Córdoba!

Well, it's been a while since I updated last.

One week from today I head to Madrid to fly out Thursday morning. I'm excited to see everyone back home but I am sad to leave. These past two months have been incredible! I'm still not fluent in Spanish but I definitely speak much better than when I first arrived. Now I just need to read books and watch movies in Spanish to continue towards fluency. I'm coming back here someday.

The Mesquita de Córdoba

I meant to go to Toledo yesterday but I was having ATM problems. Hopefully I can go tomorrow, now that I've gotten things sorted with the bank. Earlier in February I went to Córdoba a couple of times. What a beautiful city! One of the most interesting places in Córdoba is the Mesquita, a mosque that dates from the 8th century. It was later appropriated (surprise, surprise) by the Catholic Church, which built a cathedral inside the mosque grounds. Inside the walls of the mosque is a grove of trees watered by a fountain through an ingenious system of trenches. The Mesquita sits above the Rio Guadalquivir, which is spanned by the Puente Romano, or Roman Bridge.

The Puente Romano. Still impressive!

It is barely original because most of it has been replaced but it retains most of its original style and probably looks about the same as it did when it was first constructed in the time of Augustus. Another interesting area of Córdoba is the Judería, the old Jewish quarter. My friend Conrado and I walked around in this area quite a bit and went into a museum of torture devices from the Inquisition. Not exactly what I'd call pleasant, but still really interesting. One of my least favorite devices was nicknamed the "Head Crusher" because that's exactly what it was. A metal plate fitted over the crown of your skull was tightened by screw until you gave in or your head was crushed. At the very least your teeth would be impacted and/or crushed into your jaw.

And we call water-boarding "torture"

The Inquisition was definitely a lot more real to me when we left that place. On to more pleasant topics... Let's return to food. If I didn't say this before, I was in Córdoba with Conrado and Elena, because Elena's family is from there. We had lunch at their house and Elena's mom cooked probably the best fish I've ever eaten. She also cooked this Cordobéz dish called Salmorejo. It's about the consistency of tomato soup and is made from tomatoes, onion, garlic, and other stuff; you eat it with eggs and bread and it is delicious. Apparently it's really easy to make so I'm going to get the recipe from Elena so I can try it at home. Another point for Spanish food!

I've really been enjoying Arahal these past few days. I love going to El Galeón for breakfast or coffee and I enjoy just walking around seeing this beautiful town. I've also been enjoying the company of my friends here at the church. I'm certainly going to miss them all. The pastor of the church before Manolo was Johannes, a German missionary. (Manolo calls him the German shepherd because in Spanish the word "pastor" is shepherd too) Anyway, Johannes came to visit for the weekend and brought one of the leaders from one of the churches in Germany with him. His name is Joshua and he is an ethnic Kurd (his parents came from Kurdistan and he was born in Germany). His testimony is incredible! We became good friends over the few days they were here. We even shared a mutual interest of the TV series Breaking Bad. It's amazing how prevalent American culture is everywhere.

Talking with Joshua and others as well as observing things over here has opened my eyes to something: as an American, I live in one of the most open, accepting countries in the world on all issues. And yes, granted, there are exceptions, but I'm talking about the attitude of the government and general public. I also was previously unaware of how influential America is globally. Virtually all the movies and series on tv here are American with Spanish voice-over. There's a USAF base about 15 kilometers away from Arahal (and the F16s are really loud). Like it or not, America does have a huge global responsibility to lead. You can sit and argue all day long about how it happened and the motivation behind it but it doesn't change the fact that we have a huge global presence and responsibility. Ok, sorry, no one wants to hear my express my foreign policy views....

I'm doing my best to make the most of the last week I have here. I want to travel to other cities and hopefully the coast. I can say unequivocally that I'm going to make every effort to come back here someday, even if it's just occasional visits to see my friends here. I could definitely live here! I'm still not sure what I'm supposed to do with the rest of my life so who knows? Maybe someday I'll be speaking more Spanish than English......

The Mesquita, from the Puente Romano