Bailar y Viajar y Hablar

Three days ago I wrote that I would have a lot to talk about.  Instead of waiting until all of it has passed, I am going to tell you about my dancing, traveling, and speaking skills.

Wednesday night, API invited us to a Flamenco Show.  Flamenco is a type of dance typical in Spain and especially done by the gitanos, a group of people that live in the old part of Granada.  They are also the same people that go around begging for money and putting rosemary in your hand and then expecting you to pay for it.  But these gypsies, which is the translation to English and are the same ones from Romania, were very nice.  After the whole of API gathered into the small cueva, yes, a CAVE, they proceeded to dance a story of this man who loved this woman and then married her and it was just spectacular.  All of these dancers were wicked skinny and could move their feet very quickly.  Then in came the second group.  These people were more heavy set, but man, could they move.  The heaviest woman was by far the best.  Most of the time her feet were blurs, but she was always smiling.  All of the other dancers were really serious when they were dancing, but this woman was having an awesome time.  After the second show, the dancers went around grabbing students to dance with them.  Unfortunately, I got picked by the bigger woman and I tried to mimic what she was doing.  I got a standing applause from her, but that's because she was already standing.  You can see in the background my friends in hysterics at how good I am.

Now to Thursday.  This is the day of huelga general, or the general strike that took place in all of Spain.  The majority of businesses were closed, so what better thing to do than go to the park and play cards.  And what game did we play? Not hearts, but rather Phase 10 (Nana, it's a game very similar to May I?).  So we spent almost four hours there and I got to phase 9, so I was the undisputed winner.  The strike was supposed to be nonviolent, however I did here about people breaking the glass of stores that were had decided to be open.  I also got a picture of the remnants of a trash can that had been set on fire.  But very few people were injured.  None killed. And I'm safe and sound.  And that's the only thing that matters.

Friday=Córdoba.  This is actually the autonomia, or province, where my host mom grew up.  The city is awesome.  There are far fewer sights to see than in Granada or Sevilla, but it still had a lot of history.  The biggest site is the mezquita, or the Arab mosque converted to a church.  Córdoba was actually the Muslim capital when they dominated Spain from the 8th to the 11th century.  Los Reyes Cristianos, or the Christian Kings, really liked sticking it to the Muslims and changed their mosque into a church.  Luckily, they kept the design and architecture the same so we can see all of these marvelous arcs that scream Arabian style architecture.  But the also had many saints and scenes from the bible painted all around the interior walls.  I was amazed that everywhere you looked, the arcs would make a different design.  That's why I had to take so many pictures, because they looked different every time.  We probably spent an hour and a half in there just admiring the structure and ignoring (not on purpose) the Christian art.

After La Mezquita, we started walking around the city.  Though not as much to see, all of the big ticket items are all in one area, we just didn't know what they were.  So, we walked around for a while and found this cool building that was spray painted different colors and had a sign in chalk that said that the owner was looking for a camera.  He also had birds caged into his windows.  It was an interesting house, but we didn't investigate further.

We made a pit stop to by postcards and I saw this enormous garden on one of the cards.  I asked the guy where it was and he directed us to this place called El Alcazar de los Reyes Cristianos, or the Muslim Palace (Alcazar) of the Chrstian Kings.  This is because the Christian Kings overtook the alcazar and made it their own.  Actually, the Alhambra is an alcazar that was also taken over by the Spanish kings.  This place was awesome.  It is actually my second favorite place that I've visited behind the Plaza de España in Sevilla.  The alcazar had this huge garden full of different colored flowers and different statues and pools.  It's so awesome that the Muslims brought their concept of moving water over to Spain because it made this place look awesome.  Each pool, which was thinner than our pool at home, but much longer, had fountains that pushed water from one side to the other.  They had bushes with letters carved in them to spell "alcazar" and other bushes carved into pots.

And this was only outside.  Once you went inside, there was a museum of Roman mosaic architecture dug up only 60 years ago and put on display here with the story about what they represented.  There was also a Roman coffin engraved with images depicting the doors of Hades (or H-E-Double hockey sticks) with a flying horse on the side.  It was made of pure white, smooth marble.  Incredible, especially since it was from the third to fifth century.  Next, we climbed to the top of a small tower and I took some great panoramic views of the city.  I honestly can't imagine living there because it was so beautiful.  But I can imagine a spoiled prince living there and not enjoying this awesome sight.

Fuentes in Córdoba to help cool you down

So that was Córdoba.  Definitely a must-see in Andalucia.  Actually, it was the last city I wanted to see here in the south.  That makes: Granada, Cádiz, Sevilla, and Córdoba.  I'm planning on going to Barcelona in May and I will be returning to Madrid as well before I leave.  But right now I feel really accomplished.

Saturday, yesterday.  I met this kid, Oscar, last weekend by complete chance.  He was leaving a club the same time I was and he just kind of joined out group.  We hit it off pretty well, so we planned to meet for an intercambio last night.  It was by far the best intercambio that I've had.  He's a kid my age studying geology and we talked for three hours, which is the longest intercambio I've ever had.  He doesn't know a lot of English, but he desperately wants to learn, so we talked about all different kinds of things.  He is actually obsessed with American basketball.  Spain has one too, but I've watched highlights, and it has nothing on the NBA.  So when I told him I was from around Boston, he got excited because that's where the Celtics are from.  But he is a Lakers fan, so I had to rag on him for that.  But all in all, we had a great time talking and we'll probably meet up again after Semana Santa.

Panoramic view of Córdoba.  You can see the tower of the mosque

Tonight is the first night of Semana Santa and the processions of old floats begins at 6 PM tonight.  The majority of people from API are already traveling, so only me and one other friend are going tonight.  It may be the only one I get to see because I have to choose classes tomorrow night and then I leave Tuesday for France.  Tantas cosas para hacer, pero muy poco tiempo.  You will be hearing all about my adventures this week in my following blog post.  Until then, ¡Hasta luego!