¡Listo!

Hey guys!  Sorry it's been awhile.  I had two exams today for the two halves of my first class, so I've been at work stressing out and studying.  They went pretty smoothly, though, so I'm not complaining!

Anyway, I have to check you guys up.  The most important thing for me this week was going to La Catedral de Sevilla, which evidently is the largest cathedral in the world -- at least, that calls itself a cathedral.  St. Peter's Basilica doesn't qualify because it is called a "basilica".  Sometimes I think they stretched their records here in Sevilla.  However, speaking of records, you can check to be sure -- La Catedral de Sevilla has a certificate from Guinness Book for being the largest cathedral in the world, so I suppose that title is pretty legitimate.

Let me tell you, though.  It was absolutely amazing!  The whole place is so humongous, so vacuous.  The ceiling looks three times higher inside than the height of the building looks outside.

Just being in something that old and that grandiose was very humbling and awe-inspiring.  It is kind of funny, though, because its existence and the history behind why it was built kind of makes me wonder exactly how virtuous its presence really is.

Let me explain.  According to our instructor, Fernando, the Catholic Church and the Spanish monarchy had somewhat of a rivalry throughout the first part of the 20th century.  While being a devout Catholic himself, the king would build very, grandiose palaces in order to assure the people of his stature, and also to show up the Catholic church.  Well, the Catholic church would respond by building a gigantic, grandiose cathedral.  So they kept one-upping each other until, finally, it came time for the cathedral to be built.  So while it does exist to house worship services and does function as a place of solitude and religious reverence, at the same time it exists to be a decadent display of pride, which I thought was very ironic.

Nonetheless, it is still astounding.  Here are some more pictures: