Professional Documents
Culture Documents
One of the many cultural events that I was able to attend was a classic Flamenco dance. It
was located in a small restaurant that fit less than 50 people and had extremely high reviews all
referencing the quality of the dancers and the lack of quality of the food. For the price, that
seemed like it would be perfect for me. With my ticket all I got was a drink, so I got a coke and
waited with the group I was with for the show to begin. As the lights dimmed and the performers
went up to the stage, which my table was literally touching, an older man near me
chatted/heckled with the performers… he obviously knew more about what was going on than I
did. There were three dancers, two men and one women. There was also a guitarist and the
vocalists. They were all just obviously lighthearted and enjoying themselves as friends, and then
the performance began. The guitarist played first, simply and then the vocalist joined him and
then just one dancer, and at that point I realized I had no idea what I was getting into. First they
rotated, one performing at a time and then in other formats and all of it was absolutely amazing. I
was amazed by their technical skill and rhythm to all perform as a group even when just one was
actually dancing. Their ability to move their feet so quickly while maintaining their core and
above almost completely still except for the fluid movement of their hands depending on what
they wanted to portray in the moment. The whole show lasted over an hour, though they did take
a short break about halfway through. The dancers were working so hard that some of the spins
Overall, I learned what Flamenco was and I think I would really enjoy going to a less
touristy performance, because if the whole crowd was as interactive as the one old guy and his
wife, it would add a whole new element to things. I highly recommend that anyone in Spain
First off, although I am supposed to compare a cemetery here with ‘normal’ one from the
United States, I haven’t actually been to very many cemeteries in the US. The cemetery in the
US that I have most visited is a National one specifically set apart for armed forces members and
their relatives, and therefore have all the different privileges that come with having been a
member of the armed forces. There is a lot of beautiful green space and besides the section for
people who decided to be cremated, the tombstones are all fairly uniform and only have a small
marking indicating their religion if applicable. Besides cemeteries such as this one, the only one
that I have been to was a small local one probably compressed into less than the square area of a
Needless to say, the cemetery that I went to, the Sacramental de San Justo was far
different from any that I have previously seen in the US. First off, there was basically a complete
lack of open space and the only greenery were the trees spread around the central area’s small
garden. Instead of the headstones with graves placed almost flat in the grass, the majority were
raised and all imbedded in the stone. There were also many walls that sectioned off part of the
large cemetery and these were also used as vertical space for more tombs. The catholic influence
of large stone crosses everywhere was evident and the decorative nature of some could be fairly
over the top. Also, the space between each grave was extremely small in almost all cases, with
everything crowed together so as waste as little space as possible. There also appeared to be
many family graves or whole buildings dedicated to a specific family with impressive
decoration. I also found the individual live decoration with plants or other offerings to be
interesting and fairly widespread. It was obvious that many of the graves were visited regularly,
Museums
One of the museums that I went to was the Museo Arqueológico Nacional. Spanish
Identity is identifiable in many of its exhibits and overall a better understanding of the Iberian
Peninsula is obtained through the museum’s exhibits. The main exhibits are categorized into the
prehistory, protohistory, hispano-roman history, middle ages, and the modern era.
As part of the prehistory section, the museum focuses a lot on the emergence of social
classes and inequality. These were obvious effects of the societal advancements and are an
important part of history, but they may show up in Spanish identity where inequality has always
In the protohistory section, many interesting topics are discussed and the history of the
people before roman influence is interesting, however the point that most stuck out to me as part
of Spanish identity was the origins of their love of bulls. Here the first major statues and
sculptures of bulls are found and were probably used as part of worship for their local religions.
Then the hispano-roman history began and changed the Peninsula forever. Much of the
roman influence in the Spanish identity is seen today, in such aspects as the language, laws,
urban society, and new technologies. Spanish obviously came about as a result of the new
language brought by the romans and much of the old roman architecture and influence of their
architecture can be seen in modern times. The exhibits also explained how the romans really
began an urban society in Spain, which is certainly something that has lasted through the ages
evident from the results of the Muslim presence in Spain for such a long period of time. The
language was heavily influence by the Muslims during this time and so was the architecture.
