Three Days in Barcelona - #5: Mar Mediterraneo and La Pedrera

The last afternoon in Barcelona, Saturday, the 11 of November, the day of planned protests about Catalonian Independence.  Earlier in the day, I went to the Museo Historica de Barcelona.  My plans for the afternoon involved a quick tour of the Chocolate Museum, a short walk to the beach, and a final Gaudi House, Casa Mila, also known as La Pedrera.

The Chocolate Museum was nothing special.  I shouldn't have bothered.  Then I walked towards the beach, and found the railroad tracks in my way.  It took a while, but I finally found a way to cross them (on a bridge).

 A few more blocks, and there is is, the Mar Mediterraneo!  The Mediterranean Sea!  I'd never seen this Sea before, so now I saw the sea.

 Here's a selfie of me walking on the beach.  You know what that means!

 Yes, I went wading!

 And my finger got in the way...

 Then I washed off (they have lovely little shower areas), and walked back out, planning to take a bus.  And there's the protestors, gathering in the distance.  I went the other way.  (I don't know enough about the issue to really have an opinion, though I do have a vague sense that self-determination is very good, but also at the same time that breaking into a small region might increase costs for defense and such for the whole area.  So I have no business telling Spain or anyone else how to organize themselves.  And I went the other way.)

 I asked a police officer (there were a lot around) and he kindly pointed me to a metro station, much closer than the bus stop even!  So off I went, back to Passeig de Gracia, and to Casa Mile, La Pedrera!  You enter on the ground floor, and there's once again a big light well.  But this one's even bigger than the ones at Casa Battlo.  (The whole apartment building seems way bigger.)

 But it plays with shapes and colors!

 You go up to the roof first.  Amazing!  The chimney toppers are amazing (and were copied for at the Sagrada Familia Passion façade for Roman helmets).

 The way they glow in the sunshine!

 Somehow familiar and alien at the same time!

 You can see the Sagrada Familia in the distance.

 And a familiar four armed cross.

 These chimney toppers are glass mosaics from champagne bottles, but I could never catch the light right with my camera.  In person, they're stunning.

 Inside, catenary arches!

 And a chain display showing catenary arches.

 With a mirror so you can see them as arches looking structural.

 And a structural model.  (This is from another church catacombs.)

 Inside one of the apartments that belonged to the Mile family.

 Doesn't that tub look inviting!

And that ends my visit to Barcelona.  More than a month after it actually happened.

I need to get back in grading jail and finish grading.  I leave the Abbey tomorrow and head to London to read at the British Library for about 10 days.

And then home to the great (and icy) north woods.

Student Over-Activities

A break in the Barcelona postings to growl a bit.

Students here at the Abbey are pretty much burning the candle at both ends.  Most do a lot of traveling on the weekend, either school trips (such as the one I went with to Barcelona) or independently (often with other students).  To be honest, they tend to be either far more adventurous than I, or on a different budget, or choosing to spend their budget differently, because while I may go spend a day in York (and a lovely day at that) or a weekend reading at the Library, they go off to Prague or Amsterdam or Berlin or you get the idea.

It totally makes sense that they pay a lot of attention to traveling.

Then there are classes, and frankly, as an instructor, I tend to think students should pay good attention to classes, do good work for them, and study hard.

And then there are "student activities" arranged by the student life folks.  They've split the students here into "houses" (think Hogwarts) and do house competitions and such.  There are sports competitions, and singing competitions (karaoke), and baking competitions.  Students can also earn points for going to various activities (including some academic talks), and can lose points for not filling out forms or whatever in a timely manner (we all have to fill out a travel form to say where we're going each weekend, and whether we need meals at the Abbey).

On Halloween, the night before the before the big common course (6 credit course that every student here takes) exam, the student life folks held a Rocky Horror movie night, and showed the movie starting at 11 or something.

I've chatted with some other faculty, and there's a general, though not overwhelming sense, that the student life folks should be a bit more aware of academic stuffs.

Today, I brought it up at a meeting, and suggested that the student life folks might schedule ahead and let all the faculty know when big things will be, so that we can schedule exams accordingly (because we have to turn our schedules in months in advance of the semester) or should look at the schedules faculty have put up (public info) and schedule their activities so they don't pull students away from exam prep, papers, and so forth.

From the student life director's reaction, you would have thought I'd suggested beating up students on the back porch or something.

No, they said, they already tell students that they have to work on time management, so it's just students needing to work on time management.

And, Halloween is a "high risk" time, so the student life folks have to schedule something then.

You see the contradiction?  Students have to learn time management, but not managing their risky behavior (I'm guessing this is about alcohol consumption, which they do a lot of here anyway, it being legal at 18 and all).

Then they made the excuse that they already don't schedule things before the big common course exams, except they had to this one time.  Then they went on about how they have to get everything done in three or four days a week, so they really need to pack things in.

