Figueres and Girona

Today we had our final BCA-organized excursion to the two towns of Figueres and Girona. These are both northwest of Barcelona, sort of in the Costa Brava region but not actually along the coast.

In Figueres the main attraction was the Salvador Dali Museum and Theater. I had been here once before when I came to Spain with my high school Spanish class, and the museum was just as impressive the second time around. He is one of the most famous surrealist artists, and this museum is one that he designed himself from the ground up. There are all sorts of works, from paintings to sculptures to jewlery that were all designed and created by Dali. Many of his works are kindof off-the-wall and crazy. The main idea behind surrealism itself is to take two ordinary (and seemingly unconnected) objects and fuse them together to create a third "reality." This is shown in all of his art, but most prominently in works that, when looked at from two different angles, appear to be two completely differnet objects. One example is his famous painting of a nude woman standing in front of a window--but if you look at it with blurred eyes (or take a picture of it) it becomes the face of Abraham Lincoln. Very fascinating.

After seeing the museum we took the bus to Girona, where we saw the cathedral (yes, another cathedral) and then had time to wander around the town over lunch time. It seemed like a nice quaint town, but we ended up spending most of the time hiding from the rain inside a cafe.

Mom and Dad and Leah, this will definitely be a place (particularly Figueres) that we should try to visit when you are here.

Thats all for now. Happy Halloween everyone!

ETA attack in Pamplona, Spain

I sent this via email to a few of you, but I'll post it here for anyone else who is interested.

You may have seen on the news this morning that a car bomb exploded on a university campus in Pamplona, Spain, injuring 27 people. Here is the link to the CNN article:

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/10/30/spain.bombs.university/index.html

I just wanted to assure everyone that this is nowhere close to where I am, and it was likely the work of ETA terrorist group who is trying to get independence for the Basque region from Spain. This group is not active in or around Barcelona, as they are a separatist group in a different region of Spain. There is no cause for alarm :)

On a happier note, I am looking forward to a BCA-organized trip tomorrow to Figueres and Girona. One of the highlights will no-doubt be seeing the Salvador Dali Museum. Another blog post will surely follow that trip!

A Weekend in Germany

This weekend I finally got a chance to go to Germany. This was my first trip outside of Spain during the semester, and my first time in Germany (unless you count the airport). I went to visit Jon Huber, a fellow Bethel and aviation student who is in Germany for a year with the InterMenno cultural exchange program. His current placement has him working on a vineyard about an hour train-ride from Frankfurt.

I flew into Frankfurt on Thursday afternoon, and Jon met me at the airport. We took the train to his place and his host family had Doner Kebabs ready for dinner (chicken, lettuce, tomato, onion, cucumber and garlic sauce on a pita). After dinner Jon and I sat on the patio for most of the evening catching up on each others' experiences abroad and such.

On Friday morning we took the train to Speyer for the day. First we walked through town past the Kaiserdom (large cathedral in the center of town) on the way to the Speyer Technical Museum. This is a large museum with all sorts of exhibits from old cars to fire engines to space vehicles to trains to (most importantly) airplanes. For two pilots, it was the perfect place to spend a day. The feature was a Boeing 747 that was mounted high above the rest of the planes on stilts, and had stairs that took you up so you could go into the plane and explore, then a giant slide to get back onto the ground. We also enjoyed the space exhibit which featured a Russian space shuttle, and the rest of the airplanes that they had.

For lunch we went to a small pub and I had a traditional German meal of sausage, sauerkraut, and rye bread. Then we wandered around town for the rest of the afternoon before heading back to the vineyard for the night.

On Saturday morning Jon took me on a tour of the wine-making process there at the vineyard, then we went on a drive through the Germany wine country, then Jon and I took the train to Worms. We wandered through an old Jewish cemetery on the way to the downtown area. It was beautiful with all of the very old headstones, most of which were in Hebrew, surrounded by all the changing leaves of fall. Then we went downtown and found the statue of Martin Luther. After this, we went to a mall which was right by the church where they held the Diet of Worms in 1521. The church itself wasnt much to see because it was surrounded by a carnival and food and wine festival. We did some shopping in the mall, then wandered our way back to the train station.

