Sevilla, Granada, and Consuegra: Part 2

(continuation from previous post)

We had a lunch buffet at a hotel near the Alhambra and headed downtown, winding around hills until we got to our hotel, where we had free time until the 9:45 flamenco show and supposed tour of the Albaicín which is the cool old neighborhood where my family’s hotel is. I think. We killed time by napping because we were exhausted by the walking (actually, riding on a bus tires you out, too! Your legs get all achey and you never sleep as well as you think you will) and I was getting sick-ish again. We took a short walk in the now-pouring rain to Corte Inglés which is the huge department store that’s like a cross between Macy’s, Harrods, and Target and is every American kid’s dream, especially us poor kids in Salamanca who don’t yet HAVE a Corte Inglés. They sell pancake mix, maple syrup, and peanut butter, among other glorious items, and there are like 6 floors of beauty products, clothes, and school supplies. And furniture. Anyway, we made our own dinners from what we could find there (cheap! So yummy! Picnic in the hotel!) and headed back to hang out at the hotel until flamenco time.

Since it was poooouring rain and we probably would have died if we’d tried to brave the steep and slippery streets of the Albaicín we just took our 2 little minibuses (just for this occasion, we had a normal-sized bus for the long rides, thank goodness) and did a bus tour. We stopped for a cool night view of the Alhambra from across the valley (see Facebook) and then got treated to a seemingly legit but touristy 3-hour flamenco show in this little cave-y bar filled with us and about 30 more tourists.



It was “touristy” in the sense that we were all non-spaniards, but legitimate in the sense that no Spaniards ever really go to flamenco shows anyway, the dancers were clearly gypsies/Spanish and really good, and the guitarist and singers were kickass. As far as we could tell, and I’ve had 2 music classes about Spanish music so I’m considering myself relatively well-informed. Anyway. There were sort of 2 sets of women/girls ranging in age from like 15 to 50, 60, or who knows how old (I think the older 2 women had seriously killed at least a few people in their lifetimes…this is what Miles and I decided sitting at the back of the cave on these supremely uncomfortable stools that dug into our butts…okay, we were bitter) but the 2 girls that seemed to be about our age were the best. Or maybe it’s because they were the best looking and had the coolest dresses. I have some videos, so maybe you can judge for yourself someday. Point being, it was pretty long but “culturally” worth it, and a nice way to spend a late evening. Plus Miles was convinced to wear his shirt unbuttoned one extra button which was very euro of him which resulted in these amusing photos:


Back at the hotel where a raucous post-wedding party was going on below us, I was just sharing the room with Peachy this time (yes, her name is Peachy, and yes, she’s pretty keen…er, cool) and she went to go hang out in Jackson’s room while I tried to delete photos on my digital camera to make space for that night. She left the door cracked open because I needed the key to keep the lights on and she was coming back soon and Cameron, being the insane button-pusher-nutcase that he is, came into my room and tried to convince me to go out with them, which was actually kind of sweet. Since I was sickish, it was raining, I was exhausted and had no ganas de ir de fiesta (no desire to go out and party) nor spend money on anything, much less drinks, I told him thanks but no thanks, prompting him to wail and prompting him to call in Saúl, who just climbed into Peachy’s bed and pretended to sleep. So Miles came in, took one look at me, and goes “Cameron, just leave her alone” which was hilarious but well-intentioned and much appreciated. So Chelsea heard Cameron’s whining and came to see what was up and kicked the boys out and was like “are you sure?” which was also sweet. We have the exact same birthday, p.s. Anyway. They went out, the bar they finally found closed 20 minutes after they got there, everywhere else had a cover charge, and then they came home within an hour. So I’m glad I didn’t get up to go out, although I appreciated their attempts to convince me!

The next morning we had another breakfast buffet like in Sevilla (which I didn’t mention before but deserves space here) and it was maybe one of the best parts of my day. As you all should know, I LOVE breakfast. It is the best meal, my favorite meal, and the one at which I will pretty much without fail eat anything and everything I possibly can. So that was awesome.

On our way back to Salamanca on Sunday, about 3-4 hours out of Granada we stopped in the tiny town of Consuegra, about an hour or two south of Madrid.

But before we got there, the now somewhere-near-15-hours of bus time were beginning to catch up with everybody and things got kind of intense. I was still sitting in the back with most of the same people as when the trip started. Somehow, Cameron, Rachel M and Christina got into a ridiculous discussion/debate/argument about such fun topics as environmentalists, politics, religion, god, western thought, etc, you get the idea. It wasn’t so much that most everyone on the bus disagreed with Cameron and his bizarrely contradictory, semi-catholic, semi-conservative, semi-insane ideas, but the fact that he had situated himself/was arguing in such a way that there was no way the debate was going to “end,” nor was it going to end in any other way than Rachel M and Christina saying “yes Cameron, yes, you are right, we are totally wrong, we have been thinking about things all wrong,” which never was going to happen. Not only was the topic of this debate really obnoxious after about the first 5 minutes but they were LOUD and talking over each other and most of us were trying to sleep (actually, even do homework, because it’s Sunday and that’s what you do on a Sunday, since apparently now we have homework). Things got to a point after about an hour and a half (5 minutes from a rest stop, finally, bathroom break!) that most of the bus had reached a consensus that they needed to be stopped and Cameron decided to get funny with some of the more frustrated kids, like Mara, who is hilarious.

Cameron: What do you think about abortion, Mara?
Mara: f*@k you, Cameron, f#%k you!
Cameron: hahahahahaah
Mara: I am trying so hard not to pee my pants, I cannot talk to you right now. F$%k you.

And soon after,

Cameron: Hey, Mara, how do you feel about capital punishment?
(she doesn’t hear)
Me: For you, Cameron, yes.

Somewhere in there, poor Saúl (trapped between Cameron and the window in the very last row) tried to hang himself in the curtains of the bus window and when that didn’t work, resorted to using his iPod headphones, which also didn’t really do the trick.


