Last Week of my Intensive Course!

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Although my real courses don´t start until next week, all of us taking the flamenco dancing class had to learn some theory for an hour and a half this Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday which we´ll be tested on later. I guess now I can´t bank my entire grade on my sweet dance moves.


Tuesday we discussed the Spanish education system in culture class. Like in the US, Spanish children are required to attend school from 6 to 16 years. After 16 they can either go to a trade school or to a university. My professora said that it is very rare for students to have part-time jobs like many American students have because places are usually uwilling to hire them for only a few hours a day. We talked a little more about marriage and I learned that the divorce rate is higher here than in the US, and every 6 seconds another divorce occurs in Spain! I´ve been surprised at a lot of things I´ve learned in class because the Catholic Church is so intertwined with Spain´s history but at the same time seems lost in the younger generations and in many things that occured after Franco´s regime ended (during which the Church had much power). Apparently movies were cencorsed during his dictatorship- even Disney for its political messages! We also talked about using ¨tu¨ versus ¨Usted¨ (the first is an informal way of addressing someone, the second is formal and usually used to professionals, people older than you, strangers on the street, etc). Spain is much more informal than Latin America. For example, many Spanish students address their professors in the ¨tu¨ form.

Tuesday night Patricia made me white sticky rice with raisins in them along with stuffed red peppers. Yummy. I actually got to eat at a normal US dinner time because Carmela was taking us to a play at the Teatro Alfil at 8:30 pm. I left with over an hour to get there because the doors opened around 8 and the tickets weren´t numbered and so it was important to get in line to get a good seat. Carmela suggested that we not sit up front unless we were willing to risk the chance of getting selected to participate! The play had no words (although the actors would make noises) and it was absolutely hysterical. It was called ¨666¨ and about four men in prison in Hell and the crazy things that happened there. Afterwards I went out with some friends before returning home to do my homework.

In culture lass on Wednesday we talked about traditional and opoular music and how it was affected by politics. It was funny to learn that rock ´n´roll didn´t come until the 80s and Spanish musicians had their own kind of hippie folk music in the 60s to protest the Franco dictatorship. Flamenco theory was boring on Monday and Tuesday because it was all history but Wednesday we got to watch videos of the different styles which was cool. I learned that the term ¨flamenco¨not only applied to the kind of dance but also a style of singing and instrumental music on its own. Wednesday night Patricia made me a cream soup from lentils along with a onion and egg quiche and more of that great white rice with raisins.

Since I had my culture final exam today, I spent the majority of my free time yesterday studying although I really enjoyed reading the material. Yesterday I also bought my train ticket for Salamanca where I am traveling to this weekend via Renfe train with Hallie, Ellis, Tom, Andres and Alex. Hallie booked us a hostal and hopefully the weather will improve.

Today my alarm was accidentally set for pm instead of am but thankfully Patricia is up in the morning to go to work and woke me up so that I wasn´t too late to language class. I actually wouldn´t have been late at all but the metro and the train that I needed both pulled away 30 seconds before I could get down the escalator to the platform. We did our last grammar review before our exam tomorrow. In culture the exam went better for me than the midterm, so I think I did well.

Tonight we have tickets to the ballet. We were originally supposed to go on Sunday, but many people couldn´t make it because besides the people going with me to Salamanca others are going to Lisbon and others are going to Amsterdam this weekend. I love going to all of these shows on GW!

Today I also booked a trip to Valencia in March. We don´t have class on Thursday, March 19th because it is the Feast of San Jose/Father´s Day. We are going to Valencia (on the east coast of Spain) because every year for San Jose there is a huge cultural celebration called Fallas. Artists create huge paper monuments which they set on fire on Thursday night. There are also many historical and religious processions. The festival is very popular and so it was difficult to find a place to stay. The trip ended up being more expensive than we wanted to pay, but we decided to go ahead with it because we will most likely not be back to see it.

Hopefully I get my wireless back soon! Then I will be able to post my latest pictures.

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Comments

[Christine]

Yay Valencia!!!
Julie!!!! I totally have been in Valencia for Fallas before... that is so cool that you will be there then. I went in 2006 with my school group and it was cool. I am glad that you posted again!!!