That night Jon and I were invited to participate in the wine and cheese party that the vineyard was hosting. About 35 guests attended the party, and it was a very elegant affair. We sat at a table with two couples--one from Austria and one from Holland. Lukcy for us, they spoke good English and were more than happy to guide us through the ettiquete and intricacies of a wine and cheese tasting. We were served 10 different wines to try (5 white and 5 red) and each set of a red and a white wine was paired with a particular gourmet cheese selected just for those wines. I am not a wine conossieur myself, and most of the cheeses were ones I had never and likely will never have again, but I did enjoy the experience a lot.

Sunday morning, Jon and I got up and headed to the train station after lunch. We meant to arrive in time for a 2pm train, but nobody had told us about the time change that night, so we were an hour early for the train. It worked out fine though, because we had plenty of time in the airport in Frankfurt. We went out to the observation terrace and watched planes take off and land for about two hours then I checked in to fly home to Barcelona.

It was a great trip. Everything we had wanted to do we did, and all the travelling worked seamlessly. Kudos to Jon for making the entire trip work so well.

Click here to see my photos of Germany:

Germany Oct. 23-26

Costa Brava: Blanes y Tossa de Mar

Today I went on a day trip to see some of the Costa Brava. The Costa Brava is the name for the entire coastline along the Mediterranean starting at Barcelona and extending all the way north to the French border. The southern part of this is known for its beaches, while the coastline becomes very abrupt and lined with cliffs as you go further north and closer to the Pyrenese Mountains. In some places (way up north) the mountains literally come right up to the water.

We took the train from Barcelona (about 1 hour) to Blanes. From the train station we walked about a half hour (we found out later we could have taken a bus for .80 cents, oh well) to the coast. This area is fairly touristy, with tons of resorts and hotels for people to enjoy the beautiful beach. All of the coast that we saw was lined with hotels and the waterfront with tons of seafood restaurants and cafes. There were a number of small boats along the shore, and also two big marinas with larger boats.

We didn't spend much time in Blanes because we wanted to see more of the coast, so we took a bus to Loret de Mar. Our goal was to check out Loret and then hop on the bus and continue north along the coast to Tossa de Mar. After the half-hour bus ride to Loret, we got out next to a casino and a bowling alley, and immediately realized that it was way to0 touristy for us, so we immediately hopped on the bus to Tossa de Mar. There, we walked to the coast again. The beach was beautiful, as on both the northern and southern sides of the beach the terrain shifted pretty abruptly into cliffs and rock formations. There was also a part of a fortress origionally built by the Moors standing along the cove, so we climbed that for a view of the sea. On the way back down we grabbed some ice cream and headed back to the bus to start the journey back to Barcelona. In Blanes we decided to take a break and eat seafood pizza (with shrimp, salmon, and clams) before getting back to the train for the ride back home.

Click here to see my photos of Costa Brava:

Costa Brava Oct. 19 and Nov. 1

This week I am going to get started on some of my papers I have to write for my classes (including one on the idea of "utopia" for my Political Psychology class). I will try to get ahead with homework and such because I will be in Germany to visit Jon Huber from Thursday through Sunday.

Birthday party

Today we hosted a birthday party at the apartment here to celebrate two birthdays: Ingrid turned 36 and Pep (my host-mom's brother-in-law) turned 56. There were 25 people invited, and although we are in a fairly good-sized place this group really stressed the capacity. However, it was a very good time.

The first course involved a number of "tapas" like stuffed mushrooms, spinach quiche, salmon with strawberries on crackers, various sausages and cheeses, and "croquetas" (which I guess are just like little chicken dumplings). The second course involved three dishes: one of meatballs, one of sausage and shrimp and tofu, and the other with pig stomach and intestines and brain. After this we had birthday cake.

Everything was very delicious, and as is custom everyone stayed and talked around the table for over 5 hours (from 3 to past 8pm). I also sat with the guys as we watched Rafael Nadal lose in a tennis tournament in Madrid.

