May 16, 2009
After three days enjoying the Andalusian hospitality of Cordoba, we returned to Madrid and our "home base" at the Hotel Mediodia on Monday morning. With the rest of the day free, some students took the opportunity to catch up on reading, meet with their seminar groups, send postcards home, or to support the economy of one of the best shopping cities in the world. Groups of students met for a tapas night that evening, while others made a much-needed trip to FresCo, a tourist-favorite all-you-can-eat salad bar in Spain -- people don't realize how much they miss vegetables until they've eaten 8 days of restaurant food...
Tuesday morning was our third class seminar, led by a group discussing culinary tourism and the selling of "the other" in food advertising. Working with C&C's own Charlene Elliott's article "Consuming the Other: Packaged Representations of Foreignness in President's Choice," the students provided an excellent overview of the unique branding of ethnic food to western consumers, and led their classmates in a lively discussion of just what constitutes "exotic" food. That afternoon, we held group meetings on experiential learning projects in the historic Plaza Mayor in Madrid, planning group presentations while nibbling on the ultimate Spanish tourist food, paella.
Wednesday, identified as a "research" day for students, also gave students the opportunity to participate in two optional group activities -- a visit to the Real Madrid football stadium in the morning, and a visit to the medieval city of Toledo -- one of the few walled cities in the world with its original wall still fully intact -- in the afternoon. At the football stadium, students (and their enthusiastic instructor)
Goal in player's bench: Spain students celebrate imaginary goal at Real Madrid Stadium. Photo by Lisa Stowe toured the major sites of the stadium, including the edge of the pitch and the heated leather players' sideline seats (this ain't no wooden hockey bench!). Real Madrid is one of the most celebrated and successful sports franchises in the world, David Beckham, England's celebrated footballer once played for Real Madrid) and soccer in Spain is even more of a passion than hockey in Canada. With many photo opportunities and a truly great gift shop, our students saw just how much excitement soccer generates for the Spanish people and tourists alike.
The afternoon provided a different experience entirely, as our trusty program assistant, Hilary, led us on a walking tour of Toledo. Located just 30 minutes by high-speed train from Madrid, Toledo maintains many of its original features, including meandering cobblestone streets that provide ample opportunity for uphill walking and getting lost. Toledo is also well known as a sword-and-knife making town, as we saw in a visit to the Suarez plant on the edge of town. A small group of us took the opportunity to both see the knife-making process and purchase excellent cooking knives, scissors, and replica swords -- with the reminder, of course, that these items do not belong in carry-on baggage! For the students who participated in both tours, the juxtaposition of modern popular sports culture and traditional culture in Spain was once again evident -- mirroring many of the experiences throughout our travels.
Not to be outdone in the "culture clash" wars of the day trips, our students separated into two groups that evening, with some heading to their first Spanish bullfight, and others lining up for the spectacularly inexpensive rush tickets to the Madrid Opera and Madrid Ballet. Once again, as we discussed on the bus the next day, Spanish culture is neither easy to define nor as straightforward as tourist brochures would have us believe. With beauty, passion, tradition, innovation, spectacle and pride, Madrid gave everyone a more nuanced understanding of just what constitutes Spanish culture and identity.