In the meantime, here's a picture of my EU class. Our prof wanted a group picture with us, so without further ado...
Showing posts with label class. Show all posts
Showing posts with label class. Show all posts
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Oops
So, I have to get up at 5:30 tomorrow morning to get in a taxi to get on a bus to get on a plane to get on another bus to get to London. Right now, it's 9:38. And I know I promised a Morocco post, but I'm just too tired and my legs hurt (yeah, I'm sitting down, but the pressure of my legs on my feet really hurts right now) so I'm going to be posting about Morocco as soon as I have free time after Semana Santa. Or during Semana Santa, if I can get Claire to let me use the computers at the ICLC.
In the meantime, here's a picture of my EU class. Our prof wanted a group picture with us, so without further ado...
In the meantime, here's a picture of my EU class. Our prof wanted a group picture with us, so without further ado...
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Cordoba, Fuentevaqueros, and Valderrubio
This weekend has been full of trips. On Friday, all of IES went to Cordoba and a nearby archaeological site, and this morning (Saturday) I went on a visit with my literature class, to the birthplace of Federico Garcia Lorca, as well as a town he lived in for four years.
The site we visited yesterday is what's left of an old city from the period of the Omeya Caliphate. As a show of power, the first Caliph in Cordoba founded a new city, whose name I can't remember to save my own life. The city is about 8 kilometers from Cordoba, and the majority of wait remains pertained to the Alcazar, or palace, the gardens, and the mosque. It was pretty cool, as most of the walls remain, and you could more or less see the layout of the palace and the rooms within. Those moors certainly knew how to make the best use of space, because although it seemed small to me, it was actually an opulent royal palace.
Since this was just a day trip (no fancy hotels and long showers for us!), all we squeezed in to the Cordoba stop was a visit to the mosque-cathedral (I'll explain that in a moment), a visit to the synagogue, and a visit to Casa del Sefarad (which will also be explained). First stop was the cathedral-mosque. To clear things up right off the bat, it doesn't function as both a cathedral and a mosque. The next paragraph is going to be a super impressive history of the mosque, so if you're... one of the people who doesn't care about those things, cough cough... you can skip over to the one after.
The original structure was started in 785, by Abd al-Ramn I, who was the emir in Cordoba at the time (the Caliphate didn't begin until 929). All he built was the patio and the prayer room (that could be the totally wrong name, I'm doing my best to translate because my art history class is in spanish), and his son Hisan added the alminar, or tower, in 788. In 833 Abd al-Ramn II extended the naves in the prayer room towards the river. Nearly a century later, in 929, Abd al-Ramn III, amplified the patio, tore down and reconstructed the alminar, and reinforced the facade, which was beginning to lean into the patio. Al Hakam II extended the naves all the way to the river in 962, and finally Almanzor laterally extended both the prayer room and the patio in 988. And unless you really want to know more, that's all I'm writing about the history. If you want a really detailed description, I can do one with all the interior details and stuff.
Anyways, it was really really interesting to see the transition from mosque to cathedral, right in the middle of the building. It was amazing. I mean, here's a baroque cathedral smack dab in the middle of an 8th century mosque. Crazy. I'll post the link, once again.
This morning I got up early again for my literature class trip to Federico Garcia Lorca's birthplace. It was sort of cool, but mostly I just felt like I was intruding, even though everyone who ever lived in the house has died, because it was set up exactly as it was while the family lived there, with the original furnishings, textiles, and everything. They even had Lorca's younger sister, who was the longest surviving member of the family who had lived in the house, help with the restoration in order to make it perfect. The majority of the interesting-ness of both houses we saw was the connections to Lorca's works. For example, he used to listen to a neighbor yell at her husband and kids by standing over the well, which was connected to all the other wells on the block. This woman inspired a character in one of his plays, La Casa de Bernarda Alba.
So, basically, that's it. If you don't have facebook, check out my album from the weekend. :)
The site we visited yesterday is what's left of an old city from the period of the Omeya Caliphate. As a show of power, the first Caliph in Cordoba founded a new city, whose name I can't remember to save my own life. The city is about 8 kilometers from Cordoba, and the majority of wait remains pertained to the Alcazar, or palace, the gardens, and the mosque. It was pretty cool, as most of the walls remain, and you could more or less see the layout of the palace and the rooms within. Those moors certainly knew how to make the best use of space, because although it seemed small to me, it was actually an opulent royal palace.
Since this was just a day trip (no fancy hotels and long showers for us!), all we squeezed in to the Cordoba stop was a visit to the mosque-cathedral (I'll explain that in a moment), a visit to the synagogue, and a visit to Casa del Sefarad (which will also be explained). First stop was the cathedral-mosque. To clear things up right off the bat, it doesn't function as both a cathedral and a mosque. The next paragraph is going to be a super impressive history of the mosque, so if you're... one of the people who doesn't care about those things, cough cough... you can skip over to the one after.
The original structure was started in 785, by Abd al-Ramn I, who was the emir in Cordoba at the time (the Caliphate didn't begin until 929). All he built was the patio and the prayer room (that could be the totally wrong name, I'm doing my best to translate because my art history class is in spanish), and his son Hisan added the alminar, or tower, in 788. In 833 Abd al-Ramn II extended the naves in the prayer room towards the river. Nearly a century later, in 929, Abd al-Ramn III, amplified the patio, tore down and reconstructed the alminar, and reinforced the facade, which was beginning to lean into the patio. Al Hakam II extended the naves all the way to the river in 962, and finally Almanzor laterally extended both the prayer room and the patio in 988. And unless you really want to know more, that's all I'm writing about the history. If you want a really detailed description, I can do one with all the interior details and stuff.