Finally, Peachy and Mara and most of the rest of us starting yelling at Cameron to seriously shut up or we would physically maim him. Looking back on it now, it is quite hilarious, but at the time, most of us had headaches because our iPod headphones were turned up so we couldn’t hear him/Rachel/Christina and yet we still could. After Franco class today (which I have with Cameron, Miles and Chelsea, among others) we were discussing how Cameron is one of those guys who pushes people’s buttons in ways that nobody ever has before, including buttons that nobody even knew they had in the first place. He is a nice guy and easy enough to spend time with but after a while or in a bad mood you want to strangle him. Luckily Miles is about as laid-back as it gets and their señora is apparently hilarious so it all works out okay in the end.

Moving on.

Anyway, Consuegra is in the autonomous community of Castilla-LaMancha (like Castilla-León, which is where the city and province of Salamanca is) and was apparently inspiration for Cervantes when he wrote about Don Quijote. The windmills we visited are the windmills that Don Quijote thinks are giants and tries (unsuccessfully) to fight, in one of the most famous parts of the book. I’m reading the first part of the book in my lit class. Anyway, we drove up a big hill where there were about 6 or 7 of these windmills and hopped off the bus for a very windy, rainy, grey, chilly 5 minute photo-op session. It was pretty cool, for what it was, despite the weather, but barely worth getting off the bus for!


When the kids went in the fall it was so nice out that all of the guys stripped down to nothing and took a group photo….and no, I haven’t seen it. But that was definitely out of the question, this time, much to everyone’s relief, especially the boys, I think.

Then we had lunch at a cute “local” place in Consuegra (I sat with Cameron, Miles and Chelsea, my new buddies, so it would seem! We had a great time, as you can see in these photos


)
Then it was another loooong 4 hours back to Salamanca. We arrived around 9 and Julio and Jose were there to pick me up. They got dinner at McAuto and brought it back to my room, where I made myself some pizza and I told stories to them and to Janna.

Despite the horrible weather, I am SO glad I paid IES to take me on this trip with these kids. I’m glad I got a chance to see a bit of southern Spain (sorry Kat, I should have visited you!) before my family gets here. The more I see of Spain, the more I love it and the more I feel like I am really not doing so badly here. Spending time with IES kids was key, in the way that being around Middlebury kids is, and feeling like I’m part of a group. Miles, Chelsea and Cameron are already their own extremely tight-knit group but they were really quite friendly and they’re even coming over tonight to do laundry and haaaang out (so okay, they’re using me, sort of, but it should be fun! Visitors are always good and I like showing off my room—Dad, everyone comments on the Dwight and Nadal posters! And asks about jumpingboy).


Last night was Janna’s birthday celebration and after pancakes, chocolate cake, stracciatella ice cream and champagne, we ended up going to Trivia Night at the Irish Rover to support Supersalidos, Miles, Chelsea, Cameron, Saúl, and Jackson’s team because it’s the last week of the month and they went every week and so had a chance at winning the 100 euro monthly prize. It was actually really fun and I’m sad nobody was interested in it last semester and that I missed the first few weeks this time. Maybe I’ll keep going! Anyway, there is a part in the middle where the first person to say the title/artist of a song wins whatever prize they have—be it a bottle of alcohol, a scarf, a shirt from Guinness, a belt (!?), shot glasses, etc. So Janna and I were sitting up on a balcony with Miles, doodling and chatting about music, and all of a sudden a song comes on that I know and I know nobody else will know. So I call over Cameron, tell him (Maybe Tomorrow, by Stereophonics) and he runs up, and we win a bottle of champagne!!! It’s Kendra’s birthday on Monday so guess what we’re drinking then…..! I’m so proud of myself, not gonna lie. Also, Janna just informed me that their team won the 100 euros!!!!!!! Yay supersalidos!

Time to go shower the smokiness out of my hair before class,
And then it’s the weekend!!!!!
Much love,

-Casey

Sevilla, Granada, and Consuegra: Part 1

Hello!

As most of you know, I went to Sevilla and Granada (and Consuegra) this weekend with IES. It was an optional trip that 30 of us ended up going on, 29 of whom were spring-only students. Everyone else but me (basically) went in the fall but I decided I’d rather go in the spring as a way to get to know the spring kids better and potentially have better weather. Turns out I was really wrong about the weather part because this semester’s trip ended up being a lot earlier than I thought it would, but the bonding with new kids thing went SO well!

Before I get started on what we did and start spicing things up with photos, I just want to say Happy 21st to Janna, the best kitchen-mate and lunch-date a girl could have in this country!!! Tonight we’re drinking champagne and eating chocolate cake and ice cream. I cannot wait!

Okay. So!
For those of you who don’t care about the descriptions, here are my 3 Facebook albums:
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020721&l=b9634&id=4602208
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020722&l=7ab60&id=4602208
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020736&l=9cfa7&id=4602208

In this post I’ll be including googled photos of the places we went in the event that I don’t have any photos myself or that the weather was so stinky it’s prettier to see what it would have looked like in glorious sun. If you’re reading this and any of the photos I’ve found on google are yours and you want credit, lemme know.

We left on Friday morning at 7am, as the sun was baaaarely showing in the sky.
I don’t know what it is about Salamanca or Spain, but the sun seems to rise a whole lot later here than at home, no matter the time of year. I sat in the back of the bus with fun kids like Miles, Cameron, Chelsea (the guys are housemates and the 3 of them are basically inseparable), and Saúl (lives in the Residencia, hilarious) and most of the bus dozed fitfully or gossiped or gazed out the windows for the next 6 hours until we arrived in Sevilla. It rained most of the way there, which was depressing, but we got bits of sun as you can see in my photos. My first impressions of the area outside of the city of Sevilla are that there are palm trees and orange trees and thus it is more exotic and southern, just as I imagined the south of Spain to be, at least in comparison with Salamanca! The grass is more plentiful and greener and things in general just seem to be warmer.

