Things I've Learned Part Three

The year feels like a phoenix, eternally falling and rising. Personally, I dislike the beginning of the year; all the anticipation of the holidays and celebrations are over, and life fades back into depressing regularity. It is pock-marked with doing things we don’t want to do, i.e. New Year’s resolutions. However, it is also a time to reflect back on what we have done, and what do most people like to do better than think about themselves? Okay, okay, I’ll try not to be so self-absorbed, but here are a few of the things I’ve learned.

• Life isn't all that bad. I can do things, even though it seems paralyzing at first. I can function and be motivated. In fact, life is pretty amazing sometimes.
• I can function in foreign countries!
• Cooking is more fun when you have people to do it with. And people to feed, too.
• My personality is rather elastic.
• I have a love-hate relationship with stuff. Why must it give me such a high when I buy things? Why do I feel so low when I’m overloaded with a bunch of crap?
• I get attached to people. I begin to think that they’re the best in the world, and there’s no one quite like them. This has happened in multiple places. Thus, I can conclude with reasonable confidence that the world, in general, is populated with pretty good people.
• I want to live abroad again.
• Making lists are useful things. I used to make lists, and recently I’ve given them up. That was a bad idea. I need them in my life.

How to Make Photographs at Which You Don’t Cringe Every Time you See Them - Part 2

This angry-photographer-post's theme: landscapes. Now, landscapes are a bit tricky, because it can be difficult to make them interesting. Landscape photos are similar to landscape paintings, although they take a lot less time and skill. When you take a good landscape picture, though, you take a good picture. I don’t profess to be on the level of Ansel Adams – far from it – but if you want some inspiration, take a look at some of his works.

Ansel Adams, I'm not sure what it is called.

Look at the juxtaposition of textures in the foreground and then in the middle portion of the picture. It appears as if you're looking at two different pictures - which is both the strong and the weak point of the photograph. There is a lot of contrast in this picture, such as between light and dark, rough and smooth, straight and curved, but there is nothing to unify the composition. Your eye is pulled towards the right, but the thing you want to see is out of the frame. Some people like this and think it is artistic. It drives me nuts. (Except in the case of portraits, where we are left to ponder the expression of the subject.)

Now, as discussed in the previous post, you want to make it so your eye moves around the picture. Ask any art teacher and they will tell you that the eye gets bored looking at a symmetrical picture three times as fast as looking at an asymmetrical (interesting) picture. The way to achieve this is by getting balance.

There may be several reasons for you to take a picture. One is that the landscape is so beautiful and you want to capture it. Another reason is to show your friends back home. Whatever You're doing, you're probably more concerned about taking the picture itself and capturing it for later than enjoying the scenery as you pass through it. I am, anyway, and it heightens my awareness of a need to constantly capture and store. In the end, I'll have nothing save a few empty - but well-taken! - pictures.

What Spain looks like. Remarkably similar to Home.

This is not a very good picture. It is flat and static, there is not much depth, and the plateau cuts the picture neatly in half. You should not show pictures like these to your friends and family. Yes, they might document what the Spanish countryside looks like, but again, not that interesting. Don't even take them. Okay, maybe you can take them, just for your own personal benefit, but don't show them to anyone.

Can you believe it? It's the same country!

Okay, this is better. Note the difference between the tree in the foreground and the mountain in the background, complemented by the road on the left, which leads into the distance. More interesting, yes.

The astute reader will realize that I have already posted some of these pictures before. However, not all of them. 

"1"

"A"

"Rhyme and Reason" - If you can correctly guess the inspiration for the these photos' names, I will write and/or dedicate a post to you.

Now, these are not necessarily landscapes (would you call them architecture?), but they illustrate themes I wish to discuss. In the first picture, there is a lot of depth leading from the nearest fountain to the art museum on the hill. I really like the line the spumes make, but the photographs are a little flat still. This is a good photograph, but it could be better.

Take the second photo graph. We still get a sense of depth, and a sense of expectancy, of emptiness, in the sky, but there is too much sky, and it makes the fountains and the building on the hill too small.

I really like the third picture because it keeps the distance that we saw in the first photograph, leading your eye towards the building. However, it also gives the composition a "U" shape - your eye sees the first lamp, dips down and follows the lamps, and then rises again to see the building. However, even this picture is not perfect - the soft glowing light of the first lamp gets lost in the sunset. The other lights contrast enough with the scenery to be considered acceptable.

Also, I'm so glad that I don't run any ads on this site. Otherwise, I might have to check about copyright issues, especially with things like Ansel Adams photographs. Typically, you don't have to ask permission if it's for personal use and if it's for free educational purposes.

Speaking of Ansel Adams, if you want to name-drop a niche-photographer among your friends, I suggest Tillman Crane. When I was younger, I confused him with Ansel Adams - they both have such artsy names befitting photographers. He taught my siblings photography when they were in high school

Yes, I support local artists. For more interesting art, look at Nathan Florence. He taught me art when I was in high school. 

Things I’ve learned Part 2

This is the second installment in a set of things I have learned so far this summer living away in Spain.

