London, parte uno

For Thanksgiving weekend, I jumped on a plane directly after my last class on Thursday and met KC in London a few hours later. Apparently going to elementary school, middle school, high school, and college together wasn't enough; now we're both living in Europe at the same time. She's doing a graduate program in London, plus she lived there for a semester during study abroad. Not only was it great to see her and catch up, she made an excellent tour guide. It was a little strange to be in a city where everyone spoke English, and I kept saying "gracias" when someone would hold the door or "disculpe" when I had to squeeze by in the metro. I went a little crazy with the pictures, so here's some of the better ones...

The first day, we took a trip to see a couture exhibit, which displayed French and English fashions from the "Golden era" of the fifties. No pictures allowed, unfortunately. Next, we stopped by the Natural History museum.

Here's the outside of the building, with one of the many ice rinks we saw that weekend.








































































Here's one of the statues with very politically correct information on the Earth's origins, so as not to offend the Creationists (i.e. Is the Earth thousands of years old or millions... who knows?!) And they had this elevator that we took up into the middle of the Earth to go check out the earthquake simulation room.



























Plus...dinosaurs!

Next, we headed over to Harrod's. KC described it as a place where you can buy everything from a dishwasher to a puppy, and it's so true. It was very extravagant and over-the-top, especially during Christmas season, and they thought of every detail, down to the Harrods brand doughnuts at Krispy Kreme.






Friday night out for KC's friend Ellie's birthday... look what we accomplished:

Kc, me, and the birthday girl:



On Saturday, we woke up (somewhat) early, and spend most of the day at the Tate Modern Art Gallery.

Some random pictures along the way... the skyline, and the crazy Brits driving on the wrong side of the road:

































Kc and me under the giant spider that guards the entrance to the Tate:




























































This was one of my favorite, if not my favorite, parts of the trip. There were so many amazing paintings and exhibits. Some of the exhibits still stand out in my mind more than others. First, the African room, with huge colorful, politically-charged murals by artists like Chéri Chérin and Chéri Samba:







Also, there was a really interesting video, taken by a Brazilian artist, of ants carrying confetti left behind after Carnival, with a soundtrack of of mambo beat made by recording the sound of fallen matchsticks.

Another cool video to check out if you can find it is "Drumroll" by Steve McQueen. Here's a description:
"... a triptych of video images shot simultaneously by cameras mounted on the top, bottom and side of an oil barrel as the artist rolled it along the streets of New York City. The film was shot in real time as British artist Steve McQueen made his way through midtown Manhattan. The momentum of the oil drum rattling against the city streets creates a cacophonous clatter which blends with the ambient noises of traffic. The soundtrack also records McQueen’s voice, warning and apologising to pedestrians as he passes by. The spinning images create a vertiginous and abstracted impression of his surroundings, suggesting the rapid pace and chaos of the metropolis.
McQueen’s unusual method of filming means that Drumroll is an example of a work of art that documents the process of its own creation."

The trip also confirmed that I (KC, too) really despise Math Rothko and his followers:



"Red on Maroon". Right.

The current featured exhibit, Shibboleth by Doris Salcedo was impressive as well. Basically, she made a giant crack in the floor that runs from one side of the main hall to the other. The symbolism is really interesting. Shibboleth means, "a word used as a test for detecting people from another district or country by their pronunciation," and was taken from a Biblical story about lower class people being killed for being unable to pronounce the word (used as a password) while they were fleeing across the river Jordan. The idea was that a crack in the floor represents the idea of separation, particularly of race or class, and therefore confronts the idea of racism. The significance of the name is interesting to me as well since people in Catalunya have a distinctive way of speaking (pronouncing "c" and "z" as "th") compared to people in South America and the rest of Spain.

Anyway, here's pictures of the crack, which the artist won't tell anyone how she made. Plus, pictures of something else I'm interested in.. not taking myself too seriously:

The beginning:



Getting bigger:



Oh no!



































































My reflection:



Close up of the chain link fencing inside the crack, which is the most common means of separating people (by the way, I could never be an advocate of the "let's build a fence across the Mexican border" since I'm currently working under the table and trying to learn the language as an immigrant).