We stopped at our hotel and rested until around 3:30 when we were treated to Starbucks (across the street, next to a KFC and around the corner from a Pizza Hut…we’re not in Kansas anymore!) by IES because we were all on time to catch the bus. Then we headed out to the REAL cultural events and toured the Cathedral, which is one of biggest gothic cathedrals in the world, home to Christopher Columbus’ tomb, and currently under construction because some of the outer rocks used on the columns are starting to crack/fall off. This last part was told to us when we were like halfway through the tour…thanks, guys. Luckily they put these things around the columns to keep things together while they replace every single crappy stone.


The scary part is that there are like 25 columns (I just made that up, I have no idea how many) and they’re only working on 2 right now but I assume over time they’ll have to fix every single one. Can you imagine if they hadn’t realized it, or hadn’t had the technology to fix them and the cathedral just…fell in one day?!?! Sevilla is also apparently in an earthquake zone, which makes things exciting, too. The cathedral was pretty but not anything too special, until we got to Columbus’ tomb (there has been a debate forever about whether or not he’s really there but as our guide America informed us, the current word on the street is that he is, thanks to DNA testing etc etc blah blah), which is held up by 4 scary steroid-user-looking guys representing Castilla, León, Aragón, and Navarra. Also, if you rub their shoes, it’s said you will return to Spain one day. I’d like to, so I rubbed all 8, just in case.

Part of the Cathedral is la Giralda, which is the belltower that used to have a sweet spinning weathervane on top (girar=to spin) and was also the minaret back in the good ol’ days of the musulmanes aka muslims. We climbed up the tower using the 34 ramps—the muezzins used to ride their horses up!! The views of the city got cooler and cooler as we ascended and even though it was a grey day we got some sweet photos, as well as a kinda-sorta semi-complete IES photo (17 out of 45 isn’t so bad, considering only 30 of us were on the trip)!

(that’s Dan, Cameron, Miles, me, Mara, Sarah in back, then Leah, Chelsea, Saúl, Elizabeth S in the middle, and Rachel M, Jackson, Christina, Julian, Craig, Emily P, and Claudia in front)

Then we had free time until the next morning so my pals from the bus ride and I headed over to the Plaza de España. I brought both my digital and regular film cameras (the regular with only b&w film) but unfortunately my digital camera battery died before making it to the colorful, patterned and glorious Plaza de España. Frustrating! This is where google comes in! According to Wikipedia, the building here was used in an expo in the 1920s or 30s and I have no idea what it’s used for now, but it’s wicked cool. These photos don’t do it justice and unfortunately it was cloudy when we were there so nobody got any really super shiny sunny gorgeous shadows photos.



See the sort of bench things in this one, as a sort of belt across the middle of the photo? Those go all the way around the plaza and there’s one for each “important” town or city in Spain. Well, I’m not sure of the criteria, but we wanted to see if Salamanca was there. Unfortunately the second half of the alphabetically ordered cities was covered up for restoration or something so we may never know!




After the Plaza, we headed down to the river and walked along past the Golden Tower which is much less impressive than it sounds. The clouds were seriously dark and terrifying by this point but it actually amazingly had not yet rained since the bus ride! We ended up getting some tapas at a random place near our hotel and then the group split up so some kids could get mixers for their drinks, so others could have some alone time and so others of us could shower and get dinner. I hate to admit this but despite our lofty goals a few of us ended up eating at Pizza Hut because we just didn’t want to spend much and couldn’t find too many restaurants near our hotel. Plus it was raining. And we were exhausted from all the walking. Shush, I know.

People started congregating in Miles, Cameron and Jackson’s room at like 10 and a game of Kings was soon begun (a drinking game, for those of you not in the know). I just observed but had bought a 65 cent small bottle of tinto de verano which is like ghetto sangria as far as I can tell and basically just kept me warm, as anything red wine seems to do. The room was packed and I took videos of embarrassing moments until a certain someone had too much vodka and realized she hadn’t eaten dinner, so 4 of us went out to find her some tapas. At this point it was like still only 11 so the night was really really young and we ended up taking a little walk around, which was warm and peaceful and pretty lovely for those of us not drunk.

We headed back to the hotel around midnight after having read the local newspaper at the tapas bar as a group and getting the girl the food she needed. One of my roommates and I decided to call it a night and the girl and another friend headed back upstairs to play 3 more hours of Kings. All in all, a fulfilling and relaxing day! I wish I could have seen more of Sevilla in better weather but it is definitely a city I would love to re-visit. While I’m not one for drinking much or even partying, I also wish we could have gotten a better sense of what Sevilla is “really” like but I’ve heard that is a lot harder to do than somewhere like Salamanca. Anyway, two thumbs up!

We headed out early the next morning and drove another 4 or so hours to the Alhambra in Granada. The weather was grey but still not rainy and we repeated our resting with iPods and some people talked, some gossiped, and some talked about Gilmore Girls and made the rest of us want to strangle them. More on that theme later.

We had an Alhambra tour from about noon to 2:30 with a nice guide who, as all Andalusians tend to do, dropped his ‘s’ left and right. Still comprehensible, luckily, and not boring at all. If you know Kat Grant, ask her to do her impression of this, since she studied in Granada last semester. I took a billion photos as you can see on Facebook but I googled some Alhambra images that I never could have taken from where we were but show off the Alhambra from cool angles as well as show what it looks like in significantly nicer weather. Everybody please think good thoughts about the weather in 2 weeks, when I go with my family!


