If you are reading this post, I am very sorry for not having updated this blog in months. As some of you might know, I came back to the US in early January to finish out my last semester of school. I was and have been pretty busy, so I will slowly continue to add more post. There is a museum in Granada called the Palacio de los Olividados, which has information about the Spanish Inquisition. One of the big things you learn about in Granada is the clash between the Catholic Spaniards vs. the Jews and the Muslims. Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand wanted to unite the entire country under catholicism. They decided to create the Spanish Inquisition to help get rid of any other religions. People could report to the Spanish courts about someone they thought might not be a good Catholic. These people would then be taken and tortured to determine who was legitimate or pretending. I posted a slide show Fact: While my family visited me in Granada, they commented how popular ham or jamon was in Andulusia. Ham is a huge part of the Spanish diet in Granada, and you can find it everywhere whether in sandwiches or tapas. However, it didn't become widely spread just because it is tasty, but was actually used as a way to discover who might be a Muslim or Jew. According to the Muslim and Jewish religion, people are not allowed to eat pork. This was a quick way to discover who was who back in Granada.
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Even though Spain doesn't have Thanksgiving, I just have been unable to get into the Christmas spirit. This is because I usually wait until after Thanksgiving and it's usually cold. But it finally hit me on December 1st because the Christmas lights have turned on around the city. They have been teasing me for a month with lights strung up around the city but not turning them on. So I was super excited to see all of the lights finally lit. Hopefully, some Christmas markets will start opening up around Granada soon! Kayla and I also went to a small place near our apartment called the Cuarto Real. It is said to be like a miniture Alhambra. We only got to see one room and it had the same architectural design as the Alhambra, but not as grandiose. It had small gardens around the building, so I was able to take some nice night photos. Last week our school put on a flamenco show for all of the students. They set up in the courtyard of one of the buildings, and they did about an hour long show. It was a really nice experience to watch, especially for free. The dancer also did three costume changes, but I really liked her last dress which is the one below. I recorded the last dance, so you could get a taste of flamenco dancing. Happy Thanksgiving from across the pond! I hope everyone is having a good time with their family and friends. My Thanksgiving was definitely different than normal. I still had to go to school today because it is a "normal" day here in Spain. But the good thing is that I only had one class from 12:30-2:30 and not a whole day of classes. Our teacher was nice and brought in cookies for us to snack on during class because she knew it was Thanksgiving. Thankfully, I didn't have to spend Thanksgiving alone because I have Kitty and Kayla here with me. It is different being in a country with no Thanksgiving. It went straight from Halloween (which most people don't celebrate) to Christmas. The funny thing is though that Spain does celebrate Black Friday. We were originally planning on cooking and celebrating in our apartment, but we could not find a turkey or ham at the market to save our life. I also have not seen stuffing or pumpkin anything. So we decided instead to go to the mall because there were a couple of buffets. We ended up at an asian buffet, which wasn't too bad and had a lot of choices. We still achieved the "stuffed" feeling. Afterward, we walked around a little bit before we went back to the apartment. Hope everyone has an amazing and relaxing break! Sorry for such the big delay with posting! I was hit hard by a couple of big events over the past couple of weeks, and I fell behind with updating the website. In late October, I was working on my medical school application and making sure everything was turned in for that. So even though I have a "seat" in medical school, I still have to go through the application process. Then we had a break in early November and I was planning to go somewhere. But the airline changed my plane reservation, so I ended up not going. Then I had my birthday, which was fun! Then I had midterm week here at Granada, so I was studying for all of my tests. But I will try to catch up on my posting. On one of the weekends in October, our school program took us on a day trip to the city of Cordoba. Cordoba was about a three hour bus ride from Granada. The first stop was to the Madinat Al-Zahar, which was about fifteen minutes outside of the city center. The Madinat Al-Zahar is a Muslim palace ruins from the 12th century because at this time the Muslim empire was experiencing a golden age in Spain. It was a huge palace that had many rooms. But over time the Muslim empire was broken up into many smaller kingdoms, and the palace was sacked and burned down to the ground. Now all that remains is the groundwork and a couple of arches. It was interesting to see, but at the same time it was hard to imagine the splendor that the palace was supposed to have. Our next stop was the Muslim Mosque/Catholic Cathedral. During the golden age of the Muslim empire there was a huge mosque built in Cordoba. However when the Spanish Catholic kingdom took over Cordoba, they decided instead of destroying the mosque they would build a cathedral right in the center of the mosque. So it was interesting when we first walked into the building, and you see rows and rows of arches. In the mosque part of the church, it was darker and seemed like a more intimate area. Then all of a sudden you walk into a bright cathedral. There were paintings and gold everywhere which was a huge difference from the mosque. It was a very interesting experience seeing the clash between the two different styles: Islam and Christian. After our visit, we walked back to the bus and drove back to Granada. |
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March 2019
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