Students view unique architecture, traditional dance

Thursday, March 15, 2012
Casa Mila, in Barcelona, Spain, is also known as the "curved house." Steve Reed/ Special to the Daily Mail.

Editor's note: Second-year students have gone on an educational trip to Barcelona, Spain. Cottey College Public Information Officer Steve Reed is sharing the experience with the Nevada Daily Mail's readers in daily accounts, in the form of letters back home. Here's what happened on Day 5:

Bon dia, Mama!

Friday? Wait, not yet! I still have so much I want to do. After lunch, Dr. Paul Cook and I are taking a group of students to Park Guell and the Gaudi House Museum. Tonight, Professor Michael Denison and I are taking students to a flamenco club to watch the traditional Spanish dance.

This morning, the day started with timing how long it takes to get from the hotel to the flamenco club so we will know what time to leave this evening. After that I walked to St. James Plaza to meet the representative from the Fat Tire Bike Tour company. I'm taking some students there tomorrow for a four-hour tour of the city and I need to make sure when and where to meet.

Before going back to the hotel to meet the group for the first module, I decided to walk over to Casa Mila and Casa Batllo, two of Antonio Gaudi's most well known houses. Mila House, also known as "la pedrera" is one of the more unusual homes in the world. It's all curves and bulges and angles. The only flat, straight surfaces in the entire building are the ceilings and floors.

Casa Batllo, though, is the one I like. The building is designed to tell the story of St. George slaying the dragon. The roof line looks like the dragon's back and the roof tiles look like dragon scales. The chimney looks like the scabbard of a sword and there are decorative features designed to look like the dragon's teeth as well. Plus, the whole front of the building is covered in mosaic tile. It is super cool and I really wanted to go look inside. Unfortunately, the line to buy tickets was incredibly long, and there was no way I could even get inside before I had to be back for the afternoon module.

Park Guell may be what Gaudi is best known for, after the Sagrada Familia. If you look for images of Barcelona online, you are bound to see several of the park, especially the tiled undulating bench and the mosaic salamander fountain as well. The park was really crowded, but then again, what better way to spend a beautiful afternoon than sitting in one of the world's most famous parks. Our students were on a visual scavenger hunt to find all the things Gaudi designed that reminded them of plants, animals and nature in general. There are so many things to find, I knew it would take them a while.

The park was originally created to become a model housing development, but people didn't want to move that far out of the city. Gaudi lived in the one home that was built for several years, but eventually Eusebi Guell, the wealthy benefactor who owned the land, donated it all as a park.

As the students were doing their work, I explored the pathways. There was one in particular that led to the highest point in the park. On the top of that hill is a stone monument with a large stone cross on the top. It is called Calvary. There are steps up to the cross, and from there is the most spectacular, unimpeded view of the city to be found!

We finished our module work, had a short pizza break (the Barcelonans serve their pizza with a bottle of balsamic vinaigrette; it's pretty tasty, actually), and then I had to head back to the hotel to get cleaned up and properly attired to go watch flamenco.

The students were all dressed up for the flamenco club and looked very nice. We might have been a tad overdressed for the event, but we looked good hanging out together in the Placa Reial (royal plaza) before the doors opened. We might have looked a little royal ourselves, if I do say so.

The club was small and this was a smaller group than I saw when we were in Madrid about seven years ago. The band had two guitarists, one singer, and one percussionist. There was only one dancer, a woman, and the show lasted just over a half hour. However, that was probably about the right length for us. It was just enough to give us a taste of this unique art form.

Afterwards, several of the students wanted to look for dinner. I, however, wanted to find dessert. So did Mary and Callie, two of our students. We were on the search for churros and chocolate, a famous Spanish dessert. Churros are strips of fried dough dusted with sugar (think funnel cakes), and you dip them into a mug of very thick hot chocolate. We found a little pastry shop that also had churros and ended our evening with pleasant conversation and chocolate. Every day should end this well.

Tomorrow is our last day in Barcelona, and I intend to make the most of it. Guess I'd better get my beauty rest, so buenas noches.

Your loving son,

Steve

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