So for those of you who don’t know, the Alhambra was a city, once upon a time, that housed about 2,000 people. It’s supposed to sort of look like a boat and it has 3 million visitors a year and is way cooler on the inside than out. None of my photos or photos on google really show the mindblowing infinite amazingness that is the Alhambra, but such is life. I will try to explain. I’ve decided to move there as my summer home when my royal palace of Madrid summer home bores me. Yes, you are all invited. In terms of more important history about the Alhambra, again, ask Kat Grant or look it up on Wikipedia. The visual stuff interested me way more than the history, not gonna lie, but it’s a wicked wicked cool place and definitely worth learning about!!

So, why is it so cool?! Well, remember how I told you about the Cathedral in Sevilla before? I know I really haven’t seen much of Europe (England, Paris, parts of Portugal, Florence, and various parts of Spain) but in terms of the cathedrals that I have seen, none of them has really blown me away in the way that the Alhambra did. I know it’s not a cathedral and I adore the lofty amazing spaces in cathedrals, I am in awe of the stained glass and I love imagining what it was like to be alive when a cathedral was being constructed, but in terms of the art inside or the religious aspects, I guess most cathedrals kind of blend into each other. Not so with the Alhambra! I think I’ve always been more drawn to geometric designs and colors than to religious art but this visit really convinced me! Check out my Facebook photos for a sampler of what I’m talking about, and keep an eye out for an Alhambra: Take 2 album once my family comes! I also took a lot of b&w photos on my real camera that won’t show up online for a long time, if ever.

Essentially, the inside of the Alhambra is a sort of maze of seemingly endless rooms and patios that are COVERED in amazing tile (azulejo, in Spanish) patterns, Arabic engravings, and geometric designs. Floor to ceiling, plus windows. Orange trees in the gardens, beautiful views, I can’t even begin to explain. Here is just a teeny sample of my dozens of photos:


One of the most famous parts of the Alhambra is the Patio de los Leones with this fountain in the middle with 12 lions around it. Apparently we were “lucky” enough to visit the Alhambra while restoration of the lions was going on so we were actually 30 of very few who have ever seen it without lions. Yay, us….!? Each of the doorways you can see in this photo lead to a series of MORE rooms FILLED with DIFFERENT patterns/carvings/tiles. Insanity. I could have spent years there, and I would LOVE to visit in the summer, with amazing sunlight and shadows and significantly better views (despite the boiling heat).
This is another famous part of the Alhambra because of the reflecting pool. There were like 800 times more people there when were there than in this photo, not to mention the lack of blue sky and prevalence of grey clouds, but you get the idea.

Then we headed out to the Generalife, which is kind of the summer palace-y part of the Alhambra on a sort of neighboring hill. Again, I’m sure the views are better with sun/in the summer but all of the flowers seemed to be in bloom and it was still glorious. Definitely check out my photos on Facebook! I actually got pretty good photos of what it looks like but here is an upstairs view of the main part, sans the awesome flowers we saw, sans the people that were there at the same time as us.

Academic Post, Part 2 of 2

Hello all!
Here’s part 2 of the academic post! Because I know you were all holding your breath…

Methodology of Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language

THIS IS THE CLASS SENT FROM HEAVEN WITH THE BEST PROFESSOR IN THE WORLD. I cannot say enough good things about Noemí, the professor, who taught at Middlebury (but none of my classes) and teaches the lowest grammar class for IES. As I said, she never taught me specifically at Middlebury and I probably met her there once or twice through Carlos Cabrera (another one of the greatest professors EVER! Speaking of which, Alex, his 16-year-old son and my billiards-foosball-soccer buddy from this summer called me the other day….I still haven’t seen him and he lives in the next town over and apparently comes to Salamanca all the time….hmm…I’ll let you know if we ever end up meeting up!) but she knew me on the first day of class and has been nothing but supportive ever since then. The class requires little explanation if you just read the title and I’m sure there will posts about it in the future, but Janna is taking it with me and we are equally thrilled by every topic on the syllabus.

For example, we just learned about the 6 levels of language proficiency as stated by the Marco de Referencia which is like the teacher’s bible (ish) in terms of methodology of language learning. Janna wrote out all of the characteristics of group B1 [which is the threshhold level that all language teachers hope their students reach (don’t worry if this is vague or doesn’t make sense) and will probably be on the test] and put it up on the wall in our kitchen so we can see it every day. We privately evaluate kids in our program as well as ourselves (we’re B2, the crisis level, where progress is hard to chart in comparison to earlier levels and we think we’re getting worse but as Noemí put it “you didn’t speak better before, you were worse, we just didn’t correct you back then!”) We have to observe a Spanish as a foreign language class (it would be ideal to observe a bunch of them but there’s just too many kids in our class and not enough time in the day…it would also be ideal to TEACH a class, too, but we’re not allowed to, and there are too many kids, so instead we do oral presentations on articles, which Janna and I are doing together and are also really excited about) and we’re watching her IES Group D class tomorrow.

We have to write an essay on the experience by April that could be 2 pages or 6 pages and should include some reflections on the experience, personally, as well as incorporate what we’ve learned in class (like the levels I was talking about before). Janna and I are going to write our essays this weekend…and then add stuff as we learn more in class. To me, this class makes me feel how I feel about childcare—it’s so fun and easy it’s like a joke that I get credit for it (or paid, for childcare)!!!!!! Glory, glory, glory.

Another thing we’ve learned in class is about the DELE which is essentially like the TOEFL or the Cambridge English exams, except for Spanish. It’s a national, internationally recognized (except in the US, which has a different policy at every university) test of your fluency in Spanish, with 3 levels and testing centers around the world (including Boston, but I figure it’s smarter to just take it here) and tests in May and November for 100 bucks per test. Your results never expire (although I assume if I took the test this year and in 15 years tried to use that as proof of my level without having taken Spanish since this year, it wouldn’t go over so hot) and I figure it could only help me, regardless of what I end up doing with my Spanish skills in life. I emailed Elena (my advisor) today and still have to talk to my parents about it but I think I’m probably going to take it. It’s cool to feel so excited about something “on my own” and feel like what I’m doing will really, truly have value and an effect on my life when I’m back in the US.

