Quicky, cause I´m at an internet salon with some pretty trash rates, and I need to get home, study and pack.
So I´ve decided to definitely head back to Madrid as outlined in my previous post. The weather is looking to be gorgeous, so this pleases me greatly. Muchos amigos have been kind enough to offer me up bed spaces, so I don´t have to sleep on the floor. Plus my now advanced knowledge of the city (ha) will make me a popular guy to follow around for the weekend. Also, it´s my birthday weekend (22 on Sunday) so I´m gonna have to drag people around to buy me drinks. Hopefully I won´t smash my face open on a table this year (if you don´t know the story, i´ll explain some other time).
Anyhow,
Had my Literature midterm today, and I don´t think it went exceedingly well. It wasn´t anything catastrophic, but I´m not expecting much above a 6.5 (that´s B-/C+ territory I think). Oh well, I tried my best. I just can´t analyze poetry en español. I have another test tomorrow for my language class, but it isn´t quite so major, and shouldn´t present too many problems.
We had daylight savings time last week, which is frustratingly difficult in the mornings, but excellent in the evenings. I love it when it´s light out until 9pm. Days are only getting longer too at this point.
Went out to an open mic night this week and saw something I figured I´ll never see in the States... Acoustic covers of Bon Jovi songs. Yeah, you could smell them from the back of the room they were so bad. Not that there exists such a thing as a "good Bon Jovi song," but these guys were playing the drivel from the newest album, and doing it extremely poorly. I´ve seen plenty of bad open mic in my college days, but this really takes the cake. I had to mention it because was bothering me so much.
Speaking of my college days, they´re almost over. I just picked the classes I´ll be taking for my (hopefully) last semester: An AVID (post production) editing class, Spanish Seminar, and an Advanced TV Studio class to learn goodies like directing, scriptwriting, and lighting. I´ve taken a class like this before, but it was more cursory in nature, and this will round off and augment what I already know. Looks to be promising. I register on Monday, so hopefully I´ll get everything I need so I can peace the hell out of NU and stop handing over piles and piles of money.
Alright, I´ll cut it out before I start ranting about the evils of American higher education in the 21st century. Maybe in a later post after I come back home...
Next time you hear from me, I´ll be one year closer to death. Sweet.
Paz
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Time Flies (bzzzzzz)
Wow. My program is almost over. I´m not supposed to return to the States until May 31st, but school ends only half way through the month, and I just realized half of between now and then is actually vacation. I have mixed feelings about this...
I mean, it´s very cool to have so much free time coming up, but I´m going to be spending a chunk of it out of Spain, probably getting by on English, and maybe a few phrases I learn of Dutch or French or whatever the situation calls for. Then there is pretty much an extra week without classes where my Spanish will probably be kept to a minimum, since I´ll be lying on the beach the whole time not thinking about much of anything really. And then almost immediately after that we have our finals. Ech.
I hope I´m not too rusty by then.
So yeah, my thoughts on the program thus far...
I find it sort of frustrating how many Americans there are here. Besides my program, which is inordinately large this semester (115 students), there are like 3 other programs here as well that are full of Americans. Needless to say, it makes it real easy to stick with Americans all the time. Also, we do a ton of activities and trips with only Americans. I wish there was more integrated activities that sort of "forced" us to meet Spaniards. We have the intercambio projects, which are fine, but my intercambio doesn´t live in Alicante, so I only see her once (maybe twice) a week for an hour or so on campus. That isn´t to say I haven´t enjoyed making lots of new American friends. I´m finally at the point where I´ve figured out the truly quality people in the program that I´ll be in touch with for years to come, but I wanted to also make friends from lots of other places. I know that I´m not at all free of fault for not having made more international friends at this point, but I sort of wish our program wasn´t so structurally isolated. Well, there is still time left, and new places to see, so I haven´t given up hope. For now, I´ll just stay away from the Beer Pong and Flip Cup Nights at their respective American-college-student-pandering bars.
My Spanish Lit. professor is finally back. She had disappeared for 2 weeks because she had bronchitis and pneumonia and had to go to the hospital. While I have no ill will towards her (I´m happy that she´s fully recovered), I can´t say I was disappointed when we didn´t have class for two weeks. I really really can´t stand going and I´m dreading having to write a 15 page paper (1.5 spaced, not double) and take a final in May. She really is a godawful teacher. Also, I can´t imagine she´ll be in the most chipper of moods when she hasn´t been able to smoke a cigarette for over a week or two. Maybe she´s recovered enough to start smoking again. One can only hope.
I´m debating about whether to return to Madrid or not with the other group in my program. I´d be a sort of interloper, as CIEE only allows for us to take two weekend trips on their budget. I was told that I can hop on the bus for free though, since there will be enough space, and I´ve already had friends offer me up room to sleep in their hotel rooms. I won´t be able to go on the guided tour stuff (which I already saw the first time around) and they won´t give me €35 for food, but since travel and accomodations are taken care of, It´d still be a really good opportunity to take advantage of. This way, I can hope for better weather and will be able to just walk around the city at my own pace during the day chilling out, not worrying so much about this museum or that palace tour. I´ll also be able to take some half decent pictures which I completely failed to do the first time around. I´ll just eat calamari bocadillos (€2 a pop!) and kebabs all weekend to keep the cost of food low, and I should be golden. Hmmm, writing it all out and reading it over has pretty much made me convince myself I want to do it.
This weekend was one of pure relaxation. Friday and Saturday were spent mostly at the beach, with some frisbee and a lot of sleep thrown in for good measure. Sunday I lazed around the house and poked at my homework bit by bit ´til it was done. Saturday morning I awoke to this short, round, loud guy sitting in the kitchen, crackin´ wise and all but chugging wine. It turned out to be my madre´s primo (cousin) who was in from Barcelona for god knows what reason. Apparantly he´s a rich decorator who owns four different houses across Spain. Who knew there was so much money in decoration? He immediately starts pouring me a glass of wine (I´m still wiping the crusty gunk out of my eyes) and wants me to tell him my life story. We ate a kickass meal of lamb chops and murcías - weird brownish/black pig sausages that tasted slightly spicy and were completely delicious. It was a great way to start my day, and it ended up being a great weekend all around.
Can´t think of much else that´s going on at the moment, other than the fact that Spring Break starts two weeks from Wednesday - something I can hardly wrap my head around. Almost time to go home for comdia anyway, then I think I´d like to just lay on the beach til the sun goes down or until somebody comes along to play frisbee. Gotta enjoy it while I can...
Paz
I mean, it´s very cool to have so much free time coming up, but I´m going to be spending a chunk of it out of Spain, probably getting by on English, and maybe a few phrases I learn of Dutch or French or whatever the situation calls for. Then there is pretty much an extra week without classes where my Spanish will probably be kept to a minimum, since I´ll be lying on the beach the whole time not thinking about much of anything really. And then almost immediately after that we have our finals. Ech.
I hope I´m not too rusty by then.
So yeah, my thoughts on the program thus far...