Walking tour of Barcelona

Today we had a BCA-organized walking tour through downtown Barcelona. It was pretty interesting, but a lot of the buildings we walked by were ones I have already seen during my own exploration. We did however see a cafe called "Cuatro Gats" or Four Cats which is where a number of prominent figures spent a lot of time back in the day. Picasso gave the very first art exhibition of his career in what is now the main dining room of the cafe.

We saw a few interesting places, like a school where 40 school children were killed during the Guerra Civil (Civil War) when a bomb was dropped on a church as Sunday school was letting out. We also saw the headquarters of the socialist party, the front of a secret society building that houses the largest private book collection in all of Spain, and a palace decorrated and by the same decorrator that did a lot of work on the Rockefeller Center in New York. We finnished off the morning by eating sandwiches in Plaza Cataluna.

Vilafranca del Penedes

Today I woke up late and decided to go exploring on my own. I took a train (about an hour) to a town called Vilafranca del Penedes--Penedes is Spanish for the Pyrenees mountain. I didn't make any plans, and didn't know what to expect. I figured I would just get there and start asking people what I should see etc. I picked this town because it is the considered the center of the wine production of Cataluna, and also is very close to the center of Cava production (Spain's version of champagne) and I had heard it was a pretty town. I did find some interesting things, including an old church and I stepped into some of the wine retail shops, but altogether the city wasn't overly impressive. I brought the train back just in time to follow the Broncos game on my computer as they lost to the Jaguars. Oh well.

A day in Sitges

Last night we went to see a movie called Vicky Cristina Barcelona. It is directed by Woody Allen and stars Scarlet Johanson and Penelope Cruz. It was a fairly good movie, but deffinitely a bit different (per the status quo for Woody Allen's films). It was a lot of fun to watch as well because most of it is filmed right here in Barcelona in places that I have visited, like Parc Gruel and Montjuic and such. I would recommend seeing it if you get a chance.

Today we took a day trip to a town called Sitges (pronounced SEE-ches), just a half hour train ride south of Barcelona. This is a small beach town with a lot of fascinating old buildings and small streets. There are a lot of museums and art galleries in town, but for the most part we just opted to bum around the beach all day. We played cards and read and listened to iPods, and it was just a good relaxing day.

Click here to see my photos of Sitges:

Citges Oct. 11

"A discourse on neo-socialism" or "A blue-print to economic reform"

This afternoon I listened to a very interesting lecture in my European Union class, and it sparked some ideas in my head. They are jumbled and I haven't had a lot of time to digest them myself, but let's see how coherently I can get them down on (digital) paper. For those of you just looking for updates on my adventures in Spain, you may want to skip ahead to the next post.



This all started from a lecture intended to show the differences between the economic structures of Europe and the United States. One thing my professor pointed out, and I think is good to note here, is the difference between a few terms. In order to be a member of the European Union, you must be an Estado de Bienestar. This most literally translates to English as a "welfare state." However, Spain and other countries here are far from what we would consider a welfare state--and what we call “welfare” most literally translates back into Spanish as subsidios, which in turn translates literally back into English as “subsidies.” Oh the subtleties of language!

The best way to explain the difference is with the medical care system--the welfare system in the US is designed to help poorer people get basic medical care they couldn't otherwise afford. This leads to the reality that in the US the best medical facilities are private (and consequently expensive, thus unavailable to the lower class). In most of Europe, the estado de bienestar insures a more equal treatment to all citizens, rich and poor alike. For example, a homeless person could walk into any medical facility in the country and receive the same medical care (paid for by the state) as a middle- or upper-class person could. Consequently, the best medical care and most advanced medical research in Europe is done in public facilities. This system is expensive, but effective.

Now for the fun stuff.

My professor offered a description of how Switzerland implemented this estado de bienestar (since I don't know of an accurate translation for this term, I will refer to it in Spanish) after their elections of 1945. Based on that, I scribbled some general notes on how I think a country like the US could implement a similar system. Keep in mind I have only been "developing" this for about...three hours now, so I don't claim it to be anything more than a rough sketch.

