A weekend in Barcelona

Barcelona is an enticing city. It is something you feel as soon as you enter Plaza de Catalunya. You are pulled to the shops, the restaurants, and to the art. The art however is the most important. The three days I was in Barcelona I was introduced to the amazing architecture of Gaudi and the life works of Picasso.

Gaudi's Casa Mila is an infusion of function with magic. In this apartment building there are no straight lines. When I first looked at the building it brought on the sense of looking at a wave of rock. One thing I really liked was that Gaudi designed each apartment so that it had light exposure from the exterior as well as two sources from the interior light well. However, the most impressive part of the building is the roof. Here Gaudi created a working Dr. Seuss landscape. The rolling roof is full of chimneys of different sizes and shapes. Walking around up there brought me the thrill of walking through a fantasy land. My introduction to Gaudi was just beginning my next stop was the Sagrada Familia.




















The Sagrada Familia is an awe-inspiring piece of architecture. This church is where Gaudi earned the name "God's Architect." Walking up to the Sagrada I was immediately amazed at just the sheer size of the place. Once I got up to the building I was even more amazed at how much intricate work had been done. I could see that the eastern side was full of nativiy scenes from the ground to the heavens. Sitting in front of the Sagrada Familia I was lost in a landscape of religion. Gaudi's work on the birth of Christ brought on the feelings of hope and happiness. As strong as these emotions were they were nothing compared to what I would feel on the west side, the passion of Christ.
Gaudi never got to work on the west side; he died after committing 40 years to the project but he is quoted as saying, "it is not possible to finish the temple bye a single generation; we will leave therefore an energetic sample of our track, that the future generations feel the stimulus to do the remainder and doesn't tie us for the remainder of the work." The west side definitely follows in the tracks of Gaudi even though the style is cubist. When I stepped out from inside the church and turned to look up I was hit in the heart by large and powerful scenes from the passion. I could feel the sorrow and tragedy of the death of Christ. All of this emotion came as quite a surprise to me, I mean this is a building. What I realize is that great art; no matter what the form, will create great emotion. The next place I visited I was not surprised at feeling emotion but by the depth of emotion but I guess this should be expected from a museum dedicated to Picasso.














































































































Seeing a Picasso in person makes you realize that there is a soul to a painting. I had seen Picasso's works in books, online, and even t-shirts, but I never got what the big deal was. A nose here, an eye there, and ok he liked blue and pink. While standing in front of his work I was hit with wave of feelings. Moved, by how at the age of 10 he was already creating art. Inspired, by how with so few flicks of the pen he could capture the essence of a person. In awe, of how his abstract work brought about so many feelings. I spent almost 3 hours in the museum and I easily could have spent the entire day and the next there. There were just so many pieces to see and so many of them grabbed a hold of you and wanted to keep you there in front of them. My favorite of them all was "Las Meninas"#1. I wanted to sit and look at this painting all day because it such a complex piece with layer upon layer each giving rise to different emotions, but nothing I could put my finger on in the short time I had. Unfortunately we saved the Picasso museum for our last day and so we were rushed in order to make our flight. Even though I rushed through museum it was enough time for Picasso to touch my soul.

hola all,
Sorry it has been so long with out an update but I have been traveling almost every weekend then catching up with school during the week. I should be able to get everything up to date now because I just got back from the doctor and I have pneumonia, so they prescribed me bed rest and antibiotics. Enough of the boring stuff lets talk about what I have been up to.

My First Bull Fight:

Seeing a bull fight was on my list of things to do in Spain. I had no real idea of what to expect but that is why I wanted to go. Many people in my program here in Spain chose not to go because they did not believe in it. I thought this was strange because it is not about whether or not you believe in it, it is about experiencing a piece of Spanish culture.
I had a great introduction to bull fighting from my Art teacher Judy. She is an American who has been living in Spain for something like 30 or 40 years and her husband was John Fulton the first American matador. Judy explained how the bulls would be extinct with out bull fighting. Also, how the bulls live a complete life. On the ranches were the bulls are raised they are basically left to them selves to do what bulls do and what a bull likes to do is ram things. The smallest movement can get a bull to charge; leaves blowing, butterflies flying, or a matador moving. Another point Judy made was about how the bulls do not really feel anything during the fight. It is like when you are playing a sport and you hurt your self. You do not feel it because of the adrenalin and endorphins. The same thing goes on with bulls. In the end the bull has lived a life that we can only hope to achieve.

No amount of information can fully prepare you for your first bull fight. I went in with an open mind and respect for the ceremony but after the first fight I was full of sadness and shame. First off, the fight is not one man against one bull. There is actually a crew of people that help out the matador. This took away some of the respect I had for the fights. Secondly, the first fight is done by the matador with the most seniority. Unfortunately, he was not very talented. He took way to long to kill the bull. Also, the bull was not very good either. It was slow and unenergetic. After the first fight I thought about leaving but decided to stay and see how the next matador would do.
The second fight showed me the soul of bull fighting. The 1500 lb. bull was electric and the matador was an artist. The two moved as if in a well rehearsed ballet. The bull would charge and the matador would stand perfectly still and lure the bull with in inches of his body. The matador showed his true skill with the killing stroke. With in a few minutes the matador had sized up the bull and laid the bull to rest with one thrust of his sword. In the end I felt some sadness for the bull but mostly I felt honored to have witness its life cycle.
Bull fights are not for everyone. In order to enjoy the bull fights you have to be able to blend the physical, spiritual, and cultural aspects together. When you do this it is no longer just about a bull being killed. It becomes a dance, a dance of life.