Music and Lyrics

Dear Reader, The simple birthday song above implies a principle that I have considered important in my life since I was a little kid just learning to speak. Everyone understands the same message differently. Languages have always fascinated me. There is what some would call magic in how two people can say the same thing but in two totally different ways. You might call me biased because it is my career, but linguistics and translation is vital in our world today. It recently came to my attention that the White House removed their Spanish localization and translations from their website, as seen on inverse.com , gizmodo.com , and other websites. While the website underwent a huge change for a new president and his cabinet, it is more than a slight oversight to remove any language from your website, especially if the website represents a government entity. Now, I'm doing my best to give our new president the benefit of the doubt, despite the numerous scandals, outrag...

Dear Reader, The great singing duo Simon and Garfunkel wrote a song about having old friends and what that relationship is like. I had a small experience with some old friends this weekend when the group of us that studied in Spain together went out to dinner together at Wingers . Yes, we are pretty good friends still. There was talk of the classic marriage list that we made, arguing about TV and Movies, giving each other help on Spanish homework and even the couple of questions about my love life...oh brother. I'm always so happy to see these guys. Unfortunately not quite all of us where able to make it, but 11/13 isn't too shabby!  With that being said, I want to put a challenge out there for the next little while: if there is someone you feel like you should talk to but feel like it would be awkward because of how long it has been since you've talked, talk to them anyway! It is amazing what you can feel with a person when you bond, even if it is just over s...

Dear Reader, The music for today is by John Mclaughlin and is most famous for being performed in the Movie "Enchanted." The song is basically the theme song for our last week here in Spain as a group from Brigham Young University. Although, half of the story is not mine to tell. You may never hear it. Sorry. The half that can be told has to do with being so close to home but yet being so far. We finished up classes on Wednesday officially with our "closing ceremony." Our professors spoke and we sang. The professors cried while we sang. The professors said goodbye after we sang. Then we ate lunch. Anyway, these few days (Wednesday through Friday) have been full of roller coaster rides of emotion. There is that bitter-sweetness that comes every time you move from one place to another. On one hand you are excited to go, but on the other you don't want to leave the friends and family you have in the place you are leaving. We have gone out with a bang here. ...

Dear Reader, Today, we take the hymn "For the Beauty of the Earth" ( LDS Hymn No. 92 ) and talk about the wonderful things that our Heavenly Father has given us. This is a combination thought coming from two events in a town we visited this past weekend. Jorge, our new friend and literature master.  You know what time it is: trip summary time! This trip was unexpected for our group. According the schedule we have been using, we were under the impression that the trip to Portugal last week was the last trip we were taking before coming back the United States (Which is coming up soon). However, that trip did not end our adventures here in Spain. Our director gave us the news that we would be traveling to Burgos and Silos! Now, these are both very small towns. Both have very amazing stories. We left Friday morning to travel to Burgos, about 3 hours north of Madrid. One of the most exciting things on this trip were the two tables on our bus with chairs facing each ot...

Dear Reader, Hopefully most of you will have heard the musical Beauty and the Beast . The Broadway version has a song entitled " Me ." It is a song all about the slightly misogynistic view Gaston has about women. Long story short, it is a song that can somewhat relate to the main character of another theatrical work: Don Juan Tenorio . At the beginning, Don Juan has a mentality similar to the sentiment that the song expresses. Allow me to expound upon Don Juan Tenorio by telling you about our weekend here in Spain. The Train Station in Siguenza.  Bright and early was the hour when we got on a train from Alcalá to visit Siguenza, a small city about an hour away. Halloween was possibly the best day we could have spent a day in the town, because noone was in the streets. We passed by the Cathedral, the Castle and the house of Doncel, a young knight who, according to our tour guide, "Was no one important." Part of our BYU Group, with our professor (Photo...

Dear Reader, I just have to say, I like you. Even if I don't know you, you are an awesome person. Just so you know. This week is all about getting to know people better and finding what you like about them, apparently. Let me share more with you about our travels through Andalucia, Spain. It was a blast! La Alhambra in Granada, Spain.  After leaving Sevilla, we made it to Granada, home of the Alhambra . This is a city within a city. According to our wonderful tour guide, Ester, it has more than 8000 visitors every day. Even with that many tickets to sell, it is difficult to get them. We are lucky, indeed. The highlight for me was the Torre de la Vela.  Atop the tower is a bell with a romantic tradition. There is a celebration every year on January 2nd in the Alhambra, during which if a person rings the bell on top of this tower three times, they will fall in love and be married within the next year. Unfortunately it is not January, so none of us could ring the bell....