I find it sort of frustrating how many Americans there are here. Besides my program, which is inordinately large this semester (115 students), there are like 3 other programs here as well that are full of Americans. Needless to say, it makes it real easy to stick with Americans all the time. Also, we do a ton of activities and trips with only Americans. I wish there was more integrated activities that sort of "forced" us to meet Spaniards. We have the intercambio projects, which are fine, but my intercambio doesn´t live in Alicante, so I only see her once (maybe twice) a week for an hour or so on campus. That isn´t to say I haven´t enjoyed making lots of new American friends. I´m finally at the point where I´ve figured out the truly quality people in the program that I´ll be in touch with for years to come, but I wanted to also make friends from lots of other places. I know that I´m not at all free of fault for not having made more international friends at this point, but I sort of wish our program wasn´t so structurally isolated. Well, there is still time left, and new places to see, so I haven´t given up hope. For now, I´ll just stay away from the Beer Pong and Flip Cup Nights at their respective American-college-student-pandering bars.
My Spanish Lit. professor is finally back. She had disappeared for 2 weeks because she had bronchitis and pneumonia and had to go to the hospital. While I have no ill will towards her (I´m happy that she´s fully recovered), I can´t say I was disappointed when we didn´t have class for two weeks. I really really can´t stand going and I´m dreading having to write a 15 page paper (1.5 spaced, not double) and take a final in May. She really is a godawful teacher. Also, I can´t imagine she´ll be in the most chipper of moods when she hasn´t been able to smoke a cigarette for over a week or two. Maybe she´s recovered enough to start smoking again. One can only hope.
I´m debating about whether to return to Madrid or not with the other group in my program. I´d be a sort of interloper, as CIEE only allows for us to take two weekend trips on their budget. I was told that I can hop on the bus for free though, since there will be enough space, and I´ve already had friends offer me up room to sleep in their hotel rooms. I won´t be able to go on the guided tour stuff (which I already saw the first time around) and they won´t give me €35 for food, but since travel and accomodations are taken care of, It´d still be a really good opportunity to take advantage of. This way, I can hope for better weather and will be able to just walk around the city at my own pace during the day chilling out, not worrying so much about this museum or that palace tour. I´ll also be able to take some half decent pictures which I completely failed to do the first time around. I´ll just eat calamari bocadillos (€2 a pop!) and kebabs all weekend to keep the cost of food low, and I should be golden. Hmmm, writing it all out and reading it over has pretty much made me convince myself I want to do it.
This weekend was one of pure relaxation. Friday and Saturday were spent mostly at the beach, with some frisbee and a lot of sleep thrown in for good measure. Sunday I lazed around the house and poked at my homework bit by bit ´til it was done. Saturday morning I awoke to this short, round, loud guy sitting in the kitchen, crackin´ wise and all but chugging wine. It turned out to be my madre´s primo (cousin) who was in from Barcelona for god knows what reason. Apparantly he´s a rich decorator who owns four different houses across Spain. Who knew there was so much money in decoration? He immediately starts pouring me a glass of wine (I´m still wiping the crusty gunk out of my eyes) and wants me to tell him my life story. We ate a kickass meal of lamb chops and murcías - weird brownish/black pig sausages that tasted slightly spicy and were completely delicious. It was a great way to start my day, and it ended up being a great weekend all around.
Can´t think of much else that´s going on at the moment, other than the fact that Spring Break starts two weeks from Wednesday - something I can hardly wrap my head around. Almost time to go home for comdia anyway, then I think I´d like to just lay on the beach til the sun goes down or until somebody comes along to play frisbee. Gotta enjoy it while I can...
Paz
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Briefly...
Excellent news in Spain! ETA officially declared a ceasefire! ETA, if you are unaware, is the Basque seperatist group that was blowing up innocent Spaniards in a bid to gain independence from the Spanish government. They have become an extremely unpopular entity since the fall of Franco back in the 1970s as nobody could quite figure out why they thought terrorist acts would convince a democratic government to grant a people total autonomous rule. Back when Franco was in power and forced a culture of homogenity and repression, their struggle for independence was one shared by all the communities of Spain. Once the dictator died, and each of the autonomous communities were allowed to resume the practice and celebration of their respective cultures (like speaking their own languages for example), it seemed odd that ETA was resorting to terrorist tactics in an effort to gain further independence. Zapatero, the president of Spain, has said that negotiations are now a possibility since the ceasefire has been declared. Everybody wins, in other words... at least for now. This wonderful news has been blaring across the country all day, and there will surely be a great deal of celebrating everywhere this week. Spain is most certainly a safer place now.
In other news, got a few pics up from Madrid, but after doing some quality control and deleting of doubles, there really aren´t many at all (like maybe 12). The one´s I do have aren´t terribly good, but they are there for the viewing. Flickr link is to the right where they may be viewed.
Gave my presentation on Sevilla in History today and I would say I fairly killed it (that´s a good thing). The teacher told me she said it was really interesting and I had even taught her a few new things she hadn´t known. I´m pleased with this. I still have a midterm coming up, and two huge papers looming over the horizon. It´ll be tougher than ever to concentrate, however, as literally half of the time left I have in Spain is breaks. No joke, we have a TON of time off coming up, even though it is technically the busiest time of the semester for us. ¡Uf!
I suppose there is more to discuss, but I´ll have to get to it later, perhaps tomorrow, as I need to run for now.
Out.
In other news, got a few pics up from Madrid, but after doing some quality control and deleting of doubles, there really aren´t many at all (like maybe 12). The one´s I do have aren´t terribly good, but they are there for the viewing. Flickr link is to the right where they may be viewed.
Gave my presentation on Sevilla in History today and I would say I fairly killed it (that´s a good thing). The teacher told me she said it was really interesting and I had even taught her a few new things she hadn´t known. I´m pleased with this. I still have a midterm coming up, and two huge papers looming over the horizon. It´ll be tougher than ever to concentrate, however, as literally half of the time left I have in Spain is breaks. No joke, we have a TON of time off coming up, even though it is technically the busiest time of the semester for us. ¡Uf!
I suppose there is more to discuss, but I´ll have to get to it later, perhaps tomorrow, as I need to run for now.
Out.
Monday, March 20, 2006
Madrid y Valencia: Packed Weekend
What a weekend! I´m exhausted by it, but it was a lot of fun. Rather than doing homework, I´ve decided to tell you about it. I have pictures of Madrid, although they aren´t posted yet on my Flickr page. I decided against bringing my camera to Las Fallas, because I didn´t want to have to worry about it getting stolen or broken, which I found to be a very real possibility once I got there. Still a shame, since there was plenty that was picture-worthy in Valencia.