STEP 1
We would need to implement a slightly revised tax system. The main changes would be made to the taxation of businesses--I propose a flat tax on all revenue. For the sake of argument, let's just say this rate is 15%.

STEP 2
Begin a government-enforced wage-floor. Basically, this would be a complex version of minimum wage. Let's pretend that we could achieve a system where for 10 years, the wages paid for every job would remain at a constant level.

STEP 3
This is where the government really steps in. Each year, the government adds a new program. Let's say in year 1, the government begins universal health-care (not the type of government-funded healthcare we have now). I'm talking a legitimate healthcare system that would require complete de-privatization of all healthcare entities (from pharmaceutical companies to hospitals) and all healthcare would be made equally available to any American citizen, regardless of social or economic status.

Let's pretend that Family A makes $100 a month. Out of that money, they usually spend $30 on healthcare, $20 on transportation, and $20 on education-related expenses. At this point, their buying power is $30. But, after year 1, they no longer have to spend money out-of-pocket for healthcare, so their buying power has just increased from $30 to $60. What do they do with this money? They spend it--and remember the flat-tax on revenue I proposed? Yep, that means the government is going to see an increase in tax revenue in year 2.

So, in year 2 the government adds another social program--this time they add cheap public transportation. After year 2, public transportation is more widely available, so Family A's transportation-related spending decreases from $20 to $5, thus their buying power increases from $60 to $75.

Now, the government is making more money so they can de-privatize and universalize education et cetera and et cetera. You can see where I'm going with all of this, I think.

BUT WHERE DOES THE MONEY COME FROM?
As I roughly illustrated, the system could potentially be fairly self-sustainable. And, if done correctly would greatly stimulate the economy as well. But, when it comes down to it, Americans would have to get used to the idea of having significantly higher taxes that what we have now. The typical European is taxed roughly 1/3 of their income (very rough estimate, but accurate). However, look at what they get back--extremely efficient public transportation, free (good) healthcare, free education, and a number of other benefits. You get what you pay for.

I would also like to point out that all of the countries in the European Union--27 of them--combined spend less than half of what the US spends on military-related endeavors. Perhaps sometime I'll write a discourse on the disgusting abuse of tax-payer money to promote an agenda of fear, terror and failed attempts to force democracy (a paradox, I know) on the third world. But I think most people reading this already know how I feel about that, so I'll stay away from it right now. But what I'm basically saying is that we stand to gain so much if even a portion of that money could be utilized at home to promote a system like what I am talking about here.

Another point: I think any country that has the ability to, in the matter of one week, make $700,000,000,000--yes, that's billions with a "B"--appear as if out of nowhere (and by nowhere I actually mean our grand-children’s pockets) to stop an imminent collapse of our own pseudo-free-market economy, then I think we could probably scratch up some funds to begin a proactive economic reform rather than a reactive bail-out of white-collar industries.

*sigh* Go get a glass of water or something. We are almost there.

THIS COULDN'T ACTUALLY WORK, RIGHT?
Who knows if it actually could work? No...no...wait...I think...yeah that's right! There are actually 27 countries already operating on this system, or something very similar. I'm not saying anything new here, I'm just going one step further than my high school world geography book that called the European Union "a collection of welfare states" and France "an economy based on the principles of Marxism and socialism" and stopped there.

And, speaking of those 27 countries, the biggest economic crisis they are going through right now is merely international fallout from the US's sub-prime follies. Bravo, corporate America!

NOW, TO WRAP THINGS UP…
I wrote a paper for English class in high school right before I graduated (the biggest paper I had written at that point) about Communism. Very broad topic for a paper, I know. But, I constantly caught myself saying “heck, this could actually work” especially when I was researching the economic intentions of a communist-style government. Now, to call myself a communist would be a complete lie, as I think having a free-market element to the economy is not just a good thing, but entirely necessary. But what about socialism? In a nutshell, it’s just a diluted version of communism. Even pure socialism virtually eliminates the concept of a free market, but what about something in the middle? Europe has already made it work. They have a very free market supplemented by government-controlled basic entities that ensure at least the basic needs of every citizen will be adequately provided.

