Jeff Harris Travels

One of this semester’s assignments for my Painting & Photography class was to create something that dealt with time. It was entirely free in what was created and what medium it was created it, as long as it focused on time.

So I created three “time panoramas.” I set up my camera at the beach, the port and the City of Arts & Sciences and took photos, usually about an hour or so before the sun started to go down. Later I stitched the photographs together in Photoshop to make a “panorama” of a place through time. I pretty happy with the way it turned out. My favorite is the City of Arts and Sciences one. The others just seem like practice ones.

I have yet to print them, so hopefully I’ll locate a place that prints photos in the next week or so. Only two weeks left of classes!

City of Arts and Sciences (view the LARGE version by clicking here)

Beach (view the LARGE version by clicking here)

Port (view the LARGE version by clicking here)

This week, as with most weeks, has pasted quickly, but what a week it has been. On Monday I spent most of the day in classrooms without professors. In Photo II, the professor arrived nearly on time, but disappeared shortly thereafter, and only returned with fifteen minutes left of class. I did manage to explain to him my idea for my project after making eye contact with him while he was in his office. Later on in the day, the professor for Photography and Painting never showed up, but someone thought he mentioned in the previous class that he would later in the class. It’s like the professors don’t share the same concern of time as the students, or at least non-Spanish students do.

In other academic news, I attempted to go to a class called Foundations of Painting for the first time on Tuesday. Once I found out who the professor was I asked him if I was in the right class. His response was that class finished last semester, in January. And to think I had my schedule all figured out! On Wednesday I went to the Bellas Artes’ International Office to ask what was up. Their response was the same as the professor’s, and they told me I could take Color II, which didn’t work with my schedule and it was a higher level course than someone who has never painted should take. Also, I was attempting to take the foundations class because it was only on Tuesdays and fit well with my schedule. Luckily I heard from UMBC’s Study Abroad office the same day I emailed a question about credit transferability (unlike the UMBC Art Department’s exchange director’s lack of response for an email I sent a week ago). It turns out a class worth 9 credits here transfers as 4 to UMBC, contrary to my belief that they would transfer as 3 credits. So I don’t have to worry about Foundations of Painting or Color II or whatever it is and I will be earning 16 UMBC credits for the semester (one more than usual).

Also this week the idea of going to Dublin, Ireland popped into my head while looking at March on a calendar. I made arrangements to be in Dublin from Saturday, March 14 to Wednesday, the 18th, during the St. Patrick’s celebration. I won’t have class that week because of the local celebration of Fallas and I’ll be able to make it back in time for the incredible finale of that on Thursday, March 19. Hopefully the journey to Dublin and back via RyanAir will go smoothly.

I have my schedule all figured out now. My first real full day of class was this past Thursday. Mondays will be crazy long, but the upside of that is that on Fridays I won’t have class at all.

Here’s my schedule:

Mondays
Photo II (8-11 CET/2-5 EST)
A/V Media Production II (Moviemaking) (11:30-2:30 CET/5:30-8:30am EST)
Painting & Photography (3-6 CET/9-12pm EST)
Spanish (7:30-9 CET/1:30-3pm EST)

Tuesdays
Multimedia Production (12-2 CET/6-8am EST)

Wednesdays
Multimedia Production (Lab) (10:30-11:30 CET/4:30-5:30am EST)
Spanish (7:30-9 CET/1:30-3pm EST)

Thursdays
Photo II (8-11 CET/2-5 EST)
A/V Media Production II (Moviemaking) (11:30-2:30 CET/5:30-8am EST)
Painting & Photography (3-6 CET/9-12pm EST)

Fridays
No classes

I’m positive that I’ll have enough credits to transfer back to be considered full-time at home, despite the lack of response from the people running the program at UMBC. Nothing new there, I suppose.

I made some panoramas from photos I took in Granada. Click the links to see them.

Alhambra from the Albaycin Neighborhood
Alhambra from the Albaycin Neighborhood (HI RES)

The Albaycin and Sacromonte from the Alhambra
The Albaycin and Sacromonte from the Alhambra (HI RES)

The Albaycin from the Alhambra
The Albaycin from the Alhambra (HI RES)

Fuente de las Batallas (Fountain of the Battles)
Fuente de las Batallas (Fountain of the Battles) (HI RES)

I’ve made it to Valencia.

