Sweet - just bought plane tickets to spend 9 nights in Morocco with a friend from my program during our spring break. Still have to plan the rest of the break. Lisbon, Barcelona and Paris are all on the table at this point. Regardless, Morocco should be pretty incredible.
In other news, while Madrid has been pretty awesome, by far the most middling part of the stay has to be my classes. I don't know the explanation for this, but some of my professors seem to absolutely love the sound of their own voice at the expense of showing even a passing interest in the students they're teaching. Maybe I'm just used to the relatively more interactive style of even the most traditional-style professors I've had at Swat (i.e. Lillian Li's survey of Chinese civilization), but it seems like pedagogical practices have some universal components that go deeper than cultural differences. Without any interaction it often seems like the point of the class is kind of lost, particularly if the class is concerned with the arts, where individual responses to the works are key to their relevance as something to be studied in the first place.
Enough complaining though. Life in Madrid is a lot of fun. Saturday afternon I was just walking around, passed by the Reina Sofia and said to myself and a couple of friends, "Let's go check out some Picasso." Minutes later I'm standing in front of "Guernica" - 'nuff said. Had my fair share of the truly insane nightlife - spending my first night/morning getting home at 7 am after a mix of bars, jazz clubs and dance clubs. I don't think I can do that on a regular basis, but it can be pretty damn fun once in a while. Just found out about a possible Howe Gelb concert this weekend at some club, so that looks to be on tap for the more immediate future.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Friday, January 26, 2007
a good goddamn
It is freezing here. Not only was it snowing as I walked home last night at 3 am, but it was snowing in the middle of the day! I did not come to spain for snow! Anyway, going on a mysterious outing with "Spanish students" to "Madrid" in a little while. I have no idea what that means, but that's what the program told us to do ... And I always listen to orders!
Monday, January 22, 2007
versión original sin diálogo
Just went with a friend to see a new animated film by a filmmaker from Galicia named Miguelanxo Prado called De Profundis, apparently named after a play by Oscar Wilde. I'd read about it this weekend in El Pais and figured it was worth a try. There wasn't any dialogue, so it was more like an extended visual depiction of a sailor/mermaid love story set to music by Nani García, which was performed by the Symphony Orchestra of Galicia. I'm not sure, but based on my memories from my class called "Culturas de España" that I took freshman year, the themes of the movie were rooted in Galician mythology. All the characters had long blue lines drawn down their faces (which I'm pretty sure is some of kind of Galician symbol) and the whole story is based around the sea, which has particular significance for the people of the northwestern coastal province. Though the movie sometimes dragged, it was interesting visually, as was the music.
Yesterday I was eating with my host mother and I asked her about her political views. I'd spoked with a friend of mine on the program who told me that her host mother had expressed grave doubts about the involvement of Al-Qaeda in the March 11, 2004 bombings at the Atocha train station in Madrid. Given this previous conversation, I was not entirely surprised when my host mother said she thought that the bombings were done by a mix of people of from the Basque separatist group ETA and people from Al-Qaeda. This may seem laughable (and to be honest, I find it somewhat ridiculous myself), but there still appears to be a lot of mystery surrounding those bombings for many Spaniards. Directly after the bombings, the Partido Popular, then the ruling party, declared that ETA was responsible. It soon became clear that this was highly unlikely and that Al-Qaeda was more likely involved. The PP was voted out in large part due to frustrations with its lies about the 11-M bombings, as well as frustration with Spain's involvement in the war in Iraq, which was perceived to have been a direct cause for Al-Qaeda's targeting of Spain. The socialist party, which had been trailing slightly in the polls then won the election in the wake of the bombings. Needless to say, my host mother, who expressed her sympathies for the PP, is still skeptical. However, she is clearly not the only one. In looking through a few bookstores the past couple of days, a book called something like "Truths about the 11-M Bombings" seems to be a best seller.
The current political climate is unlikely to heal the wounds of that time. Now the PP and PSOE are constantly sniping at each other after new bombings by ETA at the Madrid airport a few weeks ago. The PSOE had signed a cease-fire with ETA, which was broken after these new bombings. While the PP is calling for cutting off dialogue with ETA, the PSOE is trying to maneuver to keep the lines of communication open. My host mother declared, "All we want is to live in peace." It's hard for me to see how peace will come from no dialogue, even though the current dialogue doesn't seem to be working well. Of course, this kind of debate is not unique to Spain, but it is interesting to see it play out in what is in many ways a more economically developed and philosophically peace-time oriented country. This is in contrast to countries like Israel or the United States that are relatively militarized and don't have as much of a feel of peace-time prosperity as Spain (or at least that's my general sense now).