I went to meet with Noemí yesterday to talk to her about the DELE in more detail after having done some research online on my own and after she talked to her friend here who apparently gives the exam. She suggested I take the intermediate level (it’s about as long as an SAT, there are practice exams online but obviously the point is to be tested at your actual level) although she thinks I could do the superior one—it’s just basically guaranteed I’ll pass at intermediate and less sure at superior and who really wants to pay 100 bucks for nothing?

Since she is a golden goddess, she also told me that if I had more questions, her friend said that I could email him (but only if Noemí recommended me, and she assured me that she strongly and confidently did—score 1 for the middlebury team!) if I had more questions. I have until April 18th to register.

After helping me with the DELE stuff, she asked me how classes were going (her BFF is the horrible sociolingüística professor…long story…but shows that people who are extremely close-minded or picky as professors aren’t necessarily horrifyingly frustrating human beings) and I ended up telling her how my Franco class blows (today we spent our hour learning about Asturias and the fact that they eat kidney beans there…we’re STILL on the freaking second republic and never once has he mentioned the first or second bienio, nor has he mentioned that the second government basically spent their whole time in office trying to undo what happened during the first bienio….I should teach this class, or at least Wikipedia should…) and how I’m hopefully going to write my honors project/independent study that might turn into an honors project on Franco, the transition to democracy, or compare that to what happened in South Africa, or write about historical memory and the laws about it, or the Spanish Civil war, etc etc etc and she gave me lots of encouragement and tons of advice about sources, as well as an 8-DVD set about the Transition to Democracy ALONE, which IES actually HAS! I got out the first 2-hour DVD today and hopefully I’ll watch it this weekend, and maybe one more DVD per weekend, looking for ideas/inspiration for my so-far very nebulous independent study!

The point is, this class feels like it was made just for me (well, if there was a class about this with a focus on younger kids, maybe) and I couldn’t be happier in it!! Noemí makes me wish I was going back to Midd after all, this summer, even though she’s not going to be there. I miss the days and nights of ONLY Spanish, the beautiful Midd landscape and the amazing sunsets. Anyway.

Surrealism in Spain

So I’ve wanted to take this class since I first looked at IES classes last year when I was back at Bowdoin. When I got into the mess of trying to sort out USAL classes, to make a long story short, I thought I was going to be in a class that conflicted with this one but thanks to my dad in a moment of deep crisis I realized I could actually take this one, after all! It has turned out to be really interesting and different from my other classes, which is a breath of fresh air. Even though I missed like the first 2 weeks of class I’ve caught up on notes and have participated a lot in class and caught up on homework, too. We’re focusing mainly on Surrealist art and film (as opposed to writing, like Garcia Lorca) but everyone has to write an essay on the topic of their choosing and some kids have chosen to write about Lorca.

I looked up Dali on Wikipedia last week because Julio thinks he is a genius and obviously he’s wicked famous and in addition to finding out a lot of biographical information that I maybe never wanted to know (especially about his wife Gala’s bizarre love life and his support for Franco) and discovered that I think I’d kill Dali if I had to be around him for more than 20 seconds. My professor made us choose our topics yesterday and I went last so most other kids had taken ideas I’d debated doing so I just said “well, I’m really interested in Dali, I think, and who he was as a person” so my professor goes “okay, here’s what you’re going to write about—I’m telling you—Dali as a character, as the personality he invented.”

The class is different from my other classes primarily in the sense that it’s way more visually based (yay art! Yay slides! Yay color!), and feels like a nice afternoon course at a museum or something. It’s thrilling to see photos of paintings that I’ve seen within the last few weeks at the Reina Sofia and that I’ll probably see a few more times before I head home in June!! Also, it feels like it will have more practical usage (okay, except for methodology), the students are more engaged and comfortable with the professor, the professor is young and calm and smart and explains things really clearly and in an organized way.

So in summary, this semester I have to write an essay on the American and Spanish electoral process for my Franco class, an essay on Dali as a character for Surrealism, an essay on some important woman for my gender class (haven’t chosen yet), write a short essay on our observation experience for Methodology, take a midterm in every class, do an oral presentation in my Lit class and my Methodology class, and take a final exam in every class. Oh and apparently now we have to sign in for attendance in IES classes and teachers are encouraged to give us more (aka any) homework. Thanks a lot, IES Chicago. Bring it on!

Thanks for reading, guys!!! I know class stuff might not be interesting to anyone but me but just being able to get it down on “paper” and maybe even talk to some of you about this makes things so much easier!

Alright, now it’s time to write about this weekend in Sevilla and Granada. Photo time!
My family comes in less than two weeks! AHHHHH so exciting!!!!!!!!

Much love,
-c-

Academic Post, Part 1 of 2

Hello!
To keep you entertained while I'm in Sevilla and Granada with most of IES this weekend (in the rain! score), here is part 1 of my academically-themed post! Thanks for reading and commenting!!!
Plenty of photos to come once I get back from S/G, I'm sure!!!! I'm bringing my film camera, too, which is exciting because I didn't have it last semester! Here's to IES-bonding and Spain-sightseeing and billions of hours on a bus....!

In honor of finally figuring out my freaking schedule (ooh, alliteration!), here is an academic post!

Literatura Española

The professor swallows his words or mutters or mumbles or SOMETHING to such an extreme degree that I literally have to watch his mouth or I miss like 60% of what he says. This is not a Spanish-language comprehension problem, this is a am-i-going-prematurely-deaf or what-is-this-man’s-problem problem! Not too big a deal, but frustrating when the group of 5 snobby-whispering girls sits near me and interferes with the verbal signals from the professor. And there is a girl who smells legitimately like an ashtray who loves sitting RIGHT next to me. Not okay!

