Paella is not understood in the U.S. Maybe it’s not even understood in the world outside of Spain. People in Valencia don’t even think that people outside of Valencia understand paella, so I guess the rest of the world is absolutely screwed then. I always associated paella with seafood since that’s how it’s typically served at Spanish restaurants I’ve been to in the U.S., but I learned today that similar to sushi in Japan, paella was originally considered poor man’s food. When meat and seafood were rare and expensive, working men prepared paella, mainly with snails, because rice and snails were both plentiful and extremely cheat. Original versions of paella had a combination of chicken, rabbit, snails, and green and white beans. The current seafood variations we now embrace today are more modern interpretations, and they’re actually not called “paella” in Valencia, but “rice with seafood” translated. They call it paella at the restaurants to cater to foreigners’ tastes. We still ended up getting the seafood paella at the famous paella restaurant we visited here, and at 3pm, we were eating at especially Spanish time for lunch. The rice was cooked in a shallow pan the authentic way over a massive fire, and each grain of rice was distinct, infused with the strongest and richest seafood taste. The socarrat bottom, or the crispy bottom that I loved eating in the rice I had growing up, was also present in this pan along the perimeter. This massive plate was a plate of heaven. It’s as though all my feelings about Spanish food and paella have been changed just because of this one meal.

The 18-euro bottle of red wine also helped. These are all the joys of traveling abroad and learning about other cultures that could never fully be recreated back home.

During my AP Art History course in high school, we studied artwork that came from so many cities I’d never even heard of. Granted at that point, I’d never left the country, much less the west coast of the U.S., so I was quite sheltered in my understanding of the world, and my geography knowledge was pretty much nonexistent. One of the famous paintings we studied was painted by a Greek painter known as El Greco, who relocated to Toledo, Spain, and remained there until his death. Although he was known for painting portraits and vibrant, passionate religious scenes, he painted two rare landscape paintings, one of which has remained in my head since I studied it. It was the painting View of Toledo, a view from the Mirador de Valle of Toledo overlooking the entire city in the late 1500s, and the sky was violent, threatening to storm at any second. It’s strange how I’ve forgotten so many paintings I studied in art history, yet this one has still stuck in my head. The sky was notable at the time and is said to be one of the most famous landscape paintings of all time, as high up there as Van Gogh’s Starry Night.

We ended up taking a half-day trip to this UNESCO World Heritage city from Madrid today.  The train ride was only half an hour, yet in half an hour, we were in a completely different world. The entire town looks just like it had over 400 years ago when El Greco painted this scene; because of its World Heritage listing, the entire city is banned from allowing any modern structures to be built; all the buildings and the historical landmarks must be preserved. It’s strange to imagine that this city looked exactly the way it did over four centuries ago. With us walking around it all day today, it felt so strange; we look out of place in this city that existed during Medieval times. It’s also a city that is known for having Christianity, Judaism, and Islam coexist all at once. Perhaps Trump should go visit this city as a reminder that not all Muslims are terrorists and mass murderers.

In my sophomore year in high school, I took Advanced Placement Art History, and it was a real struggle in the beginning. I got a D on my first exam (only because of the curve; otherwise, I would have gotten an F). The lectures were incredibly boring in the beginning. Looking at old-school slide after slide of these flat paintings and sculptures was tedious and made me sleepy. I found the textbook we were using to be so long and dry, without much context for what each art period really meant in the overall context of history. Why should our history classes be separated from our art history classes, and why should European history be separated from U.S. history? None of that made sense to me then, and it still doesn’t make sense to me now. We only remember and truly understand ideas when they are in context, and it frustrates me to no end the way the education system here is set up. So, it makes sense that progressive countries with high worldwide ratings like Finland are proposing to eliminate subjects altogether and emphasize the interconnection across everything we’re supposed to learn.

I ended that year with a A in AP Art History even though my teacher then probably thought I was a complete moron (she said she was very proud of me at the end), and I also got a 5 on the AP exam (that’s right, haters — the highest score). And of the paintings that we studied that was said to be one of the most important and famous paintings in the world was Las Meninas, painted by Diego Velazquez in 1656, and at the Museo Del Prado, which we visited today in our first day in Madrid. The Mona Lisa may be the most famous painting in the world among people who don’t know much about art, but for those who study and analyze art, Las Meninas is the pinnacle, the most elusive, the most confusing and the most complex. It’s mainly because there are so many subjects in the painting, and even the painter himself is depicted in it. I always thought the little girl, Philip IV’s daughter Margaret Theresa, depicted in the foreground was the most interesting; her eyes tend to follow you in the same way that the Mona Lisa eyes follow you. I also love the way her dress, skin, and hair appear. She’s perfect, like a porcelain doll, but her expression is so odd. She’s like this little pampered, innocent creature about to be tainted by the world.

Chris said she resembles JonBenet Ramsey. I reminded him that this was in the 1600s, so way before JonBenet’s time. Maybe the Ramsey family wanted their daughter to look like the infant Margaret Theresa.