I just got in from grocery shopping. I bought some potato cake (like the Señora made… or did she?!), corn flakes, hamburgers (I’m slightly embarrassed to say), some crackers, ketchup (I bought the cheap brand and not Heinz. It was tempting). I forgot milk for the corn flakes. But the store is about 1 minute away, so no biggie.

Last night, before leaving for the train, my roommate Matt and I were forced fed (practically). The señora always made great food, but the quantity she made it in was always over the top. It will be nice to eat at my own pace now. I’ll miss Granada, but I think I’m ready for life in Valencia.

So I arrived in Valencia at about 5:30 this morning. It was about 9ºC (48.2ºF), but it definitely felt colder. After sitting around in the train station and skyping (I made it a verb) with Madre and watching some Spain shows on my iPod, I headed by taxi to my apartment on Calle de Santos Justo y Pastor.

I have one German roommate, a girl named Igna. There’s a German guy who’s leaving on Sunday. Two Peruvian girls are coming on Sunday, the same day I’ll be moving into a larger, more quiet room. Right now I have the room closest to the door and next door neighbor…

At about 4 or so, as I was attempting to take a cat nap, loud music started playing. Then screaming started. Then things started to be thrown. The screaming got louder, the music got louder, and the wall was vibrating. My roommates came to see what was up. Supposedly the neighbor sometimes flips out and starts singing really loud and yelling. He kept repeating “¡Olé!” I was more entertained than scared, but it was ridiculous. The cops and paramedics showed up (peep hole video below).

I also made another video. It shows about half of my (last) walk to the apartment from school in Granada. It’s made up of about 600 photos.

Also today, I registered with the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia’s Bellas Artes (Fine Arts) department. I won’t find out what my schedule will be like until Tuesday, at the earliest, after I pick up my ID and supplement information and attempt to sign up for classes online. I have until February 16 to finalize the schedule.

Tomorrow will be my last day in Granada, and today is my last full day.

Tomorrow I have my final exam at 10AM. Following the test, ISA is having pizza for us one-monthers. Back to the apartment after that to make sure I have everything packed and ready to go for my train ride Thursday night. The train departs Granada at 9:55PM Thursday night and gets into Valencia at 5:05AM Friday morning.

I was able to contact Paqui, the woman I am renting from, and she’ll be meeting me at 9AM Friday, so I’ll be waiting around in the train station for a good 3 to 4 hours. Fun! It’s surprising to me that the two times I have spoken with her on the phone, I have been able to understand what she says and have her understand why I say. It’s kind of a confidence booster.

I made it up to the El Mirador de San Cristóbal (a vantage point) in the Albaicín neighborhood of Granada. Click below to see some of the photos I took:

Read the rest of this entry »

I wanted to make sure I had at least one photo of the food my senora makes before I go off to Valencia. For lunch today we had ham, fried cheese, a spinach salad with walnuts, an egg, bread, and french fries.

Yesterday I spent the day at the Alhambra, the very old Moorish complex, and later an important place for the Catholic Monarchs. 

The place was beautiful and it was peaceful walking around alone, though plenty of other people were there. I took over 800 photos, so I have about 150 decent ones from the day.

I also took some video…

Click here to watch the video in higher quality

Click below to see some photos…
Read the rest of this entry »

On Friday afternoon, I went on a tour of Granada’s Cathedral and Royal Chapel with ISA (my program company for the January intensive month). The cathedral is huge, with ginormous columns and a large dome.

There’s some interesting aspects of the Royal Chapel. The coffins of the Catholic Monarchs, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, and those of daughter Queen Juana la loca (the crazy) and her husband and child are on display underground. Cameras weren’t allowed in the Royal Chapel, but they were in the Cathedral, surprisingly.

Click below to see of the cathedral and more…

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s 3:49am, Monday, January 5 and I’m still up. I can’t believe the day has arrived for departure. 11 hours, 10 minutes to go. 

I don’t think I would have made it to this point without the support and help and love from my family and friends.

Thank you so much!