and some more...

1. Judith with the Head of Holerfernes, Simon Vouet (Kunsthistorisches Museum) 2. Moses, Valentin de Boulogne (Kunsthistorisches Museum) 3. The Combat of the Gladiators, Paris Bordone (Kunsthistorisches Museum) 4. Lucretia and her Husband, Titian (Kunsthistorisches Museum) 5. Jeunes Filles au Piano, Pierre-Auguste Renoire (Musée Orangerie)

The first image embodies the essence of girlpower (Judith saves the Jewish people from destruction by the Assyrians. She makes friends with the enemy Holerfernes to only later cut off his head while he was asleep). I took a photo of Moses because we don't see a lot of depictions of Jewish history as it's not much of a Jew "thing" to make images.

Spending a month in Rome with a professor whose sustenance is ancient Roman history itself still inspires me to seek out all things Ancient Rome. Thus, I am drawn to this painting of the Gladiator combat. All of Rome's old glory is depicted in one painting. The painting after that is our homegirl Lucretia. Thanks to her rape, Ancient Rome was born. At least that's the myth... Sick, no?

Renoir's famous "girls with the piano" painting reminds me of my friend Jacqueline's sister, Hannah. It's alomst like he used her as the model when he painted this.

Unas obras que me impresionaron....

O sea, " Some works that impressed me..."

Okay so I have been intending to write this post for awhile. I want to share with you some of the artwork I've seen during my excursions in Europe. These works are not necessarily the most *important,* (though some are) but they are the ones that stood out to me for whatever reason. Thus, I give you some paintings and such + my amateur commentary and notes. Enjoy.


The Tower of Babel, 1563 - Kunsthistorsches Museum (Vienna, Austria)


This is in the Egyptian exhibit in the Kunsthistorsches Museum. I was surprised that a sculpture like this could have so much expression in the face. Though made of stone, her face is delicate and kind.


Old and colorful.


Monet, in the Musée Orangerie, Paris. "From far away it's okay..."

"...but up close it's just a big old mess." It's up to you to decide about everyone's favorite impressionist.

Some of the best...

Okay so it's time for an update. I am on break in Barcelona and it's been terribly nice. Being on break in Barcelona is when doing nothing coverts into an art form, making absence itself a tangible entity. I had planned to go to Berlin during this time but decided not to go at the last minute. I looked up the weather on the internet and it read 9 degrees Fahrenheit. No thanks.

Struggling to the airport to travel 5 hours by plane to get to Berlin and experience buttf*cker weather by myself just didn't appeal to me. I still really want to go to Berlin but there is something about cold weather that augments one's solitude. The latter idea actually sounds better in Spanish (perhaps because I first thought of it in Spanish), "El frío aumenta la soledad." Anywho, I didn't want what is possibly one of the world's coolest cities to feel like a chore to visit. Thus, I changed my flight to Berlin to a flight to Madrid this weekend so I could visit my friends that I met in Sevilla. Plus, I still haven't seen all of Madrid and I am excited to go somewhere else that is still in Spain, use my Spanish, and hang out with people that I enjoy in the capital city.

I have been reading La Plaza del Diamante by Mercè Rodoreda. So far I have been enjoying it a lot. I won't talk about what it's about just yet, as I'm still in the midst of reading it and I don't want to draw any conclusions. I leave you with this quotation, however...

"Y yo sola con aquellos ojos delante, que no me dejaban. Como si todo el mundo se hubiese convertido en aquellos ojos y no hubiese manera de ecapar de ellos."

'And I am alone with those eyes before me, they didn't leave me. It was as if everything had converted into those eyes and there wasn't a way of escaping them.'

LOVE IT.

Exams and Hemingway

This entry is a bit illogical and non-thematic. But sometimes we all need to just let our mind ooze a bit after it's been under a rigorous siege. My mind is blissfully blank right now, with nothing other than some remanants from my linguistics exam -- superdialecto A se emplea en el centro de España y las Américas mientras que superdialecto B se emplea en el sur de España, las Canarias, y las costas de las Américas -- and the reminder that I need to buy more cereal when I go grocery shopping at Bon Preu tonight.