On Friday I went to Madrid with the group. I ended up going with the Liberal Arts group instead of the Culture and Context one because originally I had plans during the week of our trip. It was cool though, because I got to hang out with a group of people I generally never see (Liberal Arts kids are in different classes, and our groups aren´t mixed a lot for activities and field trips). I was able to make some new friends, which is refreshing halfway through my trip. The bus ride wasn´t as bad as the one to Sevilla, but it was still pretty long. Unfortunately, the weather was shite all weekend (rainy and cold), so we didn´t end up going out all that much for individual exploration. The first night I met up with Laura (from NU), who is studying/working in Madrid for a year. She took us out to an Irish bar to celebrate St. Patrick´s Day. The place was extremely crowded, extremely Irish, and it was tough to get a drink with the throngs of people swarming around the bar. In the States, I always hear "Everybody is Irish on St. Patrick´s Day," but in Spain that just isn´t the case. I was very evidently not Irish (except for my rusty red beard), when I couldn´t shout Irish folksongs with the rest of the lads. Everybody was still friendly enough and didn´t exclude me from the excessive backslapping and general drunken good tidings. Ended up heading back to the hotel pretty early because Eric, Lauren, and I were all pretty beat. We meant to go out again to a more low-key spot, but it just never happened.
Saturday, we were up early to get some sightseeing done with the group. We skipped the tour of the Senate because it was at an ungodly early hour, but hopped along for the tour of the Palacio Real (Royal Palace) where the king and queen live. I have to say, it was a much more extensive tour than the White House one in DC, but it also started to get really repetitive and kind of boring around the 20th room we walked through (we walked through 40 total they told us). I mean, it is impressive how ridiculously lavish everything was decorated, but there´s only so much one can handle. After that, we hopped in and out of la Catedral de la Almudena, which seemed like it was pretty cool, although cathedrals have never really been my style. Next, we checked out the Plaza Mayor, and ate calamari bocadillos, something Madrid is famous for. It was probably the best fried calamari I´ve ever eaten, although I think I would have preferred it on a plate, with some sort of sauce, rather than plain in sub form. After lunch, we took a siesta, then woke up to go on a tour of el Estadio Santiago Bernabéu. That´s where Real Madrid -the Yankees of Spanish soccer- play. Needless to say, their trophy room was absolutely ridiculous (they were dubbed the best Spanish futból team of the 20th century), and the stadium itself was pretty cool. I got to finally sit in one of those uber-comfortable looking chairs the players get to sit in while they aren´t playing, and they were even more comfortable than they look on TV. I can´t figure out why they make them so comfy, since it´s hard to compel yourself enough to get up after you´ve been in one. After that, we had free time so we went out and got some amazing tapas from a place that was brimming with Spaniards. I tried pigs ears for the first time, and aside from unnervingly chewy texture, they were extremely delicious. After that we got a beer from a microbrewey (these are all but non-existent in Spain), and it was easily the best beer I´ve had since I´ve been abroad. It got me really excited for Spring Break in Belgium. We went back to the hotel with intentions of going out, but never quite made it. It was raining pretty hard at that point, so we couldn´t muster up the desire to stomp around and get soaked.
Up early again Sunday morning to check out of the hotel, after which we visited the Prado Museum. It was impressively large and held many famous paintings I had previously only seen in books. There was a lot of dark, twisted stuff in their which appealed to my devious sensibilities. I´m not generally big on art museums, but this one really pulled me in. Maybe I´m finally starting to appreciate fine art a bit more as I get older. We checked out the beautiful Parque del Retiro. It reminds me a lot of Central Park in New York, since it´s sufficiently massive enough to make me forget I´m still in a major city. We sauntered about there for an hour, then Eric and I split from the group (which was going back to Alicante anyway) and headed to the train station... Next stop: Valencia for Las Fallas.
As I mentioned at the beginning of the post, I didn´t bring my camera, which I regretted almost immediately when I stepped out of the train station. There were so many friggin people everywhere it was absolutely ridiculous. There was lots of music on the streets and at every semi-major intersection there was gigantic papier-mache and wood floats (Las Fallas). I really wish I had pictures of these because they were absolutely beautiful. They were generally topical, addressing some sort of theme or issue, some serious, some not at all so. Every year there is a competition for the best one, which gets placed in Ayuntamiento Square (where town hall is. every city has one). The winner this year was a tall skinny lady with a Peace sign medallion, holding a baby, with some other naked ladies around her and a bunch of other smaller crap going on around the bottom. I can´t even begin to understand what the theme was, but it sure did look cool. We walked around for a while and then watched the Fire Parade, which was a large procession of people dressed in red with many forms of spark-producing devices. Basically it was a sulfurous mayhem. Very cool. We chilled in someone´s hotel for a bit (a few people in our program got hotels, but we thought it too expensive and not worth the trouble), then went out into the night to find food and celebrate. Around 10 or 11 they started going from intersection to intersection burning down each Falla. The Bomberos (firefighters) sprayed water around the edges so the fire wouldn´t spread, but these things sure did burn fast! We caught a couple of them, but they move fast from one to the other down the street. I think I was reading that there was somewhere over 60 Fallas total spread across the city. After that, we headed back towards Ayuntamiento Square and waited for the burning of the winning Falla. It started with a crazy fireworks display, and then all of a sudden the whole thing was up in flames. It was claustrophobically crowded with people pushing from all sides, but it was still a spectacular sight to behold. Things started dispersing soon after, and we took to the task of keeping ourselves awake until we had to catch our bus at 6:15 (AM). We followed some Puerto Rican friends around for a while, although it was getting tough to find stuff to do as the early morning crept on. It was Sunday night/Monday morning after all. I guess the bus ride back took 3 hours (much longer than it should have), but I wouldn´t have known as I was dead asleep from the minute I sat down on the bus until we arrived in Alicante. I proceeded to sleep through most of today.
So that was my weekend. I´d post more about other stuff, but the computer lab is closing soon and I wanna get home for dinner anyway. I´ll try to get back on and post more general reflection stuff in the coming days, although I have a presentation to prepare for my history class on Wednesday, so I have a lot to keep me occupied at the moment. I´ll try to have pictures of Madrid up ASAP, although they aren´t terribly exciting to be honest.
Rosen out.
On Friday I went to Madrid with the group. I ended up going with the Liberal Arts group instead of the Culture and Context one because originally I had plans during the week of our trip. It was cool though, because I got to hang out with a group of people I generally never see (Liberal Arts kids are in different classes, and our groups aren´t mixed a lot for activities and field trips). I was able to make some new friends, which is refreshing halfway through my trip. The bus ride wasn´t as bad as the one to Sevilla, but it was still pretty long. Unfortunately, the weather was shite all weekend (rainy and cold), so we didn´t end up going out all that much for individual exploration. The first night I met up with Laura (from NU), who is studying/working in Madrid for a year. She took us out to an Irish bar to celebrate St. Patrick´s Day. The place was extremely crowded, extremely Irish, and it was tough to get a drink with the throngs of people swarming around the bar. In the States, I always hear "Everybody is Irish on St. Patrick´s Day," but in Spain that just isn´t the case. I was very evidently not Irish (except for my rusty red beard), when I couldn´t shout Irish folksongs with the rest of the lads. Everybody was still friendly enough and didn´t exclude me from the excessive backslapping and general drunken good tidings. Ended up heading back to the hotel pretty early because Eric, Lauren, and I were all pretty beat. We meant to go out again to a more low-key spot, but it just never happened.
