Spring Break!

Mañana, por la mañana, I'm leaving my house at 5am to catch a 6am bus to catch a 9am flight. Why? Because I'm meeting my sister in Paris! Just wanted to post something quickly because I won't be blogging for at least a week and a half as we travel through Paris, Barcelona, and Madrid dring my spring break. I had intended to publish two more posts this week (one about our Mallorca trip, another about our visit to Ronda) but for some reason my two exams, one presentation, and manly Amuricah food night at Katie's house made that a little difficult. Oh, I just realized I could share our presentation with you! If you're interested in learning about the persecutions and expulsions of the Jews in the Middle Ages, click here. My presentation group for Tres Culturas is Claire, Michelle, and me; now we're pretty much experts on Twelver Shiism (our first presentation this semester) and the turbulent history of the Jews in medieval times (and by "we're pretty much experts on..." I mean "at one time we knew a lot about..."). For this last presentation, Michelle introduced us to Prezi. It's an online presentation software and basically is one of my new favorite things...FO REALZZZ. One of my favorite aspects is the ability to edit the presentation with your whole group on different computers, simultaneously . Basically, it's like combining powerpoint, hanging out with friends, and A THEME PARK. And the UI is pretty sweet.



Okay, I'm done lauding Prezi. Like I said, this post was supposed to be about Mallorca, but that'll have to wait til after Ty's and my vacation. Here's a sneak preview though, ripe with Don Quijote references. Well, it only has two. But still.



This is where we went hiking on the northern tip of Mallorca. It was beautiful! As for the Quijote references, Chapter 22 in Part 1 of Quijote (read it here; really, you should!) talks about a chain of prisoners that Don Quijote and Sancho come across. They're all "galeotes," prisoners condemned to working on galley ships as oarsmen. Hence, Gramling (Lane's last name) and the Galeotes (galley slaves). The name of the album? I think I've mentioned this before, but many times Quijote talks in old Spanish because he's pretending to be a knight errant of centuries past. "Malferido" is an archaic way of say "malherido," which means badly injured. Anyhow, yes, we are a band, and yes, the local newspaper has already written about us.

From the Diario de Sevilla (translated from Spanish by José María): "Bringing a new wave of appreciation to the once-immensely popular genre of post-Iberian forge core, Gramling y los Galeotes transcend all musical and philosophical constraints in their inaugural album, Malferido. Said to contain influences from the sound of rocks colliding with more rocks and undertones of socialist political agenda, Malferido is a must-have album for the masses (even the canis). Stay posted for news of their impending European tour."

:)

Well, I need to figure out how to meet up with my sister tomorrow. Hooray for figuring out the Paris Metro system. I'd appreciate prayer for safe and easy travels!

Tsa luego!