eels are the ugliest thing I have ever seen. Ever.

 gratuitous turtle anatomy.

 This penguin was darting back and forth and being a general showoff.

 Pouty walrus is pouty

 Ok, the sunfish is in the running with the moray for ugliest thing I have ever seen

 It was feeding time in the shark tank. It was so scary, the sharks were totally eying the divers with their hungry beady eyes

 The reason I am content staying on dry land, thank you.

 scarlet ibis

 A scoop-billed something

 fascinatingly odd creatures

 scarlet ibis picking a fight with a duck

No promises for new posts soon but I go to Barcelona in a week so that'll hopefully bring things to share!


Maren

Seville photodump

Dear Everyone:

I am sorry that it has taken me almost 3 weeks to upload these pictures. Blogspot is not very snappy with letting me upload photos and as a result I claim watching British television as a better use of my time. That is no excuse.

Anyway, our group went to Seville for a weekend trip. Seville is about 6 hours by bus west of Alicante. It is a beautiful city with lots of great Gothic architecture. As per usual, it was torture traveling with the American Brigade, the bacchic philistines. BUT I tried not to let their blatant disregard for art and culture rain on my weekend. So I tuned them out while taking pictures and listening to the tour guide. My favorite part was the Seville Cathedral, a behemoth of a holy house that began construction in the 15th century and was mostly completed by the 16th. Obviously, since it's Spain, it was built on top of a former mosque site. They kept one of the minarets, La Giralda, and use it as a bell tower now. The Cathedral is also the burial site of Christopher Columbus (after much arguing with Puerto Rico over who deserved the bones of Columbus, but I fail to understand why a Latin American country would even want to honor him in any way, but whatever, this isn't my liberal soap box blog [I have at least two]) and has EIGHTY chapels. It's like a supermarket of holiness. Baptism in Chapel 2! Communion in Chapel 23! Holy water spilled, clean up chapel 7!

Anyway, here are some pictures:

 The cathedral of Seville

I took many pictures of ceilings.

The organ, decorated with cherubim and such.

This is Christopher Columbus's tomb. It is very impressive, but Olivia is sad because in Spain they think Columbus was a pretty sweet dude/national hero and no one really cares that he decimated native cultures BUT OH WELL.

A pallbearer from León (I know because of the sweet lion smock) who has his stick on a pomegranate to give a heads up to Granada

Some sweet decorated chapel where people do praying things

All these little scenes are carved out of wood but painted over in gold leaf. They depict scenes of Christ's life, from the nativity to the passion

See? Nativity

 The Virgin standing on some heads of children, because she is so motherly

 View from the bell tower

 

The back of the cathedral

 Royal Gardens, from the Muslim era

 More pattern overload. I must stop wearing prints to mosques

 Wishing pool

 Big tapestries.

 This is a crypt. Also I think it was a bath at some point. Now the water is icky.

 I have developed a serious affinity for pomegranate trees

 Plaza de España, which was used by George Lucas as the set for Queen Amidala's palace on Naboo in the 2nd Star Wars

 The walls are decorated with scenes depicting the provinces of Spain

 I am adorable.

 This is a statue of Don Juan, also regarded as a national hero.

 

An original Goya painting that I thought was pretty cool. It depicts two saints and has a bunch of symbolism and stuff in it and makes me wish I were an art history major. 

hasta luego, te lo juro,

Maren