Saturday, we were up early to get some sightseeing done with the group. We skipped the tour of the Senate because it was at an ungodly early hour, but hopped along for the tour of the Palacio Real (Royal Palace) where the king and queen live. I have to say, it was a much more extensive tour than the White House one in DC, but it also started to get really repetitive and kind of boring around the 20th room we walked through (we walked through 40 total they told us). I mean, it is impressive how ridiculously lavish everything was decorated, but there´s only so much one can handle. After that, we hopped in and out of la Catedral de la Almudena, which seemed like it was pretty cool, although cathedrals have never really been my style. Next, we checked out the Plaza Mayor, and ate calamari bocadillos, something Madrid is famous for. It was probably the best fried calamari I´ve ever eaten, although I think I would have preferred it on a plate, with some sort of sauce, rather than plain in sub form. After lunch, we took a siesta, then woke up to go on a tour of el Estadio Santiago Bernabéu. That´s where Real Madrid -the Yankees of Spanish soccer- play. Needless to say, their trophy room was absolutely ridiculous (they were dubbed the best Spanish futból team of the 20th century), and the stadium itself was pretty cool. I got to finally sit in one of those uber-comfortable looking chairs the players get to sit in while they aren´t playing, and they were even more comfortable than they look on TV. I can´t figure out why they make them so comfy, since it´s hard to compel yourself enough to get up after you´ve been in one. After that, we had free time so we went out and got some amazing tapas from a place that was brimming with Spaniards. I tried pigs ears for the first time, and aside from unnervingly chewy texture, they were extremely delicious. After that we got a beer from a microbrewey (these are all but non-existent in Spain), and it was easily the best beer I´ve had since I´ve been abroad. It got me really excited for Spring Break in Belgium. We went back to the hotel with intentions of going out, but never quite made it. It was raining pretty hard at that point, so we couldn´t muster up the desire to stomp around and get soaked.
Up early again Sunday morning to check out of the hotel, after which we visited the Prado Museum. It was impressively large and held many famous paintings I had previously only seen in books. There was a lot of dark, twisted stuff in their which appealed to my devious sensibilities. I´m not generally big on art museums, but this one really pulled me in. Maybe I´m finally starting to appreciate fine art a bit more as I get older. We checked out the beautiful Parque del Retiro. It reminds me a lot of Central Park in New York, since it´s sufficiently massive enough to make me forget I´m still in a major city. We sauntered about there for an hour, then Eric and I split from the group (which was going back to Alicante anyway) and headed to the train station... Next stop: Valencia for Las Fallas.
As I mentioned at the beginning of the post, I didn´t bring my camera, which I regretted almost immediately when I stepped out of the train station. There were so many friggin people everywhere it was absolutely ridiculous. There was lots of music on the streets and at every semi-major intersection there was gigantic papier-mache and wood floats (Las Fallas). I really wish I had pictures of these because they were absolutely beautiful. They were generally topical, addressing some sort of theme or issue, some serious, some not at all so. Every year there is a competition for the best one, which gets placed in Ayuntamiento Square (where town hall is. every city has one). The winner this year was a tall skinny lady with a Peace sign medallion, holding a baby, with some other naked ladies around her and a bunch of other smaller crap going on around the bottom. I can´t even begin to understand what the theme was, but it sure did look cool. We walked around for a while and then watched the Fire Parade, which was a large procession of people dressed in red with many forms of spark-producing devices. Basically it was a sulfurous mayhem. Very cool. We chilled in someone´s hotel for a bit (a few people in our program got hotels, but we thought it too expensive and not worth the trouble), then went out into the night to find food and celebrate. Around 10 or 11 they started going from intersection to intersection burning down each Falla. The Bomberos (firefighters) sprayed water around the edges so the fire wouldn´t spread, but these things sure did burn fast! We caught a couple of them, but they move fast from one to the other down the street. I think I was reading that there was somewhere over 60 Fallas total spread across the city. After that, we headed back towards Ayuntamiento Square and waited for the burning of the winning Falla. It started with a crazy fireworks display, and then all of a sudden the whole thing was up in flames. It was claustrophobically crowded with people pushing from all sides, but it was still a spectacular sight to behold. Things started dispersing soon after, and we took to the task of keeping ourselves awake until we had to catch our bus at 6:15 (AM). We followed some Puerto Rican friends around for a while, although it was getting tough to find stuff to do as the early morning crept on. It was Sunday night/Monday morning after all. I guess the bus ride back took 3 hours (much longer than it should have), but I wouldn´t have known as I was dead asleep from the minute I sat down on the bus until we arrived in Alicante. I proceeded to sleep through most of today.
So that was my weekend. I´d post more about other stuff, but the computer lab is closing soon and I wanna get home for dinner anyway. I´ll try to get back on and post more general reflection stuff in the coming days, although I have a presentation to prepare for my history class on Wednesday, so I have a lot to keep me occupied at the moment. I´ll try to have pictures of Madrid up ASAP, although they aren´t terribly exciting to be honest.
Rosen out.
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Showers are for Ignorant Americans.
Time to pinch a quick one out, since I´m off for a long weekend adventure tomorrow.
Had my language class midterm, and it went rather well, yo creo. Wednesday we had the long form writing section which consisted of me talking about my intercambio and the intercambio program in general. I hammed it up, which probably wasn´t necessary since we´re being graded on our ability to form coherent thoughts on paper, not kiss ass. I figured it couldn´t hurt to talk up something that my teacher associates herself with though, and I really do think it´s a good program. Today was the grammar part of the exam, which I studied a lot for, but still found to be a pretty big challenge. They threw in a lot of tricks to trip us up, but I think I was wise to most of them. If I had to guess my grade, I´d say 7´3 or so which translates to about a B. I´m still clueless when it comes to differentiating when to use the future imperfect, future perfect, or conditional tenses, but that´s just because my teacher isn´t very good. Ho hum.
Only one other midterm left and that isn´t for a week or two. I´ll be sweating pretty hard, as it´s for Literature class, which I´m
1) not a fan of (mainly because of the teacher)
2) not doing very well in from what i can tell
Not that we´ve actually had any assignments yet (one, but it hasn´t been graded yet). I just have a really hard time understanding the nuances of poetry when it´s in Spanish. This is likely because I´m struggling to understand the literal words themselves, nevermind the deep metaphorical craftwork. I feel like I´d do a lot better in this class if I had an extra semester and became better acclimated with the language first. In conclusion, I´ll worry about the mid-term as it approaches.
Had my language class midterm, and it went rather well, yo creo. Wednesday we had the long form writing section which consisted of me talking about my intercambio and the intercambio program in general. I hammed it up, which probably wasn´t necessary since we´re being graded on our ability to form coherent thoughts on paper, not kiss ass. I figured it couldn´t hurt to talk up something that my teacher associates herself with though, and I really do think it´s a good program. Today was the grammar part of the exam, which I studied a lot for, but still found to be a pretty big challenge. They threw in a lot of tricks to trip us up, but I think I was wise to most of them. If I had to guess my grade, I´d say 7´3 or so which translates to about a B. I´m still clueless when it comes to differentiating when to use the future imperfect, future perfect, or conditional tenses, but that´s just because my teacher isn´t very good. Ho hum.