I do recognize that clubs and other students activities are massively important in student development.  Really, I do.  I saw it in my own college experience.  But I also still think that students go to college for the classes, for the education, for the degree, and not for most activities or clubs.  So giving students an easier time prioritizing classes seems like a reasonable idea, especially here where they're already spending so much time traveling, planning travels, and so on.

In two years, no one will care whether their house won the competition.  But they may care if they sank their GPA and can't get into grad school or whatever.  Or not.  (I don't think GPAs are a huge deal once one's gotten out and gotten a first position or grad program.)

I don't think they actually need to "pack things in" because I think most students would be fine with a few more days without scheduled activities.  Heck, they might even do a better job on their papers and exams.

Someone told me other colleges now put their students in "houses" (that aren't residence-based).  Is that really a thing?  Do students really need their hands held to that point in college?  Or is that sort of an attempt to appeal to the Hogwarts loving crowd?

The Specialized Paper and the General Audience

I'm supposed to give a paper to the school here on Monday, after spending from Wednesday to Sunday night in Barcelona.

I have a paper ready, but need to put together some powerpoint type slides to show with it.

The problem is, the paper's about a quirky bit of The Winter's Tale, and trying to summarize the play enough to get the quirky bit understood seems daunting.  So, this woman dies, except a lot of critics think she's just been hiding out.  And this other woman has a statue made and then uses her art to bring it to life, except a lot of critics think it's fake all along, and...

Back to revising.  I'm off to Barcelona tomorrow!

***

But last week, I returned to Stratford-upon-Avon!  I went there before, and saw the archaeological dig, and again and saw Macbeth on the new stage.

This time, I went out to Anne Hathaway's family's home, which was late medieval, and would have been fascinating even without the Shakespeare connection.  But to think of stepping on stone floors where Shakespeare probably stepped, that was cool!

 There it is, a doorway!  I think it's an addition, and the one inside is more from the period.

And, of course, I went to the Centre and New Place, too!

We saw Twelfth Night, evidently still in previews.  Here's the only review I see on line.  But I'm wary of any review that starts out talking about what a privilege it is to see a play.

My review: I thought the acting was good, the singing less so (Feste didn't have the voice training to really carry it off).  The costuming was interesting, as were the casting choices, but I felt like things were reinscribing Orientalism a little too strongly or without really thinking about it.  (Guess which characters whose gender is confusing and questionable were played by actors of apparent Indian/Asian descent...)

The thing is, when I teach the play, I tend to downplay the cruelty.  But in production, the cruelty really stands out to me.  And I'm increasingly uncomfortable with it.

Bonfire Night

Remember, remember the fifth of November,
Gunpowder treason and plot.
We see no reason
Why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot!

Guy Fawkes, guy, t'was his intent
To blow up king and parliament.
Three score barrels were laid below
To prove old England's overthrow.

By god's mercy he was catch'd
With a darkened lantern and burning match.
So, holler boys, holler boys, Let the bells ring.
Holler boys, holler boys, God save the king.

And what shall we do with him?
Burn him!   (Source)

We had a bonfire here at the Abbey.

Here's a very short video.  I tried to get the full moon and the blue flame coming up on the lower left side.  I don't know what burned to make that color, but it was beautiful.

And here's a regular picture, showing our fire and the whole moon.  I went down a little late, so didn't get the fire at it's full glory, but it's probably close to 20 feet wide.  The garden staff keep garden waste, and build it with the woody stuff, but then other things get put on, including some chicken wire sculptures from an art class (the teacher gave the students the decision about what was to happen to their sculptures and this is what they chose).

Doldrums

It's been a long week here.  The students all had a big exam on Wednesday, which they may or may not have studied enough for.  And we also had classes on Friday (we usually have classes four days a week only) because there won't be classes next Thursday.

It feels like classes are really dragging, with unengaged students.  And it's not only me, my colleagues feel the same way, and so do the students.  Ugh.  Trying to get them to actually look at or care about a text is rough.

I finished grading a small stack of poorly executed papers.  Two were really weak because they didn't actually do the assignment they'd chosen (out of several options).  Others were weak because they didn't bother quoting from the text or supporting their assertions.  It's really not fun to grade poor work.

The good news is that we're going to Stratford tomorrow (Saturday), and going to see a play, so that should be fun.

And then next week for the long weekend, I'm going to Barcelona.  I just have to survive this weekend, and the next and...

Meanwhile, I need to send off my bio for SAA.  (Really SAA seminar leaders?  A bio?  Ugh.)  And I'm giving a paper here the Monday after we get back from Barcelona (late Sunday).  Yeah.  Like that.

And I have a short report to write up for a grant.

And I have a letter to write.


