'Ugly' Churches and New Friends

    There are three things in life that you apparently cannot escape:

          Death 

          Taxes

          John Denver 

    Y'all. This blessed man haunts me wherever I go. I literally flew across the Atlantic Ocean to escape his deceptively soothing serenade. His Mountain Mamma ballad has bedeviled my every footstep since coming to Europe. I am not exaggerating when I say that in EVERY SINGLE COUNTRY that I have visited thus far, I have heard "Country Roads" at LEAST once. When I tell people I am from West Virginia, they actually know where I am talking about because of that blessed song. When I go to a bar, guess which tune always makes the queue?

      And how do I feel about this unexpected situation..? Well... conflicted. At first, there was anger. Then annoyance. And now, resignation and acceptance (with perhaps a *tinge* of homesickness mixed in there). I just thought I'd update you on the situation in Europe. 

    Things here have been going wonderfully. I am getting fat n' happy on gelato and croissants. But I am not here today to write about my food-ventures. I wanted to share a little bit about Spring Break! A week ago, eight of us hopped over to Barcelona, Spain for break. With a full itinerary and an empty bank account, we spent the week exploring as much that beautiful city as we could. We had the opportunity to visit some pretty breathtaking sites, including Park Guell (a park for rich people designed by Antoni Gaudi that reminded me of a real life Dr. Seuss world), Monserrat (a beautiful monastery at the top of a big mountain), and the Pablo Picasso Museum. But I wanted to tell you about two experiences I had over break that really changed my outlook on may different aspects of my life and that I hope you will find as powerful and intriguing as I did.

(Park Guell Building) 

    La Sagrada Familia:

     Below are photos of La Sagrada Familia, an unfinished Roman Catholic Church designed by Catalan architect Antonin Gaudi. I say unfinished because this church has literally been under construction for over a century. And you can really see that on the facade of the church. The architectural styles on different parts of the building contrast so starkly against each other, vividly depicting each artistic age that they were constructed during. What struck me about this church, however, was that it was probably one of the ugliest and yet most beautiful churches I think I have seen here in Europe. The oldest part of the church--designed by Gaudi-- is, in my very humble opinion, a mess. It literally looks like someone took a blowtorch and melted the marble. I mean, come on Gaudi, what were you doing? (To all the Gaudi lovers out there, sorry not sorry)

(Yikes) 

    I was mentally preparing myself for what I assumed would be a similar mess on the inside of the church, which explains why I was so utterly shocked upon entering it. The inside of La Sagrada Familia was simply breathtaking. Its clean, crisp white marble pillars were splashed with impossibly vibrant colors created by sunlight seeping through stained glass windows on all sides of the church. It made me feel as though I had stepped into a massive kaleidoscope. The painter in me practically fainted every time I looked at a window. 

 

                                         

 

    New Friend:

    A few days after La Sagrada Familia, we decided to spend a peaceful day at the beach. It soon became quite evident that such a day might not be possible, as the beach was filled with vendors selling all kinds of wares: rugs, blankets, towels, drinks, snacks, and toys. It was like a portable Dollar General. 

    Later that day, I decided to get some sketching done while the rest of my friends grabbed lunch. I sat on my towel and worked on unfinished drawings in my sketchbook for a bit, soon noticing that someone was watching me draw. I looked behind my shoulder and noticed one of those vendors standing nearby, looking over my shoulder at my sketchbook. Now, its not unusual for people to come up and watch me draw (that is a whole other blog post, I can't wait to tell y'all about it), so I just kept working, hoping he wouldn't try to sell me anything. After five minutes or so, he spoke up, complementing my sketches and asking me how I had captured the shapes and shadows. He admitted that he was also an artist,  yet he struggled to accurately depict his subjects on paper. The conversation flowed on like a river from there. 

    We talked about SO many things y'all it was SO COOL.  This man had been working in Spain for the past three months as a street vendor. He used to own a leather market back home in Pakistan, but business became bad due to a rising demand for more synthetic materials, so he had moved to Italy to look for work instead. After spending six months in Italy, he bounced to Germany, and finally landed in Spain. When I asked him what he thought about Americans, he told me that they were some of his favorite tourists because of how friendly and open-minded they were. He told me that they generally treated him with the most respect when he was selling things. (Brownie points for America WOO). I asked him how he felt about being a vendor in a foreign land, if he found his job to be particularly challenging or not. He replied that yes, his job was very difficult, specifically because of how he was treated by people as an A.) street vender, and B.) Middle-Eastern, Muslim man. Sometimes, people would treat him politely.  If he approached, they would simply say no thank you. But other times, people would treat him with unbelievable rudeness, even going so far as to yell at and chase him. Yet, despite such treatment, he calmly declared that he loved the life he was living, and he loved the job he had. 

    Then the conversation turned to more existential matters. We talked about the pursuit of money and how quickly it could steal joy from your life. We talked about the different interactions we have both had with racism in our respective cultures and backgrounds. I told him more about West Virginia and he told me about Pakistan. My favorite topic was on friendship. "You see," he stated, "friends are like stones and diamonds. Some friends in your life are stones- ugly, heavy, and inconvenient. When you carry them around, they simply make life heavier. Other friends, however, are like diamonds. They are beautiful, precious, enriching, and very very rare. You treasure those diamonds when you find them and keep them close to your heart." (How many stones and diamonds do you all have in your life?)

   I mean... y'all... IT WAS SO COOL. I'm geeking out just thinking about this: a girl from Philippi, West Virginia having a deep conversation with a dude from Pakistan on the sandy beaches of Barcelona, Spain. It doesn't get more intercultural than that. 

    The two experiences I described taught me some pretty basic, and necessary, life lessons. The most prominent of them was this: 

If you take things at face value and immediately accept the bias that you have without questioning it, you will lose out on SO MANY opportunities. Stepping back, acknowledging your bias, but choosing to instead examine more deeply the situation at hand can open countless new doors. 

  Barcelona was absolutely breathtaking, and I have so many more stories that I wish I could tell you, but that's too much writing and I'm lazy. So for now, I'm logging off. I miss you all. Every day is tinged with a bit of homesickness, but life is good regardless!

Arrivederci a tutti!
Leah