Only one other midterm left and that isn´t for a week or two. I´ll be sweating pretty hard, as it´s for Literature class, which I´m
1) not a fan of (mainly because of the teacher)
2) not doing very well in from what i can tell
Not that we´ve actually had any assignments yet (one, but it hasn´t been graded yet). I just have a really hard time understanding the nuances of poetry when it´s in Spanish. This is likely because I´m struggling to understand the literal words themselves, nevermind the deep metaphorical craftwork. I feel like I´d do a lot better in this class if I had an extra semester and became better acclimated with the language first. In conclusion, I´ll worry about the mid-term as it approaches.
So yeah, Madrid tomorrow after class. Weather doesn´t look like it´s shaping up to be terribly pleasant, but I suppose there´s not much that can be done with that. We have a pretty full schedule planned, so it´ll be a hectic weekend. Sunday, Eric and I are breaking off from the group to head down to Valencia for the last day/night of Las Fallas. I´ve mentioned Las Fallas in former posts, but it´s basically one of the largest festivals in Spain (possibly THE largest). It runs all week (although festivities seem to leak over both ends), and culminates with the burning of giant floats Sunday at midnight. This last night isn´t quite as rampantly debaucherous as the Friday and Saturday night leading in to it, from what I´ve heard, but I can imagine things will be still be plenty wild enough for me, especially after a weekend of sightseeing in Madrid. If I bring my camera I´ll try to take lots of pics, although pickpockets are at the top of their game during the festival (not sure the same will be able to be said about me), so I might leave it behind.
One more thing before I leave you. It relates to the rising temperature... again. Now I complained about the no shorts thing last post, which really isn´t a very big deal. It´s mostly just annoying how I get dirty looks from old people for deciding to wear shorts when its warm out. When I think about though, sometimes I get dirty looks from old people in the States for wearing shorts, so no big deal. Now I want to talk about the issue of the B.O. Spain, from what I´ve always heard, isn´t known to be a smelly country, and for the most part it isn´t... most of the year. I mean, when you hear of smelly Europeans, you hear about the French, right?. Well, Spain ain´t so peachy fresh either. I haven´t figured out yet if Spaniards wear much deoderant or not, but my observations (visual and otherwise) point to a resounding no. I´ve already figured out that Spanish people have a generally laid back attitude about showering. They do infact shower, but they don´t care enough to do it every day or even every other day if they don´t feel like it or don´t feel they have time for it. The combination of these two facts (the former having been recently discovered), and the recent spike in hot, humid weather has wound around and hit me squarely in the nose in an unpleasantly surprising manner. Right now, the computer lab -where there is the added heat of the computers and ventilation is apparantly non-existent- smells only slightly better than a typical (well-ventilated) gym does in the U.S. Don´t bother asking what gyms here smell like, use your imagination. In all honesty, this is only a minor gripe, as I´m sure my nose will become accustomed to that sour grapefruity underarm stench. I thought it worth mentioning only because it is my first experience -exception taken to Florida flea markets- with an entire culture that can reek pretty bad and not care one tick about it. Good for Spain and its water conservation efforts (or something). And good for me, since now I have an extra excuse not to shower regularly. SWEET.
Well, time to be off and into the day. I will return with stories of the weekend sometime in the coming days, but until then, you´ll have to occupy yourselves with less viscerally stimulating activities. Ho hum.
Hassaloowayohhhh
(that´s, phonetically, how Spaniards say "hasta luego")
Monday, March 13, 2006
Bodegas, too Much Pants, and The Beach
Nothing terribly new to post on, but I´ll try to pinch one out anyway, since I´ll be busy studying for a midterm the rest of the week.
The weekend was mostly a laid-back affair, starting with a typical Friday night. Saturday we went to the bodega-laden pueblo/city of Jumilla (believe me, city is a big stretch). A Spanish bodega is not a small convenience store as is the case on our side of the Atlantic. A bodega here is where they age and process grapes, and eventually bottle them as wine. The vineyard is usually in another location altogether (the first bodega we went to had many of its grapes flown in from Iraq, interestingly enough). Anyway, I´ve been on vineyard tours before in the States which included all the fermentation and bottling process with it, so it wasn´t a terribly interesting time as nothing new was really learned. The first bodega we went to bottled real cheap wine, so I didn´t bother buying any, but the second one had some decent stuff so I picked up a bottle. I took some pics, but I may not even post them since they aren´t terribly cool. Maybe a few...
After returning from Jumilla early in the evening I had a fairly typical Saturday night as well, without much interesting stuff going on.
Sunday was cool because I discovered the group of kids that play ultimate frisbee on the beach several times a week. My ankles feel like hell today, and every muscle in my leg is sore from spazzing around in the sand for 2 hours straight, but at least I have a new (fun) form of excercise. Plus, I can sharpen up my ultimate skills up while abroad.
I have a midterm this week for my language class, which is making me kind of nervous. It takes two days to complete, which is a bit on the daunting side (what the hell is the final going to be like?!). Concentrating on school is getting more difficult with the nice weather calling me every day. I can already see Alicante beginning to metamorphize into the tourist-laden werewolf-beast it inevitably turns into every summer. It´s not an atmosphere that is terribly conducive to being productive in school.
Oh, and this is kind of bothersome to me. Spaniards don´t wear shorts. They just don´t. They wear bathing suits to the beach, but other than that it´s pants, pants, pants. Not only that, but they give us dirty looks for wearing them. I´m guessing they assume all of us shorts-bearing folks are just tourists here to get drunk off their cheap beer and puke on their sidewalks, but there´s also a bunch of us here to take in real Spanish culture and not stick out so rudely. Just because we don´t have the gene Spaniards do that makes them not sweat while they walk around in black pants and winter coats in 75 degree weather doesn´t mean we should have to suffer just to look like we aren´t tourists. I can´t imagine this incessant pants-wearing going on when it starts climbing up into the 90s and above, but I´m waiting to see for myself. Gah.
I´ve been feeling a little frustrated lately with language. My language learning feels a lot like a roller-coaster sometimes, because I´ll have a week where I feel great and I can communicate and understand really well, and other weeks where I feel completely stupid, like everything in my brain has shut down. I think part of this might be because in classes we keep forging ahead with new stuff (now mostly stuff I won´t even use in conversation), while I want to spend more time on the useful things I do use everyday. Also, it just feels like stuff leaks out sometimes. I only have so much room for new vocab in there, so less-common or highly situational words that I learn escape me often unless I make it a point to pound them into my head. I really wish I had an intercambio that lived in Alicante (rather than a 45 minute busride away from Alicante) so I could hang out more often and get more practice in with people my age. I guess it´s just something I have to keep working at.
