Sing us a song, you're the organ man

Buenas!

So last week my history of music teacher took us to the old and new cathedral (they were built adjoining over the centuries) on a field trip and guess what? He played all four of the organs in the cathedrals! I'm talking about an experience that was like having backstage passes and front row seats to a private concert. We got to go behind all the roped off sections in the church and he opened up the tops of all the instruments to show us the mechanisms and explain how each organ functioned. They were amazing and I just could not get over the fact that they were from the 15th - 18h century!

Anyways, we got to go up a secret staircase where we saw that huge pumps that two men would be pulling and pushing the levers of in order to sustain the air for the organ. I bet they were super strong because the levers were taller than me. Luckily technology now sustains the air and makes sure that the pressure remains constant as long as the organist is playing. We got to go upstairs in the choir boxes so that we could access the balcony the organ was on. The new cathedrals organ was huge!

 

If you look closely near the bottom of the second photo you can see my professor playing away. 

The sound was phenomenal and the acoustics in the cathedral were every musicians dream. I was basically in a state of euphoria with a silly smile on my face the entire time our professor played for us. And then as if the afternoon couldn't get any better, one of the students, and aspiring singer was encouraged by the class to sing...Of course it would be the most unsuspecting, rather flat out nerdy, super quiet guy in our class to have one of the best voices in our class. (P.S. I tried uploading the songs I recorded but google blogger hates me and refused to upload them even though they are within the file size requirements, so you'll have to wait until i get home to hear them)

Honestly, surprises like these are what makes being a student so special, because I'm surrounded by people who have a true passion for learning and it's reflected in their ability to speak intelligently or in this case sing beautifully. While this class may be well out of my major, I'm so glad that the mean lady at the IES registrars office highly suggested I not take the history of art class if the professor had not responded to my email, because I would not have been enrolled in this class and had such an amazing afternoon. After class, I could not stop smiling to myself (I'm pretty sure half the people thought I was crazy but oh well) and rushed to share the story with my host mom. We listened to all the audios over and over again and she explained to me how special it was to have this experience because they don't let just anyone play the organs or even go into those sections of the cathedral that I had the privilege of seeing.

Well that's all for now. Hope everything is going well with you all!

Much love,

Carolyn

Dia de todos los santos y dia de las animas

Dia de todos los santos (All Saint's Day) Is a very big deal here in Spain and to be honest I wish that we adopted a day such as this one within our culture. Everyone goes to mass in the morning for those who have passed away and then visit their graves during the day. Armed with bags of cleaning supplies, flowers, and vases, everyone floods the cemetery gates. There's a small church off to the side that my host mom and I visited first. Then we proceeded to each grave and stood in a moment of silence. We cleaned the marble, replaced the fake flowers that stay all year around, and then set up vases with fresh flowers near the cross. What I thought was so special was that it didn't matter if they were her blood relations or relatives by marriage, we paid respect to everyone from her grandparents and parents to her brother-in-laws and art master (she was his apprentice).

Also it was amazing how there were very few gravestones that hadn't been visited and adorned with flower.

Dia de todos los santos is the equivalent of the Mexican Day of the Dead, but the traditions here are a lot more serious and subdued. I knew that this day meant a lot to my host mom and that she was really missing her parents so I decorated four candles and lit them while she was making lunch. She was so surprised and absolutely loved the gift, which made me happy to make her smile on a solemn day. We lit the candles yesterday and then relit them in the morning for dia de los animas (spirits day).

The big white one is for all of her family and then the three little red ones are lit to remember certain people from my life (their names are integrated in the designs). While this weekend has been rather eerily quiet, especially in terms of the lack of people walking around in the streets and going out for tapas, it's nice to know that majority of the community surrounding me is taking a moment to remember. I'm not sure I'm doing so well to describe this feeling surrounding us, but it's a pleasant, supportive camaraderie.

This is one holiday I will continue to celebrate, even after my time here in Spain ends.

Love and miss you all,

Carolyn

(p.s. sorry this post is rather sad but at the same time it really is important and such a big part of their culture here, especially since this weekend has been a polar opposite change from the customary siesta and fiesta mentality)