Mi vida sin mí

I don't have much to report these days, so I'll give you all another movie suggestion, one you can actually watch right now!

For my lengua class, we are in a Spanish cine unit, and part of this unit's grade is based on our giving presentations on various Spanish directors.  Being the Spanish film nerd that I am, I was so excited as our professor was going around the room and telling which couples would be working on which director, and by my fifth, "squeeeeal OMG I LOVE that director!!!" I was getting some pretty annoyed looks from my classmates.

My partner and I were assigned Isabel Coixet, director of My Life Without Me, and The Secret Life of Words, among other films.  I first saw The Secret Life in high school, and was very moved by the work, so I was excited for another opportunity to watch more by this director.

My Life Without Me, is the story of Ann, a 23 year-old woman who lives in a trailer in her mother's backyard with her husband and daughters.  She had her first child at 17, and her second at 19, and now she works nights as a janitor at a nearby university.  She has never had any grand dreams or hopes for the future ever since she had to grow up fast at the birth of her first daughter.  Her life is essentially unchanging until she collapses one day and ends up at the hospital where a doctor tells her she has cancer and only has two months to live.  Upon hearing this, Ann does two things: makes a list of everything she wants to do before she dies, and vows to not tell anyone that she's going to die.

This film is similar to The Secret Life of Words in its focus on those things that we choose to not say, and how we do say them when we finally decide to do so.  Additionally, both films deal with the fragility of the human body, and our inability to protect ourselves from pain.  However, Coixet's faith in the ability of Love to soothe the pain caused by both physical and emotional afflictions is clear throughout both films as well.

Unfortunately I was hosting some friends this summer when my parents were watching The Secret Life, and, when our ravenous hunt for ice cream took us through the family room where they were settled down in front of the film, we somewhat ruined the emotional climax of Coixet's work.  I have no fear, however, of anyone being pulled away from the emotionality of My Life Without Me.  This film is a tearjerker, but, despite the movie's tristeza, one is left with a feeling of immense hope for the future at the end.

I highly recommend this film.  Unlike Agora, this movie has already been released, so you do not have to wait until December to see it, but like Agora, this movie is also in English!  (I don't mean to be condescending, I know many of you do not mind subtitles, but there are also some of you who do, so this is to eliminate any excuses one may have to not see this movie).  When you see it, or if you already have, let me know what you think of it.  I look forward to hearing your responses.

Un beso.

Barcelona

Pictures

On Friday morning, I woke up at 4:45am to finish packing / getting ready for my weekend trip to Barcelona.  I grabbed the first metro at 6:00am to get myself to the train station to make my 7:00am train.  By 10:30am I had arrived in Barcelona and was on the metro heading towards a friend of a friend's apartment in L'Eixample, which was only a short walk from the metro stop.  At this moment I thought I was tired...I had no idea.

My travel companions had arrived the night before, and were still wrapped up in blankets on the tile floor when I arrived and began bugging them to get up so we could fit as much as possible in to our short time in Barcelona.  Before too long all were washed, fed, and on our way to La Rambla, a famous pedestrian boulevard in the Barri Gòtic.  Despite the hype, I was under impressed with this leg of our journey.  The perhaps most interesting part for me of La Rambla was all of the baby animals waiting in cages to be sold.  There were the typical baby bunnies and hamsters, but as we continued down the row, there were less typical pets, such as roosters and even pigeons.

Before long we turned eastwards off of La Rambla to hunt down La Catedral, which, like many of the sights were to be, was under construction.  Despite the lack of views of the facade (or perhaps because of said lack), the entrance fee was 5€ so we decided to trek onwards in search of the Esglèsia de Santa Maria del Mar and the Museu Picasso.

On our way, however, we were distracted by a particularly delicious looking smoothie stop, and once we had all paid 5€ for our smoothies (apparently smoothies trump cathedral entrance fees), we settled down in the nearby Plaça del Rei.  It was here that we noticed the Museu d'Història de la Ciutat, and a quick look in our guidebooks promised an intriguing and enlightening visit.  It was also here, however, that what ended up becoming a trend throughout our weekend began: the museum was closed, but would open again later.

We decided to come back after making it to our next two destinations, but, like the museum before it, the Esglèsia was closed as well.  Luckily for us, the Picasso museum was open, and (though I cannot say this for certain as I never made it to the other two closed sights) it thoroughly made up for our other missed goals.  The museum is made up of Picasso's work laid out chronologically throughout the museum.  It does not have any significant amount of pieces of his more famous periods (the Blue Period,  the Rose Period, or Cubism) but it does do a magnificent job of demonstrating the progression of his style.  This museum is a must for anyone visiting Barcelona.