On a more positive note, I´m psyched to go to Madrid this weekend, then on to Valencia to catch the last night of Las Fallas. It´ll be nice after my week of mid-term stress, and I´ll finally get to see some real hardcore Spanish partying. Awesome.
Must run now, I have a bus to catch, and a subsequent lunch to eat. Gonna try to get the mop cut later today, hopefully into a quasi-mullet (I still have a long way to go before I´ll have a real party in the back). Next I´ll just need to cut the sleeves off my t-shirts, then go shopping for flood pants. Then I´ll be Spanish. Yeah, that´s the ticket.
Hasta luego
The weekend was mostly a laid-back affair, starting with a typical Friday night. Saturday we went to the bodega-laden pueblo/city of Jumilla (believe me, city is a big stretch). A Spanish bodega is not a small convenience store as is the case on our side of the Atlantic. A bodega here is where they age and process grapes, and eventually bottle them as wine. The vineyard is usually in another location altogether (the first bodega we went to had many of its grapes flown in from Iraq, interestingly enough). Anyway, I´ve been on vineyard tours before in the States which included all the fermentation and bottling process with it, so it wasn´t a terribly interesting time as nothing new was really learned. The first bodega we went to bottled real cheap wine, so I didn´t bother buying any, but the second one had some decent stuff so I picked up a bottle. I took some pics, but I may not even post them since they aren´t terribly cool. Maybe a few...
After returning from Jumilla early in the evening I had a fairly typical Saturday night as well, without much interesting stuff going on.
Sunday was cool because I discovered the group of kids that play ultimate frisbee on the beach several times a week. My ankles feel like hell today, and every muscle in my leg is sore from spazzing around in the sand for 2 hours straight, but at least I have a new (fun) form of excercise. Plus, I can sharpen up my ultimate skills up while abroad.
I have a midterm this week for my language class, which is making me kind of nervous. It takes two days to complete, which is a bit on the daunting side (what the hell is the final going to be like?!). Concentrating on school is getting more difficult with the nice weather calling me every day. I can already see Alicante beginning to metamorphize into the tourist-laden werewolf-beast it inevitably turns into every summer. It´s not an atmosphere that is terribly conducive to being productive in school.
Oh, and this is kind of bothersome to me. Spaniards don´t wear shorts. They just don´t. They wear bathing suits to the beach, but other than that it´s pants, pants, pants. Not only that, but they give us dirty looks for wearing them. I´m guessing they assume all of us shorts-bearing folks are just tourists here to get drunk off their cheap beer and puke on their sidewalks, but there´s also a bunch of us here to take in real Spanish culture and not stick out so rudely. Just because we don´t have the gene Spaniards do that makes them not sweat while they walk around in black pants and winter coats in 75 degree weather doesn´t mean we should have to suffer just to look like we aren´t tourists. I can´t imagine this incessant pants-wearing going on when it starts climbing up into the 90s and above, but I´m waiting to see for myself. Gah.
I´ve been feeling a little frustrated lately with language. My language learning feels a lot like a roller-coaster sometimes, because I´ll have a week where I feel great and I can communicate and understand really well, and other weeks where I feel completely stupid, like everything in my brain has shut down. I think part of this might be because in classes we keep forging ahead with new stuff (now mostly stuff I won´t even use in conversation), while I want to spend more time on the useful things I do use everyday. Also, it just feels like stuff leaks out sometimes. I only have so much room for new vocab in there, so less-common or highly situational words that I learn escape me often unless I make it a point to pound them into my head. I really wish I had an intercambio that lived in Alicante (rather than a 45 minute busride away from Alicante) so I could hang out more often and get more practice in with people my age. I guess it´s just something I have to keep working at.
On a more positive note, I´m psyched to go to Madrid this weekend, then on to Valencia to catch the last night of Las Fallas. It´ll be nice after my week of mid-term stress, and I´ll finally get to see some real hardcore Spanish partying. Awesome.
Must run now, I have a bus to catch, and a subsequent lunch to eat. Gonna try to get the mop cut later today, hopefully into a quasi-mullet (I still have a long way to go before I´ll have a real party in the back). Next I´ll just need to cut the sleeves off my t-shirts, then go shopping for flood pants. Then I´ll be Spanish. Yeah, that´s the ticket.
Hasta luego
Thursday, March 09, 2006
This Warrants an Immediate Update
¡DIOS MIO!
Seemingly overnight, the weather has shifted from fall-like mild weather (moderately warm-in-the-sun days, cold night) to summer! It gets HOT now in the day, and stays warm enough at night that I don´t need a sweatshirt! This excites me to no end. Finally starting to get the weather I came to expect from southernish Spain. The beach awaits my pale white ass.
Small additional bits:
Parents left the other day. Things went well and they seemed to have a good time. They went off to Barcelona, and will be deaprting shortly for a weekend in England - a place much colder than here.
Got the bullfight pics up. They came out alright. I have three videos I wanted to post as well, but I don´t know exactly how to go about doing so at the moment. I´ll let you all know if I figure it out.
Greg, my last roommate from NU, will be joining Eric and me for our Northern Europe Spring Break Extravaganza. I´m very excited about this, as it´ll be nice to have an extra familiar face in unknown lands. Everything is booked and ready to go, just need to count down the days now.
Off to some vineyard in Jumilla this weekend with my group. Should be cool times. I´ll report back.
Applying for a job in Barcelona for the summer as an RA with a language program for high-schoolers. If I can get this, it would be massively cool. More on this to come soon.
That´s it for the moment. Be back soon
Hasta Pronto
Seemingly overnight, the weather has shifted from fall-like mild weather (moderately warm-in-the-sun days, cold night) to summer! It gets HOT now in the day, and stays warm enough at night that I don´t need a sweatshirt! This excites me to no end. Finally starting to get the weather I came to expect from southernish Spain. The beach awaits my pale white ass.
Small additional bits:
Parents left the other day. Things went well and they seemed to have a good time. They went off to Barcelona, and will be deaprting shortly for a weekend in England - a place much colder than here.
Got the bullfight pics up. They came out alright. I have three videos I wanted to post as well, but I don´t know exactly how to go about doing so at the moment. I´ll let you all know if I figure it out.
Greg, my last roommate from NU, will be joining Eric and me for our Northern Europe Spring Break Extravaganza. I´m very excited about this, as it´ll be nice to have an extra familiar face in unknown lands. Everything is booked and ready to go, just need to count down the days now.
Off to some vineyard in Jumilla this weekend with my group. Should be cool times. I´ll report back.
Applying for a job in Barcelona for the summer as an RA with a language program for high-schoolers. If I can get this, it would be massively cool. More on this to come soon.
That´s it for the moment. Be back soon
Hasta Pronto
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
¡Viva la Sardina!, ¡Olé!, y mis padres
Man, I´ve needing to update like, whoa. Hopefully I´ll remember everything I need to say. Never had time to update this weekend because, as I briefly mentioned, mom and dad came to visit from the States for a few days. More on that in a bit...