• Barbecues are actually kind of okay.
• The metro is always better than the bus.
• It’s okay to throw out raw chicken if it is expired and has started smelling weird. You should also use the raw chicken before it expires. Keep track of those dates in your head, you aspiring adult, you.
• I cannot, for the life of me, eat an entire loaf of the Spanish version of French bread before it expires no matter how hard I try, so I should just give up and eat Pain de Molde only. I should also only buy food that I can eat within a few days – none of these “saving for later” shenanigans, which mean that I end up throwing spoiled food away.
• Being a businesswoman is probably not my life calling.
• Germans look out for each other. I think the same thing is true of Americans. Then again, it depends on who you are and who you meet.
• It’s okay to take the wrong bus sometimes. Sometimes you end up in a better place. Most of the time, though, you don’t.
• Perhaps it is what you do when you realize you have taken the wrong metaphorical “bus” that determines who you are and your happiness, rather than the “bus” journey itself.
• I like speaking English. It is unfair, though, that everyone knows English in Europe. Everyone else around you is fluent in your language as well as their own, and you struggle to learn a new language while retaining what you remember of the old. (Yes, this is more of an observation.)
• A lot of people my age in Europe seem to be more experienced than me. Come to think of it, a lot of people back in the States seem to be a lot more experienced than me. It might be a function of me being myself.
• I need to learn how to manage my time better, and to think less about my blog and posting and more about living.
•  I need to do more community service.
• I am bad at making decisions and being frank. Being in Europe has helped this, but I still have a long way to go. Also, whenever I heard the phrase, “You have to make the decision which is right for you,” I thought that was the speaker’s way of shirking responsibility for the (not infrequently unwanted) advice they have just given me. I still think that it is their way of shirking responsibility, but I more deeply understand that no one can make my decisions except for me. It is both a great blessing and a great curse. D’oh. Someone recently said, “With great beard comes great responsibility.” Must have been one of my cousin’s friends, posted on his Facebook profile.
• Germans make good friends for Americans, especially when you're both in Spain.
• All you need to do to feel better about yourself is just change your routine a little, and then life suddenly becomes quite a bit better. Also, it helps if you change your routine with at least one friend in tow. (It becomes even better when they invite you for a day trip to Segovia.)

Graffiti, Rounded Shoulders, and the Old Women on the Metro

Other people probably noticed this the first day they were in Spain, but it takes a little while for me to absorb some things. Or at least post them on an internet blog. For those of you back home who don’t know much about Spain, let me be your eyes for a few moments as I give you my impression of things in Spain.

1.There is a lot of graffiti and tagging in Spain. Almost all public spaces, and it doesn’t matter if it is public or private. Even trees in parks are tagged. I haven’t decided if it’s artistic of if it’s simply vandalism.

2.On that note, people in Spain don’t seem to have much respect for property. In Toledo last weekend, I was walking along an alleyway, and the stones were covered with wads of chewing gum. Like looking under your chair in middle school has suddenly become the cool thing to do to a centuries-old wall. I found it disgusting; some people might think it communal art?

3.A lot of the people here have really, really big shoulders. This makes them look like old people before their time. I just want them to stand up straight, put their shoulders back, and have good posture. It makes me want to practice good posture, too.

4.Everyone here is nice, except for old ladies on public transportation. They will elbow you out of the way, and younger old ladies will very rudely ask you to give up your seat so they can sit there when it is very packed. They're unpleasant. Otherwise, if you need directions, someone will always be willing to help you. At work today, the one Spaniard we have in the office carried my lunch and the new intern's lunch in his bag from the supermarket, and the Venezuelan in our office always holds the door open for us lady-interns. Okay, this is a specific example, but today was a really good day for me.

Things I've Learned so Far

I’m taking a page out of The Doctor’s blog and putting a post up about the things I have learned so far. I think every experience can be a valuable wellspring of knowledge, experience, joy, life, etc., gushy flowery words etc. In a less sarcastic sentence, I think that these things really are valuable for me to know, and that they add more to this experience which we call “Life.” I am hopeful that this list will be expanded later in the summer and in 2010.

• The Haribo gummy candy brand does not have an all-around high standard of quality gummies. Their Gold Gummy Bears might be fantastic and made with real fruit juice, but their Tropifrutti candy is like eating old gum injected with fluoride.

• Kinder Eggs aren’t really German. A Venezuelan told me they were American, but then Wikipedia said they were really from Italy. They are only wildly popular in Germany.

• Germans think that everything comes from their country. Although Germany is great for many reasons, and they do offer a lot of high-quality products and services (I will only accept food processors that were made in Germany when I get married), don’t buy into their propaganda too much.

• Olive oil really does make everything better. Except for your clothes. Everything must have at least one weakness.

• I hate ants.

• Ants are much, much better than cockroaches. (Mom, we don’t have cockroaches, I’m just trying to be positive about the ants.)

• Latin American men grow up knowing how to dance. They might not know how to dance well, but at least they can dance.

• There is always a way to get where you want to go. It might not be the cheapest, and it might not be the quickest, but you’ll get there eventually.

• If you’re not happy about something, speak up. You will be happier, and the other people probably won’t be much inconvenienced.

• No matter how much I try, I cannot bring the right-sized bag to any even or occasion. (I’m not going to generalize this to the rest of you.) If I go to work, my bag is too big. If I go out hiking, my bag is too small. If I go out dancing, I should bring no bag at all. May you have better luck with your bags than me.

• In Europe, bring your own hand towel and toilet paper to the bathroom. Some hand sanitizer would be a good idea, too.

• Never buy anything type of clothing that doesn’t immediately strike your fancy. It’s like an A-ha kind of moment. If you start singing “Take on Me,” that is a good sign. If the dulcet tones do not start to play in your head, use this other test: everything should make sense in the moment you see the item and you know you want to buy it. Using this formula, you should end up with a closet of things that you like and never use the edges of your closet for the things you don’t like. (Sweaters from Auntie Mame are an exception, hee hee.) I’ve been trying to use this formula for the past several years, and it doesn’t seem to work as well as I think it should. I don’t know why I told you to do this.

• It’s okay to live in a European country where you don’t know the language. You should probably know an additional language other than your mother tongue, though.

Just a few thoughts from Lizzle. I know some of these things are more specific than others. I’m thinking specifically of the Tropifrutti candies. I can’t help it; they’re sitting right next to me. Despite their terrible taste, I kept eating them. I think I need my stomach pumped now.