In Paris a person is never more than 400 feet from a Metro, and as I toured the city for two and a half days last weekend, I certainly took advantage of this quality. Compared to the six other metro, subway, or tube systems that I have used, the Metro of France was dirtier but was also extensive and well used. What was different about the French metro was the double-decker trains seen in this picture.
During my many trips on the metro, what I found so compelling was the variety of people who made use of the public transportation. The combination of people in one place moving together. I can't know where they are going or where they have come from. The Metro is different from a plane ride or a car ride or even a bus. The destination isn't exact; it is a winding direction. The people are combined in mass quantities or as solo individuals. When they get off I can't see where they are going or even where they have stopped. In most cases there is an understood quiet or a whispered chatter. I can make eye contact or softly brush by. I have a few moments to exchange words or greetings as if a life can be summed up by "Where you from?" and "What do you do?" The Metro combines all types of people: business men and women in suits all the way to people wearing the only shirt they own. There is a seemingly stagnant cycle from stop to stop, where the train is moving in inevitable repetition.
As I rode from train station to train station on the Metro, I was able to make the connection to the imagery of several of the works that I have read in my Humanities 205 class. The Hive (La Colmena) by Camilla Jose Cela showed the interconnected and somber lifestyles of the city of Madrid with a home base of sorts in a cafe. The Metro includes some of the same moving connections and distant relationships as it circulates through the city. The image of the Metro was explicitly repeated throughout the movie Barrio (1998) by director Fernando Leon de Aranoa as the three protagonists appeared in the Spanish Metro in a repeated scene of the movie. The image symbolized that they were moving, but at the same time were trapped. The book Nada by Carmen LaForet shows the protagonist Andrea numerous times wandering through the city in a familiar path. Andrea passes the recognizable places, and similar to the Metro she follows a habitual route; she is passing through without motivated intention but instead with in a passive cycle. Finally, in Southern Seas by Manuel Vazquez Montalban, there is a direct mention of the combination of the businessmen who rarely use the Metro with the lower class citizen who frequents the cyclical train. The image speaks of the difference of classes and people united in a ride on the Metro.
In each of these books, the themes and even direct images of the Metro, tell the story of a microcosm of a city and the variety of the people and the diversity of their motivations. The Metro can reflect the society, culture, and people of a city, from the temporary and enthusiastic tourist to the numbness felt by the cashier who is just off work. The experience traveling the Metro was a first hand look of the symbols produced by the literature we have read in class.

Notre Dame

When our study abroad group was marveling at the Cathedral in Toledo, on of the other students told me, "Just wait until you see the Notre Dame." As a result, I was very excited to see what must be so special about that particular cathedral, pictured here. Immediately, from the exterior there were differences from the cathedrals that I had seen in Spain, which often had several levels of building and strong Muslim architecture influences. At the site, information made it clear that Notre Dame was one of the very first cathedrals built in the Gothic Era and its construction spanned through almost the entire period of Gothic architecture. As a result, Notre Dame is often used as the most basic example of what Gothic architecture is. Nevertheless, the differences in its appearance made the arabic influences in Spain more obvious to me.
Once inside the cathedral, I felt a little let down. Because the cathedral had been built up, I was expecting it to stop me in my tracks. Compared with other cathedrals that I have toured, inside it was less decorated and more cave like. I do not mean to suggest that it was not grand, because it certainly was magnificent; however, the attributes of Notre Dame were different than those constructed in Spain. The flying butrices which allowed for thinner walls and higher cielings were the highest that I had seen, which certainly speaks to it as an example of Gothic architecture. Furthermore, each of the tall windows had unique stained glass that surpassed all of the other windows I have viewed in other cathedrals. In Notre Dame, I was able to sit down for a while and meditate on my surroundings and while the cathedral was not the image I was expecting, it was certainly impressive.
However, the appearance of the cathedral is not the most important thing that I took away from my visit to the cathedral. As I was sitting on the wood bench in the building, I watched hundreds of people from all races and cultures walk past me. Notre Dame was one of the most crowded locations that I visited, and as the most internationally toured city in the world, the Parsian cathedral was an example of multi-cultural appeal. However, information about the cathedral revealed that this was not always the case. The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a work of literature that is famous worldwide as well. The value of the fictional novel was that it was written as a way to bring attention to the cathedral in order to save it from pending destruction. Needless to say that the proganda was successful and not only saved the cathedral, but also inciated an adoration for the building. What I find so interesting about this story, is proof that while times change, tthe popular culture of an era has the ability to change the course of history and the views of society.