Dear Reader,  There are some things in life that are just unattainable in a lifetime. The culture of Flamenco dancing/music is one of those things. There are so many influences from different areas of the world that no one knows where it started really. It is kind of like milking a cow; no one really knows who the first person was to look at a cow’s utters and think, “Let’s drink what comes out of those!” It is something that is amazing but has little known about its origin. Anyway, that was a random tangent. Allow me to return to this week’s trip. The three dancers for the show (See below) We took a trip to Córdoba, Sevilla and Granada this week. Wednesday night was the highlight, possibly the best night of the entire program (There is still another month, so we will see if that holds true). The night consisted of a trip to the only Flamenco Museum in the world, which resides in Sevilla.   It was kind of an adventure getting there because the building is on a ...

Dear Reader, If you don't recognize that song title, it is from Guys and Dolls , the Musical. Sky, the protagonist, sings it to his girl as they arrive in New York City in the "wee small hours of the morning" (Bonus points to whoever can guess that reference). Sky talks about how much he loves the morning hours because of the beautiful sights and the stillness of the city. With that in mind, take a gander at this: Toledo Welcome to Toledo at 7 AM! It is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. Now, this picture is brought to you via our awesome trip that started at 4:30 AM. Yes, that is right. We got up at 4, left for the train that left at 5:10 to Madrid. From there we took the Metro to the Bus station. For further emphasis, I love Alcalá de Henares and Madrid at those early morning hours as well. Taking a bus at 6:30, we arrived in Toledo and found this view on our way to our destination. Someday I will show it to you in person. The driveway(?) w...

Dear Reader, I'm surprised that this song by The Carpenters hasn't shown up on this blog yet. Despite that, here is a recap of our trip for this week! We visited El Escorial in Madrid and another castle on our day trip to Madrid, Spain. Study Abroad Group, Spain, Fall 2014 We are standing on the edge! The shot above is taken in front of the Santa Cruz del Valle de los Caidos . The church is in the mountains to the north of Madrid and is a monument to those who fell during the civil war of Spain. Just like almost every other monument we have visited, we were not allowed to take pictures inside. It was beautiful! When I say the church is in the mountain, I literally mean to say in, as in inside. If you have seen "Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring," you can compare it to the mines of Moria. There is one long hallway leading up the chapel that is at the middle of the mountain. The cupola looks flat, but it is actually a dome. Supposedly there is some ...

Dear Reader, Today I cheated. Instead of thinking of a song I knew about traveling or seeing the world, I searched for one. Yes, Google was my assistant. The result was finding this song by Dar Williams, " I Have Been Around the World ." I have never heard of her and I know nothing about her. The song was cool, so I decided to use the title. So sue me. I am going to change it to "I Have Been Around Spain." Because that is what our group has been doing. A lot. This past weekend we took a trip to Avila and Salamanca, returned to Madrid for a Futbol game, and then finished off the weekend with a farewell concert for a missionary couple on Temple Square in Madrid. It was quite an adventure. Of course I'll share some pictures with you! The majority of our group  This week's trip included stops in Ávila and Salamanca. We really couldn't have asked for a better weekend. Taking off from Madrid Friday morning, we spent the morning in Ávila looking at...

Dear Reader What is love? Baby, don’t hurt me; don’t hurt me no more… That’s a pretty good song. That is a good question stated in the lyrics. Hopefully I can fully explain the insights I had while road-tripping to Barcelona and Tarragona this weekend with our International Studies group. We took time to see the Sacred Family in Barcelona, as well as a day at the beach in Tarragona. I have had some eye-opening thoughts and our group as a whole has learned a bit about communication and having fun. I will explain our trip with details while trying to explain the epiphany I had about love while in Zaragosa, Barcelona, Tarragona and Medinaceli.  Barcelona, Spain Welcome to Barcelona! After stopping in Zaragosa for a couple museums and food, we arrived in Barcelona on Wednesday evening. As a whole, Barcelona is pretty and there is lots of activity. It is a huge tourism city, which kind of takes away from the experience that we are having as we study. The other cities ...

Dear Reader, One short day in the [Segovia] City! It is a beautiful city, to be sure. As part of our study abroad program in Spain, our group takes various trips to different cities here in Spain to see museums, palaces and history from several different eras of humanity. Today it was a pleasure to travel to Segovia. We had several adventures while we were there. First off, we stopped off at the Palacio de la Granja (Palace of the Farm). It was an attempt to replicate the Palace of Versailles in France back in the 18th century. We weren't able to enter the palace itself, but we spent about an hour walking around the numerous gardens on the south side of the palace. The palace gardens awesome. The pictures taken here don't do it justice. The gardens stretched father than you can see and the statues were absolutely beautiful. They were representations of hunting on the grounds with dogs, Greek Gods, and other famous figures from the middle ages. However, despit...