Yesterday I was eating with my host mother and I asked her about her political views. I'd spoked with a friend of mine on the program who told me that her host mother had expressed grave doubts about the involvement of Al-Qaeda in the March 11, 2004 bombings at the Atocha train station in Madrid. Given this previous conversation, I was not entirely surprised when my host mother said she thought that the bombings were done by a mix of people of from the Basque separatist group ETA and people from Al-Qaeda. This may seem laughable (and to be honest, I find it somewhat ridiculous myself), but there still appears to be a lot of mystery surrounding those bombings for many Spaniards. Directly after the bombings, the Partido Popular, then the ruling party, declared that ETA was responsible. It soon became clear that this was highly unlikely and that Al-Qaeda was more likely involved. The PP was voted out in large part due to frustrations with its lies about the 11-M bombings, as well as frustration with Spain's involvement in the war in Iraq, which was perceived to have been a direct cause for Al-Qaeda's targeting of Spain. The socialist party, which had been trailing slightly in the polls then won the election in the wake of the bombings. Needless to say, my host mother, who expressed her sympathies for the PP, is still skeptical. However, she is clearly not the only one. In looking through a few bookstores the past couple of days, a book called something like "Truths about the 11-M Bombings" seems to be a best seller.
The current political climate is unlikely to heal the wounds of that time. Now the PP and PSOE are constantly sniping at each other after new bombings by ETA at the Madrid airport a few weeks ago. The PSOE had signed a cease-fire with ETA, which was broken after these new bombings. While the PP is calling for cutting off dialogue with ETA, the PSOE is trying to maneuver to keep the lines of communication open. My host mother declared, "All we want is to live in peace." It's hard for me to see how peace will come from no dialogue, even though the current dialogue doesn't seem to be working well. Of course, this kind of debate is not unique to Spain, but it is interesting to see it play out in what is in many ways a more economically developed and philosophically peace-time oriented country. This is in contrast to countries like Israel or the United States that are relatively militarized and don't have as much of a feel of peace-time prosperity as Spain (or at least that's my general sense now).
Saturday, January 20, 2007
¡torpe!
My first post actually in Spain. Arrived last Thursday and, after groggily getting through a day with my host family, went off on a week-long trip through the southern province of Anadalucia. On the first full day we left Madrid at 8 am and made it to Granada, home of the famous Moorish castle called the Alhambra. It is an incredibly beautiful complex of middle-ages Muslim architecture, with lots of patios, water, and intricate decorations of geometric designs and calligraphy of Arabic verses from the Koran. Then a few days in the resort town of Nerja, which is pretty dead except for a bunch of old British tourists. Most nights consisted of finding the only bar open on a given night to be totally dead and enlivening it slightly with the entrance of our entire 40 person-strong program. A day trip to Malaga had us visiting Pablo Picasso's birthplace and a museum of his work that was fairly barebones, but, as with almost anything concerning Picasso, interesting and fun. Another trip to Ronda was focused around the Plaza de Toros there, as Ronda is one of the birthplaces of modern bullfighting; today's rules, which make the spectacle more dangerous for the torero, were first developed in Ronda. Hemingway also famously gave Ronda a shout-out in one of his books (our guide said that it's in For Whom The Bell Tolls, but I don't remember reading about Ronda when I read that book). After those three days it was on to Sevilla where we visited a cathedral (one of many more to come this semester, I'm sure) and went on a horse-driven carriage ride through the city. The highlight was probably an awesome dinner at a restaurant right on the river that runs through the middle of the city. Tapas, steak and flan - pretty perfect. The final stop was in Cordoba, which is home to the famous middle ages-era mosque, which was then converted to a cathedral to represent the Catholic domination over the Muslims. Cordoba is also the birthplace of Maimonides aka Rambam, who is memorialized by a statue in the Jewish area of the town. Now I'm finally in Madrid for more than just a few hours. More about that later once I begin to get settled.
The group itself seems like a good group of people with at least some who I can see as wanting to do the kinds of things I want to do in the city/country. Getting to know people has been unlike any other experience I've had getting to know people, as the program has a rule that everyone must speak only in Spanish. So not only are you trying to get over the normal awkwardness involved in getting to know new people, but you're dealing with the continued awkwardness of speaking in a foreign language that you only kind of know. As we came to say in what is really a bad translation of the word awkward: ¡torpe! (it's meaning is closer to clumsy than awkward, but it works). I have to admit that I occasionally experienced the same kind of fear I had when I first arrived in Barcelona in the spring of my senior year to live there for three months. Not knowing anybody in an environment that is in many ways alien can be pretty terrifying, but at least I've done it before. I think I generally feel more comfortable with myself than I did then (a lot of that confidence came from that trip, I think), so the fear was a lot less acute and lengthy than three years ago. However, I would be naive if I didn't expect that emotional experience to be ongoing.