Another part that may be shown in Spanish identity was the results of the reconquest making
Spain a purely Catholic nation. The Mudejar influence in buildings is also a big point still seen
today.
Finally, in the Modern era what I found most interesting relating to the Spanish identity
was how they treated the national treasures of the museum during the civil wars in Spain. The
amount of protection put into either moving the most valuable pieces out of the area or heavily
fortifying the museum is a testament to the Spanish identity’s desire to preserve history and the
Political Parties
The major political parties in Spain I have decided to classify as those which have a fully
national political formation in Spain, since there are many smaller regional political parties with
o Initials: PP
o Initials: PSOE
o Political position: Center-left social democratic party. Most closely liked to the
o Initials: UP
monarchy of Spain… it is closely tied to the Izquierda Unida (IU) which supports
- Name: Ciudadanos
o Initials: Cs
Religious Service
When I went to tour Alcala de Henares for a day, I went to one of the famous churches
there during a religious service where they were doing a sort of confirmation ceremony for a
large group of people who had been baptized. Luckily this was earlier in the year when I could
still where my nice jacket and with that I was more or less able to blend in dress wise to the
people who were attending, which were hundreds of people. I sat on one of the side seats rather
than down the center rows and just did my best to observe as everything went on. It seemed to
start as a typical mass with incense and such, but that which was being said was more particular
to the event. It was also interesting because the church is a popular tourist destination, so people
from outside who clearly didn’t look like they belonged came in and out while everything was
going on. The most interesting part of the event was when each member of the group that was
being confirmed went up, one by one accompanied by what appeared to be a parent, to the priest
who would kiss them and such, and then move on to the next person in line. There were so many
that this process took quite a while. Afterwards there was some more preaching and then it
eventually ended and everyone went to get together with the members of their family that had
come to the event. What I most would have liked to have seen, but that isn’t part of this type of
event was the use of the beautiful giant organ that was there. I feel like just having the small
choir without the use of such a beautiful instrument is kind of a waste. As is typical with many
religious services, the many bits of truth spread with interesting catholic beliefs do allow you to
feel somewhat closer to God, though it is different to be sure. I most thought that the rhetoric of
after this having the spirit to be with you always was something I hadn’t heard of before as part
of Catholicism, and it certainly makes my understanding of why that teaching isn’t quite as
Overall Experience
My overall experience in Spain was positive though different realms of activity certainly
constituted a wide variety of issues, problems, and adventures. From an internship perspective I
learned a lot, was able to improve my ability to work in a professional environment both in
Spanish and in English, meet lots of new interesting people, and establish many important
connections for the future. I found the ability and willingness to offer one’s strengths as service
to be particularly useful and the importance of finding a niche that may not be easily filled by
others to be particularly important. Also having to do with the internship, the importance of
taking the extra steps to get to know and become a part of the culture of the office were most
evident at the end of my time here. If anything, I would look for more efficient ways of doing
normal travel pass, Madrid was amazing for maybe a month. This means that after having
basically seen everything that I wanted to see, touring Madrid was no longer all that exciting. It
is certainly an interesting place to live and has its specific quirks that one comes to love, but
From a living point of view, once summer arrived, it was far too hot. Only having a fan,
even sleeping was often made more difficult and overall you just felt like doing less because of
the heat. If I were to ever live and work in Madrid, I would make air conditioning a priority.
The biggest challenge I faced was with the first place I stayed for less than a week. The
landlord and I had very different expectations and realities of a variety of issues, and overall I am
extremely grateful that I was able to find a new place to live while in Madrid and with such short
notice. Now, I have connections here in Spain that I could much more easily set up housing
beforehand through, and that would put me in a much better situation overall.