There has been such a whirlwind of interesting and exciting activities that fill up each of our days. Here’s a look at what we did in Granada . . .
In the period leading up to 1492, Spain was divided into various kingdoms; the Christians lived in the north, while the Muslims ruled the southern two-thirds of Spain. Then in 1492, the Chirstians living in the north culminated the “Reconquista”, in which they finally drove the Islamic empire out of southern Spain. Being in Granada, a southern city of great historical importance to the Muslim Moors, we saw various examples of Islamic architecture and other influences evident throughout the city. To be able to learn more about Muslim Spain, we took a trip to the Alhambra, an old palace in the Islamic Empire. The Alhambra was an enormous structure for its time, full of expansive gardens and calligraphy-covered walls. But what was most interesting throughout the palace were the fountains. The palace had water flowing throughout it and not one courtyard was left without some sort of running water. It was a great historical example of how much the Muslims real valued water. After visiting the Alhambra, I came away with a better knowledge of Spain’s history than I had before.
Connor Abbott ’14
After a fantastic dinner at La Cueva in Granada, we were off to see a professional flamenco show! At the school we visited in Sevilla, two students gave us a little taste of what flamenco dance was really like. I got to talk to one of the student dancers after the performance and she told me that she had been flamenco dancing since she was a little girl. But the professional show was breath taking. I had been talking about it nonstop as soon as I found out we were going to see one, I was so excited. Once we got there, there was live music that included drums, a flute, a guitar and of course, a man singing in Spanish. The lyrics to the song he was singing were Arabic based so what he was singing sounded like the Arabic language. The show started off with the music playing and then a woman came out and started dancing. In flamenco dancing, there is a lot of clapping and mainly movements with the hands and feet.There were three female dancers and one male. One of the women who came out used a lot of hip movement in her dancing which reminded me of Polynesian dance. What I really enjoyed was how each movement that the dancers made was different and I was always left wanting to see more. It was such an exciting night and one of the highlights of my whole trip! 🙂
Salina Kamara ’14
This post is making it to the internet airwaves as we are wrapping up our time in Madrid. We’ll post a recap of Madrid once we are home.
Convent & Stuart Hall Travel 