I went to the British Library on Wednesday, while the students were all taking their big exam, and it was great.  And I figured out how I messed up my back before (see post here).  I sat down and put the big book in front of me, and then put my computer on my left, and started to type up notes on what I was reading and TWINGE!  Yep, it's the typing while twisting.  So the rest of the day I moved around more and didn't type in any one position for very long.

I learned something new, and that was GREAT.  But it opened up a whole avenue of more stuff to read and learn.  The cool thing is, that I found this Biblical reference, and posted a question about it on Facebook, and a bunch of people told me about the avenue and where and how to get there!  I knew such an avenue must exist, but I had no real idea how to get there.  And now I feel like I have some specific things to look at and a ton to learn.  All thanks to the wonders of the Interwebs.

Chatsworth House

The second part of last weekend's outing (that started at Eyam) was a visit to Chatsworth House, seat of the Dukes of Devonshire.  (I have to admit, one of the things that confuses me about England is that peers of so and such a place seem to have their country seat not in so and such a place, but in somewhere totally different.  In this case, for example, Chatsworth House is in Derbyshire, I think, but Devon is way down in the southeastern part of the country.  Color me confused.)

The house got built originally by Bess of Hardwick and her husband William Cavendish, and the House has a great display of historical artifacts, including accounts signed by Bess of Hardwick!

 The objects displayed, with little tidbits of history about the different Dukes (and some Duchesses) through time, were interesting, if not especially appealing to me to photograph.  Still, it's neat to see stuff, especially older stuff!

So the tour path starts with the object displays, beginning with Bess of Hardwick, and ending with the current folks.  And then you go through many rooms, with furnishings and art.  And there was a special exhibit of clothes and costumes.  I have to admit, mostly the special exhibit turned me off.  I mean, I liked seeing the livery and clothes that people wore day to day.  But the clothes that were specially made for costume balls and stuff didn't do much for me.  I think it felt too much like rich people dressing up as rich people, rather than rich people going about their lives as we all do.

But then I got to this room!  Inigo Jones drawings!  I took so many pictures of Inigo Jones's drawings that they're going to get a separate post!

I loved the library, and would have loved it more if it weren't for the stupid mannequins with clothes that were blocking a view of the books.  Still, what a library!

 And look what I saw!  (I'm sure they've all been catalogued and the most valuable books are well out or reach.  But Milton will do in a pinch!)

 These lions look familiar because the Abbey has copies (at least, I think the Abbey's are the copies).

 And outside.  Such a beautiful house!

 The stables are now gift shops, but it's cool to see how fancy the stalls were.

Catching Up: British Library and Leicester

 Time flies around here.   The last weekend in October, I spent in London, with one afternoon at the London Metropolitan Archives, and three days at the British Library.

The LMA was super; one of the librarians helped me find stuff, including a registry book of unpublished London diaries.  And one of those diaries was at the British Library!

I didn't take many pictures at the library, but here's one I took while having my tea as the line formed outside in the rain to go in.

The other one I took was of the manuscript (which was labeled as okay to photograph, and I was in an okay to photograph area).  The manuscript was by a James Petiver, listed in the registry book as a medical practitioner, botanist, and pharmacist.  I was hoping to see some botany stuff, but mostly it seemed like he listed someone's name (or, for example, "my grandmother") and then wrote down his prescription.  I took a picture of this page because the prescription is for chocolate.

I found lots and lots to read and work on at the BL, met another scholar who was friendly and nice, which made the place less daunting.

The problem was, I basically sat and read most of four days, with little exercise and no stretching.  My hotel room as tiny, and the bed canoe like, and voila, my back got very sore.

So I've been dealing with that.  It's much much better now.  I'm sitting down and not hurting much right at this moment, which is a huge improvement.

Last week, we did a trip to Leicester.  So good!

The obvious thing for me to do in Leicester is to visit Richard III.  I started at the Discovery Center, which was really well laid-out and presented.  I learned about the Wars of the Roses, and enjoyed it a lot.  Below is a memorial stone, and below that, an explanation of it.

 After the Discovery center, I went to Leicester Cathedral and visited the actual interment site.  It's a beautiful memorial, and in a lovely space.  The Cathedral feels more like a friendly parish church than, say, York Minster or Lincoln Cathedral, but they do a really lovely job explaining themselves and the burial site.

 What I didn't know about until I was in Leicester was the Guildhall!  And that turned out to be the best part of the trip (even though the other parts were wonderful).  It's a 14th century Guildhall, with later additions (17th century, I think).

 And the hall was built for the Guild of Corpus Christi, which made me especially interested.  I'm sure medievalists would know if there are records of plays; the Guildhall didn't say.

 And in the Guildhall museum, among later artifacts, is a scold's bridle.  I keep seeing these in museums.  I wonder if they're as common as they seem now because they were common then, or if they've just managed to survive especially well?

I would have happily spent several more hours in Leicester, but alas, we didn't have long.