fotografías!

Since I have been a slacker and a half....here are some pictures, in lieu of words, of my life for the past three weeks.

The view of granada from the Alhambra.

Patio de Los Leones

Anna, Maggie and I in the Alhambra

Isabelle, Mikayla and I at our favorite bar in Granada, where they have sangria on tap! (But so does everywhere else....)

a-b-c, es facil como un-dos-tres!

So the last entry left off with our first night out in Madrid – the next day we went to the Valle de los Caidos, or the Valley of the Fallen, which is like 30 minutes outside of Madrid. It is a giant basilica that Francisco Franco built in the 1940's, originally for the purpose of being his church, but it was later changed to be the memorial for the victims of the Spanish Civil War. Franco had political prisoners build it, and consequently, many Spanish people have mixed feelings about the place. However you feel about it though, the place is physically amazing. It is literally carved out of the mountain. The cross is 152 meters high, and made out of solid concrete. (It is the biggest cross in the world.) There are giant figures at the bottom, and they are shrouded in fabric, which is incredibly eerie looking when it moves in the breeze. Apparently the fabric is only for protection of the figures, but it definitely adds a creepy aspect to the place.

There is also a large Pieta figure above the doors of the church, which is also covered in fabric, and is equally creepy/interesting.

Of course they don’t let people take pictures inside the church, but Franco is buried right next to the altar inside, along with José Antonio Primo de Rivera, who was the leader of the Falange Española, or the Spanish Phalanx(a spanish fascist party), and apparently one of Franco's BFF's. There are ginormous statues of the four archangels inside, and Azrael, the angel of death, literally looks like a 30-foot high statue of a dementor from Harry Potter. (Yes, I just compared a hugely important historical monument with a fictional character from a children’s book. DON’T JUDGE ME!) Standing at the grave of one of the most famous leaders of fascism was quite the experience. I would definitely say that the entire basilica is equal parts mind-blowing and eerie. I can understand how people have very different opinions of it.

Willkommen, Bienvenue, Welcome!

Yes, I am officially in Espana, and I have been here now for a week. The first few days were so jam-packed with traveling and adventures that I was unable to access the internet for more than a few minutes a day, but I am finally settled in Granada, and able to update this blog-thingymabober.

So….Spain is amazing! (As if you didn’t think I was going to say that.) The architecture, the style, the people, the language, the food – everything is different, and everything is wonderful.

I landed in Madrid last Sunday morning, and I was met at the airport by Christian, my academic advisor and tour guide for the duration of the trip. There were about 25 of us to begin with, but only four of us ended up in Granada – the rest are studying in Barcelona. Anyway, we went to the hotel – La Huba Princessa – and crashed pretty early the first night. My internal clock took a beating with the eight hour time change.

Madrid seems to be the Spanish equivalent of New York City – the taxis, buses, and people are running constantly, and the streets are always in motion, day or night. We went to La Reina Sophia, and I saw Guernica, which I have been fascinated with since learning about it in grade school. The size of it is overwhelming, and since an entire room is devoted to it, it just makes it that much more powerful. To see the sketch marks across it that Picasso made, and the newspaper print he pasted onto it, was just mind-blowing. Apparently the peeps that commissioned the piece, just a few days after the bombing of Guernica, didn’t like the work initially. Just goes to show you shouldn’t listen to art critics, since the piece has basically become the anti-war statement of the last century.

Our tour guide pointed out things that I had never known about it, like the fact that the horse’s nose is also a human skull, and there is another skull superimposed over the rest of the horse as well. The lines that look like they are painted on the horse are actually strips of newspaper that Picasso pasted on, since he initially learned of the attack while reading the newspaper. There are also marks of the stigmata on some of the hands and feet of the people in the painting, signifying the suffering they went through that day.

There was also a room dedicated to Salvador Dali in the museum, and his paintings are absolutely full of secret meanings and double entendres. My favorite one, entitled Enigma Sin Fin, or “The Endless Enigma,” was fasincating.



You can see the face within it pretty easily, but then it was pointed out that the mountain to the left looks like a giant person, and a greyhound, and a horse, depending on which way you look at it. I had to stand in front of it for like 20 minutes before I saw the horse. I have always been bad at those eye-trick painting things.

Later that night I went out to a taparia with my roommate Anna, and our friends Katasha and Mikayla. We ordered a bottle of wine to start with, which, of course, came with free tapas! One was a plate of home-fried potatoes that was covered in a ketchup-like sauce, and another plate full of beans and other vegetables that had been roasted with some delicious herbs or something on it. I rarely know exactly what I am eating here, but it is all so delicious, I could care less! (Plus I can tell if it is octopus or squid, which are really the only things that I absolutely will not eat, haha.) I even tried blood sausage, although it was really not to my liking.

Well, I have to go comida la cena con mi familia. More later, I promise!

Loves to all!! -katie

it's new year's eve, I'm in Glendora

Today marks T-minus 14 days until liftoff for Espana. I have just barely begun to think about packing, but the excitement and terror is mounting steadily. Mi espanol es no bueno, pronto...estera?

I am going to miss Sombra Demon Teeth Mousy Face lots and lots :(

And I wish I could find my god-forsaken camera.

these are a few of my favorite things

Meet the new puppy, Sombra. I love her very much forever and ever amen.





This is also the best thing I have found on the internet lately:
John Kraza-whatever (Jim Halpert!) and Ben Gibbard. Playing music. TOGETHER. yesyesyes

my head is going to explode into candy

I love this band, this song, and specifically, this video.
The part where they are screaming silently over the key change - oh god. It gives me chills every time.

I think the people that come into Abode think I am insane, as I eat over the keyboard and then have to pull a sporadic THUMP THUMP THUMP as I bang all the crumbs away.

quote of the day~
"Oh, she says well, you’re not a poor man. You know, why don’t you go online and buy a hundred envelopes and put them in the closet? And so I pretend not to hear her. And go out to get an envelope because I’m going to have a hell of a good time in the process of buying one envelope. I meet a lot of people. And, see some great looking babes. And a fire engine goes by. And I give them the thumbs up. And, and ask a woman what kind of dog that is. And, and I don’t know. The moral of the story is, is we’re here on Earth to fart around. And, of course, the computers will do us out of that. And, what the computer people don’t realize, or they don’t care, is we’re dancing animals. You know, we love to move around. And, we’re not supposed to dance at all anymore."
~kurt vonnegut

I forget this sometimes, but it is very true.

laughter.

crazykatie1210:good morning belle! good morning meisuer! and where are you off to today? the library! I just finished the most wonderful story, about a beanstalk and an ogre and a .... That's nice. MARIE! THE BAGUETTES! HURRY UP!

mychacotaco:AHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAh

mychacotaco:THE BAGUETTES

mychacotaco:I NEED....SIX EGGS!

crazykatie1210:HAHAHAHAHA

mychacotaco:she's so frantic in that part

crazykatie1210:heeeeeeere's where she meeeeeets prince chaaaaarming....but she wont discover that its him! til chapter three!
and then the sheep eats a page of it

crazykatie1210:i was like FUCK YOU SHEEP

mychacotaco:AHAHAHAHHAHA

crazykatie1210:I WAS READING THAT PAGE

crazykatie1210:THANKS I JUST GOT THIS BOOK

mychacotaco:NOW THE LIBRARY IS GOING TO MAKE ME PAY FOR IT'

crazykatie1210:AHAHAHAHHA

mychacotaco:BUT YOU WOULDN'T CARE ABOUT THAT BECAUSE YOU'RE A FUCKING SHEEP

genuis.





Queen's Cup is a much better game than King's Cup.