Paris, France

During Carnivales I visited France with Shelley, Gabby, Trevor and Hannah. I saw many beautiful churches, buildings, sculptures and paintings. Although I appreciated each, it was difficult to fully appreciate each individual piece of art because there were so many! The history behind the particular works are what, in my eyes, truly made them unique.

This is a picture of Notre Dame in Paris. Notre Dame is said to be one of the greatest examples of Gothic architecture. During the French Revolution the Cathedral along with many of the interior pieces of art were actually severely damaged.

Following the Revolution many wanted to tear down the old Gothic architecture and create a new Cathedral. Interestingly enough, an author, Victor Hugo along with architect Eugene Viollet-le-Duc are credited with saving the old church and preserving it. The title of Hugo's book about the Cathedral is known by most as "The Hunchback of Notre Dame". However, Hugo actually titled the book "Notre Dame de Paris" because he loved the Cathedral and believed it to be the focal point of his book. I previously knew of Victor Hugo and that he had written the Hunchback of Notre Dame but I was unaware of the impact of the novel on the preservation of the Cathedral as well as Hugo's intention of the Cathedral being the main character of his book. Hugo's novel was wildly popular in France and as such this caused the people of France to want to preserve the Gothic Cathedral and renovate it while maintaining the same artistic style. The renovations were led by architect Viollet-le-Duc. While at the Cathedral I was able to take a picture with a man posing as Quasimodo which is shown to the left. I also had the opportunity to visit Hugo's burial site at the Pantheon in Paris. His coffin is pictured below.

As with many old buildings there are many legends, myths and stories. Some hold truth...some don't. One of the most interesting stories that I heard involved a headless saint sculpture at the entrance to Notre Dame. I found out the saint's name was Denis. He is patron of Paris, France. He was martyered when he was beheaded by a sword. The legend surrounding Saint Denis, also called the Golden Legend, is as follows: After the saint's head was chopped off he picked it up and carried it several miles. During his journey it was said he preached a sermon along the way. As the legend goes, the site where he stopped preaching and died is now a shrine called the Saint Denis Basilica. The headless saint is pictured below.

I visited the Eiffel Tower, the Arch, the Pantheon, Napoleon's Burial Site, The National Opera House, Palace of Versailles, and many other places. The most fascinating place to me was the Louve. The Louve contained my favorite sculpture of all time--Victory of Samothrace. The other work the Louve contained which was interesting to me is Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa". Personally, I do not think the painting is that great and I have often wondered why it is so famous. I've heard a lot of the smile but I wanted to learn more about the painting so I read up on it. I discovered a few contributing factors to its popularity. The painting seems to be famous because of the mystique surrounding it. There is still an uncertainty as to whether the individual pictured is male or female. The ambiguous expression on the individuals face (the smile) as well as the features are a few elements that create this wonder or mystique. There is even speculation that Leonardo used his own likeness in the painting. The other element creating mystique is the fact that it has been stolen. I have heard this before but I was never sure. Evidently an Italian janitor working in the Louve hid in a closet and ended up walking out with the painting hidden under his coat. The man's name was Vincenzo Peruggia. He believed that the painting should be taken back to Italy in order to be displayed. Before Peruggia was captured many people were bought in for questioning. The most interesting part of this story is that Pablo Picasso was one of the individuals brought in. Picasso was implicated by a so called 'friend'. He was obviously not the culprit but I just found it very interesting he was brought in. The painting has also been damaged several times including a young man who threw a rock at it. There are often many many people crowded around the painting and its very difficult to get a picture. Somehow I managed to get close enough to have my picture taken with it which is displayed below.

Life and Soccer in Spain

This is a picture of the Real Madrid stadium in Spain. My "host dad" loves Real Madrid. I went to a game last Saturday night and the atmosphere was unbelievable! (It is incredible to see on every street a soccer field instead of a basketball court. ) The only thing when it came to the Real Madrid game that I didn't enjoy was the smoking! There was only one person around me smoking but it was blowing right in my face. At home smoking is definetly not allowed in stadiums and in many public places. However, it was definetly worth the cold weather and smoke because our seats were ridiculous!





Another interesting thing I noticed at the match was that most of the people watching purchased a "bocadillo" during half time. This is basically, as I understand, a flatbread sandwich. I was much more used to seeing hot dogs and hamburgers back home.

This is just a picture to give an idea of how close our seats were. The guys were gorgeous! :)











































Staying with the topic of soccer...I am currently playing for a team here. They are located in Madrid. The game is much different in Europe than it is in the United States. I noticed as much during my first trip to England when I was traveling with my college team at the time, the University of Louisville. I believe we played the women's team from the club Arsenal. The technical skills the European girls possess, in my opinion, on average exceed that of the players from the United States. Europeans from the lowest to the highest levels of the game appear to be more centered around playing the game...not using pure athleticism to win it. This is much more evident in the women's leagues.

Another interesting fact is that most of the females involved in athletics here tend to be bisexual or homosexual. From discussions with my coach I have discovered that this phenomena is actually rooted in the dictatorship of Franco. Under Franco women were expected to fulfill the more traditional role of staying in the house, cleaning, doing laundry, and cooking. Most of the women who did not fulfill that expectation tended to venture into other avenues which happened to be athletics.


In the United States being a female soccer player does not generally carry a negative connotation. However, in Spain there is often a negative sterotype attached with female athletes because most are different and wear baggier clothes and tend to behave more like males which due to the remnants of Franco's dictatorship is still seen as improper. In the United States homosexuality tends to be more prevalent and expected in sports such as softball or basketball. This is my experience anyhow. I was shocked to hear how prevalent it was among female athletes in general here.