yaaay it's someone's birthday!!!
i only came for the cake. where is it already.
looks too pretty to eat...
EAT MORE!!! I COMMAND YOU!!!
yeah the guy in blue doesn't know how to smile
don't cry teddy, it's only a picture...
uncle con mid-sentence
uncle con mid-chew
uncle con mid-burp
yummy strawberry
nathan is concerned about your health...
yay group pic!
1 comment:
LMAO HAHAHAHA love the captions, jej hahahaha "i only came for the cake." hahaha
and nathan is wearing a star trek t-shirt!! hahaha
yea today, 1 euro is a worth 1.5417dollars. it changes around a bit.
haha thanks for reading my long email, aunts K & M. no i am not a travel writer, becuase i am usually too lazy to write in full sentences. that long-winded email was an exception because that was my first trip and i hadn't written to the cousins in a while. i keep a small journal (the little red one that aunt mary gave me for christmas!) of my daily activities. mostly, i just jot down what i ate that day, because eating is my main activity.
amanda, i am eating a bar of dark 55% cocoa choclate that my senora bought for my weekend trip to cordoba and granada. and i sometimes eat chocolate croissants.
Happy belated birthday to Aunt Penny, Nathan and Uncle Anthony! Please send my love to all <3
This wednesday i have semana santa (spring break) and i will be in Brussels, Venice, Siena, Florence and Rome.
You guys should come visit me in June. My Senora Kristin said i can stay til july, which is when she's getting the kitchen remodeled.
oh yeah i got housing for next year, will be roommates with Su Miao, Christine Shaugnessy and Annie Filer. In St. Ignatius Gate, room 604. I will be on the fat meal plan.
my classes are pretty lame, i have a test on wednesday, and once i finish, vacation starts! but first i have to read a lot of dumb packets on the sociology of communication. literatura espanola is cool, tho. We just finished the Romantic period, now we are doing realismo. I also have Islam in Espana, in which we copy the same notes about 3 times over, and i can't read the prof's all-capital-letters handwriting. Then there's History of documentary film, and today is the first class that i didnt fall asleep! the prof's voice is squeaky. today we watched a 1935 documentary on some River in Spain. not bad.
and then there's Ana's class, which is taught by our BC in Madrid program director. we have class at 8:30am on wednesdays, and then weekly excursions outsid the classroom (ie. archeological museum, prado museum, Toledo, and this weekend was Cordoba and Granada.)
We saw the gigantic muslim Mezquita (mosque) in Cordoba, which was converted into a Catholic church during the Inquisition (around ~1492 ish). It was really really cold in there. and yet it was really hot outside.
we ate a cold gazpacho-type soup, made of veggies, namely chickpeas and tomato...it was like cold weird-flavored hummus. and this thing called flamenquillo, which is pork wrapped with ham and cheese, deep-fried in batter, served with shriveled french fries and a big dollop of mayonesa.... yea, i couldnt eat much of that.
Granada is BEAUTIFUL. We toured the Alhambra, which is an expansive Muslim Palace built at the top of a hill. The arquitechture is unbelievable: the muslims mainly used red brick, tile and plaster walls molded into the most intricate and beautiful floral/geometric designs you can imagine. Their style of art is called "horror vaccui", which is the fear of empty spaces", so every inch of wall and door and ceiling is covered in designs. Everything used to be painted in vibrant reds, blues and greens, but now it's all faded off-white, so you have to close your eyes and imagine the colors, the incense, the brightly embroidered cushions, the music, oil lamps, flowers and plants and palace servants and the sultan and his four official wives.
The Sultana is the wife who bears the first son. She becomes the most important woman in the the Alhambra, because she is the mother of the future sultan. She receives the largest, grandest bedroom, and has the responsibility of hosting all the palace festivities and entertainment.
The Alhambra and all other Muslim buildings are constructed according to the Muslim belief that people and homes should be plain and humble on the outside, but brilliant, beautiful and brightly decorated on the inside. There is always a middle courtyard with running water (water is a central to muslim life, and esp. since many live in the dry desert, it is a symbol of wealth. The fountain serves as air conditioning for the home, as running water cools the hot summer air as it flows through the hall ways) And there is an extensive garden of pansies and roses, and lots of bright pretty flowers, with dense walls made if bushes and shrubs.
There is an art craft called taracea, carried down by generations, where the craftsman glues together longs strips of different types of wood, dyed wood and cow bone and to make log, and then cuts the log in thin slices (like sushi), revealing a geometric design of triangles and shapes and tiny borders. They make jewelry boxes and chairs and chess boards like this, it is the most amazing craft i've ever seen.
oh speaking of amazing i went to the guinness storehouse factory in dublin last week, and i learned the ancient art of coopering, or cask-making. aka. barrel-making, but cask is the official term. in the late 1800's and early 1900's the Guinness coopers made casks to hold the guinness, using no instruments at all, just their bare hands and their sharp eyes.
the planks of wood are cut to size, stuck in a metal band, steamed, and bent into a barrel shape, without any glue or rulers. then you make the barrel top (this is the only time they use a measurement tool: a compass). and u poke a hole in the side, and u hammer another brass band to hold everything in place. Then u fill it with guinness and roll it down the street, cool huh.
ok i moscow, adios chicos! hasta luego!
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