Anyways, it was really really interesting to see the transition from mosque to cathedral, right in the middle of the building. It was amazing. I mean, here's a baroque cathedral smack dab in the middle of an 8th century mosque. Crazy. I'll post the link, once again.
This morning I got up early again for my literature class trip to Federico Garcia Lorca's birthplace. It was sort of cool, but mostly I just felt like I was intruding, even though everyone who ever lived in the house has died, because it was set up exactly as it was while the family lived there, with the original furnishings, textiles, and everything. They even had Lorca's younger sister, who was the longest surviving member of the family who had lived in the house, help with the restoration in order to make it perfect. The majority of the interesting-ness of both houses we saw was the connections to Lorca's works. For example, he used to listen to a neighbor yell at her husband and kids by standing over the well, which was connected to all the other wells on the block. This woman inspired a character in one of his plays, La Casa de Bernarda Alba.
So, basically, that's it. If you don't have facebook, check out my album from the weekend. :)
Thursday, February 9, 2012
First Week of Classes
As of 12:35 this afternoon, I am done with my first week of classes! IES Granada doesn't do Friday classes, so during the rest of the semester I will hopefully be able to travel more easily due to my free Thursday afternoons. So, here's what I'm doing (scholastically) this semester:
Spanish: Everyone, with the exception of a few people who come from bilingual households, has to take a language class. For me, it's 1 hour every day, during which we better our speaking and listening skills. Pretty standard stuff.
Lorca and the Andalusian Literary Tradition: Federico Garcia Lorca was a Spanish playwright, poet, and musician, who lived in Granada. Basically we will be reading lots and lots of poems (our profa doesn't like theatre, what?), analyzing them, and even writing some of our own. I'm a little nervous about that, since I'm not the most amazing poet in English, let alone Spanish. I'm hoping she lets us write haikus, because that's pretty much the extent of my poetic ability. We also have to keep a 'diary' for the class, although we only have to write what she tells us to (she also encourages us to write personal stuff, but I have my own diary for that). This week's assignment was to make a list of twenty beautiful things.
Spain and the European Union: I think this is pretty self explanatory: we learn about the EU, and how Spain fits into it.
Islamic Art and Architecture and Its Impact: I love art history courses. I know it sounds dumb, and I even sometimes get bored during visits, but I love learning all the stuff about a building, sculpture, or painting, then thinking about its cultural and historical context. I know, I'm weird. But whatever.
The Arab World and the West: My only class taught in English (did I mention I can only speak English when I'm in this class or hanging out with my friends on weekends?) is taught by Carlos de Cueto, who is my host mom's brother. Even though he's granadino, he has the most British accent ever. It's awesome, and so is the class. We're learning about the politics and history of the Arab world (**NOT the Islamic world, only 15% of the world's Muslims fall in the Arab category, betcha didn't know that!) and its interactions with the "West," essentially Europe and America. Not only is it super interesting, but I think it's also very relevant to the world we live in.
So those are my classes. I'm not taking any at the University, because I love all of these ones (so I can't drop any) and there's no way I'm taking 19 credits while studying abroad. I did, however, buy a UGR sweatshirt, which I'm justifying by the fact that I have a UGR student card so I can use their libraries.
This weekend is the trip to Sevilla and Ronda, which I'm super excited about. We're going to see cool buildings (including Arab baths), be able to hang out, and I'm rooming with my friend Danielle in the hotel, which will be nice because I don't have another IES student in my homestay. I'll post details and photos of the trip either Sunday or Monday.
Spanish: Everyone, with the exception of a few people who come from bilingual households, has to take a language class. For me, it's 1 hour every day, during which we better our speaking and listening skills. Pretty standard stuff.
Lorca and the Andalusian Literary Tradition: Federico Garcia Lorca was a Spanish playwright, poet, and musician, who lived in Granada. Basically we will be reading lots and lots of poems (our profa doesn't like theatre, what?), analyzing them, and even writing some of our own. I'm a little nervous about that, since I'm not the most amazing poet in English, let alone Spanish. I'm hoping she lets us write haikus, because that's pretty much the extent of my poetic ability. We also have to keep a 'diary' for the class, although we only have to write what she tells us to (she also encourages us to write personal stuff, but I have my own diary for that). This week's assignment was to make a list of twenty beautiful things.
Spain and the European Union: I think this is pretty self explanatory: we learn about the EU, and how Spain fits into it.
Islamic Art and Architecture and Its Impact: I love art history courses. I know it sounds dumb, and I even sometimes get bored during visits, but I love learning all the stuff about a building, sculpture, or painting, then thinking about its cultural and historical context. I know, I'm weird. But whatever.
The Arab World and the West: My only class taught in English (did I mention I can only speak English when I'm in this class or hanging out with my friends on weekends?) is taught by Carlos de Cueto, who is my host mom's brother. Even though he's granadino, he has the most British accent ever. It's awesome, and so is the class. We're learning about the politics and history of the Arab world (**NOT the Islamic world, only 15% of the world's Muslims fall in the Arab category, betcha didn't know that!) and its interactions with the "West," essentially Europe and America. Not only is it super interesting, but I think it's also very relevant to the world we live in.
So those are my classes. I'm not taking any at the University, because I love all of these ones (so I can't drop any) and there's no way I'm taking 19 credits while studying abroad. I did, however, buy a UGR sweatshirt, which I'm justifying by the fact that I have a UGR student card so I can use their libraries.
This weekend is the trip to Sevilla and Ronda, which I'm super excited about. We're going to see cool buildings (including Arab baths), be able to hang out, and I'm rooming with my friend Danielle in the hotel, which will be nice because I don't have another IES student in my homestay. I'll post details and photos of the trip either Sunday or Monday.
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