"One, two, three, four, five ... six! There is seven and eight!" The important image in the this picture is, of course, the French flag. Many times when I was stopped waiting to cross the street in Paris, France, I would count the number of French flags like this one. The average number was probably eight, but was rarely less than four and often ten or twelve. By the end of my weekend in Paris, two other students and I had a running joke, "What is that flag? I wonder what it means!" The abundance of the flags throughout the city seemed to mark a sense of national pride. However, after studying in Spain for two months it also created a sharp contrast to the regional pride of many Spaniards. Within the first week in Spain we had studied about the 17 autonomies of Spain and within a few more weeks we had learned about the rivalries between these regions, and especially between Madrid and Barcelona. When I walk through the streets of Segovia or the other places that I have traveled, I do not notice the Spanish flag or a national government building nearly as much as I see the flag of the autonomy. In fact, I can only clearly remember two places in Segovia that fly the Spanish national flag, while I can, however, recall numerous locations labeled proudly, "Castilla y Leon," the name of Segovia's autonomy. Therefore, seeing the abundance of the national flag in Paris proved to be a contrast to the regional Spain and highlighted the differences of allegiance.
In another class, when I mentioned the abundance of the flags, our teacher mentioned that in Spain the French are known for their national pride, and not necessarily in a positive context. While this may be a result of historical tensions, it also speaks the differences within their cultures and their opinions of government. Another interesting thing that I learned was that the modern French flag, is the flag that was used during the French Revolution. When it was first used the three different colors had different proportions in order to make them esthetically similar; Napoleon is credited with requiring each of the flags to have equal proportions.

This picture shows the final strike against the bull in the bull fight I attended on Sunday. After speaking to a man who sat near us in the stadium I learned that the sword used to kill the sword is slightly curved. There are two small spots on either side of the spin of the bull that should be pierced and if done correctly will penetrate the heart of the bull, killing it quickly. This, however, is not an easy task. Only one matador successfully conquered the bull in this manner. In the other five cases the bull must die slowly and is often confused by other men who serve almost as the equivalent of a "rodeo clown." If the death is too long and clearly the bull is suffering than an older matador comes into the ring with a very short and very sharp knife/sword which is used to slice the spinal cord, therefore killing the bull automatically. Within the course of the fight another long sword was used as defense for the matador and a long spear like object was used by picadores who rode horses within the first moments of the fight.
Overall, I enjoyed the experience tremendously, but was also very surprised by the entire event. I attended the fight with a fair amount of anticipation and also several misconceptions. Unlike I expected, the bull fight was not extremely brutal. Instead, I compared it to a dance with certain rites that had to be completed. Furthermore, it was not as easy as a slice of the sword, but took time and skill I miscalculated. At one point, I anticipated that the matador would be spending a few weeks in the intensive care unit! The ring was very large and it was clear that the event held significant cultural importance.

Unfortunately I have not been able to turn this picture right side up. However what is still apparent is the faint writing on the stones of this picture. This picture was taken from the wall of a building used for the historic University of Salamanca, placed very near to the Cathedral of Salamanca. Immediately when seeing the writing on the building I was remined of a very similar set of words and letters I had seen on the Cathedral of Granada. Previously, I blogged about the grafittee that is so prevelant here in Spain. Both of these images I had assumed were just that, another form of grafittee, but this time I felt there would be few people who would suggest that the red letters painted on such antique buildings was any form of art and not vandalism. When I recognized the letters again in Salamanca, I can remember feeling almost compelled to shake my head and sigh! However, our tour guide of the day came promptly to the rescue and kept me from discriminated too badly "on the hooligans" who had painted on the old school building. The words painted in this picture are actually centuries old and have retained their color and place on the structure due to the integrity of the stone and its resistence to change color or erode with the elements of te weather. The words and symbols represented the academic acheivments of people of the era and those who had graduated from the university. Earlier in the day she had explained that graduation was contingent on an oral examinations from professors. One vote against the student and the exam was suspended and the student did not graduate. As any person can imagine, that made graduation quite an acheivement, such that it gave the student the right to paint their name or intials or symbol or whatever their heart desired on the side of the building. Maybe the question about grafittee can be answered in a similar way, an opportunity for a person to mark their achievement or who they are. Finally, I am glad that I do not have to graduate through an oral exam as they did, but I think it would be neat to leave my name on my universities wall!