From a cultural historical point of view, given that I've just visited a number of important sites of cultural clash in Spanish history, the representation of this history seems in flux. Nowhere is this more clear than at the mosque at Cordoba. While the official literature at the site refers to it as the Cathedral of Cordoba, everyone else refers to it as either "the mosque" or "the mosque and cathedral." Given the general liberalism of Spain, this might seem anachronistic Christian paternalism, which it is, but I suppose it makes sense in that this country is only 30-odd years removed from a Catholic, fascist dictatorship. Of perhaps deeper concern should be the general rhetoric of the Catholic-Muslim clash in Spain. Words like the Catholic "reconquista" (reconquest) and the Muslim "invasion" are loaded with understandings of who is actually Spanish and who is an outsider. Based on my readings and experiences in the country now and three years ago, racism is a big problem here. In Nerja I spoke to a young Morrocan who had been living in Spain for five years. When I told him that I was going to be studying in Madrid, he responded, "Don't go there. They're all racist there." Not that I'm taking him entirely literally, but his point of view does seem to resonate with everything else I've heard or seen. Like most of Europe, Spain is dealing with the difficulties of the immigration of a poor and often darker-skinned group of people. Given Spain's history, however, the way people discuss its history (and particularly the terms they use) likely has particular resonance for this modern social and political problem.
Alright, that's enough for now. Coming soon: my host mother's theory on the March 11, 2004 bombings in Madrid, first impressions of Madrid, spending all my money on Spanish guitars...
The group itself seems like a good group of people with at least some who I can see as wanting to do the kinds of things I want to do in the city/country. Getting to know people has been unlike any other experience I've had getting to know people, as the program has a rule that everyone must speak only in Spanish. So not only are you trying to get over the normal awkwardness involved in getting to know new people, but you're dealing with the continued awkwardness of speaking in a foreign language that you only kind of know. As we came to say in what is really a bad translation of the word awkward: ¡torpe! (it's meaning is closer to clumsy than awkward, but it works). I have to admit that I occasionally experienced the same kind of fear I had when I first arrived in Barcelona in the spring of my senior year to live there for three months. Not knowing anybody in an environment that is in many ways alien can be pretty terrifying, but at least I've done it before. I think I generally feel more comfortable with myself than I did then (a lot of that confidence came from that trip, I think), so the fear was a lot less acute and lengthy than three years ago. However, I would be naive if I didn't expect that emotional experience to be ongoing.
From a cultural historical point of view, given that I've just visited a number of important sites of cultural clash in Spanish history, the representation of this history seems in flux. Nowhere is this more clear than at the mosque at Cordoba. While the official literature at the site refers to it as the Cathedral of Cordoba, everyone else refers to it as either "the mosque" or "the mosque and cathedral." Given the general liberalism of Spain, this might seem anachronistic Christian paternalism, which it is, but I suppose it makes sense in that this country is only 30-odd years removed from a Catholic, fascist dictatorship. Of perhaps deeper concern should be the general rhetoric of the Catholic-Muslim clash in Spain. Words like the Catholic "reconquista" (reconquest) and the Muslim "invasion" are loaded with understandings of who is actually Spanish and who is an outsider. Based on my readings and experiences in the country now and three years ago, racism is a big problem here. In Nerja I spoke to a young Morrocan who had been living in Spain for five years. When I told him that I was going to be studying in Madrid, he responded, "Don't go there. They're all racist there." Not that I'm taking him entirely literally, but his point of view does seem to resonate with everything else I've heard or seen. Like most of Europe, Spain is dealing with the difficulties of the immigration of a poor and often darker-skinned group of people. Given Spain's history, however, the way people discuss its history (and particularly the terms they use) likely has particular resonance for this modern social and political problem.
Alright, that's enough for now. Coming soon: my host mother's theory on the March 11, 2004 bombings in Madrid, first impressions of Madrid, spending all my money on Spanish guitars...
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
to live is to fly (on an airplane)
Alright, flying off tomorrow and the only thing that's really getting me nervous is that I probably haven't packed what I need for this semester. Taking my guitar with me is a hassle in this respect, but it's something that has to be done. Not much more I can do now. I guess I should at least be thankful the visa went through. Part of me wishes that we would just go straight to Madrid instead of having a week-long orientation trip in the southern coastal town of Nerja. On the other hand it should be fun to get to know the other people on the program in a more relaxed setting.
I finished up a bit of business before this trip today. There are a couple new songs on my myspace music page (see the link on the right) that I recorded this past October with Joe Kille. I had planned to do some more recording this winter, but I didn't get to the point where I felt like any of it was finished properly. The new songs are called "Broken Down Engine" and "Where You Call Home."
