Will Around the World

Today I finally beat my jetlag. When I woke up (after 8+ hours of sleep) I looked around the bedroom I was staying in, and I saw books everywhere. There were novels and collections of poetry from authors around the world, all translated into Spanish. Then something really caught my eye. It was a children's book, written in English, titled The Story of Little Black Sambo. After seeing the cover, which disclaimed THE ONLY AUTHORIZED AMERICAN VERSION, I couldn't resist thumbing through it. Sure enough, it was harmless, and pretty dull, even for a children's book. I wondered what the unauthorized versions were like.

Giants of the Spanish literary canon

Tim and I began the day by going to La Pedrera, a museum for Antonio Gaudí, the patron architect of Barcelona. This native son designed many structures and public spaces around the turn of the 20th century. The museum, which appropriately was designed by Gaudí, itself used to be an apartment building;. Three areas are open to the public: the penthouse, which is preserved from its original appearance; the attic, featuring exhibits about the history and style of Gaudí; and the rooftop.

Casa Batlló: second building from the right. A Gaudí-designed apartment building on Passaig de Gràcia.

La Pedrera

La Pedrera evokes geological forms and primitive eras. The exterior of the building reminded me of cliff dwellings. The rooftop has unusual sculptures that contain elements of the sandstone arches in Utah and the Easter Island monoliths. Looking at La Pedrera's curvy forms, I wondered if they influenced Frank Gehry.

Views from penthouse

Rooftop

We had a lunch of bocadillos and then took a bus to La Sagrada Familia. This cathedral is Gaudí's magnum opus. Still under construction 120 years after ground was broken, today it is only 50% complete, and it is not expected to be finished for another twenty years.

My first sight of the church was of its eastern facade. This side is dominated by stone bell towers that rise up from the church like fangs in a wolf's mouth. They reminded me of the Petronas Towers in Malaysia, sharing with those skyscrapers a geometrically harmonious design. The eastern portal is crowded with sculptures, stalactites and outcroppings. The entire facade evokes Hindu temples in India whose stone exteriors emanate ornamentation like a coral reef.

La Sagrada Familia

The western facade, in contrast, looks quite smooth. Many features, from the columns of the portico to the sculptures of figures in the passion scene, are defined by sharp lines.

Passion facade

The interior is still well under construction. There is scaffolding everywhere you look. I was amazed, though, by the sight of craftsmen constructing molds and installing mosaics. Despite our era's space-age materials, heavy equipment and advanced knowledge of engineering, it seemed to me that the construction process was basically similar to that of centuries ago. It boils down to blood, sweat and tears.

Men at work

Material

If you are planning a visit to La Sagrada Familia, I recommend going to the two visitor centers located below ground and in the schoolhouse. There you can learn about the history of the cathedral and the design principles governing it. For instance, I was fascinated to learn that Gaudí was inspired by natural forms, such as trees for his columns.

We ended our tour of Gaudí's Barcelona at Parc Güell. This park features buildings and fantastic (but artificial) rock formations created by Gaudí. And since it is on a hill, it also offers a terrific view of the city. On this night, the park was closed prematurely for a private corporate event. Although I've heard of publicity stunts like Disney renting Alcatraz for the premiere of The Rock, this action struck me as positively un-American.

Parc Güell

Barcelona from Parc Güell

A little before 9 PM, we returned to Rita's apartment. She was home, and so was her roommate, Paola. I showed them the pictures I had taken so far on the trip. Paola laughed when she saw the Sambo photo, because the book belonged to her. (I was staying in Paola's room because she graciously moved into Rita's room for a few days). Paola explained that she wanted to become an illustrator of children's books, and she got Sambo to study its drawings. I didn't tell her why the book aroused my curiosity.

We all went out to dinner that night in Raval, at an Argentinian restaurant.

Tim, Rita, Paola, William

Communicating with Rita and Paola was challenging. I tried my best to speak only Spanish with them, since I assumed (incorrectly) that my Spanish was better than their English. I was soon in over my head. Although I had studied Spanish throughout high school, I hadn't had a recent opportunity to practice except for watching a Mexican version of Family Feud on Spanish television. Even worse, differences of vocabulary and usage between Castillian and Latin American Spanish threw me for a loop.

My insistence on speaking only Spanish probably did more harm than good. Since I could not speak that much Spanish, I ended up not speaking much at all. I should have just done whatever I could have to keep the conversation going normally and trust my hosts to understand me.

Anyway, our conversations were something to behold. Tim and Rita, who met in Paris, spoke to each other in French. Paola knew a little French, so she would translate their dialogue into Spanish for me. Paola often asked me "¿Sabes?" — Do you understand? — and I, unable to articulate a meaningful follow-up question or comment, merely grunted "Sí". It was great that we all knew more than one language — our knowledge base included English, French, Spanish, and Catalan, the first language of Barcelona — but sometimes it was difficult to keep track of who spoke what. Twice, Rita started to speak to me in Catalan, and after I gave her a blank stare, Paola reminded her to use Spanish.

After dinner, Tim and I checked out a club featuring "electrojazz". We expected a somewhat sedate affair, but instead we were met with loud techno-like music and a college-aged crowd that was one round of drinks away from a slamdance. We left promptly and wandered around the Old Town for a while before stopping at a large plaza. Not surprisingly, the plaza's terrace bars were full of American college students. We had one beer each and called it a night.

# posted by billklee @ 14:43