Blog Post Two: City Tour


My favorite part of the city tour was when we went to St. Augustine’s Monastery. The art within was breathtaking and like nothing I’ve ever seen. My favorite piece of art was the crucifixion of Jesus. The intricacies and the focus on the smallest of details while sculpting and painting this amazed me. I could feel the emotion from the work of art the second I looked at it. The reason behind how the artist created such a powerful piece is both interesting and extremely disturbing. The artist, Miguel de Santiago, actually crucified one of his students so he could see and truly understand the pain that Christ went through and all the raw emotion that is portrayed. He of course got in trouble with the law, but he was able to gain asylum within the Monastery, where he worked for thirteen years, unable to leave the grounds.


I really enjoyed learning more about Miguel de Santiago as he was a very disturbed and intriguing person. To go along with crucifying a student, he also ripped his wife’s ear off with his bare hand because she interrupted him while he was working. And to think, I thought van Gogh was the artist with ear problems! Despite his obvious anger issues and mental instabilities, he was clearly an extremely talented person. He is considered the best artist and student the Quito Art School has ever produced.

The aspect that surprised me the most was in relation to the Presidential Palace. The Presidential Palace is the Ecuadorian equivalent of the White House, but unlike the home on 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, there was relatively easy access to the Presidential Palace. It is shocking to me that there isn’t more security and defenses around it. Especially when you consider all the political unrest Ecuador has had in its past, as well as the turmoil created with the most recent election.






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Carly V.- Blog Post #16

In blog post #4 Carly mentions how her family will hug and kiss people, even those they do not know. This is a way to use gestures as a form on communication, even if you do not share the same language. I though that this example showed effective intercultural communication. Because I did not speak much Spanish before going on the trip, using this form of communication was a large part of how I navigated conversations and relationships with the people that I met.  In blog post #6 Caitlin also displayed an effective form of intercultural communication. In her post she was referring to her time at Neque y Mas Neque. Because she was not completely confident in her Spanish speaking abilities, she found other ways to connect and communicate with the children. For her, this alternative form of communication came from dance. Dance was a universal form of communication between her culture, and the  culture of the ...
Read more

Meng - Blog 16

1. In Paige's Blog(#14), she mentioned that she used some nonverbal communication to communicate with teachers when they were cooking. It is an effective way of intercultural communication. I totally agree that sometimes, if you don't know how to express yourself, body language helps a lot, and it even works better than language. 2. In Blog12, Tyessa said that she feel not close with her host family, and usually, they don't communicate with each other too much, which makes she felt upset because she wants to get closer to them. In my points of view, it can be seen as an ineffective communication. I think in the process of communicating with people, sometimes you should learn to be proactive. Break the silence first, and take the initiative to communicate with others. If you are especially enthusiastic about other people, they will feel it. 3. An example of effective communication came from  Linsey. She talked about how the communication way changed ...
Read more

Blog Post Fourteen: The Market, Neque y Mas Neque, and Cooking

Image
Neque y Mas Neque The Mercado Artisinal is a great metaphor for Ecuadorian culture. The market is filled with handmade clothing, blankets, pottery, jewelry, and so many more items that are staples of Ecuadorian culture. All of these items also tend to be made or filled with bright colors which is common here in Ecuador. Another way the Mercado Artisinal is a metaphor for Ecuadorian culture is the fact that you negotiate the price of the item. In Ecuador, it is common to negotiate prices in markets, at street vendors, and even in taxis. The biggest thing I learned from the kids while working at Neque is that it doesn’t matter whether a kid comes from the U.S., Germany, or Ecuador or whether they are in poverty, the middle class, or they are rich, they are all the same. Every kid wants to play, to learn, and to have someone care about them and take an interest in their life. During our time at Neque I also learned that doing service work, no matter the size of your contribution,...
Read more