{"id":772,"date":"2018-08-13T19:50:58","date_gmt":"2018-08-13T19:50:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/?p=772"},"modified":"2018-08-13T19:51:27","modified_gmt":"2018-08-13T19:51:27","slug":"max-lawson-19-spain-netherlands-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/2018\/08\/13\/max-lawson-19-spain-netherlands-france\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Lawson \u201919: Spain, Netherlands, France"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max Lawson \u201919<\/em> \u2014\u00a0Thanks to the generosity of the Givens family, I was able to travel extensively within Spain, and even take excursions to the Netherlands and France in order to gain a richer and more profound understanding of the art, culture, history, and people of Europe.\u00a0 With my first trip, I was able to go to Amsterdam with a group of friends I had only made a week beforehand.\u00a0 It seemed crazy\u2026 getting on a plane with people who were basically strangers to go to another country that was even farther away from home than we already were.\u00a0After landing on the tarmac and taking a bus from Eindhoven to Amsterdam, it was obvious that we had made the right decision.\u00a0 Amsterdam, known for its tulips and other<\/em>amenities, was unlike any city I have ever visited before.\u00a0 The bustling crowds (although friendly), buildings, and cobbled streets reminded me of the fast-paced streets of New York, but with Baroque architecture, all of which seemed to have been frozen in time.\u00a0 It was as if an entire society had taken a time machine, but kept the amenities of the 21st<\/sup>century.\u00a0 As we explored the city, we knew that museums would be necessary if we were to truly enjoy what the city had to offer.\u00a0 The Anne Frank Museum, whose tickets were notorious for being sold out, was first on our list.\u00a0 To our surprise and fortune, we were able to get tickets two days in advance, and were shuffling through the historic hideout in no time.\u00a0While maneuvering around the house, the laughter and conversation that usually followed our group was subdued to a quiet lull, as our minds and ears were engrossed with the stories and accounts provided by the audio tour.\u00a0 As we continued through the house, the tour only got more and more serial.\u00a0 I was standing in the same rooms, touching the same walls, and walking across the same floors that the Franks had so many years ago.\u00a0 The chills were unstoppable.\u00a0 Following the Anne Frank Museum, we made our way to the Van Gogh museum, where we received an in-depth look into the mind and personal life of Vincent Van Gogh.\u00a0While I was familiar with his more famous paintings such as, Starry Night, Van Gogh self-portrait, <\/em>andCaf\u00e9 Terrace at Night<\/em>, my appreciation for his lesser-known works grew as my knowledge of them did.\u00a0 One of the most celebrated painters in history was an anomaly in his day, and, as a result, his feelings were translated into his paintings through the changes in his artistic style and the colors that represented them.<\/p>\n

Following our trip to Amsterdam, the same group of friends took a trip to Madrid for the weekend, eager to see what Spain\u2019s capital city had to offer.\u00a0Immediately, we were astounded by the change in scenery when compared to Valencia.\u00a0 Valencia has an older style of architecture, with certain streets and neighborhoods evolving into more modern utopias.\u00a0 However, Madrid had the same hustle and bustle of many of the cities in the United States.\u00a0 Hand-laid brick streets were replaced with concrete or asphalt, as cars whirred around corners.\u00a0 While Madrid seemed to have evolved, the Prado Museum maintained many of the historic relics on which society was built.\u00a0 Paintings of royal figures such as Philip II, Isabella Clara Eugenia, and Charles IV (whose girlfriends seemed to change as regularly as the days, and, as a result, forced Goya to paint the women alongside him with their heads turned) lined the seemingly endless corridors through which we meandered.\u00a0 Of course, we got lost, but we were okay with that.\u00a0 While the Prado Museum maintained a respectful and appreciate relationship to the Spain of old, the Reina Sofia seemed to have paralleled Madrid\u2019s advanced architecture and lifestyle.\u00a0 As we did in the Prado, our group perused through the different art galleries presented within the Reina Sofia.\u00a0 When I heard that the Reina Sofia was the more modern of the two storied museums in Madrid, I anticipated strange, abstract pieces that didn\u2019t make sense.\u00a0Part of me was right.\u00a0 Some of the pieces were\u2026out there, to say the least.\u00a0However, it was still interesting to hear the different guides give us the backgrounds on some of the pieces, even if you did have to \u201csquint\u201d your mind in order to see the connections.\u00a0Once we were free of the dark rooms, flashing lights, and ominous noises of the modern art exhibits, we made our way to arguably the most famous painting ever, La Guernica<\/em>.\u00a0 Pablo Picasso\u2019s representation of the Spanish Civil War is both immense and disturbing, both of which I\u2019m sure he aimed to show.\u00a0 The immensity, partly due to its size (nearly 11 feet tall and 25 feet wide), was complemented with the graphic depictions of the atrocities that occurred in one of Spain\u2019s darkest periods.<\/p>\n

