Theology, Midterm, and the Kitchen

For the record, I wasn't trying to start anything with my previous post or offend anyone. Come now Carrie, the praying to Mary comment was a little harsh. Yes, it's an odd concept for some of us, being how we believe that no mere mortal can intercede for us, help us talk to God better, or whatever, but them fightin' words!

And this kind of reminds me about what I've learned in some of my classes, including the religion one that I'm taking here. Some scholars, especially Muslim scholars, believe that the Protestant Reformation was influenced by Christian contact with Islam during the Crusades. Islam is a religion that sought to purify the other religions (to make a long theological point short, Islam believes Christians and Jews were once true "Muslims" but their faiths strayed from the true religion and is no longer monotheistic.). Islam is against the representation of God (and people, really), similar to Protestants smashing Catholic sculptures (both believed this distracted believers and lead to idolatry). Mosques are generally plain, with only geometric art (which is really neat. More on that when I get back from some of my Spanish trips). Protestant churches tend to be a lot plainer than their extravagant Catholic counterparts (okay, I worded that harshly). Also, and a big one, the Protestants were against a clergy and believed people should have their own Bibles so they can read, understand, and interpret the Word for themselves. Islam and the Qur'an practically requires this from (of?) Muslims.

Whew, okay, so there's a quick, rough, theological, um, tid-bit. And worth noting, this is merely coming from a college student who has taken a few classes on the subject. So put respect and faith in it accordingly.

Wow, anyway, back to me :) My family sent me a letter about 3 weeks ago but I still have yet to receive it. Sad times. I double checked, and my address is correct on my blog.

I had my first midterm today in my art class. It was on Pablo Picasso. I'm really enjoying it (although I still flat out love my econ class. Man, I feel like such a nerd for liking it). The first painting we had to talk about was Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, or the Ladies of Avignon. We had to write the influences, characteristics, etc.
When you actually learn about a painting, you get a lot more out of it. It was pretty cool. This led the way to cubism. Ah, and most of his friends, critics, etc, absolutely hated this, causing him to "hide" it for almost 20 years until it was showcased at MOMA in NYC, which is where it is today.

We then had to discuss his Blue Period, where he was kinda depressed, very poor, and painted in, well, blue. The third question was about how his personal life affected his paintings (lovers, where he lived, Civil War, etc).

Finally, we had to write about Guernica. Picasso painted this in response to the Nazi air attack on the small Spanish town of Guernica. Dictator Franco gave Hitler permission to test some new technology. This became the first attack on a civilian city in the history of mankind. The city was destroyed and thousands killed.
This is in Madrid, so I get to see it when Michelle and I go visit the Spanish capital.

Overall, I think I destroyed that test. I studied pretty smart for it, and it paid off.

Ah, and some funny kitchen news. You all by now have the general idea that, while my señor is overall pretty great, you don't want to "disrespect" him. Case in point, last night I found out that the Mexican girl actually talked back. She accused him of not following his own rules. We're not allowed to smoke in the house (darn...) but he does. Double standard? Perhaps. But who the heck calls someone out on that?!

Anyway, he leaves for the weekends. On Sunday night, he still wasn't home, but the three of us SCU kids wanted to cook some dinner. He had left us with some frozen pizzas (oh, they are terrible over here) and frozen tortilla de patatas (kinda like Spanish omelets). Now, we learned from the Mexican girl that you can't use the stove. But that's kinda the same word for oven too (the whole unit) so we weren't sure if we could use the stove to cook the pizzas. However, how the heck else would we? And we couldn't ask him to clarify because we've made pizzas in the past and if we can't, then that would just prove that we've been "disrespecting" him for a while. Haha, yeah... But we were hungry, and decided to do it and hope he came home after we cleaned up. He did, so it's all good.

Also, for the last batch of cereal that he bought, he also bought some fiber, whole grain, and other yummy, healthy (read: not chocolate) kinds. Awesome. It was good (they're gone already). My body also liked it...

And you know when you get down to the last part of a bowl of cereal there's all that milk? I know it's not good manners to bring it to your mouth and drink it, but come on, it's only breakfast. You just woke up, hair is everywhere, and you don't want to waste the precious (yet kinda nasty) milk. I have no idea if this would be considered rude to my señor, and I wonder, "Can I do this?" My solution? Wait for him to leave the room.

I found a pack a cigarettes on the ground that read, "Smoking can damage the sperm and decreases fertility." No wonder they all smoke, the warning labels are in English! But seriously, where did this pack come from? All the others are in Spanish (and this was in big print, not that tiny print we have in the States).