So last Wednesday marked (what I think is) the end of Carnaval: La Muerte de la Sardina. I posted pictures of this on Flickr last week, but I suppose it deserves some explanation. Traditionally, this event is supposed to mark the beginning of Lent (some big Christian thing, I´m told), so everybody dresses up in all black, like a funeral, and is supposed to carry a sardine somewhere and bury it. I guess this symbolizes putting the meat away or whatever. I never understood the whole Lent thing to begin with.
So at the Alicante one, it was a little different than was explained to me. Basically, all the drag queens come out in black along with the rest of the the hardcore (mostly) middle-aged Carnival-goers. Most of people were dressed in extravagent funeral clothing and everybody met at the top of Las Ramblas where there was a giant paper/wooden fish that people were carrying and dancing around with. There was also a seemingly less important paper/wooden ship, and a dude with a PA system on a roller cart who was chanting like a pope (I think popes chant, right?). So, there is this small marching band that keeps playing little songs, and then all of a sudden they break into a dance/march down last Ramblas. So the fish/ship people dance, the band plays cadences and songs, while everyone else follows doing call and response chanting with the pope guy (Viva la Sardina!, Amen, etc.). The procession cuts into the Barrio at one point, and does the same spiel down the narrow streets for a while, until we hit a small plaza with a stage set up. Everybody pours in, and the ship and sardine are placed in the middle of the plaza, where they are doused in some sort of flammable liquid. The band is playing, and the pope gets up on the stage and the call and response continues for 10 more minutes. Then they light the spark sticks and suddenly everything is up in flames. Excellent! When the fire dies down a tad, everybody dances around the wreckage while music plays in the background. It was a very cool night, even though there weren´t more than 150-175 people in attendance.
The whole thing seemed to mock the Church a little, but it didn´t seem excessively derisive. It seemed as though it was all in good fun. I was told that La Muerte de la Sardina is a bigger event in other cities, but for tiny Alicante, it´s apparantly only for the hardcore of the celebrators. There was no ridiculous borrachos (drunks) like during the weekend festivities.
That was probably the most notable thing I did last week. This past Friday was rather uneventful, and things were especially dead since everybody was probably all partied out from Caraval. The parents showed up on Saturday in the afternoon...
They were tired, of course, from travelling for almost an entire day straight, but happy to be in Spain visiting their better child. Neither of my parents really speaks any Spanish, so I had it figured that this could be a very difficult few days. The other hurdle I am facing is the total lack of shit to do in Alicante when it isn´t warm enough to sit your pale ass on the beach all day. So Saturday was low key since they were both travel-wary and jet-lagged. Sunday was the day for the parents to come to the host family´s place for comida. This, I thought, was going to be an awkward disaster, but I was completely off mark. I figured I would be the only way any sort of communicating happened between my Amercan and Spanish families, but my mom had a phrase book and was able to hold her own quite well. She ended up asking a lot of her own questions, which made my life much easier (translating from English to Spanish is much harder than vice-versa). So things went pretty smoothly and there was a good amount of conversation going on, with only a few awkward pauses. On the whole, I´d say it was a successful lunch.
We departed a while afterwards for mine and my parents´ very first bullfight (pictures will be up on Flickr soon). Now I suppose I had an idea of what these things were like, but actually going to one was a very different experience than I was expecting. For the most part, much of Spain has become disgusted with the idea of the bullfight (with good cause), so it is now a "sport" relished solely by old-schoolers (read: old dudes who smoke cigars) and witnessed by confounded tourists. I personally had a great time, and was fascinated by the brutality of it, but I can easily see why it´s not for everyone, or even for most self-respecting people.
To start, they let the bull out into the ring and run him around a few times to get him riled up. There are several guys with pink sheets/capes that take turns waving them to get the bull to move around where they want it. They will move him around until the Picador comes out. The Picador is a dude on a horse (which has some sort of horn-proof armor on) with a giant spear. They get the bull to go near enough so the picador can stab him directly in the back, a little below it´s head. Of course, the bull starts ramming the horse (who is blindfolded for obvious reasons) like crazy, so the Picador just rams the spear in that much harder. After a minute or two of this, they lure the bull away, and the Picador leaves the ring. After this, three guys will come out, one at a time, with two harpoon tipped spears in their hands (maybe 2 and a half feet long at most). The dudes with pink capes get the bull to see the dude with spears and then they (the bull and the spear dude) charge each other, resulting in a present for the bull (two harpoon spears in it´s back). That ends up being 6 spears total if your math is shoddy. These effectively tear up the muscles in the bull´s back/shoulders, tiring it out and making it more manageable for the the final matador guy who comes out (or so my mom overheard someone saying). At this point, this guy comes out with a blood red cape and a sword, and messes around with the bull for a while. This is where he gets to show off a lot and do all the fancy crap that most people assume is what a bullfight consists solely of. Eventually, he takes his sword and rams it all the way into the bull´s back. The bull maybe lasts another minute, then either sits down or outright collapses. At this point, they take a dagger and mash it into the top of its head and wiggle it around to make sure it´s dead. Oh yeah, the whole time the bull gets stabbed at all, everybody cheers wildly. hehehe. After it´s over, they drag the bull out by way of two horses. Pretty, barbaric, no? Well, I had a good time, although my mom wasn´t so into it.
By Monday we´ve pretty much run out of things to do. They are still here today (Tuesday), and I´m struggling to think of what to do this afternoon and evening. We planned on seeing the archeological museum, but then after that it´s pretty much up in the air. They are gone early tomorrow for Barcelona, where they´ll have plenty to keep them occupied for 2 nights. Anyway, it was good to see them here, regardless of the lack of activities this time of year.
I´ve been feeling really good about my Spanish lately. I´m comprehending a whole lot more than before and finding it much easier to speak in a flowing manner. I´ve somehow managed to convince my brain to not worry so much about forming perfect grammatical sentences when I talk, and things have just starting coming out so much more easily. I feel as if (here comes a way over-used cliché) a levee is about to break and all the Spanish is starting to pour out. Having my parents here asking me what things mean or how to say phrases has made me realize I´ve actually retained. I also notice I don´t have to fish around for words in my dictionary nearly as often as before. It´s exciting to know that I have over two months more to improve before I´m gone.
So the rest of my week consists of a project and a test, and then midterms are next week. After that is Madrid and Valencia (for Las Fallas). I want to try to get another independent weekend trip in soon to Granada or some other not-too-distant Spanish city. It´d be cool to rent a car for this one so I can really take in the countryside and stop wherever it seems like a good place to do so. We shall see about that.
Well, this post didn´t end up as long as originally planned, but I need to be getting on with the day. It´s becoming a hell of a lot harder to keep this thing up to date with all the schoolwork I have and all the stuff I get into during the weekends.
I´ll try to have bullfight pictures up soon enough.
Adios for now
So last Wednesday marked (what I think is) the end of Carnaval: La Muerte de la Sardina. I posted pictures of this on Flickr last week, but I suppose it deserves some explanation. Traditionally, this event is supposed to mark the beginning of Lent (some big Christian thing, I´m told), so everybody dresses up in all black, like a funeral, and is supposed to carry a sardine somewhere and bury it. I guess this symbolizes putting the meat away or whatever. I never understood the whole Lent thing to begin with.