One of the cultural experiences most felt by any traveler is the difference in economy and money. Spain, along with 15 other nations, adopted the Euro in January 2002 to replace its previous national currency, the peseta. As a visitor to the nation, one of the first things that I have learned to pay closer attention to is the rate of exchange between the dollar and the euro. This is first interesting, because while I have heard mini news clips about the strength of the dollar, I have rarely given it the attention that I am developing now. In the past week, in fact, the dollar saw its strongest day since I have been studying in Spain and also its lowest.
Spain was actually one of the nations which most supported the change to a universal European currency. In the 90's, Spain maintained a GDP growth of over 3% average per year, and often above that. This contrasted greatly with other European nations, like Germany and France, which traditionally had much larger and stronger economies, but experienced near zero growths. The strength of Spain's economy in the last 15 year's according to many economists has legitimized them as member of the European Union (EU) and makes them now the fifth largest economy in the EU and the eighth largest in the world. In my research of the Spanish economy I was also interested to learn that Spain was only second to France in terms of reducing income levels between different social classes in Spain in the last 20 years. This of course is also a reflection and a turn from the reign of Franco and the years of hunger, portrayed in the books of Spanish literature, when the social classes experienced large gaps. Also a change from the Catholic, Franco era, in the 1970's women in the workforce in Spain was equal to the amount of women working in other European nations in the 1930's. Today, with help of the political changes and the shift to the Euro, Spain matches the EU average of women in the workforce. While their are some disadvantages, including intra-european trade, it seems that the change to the euro has been positive for Spain.

This weekend I attended a protestant church with a few other students. The experience spoke volumes of the impact of Spanish history and the relationship of the Catholic church. This room was on the bottom floor in an extra corner of an apartment building a 15-minute walk from the aqueduct. Automatically, it contrasted with the traditional Catholic church, basilica, or cathedral that I have been touring the last few weeks. The dynamics of the congregation were also different than I had anticipated. There were 40 people at highest estimate in the meeting room. All but one person appeared to be under the age of 50. Furthermore, the people looked much more like they were from Latin America rather than Spain. After a little investigation, it was clear my observations were correct. This small group of protestant worshipers were mostly young Spanish family or immigrants from Central and South America. While it has been over 30 years since the end of the Catholic reign of Fransisco Franco, his influence is still felt. The people who grew up and established their adult lives under his rule continue to practice Catholicism. Just as many of the students have mentioned that their host families do not like to speak of Franco, what is clear is that the years of Franco continue to influence Spain through the people he ruled.

Because March is the month of the Holy Bible, the sermon focused on the history of the translation of the Bible from Greek to Castillo. During the 16th Century, the Catholic kingdoms had begun to establish themselves and as a result were forcing those who did not practice Catholicism from Spain. Muslims and Jews were the mass of the emmigrants, however, the Lutheran movement which had been sweeping across Europe conflicted with the Inquisition of the Catholic Kingdom. As a result, the protestent Holy Bible was translated by a Spanish born man in Germany and England. The process toke more than 12 years, but in the end produced the first complete translation of the Holy Bible to Castillian Spanish. This history seemed appropriate and matched the small congreation I was sitting with. Catholicsm has a long and deep history in Spain that has impacted the development of religion in Spain for hundreds of years. This church spoke to the fact that just 30 years of religious freedom can not yet change the religious and polictical culture extablished over centuries.