These are the formidable giants!
On the left is our Quijote class. On the right is the QuiBROte class.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you: La Mancha. The weather wasn't the best we had had (double hads always sound so weird)...it was pretty cold and windy the first day. It could've been worse though; when I had checked the forecast before leaving Sevilla, it said it was going to snow! However, I soon realized that I had accidentally looked up Toledo, Ohio. Whoops.
Some of my friends!
Hmm, let's see, Toledo. What can I tell you about Toledo? For one, Toledo is known for its metal artisans. The Lord of the Rings ring was crafted in Toledo, the sword from Pirates of the Caribbean, Conan the Barbarian's sword, etc. We definitely spent a lot of time on Saturday wandering into many of the hundreds of tourist-snatching sword-tile-jewelry-souvenir-selling shops, buying gifts for friends and family back home, and some for ourselves (a few people bought some substantially large swords [read: TSA-unfriendly merchandise]).
Dog bush arch stairs. Moving on...
On Friday, we had the privilege of visiting the church that has this painting in it. No big. El Greco, the painter, lived in Toledo from the age of 36 to the time of death, so the city has a good portion of his work in it. On Saturday, we also checked out Toledo's cathedral, which is considered, in the opinion of some authorities, to be the magnum opus of the Gothic style in Spain (I plagiarize from Wikipedia). They didn't let us take pictures in there, so I'll have to link you to a picture of my favorite part of the inside. Afterwards, we went to a monastery that was founded in 1476 (yes, before Columbus sailed the ocean blue; well, towards the Americas, that is, I guess he was sailing before then). Anyhow, it was a good two days of exploring a new city, albeit a very touristy one, and best of all, I got to room with Aaron the younger bro Hamstra. If that's not a big deal, I don't know what is.
Here's a brief pictorial summary:
The picture above and the next two below are all of the monastery.
Now for some views directly outside the monastery...
Later, we walked down to the river! It was pretty impressive.
One does not simply take a picture with Kane Ransom.
Ah, and now the cathedral. Like I mentioned, they didn't let us take any pictures inside, but outside was fair game :)
Afterwards, we went to a metalworking shop where they make swords and jewelry and other neat stuff, all completely by hand. A lot of the tourist shops within the city actually get there "Toledan" swords and jewelry shipped from bigger cities and put Toledo stamps on the products, but this place let you watch their products being made, so you know they're legit!
And last but not least, on our way out of the city we stopped alongside the road to get a good view of Toledo from a distance.
And that's a wrap for our Toledo trip! On to several updates/anecdotes from the past couple of weeks:
The weather has finally warmed up! I can now bike around in just a t-shirt and shorts, just like back in Santa Barbara. It's a good feeling, let me tell ya. Yesterday, we went to the park and played frisbee and volleyball and ukulele and guitar and curling, and I wore shorts, a brotank (brank), and flip-flops. It was definitely worth the several stares I got from passerby Sevillans on the way to the park. All the midwest folk said I looked Californian. Represent! :) The mornings here are still a little chilly, so jeans and a sweater are helpful, but by the time the end of classes rolls around each day, the jeans and sweater are not your friend. And the weather is only going to get warmer, to the point where we Santa Barbarians start calling it hot and not warm. But hey, at least I'm not freezing in room now.
Meanwhile, on the home front...
One of Alba's favorite games to play is rather simply, but apparently very entertaining for her. She comes into my room, points to an object, and asks, "¿Es tuyo?" At this point, I respond with either, "Sí, es miyo," or "No, es tuyo," or a close variant to that. Then she points to another object, and the cycle continues :) Oh to be a kid again and be satisfied with such activities.
Speaking of Alba, we had our first musical collaboration yesterday. To try to get her mind of off her "¿Es tuyo?" game, I started playing guitar for her. She looked confused for a little bit, but moments later started clapping along. If only she knew I was playing Christmas music out of season :)
Favorite interaction between my host parents this week:
Maricarmen: (inquisitively, while sitting at the dinner table) Cariño, porque has puesto tres copas diferentes?
Victor: (matter-of-factly and with a fair share of smugness) Variedad. Poco de variedad.
The TV is on pretty much 24/7 in our house; during meals, it's like the fifth member of our family, and many times when Maricarmen or Victor come home, one of the first things they do is turn on the TV. Anyhow, there are some interesting shows on in Spain. One such program is a talk show called "El Hormiguero," meaning "the ant hill." Basically, it's a talk show with three hosts, two of which are puppet ants. Sometimes on the show they make snide remarks about current events and weird news stories, and one in particular made me laugh the other week. They were featuring a headline that stated, "Una anciana rusa afirma tener un extraterrestre en su congelador." Translation: "An old Russian women affirms that she has an alien in her refrigerator." The talk show hosts comment was that even the first half of that headline, "Una ancient rusa afirma," is an impossibility. It made me chuckle. Here's the article if you'd like to read it. I think the link is still live…
A couple weeks back, we put on a tiny concert at Caridad, the home for old men where some students in our program do their Acción Solidaria service learning assignment. It was so much fun! Michelle and I sang and played Needtobreathe's "Washed by the Water" (voice and guitar) and "Lay 'Em Down" (guitar and trumpet), and then Jessie and I played a really cool song, whose name escapes me, on ukulele and trumpet. Sarahjane laid down some classical improv on violin, and Jessie and Sarahjane played and sang another song on ukulele. We were all a bit nervous before playing, but were assured by Katie that we probably wouldn't be heard very well anyway… :)
My buddy Lane showed me a really cool website a while back. We're both into graphic design and love designing things in Photoshop, and Colourlovers.com is right up that alley. I'm especially a fan of the colour palettes that you can browse through; so useful!
Last Sunday evening, on a whim (well, on what I initially thought was a whim) I rode a Sevici down San Jacinto for a bit to get some fresh air before dinner. I stood in the center of the Puente de Triana for a little, watching the sky slowly turn continually deeper shades of blue, and then decided to walk down to the side of the river to look for a good angle to get a long-exposure shot of the bridge sometime later this week. Well, I didn't find the angle I wanted, but as I was leaving the crowded street that parallels the river, I heard someone saying something in Russian. My head shot over to the right, from where the talking emerged, and I saw a somewhat rough-looking guy leaning against a ledge. Then, even farther to the right, my peripherals caught sight of another man walking towards the first: who would it be, but Igor, the homeless Russian man I had met several weeks earlier. I guess for the evening he had come out to Triana instead of sticking around Macarena where he usually sleeps. He told me that he and Misha (Mike), the first man (Ukrainian, Igor told me), were "parking cars." Essentially, they would wait for a car to pull out of a parking spot, then would direct a new car into the spot (and would try to get paid by the driver, I'm pretty sure). Anyways, I talked to Igor for a bit, encouraged him for the 17th time to call the homelessness hotline number we had given him (that he still had in his pocket from weeks back), and parted ways. I'm really hoping that he eventually does get to a place where he desires a change so much in his life that he calls that number. He always complains about how hard it is to live on the street, but isn't willing to pursue what is probably the only path he has for getting off the street. If you could keep praying for him, I'd really appreciate it!
In other news, I got sick this week, and had two lit tests as well. Not a good combo. And I have two more tests and a presentation next week. But at least the first wave is over, and my health is slowly getting better. However, if I don't go to bed right now, I'll probably get worse, so good night!
Tsa luego!
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