Oh, okay, right, I was talking about CLASSES. Sorry, sorry!

So this class is for Filología majors who are not majoring in Spanish lit (they’re studying French or German or Hebrew or Arabic or Romanian or oh, Aramaic…….or some more of those boring romance languages, plus Korean or Japanese or whatever….if they speak it, you can take it!) which means that it’s basically a class on the Spanish classics with a Salamanca focus… aka La Celestina, Lazarillo del Tormes, and the first part of Don Quijote (never read it, which is shameful for any self-respecting Spanish major like myself!), as well as a few other ones I’ve never heard of like La Regenta. So it’s neat, because the class is mostly native Spanish speakers but they’ve never studied this stuff either and it would sort of be a pre-requisite for the rest of Spanish literature etc so we’re all kind of in the same boat. Also, although his syllabus is insane and we’re going to have a lot of work (so that we don’t have to take as many sections on the exam??

Confusing and terrifying in addition to the 5 books we’re reading, partly because I’ve never really taken a lit class and partly because he reminds me of Coviello at Bowdoin in that he’s completely ready to tell you everything you do wrong in terms of your writing and teach you how to fix it….while intimidating the living daylights out of you), he told us that while spelling errors and grammar stuff was a huge issue for native Spanish speakers (he’ll grade them especially hard), he’s not going to worry about non-native speakers. Which is nice of him, not because I plan on making many or any mistakes (at least not in spelling!), but because it means that I’ll be graded on what I ACTUALLY write. Which seems more valid.

Essentially this class seems like being thrown into a river with a really fast-moving current. I will get swept along and will certainly pick up useful information and amazing skills as I fly along the river, but I will also have to put a lot of energy into keeping my head above water and maybe even swimming. But it will be a great experience and I know I will learn a lot!!!

Franco's Dictatorship and the Transition to Democracy

For those of you who don’t know, Francisco Franco was dictator of Spain from 1939-1975. He died on my birthday in 1975, a fun fact for any Spanish history lovers! Har har. No but seriously, he did. Before Franco was Caudillo, there was the Spanish Civil War from 1936-1939 between Franco’s supporters (okay, so I’m simplifying a bit but whatever) and those who supported the Second Republic, which existed from 1931-1939 (or 1936, depending on your opinion). Last semester I took a class on the Second Republic and the Civil War and so this semester’s class is supposed to be a sort of continuation of that material, logically.

I also have a strange sort of fascination with Franco’s dictatorship (maybe because he died on my birthday? I dunno. Between the ages of like 8 and 12 I was really interested in the Holocaust and read all sorts of young-adult novels/non-fiction-y books on it. So draw some parallels there…?) and the transition to democracy in the late 70s and 80s and may even end up writing my independent study/honors project on that time period. So let’s just say that I’m pretty invested in this class academically as well as personally/emotionally.

The professor came into class on the first day (well, important—he actually missed our first class because he’d totally forgotten that IES classes started a week earlier than his USAL classes…should have tipped us off from the start) and was all quirky and fun and snappy and asked us all questions and went around the room and made us tell him things about ourselves so he could judge our Spanish level blah blah etc etc and even told one girl (as a compliment) that she spoke like a flight attendant. Sweet. So we loved him, obviously.

It’s all been downhill from there. He’s still quirky and still jumps all over the place and still throws out neat little anecdotes…the only problem is that the anecdotes make up like 80% of class-time and the rest of the time we’re talking about the Second Republic and the Civil War. Today we spent class talking about political parties that were around during the Civil War even though he informed us right from the start that none of them would be on the test. So okay, they’re pretty important and it’s useful to know what their names are for readings we might ever do or research we do on Franco etc etc, but why couldn’t you have used class time in a more productive manner by integrating this non-test-material in with some test material?!

Additionally, I happen to know that I am one of the few kids in the (huge! As in 85% of our program is in this class!) class who has had ANY Spanish history classes before, not to mention specifically one on the Second Republic and Civil War and so I understand that I am in the minority and clearly those time periods/events are essential to understanding Franco’s dictatorship blah blah blah. However, I don’t think we need to spend THREE WEEKS OF CLASS on solely those time periods without having really learned ANYTHING remotely useful or related to Franco (well, it all is, indirectly, but our professor does a crappy job at showing that). Also, Professor Quirky-Pants teaches in a very roundabout confusing way and given that I already KNOW this information and I am confused means that other students who have never learned this information are really really lost. This is not fair nor productive for anyone involved.

I talked to my advisor at Bowdoin being like “uh, hey, this blows, should I find a USAL class on Franco?!” and she said that it sounded frustrating but that the Second Republic and Civil War were very important to Franco’s dictatorship etc and hopefully things will get better. And I know she’s right, but I just feel quite lucky to have already learned a fair amount about all of this (and about Franco, from her Spanish Culture class at Bowdoin)! Also, I’ve actually gotten a ton of potential sources for my potential honors project simply from readings and from what he’s said during class, which is at least useful for my own purposes!!!

Gender in Mediterranean Societies Historically and in Modern Times

This is one of my more interesting classes in terms of the subject matter and the chance to participate and debate. As usual in every class about women/gender I’ve taken, we only have one guy and like 23 girls. Luckily in this case, Jackson is a good sport and actually is one of the few kids who regularly contributes in class. We have a smart and well-prepared professor who unfortunately gives regular homework and demands much more class participation than she feels she’s been getting. This is not unfortunate for me because the homework is like one page readings that I finish in less than 10 minutes and hello, I love class participation. I know that it’s frustrating for most of the kids in the class, though, who are not as comfortable with their Spanish, with expressing their opinion, or simply with speaking up in class. The professor emailed me a 70-page bibliography of books on women in the Franco era because I’m trying to narrow the scope of my “I think I want to write about Franco” potential honors project. She’s pretty cool, even though my class thinks she is a reincarnation of the devil who wears the same 2 sweaters and same plaid pants with everything. I was bothered by her at first but now I figure if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em!