Following my trip to Madrid, my mom and I worked our way up into Catalonia\u2019s crown jewel, Barcelona.\u00a0 Being a FC Barcelona fan ever since I could remember, I couldn\u2019t wait to see what my favorite team\u2019s city had to offer.\u00a0 Similar to Madrid, parts of Barcelona were very modern; however, we stayed in a part of Barcelona known for its rich history of art and architecture, the Gothic Quarter.\u00a0 Walking up and down the winding roads in the Gothic Quarter, vendors attended to their stores, selling handmade leather goods and jewelry, a friendly reminder of the days of old.\u00a0 While browsing the wares at a local shoe store, I was politely informed by the owner that everything I saw were only samples; I would have to get my foot measured in order to have myshoe made<\/em>.\u00a0 This attention to authenticity and quality was apparent throughout the rest of the city.\u00a0 Once we had finished roving through the not-so-commercial commercial sector, we made our way to the Sagrada Familia.\u00a0 Perhaps Gaud\u00ed\u2019s most famous project, it first opened in 1882, and has yet to be finished.\u00a0While its astonishing visual presence, both in stature (standing at 566 feet) and content were obvious sights to be had, its history was even more intriguing.\u00a0 When first learning about the Sagrada Fam\u00edlia, I had always heard Gaud\u00ed\u2019s named attached to it.\u00a0 However, upon arriving, I learned that Gaud\u00ed had actually inherited the project from another architect, Francisco de Paula del Villar y Lozano, whose name is often overshadowed by Gaud\u00ed\u2019s.\u00a0 What was even more surprising to me was that Gaud\u00ed had only received his first offical commission five years prior to taking over the Sagrada Fam\u00edlia.\u00a0 On top of that, Gaud\u00ed was said to be \u201cinconsistent\u201d when studying architecure! After oogleing at the Sagrada Fam\u00edlia, we made our way to the Picasso Museum, which houses a myriad of the artist\u2019s works throughout his life.\u00a0 What was most intersting to me was watching Picasso\u2019s styles change throughout his life, varying from abstract figures composed of a few lines and limited colors, to incredibely detailed portraits of himself, his friends, and family members.<\/p>\n

The last trip of my semester abroad was spent in Paris, a city whose name alone inspires hopelessly romantic dreams and visions in the heads of travelers worldwide.\u00a0Like most of Europe, I found myself wandering the streets aimlessly, but enjoying every second of it.\u00a0 In the day and a half that I spent in Paris, I was able to see some of the city\u2019s most famous sites, such as the Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, and the Notre Dame cathedral.\u00a0 In the same aimless fashion that I roamed the streets of Europe, I immersed myself in the various exhibits of the Louvre, losing track of time and reality in the process.\u00a0 Of course, I had to see Mona Lisa<\/em>.\u00a0 I had heard from others that it was smaller than expected, but it really was<\/em>tiny.\u00a0 As a result, the people-watching around it was almost as great seeing the painting with my own eyes.\u00a0 Traveling further into the labyrinth that is the Louvre, I began to lose track of time.\u00a0 The museum seemed endless, and I knew that I had to soak in every moment, every piece, and every feeling that I experienced.\u00a0 In doing so, I hadn\u2019t realized time had passed so quickly, and it was only after my friend Emily told me that we had to leave or else we wouldn\u2019t be able to see the rest of what Paris has to offer!<\/p>\n

After breaking free from the Louvre\u2019s illustrious grasp, I was able to see the Arc de Triomphe, a breathtaking monument that Napoleon dedicated to The Grande Armee after conquering most of Europe.\u00a0 The structure served as a celebration for those who gave their lives for their country, and serves as a constant reminder of the price some individuals paid in order to give the French their current state.\u00a0 After perusing along the Seine River, we arrived at the Notre Dame cathedral.\u00a0 Once inside, we were amazed by the stained-glass sunlight that bathed the walls and floors in a multi-technicolor pallet of reds, blues, and greens.<\/p>\n

This may sound nuanced, and even elementary, but studying abroad truly opened my eyes as to how big<\/em>the world really is.\u00a0 Or, maybe I realized how small I <\/em>was.\u00a0 While Earth may be 24, 901 miles in circumference, which, granted, is really big, I realized while traveling how there are billions of people all around the world, just like me, whom I\u2019ve never met.\u00a0 These people, young and old, have lived experiences completely unknown to me, and I was lucky enough to share brief moments in time and space with them.\u00a0 I think of James, the young Irishman I met outside of our hostel in Amsterdam, who was kind enough to let us know that we might want to move out of the doorway, as his friends were all trying to wrestle another friend of theirs into the hostel (it was his birthday, and he may have over celebrated).\u00a0 I think of Mahmoud, a Moroccan immigrant living in Granada, and our conversation regarding the history of the Alhambra, and the intersection of Moroccan and Spanish culture.\u00a0 He worked as a lawyer, and I was thankful for the advice he gave me as someone pursuing a career in law.\u00a0 Of course, I appreciated the big things, too, like somberly walking through the Anne Frank museum, being reminded that the atrocities in the Holocaust were very real, and not just something we read in history books or autobiographies.\u00a0An event that, for all of my life, has been out of sight and out of mind, had truly come to fruition in my mind.<\/p>\n

Above all, the most valuable things I took away from study abroad are the little things, the intangible idiosyncrasies that we often take for granted: memories, laughter amongst friends, the smell of the burning Fallas, the taste of a perfectly-cooked croquet, and the hugs from a host mother.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Max Lawson \u201919 \u2014\u00a0Thanks to the generosity of the Givens family, I was able to travel extensively within Spain, and even take excursions to the Netherlands and France in order to gain […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2018-givens-scholarship"],"w_featured_image_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=772"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":773,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772\/revisions\/773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}