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Published: October 13th 2011
Monday was entertaining, because we had a discussion in class about the evolution of gender equality over time. I learned that men and women both get maternity leave in a lot of countries. In most of the countries the maternity leave is significantly shorter for the men, however in one country, both the mother and the father get 4 months! That seems a bit extreme to me… but to each his own! Our professor also took a poll on how many of us had grandmothers who went to college. I was shocked to see that only one student besides myself had a grandmother with a college degree. A girl in the back of the room said “well it is different for her because she lives in America”, which made me realize how many more opportunities my grandparents and parents had growing up as Americans in comparison to the opportunities that people of their generation had in other countries.
On Tuesday afternoon, I found myself obsessing and stressing over my academic and professional future (a bad habit I got into last semester). I know it’s bad when I start making excel charts and that is the point where I know I need to stop and calm down. On Tuesday night, I really pushed myself to go out for the night because the Germans I talk to in class constantly tell me that I need to experience that part of the culture. Wednesday was a holiday, which means no class, so I had no excuse to stay in my house and do homework. Hayley and I met up with a couple of friends around midnight at a bar called Bar Cuba. It was very mellow, but I had a fun time. We ended up walking all around town, exploring multiple bars to see which ones were the most popular etc. It was a lot of fun running into my classmates outside of the academic setting for the first time. We also ran into our friend Brian at Low Cost bar and met his two new Spanish roommates. I was entertained to learn from Brian that Spanish males are more high maintenance than American females in regards to getting ready to go out. He said his roommates spent 30 minutes trying on outfits and deciding what to wear.
Meghan, Hayley and I are constantly told that we need to go to a place called “La Punta” that is apparently the hotspot for going out in Cádiz. Our family, peers, and even professors were shocked when we told them we had been in Cádiz for over a month and still hadn’t been there. That being said, we decided that Tuesday night was the night that we would finally see if La Punta was all that it was made out to be. We stayed at the bars until they closed at 3. At this point we considered just going back home, but as we were leaving, we met some new people who asked us to go to La Punta with them. I wasn’t sure if it would be fun, and to be completely honest I was a little tired by this point in the night, but it ended up being a fantastic decision to go with them. La Punta is a strip of “discotecas” (dance clubs). The club we went to played songs from the Dirty Dancing sound track and a lot of other cheesy, yet fun music. We had a blast dancing with our new friends and we ran into more classmates, which added to the fun. I must say that dancing is a great workout! We ended up running into our host brother and his friends at the next club we went to and I felt like it was a great bonding moment for Arturo, Hayley and I. He finally got to see a less nervous and more loose and lively side of us!
We finally got back home a little after 6 the next morning. I slept well for the first time in weeks. The night had been something that I desperately needed. It felt so good to distract myself from all of the chaos and anxiety that I had been surrounded by earlier in the day. I woke up around noon and went to the beach with Hayley after lunch. We were really getting use to the concept of taking a day off and decided that watching Pride and Prejudice would be a great way to keep it going!
The bad thing about holidays in Cádiz is that not a single person works and therefore nothing is open. We were craving pizza and it was pretty sad when we realized the pizza place was closed. Luckily, Milagros made pizza for dinner! What a great coincidence. Dinner wasn’t very relaxing, but it was educational. We talked about Zapatero, the current Prime Minister of Spain. People here don’t like him and they are very passionate when they are expressing their opinions about him. It is almost frightening. Elections are coming up in November and I am interested to see how they go. It was interesting to hear the significant role that the war in Afghanistan played in the last elections in Spain and how Zapatero’s desire to stay out of the war drastically swayed the votes in his favor. I can tell how much my Spanish has improved when I can understand a conversation about the past, present, and future of the Spanish government. I have never had the privilege of studying Spain’s political structure in school, so the conversation with Milagros and Jesus was very educational for me and I enjoyed it a lot.
Today was unfortunately very stressful for me. I spent a few hours at the library trying to understand my notes for my Oral Tradition class and I felt like my brain was frying. The concepts that we are learning about are hard enough to understand in English, much less than Spanish. The professor is extremely nice, but she talks very fast and tends to drop her voice a lot. I hope I will be able to find some clarity if I let my brain rest for a few days while I am in Paris.
Despite the struggle I am having in my Oral Tradition class, I feel that I am earning a unique and well-rounded education each and every day that I am here and I wouldn't trade this opportunity for anything. The next time I will write won’t be until after Paris, because I can’t take my laptop with me. I will be there until Monday night at 11:30 and my parents will be here the next day at 6 PM! YAY!
I hope you all have a great weekend!
Jerica
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Dana
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It was great to see you via Skype this weekend. It sounds like you are having a blast and experiencing some life changing stuff. Good for you! I'm excited I can now keep up with you through the blog. Miss & love you -- oxoxo