So be warm and safe this weekend and as always, be good!
I will, too.
Much much much love, and millions of any kind of beso you could possibly invent!
-c-

Photos! And other things.

Hi all!

So I come bearing gifts, for those of you who haven’t seen these already!
Two albums of delightful and artfully silly and generally lovely photos!

Here you go:
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020459&l=d86c9&id=4602208
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020485&l=4583b&id=4602208

Also, I have a January 2008 playlist here for those of you who are interested (Julia, and maaaaybe my brother, although I think he’s still digging through a mountain of music he stole from fellow TMSers)! This is in no particular order, is mostly influenced by visits to Midd and Bowdoin, and I make no claims to its musical credibility. I’ll upload a .zip file soonish but not all the songs might work.

January 2008 Playlist

She Doesn’t Get It by The Format
Apologize by Timbaland feat. OneRepublic
Fall Apart Again by Brandi Carlile
Someday Soon by KT Tunstall
Foundations by Kate Nash
The City Lights by Umbrellas
White Bird by KT Tunstall
Us by Regina Spektor
Back Seat by Driving East
True to Me by Metro Station
Where Were You by Every Avenue
Funnyman by KT Tunstall
Nicest Thing by Kate Nash
Força by Nelly Furtado
First Time by Lifehouse
Dance Floor Anthem by Good Charlotte

Now onto the “real” stuff!

I don’t remember how much I talked about this in my last post but I know I’ve already talked to some people about my scheduling issues. To keep it short, I have had scheduling issues. For some reason, the class I most want to take this semester seems to conflict with EVERY OTHER class I am trying to take. However, I’ve survived my first week of IES and USAL classes and have completed a pronunciation course that was supposed to be 12 hours in an intense 6 (ahora, ahorra. Coro, codo, coto. It’s a long story, but it was educational and neat and I re-connected with some cool Midd alums)! And will hopefully have my courses settled on Monday. Finally.


I had written a ton about my first full day of both IES and USAL classes this past Monday before I figured out what courses I was going to take but now it’s mostly irrelevant. Once I am more sane aka tomorrow morning I will write more about the academic side of things but suffice it to say, I’m going to take 3 USAL classes and 2 IES courses, the opposite of last semester and guaranteed to be harder. I will explain later. Onto the more interesting things.

As you may have seen on Facebook, heard in an early-morning phone conversation or gathered from the internet, actors from the upcoming movie Vantage Point (En El Punto de Mira, for you hispanohablantes out there) were in Salamanca for the past few days for the pre-premiere of the movie. They got here on the 12th and partied it up (according to local newspapers, they are fans of jamón serrano, as any good tourist or local should be). At noon on the 13th Matthew Fox (from Lost), Forest Whitaker (from Last King of Scotland), Eduardo Noriega (from who knows what, but certainly famous things), and Pete Travis (the director) came out and waved on one of the balconies on the Ayuntamiento in the Plaza. Then I waited around for 2 hours and they came out and signed autographs and took photos and it was generally fantastic. Salamanca pride! See Facebook for photos!!!! It was super cool to see a) Americans, b) famous people, c) famous Americans in SALAMANCA, and d) how adorable they all were. Janna walked right by Forest Whitaker on the street!

The movie I think might already be out in the US but it doesn’t come out here until the 29th. If any of you see it before then, or even after, let me know what you think! They actually re-made the Plaza Mayor in Mexico and filmed most of the movie there so it’s kind of…a poseur movie BUT they mention Salamanca in the trailer and the Plaza is so iconic it’s pretty neat to be here right now!!!

This is sort of a half-assed post because I essentially cobbled it together from previous almost-posts and it’s nowhere near as complete as I’d like it to be. But I wanted to post SOMETHING. I still have most of the weekend ahead of me so I’ll do my best to be better up to date! I know you guys are all sitting on the edge of your seat, holding your breath, all of those things. Har har.

Feliz belated Día de San Valentín! I found out that Julio thinks the Sweetheart candies are maybe the grossest things he’s ever tried (he told me I’d tried to poison him…yeah, happy valentine’s day to you, too! He did take me out to dinner later, with Álvaro and Saray and Jose, so I guess that’s okay) and that Janna thinks the orange and purple ones are yummiest (hello, people! they may taste strange but they are a tradition, and obviously white ones are the best!!!). I guess I can still hang out with them.

Okay. It’s late now.

Many fun things to come soon soon soon,
Thanks for reading and commenting, guys!
Missing you lots and thinking of you always, even as I get more settled in here (finally!).

Besos, besos, besos!
-c-

Shiny New Blog Post!

Hello everyone!

I’ve been back in Salamanca for about a week now, and the weather has never been better! I keep hearing about cancelled classes due to snow back in New England and my widgets (Salamanca, Carlisle, Brunswick, Middlebury) definitely show a discrepancy between New England and Spain! To give you an idea, the range of highs for the next week is 54-64°…I think that’s been one of the biggest pros about being here in the spring, or being back after a semester. I am still marveling at the amount of Salmantinos on the streets wearing their winter coats and even hats and scarves. Hello, guys! Let’s just keep our fingers crossed and hope that it stays this balmy and glorious at least until my family/Em comes to visit in March!!!

In terms of what it’s like to be back…well, obviously that’s complicated and yes, you can bet I’ll probably write too much about it and overanalyze it. Buuuuttt that’s why this is a blog and not a group email, so you can decide when/how much to read! At any rate, it’s generally pretty great. Despite my reservations and occasional doubts about what I’m doing with my life, what I’ll end up doing with my Spanish skills, and what I’m missing back in the US, doing a year abroad has been absolutely and tremendously worth it in terms of the language skills, the chance to get to know a city and even a whole country at my own pace and the chance to meet and learn from people I never normally would have had the chance to connect with. I’m beyond lucky to be here, especially for so long, and my family, Bowdoin, and friends back home deserve a million thank-yous for your support (financial and emotional). Janna and I were talking about how bittersweet it is to be starting this semester because although for all the new IES kids it’s just a beginning, for us it’s like the beginning of the end. Then again, this is also like take two for us. We KNOW things!