But the good thing is that I've just conquered two exams today.
Barcelona en su contexto cultural - check.
La lingüística - check.
& I only have two more before I'm finished with the semester (yes, I've actually done a semester in Barcelona)! Then it's off to Berlin, into the freeze once again. At least I'll have my Uggs this time.

I love this picture of Papa Hem.

I haven't been doing much lately other than studying. Yesterday I sat in the dining room of our our apartment the entire day studying in my pajamas and eating jellybeans. Jorge and his girlfriend came in to join me around 3pm for lunch. They were still in their pajamas too. I read literary criticisms on Los mares del (fucking) sur by Vázquez Montalbán so that I could write an essay on it today for my final. I ended up talking all about the bougiouise of Barcelona and how it's characterized in the novel through the use of food and scandalous behavior. It was either top-notch bullshit or borderline genius. You're choice.

Right now I need to do some grocery shopping, laundry, and clean part of the apartment before Marlene comes home tomorrow. She's been in the United States for the past month or so, and well, we've neglected the cleaning a bit. In the name of exams, I've actually neglected a bit more than just the cleaning... but that's to be expected really.

A break from the monotony....

Okay, so I'm at the cutest cafe in Barcelona. It's called Cosmo and it's on a pedestrian street in between Aribau and Balmes. It's a cafe/art gallery that plays Norah Jones and has pretty little tables with cute lamps and, above all, WIFI internet. This place is a gem.

I'm sitting at my little table writing my Barcelona paper. I just couldn't stand trying to write my paper in my interior room when it is such a beautiful day outside. The weather is so perfect, 60 degrees, sunny, no jacket needed. I can't help but keep looking out through the window. Sometimes you just need to see the light, even if you can't be outside to frolick in it. Anywho, I have found a "clean, well-lighted place" to write. But now, I must continue to continue.

I will be so happy when January 21 arrives and I will have finished all my finals and essays. Until then, it's strictly studying and writing. At least I can make it an enjoyable experience by coming to nice places and having some tea and sandwiches on the side.

21

Happy birthday to me (yesterday, that is). I give you twenty-one things on my mind at this point. I wish I could update more but I'm writing papers, reading for my exams, and eating jellybeans (mostly the latter rather than the former two).

Hemingway on my birthday. It's his quote at the bottom. Would you really expect anything less?

A Story of Images - Barcelona, Budapest, Vienna, and back again

So I haven't posted in awhile because...

My friend Grace came to Barcelona to visit me from the United States!

Plaza San Juame, in front of the Generalitat
It was so nice to see her because her being here was like having a little piece of home brought to me in Barcelona (and she brought me some jellybeans and crunchy peanut butter t00, thanks Grace!). We walked around Barcelona and the weather was amazing, as always.

Grace walking through the area that was constructed for the 1992 Olympics at Montjuic.


@ Montjuic
After a few days in Barcelona, we jetted off to Budapest, Hungary. The weather was not so nice in Hungary...

Waiting in line to take a tour of the Hungarian Parliament building. Very cold, but worth the wait.
Nonetheless, Budapest was GORGEOUS.

The Danube River that divides Buda and Pest (taken from the Pest side of the river)


Budapest, taken from the Buda side of the Danube.
We loved Budapest so much, but after three nights there we took the train to Vienna, Austria. And no matter how much we wanted to, we didn't escape the snow in Vienna either...


Despite wearing two layers of socks with our boots, it seemed like our feet were wet for about 5 days straight...Why couldn't we have had our UGGs with us just this one time? Never have I ever wished for those boots more in my life. Though cold and wet, Budapest and Vienna are beautiful in the winter.

But I can't say that we weren't happy to return to Barcelona... I mean, seriously, wouldn't you be excited to come home to this too?

From the top of Montjuic, photo courtesy of Grace. This photo is amazing, my friend.

Well that concludes this update. Grace left for Granada this morning. She is continuing her tour of Spain without me (if only I didn't have class and finals I would go with her!!) Later if I have time I will update more about the nuances of our trip. It really was fantastic. But right now, unfortunately, I have to write a paper. Peace.