Monday, February 12, 2007
Blue Tiles and Orange Trees
I came back from the southwestern tip of Spain this morning, near Portugal, where I had attended a “mid-year” Fulbright seminar in Cádiz for the past few days. Mid-year, how did that happen? The seminar was a catch-up and story trading session, where I heard tales from the other research grantees and teaching assistants. Beyond a few reports of overprotective archivists and non-compliant principals, everyone seems to be doing the same as I am…moving along albeit slowly at times in their work and generally relishing the opportunity to be in a different place and time and mindset. The one thing that amazed me was how everyone was able to briefly present the most idiosyncratic work in laypeople’s terms. I was a bit hesitant at the thought of a panel of 14th century historians and scientists, (just being honest here) but somehow they must weed out the jargon-heads because instead of wishing I was outside walking along Cádiz’s boardwalk, I got a kick out of the stories of the priest who whipped sinners privates with his sash, and learned all about the tse-tse fly. The director, Maria Jesus, somehow consistently manages to imbue even me with a sense of patriotic pride and responsibility towards the intercultural mission of the fellowship and the need to work towards active peace. Did I mention how almost every week here I am amazed at how much funding there is for social services, education, and the arts when you aren’t supporting a war? We just like to think they pay more taxes over here and that’s how they do it…makes us feel better about ourselves.
Andrew and I stayed another night and got to hear some flamenco and wander from fountain-ed plaza to fountain-ed plaza. In fact, we spent twenty five minutes during which I proudly retraced our circuitous path from fountain plaza number A to the hotel, when we peered down the street only to realize it opened up into another plaza. “Wow, let’s go look at that one!” and you guessed it, we had made a big circle. Our hotel was actually just next to the same café we had left half an hour before… at which point we burst into giggles and figured it was a sign we should do some sherry hopping, since Jerez is where all sherry comes from. We also got to see a “camera obscura”, a sort of mirror contraption at the highest point of the city that lets you see the entire city projected live on a big round concave disc. It was super cool, low-tech and designed by da Vinci, and there are evidently a bunch in other cities so check them out. Made me think of other ways to have real-time projections of different spaces in the city, and on the way home I saw an article about how Salvador de Bahia in Brazil is fighting against racism by projecting thousands of images of Afro-Brazilians across the city on over nine thousand square meters of buildings and walls. Very cool.
I will conclude today's entry with the announcement that to my surprise I passed into level Basic3 of Catalan. Yay!
MORE PHOTOS OF LAST MONTH HERE!!!
I came back from the southwestern tip of Spain this morning, near Portugal, where I had attended a “mid-year” Fulbright seminar in Cádiz for the past few days. Mid-year, how did that happen? The seminar was a catch-up and story trading session, where I heard tales from the other research grantees and teaching assistants. Beyond a few reports of overprotective archivists and non-compliant principals, everyone seems to be doing the same as I am…moving along albeit slowly at times in their work and generally relishing the opportunity to be in a different place and time and mindset. The one thing that amazed me was how everyone was able to briefly present the most idiosyncratic work in laypeople’s terms. I was a bit hesitant at the thought of a panel of 14th century historians and scientists, (just being honest here) but somehow they must weed out the jargon-heads because instead of wishing I was outside walking along Cádiz’s boardwalk, I got a kick out of the stories of the priest who whipped sinners privates with his sash, and learned all about the tse-tse fly. The director, Maria Jesus, somehow consistently manages to imbue even me with a sense of patriotic pride and responsibility towards the intercultural mission of the fellowship and the need to work towards active peace. Did I mention how almost every week here I am amazed at how much funding there is for social services, education, and the arts when you aren’t supporting a war? We just like to think they pay more taxes over here and that’s how they do it…makes us feel better about ourselves.
Andrew and I stayed another night and got to hear some flamenco and wander from fountain-ed plaza to fountain-ed plaza. In fact, we spent twenty five minutes during which I proudly retraced our circuitous path from fountain plaza number A to the hotel, when we peered down the street only to realize it opened up into another plaza. “Wow, let’s go look at that one!” and you guessed it, we had made a big circle. Our hotel was actually just next to the same café we had left half an hour before… at which point we burst into giggles and figured it was a sign we should do some sherry hopping, since Jerez is where all sherry comes from. We also got to see a “camera obscura”, a sort of mirror contraption at the highest point of the city that lets you see the entire city projected live on a big round concave disc. It was super cool, low-tech and designed by da Vinci, and there are evidently a bunch in other cities so check them out. Made me think of other ways to have real-time projections of different spaces in the city, and on the way home I saw an article about how Salvador de Bahia in Brazil is fighting against racism by projecting thousands of images of Afro-Brazilians across the city on over nine thousand square meters of buildings and walls. Very cool.
I will conclude today's entry with the announcement that to my surprise I passed into level Basic3 of Catalan. Yay!
MORE PHOTOS OF LAST MONTH HERE!!!