So, more about the positives: I’m almost over my jet lag, I did laundry and cleaned my bathroom and mailed some letters today and have been feeling pretty productive and organized! I’ve been to my first week of IES classes, have seen a few old professors, have met 90% of the 35 new IES kids, have even been out to the Irish Rover to watch beer pong (no drinking on my part, just getting to know kids and getting a chance to use my Febreeze upon returning home afterwards!!) I’ve needed some residencia-orientation help from Janna (where is the laundry room? where do you buy the tokens? what do you eat???) and am still introducing myself to people as well as figuring out a good schedule for myself in terms of food purchasing, laundry-doing and bathroom-cleaning.

I think right now the schedule thing is what has been throwing me off the most. After being here for over 3 months, I definitely had a regular pattern to my weeks. Having a steady “social life” and not traveling much will do that to you, and it really worked for me! While I’m glad I spent as much time as possible at home (so worth it!), I think in a perfect world I would have had more time to settle in here before being thrown into the middle of things all over again. It’s not that my Spanish skills that feel like they need warming up or that I feel out of place here, it’s more that I feel like I’m even more connected to people, places, and habits at home than I was before and am also more end-of-semester-summer-rest-of-my-life-oriented and that makes for some serious dementia if I really let myself start thinking about it all. I’m not going to get too into it right now because I’ve had 2 really great days where it feels like everything shines and the city is my oyster and I KNOW all of these people and I can SPEAK this language and I am here and this is life and how lucky am I?!?!!?

USAL classes start on Monday and I’m actually really excited about them. Certain IES staffers are great at bringing you down and telling you like 7 times in a 5 minute conversation how hard the course is, how much reading there is, and how tough the professor is, despite the fact that it was one of the USAL courses IES selected as being IES-friendly. And I got straight As last semester (okay, 1 A-), so you’d think they’d take that into account or SOMETHING. At any rate, it took a lot of 500-page-course-catalogue-scanning, schedule-manipulating and swearing to get my schedule the way it is with the classes it has and let me tell you, PLEASE, oh PLEASE just let me love those classes and let them not be too hard. I have all 5 classes on Monday, and 4 on Tuesday, buttttttt on Wednesday I’m done at 11 and Thursday I’m done at 1. So…just think good thoughts about that schedule, please! Don’t worry, parental units, I won’t take classes that are drowning me in work (or are too easy, that’s why I dropped an IES one and am hoping to take one more USAL class this semester) just because they fit my schedule. But anyway.

Soooo for any of you who are feeling left behind or neglected, please stay in touch as best as you can. Even just sending me a photo of yourself or what you saw out your window today works, even linking me to a funny article, even just poking me on Facebook lets me know you’re out there and thinking about me at least for a second! I’ll try to update this as regularly as I did last semester and I hope you guys will continue to comment!!!! Classes start on Monday and as I said before I have no idea how quickly my workload will pile up so we’ll see, but we all know how much I like to write/talk about myself/post photos.

Okay. Bedtime.

Janna and I made banana and strawberry pancakes for dinner! And had a super-healthy fresh-vegetable and fruit-based lunch. Count it!

Be and stay well, stay in touch, and stay warm!!!

Much much love,
-c-
p.s. bet you guys didn’t know there are about 23734 trillion storks flying around Salamanca. They make their nests on buildings like the Cathedral and the Clerecia. And are so freaking cool!

In Salamanca, safe and slightly unsound

Hi all!
I've been promising many of you a lengthy, detailed, thrilling, and otherwise worthwhile blog post. This is not that blog post. But I'll continue to promise it until it shows up.

Until then, here is a photo or two to amuse you!

Look how green western-ish Spain is! It feels like spring, it's been around 60 degrees all week !!!!
Guess who this dude is!?!?! Janna added the hair and tattoo. He rocks. And will be cleaning my bathroom tomorrow. Woo!

This is where I operate. Yuh huh. More room photos to come/be on Facebook. Eventually

And for those of you who forgot or wanted to be reminded, this is what I look like! Sometimes.


Classes will be settled next week (I hope!) once USAL classes start, I'm doing laundry tomorrow for half the price I used to, I'm slowly getting less and less jet-lagged (she said, publishing this around 4:10am), and my Spanish skills have not deserted me yet. Julio visits and has been bonding with Janna, I've been meeting more and more spring IES kids and liking them all, I've eaten at 2 comedores and haven't really felt like it was anything to write home about, and I've greatly enjoyed living in this room, this building, this city, this country (take two!).

It's all very confusing and heartwrenching at the same time, though, given all of the glorious things that happened in the past 6 weeks and given all of the amazing and worthwhile people I'm missing back in the US. That is what I'm struggling with most, as well as the fact that I haven't yet written about it in my journal because I've just been absorbing it all. This is going to be a totally new and bizarre semester but I hope it will work out well in the end. I know it will be worth it, just like you! And me. Anyway, I'm pretty overwhelmed right now but happy to be back (and simultaneously looking forward to seeing my family and eventually going home. it's all very....paradoxical and sensical. and odd.)!

I miss honey bunches of oats. Well, I miss cheaper cereal, haha. I miss bagels. And 9 billion other things I'll eventually tell you about.

Okay! Time for bed, I think, finally.
This has been a strange post but I hope you all trust me when I say I'm having fun and that I'm okay.
And life is glorious.

miles de besos,
-c-
p.s. a shinier, better, real-er, cooler post is coming! stay tuned, and thank you thank you for reading this!!!!! i couldn't have done any of this without you. =D