The contemporary society class is interesting as well. We study the history of Spain since 1900, and how historical events have shaped the culture of Spain today. It is taught mainly in English, but our teacher is using more and more Spanish each class. Last week we took a field trip to a fish market where the boats come in and they auction off the fresh fish! Some are even still alive! Eww. It was in a beautiful little town north of alicante a little, and we got churros and chocolate before seeing the auction.
That exam was all essay (in English) and covered the Spanish civil war, the dictatorship of Franco, and ETA, a Spanish terrorist group that has been attacking its own country for years now. That is another huge difference between Spain and the US. We have some good discussions in class on how the Spanish mindset of nationalism doesn't even compare to the US. People here don't seem to have a national identity like we do. There are so many autonomous regions that each take so much pride in their own values and with 4 national languages, it can he hard to move to a different region because the languages are so different. For example, they speak catalan in Barcelona, and the pronunciation is so different that we can't even read it or communicate! And the Basque region in the north has a similar history to the south of the US. They wanted to be their own nation and still do, so they have a super confusing language that no one else gets and that is where the terrorist group ETA is from.. They started protesting against francoism at first and then it turned into a huge rebellion against democracy.. It's a messed up situation, but it makes Spain very interesting.
Also, I seem to only post about what I do on the weekends and on trips, so it might be good to also mention a little bit about my daily life Monday through Friday :)
A typical day goes a little like this... I get up around 7:30 in my dorm room to get ready for the day before breakfast of granola and yogurt with fruit in it with the girls. CIEE is where I have my 9-11 am class everyday, and it is conveniently just right outside the door to the dorms! So I leave breakfast at about 8:57 and walk right in. After class we usually walk around, lay out, go to the beach or go to the china market (a cooler version of wal mart, with literally everything but smaller. And cheaper) lunch starts at 1:30 and the Americans are always the first in line :) and starving by that point.. Sometimes I have class from 11-1 right after my Spanish class and other times I have it from 1-3, so i eat at different times. When Abby and I finish class at 1, we like to go to our favorite cafe called 26 downtown by the beach. It is a really cute cafe with huge ficus trees outside in the middle of this plaza. We work on homework, Skype people, and do the majority of our travel planning and booking there. They have good wifi :)
Tuesday's are my longest day.. I have class from 9-11, then 11-1 is my business class, then 1-3 is my Spanish society and 3:15-4:45 is the cultural seminar I decided to take extra that is only one day a week.. It makes for a really long day! Tuesday's are also the best night to go out, so I at least have something to look forward to..
It is nice to have a relaxed daily routine as compared to the busy life at Mizzou.. No meetings to go to, no events to plan, no dg finance obligations to take care of, just learning Spanish, making great friends, and realizing this surreal life is unfortunately coming to an abrupt halt. On to the working world in Chicago!
But not yet... I have 6 more cities to see in April over spring break :)
-k
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