The giant spider in front of the Tate Modern Arts Gallery:


This is going to be a "to be continued" post, since it's taken me forever and I'm heading out to go see the Body Exhibit. Que tengas un buen fin de semana!

Catching up

At my friend Eric's birthday party a few weeks ago I met someone else who's even newer in town than I am, and last weekend he invited me to a party with his friends. It ended up being a fiesta de disfraces (costume party), but unfortunately I wasn't told beforehand that there was the option to dress up. There were some people who went all out as santa clause, 80s Madonna, etc, and I just ended up saying that I was a disco ball since I was wearing a silver top and was attacked with someone with glitter. Luckily, there was a disco ball there to point at when trying to explain this, since I somehow that isn't one of the Spanish phrases I know.



























Another interesting thing I learned that night: don't get into a discussion/debate about bullfighting with someone of Hispanic heritage. Or do, just be prepared for an intense explanation of culture and pride, complete with physical reinactments of the matador waving the cape. I don't remember how Kmilo (my new Cuban friend) and I got into it, but it was interesting either way. My argument that it's inherently cruel and unfair because the bull is drugged beforehand was met with complete shock and denial. Of course, it's just a coincidence that the matador always wins.

http://www.idausa.org/campaigns/sport/bull/bullfighting.html

Anyway, it was interesting to me since I always regarded bullfighting as an antiquated tradition that has mostly stuck around due to the patronage of curious American tourists. Despite my own curiousity, I avoided the bullfight that was held in Sevilla during my TEFL course, but here are some pictures from a friend's camera if you're interested. (Warning for Kira: You won't like these)

Mi apartamento

I've had a very unique living situation since I moved to my new apartment about a week ago. Yes, I've moved in with strangers before (I'm looking at you, Karen Salerni), but I've never had to consult a dictionary in order to understand what one of my roommates is saying. Except maybe that one Halloween when Erin had a few too many and caused me to look at Winnie the Pooh in a whole new way (had to be there, sorry). Anyway, I'm now living in Barrio Gotico (the Gothic neighborhood) with a really nice couple, Laura and Gus, and a French girl named Florense who's in an exchange program at the University. Laura and Gus own the flat and have gone out of their way to make me feel comfortable, from letting me use their computer to talk on Skype to leaving dinner in my room when I was up late, and making it Gus' personal mission to get my internet up and running. He had my laptop next to his computer with a Spanish website up so he could figure out the translations of the English computer terms on mine. Not easy.






















You might recognize this as the plaza in the main picture of my page. I can't take credit for that one, but I took some of my own since it's really close to my new apartment.





I'll take pictures of my room and inside the apartment soon, even though I'm pretty sure no one is dying to see them, except maybe my mom and anyone who is planning a visit.

Top picture: Sign on my floor ("third"), which you can only reach after climbing way too many stairs. Since I live in the Gothic neighborhood there's no elevator, but it works out since I'm too cheap/poor/busy to have a gym membership.

Casa Milá

Yesterday in between my afternoon and evening classes, I visited Casa Milá, one of two Gaudi buildings in Passeig de Gracia, where my main work building is. There's not too much I can say about it that you can't get from the pictures. With the theme of designing architecture to reflect things found in nature, the inside is meant to look like the skeleton of a huge snake. The roof is unbelievable - you just have to see it for yourself. I almost feel like I should put a spoiler alert on here it for those who are planning on coming to visit, so you can see it for the first time for yourself. You can't see most of it from the sidewalk, and it's not what you expect to see as you come out of the staircase and step onto the roof. The best way I can describe it is as a surrealist's playground. I found out as I was leaving that five families actually live there. Imagine?

At the main entrance, the building is hollow, and there are drains in the floor to collect the water after it rains.



This is that first thing you see when you first step out onto the roof:


























My attempt to make it look even more surrealistic:




View from the top:





Patrick, unwilling and unknowing subject of many of my pictures:




The ceiling on the first floor:





















And finally, the view from the outside:






















Muy guay!