I’ve seen the government, particularly mine, do some pretty disagreeable things. Actually, most of what they have done has been disagreeable. So, it’s not like I’m suggesting we just hand the reigns of a number of our largest private industries over to city hall, but it’s not like the private sector is doing a whole lot better with these reigns. Health care is not universal or adequate (especially at the lower income levels), low-priced public transportation is all but non-existent in most parts of the US, and education costs an arm and a leg (just take a look at my bill from Bethel). Something has to change, and life seems pretty peachy over here in Europe, so I say we take a few pages out of their book.

For the lack of anything other term, I will coin one here: neo-socialism. I am sure someone else already coined it, and I am also sure when I google it later tonight I will learn what it actually means in the mainstream, but for now that’s what I’m going to call this idea.

I plan to post this on my blog, on Facebook, and I may email it to some people separately. I welcome (and request) any comments you have about it on any of those media.

Tibidabo

On Saturday I took a day trip with one other student, Noe, to a part of Barcelona called Tibidabo. Tibidabo is a hill that forms the western border of the city, and is also where you can find some of the richest houses and estates. On top of the hill, there is a church and an amusement park, and of course a great view of the city to the east and of the interior of the country to the west.

Getting to Tibidabo was a similar journey as the trip to Montserrat, only much shorter. We took a train from close to the University up to the base of the hill, then walked to the "funnicular" (mountain train) station where we got a ride to the top.

The church is actually two churches, one built right on top of the other. As far as I understand, the first one was partially destroyed during the anarchist riots during the Spainish Civil War, and the church was restored, then another one built on top of it.

The amusement park--a pretty small one--had a lot of rides geared towards younger kids, but also had a ferris wheel that I'm sure would have had even better views of the city.

The name Tibidabo is probably my favorite part about the place. It comes from a Biblical passage, during the third temptation of Christ: Haec omnia tibi dabo si cadens adoraberis me (Latin). Or, "all of this I will give you if you bow down and worship me." So Tibidabo most literally means "what I offer to you" and seems to be Barcelona's snub way of saying "maybe Jerusalem was not enough to tempt you, but how about our beautiful city."

After spending most of the morning on Tibidabo, we came back down into town and walked around Las Ramblas some, doing a little shopping and exploring.

In the evening, FC Barcelona played against Atletico Madrid, so we went to a sports bar to watch that. AT Madrid is nowhere near the rivalry that Real Madrid would have been, but it was still an intense game, even if it wasn't close--Barca score two goals in the first 10 minutes of the game, and ended up winning 6-1.

Tonight (Sunday) at 10pm the Broncos game will actually be televised down here--one of only two Broncos games all season that I will be able to watch. The Cowboys game will be on at the same time, and there are a couple Cowboys fans on the trip, so I'm sure a group of us will get together again at the sports bar to watch those games and pretend we are back in America for a few hours.

Just a side note--sitting at this sports bar can be a little of an out-of-body experience, as it can be very easy to forget we aren't just sitting back at B-Dub's or somewhere like that in Denver. Last week when we were watching football, we were sitting at a table with all Americans, surrounded by other American tourists and businessmen, watching American football. The menus were in English, the waiters spoke fluent English, and the food even tasted American (and the music was all 90's classics). This is hardly the immersion experience I came to Barcelona for, and not something I plan to do often, but it's a good cure for by Broncos-withdrawal.

Click here to see my photos of Tibidabo:

Tibidabo Oct. 4

Quick Update

I don't have a whole lot to report this week, but I havent posted anything for a few days, so I thought I'd give a quick update.

I've had a head-cold yesterday and today and have been resting a lot to try and get through it before the weekend. If I am feeling up to it, I will probably go to Parc Gruel (a park designed by Gaudi) on Saturday.

Yesterday I booked a flight to Germany to go visit Jon Huber towards the end of October. Jon (fellow Bethel student and in the aviation program with me) is participating in Inter-Menno this year in a small town near Mannheim. I will fly into Frankfurt on Thursday (October 23), and either take the train to Mannheim or Jon will pick me up in a car from there and take me to the vineyard where he is working. Then I will fly back to Barcelona on Sunday (October 26).