I also picked up The Corner by David Simon and Ed Burns. Those two are also the creators of The Wire, which I just finished watching today. I'll write a longer post about both the show and the book once I get done with the book. The show has really deepened my understanding and empathy for what appears to be the most intractable problem in the United States: the urban underclass. Not only does the show have a wonkish appeal in its focus on complicated political and societal problems, but it has a highly dramatic appeal in its wide cast of interesting and moving characters. I don't think I've ever enjoyed watching a TV show (or possibly even a movie) as much as this. Good thing there's still one last season to look forward to (HBO recently renewed the show for its fifth season, which Simon says he had originally conceived as its last).
I finished up a bit of business before this trip today. There are a couple new songs on my myspace music page (see the link on the right) that I recorded this past October with Joe Kille. I had planned to do some more recording this winter, but I didn't get to the point where I felt like any of it was finished properly. The new songs are called "Broken Down Engine" and "Where You Call Home."
I also picked up The Corner by David Simon and Ed Burns. Those two are also the creators of The Wire, which I just finished watching today. I'll write a longer post about both the show and the book once I get done with the book. The show has really deepened my understanding and empathy for what appears to be the most intractable problem in the United States: the urban underclass. Not only does the show have a wonkish appeal in its focus on complicated political and societal problems, but it has a highly dramatic appeal in its wide cast of interesting and moving characters. I don't think I've ever enjoyed watching a TV show (or possibly even a movie) as much as this. Good thing there's still one last season to look forward to (HBO recently renewed the show for its fifth season, which Simon says he had originally conceived as its last).
Monday, January 01, 2007
el principio
Alright, so I'm starting this blog in anticipation of my upcoming semester abroad in Madrid. The purpose is generally to chronicle the whole deal for myself and possibly others (if they/you find my life and thoughts so interesting as to frequent this page at all). I'll try to keep the content clean and accessible for those of all ages and general persuasions, but I guess I can't make any promises to adhere to anybody's tastes except my own.
I'll start off the new year with a short link to the Washington Post's annual "out/in" list. These lists are always mindlessly fun to read and generally a bit stupid. I guess I can count myself "in" on at least one count ("crazy The Wire fans"), as I've been making my way through the show the last few months and will probably start watching my illegally downloaded episodes from the most recent season (four) in the next week or so. I expect that I'll end up posting more about that in the near future. I guess I approve of "beatlesesque" being "out" and "springsteenesque" being "in." Of course that's really just a reference to The Killers and The Hold Steady blatantly aping Springsteen on their new albums to probably stupid (I can't say I really even heard the single more than once) and pretty good effect, respectively. But what to say about "abstinence" being "out" and "premarital sex" being "in." Was "abstinence" ever "in"? Isn't everybody advocating "abstinence" having illicit sex with young children anyway?
In regards to things actually relating to Madrid, visa troubles may be on the horizon, as I definitely submitted my application pretty late in the game and am now going to have wade through annoying Spanish bureaucracy to get it in time. Regardless, I'm looking forward to this whole thing immensely. The past semester at Swarthmore was probably my best thus far (both academically and personally in many ways) so I feel like I'm taking off from there on a good note. Being able to study some interesting things — the plan is to take classes on Don Quijote, modern Spanish art, Spanish theater, and something called "Spain and the process of European unity," all in Spanish — in a relatively laid back setting with time to really get to know a big European city is a lucky experience to have and I plan on taking full advantage. I can't say I'm nervous (excluding visa issues) — more just interested and excited to get the whole thing started.
I'll start off the new year with a short link to the Washington Post's annual "out/in" list. These lists are always mindlessly fun to read and generally a bit stupid. I guess I can count myself "in" on at least one count ("crazy The Wire fans"), as I've been making my way through the show the last few months and will probably start watching my illegally downloaded episodes from the most recent season (four) in the next week or so. I expect that I'll end up posting more about that in the near future. I guess I approve of "beatlesesque" being "out" and "springsteenesque" being "in." Of course that's really just a reference to The Killers and The Hold Steady blatantly aping Springsteen on their new albums to probably stupid (I can't say I really even heard the single more than once) and pretty good effect, respectively. But what to say about "abstinence" being "out" and "premarital sex" being "in." Was "abstinence" ever "in"? Isn't everybody advocating "abstinence" having illicit sex with young children anyway?
In regards to things actually relating to Madrid, visa troubles may be on the horizon, as I definitely submitted my application pretty late in the game and am now going to have wade through annoying Spanish bureaucracy to get it in time. Regardless, I'm looking forward to this whole thing immensely. The past semester at Swarthmore was probably my best thus far (both academically and personally in many ways) so I feel like I'm taking off from there on a good note. Being able to study some interesting things — the plan is to take classes on Don Quijote, modern Spanish art, Spanish theater, and something called "Spain and the process of European unity," all in Spanish — in a relatively laid back setting with time to really get to know a big European city is a lucky experience to have and I plan on taking full advantage. I can't say I'm nervous (excluding visa issues) — more just interested and excited to get the whole thing started.
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