After this stop, we made our way back to the history museum, only to be told that it was going to close in twenty minutes, so we shrugged our shoulders and headed back to the apartment to rest up for the night ahead.  The highlight of the night was visiting Dow Jones Bar, where the prices of the drinks change depending on demand, and sometimes the "market crashes" and everyone rushes the bar to buy the drinks cheaply before the prices start going up again.  After this, the five people that live in the apartment, the seven of us from my program with which I'd spent the day, and two additional people from our program with whom we had just met up went back to the apartment to sprawl out on the tile floor and sleep as much as possible.

The next day was dedicated to Gaudí.  By midday our group made it to Park Güell, the Gaudí designed park, which had initially been planned to be a luxury neighborhood.  It is a steep climb to get up to the park from the back (which is where we entered), but thank goodness for the outdoor escalators that assist with some part of the way.  The view from the top was amazing, one can see all across the city and the ocean from there, and it quickly made up for our exertion trying to climb our way up.

Once inside the park, we wandered around attempting to take in all that Gaudí had created, with his curving lines, bright mosaic work, and influences varying from Roman architecture to fruit.  Before long, however, it was time for us to head back into the city to see what, for me, is the most recognizable monument in Barcelona: La Sagrada Familia.

This cathedral has been under construction since 1882, and it is not expected to be completed before 2026.  Nonetheless, its magnificence is evident despite the scaffolding, cranes, and tarps surrounding it.  Apparently the eastern façade is more representative of Gaudí's work, yet I actually found the western side, the Passion façade, to be more compelling.  The stark, angulated figures below, and the bright, almost goofy colors above enchanted me, not only by their distinct beauties, but also by the contrast between the two sections.  We were going to enter into the cathedral to perhaps go up to the top, but, lo and behold, they closed just as we arrived.

At this point I went back to the apartment to rest and read, and before long the rest of the group had wandered back out to see a fountain and lights show.  Everything I have heard about this show sounds amazing, but I knew that in order to make it through the night, I needed to get off of my feet for a couple hours.

We spent the night playing games around the apartment, until we headed out to Razzmatazz, an enormous club, around 2:30am.  I'm sure it goes without saying that I only got about an hour of sleep before I had to, very groggily, pack up, get dressed, and hop on the train back to Madrid.

Barcelona is amazing, and I am looking forward to my next chance to return.  Unlike many other members of our program, it has been important to me to avoid traveling out of Madrid so that I can really dedicate myself to getting to know the city and its people.  Nonetheless, I have absolutely no regrets about taking a break from my home city to visit this wondrous place.

Un beso.

Ágora

On December 18th, when Agora is released worldwide, I strongly recommend all you non-Spaniards go buy a ticket and see it in theatres.  At the request of my legnua professor (this is somewhat ironic, as the film is in English), I went to see this last night.  I was already pretty excited for it as this movie has garnered a good amount of attention (both negative and positive) in the Spanish press, and as I have loved all of the other films that I have seen that Agora's director has worked on.


Agora, by Goya-winning director, Alejandro Amenábar, is based on the life of Hypatia, the 4th century philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician.  It tracks her life as a teacher and as a researcher, and the political and religious atmosphere surrounding her in Alexandria during this time.

Upon leaving the theatre, the two friends with which I went to see the movie and I were unable to stop talking about it, a conversation that lasted hours both in person and online when we got home, as the themes demonstrated by Amenábar remain issues in our own society today.  One was struck by the intolerance shown to people of other religions by the fanatics within any given religion (and, at times, subtly by those who would not be considered fanatics at all).  The other was deeply moved by the physical and political abuse against women, particularly in the name of religion.

Both of these themes were evident and significant to me, but what I found most compelling was the way in which religious fanatics have attacked intellectuals and their studies for millennia.  Longer even than we have had science, we have had religion to explain our world.  As science has slowly explained the phenomena around us, however, our religions have in many ways remained the same, and so the two studies have, in some manners, come to contradict each other.  I do not mean to blindly defend scientists of any field, as I have seen too many students roll their eyes at "those silly religious types,"and I believe that there is as much to learn about this world from any given spirituality as there is from the more secular studies, nonetheless, this discrimination has often been a two-way street.

There is a scene in Agora in which an angry Christian mob descends upon the Library of Alexandria and eagerly destroys the books encased in its shelves.  The Christians are dirty and dressed in black, and as the scrolls fly over their heads, the camera slowly rotates up to watch the books in the air, then continues to rotate until the whole scene is shown upside down.  The symbolism behind the rotating camera is rich (the world of the Alexandrians is being turned upside down by the religious and political turmoil, while at the same time Hypatia and her students are exploring the possibility of an Earth that rotates upon itself), yet is is impossible to ignore the implication that the Christians, in their eagerness to destroy the knowledge in said books they are returning themselves to an uncivilized, "upside-down" culture.