So at the Alicante one, it was a little different than was explained to me. Basically, all the drag queens come out in black along with the rest of the the hardcore (mostly) middle-aged Carnival-goers. Most of people were dressed in extravagent funeral clothing and everybody met at the top of Las Ramblas where there was a giant paper/wooden fish that people were carrying and dancing around with. There was also a seemingly less important paper/wooden ship, and a dude with a PA system on a roller cart who was chanting like a pope (I think popes chant, right?). So, there is this small marching band that keeps playing little songs, and then all of a sudden they break into a dance/march down last Ramblas. So the fish/ship people dance, the band plays cadences and songs, while everyone else follows doing call and response chanting with the pope guy (Viva la Sardina!, Amen, etc.). The procession cuts into the Barrio at one point, and does the same spiel down the narrow streets for a while, until we hit a small plaza with a stage set up. Everybody pours in, and the ship and sardine are placed in the middle of the plaza, where they are doused in some sort of flammable liquid. The band is playing, and the pope gets up on the stage and the call and response continues for 10 more minutes. Then they light the spark sticks and suddenly everything is up in flames. Excellent! When the fire dies down a tad, everybody dances around the wreckage while music plays in the background. It was a very cool night, even though there weren´t more than 150-175 people in attendance.
The whole thing seemed to mock the Church a little, but it didn´t seem excessively derisive. It seemed as though it was all in good fun. I was told that La Muerte de la Sardina is a bigger event in other cities, but for tiny Alicante, it´s apparantly only for the hardcore of the celebrators. There was no ridiculous borrachos (drunks) like during the weekend festivities.
That was probably the most notable thing I did last week. This past Friday was rather uneventful, and things were especially dead since everybody was probably all partied out from Caraval. The parents showed up on Saturday in the afternoon...
They were tired, of course, from travelling for almost an entire day straight, but happy to be in Spain visiting their better child. Neither of my parents really speaks any Spanish, so I had it figured that this could be a very difficult few days. The other hurdle I am facing is the total lack of shit to do in Alicante when it isn´t warm enough to sit your pale ass on the beach all day. So Saturday was low key since they were both travel-wary and jet-lagged. Sunday was the day for the parents to come to the host family´s place for comida. This, I thought, was going to be an awkward disaster, but I was completely off mark. I figured I would be the only way any sort of communicating happened between my Amercan and Spanish families, but my mom had a phrase book and was able to hold her own quite well. She ended up asking a lot of her own questions, which made my life much easier (translating from English to Spanish is much harder than vice-versa). So things went pretty smoothly and there was a good amount of conversation going on, with only a few awkward pauses. On the whole, I´d say it was a successful lunch.
We departed a while afterwards for mine and my parents´ very first bullfight (pictures will be up on Flickr soon). Now I suppose I had an idea of what these things were like, but actually going to one was a very different experience than I was expecting. For the most part, much of Spain has become disgusted with the idea of the bullfight (with good cause), so it is now a "sport" relished solely by old-schoolers (read: old dudes who smoke cigars) and witnessed by confounded tourists. I personally had a great time, and was fascinated by the brutality of it, but I can easily see why it´s not for everyone, or even for most self-respecting people.
To start, they let the bull out into the ring and run him around a few times to get him riled up. There are several guys with pink sheets/capes that take turns waving them to get the bull to move around where they want it. They will move him around until the Picador comes out. The Picador is a dude on a horse (which has some sort of horn-proof armor on) with a giant spear. They get the bull to go near enough so the picador can stab him directly in the back, a little below it´s head. Of course, the bull starts ramming the horse (who is blindfolded for obvious reasons) like crazy, so the Picador just rams the spear in that much harder. After a minute or two of this, they lure the bull away, and the Picador leaves the ring. After this, three guys will come out, one at a time, with two harpoon tipped spears in their hands (maybe 2 and a half feet long at most). The dudes with pink capes get the bull to see the dude with spears and then they (the bull and the spear dude) charge each other, resulting in a present for the bull (two harpoon spears in it´s back). That ends up being 6 spears total if your math is shoddy. These effectively tear up the muscles in the bull´s back/shoulders, tiring it out and making it more manageable for the the final matador guy who comes out (or so my mom overheard someone saying). At this point, this guy comes out with a blood red cape and a sword, and messes around with the bull for a while. This is where he gets to show off a lot and do all the fancy crap that most people assume is what a bullfight consists solely of. Eventually, he takes his sword and rams it all the way into the bull´s back. The bull maybe lasts another minute, then either sits down or outright collapses. At this point, they take a dagger and mash it into the top of its head and wiggle it around to make sure it´s dead. Oh yeah, the whole time the bull gets stabbed at all, everybody cheers wildly. hehehe. After it´s over, they drag the bull out by way of two horses. Pretty, barbaric, no? Well, I had a good time, although my mom wasn´t so into it.
By Monday we´ve pretty much run out of things to do. They are still here today (Tuesday), and I´m struggling to think of what to do this afternoon and evening. We planned on seeing the archeological museum, but then after that it´s pretty much up in the air. They are gone early tomorrow for Barcelona, where they´ll have plenty to keep them occupied for 2 nights. Anyway, it was good to see them here, regardless of the lack of activities this time of year.
I´ve been feeling really good about my Spanish lately. I´m comprehending a whole lot more than before and finding it much easier to speak in a flowing manner. I´ve somehow managed to convince my brain to not worry so much about forming perfect grammatical sentences when I talk, and things have just starting coming out so much more easily. I feel as if (here comes a way over-used cliché) a levee is about to break and all the Spanish is starting to pour out. Having my parents here asking me what things mean or how to say phrases has made me realize I´ve actually retained. I also notice I don´t have to fish around for words in my dictionary nearly as often as before. It´s exciting to know that I have over two months more to improve before I´m gone.
So the rest of my week consists of a project and a test, and then midterms are next week. After that is Madrid and Valencia (for Las Fallas). I want to try to get another independent weekend trip in soon to Granada or some other not-too-distant Spanish city. It´d be cool to rent a car for this one so I can really take in the countryside and stop wherever it seems like a good place to do so. We shall see about that.
Well, this post didn´t end up as long as originally planned, but I need to be getting on with the day. It´s becoming a hell of a lot harder to keep this thing up to date with all the schoolwork I have and all the stuff I get into during the weekends.
I´ll try to have bullfight pictures up soon enough.
Adios for now
Friday, March 03, 2006
So little time...
Been too busy to do up a real post this week, even though I have plenty to post about. Got some new pictures up on Flickr of La Muerte de la Pescado, the ending ritual of Carnaval from Wednesday night. Parents will be in town from tomorrow until Wednesday morning, so I probably won´t be able to post an explinaton until after they´re gone. Lo siento. I´ll try to sneak into an internet cafe at some point.
Hasta luego para ahora
Hasta luego para ahora
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