History Lesson (not boring!!!)

85---That's how many pics I took today!!!!!!!!! I went a little wild with the dig camera but that's what they're for. I can't decide which ones to put up on the PICTURE site though!!! Oh well. PS i forgot to show you guys where I live...so check out that picture above!!! It's called "Col-legi Major Sant Jordi". (Ko-lay-hee Ma-jor San Jor-dee) That's an example of Catalan, the official language of "catalunya", which is where Barcelona is located. Everyone in Catalunya is bilingual, they speak both Catalan and Castellano (Spanish). The locals are very impressed and especially warm hearted if you attempt to speak Catalan to them because they are very proud of their language as well as their culture. Catalan came to be when the Romans entered Spain and were speaking latin, making Catalan a latin-based (and i suppose a romance?) language.

ANYWAYS, Today was super exciting and interesting. We went to several places, including building and parks created by Antoni Gaudi, a modernist architect who was born in Barcelona. (making him a huge part of the culture here). Gaudi was heavily influenced by nature and included several arches in his work. These arches are supposed to have mimicked the way men and women stand upright (when we are standing, there is an arch between our legs).

Here's an example of the arches:



I know this isn't really as exciting as I'm making it seem, but this arch is located on the roof of "La Pedrera" which means the rock in Spanish or quarry in Catalan. This really isn't the best example of an "arch" used in his works, but this arch is a gateway to a great view of the city as well as an amazing view to Gaudi's first, last, unfinished, and probably his most famous work, "La Sagrada Familia":

Gaudi's main objective for "La Sagrada Familia" was to create the bible out of rock. He was a "die-hard" catholic and is actually buried in the crypt of la sagrada. He put prayers on this building, including "Hosana en Excelsis" (God in Heaven, I think) so when anyone read it (religious or not), they would be praying. (watch out mike!!!) Like I said before, the point of this amazing building is to have the bible in rock, so there are several bible stories on it. In the front is the angel telling mary that she will have God's child, as well as the birth of Jesus. On the back are the stations of the cross (see PICS for more little tidbits!!). The birth of Jesus (the front of SF) faces the East, the side that the sun rises (start of the day/start of jesus' life). The back of SF faces the west, where the sun sets (death of the day/death of his life). There are so many little details that I forget but I can't wait to go back and go inside (we didn't go in).

His intention was to have 18 towers, and there are only 8. The other 10 are supposed to be taller than those you see in this picture. (can you imagine that??!) I have a ton of pics of La Sagrada, as well as little stories/tidbits so go to the PICS SITE.

Next we went to Park Guell. Guell is the name of one of Gaudi's main patrons and he was loooooooooaddddeddddd. Anyway, Guell wanted the park to be called park guell because it was influenced by english projects (and i think considered very sophisticated).

Here are some pictures of Park Guell:



Unfortunately, I don't know too much history except that the second picture you see is part of a road that Gaudi had included in this Park. Also, it is a small part of where TYRA and her models of AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL (cycle 7) did a "crazy bride" runway. It was toooo cool!! When I watched this episode, I knew I was going to Barcelona, so it was VERY exciting for me to watch!!! :D To see the episode, go HERE and go to 2:10. (if you don't know what's going on, you might not understand, but it's just a model competition). I tried to do the same thing (sans the wedding dress), it came out like this:


I realize I wasn't walking down the same runway, but it was in the same place. My friend has a picture of when I was actually walking ON the runway, but I don't have it yet. That's the best I could do with my photos...do you think I resemble the models??? Don't answer that.


Anways, I'm wiped out!! I hope you enjoyed this entry. It was a long day, but now I'm going to put the captions on all of the photos. Again, the site is HERE. There are many, many pictures in the album to go with it, but hopefully you can enjoy them with the captions!


Miss you all, Please write!! jcollin5@illinois.edu or jcollins7788@gmail.com. If you have a microphone or webcam, you can always SKYPE me. (it's a quick download and we can talk for free) My name on it is jcollin5. Actually, let me talk about skype for a second: it's amazing!! I can call anyone really cheap or I can talk for free with people who have it....it's like my best friend.

Otherwise, email is JUST fine!!

I hope to hear from all of you soon!

Take care!
Love Jess