Watching this scene, I could not help but think of the book burnings of later cultures, or the continuation today of schools attempting to ban books that challenge their religious beliefs.  A particularly funny example of this is And Tango Makes Three, a picture book based on the true story of two male penguins that raised their own baby penguin, which was one of the most challenged books in 2008 on the grounds that it is anti-family, and for its religious viewpoint.  Now, I have not read this book, but I have to wonder where exactly religion fit into the lives of these penguins...  Evidently the fanatics depicted in Amenábar's work are not the only ones living in an upside-down culture.

As I said before, I do not support the quick dismissive-ness with which some intellectuals treat religion and its members, I for one was raised in the Christian church, and my background has never conflicted with my education, yet the tension between these two groups, particularly when it comes to the attitude of those involved in institutionalized religion towards scientific studies, and specifically books, is clearly long-lasting and deeply entrenched in our global history.

So...I hope you all do go see this film, and just in case what I've written hasn't intrigued you: there's romance, action, drama, history, science, AND you won't have to read subtitles(!), which should hopefully be enough to convince anyone.

Un beso.

Tentaciones

As a person in her early twenties, there are a lot of temptations here in Madrid.  I want to get the most out of this year as possible (and be significantly more responsible than I was when I came here four years ago), but sometimes distractions arise that stand between my goal and me.

The four-day-weekend: On Thursdays my only class is at 4pm, and I have no classes on Fridays, so, lucky me, I can sleep until 2pm four days a week if I choose to do so.  Now, at school in the United States, my lack of Friday classes does not cause a problem for my productivity because, frankly, going out at school is rarely more exciting than brushing my hair (maybe), putting on clean clothes (ideally), and sitting on the floor or bed of a friend's dorm room drinking beer, playing card games, and singing along to R. Kelly, Old Crow Medicine Show, and Journey.  As a result, I oftentimes save the $1.50 it costs to buy a 40oz and just go to bed early on Friday so that Thursday and Saturday nights feel like more of a treat than the same-old-same-old.

Here in Madrid, however, I have actually found myself missing getting buzzed with my friends in dorm rooms because the alternative is EXPENSIVE and EXHAUSTING!  As I said before, I can sleep until at least 2pm the majority of the days of the week, and when every time friends propose plans they couple them with, "Come on, we're in Madrid!  How often will you be able to go to this particular restaurant/bar/club?" it's hard to find an excuse to say, No.  (Remember when I was working on saying, Yes?  Life has a funny way of messing with you...)

Americans: I have been getting better about limiting my outgoing cash flow, and when going out insisting on going to bars (clubs are expensive and dark and thus difficult to meet people, restaurants are expensive and bright and thus difficult to meet people) so that I can meet Spaniards and practice my Spanish.  Unfortunately, however, just when you think you've found the smokiest, most authentic bar in the coolest, most authentic neighborhood in Madrid, and you've settled down with a caña, and you've just begun to survey the room for potential new friends, suddenly it happens.  You hear a sound from across the bar, soft at first...who am I kidding?  We're young Americans abroad, the sound tends to be booming, the sound of an American accent.  Don't get me wrong, I came here excited to use my Spanish, but, after long (...well, not SO long) weeks of dealing with classes and with whatever happens to be the problem of the week, hearing an American accent is like pulling into my neighborhood at home after months at school.  And as soon as said accent makes its way to my table, it is difficult to not send my own accent back over its way.

The "I have a whole year to see that" game: I think this one is pretty self-explanatory.  I, along with a couple other members of the program, have the privilege of spending my whole school year here in Madrid, which should mean that I will be able to experience and absorb significantly more Spanish culture than my peers.  This, however, is not automatically the case.  While others are rushing around, trying to see as much as they can before having to jump on a plane back home, we full-year students do not have this same impending deadline, and so it is often tempting to turn off the alarm we've set to wake up and go to a museum with the reasoning that, "I can always go next weekend" (clearly my going-out mentality and my museum-visiting mentality need to be switched).

Well, now that I have written down these temptations, hopefully I will be better able to address them (isn't the first step to recovery admitting you have a problem?).  Perhaps next post I will let you know how I'm doing with my resolutions!

Un beso.

¡Fotos de Valencia!

Aquí

Hopefully a blog post to come as well!

Un beso.