SALAMANCA, WHY NOT?

Our class, or better said, the group of us students, had an excursion planned for Salamanca this past weekend. I was very impressed by the figures that were stated to us by the guide. There are apparently 50 thousand to 55 thousand students in Salamanca. This is nearly the population of the entirety of Segovia. 15 thousand of these students are international. So I have one question for KIIS... Why is our group not in Salamanca with the rest of the people in the world? Segovia is a wonderful city, but the impression that was left upon me of Salamanca was an  impressive one. There was intelligent conversation going around, people actually going out to get coffee and converse with one another...without laptops in their face. Not to say that laptops are wrong to use, but there is an entire Spain out there for the taking. We left the city and on the way home made a stop in the small but sweet town of Avila. The city is shown in the photo in the background behind the attractive model. This was a town that was completely protected by a "muralla" which must of been a great place to live during the middle ages. It really made me think about how life must of been during the fighting between the Moors and the Christians.

...Simply Impressive

Another one of Antoni Gaudí's projects, and more than likely his most impressive work, was La Catedral de la Sagrada Familia en Barcelona. This building was started in 1909, and one year after construction began, the notorious architect (which only built in his native Catalunya) was named director of the city project. This amazing building has taken one hundred years so far, and is still not finished. Gaudí spent forty years of his life with this as his main work, and dying without completing it. There are still three main towers (and also the largest towers) that must be constructed. These are the tower of the Father, the tower of the Virgin Mary (which is slightly smaller), and the tower of the Evangelist (which is smaller even). Another interestng point to take into consideration is that the Catholic Church only uses alms and donations from the church to continue building. This Photo demonstrates the amazing talent that the great architect had by showing the study of nature and the installation of these aspects into his architecture. Photo: The central ceiling of La Sagrada Familia. 

You Never Know Who You'll Meet...On The Street.

This weekend a small group of us students decided to make a journey to Barcelona, in Catalunya. Catalunya is quite a remarkable place, Its personality is unique to what i've seen from the rest of my travels in and around Spain. The language is officially Castellano but the influences of Catalan are noted immediatly by the residents strong accents and cut-off words. It seems like a mixture of Spanish and French (with more Spanish than French). The small groupof us  visited Gaudí's El Parque Güell. This photo is showing our group sitting on what is speculated to be the worlds largest park bench. While sitting on this park bench a member of our group asked a person sitting to our left to please take a photo. This man was kind enough to do so and when he was done He and I began talking. This man was a Swiss architect who was on vacation in Barcelona for the weekend with his wife. His wife, believe it or not, was from Barranquilla (a city in Colombia for those of you who don't know) and he had visited Caratagena (the city I was born in) as well. we talked for ages about my beautiful city as well as the economy and my future plans. You never know who you'll meet on the street, but there is a whole world out there with infinite possibilities. If one limits him/herself, life is not really worth living.

The Dining Room Table

When setting up for dinner at his home away from home, as is the routine everyday,the student realized that the door leading to the balcony was open.When he gazed out, The sharp contrast of the yellows and golds of the age old Cathedral against the blue created by the mixture of the infinitely black night and the bright setting sun made it quite a sight to see.  At that moment, Amparo comes in with the two plates and places them on the table which is set to perfection by the student, studying abroad in the beautiful country.  She pours him a glass of cold water from the plastic bottle and they begin the conversation which they have both been looking forward to all day. The theme of the exchange has ranged from Feminism in Spain as compared to the Middle East, to why the beaches in Cuba are better than those in Barcelona. What a wonderful woman Amparo is. Today, this student could not imagine being in any other place but sitting at this dinning room table, eating this wonderful meal, and gazing out this window admiring the gigantic monument, and thinking to himself: "If all things could be this wonderful..."

REAL MADRID (SAY WORD)

KAT IS THE BEST for doing this. She pulled some strings and called her husband Raul, otherwise know as number 7, and we were able to go practice with the Real Madrid team on Sunday day. Kat was just hanging around with her dude, but Chadwell and I were doing work on the field. The team needed our higher level of expertise in matters of Futbol and we were able to deliver. I even got a uniform out of it. We took a photo with the team afterwards and then we headed back to Segovia via helicopter to the good ole 3B's to do some homework and study for your test, yes you Alice reading this right now, perhaps smiling because of the fact you know this was engineered to make you laugh. haha, mission accomplished! ok ok, all that is true except for the whole futbol thing, I made that up. But I mean, I didn't have to fess up, I mean, there is a photo proving that we did. On second thought, maybe it did happen. ( in reality we were all in the cafe and instead of doing homework ALL day, we did it MOST of the day and spent the rest drinking coffee and watching Kat play with photoshop for a while, Patricio loved it, he couldn't stop laughing for a while, good people at 3B's)

I Dance/Drink Alone!

This is what it looks like, I've been caught! I am not really sure who took this photo but as the almighty facebook has informed me, it was posted, and I was in it... SO THERE. This is clear and definitive proof that I DO sneak in my ipod into certain bars or nightclubs whose music is less than acceptable to my trained ears ( I decided that just now by the way), and yes I DO dance to my own tune sometimes when the time calls. I dont normally make that stupid face, but im sure it's somewhat similar and at least borderline stupid-face. This was taken the night before our merry group took the Excursion to Toledo.  I have to endorse this bar at this time...HMM hMM.. attention, at the bar TOYS on Thursday nights, All you can drink (yes, that is correct) ALL you can drink Calimochos and Lambrusco from 11:30 to 1:00 a.m. ..$4 euros (Chadwelll and Kat know what im talking about, indeed. Back to the dancing. I heard a good quote the other day, and it goes like this: " I realize that dancing to the beat of a different drum, is, in fact, still dancing." Keep on keepin' on.

Holy Toledo

I must say that of all the times I have had to get up at the crack of dawn, this has been my favorite ( if I had to choose that is.) Not bad at all. We went out to a few bars the night before, had our fun and Calimochos and called it a night. After four good hours of sleep that was tumultuous to say the least, i was well on my way to the metal making mega metropolis of Toledo. I slept like a baby on the bus and had splendid dreams involving Jennifer Connelly and various other gorgeous women, and when I woke up, BAM! "We are here" Said Antonio, in his flowery and convicting tone, as the rest of us students shuffled and bussled about the bus gathering our belongings and what not. The tour guide which was leading us around the city should have been shot (just kidding...but really), if i can be so frank, she was very nice, extremely informative and all, but there comes a point where one should know how to read their audience. She was illeterate in this sense, as I'm sure I am in many things speaking in the same terms. (vent(steam sound)) Besides all that, i thought the city was amazing. What good weather and nice plazas. The narrow streets tell of the olden days when cars were sort of a science fiction joke, although i dont think science fiction existed back then, and thank God for that.